Oil Painting 101~The Foundations

Some of the OP-101 students are seen here working to capture the likeness of Skully, my skull model. Half the class chose to work on Plane Jane, who models the planes of the head. The students are studying drawing, paint-handling, edges and especially value, with only one color on their palette, plus white. We are learning that there is wonderful freedom in boundaries, and there is great beauty to be found in values. If an artist can control the value, the color will control itself.

The Conservatory

A few of my painter peeps went to the Conservatory here in our town, to paint small portrait sketches of its residents about a week ago. I had only gotten a couple hours of sleep the night before and from 8:30 till noon this day, we had been painting a hired model. We went from that to the Conservatory where we painted till 3. I have to tell you, I was pretty tromped by the time I got home, but the afternoon was such a delight, I would have been sorry to miss out. The residents were so entertaining and engaged in what we were doing, regaling us with tales of yesteryear that would make your socks roll up and down :-) I am reminded: You can NOT judge a book by its cover. (photo by Lewis B)

Little Liza

M2P2=Monday Morning Portrait Painters
There are a million people in the room on Mondays and if you are late getting there, you get what you get. And by "late," I mean "not early." The early bird gets to sit, and gets to see the model without binoculars (although one early-bird sitter often uses binoculars anyway, no kidding). This Monday, there wasn't even room against the far wall, so I took the extreme oblique position. My grandmother used to play semi-pro basketball and she was famous for her ability to sink swishers from such an angle: the corner of the court, under duress. I try to tap that same spirit of courage and determination, attempting the shot in spite of the silly position and no backboard.
If there were a ref and a scoreboard, I would know for sure how I did. I would like that. But it's probably better this way.

Miriam the Tamborine Girl. 14x11

I have been very busy painting and teaching this year. It promises to be a very good year in the world of Art. It is certainly off to an excellent start at any rate!
Thank you for stopping by and I wish you the best this new year.
I dedicate this post to the Art Collectors.
Thank you.

Red River Rats

If you've visited in the last few weeks, you know that I was recently an Artist in Residence with my friend, Denise, in northern Texas. Her professional name is D. LaRue Mahlke and she is not only a great friend, her pastel landscapes are fantastic, award-winning in fact! Check out her website and see for yourself here: www.dlaruemahlke.com 
We explored all around the wide Gateway to Texas, finding the Red River itself and lots of wildlife, including a coyote that was loping around the edges of this spot. But don't worry; we had two intrepid bodyguards watching out for us. They were also our chauffeur/tour guides, sherpas and photographers. Thank you, Jim Clark and Val Varley! They are immortalized in my little painting: Jim's in blue and Val's in red.
Jim and Val are key players in the AIR program in Clarksville. Val is the president of the Red River County Historical Society, which sponsored us. Jim's family founded the town back in the 1800's and owned a lot of the land that people in our history books walked over on their way into Texas! Also very interesting was learning that the last person to live in the Lennox House, where we stayed, was a woman named Martha who, like us, was an artist! She attended art school in the early part of the 1900's at the Corcoran in DC and the Art Student's League in NYC!!! This is a serious artist! Her paintings hung throughout the house and were very strong and bold; quite inspirational. We will continue to create works from our stay there for a while, and plan to go back very soon. 
 

 

I'm back from the Artist in Residence trip that I told you about, plus trips to the west coast and the east coast!
The picture shows our time of mentoring the students of Clarksville, TX (http://artistinresidenceredrivercounty.blogspot.com/p/about-clarksville-red-river-county.html ) More pics and stories to come, I promise.

The most important lesson I'm learning right now in my painting and my studies is that there is no short-cut to genius. Greatness requires work and more work!
Coincidentally, that is the subject of the current Twice Weekly Letter from Robert Genn and the Painter's Keys! Take a look:

There's a great story in David Bayles and Ted Orland's Art and Fear. Here it is:

 "The ceramics teacher announced on opening day that he was dividing the class into two groups. All those on the left side of the studio, he said, would be graded solely on the quantity of the work they produced, all those on the right solely on its quality. His procedure was simple: On the final day of class he would bring in his bathroom scales and weigh the work in the "quantity" group: fifty pounds of pots rated an "A", forty pounds a "B" and so on. Those being graded on "quality," however, needed to produce only one pot--albeit a perfect one--to get an "A". Well, came grading time and a curious fact emerged: the works of the highest quality were all produced by the group being graded for quantity. It seems that while the "quantity" group was busy turning out piles of work--and learning from their mistakes--the "quality" group had sat theorizing about perfection, and in the end had little more to show for their efforts than grandiose theories and a pile of dead clay."

 

So, perfectionists take heed! Inspiration comes to the one who is already at the drawing board, not the poor sap who is just waiting for inspiration. 

I would encourage you to sign up for Mr. Genn's newsletter. It's a never-ending source of knowledge and insight: http://painterskeys.com/

 

I'll be back soon for more pics and stories, as I said~ Thanks for stopping by!

The Yellow Scale Kelsey

There are several groups I love to paint with; one of my favorites is the Market Street Painters who meet on Fridays. I've been absent from most of my groups for awhile, as I've been working on some ideas and need to be uninfluenced. This summer though I rejoined MSP and have thoroughly enjoyed the company.
Kelsey came to model for us in a yellow gown and together with her yellow hair and her pose, immediately put me in the mind of Frantisek Kupka's captivating self-portrait, "The Yellow Scale." Its permanent home is in the Museum of Fine Arts Houston. The week after I painted Kelsey, I got to go see "The Yellow Scale" in person on the very day of my birthday. I found that, while I did have a reminiscence, my background was darker and heavier, and Kupka pushed the scale much harder than I did.
We will have a different model in the same dress this coming Friday; perhaps I will revisit my inspiration and have another go!

The San Jacinto, 11x14. sold

This is an 11x14" oil painting of the San Jacinto River, complete with barges and piers, tank farms and who knows what? Cranes and scaffolding and towers and smoke stacks, with some trees around the edges, it looks like. To my heart and eye, the trees are like a fur collar around the sparkling jewels that adorn the ship channel. It's nature and industry, water and land, dancing slowly together under the soft summer clouds. When you watch it, the music that they're dancing to plays in your mind and you find yourself smiling and humming along. I love Houston. 

Salmagundi Summer Show

Both of these paintings are in the Salmagundi Club summer show, bringing a touch of the south to New York City.
I hope that your summer is lovely and that you are staying cool. New paintings are coming soon so don't be a stranger!

Artist in Residence Program-Red River Historical Society: Three Artists In Residence Scheduled for Fall!

Artist in Residence Program-Red River Historical Society: Three Artists In Residence Scheduled for Fall!: The Red River County Historical Society is pleased to announce that the first three artists to participate in the Artist in Residence Progra...

The Beach Hut

 The same day that we painted the Siblings Seaside, I got to paint the Beach Hut down on the boardwalk in the afternoon. We painted the kids in the surf while it was morning, then once the light changed completely, we went out to lunch at a gumbo bar on the strand (awesome).
Afterwards, everyone had to scatter, but since it's such a long drive for me, I decided to stay and try to wrest another painting out of the day! This happy couple of buildings must be part of the same club: The Beach Hut. It's billed as "The Only Bar on the Beach in Galveston" and had a sand volleyball court and everything. For most of my painting, there were kids playing volleyball and they were going to be part of the painting. I really loved the way the ball looked when it was against the sky, and the kids in their bright bathing suits; I thought it would give the painting some action. You can see the yellow lines where I was going to plant it: see, at the foot of the stairs? But by the time I got to that part, they were on the balcony drinking some brewskies, so I painted that instead. 
The woman inspecting the work in progress was parked behind me in a giant U-Haul truck, en route from Florida to California. She and her mom had an irresistible urge to stop by Galveston on the way and spend the afternoon at the beach. I love that about a beach. It calls you to just slow down or stop for awhile and relax.  

Houston Ship Channel, 8x8. sold

Way in the distance, you can see the sparkling white line of the tank farms on the horizon, brighter than the clouds they were! The Houston ship channel is as busy as any major airport and floats every kind of vessel you can think of. It's surrounded by the arterial systems of roadways and train tracks; you get some kind of life-buzz watching it!
This is a view from a bridge going over the San Jacinto River late in the day. I believe the black hills in the foreground are coal.
I know that all of these buildings and barges have business to do but for me, they are fantastic light reflectors, their shapes and colors teasing my eyes.
I like that the earth is so intent on its job, but the sky with its carefree clouds wafts around overhead, a happy spectator. It participates in the light effects of the play below without even glancing at the script. 

Retired from Service Station

When traveling to Austin or San Antonio, I often stop for gas at a service station in Giddings. I always admire this scene while filling up my gas tank and scraping bugs off my windshield. It makes me think of the beautiful, interesting and mysterious things that lie along the side of our country roads. The last time I was there though, I had a sudden panic that, being as these buildings are on the outskirts of the town, they might not have much longer to live. Strip-malling (mauling) is making more and more places look the same now, but there are some spots that still show the unique thing that put them on the map in the first place.
I have no idea what these quonset huts were for but whatever it was, Giddings needed them by the railroad and the highway so they must have been important. Meanwhile, the old service station is in the parking lot of a new service station, like a grandpappy sitting in a rocker out on the porch, watching the comings and goings. 
At this hour, the sun was striking them all just right, and I was struck too, with the determination to record them in this moment. This is morning light in a day's cycle but twilight in a life cycle.

Siblings Seaside

I got to paint with my peeps in Galveston this week. These are the kids of one of the artists and they posed gamely as the surf got higher and higher, occasionally washing completely over the lap of the young man. The artists who got good spots ended up standing in water, too. I was in the back row, high and dry. I hope you're enjoying your summer~ thanks for stopping by!

A New Leaf

My beautiful model is turning a new leaf, both in this painting and in her life.
She has always been a risk-taking, reliable, enthusiastic and very hard worker, and now she will lend her gifts to the military.  She's a woman after my own heart. 
The title can be applied to the turning of the book's page, the coming of a girl's age, or the new burst of impatiens spilling over the flower box in the background.  There is a hand at work in each of these ideas.