Tag Archives: Yellow Barn

Day 3 of the Challenge ~~ Decayed Beauty

My Day 3 painting hearkens back to a trip to Havana a few years ago. This striking statue guards the ornate staircase of a decrepit mansion, now serving as home to a dozen families. We trekked up four floors to reach an avant garde ‘paladar’ (privately-owned restaurant permitted by the government in an experiment in capitalism). It was good, but not as memorable as this ‘Decayed Beauty’!

Decayed Beauty – Havana. Oil on Linen Panel. 16 x 20.

More Good News ~ My Painting Selected for Annual Friends of the Yellow Barn Exhibit

I learned yesterday that my entry was juried into the annual Friends of the Yellow Barn exhibit at Glen Echo Park.  The show opens today and runs through December 18.  The public reception begins at 4 pm this afternoon, with awards announced by juror, Kristi-Anne Caisse, Assistant Director for the Katzen Museum at American University, at 5 pm.   Y’all come if you’re in the area!  Original paintings make great holiday gifts!

Here’s my painting, based on the spectacular old growth Sitka spruces we saw out in Oregon awhile back.

Sitka Spruce, Oregon.

Reach for the Sky. Oil on Linen Panel. 8 x 10 in.

Calling Those Interested in iPad Art! Local Demos and Workshops!

Those of you in the Washington, DC area will have several opportunities to check out the iPad as a tool for making art during the next few months.

There will be manageable 2 1/2 hour workshops during which you can get a good feel for ‘what’s the big deal about iPad art’; ‘what if I don’t know anything about iPads’; or ‘what if I don’t know how to draw a straight line!’

And then, if you want to learn more, we offer a couple of day-long workshops during which you can explore some of the details of the intuitive ArtRage app for the iPad.

Here are some of the many uses you can make of ArtRage on the iPad (click image to enlarge):

Illustrated-eg-of-iPad-use

I’ve been busy!

I don’t know whether to start where I left off and come forward or where I am now and go backward. Guess the latter.

Last evening I delivered a painting to the new Bethesda office of Evers & Co., a regional real estate firm. We instructors at the Yellow Barn were invited to submit one of our paintings for display during this evening’s ribbon cutting and reception and thereafter. Here’s what I submitted from my private collection. I’ve loved this ‘baby’ too much to offer it for sale — til now.

Oranges on Copper

Oranges on Copper

Quick Sketches, Another Nude

Last week at the Yellow Barn, we were graced with a fit and angular male model, Wayne, who maintained a very difficult pose with few breaks.

I chose somewhat unconventional compositions. For the first, I was seated at roughly eye level, looking from the top of his head down the length of his prone body (he was laying atop a series of folding tables that seemed none too stable).

nude 1

For the second, which was done more quickly than the first, I sat behind Wayne, a vantage from which his body looked like a lanky wedge.

nude 2

From whatever angle, Wayne is a wonderful model.

Quick Sketches, Nudes

Working from a live model at the Yellow Barn, I made three quick iPad sketches week before last. I’m putting the best one first – you don’t need to look at the other two unless you REALLY want to.

nude 3

nude 2

nude 1

Fingerpainting Maria & Her Cool Sundress

Maria and her sassy sundress were posing at the Yellow Barn this afternoon. I think I’m getting hooked on using my iPad & ArtRage rather than those messy oils! Here’s the result of today’s session.

Maria in sundress

Maria models in her sundress.

Dancing Dervish – more ArtRage/iPad Sketches!

At our Yellow Barn class last night with Walt Bartman, our wonderful bellydancer model danced for us while we made quick gesture sketches and 15 minute studies of still poses. Exciting and intimidating all at once. We had to push way out past our comfort zones, especially those of us who aim for fairly representational paintings. I used ArtRage on the iPad, in support of my continued efforts to prepare for the class I’m teaching at Yellow Barn.

Another iPad Value Study, Followed by Color

At my iPad art class last Thursday, the students and I worked on additional monochrome value studies, based on a still life, and then proceeded to add color. Here is my initial sketch,

Initial sketch, raku pot still life.

an interim stage,

Interim sketch, raku pot still life.

and the final product.

Finished sketch, raku pot still life.

Recent ArtRage/iPad Activities

 

I’ve got 3 weeks down and 7 to go in the Intro to iPad Art class I’m teaching at the Yellow Barn Studio. We have covered some of the most basic how-to information about the ArtRage app and are now exploring/practicing various tools.

In the last week, at the suggestion of Walt Bartman, I tried simulating a traditional oil painting technique – making a monochrome value-study by rubbing out highlights in a toned canvas and then adding color at the value levels developed in the preliminary study. In the iPad framework, I used the paint roller to make a solid underpainting and then used a soft eraser to ‘rub out’ the lighter passages and then added a few darker areas using the chalk tool to capture the darks.

Here are the two stages of the first work I did with this method, painted from our lovely live model Kuniko. First, the study:

Kuniko

Kuniko in kimono, monochromatic iPad study.

And then the colored version:

iPad Kuniko

Kuniko iPad study, developed with color.