Painting of the Week

Each Sunday I will be posting a mini painting for sale that you may purchase with just one click.  As an indirect painting, my mini paintings require 5 to 7 days to complete unlike an alla prima painting.  Subscribe to my blog so as not to miss one of these Small Gems.  This week I've painted tangerines from our backyard tree.  It includes one of my gold frames custom made for these small gems.  Enjoy!

Florida Tangerines

5 X 7  oil on a primed birchwood panel

Actual size in a gold frame  8.5 X 10.5

$249.00

How lovely it is to live in the sunny South

With sun rays enveloping each day

Fingers of gold and warm air abounds

And golden orange jewels

pepper the trees

Sweet necture of the tangerine.

                                                                  

The Real Face of Leonardo DaVinci

After teaching all day, I took a break from the canvas but not from blogging.  Found this short four minute video from Ted Talks about the real face of Leonardo DaVinci.  Interesting. 

Hope you enjoyed it.  Have you done a self portrait?  If so, e-mail me at dbelmquist-artist@cfl.rr.com with an attached image.  I will put all the images into a blog on Feb. 13th.  I will even add mine although when I did it my hair was a different color (lots of gray) and most people thought it was my mother.  I've improved since then.

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. 

Fun in the Classroom

Today was a teaching day with my students so I wasn't able to get back to my own work.  I am grateful for each student that comes into my studio.  They teach me as much as I teach them.

Today Rahna brought her iPhone with the app-- Accu View.  She took a photo of the still life, made a grisaille, and then gridded it.  Finally cropped it with great negative shapes.  Unfortunately, it only works on iPhones.  If any knows of an app for the Droid that does the same thing, let me know.

Pam is finishing her still life of cherries in a bowl and it looks like it's a keeper.  She is an professional photographer by trade  and shared today about lighting at different times of the day.  Sweet light is a magical time and we talked about the colors that reflect off the creek at this time of the day.  Living on this waterway is pure magic at sunset.

Remember to sign up for the bimonthly newsletter that will come out at the end of February. 

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.

Road Trip to Ashville, NC

The last two weeks have been not only busy but both David and I caught a cold.  Needless to say I haven't shared everything I wanted to.  Getting the demo out took most of my efforts and I forgot to share a marvelous trip we took to North Carolina.
If you get a chance to visit Ashville, be sure to stop by the Southern Highland Craft Guild at the beginning of the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Upon entering you are met with a spacious two story building filled with light streaming in and the feel of the arts and crafts of the Carolinas all around. On the ground floor are all kinds of handmade crafts including clothing, pottery, jewelry, and blown glass.  As you ascend the ramp leading to the second story you see full size hand sewn quilts hanging on the walls.  When we were there the second floor featured an exhibit on the history of quilting with samples from each decade till now.  At the far end were looms that were magnificent. 

Another one seems to be much older but just as beautiful.

All in all, the trip was enjoyable and on the way back we stopped in and dropped one of my paintings off at the M Gallery SE  in Charleston, SC.  Check out their website.