"Message in a Bottle" Session 2 & 3: Drawing & Transfer

8x10 inches

graphite on gessoed panel

work in progress

see previous post here

After I transfer the drawing to the panel I spend more time-drawing every line from life and refining it to the highest degree possible. The more details I work out here, the less problems I will have to solve in paint. The traced image always deadens, so I never just go from traced transfer directly to paint.

Long Pose, Day 5 - "Danae"

"Danae"

oil on panel

12 x 16 inches

See the previous post about this painting

I was not able to blog about the 4th day (and I neglected to take a photo), but here is my study of Danae after the 5th and final day of our long pose. We all had a great time drawing and painting as a small focused group, and our lovely model did a fantastic job with her first ultra-long pose.

I'm hoping to plan another week-long pose in the future, so, if you are interested in joining us let me know with an email, and also click here to join my mailing list to be notified when it is scheduled.

There is still room for a couple more people in my Figure Drawing class beginning September 12, click here for more info and to register.

Long Pose, Day 3 - "Danae"

"Danae"

oil on panel, 16 x 20

color underpainting, work in progress
12 x 16 inches

See previous post here

I wrote a long blog post about my week-long model session, but the post somehow just got erased! I am about to keel over from exhaustion so I won't re-type it, but suffice to say the 5 of us are having a great time, all very very focused and enjoying the luxury of 5 straight days of figure drawing and painting with our wonderful model Danae.

I have been racing every day this week to paint as fast as possible, today I did the whole color underpainting from start to finsih, tomorrow I start on opaque painting and the real fun begins.

Friday evening I'll be quickly tidying up the studio and setting up for my live video web debut the next morning! If you have not yet, sign up here:

Live Webcast Studio Tour and Demo
Saturday August 21
9am -11am Pacific Standard Time
12noon- 2pm Eastern Standard Time
$10 - Click here to sign up

Long Pose, Day 2 - "Danae"

"Danae"

Underpainting value wash

oil on panel, 

12 x 16 inches

See Day 1 here

Long Pose, Day 1 - "Danae"

"Danae"

pencil on panel

12 x 16 inches

Today was the first of a 5-day pose I have arranged in my studio this week. We have 5 artists participating (including me) and we work each day from 10am-5pm. For artists this is the ultimate working-stay-cation! Today we spent the first hour or so setting up a pose we all liked from many angles (no small feat!), and then chose our spots by lottery (I drew a #5, dead last, but I like my spot). The we all mounted our paper and got to work.

I'm attempting to do a very fast (fast for me!) painting of the our model Danae this week, so today I blocked in this line drawing on mylar paper and then during a model break I transferred the drawing to my 16x20 hand-primed panel. I spent the last part of the day refining the pencil drawing directly on the panel. Then I erased the extra graphite, brushed down the surface with a wide, flat brush to get rid of eraser crumbs, and coated it with thinned Damar varnish (thinned with about 1/5th mineral spirits) to preserve the drawing and seal the porous surface.

Tomorrow I start painting - record speed for me!

ALSO:

Live Webcast Studio Tour and Demo

Saturday August 21

9am -11am Pacific Standard Time

12noon- 2pm Eastern Standard Time
$10 - Click here to sign up

I'll be giving a video tour of my studio, a behind-the-scenes look at my latest Wax Paper painting "The Wave", and also doing a drawing demo. You can even submit your own questions, in advance or in real time.

Hope to see you there!

"The Wave"

"The Wave"
9 x 12 inches, oil on panel

The objects I arrange in a still life often seem to imply relationships, and the "wave" shape of the overarching waxed paper in this piece suggests to me a peaceful embrace of the two companions below.

The handle of the silver creamer is sculpted like a stylized curl of wave as well, so its obvious partner was one of my favorite seashells. I also always look for a new challenge when I set up a still life, and in this one I was excited to try to capture the various whites in the composition: the creamy white of the shell, the sharper blue white of the waxed paper, and the slightly yellowed chipped white paint of the shelf below.

It is these differences, and the small instances of color in the reflections, which make a monochromatic painting feel "in color" instead of just flat grays. I mix all of my neutral tones from a full-spectrum palette, and I never use any black paint, which dulls the colors. So what at first glance may look like grey, always has a subtle tilt towards a color.

In this way, these two companions beneath their arch of paper, capture a small moment in time.

Plein air in Maine III

On the Shores of Sebago Lake
9 x 12 oil on panel

Today was the very first day I have ever actually enjoyed painting outdoors. I have only done a small amount of plein air painting, only a couple weeks in addition to last year's month-long Hudson Fellowship. And most the time I am outside, I am wondering why I simply can't paint with the ease and enjoyment I feel in the studio.

Well, like anything, it's just a matter of practice. Today was a big step forward for me. It might have something to with the fact I was set up in the shade of huge pines, with a carpet of red needles beneath my feet, and the sounds of birds and distant motorboats around me... which is how I spent the happiest days of my childhood.

Road to the Summer Cottage
9x12 oil on panel

High on this morning's fun, I set up the easel again this afternoon and put in a 3rd session on the composition I started earlier this week, adding more color and light. I loved the challenge of the sandy dirt road with streaks of sunlight across it. I ended up painting the wheel tracks with a pale blue/lavender, and the streaks of sunlight with a warm salmon pink. My experiment was to show the sunlight with an emphasis on the hue shift, and less of a value shift. Since I mostly feel comfortable thinking in in value instead of hue/color, I've been trying to exercise my color skills. Outside there is even more range of value than indoors, so color is really the only way to approximate what the paint values can't accomplish.

My husband and I leave Maine tomorrow, so my painting vacation is done. Next week we visit our family in Pennsylvania and our days will be full with enjoying our young nephews and niece. I also have the pleasure of meeting up with my favorite Women Painting Women, Diane and Alia who are my amazing partners in managing the WPW blog and WPW Facebook page. Last New Year's we met up at the Met, this time it's the Philly Museum of Fine Art to check out some Eakins. Will keep you posted!!

Plein air in Maine II

Morning at Songo Lock, Sebago Lake, Maine
9x12 oil on panel

I worked on this painting for 3 morning sessions. Next time I'll try a lighter underpainting, as the overall cast looks very dark. But I really enjoyed painting the lichen on the trees, and the lilypads on the water surface. Whenever I start a painting outside I have grand plans, but then realize the level of study I'd like to explore would require several sessions per square inch on the canvas!

Study of Trees at Songo Lock
9x12, oil on panel

This one was a quick alla prima study, done in a couple hours. I just started from a point of interest and worked outwards. I realized I should have started with at least a light color wash to knock back the white ground, as I ended up trying to figure out how to fill in background around brushstrokes I liked. A great learning experience.

I am painting on New Traditions Painting Panels
http://www.newtraditionsartpanels.com/index.html
I like the portrait grade linen, oil primed, mounted on gator foam.

I am also loving my Open Box M, it's a fantastic, lightweight, and flexible plein air easel and palette for use with a tripod. This is the one I have:
http://www.openboxm.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=OBMIPAPS&Product_Code=480&Category_Code=PPHp

Plein air painting in Maine

I think the landscape of your earliest memories makes an indelible impression, so I am thrilled to be painting on the shores of a lake in Maine!

Yesterday I did a pencil drawing in the morning just to get comfortable working outside again. Then I found a spot in the afternoon for a multiple-session painting and started a monochromatic under painting.

This morning I found a new spot and started a morning painting. My plan is to work on each of them for the rest of the week.

It's been hot, but since I am usually freezing when I paint outside, sitting still in the shade for a couple hours and feeling warm is perfect painting weather. Mosquitos have not even been that bad, only 3 bites so far!

We are staying at my friend Kyra's summer house for the week, and she and Nowell also have projects they are working on a few hours a day, so it's a productive vacation for all of us!

The Hudson Fellowship is going on right now, you can see what they are up to on their blog:
http://grandcentralacademy.blogspot.com/

Also you can see all my posts from last year's Hudson Fellowship here:
/search/label/Hudson%20River%20Fellowship

Seashell's Dream

Seashell's Dream

8x8 inches, oil on panel

Just finished this little painting today after working on it on and off over the last month or 2 between other projects. I painted it over about 7 sessions. It developed a bit differently from my usual process for still life, because instead of doing a drawing first I just jumped in with a color oil sketch the first day, and just kept adding refinement and detail each session.

Oil Sketch of Ward

Oil Sketch of Ward

9 x 12 inches, oil on canvas mounted on panel

I had fun with this fast oil sketch. Very different from my usual methods, but satisfying!

Whatever the method or technique, the success of the piece relies on only one thing: Looking. Even though this was a fast sketch (fast for me - done over two sessions) I tried to discipline myself to make each stroke slowly, and look at my subject before making another stroke. 

I did this sketch at my Tuesday evening model share at my studio. The next set of 4 sessions begins August 3rd, I hope you can join us! More information about my classes and model shares sessions here

Mary with Silver Dish

Mary with Silver Dish
16 x 20 inches, oil on panel

Detail

Detail of shoulder

I've posted a slideshow of all the stages, from drawing and under paintings to the final.

(click slideshow to view larger in a new window)

"The Cabinet" Prep Drawing and Open Grisaille Underpainting

"The Cabinet"
12 x 16 inches, oil on panel, work in progress

See previous post about this painting here

It feels so good to be working on one of my still lifes again! This is the "Open Grisaille" underpainting - essentially just Raw Umber and turp, an initial pass at roughing in the basic values. I tell my students that at this stage you just have to accept some ugliness, it's impossible to make this thin, brushy layer look pristine.

Some artists do this stage as a "wipe-out", where they tone the whole panel and then wipe away the highlights. I don't do this because I find it wipes away my drawing too much, and lacks a certain level of precision. This layer is painted very thin, and I tell my students to think of "kissing" the contours with the tip of the brush, to avoid a hard, unthinking swipe along those carefully-drawn contours.

12 x 16 inches, graphite on panel, preparatory drawing

I started the drawing on Mylar drawing vellum (I like a brand called "Dura-Lar" - be careful not to buy the clear acetate in the similar packaging though). Then I transferred the blocked-in drawing to the panel before refining it. I always do the last few hours of refining the drawing directly on the panel, to avoid that dead "traced" look. That way every contour has been drawn from life right on the panel. I use the Mylar stage of the drawing for blocking in proportions and finalizing the composition.

The contour drawing is hard to photograph because the final lines are so thin and light, so I had to tweak the photo quite a bit in Photoshop, which is why it looks somewhat "dirty".

Once the drawing is finished I seal the panel with a coat of Dammar with some turp mixed in. This protects the drawing from being wiped away, and also makes the panel less "thirsty". Now it's a perfect surface to paint on.

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Teaching schedule:
I'm always adding new classes, open model sessions, workshops and demos to my Teaching Page!

"From the Cabinet"

Here's a sneak peek at my new still-life setup - I am so excited to be starting a new painting again! Sometimes I agonize over setting up a composition but this one fell together easily, probably because I have fun new props to play with, courtesy of Susan Foster who generously let me take my pick from her fabulous collection of still life items. And I finally got to incorporate my treasured quail feather, which I have been meaning to paint for a while now. I am almost already regretting it already - those stripes are going to be a challenge!!

This is a new look for me - rich deep reds and soft greens, an antique aqua-colored ink bottle and some twisty dried twigs and fiddleheads... I think of it as a sampling from a 19th century "Cabinet of Curiosities".

The familiar item is my lovely little golden seashell. While blocking in the composition and then all the natural forms I am reminded that EVERYTHING is based on the most ancient of symbols, the mysterious spiral!

Conch Shell - FINISHED!

oil on panel, 9 x 12 inches
See previous post about this painting

(detail)

Over the last month blogging has taken a backseat to finishing the final paintings for my upcoming show at M Gallery in Florida, also setting up my new studio, starting private classes and workshops at the new studio, and teaching MFA candidates one day a week at the Academy of Fine Art.

Phew!

Oh, and I also started an amazing, inspiring ecorche class (sculpting all the bones and muscles of the human body in clay) with Andrew Ameral, master anatomy teacher from the Florence Academy.

So yes, I have been very busy, but really never happier!!

Pewter Pitcher

oil on panel, 8 x 8 inches

My favorite little pitcher, it was such a joy to do a study devoted to it alone! So many lovely oranges and lavenders peeking through its patina....

This painting and 5 others will be at my show at M Gallery in Sarasota, Florida for the month of March, opening March 5.

Be sure to check out the workshop I am offering in Sarasota to coincide with the show, and my other upcoming classes and workshops!

Sterling Boat: FINAL

Sterling Boat

oil on panel, 9 x 12 inches

See the previous post about this painting here

Finally finished! It ended up taking about 16 sessions over the course of a month, for a total of 68 hours, including the initial contour drawing. Thanks to everyone who has followed along the last few weeks as I posted all the stages of this painting, it been an interesting experiment to document the process so closely.

Here's a slideshow of all the stages of this painting:

Click slideshow to see it larger in Picasa

This painting will be in my March show at M Gallery in Sarasota, Florida. The show will coincide with my painting workshop, March 22-26, also hosted by M Gallery.

I've just added Still Life Painting classes to my San Francisco teaching schedule. I'm thinking about offering a drawing course for absolute beginners later in 2010, if this is something you'd be interested in please email me.

Finally, my new studio is coming together and I'm looking forward to posting photos soon, stay tuned!

Sign up for my mailing list to be notified when I post photos of the new studio, new artwork, and upcoming art classes.

Sterling Boat: Session 12

 

Sterling Boat - DETAIL - work in progress

oil on panel

See the previous post about this painting here

Sterling Boat - PREVIOUS DETAIL

Tiny, tiny differences between the two, I just made this section more crisp, maybe you can tell if you compare the two shots closely. I won’t even say how many hours I spent today on this one segment of wax paper, except to say it was my longest single session on this painting so far.

Wax paper in the light - the whitest, brightest parts, is always the hardest this for me to paint. I think it’s because white oil paint has a different texture than the transparent paints in the shadows. White pigment is thicker and more grainy, so it looks like crusty paint even when other parts melt into a convincing illusion. And I’m always wishing it could be brighter to match the dazzling highlights I see. I always despair over these bright white sections in all my wax paper paintings.

In contrast, the strip of painted wood shelf is super easy, it flows out in a flash - I can spend hours to create the illusion of a square inch of wax paper, and only minutes for a square inch of painted wood.

What I like best about this section is the filtered cool light that shines through the paper and onto the edge of the shelf, illuminating it with a little pale glow within the cast shadow.

I listened to an audio book while I worked today, I usually listen to NPR podcasts - Fresh Air etc. But something about listening to one long narrative all day really enhanced my focus and I barely stopped painting for even a minute all day. It was great! I think I’ll keep doing that. Maybe the podcasts changing subject so often is messing with my concentration.

Sometimes I listen to music while I paint, but usually the verbal narrative in my own head starts to get distracting. I have a bad habit of ruminating on unpleasant thoughts while I paint, so I need something innocuous to occupy my verbal brain while I work.

Are all artists like this? Can you work with focus for hours in silence, or with music? Can the music have lyrics or do you need it to be instrumental?

Making art while surrounded by chatter reminds me of art class as a young kid. Art class in elementary school was the one class where the teachers usually let kids talk while working, and I would always work silently but enjoy the chatter of schoolkid gossip all around me.

Sterling Boat: Session 11

Sterling Boat - DETAIL - work in progress

oil on panel

See the previous post about this painting here

Sterling Boat - PREVIOUS DETAIL

I spent most the 4-hour session today on the seashell, but I think you can see the most difference in the before/after shots if you look at the edge of the painted wooden shelf.

The seashell is challenging because it is reflective, translucent, AND colorful. I'm trying to show a shiny surface that also has depth, because the light both bounces off and penetrates the surface. So there's a lot of fiddling, pushing the values and hues around bit by bit. Slow, slow painting.

This is where glazing makes a big difference because I can layer transparent films of color into a couch of slow-drying oil medium, and make tiny adjustments.

Also, thinning the paint with oil makes a cleaner edge, because the texture and goopiness of the paint is reduced. Just like how melted butter can spread in a thinner layer than cold butter simply spread thin.

------UPCOMING CLASSES AND WORKSHOPS-----------
I teach Classical Realism drawing and painting classes and workshops in my north light San Francisco studio. I also offer workshops at other locations in the US. Please visit my Teaching page for more information and to register!

Sterling Boat: Session 10

Sterling Boat - DETAIL - work in progress

oil on panel

See the previous post about this painting here

Sterling Boat - PREVIOUS DETAIL

The painting is coming down to the final stages, I'm hoping to be done in just a few more sessions. This is the stage of the painting when it gets hard to record the difference with a camera. I'm sorry to say the differences between the two above shots represents a solid 6 hours of work! The refinement is subtle but significant in real life, but almost impossible to see by the time the camera has degraded the images.

I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts today called "On the Media", and they were talking about the evolution of the book (OTM Episode: Book 2.0) now that we are crossing over into a digital era for reading. They interviewed writers and book publishers and future-thinkers who all had opinions, ranging from "it's not a book unless it has paper and glue and survives being dipped in the bathtub" to "the age of paper is dead and everyone will be reading in an entirely different way in 5 years."

One of the future-embracers was positing that the way writers WRITE will change in the new era, and floated his vision of a writer writing a novel live, online, with a real-time audience who will be intimately involved in the writing process, and that the whole process of creating a book with be collaborative and public. To which I though AAACK!!!

The interviewer suggested that many writers feel that solitude while working is integral to the process, and that some writers would not WANT to write if it had to be a public, collaborative process. The book-futurist (sorry I don't have his name, I don't take notes on my audio sources, unlike my husband who wisely documents everything he hears) said something to the point of "well, writers will just have to change they way they think about writing".

Writers will just have to change they way they think about writing. Wha????

As a an artist, I am probably on the leading edge of those who feel comfortable being public with my process - between my blog posts, my videos, and my teaching I try to make my process as transparent as possible, mostly for my own benefit of processing what I am learning, but also because some of you out there seem to enjoy seeing the thoughts behind the work. And yet, if I were forced to both share my process and allowed my visitors to comment on my decisions in real-time as I made them, and also modify my painting as the comments poured in, I would probably put down the brush and find something else to do!

I might be the extreme though, in that I shy away from collaboration, but some artists are more open to it. Personally, I need to be handled very carefully when I am in "work mode", as anyone who worked with me as a graphic designer can attest, I am not at all a "team player" when I am trying to be creative!

What do other artists think? Could you work with an audience? Even performing artists - could the musician practice with an interactive audience, could the actor rehearse with an interactive audience? Does it sound like a nightmare to you, or does it sound like a revolutionary frontier for artmaking?

------UPCOMING CLASSES AND WORKSHOPS-----------
I teach Classical Realism drawing and painting classes and workshops in my north light San Francisco studio. I also offer workshops at other locations in the US. Please visit my Teaching page for more information and to register!