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’!
For day 2 of the challenge, I posted a more recent piece which includes some of those gorgeous pines(?) in downtown DC. I call it ‘Lighting a Candle’ . . .
A new art society was formed in the last year or so ~~ The Tonalist Society, which encourages and recognizes artists who work in a ‘tonalist’ style. As you can tell from earlier posts in this blog, I admire the work of Terry Miura and Marc Hanson who often paint in this style. I decided to enter two paintings in the first annual juried show. This is one of the two.
During my hiatus on the blog, I posted from time to time on Facebook, so I’m going to update my postings here to include that material ‘for the record’. A painting buddy challenged me to post seven paintings in seven days. Here’s what I offered for Day 1:
Challenge accepted. I’ll start with one that’s different from my usual style ~ some abstracted shells done in a class at the Yellow Barn last year.
I’ve been busy on other things for quite awhile (largely grantwriting for the Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of Art in Biloxi, MS), but want to catch you up on my art doings, such as they’ve been since my last post.
Here’s a fun iPad/ArtRage portrait I did of grandson Ben sitting on a big boulder. I loved the pose and colors. Palm trees are also a favorite of mine, but they’re a particular challenge. And foreshortened legs and feet? Another opportunity for close observation ~~ and a little fun exaggeration.
I’m currently taking a class on mixed media and was intrigued when teacher Susan Hostetler mentioned “mock frescoes”, made by painting gouache into still-damp spackle or joint compound slathered onto cardboard or other heavy substrate. I decided to try it. My first attempt was a simplistic sugar bowl sitting on our kitchen table. My quick contour was misshapen, so I touched it up with some water-soluble pencils, moistening the marks to blend them into the gouache.
I then plopped down a seashell (interesting shape though dull colors) and tried again. I was happier with that one, though disappointed when a little flake popped out sometime later. Maybe a fixative would deter this type of defect — will have to research it. . . .
Sometimes it’s fun to challenge yourself: can you make a painting in a very limited number of strokes? Say, 15? I decided to try it the other day. I placed three shells from my beach-combing stash on a sheet of paper and attacked, carefully plotting color and placement of each stroke. At 15, I was itching to do ‘just a few more’ to beef it up ‘just a bit’, but gritted my teeth and concluded the effort. Here it is, along with a snap of the shell subject.
In keeping with the spirit of the test, I made only a few light guidelines for size and placement, before constructing the design via ‘color-shapes’.
My most recent small painting features some bright cardinals showing off among their Plain Jane pals. It was based on photos taken last year. Our feeder is empty and there are few birds to watch now. (Our neighborhood has been encouraged not to use feeders so birds won’t gather and spread a new virus among themselves.)
For the artists who are reading, this painting was an experiment in “cmyk” colors — a very limited palette of cyan, magenta, yellow and black. This group of colors is used with great success in color printing, but it’s pretty rare to see it underpinning an oil painting or water-based art.
For this attempt, I used the closest hues in my paint stash: manganese phthalo, quinacridone violet, azo yellow and ivory black. I managed to mix everything in the painting without resorting to additional colors ~~ other than the male cardinals, for which I dipped into cad red. I can’t say I enjoyed the experience or like the outcome! I’m not sure whether I’ll try it again!
#22. Birds in the Backyard. Oil on Primed Arches Oil Paper. 8″ x 10″
In the last post, I included a photo I took of Dad during our July 4th party in 2010. I have always treasured that shot. Back in 2014, when I was beginning to experiment with gouache, I decided to hazard a rendering of the fuzzy image. I got it to this stage in my first session and put it aside for further work. I have never had the nerve to do more on it because I was afraid of messing it up or not doing Dad justice. I’m now declaring it ‘officially unfinished’. It’s not gonna be changing. I like it ‘as is’, shortcomings and all.
As much of Biloxi knows, the O’Keefe family always celebrated the 4th (and our dad Jerry’s July 12th birthday) with a frolicking bash on the front lawn of 510 Beach Blvd. We would chow down on burgers, hot dogs, beer & cake and boogie to the sounds of “Butterbean” delivered by Bo & Dee. (That assumes Martha had supplied the right brand and quantity of gin for Dee!)
We always took a crop of photos of Dad, Martha, ourselves and the fireworks that followed, all overlooking our beauties: the beach, Dad’s palms, Biloxi Sound, and Deer Island. Here are a few glimpses of times past (an especially colorful 2010 & our Dad’s last party in 2016, a month before he passed away at age 93).
We have some short native tulips in our yard that thrill us every spring. One of my recent 10″ x 8″ paintings features these beauties. . .
Red Tulips. Oil on Primed Arches Oil Paper. 10″ x 8″.