Love Maybe

     Here I have massed in the light shapes and the shadow shapes.  This is the stage that goes quickly because I only have to decide is it light or is it dark.  It's like sorting laundry into two piles.

       Someone asked about the colors I use.  First let me say I paint with a small north light window but it's not enough light so I augment it with a 5,000K bulb up next to the window.  That "leans" the light a little warm.  Remember 6,500K is close to north light coolness.  Next because this beautiful fabric is old and has a yellowed aged cast to it, I want the light sides to be toward warm making the light perfect.  I'm using the new Gamblin Warm White as my base white.  It holds the warmness when mixed and does not cool the color or make it chalky like some whites.  This is an indoor atmosphere so I'm not using all the brilliant colors of the outdoor palette.  Shadows in the studio tend to be warm also.  My light is a mixture of the Warm White, a touch of raw umber (green shade) and a touch of Cobalt blue.  My lights are massed in at about 2/ 3 in value and all my lights then can later be adjusted with a range of the lightest light at a 1 and the darkest light at about a 4.  You can see the pattern clearly.  Shadows go darker and start at about a 6.  Again I can go up to a 5 and the darkest darks get to about an 8 but only in the dark creases of the folds.  Translucent lights need to be ignored at this point. 

How do you eat an elephant? Yea, one bite at a time.  At this point the progress slows down and my love turns to labor, like in pains.  I have to remember the elephant question or else I would give up.  How do I know?  Because when I paint this type of lace, it takes concentration and focusing on the values of the surface changes.  Then and only then do I focus on the strings of the lace.  One stroke then about thirty seconds to a minute before the next stroke is made. 

The open lace work is treated differently since the rug shows through in some areas.  The basic rug color is painted in and here is where I have negative thoughts running through my head.  When I look at the entire surface I feel like I can't do it but if I focus on one area and tell myself that if this one area gets completed today, that's great. Small bites.   I'll  think about the other lace sections tomorrow.  Now I sound like Scarlette O'Hara.

 Not finished but good enough for today.  Comments and questions are welcomed. 

Beat The Clock

As you may know, I am an indirect painter and love the look of my finished paintings because of the glazing and layering achieved over a period of days-even weeks.  So today I decided to put the timer on and paint a small 8x10 still life in two hours.  You may ask why would I do such a thing.  Keep reading and I will tell you at the end.

So to begin, I put together objects that I was very familiar with--tangerines, cloth, basket, and my favorite port wine bottle.
Step 1:  Sketch in the elements.

If the images look "sketchy" it's because I taped a piece of willow vine charcoal to the end of a long handled paint brush.  I love the looseness that it achieved and I was able to visually see my image from a distance.  I sprayed the finished sketch with a fixative.
Step 2: Add a toner of ultramarine blue and transparent red oxide.

I have such great hopes for the success and the clock shows only sixteen minutes have passed.
Step 3:  Block-In

Honestly, I would love to stop right now and let the colors set up before going on but I want to meet the challenge I have set for myself.  One issue here is the canvas surface.  I am painting on Centurion Oil Primed DLX linen and the paint is slipping around and not grabbing the surface.  Another reason I would like to stop but push on the clock is running and an hour has passed.
Step 4:  Layering background and work wet edges into wet edges. Add the cool grayed blue foreground.

Last stage:  Refinement which means check values in the white fabric, check edges, and develop the tangerines.  Also decide how much details the basket in the background needs.

Spent time on the bottle and the strong reflections from the tangerines.  Remember, reflections are never as bright and defined as the objects creating them.  A little more refining and I think I can call this done.

The clock says it has been roughly two hours.  It doesn't feel like what I am use to but I have to remember, it is alla prima.  Why did I do it?  I will be doing a demo in a couple of months at my gallery in Fredericksburg, Texas.  When you paint in the indirect method, it is difficult to demo unless you just demonstrate a part of the process.  Sorry for not blogging lately.  No excuses except I've been in the studio and didn't really have much to share. 

Finally Finished-Maybe

For those of you that have been following this painting, you can see I have made some major changes.  First lesson learned.  A beautiful, colorful antique quilt wants to take center stage.  I had to remove it.  The focal area is the colorful spools of thread.  The rabbit is a supporting character along with book and mug.  The drapery has been changed and the white spool of thread is now yellow.  I needed the yellow to be repeated somewhere so the book color wasn't an isolated color.  Am I finished?  It feels finished because I have accomplished my intended goal BUT the mug doesn't have the Mary Had a Little Lamb design.  Also Jane is alone on the book cover.  Decision--Dick or no Dick?  Does it need it?  I'll put it aside for a few days and come back to it later. 

                                                        Here is the original photo
Any questions or comments are always welcomed.  I really enjoy painting with you guys looking over my shoulder.

Fun with Fringe cont.

Back to the rabbit and a problem to solve.  It turns out the rabbit is the easy element in this painting.  The dark background around the neck of the rabbit allowed the light areas and bright colors to pop with blobs and dashes of color.

 

    

Now for the problem area.  The colorful quilt with the dark triangle draws your eye to that area and away from the intended focal point.  (See earlier post)  The dark area under the quilt was going to be the wooden surface that supported the quilt.  Too much contrast, too much color.  Here is how I handled it--so far.

Removing all the colors in the quilt except the blue and yellow ties the colors from objects in the still life.  I turned the wooden box into a draped surface.  This helps but I'm still not quite sure this solves the problem.  So much more to do and so many more problems to solve.  That's what painting is about--solving problems.  The yellow and blue book will have writing and figures on it.  This has to be handled softly so it doesn't draw too much attention there.   Tomorrow is another day with more problems to solve.

Fun with Fringe cont.

The fun continues and here is the evidence.  Not only fun with the fringe but also color.

I have the most fabulous brush that is thick, soft, and provides soft yummy edges.  Here is a close up of the brush work for the fringe.  The light and shadow shapes of the whites are subtle.

The head and ears are made of muslin fabric and edges are crisper in some places.  Again you can see the dark mass around the neck made of mostly dark blue fringe.  There are pops of color but that is part of the details that I will save for later.

The spools of thread, mug, and pin cushion are hard edge objects that I play against the softness of the fringe.  At this stage I have just blocked in light and shadow shapes.  This will be the focal point area.  You can see the soft yellow of the book that was reduced in its intensity so as not to draw your eye to that area.

More work on the head and ears while the edges are still wet and I can work the edges into their environment.  The eyes are very small dots but create a slight indention and value change.   I'm loving it so far.

And finally a larger look at the entire painting.  After looking at the antique quilt and the boring arrangement of it, I created a triangular drape that is more interesting.  I am modifying the colors to repeat what will be in the book, spools of thread, book, and the colors that will be in the neck fringe.  This is just a block in at this point.  I feel the design of the quilt will need to be softened and treated with less intensity.

Stay tuned to see more stages of this painting.  In the meantime, be sure to sign up for the newsletter.  And I want to thank all of you who have purchased the demo book "Italian Repast."  I appreciate everyone's support and following.

Fun with Fringe

Today was the most fun I've had in a long time as I painted my fringed rabbit.  Instead of a challenge as I previously thought, it was a breeze.  I just had to remember light shape, shadow shape.  I began with a charcoal drawing on the linen canvas.  Once I was pleased with the rendering, I sprayed it with fixative.

I can hear the critics saying that my drawing is too tight and it leads to filling in between the lines--like a coloring book.  Not in my case.  This gives me the freedom of pushing the paint into its environment knowing that my placement is spot on.  Remember--connect your edges to its environment.

Next, I toned my white canvas with a mixture of cobalt blue and burnt umber.  Then I pulled the lights wiping them out and then squinted down to locate the darks.  The fabric fringe around the rabbit's neck is a flurry of multi-colored dark fringe.  It's all dark to me and that's the way I handled it.

 Now for the background that I call AIR.  Just like in a landscape,  as you recede into the distance, color becomes more grayed.  I am painting with a north light and so the cool light makes me think cool greenish blue.  The gray-green will play nicely off the spots of red that are peppered throughout the objects.  Wet edges need to be worked into wet edges so I persevered and began painting in everything that touched the background.  Check back in tomorrow to see the fun I had with my big brush.

Thanks to all of you that signed up today for my newsletter.  I appreciate your support which helps all of us to believe in our chosen path. 

New Painting--New Website

This past week was difficult, mostly because of a head cold that has been hanging on for now three weeks.  But as we must, we push on.  My husband, David, has been working daily to update my blog,  new website, and my Facebook.  By next week I will post the new address and talk more about the changes.  For now, please sign up for the newsletter which will come out at the end of February.  The newsletter will contain artist's tips, collector's advice, a fun video or two, and a painting that can be purchased.  All newsletter subscriber's names will be put in a hat for a drawing to win a print of one of my piece of art. 

I have painted a few small images this week that I will post as soon as David can photograph them--more work for David.  But for now, I am tackling another piece that offers a challenge.  I don't know about most of you but one of the reasons I paint is to try new, more difficult subject matter.  Doing the same thing over and over just isn't for me.  I wish it were.  It would make life so much easier for me and everyone around me.   The image below is made up of some of "My Favorite Things."  This painting is for me.  All the objects speak directly to my childhood.

Some of you may remember the primer "Fun With Dick and Jane."  We learned how to read with these simple sentences and fun pictures of seeing Spot run.  The music box mug is a mystery.  I don't remember where it came from but  I do remember drinking out of it when I was about four-years-old.    The shoe on the left belonged to my father.  Back in the day, mothers had their baby's shoes bronzed.  The big rabbit is the challenge.  It's made up of a mop-like fiber with cascading fringe. 


Of course I have needles, spools of thread, and my tomato pin cushion.  All of this is sitting on an antique quilt. 

I will keep you posted as I go along.  Tomorrow I will start with some preliminary  sketches and probably some notans to check out value patterns.  I will post all this week on my progress.

Painting Demo-cont.

I want to thank all of you who have commented both privately and publicly about this painting and the decisions I made to make drastic changes mid-stream.  Knowing that all paintings are not "winners" was comforting for some.  Any artist that can knock it out of the box on each and every painting is few and far between.  I'm done (stick a fork in me).  Whether I like it or not is still up for debate.  I think when I struggle it somehow affects my feelings toward it in the end.  I'll put it away for a few weeks and then look at it again.

Today I took the back portion of the quilt and darkened it with the air color of the background.  It needed to be sent back into more shadow.  I tweaked the coffee grinder with a glaze of red oxide and then added very small white highlights on the drawer and edge of the wood on the top.
I glazed a warm red oxide and cad.yellow deep on the onion and checked my cast shadows from the garlics and onion.  When light hits the surface of wood, there is sometimes a cool blueish haze on the warm wood color.  Did that.  Again I added specular highlights on the edge of the wood on the drop-leaf part of the table.What bothers me the most is the lack of freshness of the paint strokes.  In person, it looks overworked.  The other issue that I need to consider is how much detail should be put into the quilt as far as the stitching and puckering of the fabric (in the area in front of the coffee grinder).  I would love to hear from you and any input good or bad.  As one of my students always says "it's all good."

Still Life Demo-continued

For those of you following me for awhile, you probably noticed some major changes taking place on my blog.  With the help of Artists Helping Artists and their marketing consultation services, we are moving into the 21st. century.  Hope you like the changes. 

Now for some shocking news on the demonstration.  Last night after posting I went into the studio and took another look at the painting.  I HATED IT!  I know when my work is not up to par and this painting belonged in the "something is wrong" category.  Years ago, Greg Kruetz told me. . ."when something is wrong with your painting, diddling with it isn't going to help.  Be brave and make major changes."  This is a paraphrase.  So I took my palette knife and scraped back the area that was bothering me which was the jug on the left side.  Then I wiped it off and repainted it with a fast drying white.  This morning I took another look and felt better.  The next decision was what was I going to put in its place.  Nothing!  I liked the space it created and so just added the fabric of the quilt that was already there.  I think what was bothering me was it was too crowded.  See what you think.

Because the white fabric paint was wet,  I will have to wait to add the red squares.  My next focus was on the coffee grinder.  To give the wood an old weathered look, I dry brushed grayish browns and blues onto its surface.

Demo Still Life-Day 2

The title for today's blog should have been--What Was I Thinking?  Note to self:  when attempting a painting with lots of folds in the fabric and a strong geometrical design, draw it out first on tracing paper and solve all the problems there.  Drawing first is usually my preference for starting a painting, but no I just jumped right in and did a rough sketch in oil.  And to answer my question from yesterday, I should have saved the red squares for later.  So today was spent correcting the block in mistakes.  By the way, that doesn't count as a step. 

The area with the red squares (to the left of the coffee grinder) has been repainted more accurately.  I don't want the pattern to take center stage but it does draw your eye there instead of on the front objects.  I'm going to keep at it before giving up on it.  Remember not all paintings are keepers but all paintings are learning experiences.

 After this I corrected other areas of the quilt to make sure the general form and values were reading correctly.  Next came the jug.  I've painted this before and know I can get the right color and temperature with burnt umber and ultramarine blue with white added.  It comes out as a grayish purple.  Some highlights have been added but that's enough for now.  The coffee grinder is an interesting color.  The wood is well worn and has a beautiful patina that will take several passes of color to get it just right.


Glazing later will give the wood more character.  The top was a dark red metal but is well worn.
I'm still not sure if this is going to be a keeper.  It's in its ugly stage so it's still too early to tell.  I appreciate any comments even helpful hints.  Just be nice!  

Step 2 -Continuing the Still Life

Now while the underpainting is drying, it's time to lay out my palette.  Clockwise starting in the lower left corner is yellow ochre pale, transparent red oxide, cadmium red light, cobalt blue, ultramarine blue, burnt umber, raw umber, and olive green.   At the bottom is Maroger (my medium), titanium white, and my special color that I can't live without--Neutral 3 from John Sanden's Pro Mix Colors.  More about this wonderful color later.

I always lay out my white in a linear fashion so I can cut off what I need without contaminating the rest of the pile.  After I took this image, I realized I need my cadmium yellow light.

Step 2-  After mixing my colors to get the values I see on the major objects, I paint small areas to check my color notes to see how they resonate together. 

Step 3-  This is easy.  Block in your darks using thin paint.  Then block in the lights.  Here is where I use the Maroger as a thinner.  It will be dry to the touch by tomorrow.  Step back about ten feet and check the overall pattern.  Does it have a strong design that holds together from a distance?  After much deliberation, I decided to put in the red squares at this stage.  I hope I won't regret this move down the road.

Still Life Demo in 10 Easy Steps

I'm stretching "truth in advertising" a bit when I claim I can do it in 10 easy steps but I am going to try . . . maybe 11 just in case.   Fair enough?  Let's start with the idea.  As you know if you have followed my blog that I love anything to do with textiles.  And just so happens I got a new student  who is a quilter and a collector of antique quilts.  There is a god.  I was running out of linens from my own collection.   She loaned me two of her prize possessions to paint and I jumped right in.  This sentence should be followed by "where fools fear to tread."  When you see the quilt, you'll know what I mean.

You can't see it but between the red squares are pale yellow squares.  Otherwise it is a field of white.  Add a coffee grinder, jug, onion, and a few cloves of garlic and I'm set.  The lighting is high to give it a more ethereal feeling.  I know that the red squares are details and I know to save details till last, you know the old saying . . . dog before the fleas, forest before the trees.  But the pattern is so big and bold that I think I may need to block it in with the massing in of the fabric. 



First Step:  Working on a 16"x20" toned canvas, I began sketching in with raw umber and turpenoid.  I blocked in the dark areas with very thin transparent paint and lifted a few lights.  I will be posting everyday as I continue with this painting so following along and be sure to ask questions.