One from Last Week

I am taking the week off from painting, but I realized that I have not yet blogged about my latest painting that I finished last week. "Etude", shown above, is 30" x 24", oil on linen.

Down Time

This past Memorial Day weekend was a busy one for me, starting off with a half marathon (Boston's Run to Remember) that I ran with a friend who was visiting from Texas, followed by a trip to NJ to visit with family. Now I am in recovery mode, taking a few days off from painting and running, as I am paying the price for a lack of training for the race and a lack of sleep. I could probably force myself to start another piece, but I think it's best I wait until my mind and body are revitalized.

In the meantime, I have three art shows now and in the near future: the Francesca Anderson Fine Art 26th Annual Portrait Show with my pastel pieces Allison and Cate on display, the upcoming SCNY Annual Non-Member Painting and Sculpture Exhibition where my oil piece Resolute will be on display, and the upcoming CPSA 17th Annual International Exhibition where my colored pencil piece Self Portrait with Tea will be on display.

After the Rain

I just returned from getting a scan of "After the Rain", 24" x 18", oil on Pastelbord. This image is much more like the original than the photo I posted earlier... thank goodness for Image-Tec!

26th Annual Portrait Show

Yesterday I stopped by the reception for the 26th Annual Portrait Show at Francesca Anderson Fine Art Portraits North (I'm standing by my two pastel portraits of Allison and Cate, above). The show is a beautiful arrangement of some of the most amazing oil, pastel, watercolor and pencil portraits I have ever seen. The artists represented are listed on the gallery website, along with contact information to schedule a viewing.

Oil Painting on Pastelbord

I finished the oil painting on Pastelbord and took a quick photo, shown above. The experience was very different than working on canvas - more "delicate" as I couldn't apply too much paint or it would get streaky. The background in the reference photograph was lacking because at the time the trees didn't have many leaves yet and the flowers hadn't really bloomed (not to mention that there was a big barn-like shed in the background). So I got my ideas for the background while on my morning jog, taking note of the variety of spring colors in the trees and flowers. To make sure the colors were accurate, I also looked at the trees outside my studio window while painting. Since it has been raining so much, the background ended up taking on a wet look, so I decided to call this "After the Rain".

Salmagundi Club 32nd Annual Non-Member Exhibition

I just found out that my oil painting Resolute, shown above, has been selected for the Salmagundi Club 32nd Annual Juried Painting and Sculpture Exhibition for Non-Members. The exhibition includes oil paintings, watercolor, pastel, acrylics, mixed media and sculpture, and will be held at the Salmagundi Club in NYC from June 29th through July 10th. For more information: www.salmagundi.org.

Exhibition News

Today I found out that Self Portrait with Tea, shown above, was juried into the Colored Pencil Society of America's 17th Annual International Exhibition, to be held in Duluth, GA. I also found out that the same piece was accepted into the American Juried Art Salon 8th Biannual Juried Show (online). For more information on these exhibitions, please see my Events page.

Learning from Mistakes

Everyone has different learning styles, but I am the type of person who likes to dive in and do it my own way. For my first oil painting, aside from following the "thick over thin" principle I had read about, I pretty much just threw a set of paints haphazardly onto a palette and started painting using a few brushes I had on hand. Yes, I had read about the different types of whites, about pre-mixing colors on the palette before beginning, and how one must have a full array of brushes to complete a successful painting, but I found all of the advice to be overwhelming and often contradictory, and I decided that I would learn the best from actually trying it myself.

Aside from the thick over thin principle, What I learned from this experience is that it actually is quite helpful to premix some colors that you know you will be using, though I don't exactly follow any prescribed methods, and my palette seems to change a little each time I mix the paints. Had I followed someone else's palette and methods exactly from the beginning the process might have been easier, but I think that the lesson would have less meaning to me.

Now, working on a piece smaller in scale on Pastelbord (work in progress shown below), I am learning the value in having more sizes and types of brushes, as I struggle to get thin lines and fine textures.

Occasionally I find that following my own instincts is very helpful in developing my own techniques and style. But other times (and perhaps more often) my mistakes help me to really learn the value of the lessons and advice given by seasoned painters. So I continue on, happily learning and growing from my mistakes.

Spring Work in Progress

I have a few client/model meetings scheduled in about a week, but in the meantime I decided to do a relatively quick piece trying oil paint on Pastelbord. Working with oil on Pastelbord is very different from canvas, which is probably still my favorite surface. Nevertheless, I'd probably use this board for really small works that require a lot of detail.

This piece is 24"x18", and you can see a part of the reference photo in the image below. In the photo there is a shed behind me, so I am instead painting the background using the landscape I see out my studio window. Of course, this is a work in progress and the trees are nowhere near done. Also note that the hand on the viewer's right is still in the rough phase, whereas the hand on the left is mostly finished.