Over the last few weeks I’ve been working on portraits of my three grandchildren — a task much less ‘fraught’ than the commissioned portrait I showed you last time. Here’s the one that’s farthest along, after about eight hours of work. I see lots of ‘issues’ still to be resolved, but it’s in a much better place than the other one ever reached. Can’t wait to see how it turns out!
Four Months. Oil on Linen. 9 x 12. 2018.
OK. So, the leeks turned out well, aaaannnndddd ~~~~ I got sassy & decided to paint some portobello mushrooms the next day.
Bad idea! There’s not much ‘there’ there. Dull colors & shapes, arranged (by me) in an overly simplistic composition. Certain artists could make a good painting out of such drab components (Morandi?), but my first effort at ‘shrooms falls short.
I was so pumped up after Wendy Artin’s workshop that, after a day of R&R, I pulled out my paints and a couple of elderly leeks from the fridge and painted another watercolor in the manner we had been practicing during the workshop. Here it is.
Leeks at Home. Watercolor on Paper.
I was tickled that it turned out nicely. Maybe I’ll have to do more!
On the last day, Wendy brought in some a bag of asparagus and I snagged three with which to wrestle.
Asparagus 1. Watercolor on Paper.
Asparagus 2. Watercolor on Paper.
Here are a few other paintings I did last week during the Artin watercolor workshop. No more nudes for now!
Radish 2. Watercolor on Paper.
Beet 1. Watercolor on Paper.
Beet 2. Watercolor on Paper.
Sorry sorry sorry, y’all! My last blog entry contained paintings of two full length nudes, neither of which was ‘out of bounds’ (IMHO). So, I was aghast when I checked to see if Facebook had re-posted it and found that the images had been sliced and diced in an unexpected manner (to say the least). I hope you clicked over to my blog to get a better sense of the overall paintings!
In any event, here’s a ‘palette cleanser’! It’s one of the radishes I painted during the Saturday afternoon session of my Wendy Artin workshop, followed by one of Wendy’s gorgeous still life watercolors — also of radishes.
Radish 1. Watercolor on Paper.
Wendy’s radishes — again, quite a difference:
Radishes, 2001, watercolor on cotton Khadi paper, 11″ x 12″
We Seven Palettes are taking turns ‘sitting the gallery’ during our art exhibit this month at Gallery B. I’m scheduled for more duty on Jan. 21, and 25, from 3pm to 6pm.
If you’d like to explore digital art a bit, grab your iPad and come sit with me for awhile. I’ll show you some of my favorite techniques! Here are some of my iPad images, illustrating how varied the results can be — from very detailed representation to impressionistic line drawings and quick notations at the ball park!
C & O Canal in Summer. Original iPad painting, 2014. 1:1 aspect ratio.
Fairy Lilies. Original iPad painting, 2013. 1:1 aspect ratio.
At the Nats! Original iPad painting, 2014. 3:5 aspect ratio.
Here’s how to find & where to park for Gallery B. If you’re thinking of coming by, let me know in advance so I can alert you to any last minute schedule changes.
I am delighted that my neighbor, Dr. Charlotte Jensen, has invited me to exhibit some of my paintings in her offices, C2M Chiropractic, in North Bethesda, MD.
Dr. Jensen is displaying some of my iPad paintings, printed as giclees on high quality archival papers in archival inks. In addition to a series of veggies and flowers recently showcased at Brookside Gardens, these landscapes are part of the new exhibit.
The prints are scheduled to appear in Dr. Jensen’s office gallery over the next year.
After struggling (really, procrastinating) for over one year, I have finally finished a large oil painting, Mary’s Orchids.
Mary’s Orchids. Oil on linen, 2′ x 3′.
My sister Mary asked me to paint this work, requesting orchids, cherries, and a piece of pottery by Walter Anderson, the wonderful artist who lived on the Mississippi Gulf Coast near our home. She also asked for it to be sized at two feet by three feet. Gulp.
I bought the canvas panel, arranged the elements in dozens of compositions before settling on this one, roughed out a drawing on the plastic wrapper of the panel, and then STOPPED. I was intimidated by the difficulty of the composition and its sheer SIZE. I hadn’t attempted anything that large since the portrait I did of our dad for his 90th birthday three years ago.
I have at least four pots of yellow orchids hanging around the house. As each orchid lost its flowers, I’d buy another pot in the expectation that I’d be starting ‘soon’. This went on for so long, the original orchid re-bloomed! So I decided I better get cracking, especially after passing the one year mark.
Finally it is done, about to be varnished and shipped down to Mary in Houston, TX. Whew.
If you’ve got an extra minute to spend, check out the site of the Walter Anderson Museum of Art in Ocean Springs, MS. It’s a fabulous museum, built with my dad’s help, honoring a fabulous artist.
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):
