"Paintings have a life of their own that derives from the painter's soul." Vincent Van Gogh

Thursday, May 7, 2015

Reno Portrait Society and an Explanation

Kristi / oil on toned board / 9x12

Kristi / oil on toned board / 12x9

Kristi / oil on cardboard / 10 x 8
A family emergency that necessitated a long trip to Florida has kept me from painting for the last several weeks. Just prior to that trip, I received some very good news from Jason at the Reinert Fine Art Gallery in South Carolina - both of my large paintings sold within a week of their arrival at the gallery! That was some very exciting news! Here are the two SOLD pieces:

A Haze of Possibilities / 16x20

Galloping With the Light / 18x24

The quick sales got me all fired up to finish the new steeplechasing painting that I had on my easel at that moment - about 50% done. But before I could even pick up a paint brush, I had to drop everything and leave town. Getting back a few days ago, I found I just could not recapture the prior excitement that I had about the partly done piece  and ended up ruining it in grand fashion! Sadly, it was unceremoniously consigned to the trash heap.  Normally I would be kind of upset about something like that happening but I made up my mind to just begin again. Hopefully this time I can carry it through to completion.

Yesterday morning was life painting at the Reno Portrait Society - the first time I have been able to attend in weeks and weeks. As our model for the day, we were fortunate to have Kristi, who agreed to pose in the nude. She is so professional, researches her poses before arriving, needs very little direction and gives us a quite a challenge. She provided us with three different poses - each about 40 minutes - and the above three efforts are my results.

Over the next few days I intend to visit my favorite blogs and make my presence known once again - it feels like I have been away for such a long time and I have a lot of catching up to do!