Many moons ago I went back home to Fulton, New York and went to a Renaissance Faire that was held in Sterling, I think.  Anyway,  I took a bunch of photographs thinking that one day I might actually paint from one of them.  Well, today I did.  The photograph was actually not very good--too dark, a little out of focus. But looking at it, I remembered why I'd taken the photo in the first place--I loved the woman's face!  She really "looked" the part of a musician (actually,I was thinking more of a milk-maid type, but what do I know?).  So, since I'm still hanging in on the 30/30 challenge (although I'm technically 4 paintings behind), I decided to paint this lady. 

     My word for the new year is "explore," and that's what I did with this painting.  I have a really difficult time with flesh tones. Maybe that's because I've started thinking more about them than I used to. I'm one of those painters who doesn't really plan out a painting: I just jump right in. And that can lead to problems--as in getting the right color flesh tones, or running out of room because I didn't think about spacing....Well,  I've got a ton of books on color and portrait painting, and they all have basic formulas for flesh tones, but somewhere in the middle of making puddles of flesh colors, I forget what I'm doing (because I'm so caught up in the actually PAINTING), that I end up just slapping on color.  But this time, even though I was deviating from the formulas, I figured why not "explore" and see what happens.  And that's what you see above--an exploration of color in flesh tones.  I used yellow ochre, burnt umber, raw sienna,  alizarin crimson, veridian, cad red light, cad red medium--even threw in some ultramarine blue and thalo green....oh, and a little bit of violet too.  Probably not the best way to do a portrait, but I'm pretty pleased with the result.  Might even do a larger version of this one day.  Check back tomorrow for painting #6!

 

 

 

Portrait Commission WIP

This is my latest commission:  a charcoal portrait of the client's daughter.  It's been awhile since I've done any charcoal drawing--it was a nice change from the paintbox!  Not sure if this is finished--waiting on the client's feedback.

Had to take a break from the Dog Days series to do this--hoping to finish another dog portrait tonight. Will post again when I do!

Uh....I'm Still Here!

So apparently the Rapture didn't happen...at least not for me, and I haven't seen any mysterious puddles of clothes anywhere (except those in my laundry room and closet, heh heh) so I'm guessing someone got the date wrong.  Guess we'll have to wait till 2012 and see if the Mayans got it right.  Meanwhile, I've been surfing the net, perusing various artist blogs, writer blogs, and websites.  Lots of interesting stuff out there and it makes me wonder if it's really worth all the effort to set these things up.  There are so many blogs and websites, seems to me that unless you've got something really unique, your site will be lost in the bloggers slush pile.

We talked about the benefits of having a blog at the writers' workshop yesterday, and visual artists say the same thing--that, yes, blogs are important venues for writers and artists.  But frankly, I just don't have the time to spend hopping from blog to blog, and obviously I have a difficult time keeping my own blog current--I'd be getting a whole lot of writing and painting done if I just stayed off the Internet! And yet, here I am, filling up cyberspace, joining the blogger conga line.  Reading other people's blogs is like peeping through a window to get a glimpse of how others' write and paint and think, and realizing that, yeah, we're all basically going through the same thing--wanting to sell, wanting recognition, or maybe just wanting comraderie. 

I don't have any paintings to share today--I spent the afternoon mowing and managed to finish just before it rained.  Maybe I'll get a chance to write or paint tonight....and I'll try to post whatever I do tomorrow.  Stay cool!

Catch-Up Time

Been unable to update this site for a couple of months--family illness has kept me out of the studio. It's been a couple of months since I've even picked up a paintbrush, but I'm hoping things will get better soon and I can get back to some sort of routine.  The last painting I worked on was a commissioned piece, an oil portrait for a friend's brother and sister-in-law.  This painting was quite a challenge for me, as it was done strictly from photographs--several, in fact--and included 3 cats.  But I like a challenge and after much maneuvering and discussion with the client, we came up with a composition that pleased everyone.   
A couple of years ago I took a jewelry -making workshop with Carolyn Mallin of Fanciful Expressions.  Since then I have, occasionally, made a few pieces of jewelry here and there--but because I haven't been able to spend much time painting lately, I started making jewelry again--it's something I can do while I'm fixing dinner, or watching TV and it satisfies my need for "instant gratification."  I'm not giving up on painting--but with the current family situation, I really don't have the time to dedicate to the studio.  I haven't given much thought to actually selling the jewelry--right now it's just something I'm doing to keep my mind off more serious matters and it comes in handy when I need a gift!  So here are a few pics of some of the jewelry I've made--they aren't the best photos, lighting is all wrong, etc.  I really like turquoise--it's one of my favorite stones, after amethyst, of course--purple is, after all, my "signature" color.

I'd like to make some pieces using amethyst--I have made a couple of jewelry sets using inexpensive imitation amethyst beads, but I don't want to go overboard with the purple thing.  I'm also doing some wire jewelry -- nothing finished yet, but I'll post pictures of those when I can.  I may set up a shop on Etsy specifically for my jewelry--will post that info when I do. Meanwhile, belated happy New Year!