Chef or Chief - more than one way of looking at things

Chef or Chief   oil/canvas   48 x 24 x 1.5

 

Harvest - have yourself some play time

 

Harvest   oil/canvas   11 x 14 x .5

Cast aside illusions of grandeur.  

Grab a smallish toned canvas....there might be a failed painting underneath.

Set up a few fruits or veggies.

Use large brushes and large piles of paint.

Spend a couple of hours making sense of the information presented to you.  (a working discipline of design elements is a huge benefit)

Focus on shapes, movement, and, perhaps, color.

Make shape and form more important than detail.

Do like the daily painters do.

Celebrate your simplicity.

All That Glitters

GlimmerFlitterFly   oil/gold leaf on canvas   16 x 20 x 1.5

 My favorite summer insects are both dragon- and damselflies.  They flit about our gardens lending energy and magic to the surrounds.  When out in the kayak, they skim the water and land on paddles, the boat itself, and even on your head!  There seems to be an intelligence about them as well as a bit of kinship...as if they are conversing with you.  The same dragonflies or their lookalike offspring seem to frequent the same garden spots from year to year.  

I had to switch up my approach for this project...soft edges gave way to a more scientific (for me) depiction.  Details were honored to a  degree.  And, while contemplating the "where to go from here" and the "what else is needed?", I vacillated between using saturated hues in the background or a textured calligraphic approach.  It sat in my studio for weeks before I settled on using gold leaf, the use of which seemed to be emblematic for my summer friends.  The application of the leaf is both exhilarating and maddening, as the very thin papery leaves are strewn everywhere even from breathing.  

OK then.  It is done. I only hope that I have done justice to this small lovely creature.

August

August  oil/canvas   16  x 20 x .5

floral displays include a profusion of hydrangeas....all sorts, all sizes and many colors.  The blooms are grand...some larger than a human head.  Nature is most mysterious.  

This canvas was toned with a light wash of red brown.  The painting was done from life with the blooms on a table before me.  When finished (is it ever?), I was overwhelmed with the darkness of it all and I just couldn't live with it.

My own sense of artistic "correctness" has evolved greatly over the years.  Given that, I decided to create some hydrangea stripes,, making the resultant shapes more interesting, I think.  

I am pleased.  FOR NOW. 

Protrusion Confusion and just general confusion

 

Protrusion Confusion   20 x 16 x 1.5

The way we see things evolves continually.  The bell bottom jeans I wore in 1970 were replaced by many, way too many, other styles.  

In the beginning of my art career, my work was so much more precise....and I felt success if my work looked exactly like the subject...no strokes out of line, colors fenced in and made to obey.  It wasn't long before I started taking chances and my work became known as loose.  But the risk-taking didn't end there, as I yearned for more and more challenges and a simpler and simpler manner of visual story-telling.  My palette was limited and soon became mostly blues and browns, as well as the resultant colors of the mixing of the two.  Less and less detail.  Oh, the freedom!  My process, for some time, had become create and destroy. All but the essential was merged into the ground.  My eyes simply could not tolerate all of the visual chaos. I became happier and happier. I distained all manner of formula and wished for a singular experience each time I was behind the easel.

The gentleman at the right posed for my art group in 2007.  He was a parttime employee at the local post office.  I was tingling with excitement as I further set my brush to this painting from 2007, in which everything was so realistically described.  This process became all-encompassing as I was able to see the visuals in a completely new way....more creativity, more shape-oriented.  Broad strokes, pencil detailing.

Complete bliss.

The artists who inspired me to move beyond myself  were Alex Kanevsky, Tor-Arne Moen and, more recently, Ron Hicks.  There truly is no one way to paint.

Glory be!

Fishes or Brushes

Fishes or Brushes   oil/canvas   14 x 11 x .5

 After one has been drawing and painting for a while, the notion of transparency arises....the background seen behind the object, the shape of the object, the material of which the object is made and yes, the lighting as well.  All of these factors came together for me as I painted this set up at the art center where I teach, right down the overhead fluorescent lighting tubes.  I have always found the distortions intriguing...a simple-yet-complex idea.  Paint the confusion.  Paint what you see not what you know.

And while I have been tempted to buy some gold fish for the sake of painting them, the responsibility seems daunting and I am content to house art supplies therein.

Chautauqua and Mayville

Mayville   oil/canvas   14 x 11 x .5

 One of our summer forays was to

 Chautauqua Institute.  We had been curious for many years as its mention pops up now and again.  In a visually beautiful surround, the institute houses the trifecta of artistic and creative experiences. Plays and symphonies and galleries, oh my!  ...along with pleasing bike rides.  The food, environment and entertainment in She Sings Cafe in Mayville was both sweet and stimulating.  This painting was done with the help of reference photos in Mayville, one of the towns that borders Chautauqua Lake.

Wrinkled

 

Wrinkled   watercolor   14 x 11

Here is something I rarely say:  I love this watercolor!  

Yes, the subject is humble....who wants a painting of an iron?  But the paint quality is what I strive for in each attempt.  The white have been preserved.  The dark values create a pattern that moves downward.  The light values create a pattern that moves upwards.  And.....drumroll, please....the imperfect shapes and strokes actually create the notion of wrinkles.

After all, isn't it the wrinkles, creases and lumps that make our lives colorful and interesting.  Perfection is not only unattainable, but the closer we get to it, the more life is squeezed out of the work.

Wabi Sabi.

Let's hear it for wrinkles!

Red

Things in My Pantry That Are Red   watercolor   12 x 20

 has always been a color for others.  Red turns up the spotlight and puts a target on your back.  Although I do admire strong background reds in the work of other artists, that simply would not, could not ever happen in my work.  Objects with the local color red seem to be immune to this personal rule.  (Where did this come from?)

In order to try to reason with this dislike, I pulled a few items from my pantry that were indeed red.  The focus, however, was to be the transparency of the jars.  That way, I could sneak up on the red.

Enough said.  Enough red.

Trickles

Trickles   oil/canvas   30 x 24x 1.5

My partner grew up in the East.  His childhood vacations were taken to the Jersey shore.  At the beginning of our marriage, we, too, vacationed in Jersey...it was all so exciting with the mix of ocean, sand, sun and the boardwalk with its carnival atmosphere, aimed at entertaining the little ones with shiny toys of all kinds.  As our family grew, our vacations moved to North Carolina where the sand was whiter, the ocean warmer and cleaner and the environment less populous.  The bottom line:  we were a beach family.  

This painting was referenced from a small square black and white photograph.  This is my mother-in-law, E, and my husband, also E.  I painted this for my partner's 75th birthday.  The work was done on top of a less successful highly textured painting  which provided just the right amount of challenge and chaos for me.  It happened easily and I am so very happy.

Trickles of the tide.  Trickles of water between rocks.  Trickles of memory.

Mary

Mary 20 x 10 x 1.5

is a painter from my oil class.  I feel so privileged to meet so many creatives of like mind!

One of the challenges I always try to introduce is the study of the figure.  We (I) don't have nearly enough opportunities to draw and paint from life.  Why?  Hiring models is expensive and prone to many difficulties.  Sometimes they don't show up.  Sometimes they want to relate so much that they talk through the sessions, moving every muscle in the pose.  And...the sessions must be timed.  Five minute breaks turn into ten.  And, when painting in a group (more affordable), the pose is often determined by the most dominant artist in the group.  The pose is usually sitting and often involves a fancy tea cup and massive draperies.  (UGH!)  At  one point, I hired a model for my small studio...the space limitations created even more problems, as I prefer standing at quite a distance in order to blur the too-many details. There... it is off my chest.  

On the flip side, photos flatten images, skew the values and offer up way too many details.  

This painting was created using a spontaneous photo reference from a moment when Mary was simply admiring the work of another artist.  As I really do like the small gestures that occur naturally in the comings and goings of humans, this shot satisfied me in that this pose with hands crossed behind the back IS SO MARY.  The plaid shirt is implied, the pattern  rendered more accurately at key junctures.  No mistake.  I believe that this small work implies Mary more than a portrait might.

I am happy.

Donuts for Wayne

Donuts for Wayne   oil   11 x 14 x .5

The work of American artist Wayne Thiebaud has always fascinated me, from the first time I saw his work on a notecard.  Pastries.  Ice Cream Cones....and, yet, his work was taken seriously.  His style was nothing like my own.  Nothing..  Simple flat shapes.  Simple pastel-painted color fields.  Little regard for perspective.  Giant dark shadows.  Everything my work is not.  And I am convinced that is why I love his work so much.  That, and the obvious sugar fix.  

And so, come Valentine's Day this year, we gave a nod to Thiebaud by painting donuts from Dunkin'.  My resultant work has strayed from that of Thiebaud with far more detail, a lack of flatness (that seems to be out of my range) and color that is far more complex.  So be it.

And, yet, I am pleased.  

Laden

Laden   oil/canvas   20 x 20 x 1.5

is perhaps the best word to describe the peak of winter joy for me...trees weighted down with snow, their shapes achieving completely different personas.  We take notice.

This is my front yard.  Foreground drifts are thickly described using few strokes and a palette knife.  The trees are fairly accurately described.  The warmth of the background has been amped up to achieve a more dynamic relationship with the foreground.  

An older painting with plenty of texture was covered over in this work.  I am finding that I really enjoy the layering over of canvasses....more surprises, more character, more chaos.  What a rush!

I am pleased.

Tomatoes

Tomatoes   oil/canvas   11 x 14 x .5

This work painted itself before I began...knew what I wanted.  No table. No bowl....and no pretty tablecloth.  Very minimal with warmish white background.

Back in the day, I shot my work on an old school camera then loaded the images onto my computer.  These days, my I Phone does the job.  A great job...almost too good.

This is not what my painting looks like.  Trust me.  My phone camera has the ability, it seems, to see through layers of paint.  And brushstrokes are almost super-humanly visible.  The white background is invisible because former layers are poking through.  Oh, yes, I fiddled with the controls and color adjustors until my attention to the task had evaporated.  My entire day is focused on finding the hours I need to paint.  And I resent clerical hours, although they are necessary.

So..........................what you are seeing is not the true picture.  Just imagine a wispy white background.  Wabi Sabi. 

Gerbera

Gerbera   oil/canvas   14 x 11 x .5

 Painting flowers is not for sissies!  So much information...so much detail...and so many relationships!  Painting them leads down the path of itty-bittiness that is not in my nature.  Although they are definitely not my favorite subject, I do paint them from time to time in order to stretch my brushwork as well as my mind.  My goal of simplification of shapes and of brushwork is put to the test.  

This is my latest effort...a single large bloom, single stalk, single leaf, and single pot is all I could muster.  

There be it...until next time.  

Diss-Guise

Diss-Guise   watercolor   13x 10

 

Reboot

Reboot   watercolor   10 x 13

Nothing is a more lively still life subject than an old pair of boots or shoes that still hold the forms of the wearer's feet! After all, Van Gogh did it, right?

My subject is a thrifted pair of Fiorentini Baker boots that I have worn for many years.  These are the boots that are so comfortable that you don't notice them at all.

After exploring a multitude of ways  to arrange 2 boot shapes in the picture plane, I settled on this, which seems to created a circular movement to me.  I am a layerist.  Layering paint creates complex color, complex neutrals specifically, as well as a feeling of the passage of time.  Pure sparkling watercolors are not my thing.  At one point, the color was actually "power washed" in my basement laundry tub.  This procedure removes paint, disrupts the surface and creates texture as well as SURPRISES!  (Note:  I never scrub or touch the surface.  The force of the water as it hits the surface can be controlled by the amount of water used as well as your fingers over the nozzle.  

I am pleased and feel that my  intentions were achieved.

Ode to Dangling

Ode to Dangling   oil/canvas   20 x 16 x .5

 "Having your feet on solid ground", "being grounded"...those phrases indicate a sense of safety, of certainty.  OK.  Opposing those are thoughts of flight, of taking off, of uncertainly...but including thrills, newness, and a willingness to try the untried.  In this case, our young daughter is trusting and feeling the excitement, the exhilaration of  the lift-off.  That, to me, is an indication of spirit, of braveness.

This composition was severely pared down to its essential elements of the group gesture.  Two adults are leaning outwards to support the weight of the adventurous child.  For me, this scene was burdened by the woods, the hiking path and the horizon line.  The gesture resembles the letter M.  Simple. Sweet.  Simply read.  Impasto strokes add to its simplicity. The shared colors and strokes support the sharing of the moment.  This painting was an adventure to me, as well.  

The beauty of flight.  I am pleased.

Golden + 2

This small but brisk portrait was done in fun as a surprise anniversary gift for some dear ones.  The reference was a selfie shot by the two of them that they had posted.  The photo was so much fun that I just had to do it!  

The surprise was well received.

Then...the surprise came my way when we received the holiday greeting below.  

I was soo happy to be a part of such a fun experience!  

Golden + 2   oil/canvas   9 x 12 x .5