Life!

 

Alejandro was the model at life session this morning - very muscular and a lot of fun to draw.  I chose a position at the head for this prone foreshortened drawing.  Black ebony pencil and white charcoal on brown wrapping paper - about 18 x20 and 40 minutes.

The seated 40 minute pose was just as challenging! In any case, I am pleased with this mornings efforts. Unfortunately, I will miss next week's session as I will be out of town :(  My feeling is that these life sessions are invaluable in providing me with a real feeling for how flesh clings to the skeletal structure and accomodates itself with each unique position.  I have aways felt that there is no substitue for good drawing skills and life drawing is the best way to hone them.
Your comments and thoughts are always greatly appreciated!

The Exotic Nature of Probablity

Oil on linen 24 x 18

Polo Study - Once Again

Polo pony study on brown paper. I like how the rider turned out in this quick study.

Polo - Oil Study on Brown Paper

Once again using brown paper as my practise medium for oil painting. 18x24

Life Drawing - Thursday Morning

 

Cyndi was our wonderfully curvacious model in life drawing this morning. This was 40 miniutes on brown paper using black ebony pencil and white charcoal pencil for highlights.

 

About 40 minutes on newsprint. Something tells me I should invest in more expensive paper for these classes. The ripples in the paper are much more apparent in the photograph than they are when drawing.

This was the firt drawing - the warm up. About 20 minutes on newsprint. I don't have her weight distribution correctly in this and her upper hand went off the paper. Each drawing is about 18x24.

Quick Portrait Study

What can I say? More experimentation - this time with only 4 colors. I used Venetian Red, Ivory Black, Ultramarine Blue and Titanium White. It certainly has a Halloweenish feeling - I guess that is appropriate as our nights are very cool and Autumn is in the air!

Portrait Study

Today was portrait practise day with a limited palette. This is 12x12 oil on canvas.

The Chronicle of the Horse

About a month ago I received an email from Beth Rasin, Executive
Editor of a wonderful magazine called The Chronicle of the Horse stating that she came across my website and fell in love with my work! She asked if she might feature me along with a painting in the Art Gallery section of the September 10/17th issue! You can imagine how excited I was and sent her several photos and my bio. They featured my painting "The Principle of Uncertainty" and published the article above and I am so happy. It's extra special when something like this happens "out of the blue". Thank you to Beth for selecting my work to be featured in this exquisite publication and to Production Manager Lauren Maruskin for the fine layout and copy.

Back to the Drawing Board

Today was the first day of the new session of life drawing at the NV Museum of Art with instructor Martha Voyevidka. The timing of this class is perfect as I really feel the need to work on drawing skills. Tom was the model and he is just wonderful at holding his pose and resuming the exact same positon after a break. The challenge of foreshortening always attracts me so I set up at his feet in order to take advantage of this pose to have some fun with perspective. This was about 40 minutes on white paper with an ebony pencil.

Seated Tom - another 40 minute drawing in ebony pencil and finally.........

 

 

 20 minute sketch - cropped.

 

I adore life drawing and wish that the sessions were year round. This class is only once a week for six weeks and I already know I will miss one session as I have some travel plans - but I believe that every minute one can spend drawing the human figure from life is time exceptionally well spent. A good day for me today! :) Thanks for looking!

 

Saturday Night Concert

We happened upon a free outdoor concert last Saturday and I had my camera with me. This is actually a composition using 4 different photos.  I got way more fussy and detailed than I wanted to. There are some things that I like but, overall, I am disappointed in this result. :(
16x20 oil on canvas

Franktown Meadows Hunter Derby

Its not easy painting a white horse! 16x12 oil on canvas board.
I spent part of Labor Day weekend at Franktown Meadows Equestrian Facility in Washoe City, NV. It's a spectacularly beautiful facility nestled at the base of Mt. Rose and was host to the Labor Day Hunter Derby - a fund raiser for the ALS Foundation. I spent a lot of time learning to use some of the more esoteric functions of my new camera and was fortunate enough to get some good shots. The horses were magnificent and I have new found respect for riders who manage to hang on over the very daunting jumps. Horse and rider seemed to be tackling the course as a real team - it was thrilling to see.
Below is a close up of the above painting. Its a little raw around the edges but I am going to leave it that way. Thanks for looking and your comments are always greatly appreciated.

125 GeV with Luminosity

Having fun with color and subject matter today. Oil on linen 16x 20.

And then I painted this - still having fun with color but cannot explain why I chose this subject - perhaps it was the appearance of warthogs amongst the bunnies last week.

16x12 oil on canvas

The Primacy of Doubt - New Camera, New Photos

For my birthday, my family surprised me with a new camera - a fabulous, complex computer of a camera that I am just now learning to use. I decided to re-photograph this painting using my brand new Nikon digital SLR D5100. I read the manual, and then read the manual again and read it for a third time! There is so much to absorb and try to put into use but the camera is now set to what I think are the ideal settings for me - only time and experimentation will tell. In comparing these photos with the previous set (my very old Sony Cybershot) I find I am much more pleased with the capturing of a color more true to the original and the crisp way that the paint shows up. It's time to retire my old paint covered Sony for this new technology for sure. Please let me know what you think as well.

I also received a shipment of new business cards from Vistaprint. Both sides of my card have the same info so there really is no front or back. The card was fun to design - I love the ability to use my own images and design the card via the internet. Hooray for Vistaprint!

The Primacy of Doubt

 Oil on linen 20x24 - the subject of the steeplechase continues to fascinate me as a means of exploring my artistic goals. Each brush stroke is another step along the way - but I have such a long way to go.

 And 2 close up views.

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog. I look forward to and am always interested in hearing your thoughts about my work.

Riding in Tahoe National Forest

Here I am on my birthday this weekend with Ace, the new love of my life! My family and I went trail riding at Alpine Meadow Stables in the Tahoe National Forest. The ride up the mountainside was primeval, beautiful and mysterious - a real treat for my soul. The ride down was nothing less than terrifying! I did survive to paint another day though!

A New Home for my Great Dane

Sold! And on his way to a new home in South Carolina today. He is 12x16 oil on canvas panel. I will miss him terribly and am already having separation anxiety.

A Sounder of Warthogs

 

Using up my final two pieces of white cardboard, I found out why the bunnies were in such a hurry - here come the Warthogs!

A Bevy of Bunnies

Having some fun with quick studies of bunnies in motion today. I bought some lovely new linen curtain panels from Pottery Barn and they came packaged with sturdy white cardboard inserts. Those pristine pieces of white cardboard just called to me and there was no way I could NOT paint on them! Each bunny is 9 x 11 and gave me about 10 minutes of furiously painted fun! Oh - and the curtains look wonderful!

Gustav Klimt - Portrait Practise

Oil on canvas 14x11. Done from a black and white photo reference. I recently bought a tube of Winsor and Newton Permanent Green and needed to try it out!

Ballerina #21 - A Mulligan

After spending an unhappy week or so living with Ballerina #21 in my studio, I decided on a do-over. After covering the original painting with a coat of burnt umber thinned with mineral spirits, I repainted the entire piece. Although I am still uneasy about it,  I am happier this time around as I do believe it approaches my original conception more closely. Here it was before the mulligan:

I am done with it for now although I think that in the future I may retry this concept again - one never knows!