I’ve been pondering making a series of gouaches about my family. As the ‘About’ section suggests, there is LOTS of material. My husband and I will head to California soon to help celebrate our grandson’s first birthday. So I decided to make Family No. 1 a study of Max on his original ‘birth day’.
Family No. 1 (Max, Day 1). Gouache on paper.
No disrespect intended! Walt Bartman had promised us a cowboy and his horse. What we got was a grizzled, droll, and patient farmer . . . and his bull. Of course, both were way more fun to paint than a horse and cowboy would have been.
Walt, painting the 'bull boy'
My perspective on the bull and rider.
This was my vantage point.
And my gouache sketch. It’s not great — I spent most of my time watching Walt’s gouache techniques, trying to learn more about this unfamiliar medium.
Oh well . . .
A word about the gouache: Walt had encouraged us to use this easy-to-tote medium, rather than haul oil painting gear all over Cuba. This was good advice in view of the strict weight limit and our plan to bring giveaway items. But NOT so good for painting quality, in my case anyway. I’ll brief you ‘later’ on the painful months spent acquainting myself with gouache in advance of our trip.
Potomac Patch's Photo of Yellow Barn's "Paint the Park Green" competition
This past weekend the Yellow Barn, situated on the lovely Glen Echo Park grounds, held a two-day plein air competition, featuring environmentally sensitive techniques for painting in oils, acrylics and watercolors. The setting was magical and the camaraderie was warm, as we fanned out around the park to develop our paintings for the Sunday evening competition.
Oil painting of Glen Echo's Art Deco 'arcade' sign and courtyard
This is what I accomplished on Saturday. I was up on the second floor balcony looking down over the ‘arcade’ sign into the courtyard. A two-day Cajun and Zydeco music festival was also in full swing over the weekend, so I was at least able to boogie while making a dull painting!
The First Nature Morte I Attempted
In my thirties, while still practicing law, I learned of an emigre from Soviet Georgia who painted with lush color and vigorous line, and lived in a nearby suburb. Most of my prior artwork had been black line-drawings. Color terrified me, but I felt I needed to try it. Through a mutual friend, I arranged Saturday morning oil lessons with Otari Shiuk (short for Shiukishvili).
He couldn’t speak English and of course I couldn’t speak Russian, but we could communicate a smidge. Me, timidly, pointing at one of his portraits: “I want to paint portraits”. Him, with utter incredulity: “Must crawl before run! Nature morte!!”
My least favorite thing at the time was still life, but I was in no position to object. He set up a simple tableau on his back porch: a dark red apple, a deep purple eggplant and a brown pottery pitcher, all on a reflective white porcelain table backed by a white handkerchief, hanging sail-like from a red brick wall.
He gestured that I should paint it. I’ll continue the tale next time — but I’m sure you can imagine the ensuing scene without much more explanation! By the way, the picture above is a poor crop from an out-of-focus photo. Will try to do a better one later.
And now for the last item of the night ~~ the portrait is unveiled!
My Louisiana-based cousins had a grand family reunion recently. As the final ‘reveal’ of the night, my aunt was given a portrait that I’d done of her, based on some reference photos I’d taken of her this past July 4th.
It was a joy to see the smile on her face and I’m so happy I could get the painting finished, stretched and shipped to her family before the big day.