Young Woman in Green

12x16 oil on canvas

Having been working in a style very different from what I am accustomed to, and having wiped a number of canvases in a row, I felt it was time to use one of those canvases for a portrait, going back to the familiar, just throwing it down to get past discouragement, which is invading from other areas in my life, as well.  This young woman is from an old black and white photo; she is likely long since dead.  But she once was young and beautiful and full of hope.

I guess I'm ready for some rain, for a change.  Bring on the grey.

Summer at the Cabin

24"x24" oil

Not content with a single portrait at a time, I try for the group pose, arranging the elements in an "arc of friendship" curving from upper left to lower right, and I don't know if the composition works all that well, but the intent was to get the eye going in a clockwise circle, following the hands.  This is still a work in progress, though I doubt there will be any major changes at this point, perhaps a few alterations and some glazing to make the colors richer.  

One Last Hot Day

After dropping off in temperature and raining a bit, the weather turned and climbed back into the 90's again, if only for a couple of days.  I took advantage of the heat to sit out on the deck and do a plein air painting (within a few steps of a cold pitcher of iced tea!)  Frequently when I try painting outdoors, I am frustrated that I don't capture what I am after; the brushwork is sloppy and the values seem off.  I find that if I bring it back to the studio, I can sometimes do another piece using the color information from the sketch, and that redeems it somewhat.  But this time, for whatever reason, the value and color shifts seemed more accurate, lending a depth to the painting, which was what I was focusing on, and the trees in the foreground do seem to be closer and shaded.  

Poul Webb, over at Art & Artists, is a great source for in-depth study of various artists.  Currently he is doing a 13 part series on Fantin-Latour, someone I have not paid much attention to over the years.  But when I saw some of his portraits and lithographs, I was utterly charmed.

Storm Warnings

A Long Cold Winter

11x14 oil on canvas

The seemingly endless summer is at last giving signs of running its course; the winds and rains of the past two days here instantly remind us that we live in a gray and soggy land, something that had slipped our minds in the suspended disbelief of summer's long reign.  Some among us long for the return of the soft and muted grays of winter, easier somehow to lace with emotion on the canvas.  And the fires in the mountains are begging for rain.  Just give us, please, this one last month of sun, this glorious September that frequently combines the best of all worlds: children returning to school and dry, colorful days of leisure, souls uplifted and comforted before the harsh turn of season.

For The Time Being, As Good As It Gets

9x12 acrylic on canvas

I have been using the excuse of dashing off sketches in order to convince myself that they didn't need to be "perfect" and that my scratchy brushwork was acceptable.  But I decided it was time to try for a more finished portrait, and I chose for a subject my youngest son, Zach.  Back from a trip to France, I picked up acrylics for a change, trying to find my sea legs after the hiatus, and they do dry faster, making blending a little harder, so maybe oils might have been a better choice for putting my skills to a real test.  And I wasn't about to spend days and days on this; it took about four hours.  I might dab at it some more, blending away some of the grosser shortcomings, but I think I really need to admit that this is about my skill level at this point: it's not a painting that will hang in a gallery, but it is a damn fair likeness, and that's been my goal all along, so I'm going to declare victory and move on about my business.

Summer on the Lake

The heat is unrelenting, no rain for weeks on end, and the algae bloom is thick.  But at certain times of day, when the warm sun is bouncing off the rock cliff, the water takes on a warm glow and contrasts nicely with the cool cobalt blue of the reflected sky.  The colors are quite different from just a couple of months ago, though different times of day will yield different results.

Dark Profile

Continuing to investigate the use of darks in oil paint, I mix thalo green with alizarin crimson to get the dark for the background, and then lighten some thalo for the green of the cap.  The photo snap does not do justice to the richness of the combination, but I think I like this dark as much as the dark from combining ultramarine blue with burnt sienna.

Transparent Darks, Opaque Lights

I find that the application of the dark undertones first - in this case a mix of ultramarine blue and transparent red oxide - in a thin wash, and then an overlay of cerulean and white for the lighter areas works wonders in creating the look of sun-washed skin.  I see that the symmetry is off a bit in the eyes and nostrils, but rather than muck with the transparencies I will move on to another painting.

Endless days of heat and sun and projects to do has left little time for making headway in the painting game, but I find myself curiously looking forward to winter.  That's a first!

Faces Old and Young

Ron 7x7 oil

Aging gracefully in the south of France, still dapper after all these years, still the bon vivant, the wit at dinner parties, the tap dancer, fine cook, flatterer of young and old.  We can always learn lessons from those among us living well.

Austin 7x7 oil

It was just yesterday that Austin was a young boy, eager and innocent, studying dinosaurs.  Now he is  headed off to college and life as a grownup.  But to his parents, he will always be their little boy, probably about this age, nine or so.  It is the curse and the blessing of parenthood: to retain that youth in our hearts no matter what Time may do to us all.

Plein Air Event

In honor of the local plein air event going on right now, I tried my hand at a couple of landscapes, the first in oils, the second in acrylic, and I see that I need to take the plunge and just buy some real oil paints and stop trying to work with these water-soluble oils that are too sticky and hard to clean up.  I see other oil painters who just leave their brushes in some solution or other and don't waste time cleaning and cleaning.  I've been worried about making my studio space (commandeered from a library/entertainment space) proper and undamaged.  Maybe I can figure out a way to keep the solvents from ruining everything.