"Moth" Studies

A while ago, I had posted a sketch of an idea I had, inspired by this dark entranceway, lit up by an overhead light, that I would see while walking my dog in the early morning hours. Anyways, I finally got around to it. I have my wife posing in my studio while standing on a platform with a single spot shining down about six feet over her head. This morning I finished the pencil drawing and then I quickly knocked off a poster study, while my wife was still willing to pose. She'll only do it for two hours at a time, once a week, so I have to make the most of it. It's a fairly hard pose and she's been complaining bitterly. She says I owe her big and have to build her a deck in the backyard this summer. How we artists suffer for our art. It's supposed to be a night scene so I may have to go a bit darker and heighten the contrast. Although I'm doing the figure from life, the background is from sketches I made while the image was still fresh in my memory. It's where realism coincides with imagination that's going to be the tough part. It's going to be on a small 11" x 14" canvas so I'll be able to suggest a lot more than I would on a larger piece. The poster is pretty close to what I expected so we'll see what happens when I actually get down to it. The problem with working from memory is that there's a tendency to overdo the details (the bane of illustration). I may have to go over there at four in the morning with my car and do an on the spot poster study. Hope I don't get harassed as a suspicious character.

Radicchio Completed

Heres the finished painting "Radicchio and Vases" 11'x14" oil on linen. This one seemed to go pretty much the way I imagined so there was no retouching. Every once in a while that happens where you get a painting that seems to paint itself. For better or worse, when that happens I just hang on and go where the ride takes me.

Hit and Run Landscapes

I had the rare Saturday off from cast painting so I had a choice; go fishing for stripers or go do some landscape painting. As you can see I chose the latter, hopefully I made the right choice! Anyways, I went to paint at this state park that for some reason doesn't get that crowded, so I was able to work in virtual isolation. I don't do well painting in public. I could never paint in Central Park, I just don't like to talk much while I'm painting. I'm the same way at GCA. I'm sure some people probably think I'm snobby, but I'm really just lost in concentration. I'll chat when I put my palette down but otherwise you might as well be talking to a statue. In order to do these small 8" by 10"s I went pretty far off the beaten path. The vertical one I did first. I crawled through some underbrush near a salt marsh until I found an isolated clearing. I was struck by the contrast between the forest screen and the sunlit marsh. The other painting was made while standing on top of a bluff in some pretty windy conditions. In that one I was digging the long view of the Nissequoge river and the disappearing and reappearing trail leading to it. I think I'm going to go back there quite a bit this summer and maybe even do some larger more detailed pieces.

Nancy Better?

I think this is a better photo, closer to the original, although the color is slightly off. I also included an update on the radicchio painting. I was a little hesitant to use cadmiums on that table but I wanted the intense color to make a nice foil against the fairly neutral vases. I did have to keep knocking it down a bit until I was satisfied.

Nancy Completed?

Well, I went back into the portrait yet again. I realize now that when you go back into a painting you can't piddle about; you have to paint it with as much conviction as if it was the first layer, and you can't be timid about painting over any previous layers. So, I'm pretty happy with it. I'm going to have to experiment with photographing it because this photo isn't doing it justice. For some reason I'm getting a grainy effect. I may have to try shooting it under low light daylight. I think I may stick with the Zorn palette (ivory black,yellow ochre, cad red light, and cremnitz white) for a few more portraits until I really get my forms and lighting under control. I'm working on a cast painting at GCA of a bust of a satyr so that'll help as well.

Radicchio and Vases

Not too much to say. Things are moving along. I'm enjoying the interplay between the various whites. The cast painting seems to be really making a difference in my approach to form and light. And I'm pretty much using materials and techniques that I never envisioned for myself, so I'm excited and I can't wait to rush into my studio each day after work.

More Radicchio

Heres the poster study and the radicchio painted in. I had to paint it over the course of two afternoons so I've been putting it in the fridge in a freezer bag. I usually take a break after work on Fridays after work but I knew that vegetable was on it's last legs so I wanted to blast it in. I've been experimenting with Cremnitz white for the grays and I'm really digging it. I laid in naples yellow over the grays for the lightest lights. The hard part was to decide how much of the "veining" to show in the shadows, because they are white after all. It took a lot of squinting down and stepping back, always a good cure for my myopia. Happy Mother's Day!