Apart from my iPad doodles, I haven’t done many abstract paintings. Here’s the first I’ve done in long time. I hope to make a series of variations on this theme. Like good abstracts should be (I’ve heard), this one is based on real world information. I’m not going to tell you (yet) the source of my inspiration. Any ideas??
Abstraction in Blues #1. Oil on Arches Oil Paper.
I made a quick portrait study yesterday during a class I’m taking with Maud Taber-Thomas. I hadn’t been able to attend for several weeks and was happy to be back.
Dozing Damsel. Oil on Arches Oil Paper.
During the first class, Maud had recommended as homework that we draw a series of skulls, each in a different position. I was tickled to have found online an inexpensive, life-size plastic model. I brought it in yesterday to show, along with the drawings I’d done. You can catch a glimpse of the skull herself in the last post, where she’s shown modeling for the painting.
Skull drawings. Charcoal. (Doesn’t that one at middle left look like Donald Duck?)
Shall I nap or shall I paint?? Yesterday’s question. I’m so glad I decided to paint. My first foray into painting with oils on paper — a new paper specially formulated by Arches to stand up to oil paints, both thin and thick. Click here for a description of the new paper.
Post-show doldrums are a great time to share insights from prior workshops. Several of us ‘7 Palettes’ have been sharing new color mixing techniques this week. Here’s what I passed along from the fabulous Terry Miura workshop my sister Ceci and I attended awhile back.
Here’s a glimpse of Terry’s palette:
Terry Miura’s Limited Palette
And here are insights about painting the figure using a limited earth-tone palette:
Here’s Terry’s beautiful twenty minute demo!
Terry’s nude.
Our two-day exhibit at the Yellow Barn drew steady streams of visitors as well as pleasantly crowded scrum for the Saturday evening reception. I believe every one of we Seven Palettes sold one or two framed paintings, along with ‘bin art’ (unframed originals and prints packed with mat and backing), and greeting cards based on our art.
A framed print of “The Red Hat”, an archival giclee of one of my favorite iPad paintings, found a good home, as did “Red on Yellow, C&O Canal Autumn”, one of my gouache paintings. I also sold several matted giclees and a print on tempered glass from my “Fruit, Veggies & Flowers” iPad series. I don’t think I’ve shown you what the glass printings look like. Here’s a snapshot of several (the black around each is padding to protect the tiles during shipping).
Some iPad Prints on Tempered Glass
Many of the visitors asked questions about the ins and outs of iPad art, as well as gouache, so maybe there will be further opportunities to teach those techniques,
Here’s a new painting I made in gouache a few weeks ago — thinking it would appeal to people who love the C & O Canal as much as Pat and I do. It’s based (loosely) on a photo I made last Fall on one of our walks. Pat can’t get much exercise when I’m constantly ‘braking’ to take shots like these!
I decided to hang mostly gouaches this time, with only singles of oil paintings and iPad giclees. (There will be many more matted & backed in the bins, though, along with lots of greeting cards printed with some of my favorite paintings.) Remember: Saturday & Sunday noon to 5, with reception from 6 to 8pm on Saturday. Yellow Barn Studio, at Glen Echo Park.
Now, here’s a look at the other pieces that will be framed and available to bring home at show’s end:
I’ve been silent for awhile, but not inactive. This post hopefully brings you to my brand new blog and gallery website. I’ve wanted to have a somewhat more professional presence and this new structure allows that. I’ve still got more to do on this, but have MUCH more exciting things to talk about at the moment ~~~ the 7 Palettes!
You’re invited to our reception, Saturday, November 9 from 6pm to 8pm, at the Yellow Barn Studio in Glen Echo Park. Our art can be seen (and purchased) then or any time during our exhibit hours. Saturday 12pm to 5pm and Sunday 12pm to 5pm.
The other six of the 7 Palettes are: Sara Becker, Nancy Butler, Helen Gallagher, Caroline Orrick, Ann Rossilli and Penny Smith. Check out their sites, and that of our group: sevenpalettes.com. And then come visit our show!
I’ve done a few iPad images lately — good fun while sitting around at night. I just finished a drawing with the ArtRage pencil tool of a sprinkle of fairy lilies against a background clump of ornamental grasses.
Fairy Lilies, original iPad painting, 2013, 1:1 aspect ratio
And I also had fun doing a more stylized rendition of Pat’s scarecrow standing in our garden, stopping passersby with its cuteness, but doing nothing to deter the critters from eating our veggies. Pat actually built this wooden adjustable man, based on one our son Sam had seen in a magazine and really wanted. Sam enjoyed it for years and then Will inherited it. Pat has now re-clothed it in his old duds for scarecrow duty.
And I did a quick wild fun sketch of the ballpark when Pat and I went to an Oriole’s game in Baltimore last weekend.
Two days after the portrait workshop, Ceci and I drove over to Easton, MD for another workshop, this time at the Easton Studio & School. Bernie Dellario, from Washington DC, was teaching a two day workshop on how to travel and paint with dried gouache. It was Bernie’s first time teaching, but he “nailed it”. Great demos, excellent circulation among the group of painters, and on-point feedback made for a great two days.
Here’s one of Bernie’s colorful demos (only partially finished because he wanted to save time so we could paint):
One of my paintings:
And here’s one by my sister Cecilia. I love it!
The group had such a good time during the workshop that we unanimously decided to keep in touch AND even start a blog to record our gouache progress. Check it out: Marks and Remarks: Gouache and consider subscribing.
Two weeks ago my sister Ceci traveled up from Louisiana to take a couple of art workshops with me. The first was a three morning (!) portrait painting workshop with Maud Taber-Thomas of the Yellow Barn. Ahead of time I was very skeptical that we’d be able to learn much about portrait painting in three half-days — especially in view of the four months it had taken me to do the one of Dad.
Maud used a very clever curriculum to crack that nut. Morning One: Draw a charcoal or pencil sketch of the model. Here’s our excellent model.
And my initial sketch.
Morning Two: Apply that sketch to our canvas and paint a monochromatic value study (in burnt sienna oil paint, in our case) over the sketch, making any drawing adjustments we thought necessary.
Morning Three: Apply more colors over the value study, using an extremely limited palette of white, yellow ochre, venetian red, and ultramarine blue. That gave us three primary colors (of sorts), and the possibility of mixing the secondaries, green, orange & purple (of sorts). Here’s how mine stood at the end of the third morning.
And here’s how it looked after a bit of tinkering back at home. I tried to soften the jaw line; make her eyes and mouth more pleasant, as our lovely model’s had been; and re-contour the edge of her face on the left side. I’m encouraging sister Ceci to post hers too! Hers were lovely – much more painterly than mine.
