Blue Bottle with Lemons

I started this a couple of months ago and something seemed wrong
with it. Yesterday I was drawn to working on it again, changed the
background and tabletop colors, a few touches to soften the lemons
and it feels much better. My trial and error with figures has shown me
that I don't see (as in assess) my own work very well. I can leave the
studio in the evening feeling I'd done a good day's work and be excited
about getting to the studio in the morning, only to find that the painting
was so terrible I questioned why it excited me the day before. It makes
me not trust what I see when I look at my own work. After some time
passes and a little more work, I feel more confident in my judgment.
Does anyone else have this distrust or visual confusion?

This one's a push for less literalness and experimenting with color.

Plums on Pink

It was fun to paint a 6 x 6 after these past few weeks of trying to
paint figures. Working on the figures has made me realize how little
I know about value in color. Or, whatever I know is intuitive but not
clear enough to articulate in my head while mixing colors. I tried to
limit the values in this one.

Predator

I almost gave up on this a few times . . . there was so much information
with orange reflections bouncing all over the plate, cast shadows, and
"wrinkles" of light and dark in the plate itself, I had to simplify a bit. The
fork had a very complex reflection as well as shadow and it got the best
of me—had to leave it out. My first version was very sedate and boring.
When I worked at it again, my intention was to break the boundaries of
the objects and the only way to do that was take the setup down and eat
the peaches. When I'm looking at something, I become a slave to the literal.
So I used the first version as a roadmap and painted over it focusing my
attention on the painting surface rather than what I was painting. It seems
to be the only way to go beyond my "little self" as Suzanne Stewart says.
Before I paint a still-life I usually spend a little time looking at Stanley Bielen.
The painting I've linked here is tiny—8.5 x 7 but in its simplicity, it feels
monumental. He's all about the paint.

Apples on Gray

I needed a break from wrestling with heads and grabbed an already-
painted panel of these two apples. It was a very bad, labored painting
with a dark background so a good candidate to paint over without being
attached to the result. I no longer had the setup or the apples and hadn't
photographed them so I used what was there as a base and decided to
make the rest up. I keep grappling with finding the intersection between
"paint what you see" and invention and now I had nothing to look at and
nothing to copy. I felt the earth move . . . it was so freeing to mix colors
without trying to match what I was looking at. Just loved mixing reds that
looked good to me, experiencing the tactile quality of paint, brushing it on
thick without being faithful to anything. (hmmm?) Whether it's a good
painting or not, both my opposing brains came together for a little while
and that felt really really good.

Copying Kanevsky

Alex Kanevsky is one of my most favorite contemporary
artists and I've forced myself to not copy him for almost
2 years but finally succumbed. It was pure joy! When I'm
looking at something in real life, I have such a hard time not
translating it literally, a problem I've never had before a couple
of years ago. It's probably because I've been so focused on
learning to see things as they are (well, as much as possible)
and now that I want to see in a different way, it's so hard to
make the shift. I am making the shift with still-life, but with the
figure, I've been hopeless. I've tried heads from my own photos
and always revert to smoothing the paint, ie. copying the photo. I
figured I had to do something very different to shift my brain:
learn from Kanevsky. (I've tried one of my own since painting
this and am still hopeless! It will take time and practice.) His
painting (a nude) appears to have some transparent areas brushed
over thick paint which is what I planned to do as well but when this
image starting emerging, it seemed best to leave it.

The painting I copied from is no longer on Kanevsky's site:
http://www.somepaintings.net but it's still under Some Figure Paintings
on http://www.powersofobservation.com. Click on "Grid View with
Artist's Names" under the slide show.

Pear Gathering

I used the same three-pear photograph as for the last painting and
invented a background of grays just to experiment and explore a
different light/dark relationship. Since I started to paint representationally,
so many aspects of making a painting flew out the window while I
struggled with modeling the subjects. I'm just beginning to feel that's
turning around so when I step back to look now, I really am looking
at edges, temperature, lights and darks and how or whether they
contribute to the whole piece.  

Three Pears

I've been working really hard (struggling) with figures on 16 x 20.
Don't know yet if there's improvement with them but thought I'd tackle a
small still-life for a change of pace. I feel pretty pleased with this and it
gave me some much needed respite from struggle—wondering if the
figure paintings taught me something after all, even if they're not up
to snuff. I tried to work slowly, no swash-buckling strokes (but tried to
make them look like it), was judicious with a very narrow aim: just make it
look lit. It took a few tries with different color background darks to make the
lights pop but mostly it was fun!

After Collins—Take 3

Third attempt at copying Collins. Still searching for that sweet spot
between painting what you see and inventing.

Copying Collins 2

My second attempt is more refined and while it's not the direction
I hope to pursue, my figures in the past were more caricatures,
cartoon-like. I clearly needed a lot more knowledge and better
observational skills to inform my figures. I'm seeing so much more
in Jacob Collins' painting now than I did initially. His value changes
are so tiny and subtle that I'm realizing how lazy and impatient I've
been about mixing colors. There is so much information in his painting
that I would have been oblivious to if working from life at this point.
This is such great practice; hope it carries over when painting actual
models. (I think I overdid the temperature variations in her face but it
taught me a lot about painting whites.)

Collins has an atelier school in NYC with workshops as well as longer
programs.

Copying Collins

I've been trying to work on painting figures but find it difficult
to work things out without models—like impossible. I've been going
to life drawing classes for two-hour stretches—not enough time to paint.
I'm approaching models who feel comfortable being photographed as
reference but need to have a sense of knowing what I'm after style-wise
and also how to protect them before committing to hiring them.
My goal was to work on temperature and thought it a brilliant idea to learn
from a master—use a pose done by a contemporary realist painter,
Jacob Collins, as a roadmap for cool and warm tones. I didn't try to copy
him verbatim, didn't use his colors or temperature, didn't attempt to emulate
his realism but I did use his pose. He's very much alive and his painting is very
contemporary so I'm hoping I'm not violating any copyright laws.

Here is the link to Jacob Collins masterful painting, Carolina:
http://www.jacobcollinspaintings.com/carolina.html

Having temperature be foremost in my mind as I paint rather than achieving 

any kind of faithfulness or likeness has really opened up the way I think about 

painting. It feels like a good shift.

Head 2

I've been away from blogging for what feels like a long time but I have
been painting. I really wanted to post something mostly to thank everyone
for all the supportive comments! Still struggling to paint heads. My greatest
problem seems to be temperature, something I've never thought about
before and still don't know anything about. I decided to give up on getting
a likeness about 8 or 9 versions ago but found that my left and right brains
were having a tug of war—over and over, kept finding myself intent on a
likeness. In the end, I didn't get one. The model (from a photo) didn't have
this concerned expression. I think I painted my own feeling of concern
onto her face. Big learning curve . . . looking forward to doing more.

KJM

I've been trying my hand at painting portraits, figures and
landscapes while a voice in my head keeps saying "there's
something I'm not understanding here." So it occurred to me
that maybe drawing would help in that understanding. Those pesky
values are easier to see and compare and without color as a
distraction, it's easier to hone in on actual observation as the
thing to develop. My intention is to move towards abstracting
reality, but without a basic understanding of the figure, my results
have been less than satisfying. To see some really powerful drawings, 
click here and scroll down to Older Posts and Nicolai Fechin's work.
There's a lot of good work there along the way, too.

Rolling

Still working to shift my focus to painting light and dark rather than
individual objects. I succeed pretty well in the early stages but then
get enamored of specifics and tend to lose sight of the bigger picture.
The bigger picture is right in front of me, whether a set-up or a photo.
But the bigger picture on another level is all of the things to be mind-
ful of: correct values to imply form, color relationships to make the
surface sing, spatial concerns, mark-making, texture, composition.
And yet there's an even bigger thing to be aware of: intention. There's
a wonderful lofty quote by Odilon Redon on the Powers of 
Observation site.

“I would prefer to claim with Pissarro that the art of painting, for those who 

know how to use their eyes, resides in an apple on the corner of a table. 

What could be more stupid than painting an apple! And yet to make of 

such a simple fact something that will be elevated to beauty, painting 

will have to engage all of its means; it will have to be solid, flexible, and 

rich in substance, suggestive too, so suggestive that it will have the luxury, 

the grandeur of revealing man’s presence in the apple — the apple surrounded 

with an atmosphere of thought.” 
From "To Myself," Odilon Redon

If I keep sight of this one, albeit very large intention, maybe everything
else will fall in line.

Chubby Pear

This time of year always feels like a hibernation period just when
I need to be energetic about a new year. I wanted to see if I would
paint a single object differently after working on multiple-object
paintings. I saw Carol Marine's latest post this morning and am
amazed at how beautifully she fits 5 apples into such a small area.
Another thing to add to my "to try" list.

Long Shadows

From tangerines in the dark to oranges in the light! If I'm going to
get on with moving toward where I want to go (wherever that is) it
seems a good thing to practice trying to be inventive. I had photo-
graphed these on a cedar bench outside so the actual background
was a bleached cedar color and the shadows almost black. I wanted
to paint the high contrast and the feeling of sunshine so what if . . . ?
I played around with a background color and took a lot of liberty with
the shadows, adding color and scraping it off. I feel pretty pleased with
this but still have to put it in different spots in my house and come upon
it as though I've never seen it before to see if my reaction stays positive.
I see a few areas that could use some work but on the whole, yes.
I never really know until I get other people's reactions.

Stocking Stuffers

I really enjoyed painting this . . . didn't worry much about
accuracy. Just decided to try to capture the spirit of these glowing
tangerines. The neighbor who owns this tree grew up in England
and told me he doesn't pick any until Christmas Eve following his
own traditions growing up. I hope you'll find your own stockings
filled with love. Happy Holidays!

Tangerine Tree 2

Another pose from the tree. I'm learning a lot from working on a
subject that has a sort of overall pattern. There's so much information
that I can't focus on individual objects but instead, be more aware
of the entire surface. I'm still trying to stifle my overactive left-
brain tendency to put in everything I see. My intention for a long time
now, has been to flip my brain so that my painting is more about
mark-making, color relationships and light patterns than about rendering
individual objects. I've not yet been successful with that and part of it, I've
realized recently, is that I don't always work with an awareness of that
intention. I seem to slip, unaware, back into unconsciousness and trying
much too hard to render again and again. Still engaged in that dialog with
myself about "paint what you see." Remembered a picture book I'd
bought for my daughter many years ago—there was an apparent scene
that everyone seemed to see immediately, but if you altered your focus,
crossed your eyes and concentrated on different elements in the pattern,
the scene would shift to something entirely different. An apparent forest
could shift completely to a school of fish or something like that. This is
such an intriguing concept and makes me wonder what I'm missing in
what I'm seeing with my "regular" eyes. A new intention to add: when
looking at anything, to try to see beyond the objects and actually focus
on color relationships and light patterns. This is probably so obvious
but I can be so slow to get stuff, even stuff I know intellectually. Terry
Miura writes about his process with representation and how he tries
to go beyond the actual: http://terrymiura.blogspot.com.

Tangerine Tree

The best thing about South Texas is that after a hellacious summer
of drought and sauna-like temperatures, we're rewarded with trees
bearing fruit! And rain, finally! Happy Holidays y'all and all the
best in the new year!

Oranges/Hydrangea 2

This is the last of the surviving oranges pose. I've been working
on several panels and a canvas, revisiting whatever is dry and
whenever I have some inkling of what to try, mostly color-wise.

Oranges/Hydrangea

This is another of the few survivors from the 3-weeks of painting oranges
binge, an early one when the hydrangea was still alive. I don't mind
reworking a painting but have learned to let them dry for a few days
before painting on them again. If the surface is not really dry, the new
layer of paint sinks in to the previous and dries "murky." It's satisfying
to try to salvage a painting that's not working—I feel much freer to try
something different, push and experiment a little more on a panel I already
consider a loss. And, I've accepted that I'm not really an alla prima painter.
Feel more comfortable layering and building a surface, letting previous
layers show through.

A few people commented on how great it was that Abend Gallery chose
my painting for the invitation. For a split second my heart leapt to my
throat when I saw it, but I think they created an individual digital invitation
for each artist . . . quite a lot of work and really nice of them!

And now I'm off to struggle with . . . tangerines!!

Invite to Holiday Show in Denver

I've been invited to participate
in a holiday show of small works
at the Abend Gallery in Denver.
It's a great roster of artists and
I'm honored to be included.

Anyone in the Denver area
on Friday December 2nd, the
opening is from 5 - 9. With all
these fabulous artists, it's going
to be an outstanding event and
I wish I could be there!

The exhibit will be up until
January 7th.

Two Oranges

Since my last post, I've tried to paint these two oranges in this position
at least twenty times. I took breaks from them by attempting to paint
roses again, then switched periodically to a larger landscape. My days
have been filled with frustration but thankfully, not despair . . . The
subject doesn't seem difficult but I just couldn't make the surface "sing."

Hydrangea with Pink Background

Hydrangeas seem invincible . . . this one doesn't show any sign of
fading! Haven't had to worry one second whether it will die before
I figure out how to paint it! More adventures with subtlety, a limited
palette and strong color . . .

I'm starting to think that my time off may have led to a good shift.
I've had a string of total failures since coming back but my work
has changed so much since I started working from life and sometimes
it's hard to tell if there's improvement. Each subject and each new
painting demands beginning with fresh eyes and solving new problems.
It seems as if every few months something gets shaken up and new
struggles begin. What I do notice is that I'm not so obsessive in just
trying to paint forms; have become much more aware of the entire
surface, where it needs lights, darks, a complementary color. If something
comes to me to try, I try it. If it's bad, scrape it off. It's such a relief to be
freed of the fear of ruining it or regarding a painting as precious! A new
mindset . . . hopefully it will continue. Nah. It will probably go back and
forth forever but each time there will be a little more understanding and
more willingness to embrace it instead of feeling despair or failure. I don't
know anything about neurology or brain science but it seems that if you
truly desire to learn something, your brain accommodates your will. (?)

Huge huge thanks to everyone who takes the time to look and comment!

Lemons/Hydrangea

I splurged this week and bought flowers to paint and felt
really excited. I had some great starts where everything flowed
and looked great value-wise and then I started struggling with
color–got too heavy-handed and I was afraid they'd die before
I "got it." I photographed them all to try another day. My
admiration for people who can paint flowers has grown tremendously.
My lesson was that I really needed to focus on subtlety: practice
tiny color & value shifts, experiment with whites, thick and thin
paint and make edges disappear. So wonderful that the challenges
in painting are endless!

This 8 x 10 panel seemed so small when it was white and then so
huge once there was paint on it . . .

Apples and Chiles

I've been painting and scraping and wiping, then switching to a
larger canvas and back to smaller for over a week now. Six days
out of town and rust had set in. Or maybe it's just that I think differently
at different sizes? Also tried a small painting of roses and that was a
dismal failure, but I will try again. But six days in Santa Monica visiting
my daughter was definitely worth it. We took day trips to Laguna and
Santa Barbara and the wine country . . . all breathtakingly beautiful!
There's such a big world out there and I need to get out into it more.

Galaxies

This is the last of the paintings included in the show . . .

In the Garden Sold

Another painting in the exhibit that opened last night at the Hunt Gallery.
Before leaving the house, the skies got very dark and rumbled with thunder.
Saw some impressive lightning strikes on the way but it rained so little
in my area. I thought the impending rain would keep people away and I
wasn't going to complain because Texas is desperate for rain. But it was
crowded when I arrived (on time) and stayed that way the entire two hours.
I met many terrific artists and art patrons but will have to go back to really
look at all the work when the gallery is empty. The exhibit is up until
October 22nd.

Lost (Sold)

This is one of the paintings in the show I'm included in: Women of
the Hunt (Gallery) opening Thursday, September 29, 2011. Anyone
in the San Antonio area, I hope you'll come! The opening is from
6 - 8pm.

Sunflowers

A post at last! Finally completed and delivered the three paintings
that will be included in a group show opening 9/29. I found it hard
to switch to small-scale while I was working on the larger canvases
and hope to improve on that. One thing I'm learning lately is to get
out of my own way . . .

Eden

This is a cropped version of a still life setup I photographed for a
larger painting. I'll post the larger one after Sept. 29, the opening
for a group show I'll be in at The Hunt Gallery. Anyone in San
Antonio then, please come. Y'all are invited!

I've been tagged . . . .

Virginia Floyd has tagged me to post work in these 7 categories:
#1--most beautiful

#2--most popular. This got the most comments.

#3--most controversial. My commentary about
"paint what you see" generated a discussion.


















#4--most helpful . . . helpful to me but I also got a few
private emails about this lemon series.

#5--success surprised me---received positive comments,
some from people who'd not commented before.

#6--didn't get attention it deserved . . . early post

#7--most proud of . . . I recall feeling pretty brave
while painting this. :-)

This was actually a hard thing to do! And here are the 5 artists
I'm tagging:

Jean Townsend
Carol Carmichael
Ann Rogers
Carol Schiff
Hye Coh