Greenhouse Gallery

Here's another very cool thing that I discovered by accident: out of the 415 paintings juried into the show, they picked 3 to represent it on the banner for Greenhouse Gallery's homepage. I had to access the site to verify the price of one of my paintings and when it opened, VOILA! there was James!
It was a moment when, I was so surprised and thrilled that I just spontaneously yelled, "HEY!" to no one, and only scared the dog and the bird. But HEY! I still showed them! I don't know if it will stay up but so far, it's been the only banner, and it's been up since February.
I know I have some show week to go but it's going to be really, really hard to top what's already happened.
Thank you for stopping by and hopefully sharing my joy. You can view the whole show on line by clicking here: http://www.greenhousegallery.com/  but if you find yourself anywhere near Greenhouse Gallery in San Antonio, it's much, much better to see it in real life. They did a fantastic job of hanging and lighting all those very different paintings. It's a delight to walk from room to room and see what's coming in from all over the world (15 countries represented) in representational art. I'm so proud of us!  

American Art Collector

The current issue of American Art Collector magazine features an article about the Salon International at Greenhouse Gallery, including a quarter page image of the other portrait that was in the Salon: Rainy (top right). I can't tell you how cool something like this is.
I wanted to buy a magazine ad but just couldn't $wing it, if you know what I mean. Then, a couple weeks ago, a friend texted me and said, "Congratulations for being in American Art Collector!" and I said, "I'm not in American Art Collector." She said, "Yes, you are!" so I had to run out to the mailbox to get my copy and VOILA! Rainy was on page 123! I hope you can read the column. There were a couple more pages so if you want to read more, you'll just have to buy a copy!

Salon International 2011

This is the best start of Show Week EVER! On the left, Daniel Greene, the KING of portraits is holding my painting of James and saying something that I didn't hear because of the rush of something in my ears. He liked the Rainy painting as much as James but said that he couldn't give more than one award to any artist, so he gave the Merit Award for Portrait to James. Then, in the photo on the right, he said something right to my face but I don't remember what it was. 
The reason that this means so very much to me, winning an award for a portrait from Mr Greene, is that I first learned how to pose and light and drape a model from watching his instructional VHS tapes back in the 90's. He was my teacher without ever knowing it!
And further, as I've developed, I've moved away from the more tight and linear style that he practices and prefers, so I was pretty sure he was not going to like what I brought. I am so happy and so honored that this great man looked at, touched and then awarded my work. Thank you for visiting the blog of the most grateful artist on earth!

Untitled Nude III

Here's the last of my NanoNudes.
This one was accepted into the 6" Squared show in California and is presently being framed for that show. If you want to see the show when it starts, I'll attach a link on my blog for it. It is Show Week, after all!
Tomorrow is the awards banquet for the Salon International; Saturday's the opening. It will be judged by the respected Daniel Greene, whom I've been studying since I started. Just having my work scrutinized by him is an honor, I have to tell you. There are only a few "Bigs" in our generation and he is one of them. Last year's show was judged by Everett Raymond Kinstler, another "Big." 
Boy is my life blessed! Thank you for visiting my blog~ see you next week~ wish me luck! 

Untitled Nude II

Regina the Reject. She even looks a little miffed! I need some critiquing on this one. I don't have any answers but I think I do see two areas of weakness in this shot of the painting: along her back it looks like her body has a force field around it; and where her leg meets the foreground, I think it could be a stronger transition. Those would be pretty easy fixes. Maybe there's more I could do.
There's something about digital photography that just brings out the worst in a painting~ or at least my digital photography! It's like all the nuances are gone. On all these figures, there is the most subtle play of temperatures and hues in the skin but from here it just looks all one color: paste white.
On the other hand, digital photos would be good for seeing the flaws in a painting before it's posted. 

Untitled Nude I

I entered three paintings in the Randy Higbee "Six Inch Squared" show in California. They all go together but only two of them made the cut; one was rejected. They had 1200 entries but only accepted 400 so I guess there are a lot of artists out there right now feeling my pain.
These 6x6 inch paintings are a real challenge! This little figure is less than 4 inches tall. Faces and toes are a chore to not over-work. I really love to look at the mere suggestion of a face but I haven't been able to pull that off yet; I cannot leave it alone until I see something real. I think that if I do enough of these, the sheer volume will force me to simplify. And hopefully make shorter work of them! Anyway, I hope you like getting back to comfy canvas after so many days on perilous paper!

Tired Lady

Look how tired she is. She's been waiting all this time. This lady is the last of the lasses on paper, but the figure theme will continue till the end of the week, as we transition into Show Week, aka: the Week I Lived to See. There was some question about whether or not I'd be here for it, after pulling several all-nighters (a feat for springy-er spring chickens than myself) :-). But I got paintings for 3 shows delivered in 3 days, I slept 12 hours last night and still had a nice 2 hour nap a little earlier today when I logged in to blog. Sleeping sitting up is another activity that isn't for older people. Which again brings me to our lounging lass...

Brush with Disaster

Hahaha, the disaster is only on paper, though.
I've never actually received complaints on my blog before this but I've had more than one request to drop the nudes on paper posts and resume the comfy canvas collection. But the whole point of a blog is to record, like a diary, passages and growth as it happens, right? Isn't "blog" a "web log"? And I know from being in the military, you have to put the good, the bad, AND THE UGLY in the log!
So, courageously, I present yet another nude on vellum. It's small and I don't care, I like it. It's really, really hard to do and to have it turn out looking like the person is an accomplishment that I am not ashamed of.
And there are only a couple more to go now because this is Show Week. I have been pulling all-nighters and varnishing and framing and I drove to San Antonio and back yesterday to deliver the first paintings to one of 3 shows that are due within a 3 day period. Tomorrow, I'll be shipping 2 paintings to California and delivering my own and another artist's paintings to our show in downtown Houston. If you're in the area, shoot me an email and I'll let you know about the show dates and the evening reception; I want to see you there!

Jasmine

Very often, I make up names for my paintings and this is such a time. I named this one "Jasmine" because it looks like maybe she's in midair on a magic carpet or cushion. Jasmine is the name of Aladdin's girlfriend and I think they might make a very nice couple.

This is another painting done on vellum and as you can see, I don't really know how to work it yet; she looks like a cut-out. My normal plunge into a painting involves dousing the canvas with paint to get started, but on this paper I can't do what I normally do.  
I've got a couple more paintings on paper that I'll show you before I start really experimenting with this.

Another Nude

Uh oh, she messed up and posted the same thing two days in a row! 

No, here's the story: It was a long pose. I was painting on paper (vellum). I finished the one I posted yesterday and there was no time nor room in the studio for me to move to another vantage point so I painted another, slightly different painting. Same day, same model, same pose, same colors, different angle and crop. I know, my creativity is making your socks roll up and down.

My goals this day were simple: see whether I could even paint on vellum and see if I could do a convincing figure using only 4 colors. That's all. The colors I was using were all I used for 6 or 8 months after I painted with Scott Burdick: Ultramarine Blue deep,  Transparent Oxide Brown, Cadmium Red and Cadmium Yellow pale. He uses Transparent Oxide Red but I find the brown to be more neutral and a bit cooler, which I want because it gives me greater control of temperature. He also uses a full pallete but did a demo in 4 and gave me a mental challenge. 

The big deal with using the vellum was this: one stroke, that's all she wrote. There was absolutely no mercy. It was super absorbent and there was no "lifting" or moving, so it required care.

You may be wondering what the dots are for. Well, this being a sketch and my studio being small, I had thoughtlessly left this sitting very close to my easel and those are splash marks. I saw it when it happened and tried to get them off right away, but it was still vellum. It was still without mercy.

I hope you like this odd angel of Patricia and I do thank you for stopping by and for anything you have to say.

Nervous Nude

This is the very same model as yesterday and she's wonderful; one of my favorites! And it's not she who is nervous, it's the artist.
I'm not nervous about seeing or painting the nude, but I am a little nervous about posting. Most of my artistic social networking takes place in real life and on FaceBook. The latter is very ticklish about the nude and will summarily delete your whole account if you post something that "they" deem "inappropriate." I know that it's different in the bloggasphere but I have residual perspiration from a recent occurrence on FaceBook.
However, this and next week are Figure Weeks so, if you are not too offended, I shall proceed.

Patricia

Saturday is figure lab for me: a group of artists meets in a studio/metal warehouse to paint the figure in the lovely north light. Not too long ago, there were just a handful of us who faithfully showed up, but now there are so many artists, it's hard to find a good vantage point from which to paint!
The morning of this painting, it was absolutely freezing cold; the poor model had space heaters all around her, at one point scorching her leg.
Meanwhile, the artists, with coats and gloves, were frozen solid. We had worked from short poses in the round but when it came time for the long pose, we put the model in a comfortable chair, forcing half of the room to come around to the other side in order to see. As a result, there were a few of us who were pushed back into a corner that was quite dark. Looking at the lit model, then at my dark canvas was a challenge for my eyes. I mixed my colors in a large part from knowledge, not visual color. I was very surprised to see it when I came into the light. I sorta liked it! I hope you like it too.

Anderson's Troupe

This painting is named after the person who took the photograph of the ballerinas, master painter Carolyn Anderson, with whom I've studied. 
Sometimes painters can get backstage or into the chef's kitchen, but they cannot actually set up their easel and paint a whole painting.  In these cases, sketches, notes and photos are invaluable.  I never actually saw these dancers, but I practiced ballet intermittently from age 4 to age 21 and I do remember this room and how it sounds and smells.  The reference photo was small but it was good enough to read into it and pull out this painting.
I think that with the arts, the more you explain, the less impact the object of explanation has to another person. Part of their experience must be independent of the explanation. This is one of the things that separates ART from other things. It's a dialogue. I was nervous about working from the small photo and about leaving things undone. I think it works okay though. I need you to dialogue it into a work of art. Thanks.  

Hey Cupcake!

Hey Cupcake! I thought I'd finish off the week by sharing a little 6x6 of the coolest little cupcake vendor in Austin. Actually, the airstream is much bigger than this one but I couldn't fit it on a 6x6 so I had to chop it down to size.
To the left of the trailer was a guy playing guitar and singing, and his beautiful little two year old girl was merrily dancing around the big pickle jar that was collecting tips from passers-by. I was there with my friend Annie and the whole memory is as sweet as a cupcake in my mind, and so it must be spread, like icing on a cupcake!
I keep doing one more thing to this painting and as I look now, I do think it needs at least two more things. Or do you think enough's enough?

Spring Break at Mercer

Ahhh, spring break, and as duty-bound as I am to the studio trying to get ready for the shows in April (you're invited!), I could not resist Mercer Arboretum on spring break. It's only partly the painting, if I might confess. It's also a good chunk of joy just being with my painter peeps. There's something transcendent about being in a place of such beauty with people who not only see it but who try to understand it, and who try to share it in your same language.
I guess no matter what you do, you'll like being with people who share your passion, but artists are largely social creatures whose job requires long stretches of solitude and isolation. Just like knowing that this first burst of spring is going to pass quickly, I treasure time with these people all the more, knowing that it's going to pass fast too.
This is a mid-morning shot of the one lily in the entrance fountain (the painting did get better). I did another lily painting in the afternoon of the only other lily, at a different pond farther into the gardens. Happy spring to you!