Category Archives: Training

More collages.

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I took a second zoom workshop with Rotem Amizur which focused on still life collages. This one was less intense than the first and I produced less work, but this time I was working ‘from life’ based on a simple still life arrangement: plastic watering can; two lemons; and a small orchid (that I pumped up in the collages using artistic license.

Rhw set-up
Drawing to analyze light/dark paper pairings
The final collage – take one.

I then made a second collage of the same set-up, using a different selection of paired colored papers to represent lights and darks. Do you have a preference?

Second take, using same arrangement.

Next, for an added challenge, I did a collage of one of my special ceramic pieces, filled with twigs from the beautiful Chinese maple tree in my front yard.

Progress shot — the pins almost function as flowers — was tempted to keep it this way!
The final, glued piece.

Inspired by the Masters

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It’s a time-honored tradition for artists to deepen their craft by studying, copying, transcribing components of, or gaining inspiration from old and newer master painters. In various zoom classes over the last months, I’ve had occasion to do that kind of work.

An abstraction of a Titian nude:

After Titian’s ‘Venus of Urbino’. Oil on Linen. 9.5 x 16.

An abstraction of van Veerendael’s A Bouquet of Flowers in a Crystal Vase.

After van Veerendael’s Bouquet of Flowers in a Crystal Vase. Oil on lInen. 9,5 x 13

Modern subject (Cuban art students studying on a busy boulevard on a Sunday morning) in the style of Vuillard’s paintings of women working.

Cuban art students at work, after Vuillard. Oil on linen.

More Pandemic Art ~~ a challenging composite of personal memories.

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Over the last six months, I’ve been zoom-studying with artists otherwise out of reach. Here’s the final project of a recent class with Ed Praybe — a composite of several separate images arranged into relatively natural composition. It is based on an image of my mother Annette, taken in her twenties, a photo of my six sisters and me, taken years later as a reference for a group portrait lost in Hurricane Katrina; and several photos of our Biloxi home, also later destroyed by Katrina.

To make it work, I had to adjust the relative scales of the elements and imagine a consistent light source across the whole scene. . .

The final image:

Composite of family home, mother, and sisters. Watercolor on Paper. 14 x 11.

The 4 images that provided the underpinnings of the composition:

Annette O’Keefe, circa 1945.
Family portrait at 725 E. Beach Blvd., circa 1983.
725 E. Beach Blvd, newly restored post Hurricane Camille.
The seven sisters, posing for a painting that was destroyed in a hurricane.

Practicing the Knife!

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Bernie Dellario tasked our zoom-based art group with painting a fairly complicated scene using only a palette knife. The idea was to force ourselves to simplify. I selected a photo that I’d taken at a Nats night game, courtesy of friends Doug and Toni. I loved the vibrant colors, the dramatic lighting, the sharp green grass, the movement of the crowd and vendors. . . .

Here’s the painting and references. A note for composition buffs: For a bit of extra drama and clarity, I combined positions of orange hands from the two photos. I also omitted the wonderful yellow foul marker because it would been too much for a small square painting. . . . Maybe I’ll do a larger version some time so I can add that color into the mix.

At the Nats. Oil on Arches Huile Paper. 10″ x 10″.

Fun with Compositions

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Our most recent Ed Praybe session called for considering types of compositions ~~ various ways to position the components of the painting so as to produce an intended effect on the viewer. We each selected two objects and then experimented moving them around to see how many different ‘stable’ or ‘dynamic’ compositions we could produce. We then painted one of them, using our primary triad of yellow, red and blue.

For homework, we had to paint three objects into a stable composition and then reposition them and paint a dynamic composition. Still using the primary triad color scheme.

  • Two object composition – avocado and cobalt olive oil bottle. Is it stable or dynamic? 7″ x 5″.
  • Stable composition of tea bag, tea cup and tea kettle. 6″ x 6″.
  • Dynamic composition of tea bag, tea cup and tea kettle. 8″ x 6″.

Watercolor experiments with the primary colors

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Recently our class with Ed Praybe focused on painting a wide range of hues using only 3 colors – a ‘primary triad’ of red, yellow and blue. As you may remember, I’ve used such severely limited palettes many times, but only in oil paints so far. It was fun to try it with watercolors.

We did a test painting, blending the three colors before applying them to the paper. Our homework was to paint three versions of a still life setup: one monochrome to analyze the value (light and dark) structure of the scene; a second in which we mixed the colors before applying them to the paper; and a third in which we applied single color washes; let them dry completely, and then painted additional single color washes on top. This last technique creates new colors as the several layers combine optically.

  • Test case, pre-mixng yellow, red & blue before painting. 7″ x 5″.
  • The set-up for the series of paintings. Note how the water in the glass distorts the shape of the apple behind. Neat.
  • 1st version, a value study using only ultramarine blue. 5″ x7″.
  • 2d version, pre-mixing the primary colors before applying. 5″ x 7″.
  • 3rd version, applying successive washes of single colors to produce different colors. 5″ x 7″.

Cuba Memories ~~ Grandmother and her tubers. . . .

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While on a trek to visit a tobacco farm in Cuba some years ago, I spied this diminutive lady trudging down the dusty road, clutching a load of huge tubers. I snapped a quick photo of her as she moved away and finally got around to painting her as homework for my watercolor class with Ed Praybe. Sweet memory.

Grandma with Tubers, Cuba 2012. Watercolor on paper. 10″ x 14″.

Some Scary Selfies

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Took an online workshop recently from Zoey Frank ~~ ‘self-portraits from observation’. It was weeks long – with almost 300 students (critiqued by five or six assistants). I didn’t get around to finishing the one self-portrait I started – just made a couple of smaller studies . . . before giving up in boredom at my composition.

  • 1st composition – too cutsie by half (or two-thirds). Oil on Arches Huile paper. 6″ x 8″.
  • 2d composition. oil on Arches Huile paper. 6″ x 8″.
  • Enlargement of 2d composition, 1st pass. Oil on linen panel. 16″ x 20″..
  • Documenting what I was ‘observing’ in 2d composition.
  • Second pass on the enlarged painting. Not sure if/when I’ll do more.composition, first pass. oil on linen panel. 16″x20″.

I’m now taking a watercolor class with Ed Praybe. He tasked us with doing THREE monochromatic self-portraits during one week – facing front & diagonally to each side. Under the short and specific deadline, I produced these three. Warning – it’s impossible to smile AND paint simultaneously, but . . . here they are anyway.

  • Looking/inclined left. Watercolor. 5″x7″.
  • Head on. Watercolor. 5″x7″.
  • Looking right. Watercolor. 5″x7″

It’s been awhile ~~ here’s my latest painting!

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I just finished an intensive four day workshop with outstanding local artist and teacher, Bernie Dellario. We were expected to make up a ‘color chart’ exploring the ways in which 3 tube colors (yellow, red & blue) + white could mix together to make virtually all the colors you might want.

We also painted ten 3-value monochrome paintings; ten 3-value color paintings; and a plein air painting which we then translated into a larger ‘studio painting’ (hopefully retaining the 3-value structure of the studies). Here’s my 16″ x 20″ studio painting of our cannas, through which we can enjoy our neighbor’s yard.

Cannas, Bamboo & Joe Pye?? Oil on linen panel. 16×20.

Here are the initial monochrome and color studies. Note that I included the bushy Joe Pye plant (?) in the black & white study; left it out of the color study; and then re-inserted it in the larger piece. Am glad I did – it’s now my favorite part of the painting!

  • B&W 3 value study.
  • 3 value color study.

Day 5 of the Challenge ~~ Be Safe

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Day 5 brings another experiment off my beaten path. We were told in a workshop to draw a wandering line around our canvas without looking — and then turn it one way and another to see what it might suggest. We developed and painted expressive compositions out of our simple lines. I like how this turned out. I imagined the figure on the right as a mother and the other figures her sons, heading outside. She’s saying ‘Be Safe, My Sons!’ Now she’d probably be saying: ‘WEAR YOUR MASKS — and be EXTRA CAREFUL!!’

Be Safe, My Sons! Oil on Arches Huile Paper. 15 x 11.5