Category Archives: Art, General

Rita’s Portrait ~~ Session Four: Some Home Work

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A few days after my third meeting with Rita, I decided to spend some time at home, making corrections based on the photo I’d taken at the prior session.  Then I blew up a print of the photo, marked up the dimensions of key facial features and then taped it beside my updated portrait for a closer comparison.

A quick look confirms that the portrait is better than it had been, but . . .  the chin is too long.  The lower cheeks and forehead are too narrow.  The nose isn’t quite right and the eye on our left droops too much.  The hair is too high (but I love it so!  Will I bite the bullet and whittle it down?)

session five, after implementing changes identified via my iPad analysis

session five, after implementing changes identified via my iPad analysis

I show it to Rita who likes it ‘as is’ and doesn’t want me to make more changes.  Hmmmm.  What to do?

Rita’s Portrait ~~ Session Three

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The next time Rita and I got together, I focused primarily on developing her eyes and trying to capture the slight grin we’d arrived at for the facial expression.  Didn’t want to touch the hair or general coloration, which I liked.

Rita at session 3.

Rita at session 3.

At the end of the session, I made a photo or two of Rita in this position and with ‘the grin’.  You can see immediately that I’ve got a ways to go!

Rita, in the selected pose.

Rita, in the selected pose.

 

 

 

Fresh Start ~~ Rita’s new pose, on linen

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At our next session, I posed Rita looking straight ahead.  I thought that would be contemporary, as well as more fun for both of us.  We could see each other, converse more easily, and I could watch her sparkling eyes as I painted.  I thought it also might help her hold a little grin ~~ I knew I’d be grinning at her the whole time and grins are infectious.

Rita, first session in oils on linen.

Rita, first session in oils on linen.

Here’s how the painting looked at the end of the first session with oils.  My main goals were to situate her on the canvas, get an approximation of her bright shirt, rough out the face contours, and depict her silver hair in luscious pale colors.

 

The Painting of Rita ~ Steps toward a Portrait

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My friend Carlos, who wants to experiment with natural-light photographic portraits, joined me for the first session with my neighbor Rita.  He made a number of beautiful pictures, while I snapped photos of Rita from my on-looker’s vantage.

Rita at ease

Rita at ease

After he left, I did a quick charcoal sketch of Rita, in a three-quarter pose.  It was ok for the first session, but I didn’t like the pose and definitely wanted to capture a grin, if not a smile, in the final product.

Rita in Initial Pose + Sketch

Rita in Initial Pose .  Charcoal Sketch.

Enough for one day!  Rita’s not tired, but I am!

Alison Neustrom ~ Thanksgiving

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My niece, Alison Neustrom, passed away last week after battling pancreatic cancer for eleven months.  In an interview made a few months before she died, she revealed that she loves sunshine, sunflowers and all things orange.  This beautiful photo, displayed during her send-off, captures her perfectly.

Alison's sunflowers

Alison decorating her wedding chapel

Her obituary, the eulogy delivered at her funeral, and a memory about her graveside service give you a good sense of this extraordinary young woman.

There is no way to compete with the wordsmithing of my brother Joe, who wrote the obituary, or our new friend Jeff, who wrote and delivered the eulogy, or the insightful family friend who penned her reflections on Alison’s interment.

So I’ll simply say, Alison, thank you for being you.  We’ll take good care of your husband Dave and your little Ceci.  Love love love.

Palette Knife Painting of Cousins, Engrossed in an iPad

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Nathan & Ceci, engrossed in an iPad

Cousins, engrossed in an iPad.  Oil on Linen.

I fell in love with a darling photo of two cousins (my grand-niece & -nephew, if I’ve calculated that right), huddled around an iPad.  I knew I had to make a painting out of it.  Have been trying to learn how to paint with a palette knife.  This is one of my first attempts.

A Second Painting for the Writers Center Exhibit

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Here’s another of my paintings to be featured at the Writers Center exhibit, opening in late June.  A ‘plein air’ painting (done in the great outdoors) painted along S Street, NW, DC, in a workshop offered by Carol Rubin, another wonderful artist.

three colorful bushes on S Street, NW, DC

S Street Lollipops.  Oil on Linen Panel.