Kids

Kids   oil/canvas   30 x 40 x 1.5

ARE THE BEST!   This painting was a joy to paint....from reference photos taken at a birthday celebration at COSI in Columbus shortly before Ohio's shelter-in-place began. Out of the many shots taken, this one in particular revealed the many personalities and energies of these kids...the bashful, the giddy, the superheroes. 

My goals were threefold:  to let the individual personalities express themselves; to sublimate the "likenesses" so that the group gesture would shine through; and to emphasize the counter-spaces between the figures to enhance the interconnectedness of the positives and negatives.

I am supremely happy with the outcome....makes me wish I were a kid again!

Boyhood

Boyhood   oil   40 x 30 x 1.5

is a painting done from the heart.  Four boys are dangling from a cable over a river, into which they eventually plunged, I am sure.  Memories such as these are embedded in my soul.  Boys.  Dangling.  Fun.  For this work, the preparation was necessary and meticulous, as I wished for the group gesture to rule....I wanted to see these four bodies as one amoebic thing.  Everything related to everything else:  pairs of arms to pairs of arms; torsos to torsos; swim trunks to swim trunks; and legs to legs.  Not to mention the multitude of other relationships between the aforementioned parts.  The negative spaces were crucial for this to occur.  I wanted the feel of the moment to override any sense of reality.  I am reminded of this quote by Leonardo da Vinci:

Study the science of art.  Study the art of science.  Develop your senses - especially learn to see.  Realize everything connects to everything else.

Ah, yes.  Overwhelming but true.

Dog Days

Three Hot Chicks   oil/canvas   30 x 40 x 1.5

are upon us.  Some scenes are recreated again and again, generation to generation.  Such is the case, I believe, with the patio/deck/family reunion/lawn chair scenarios that one can see not only every weekend on a walk around town, but memorialized in photos albums everywhere.  As a person of Nordish complexion, I  have to say that summer heat is something to deal with, a bit of a template, on how I perceive the months at hand.  This work was inspired by an old family photograph.  I like the organic figures paired with the geometric chairs, a polar-oppositional composition that I cannot resist.  Detail was removed as much as possible.  The color palette was changed from cool to warm.  A sketch was created attempting to link the three figures, as well as to set up a playful rhythm of values, with the lights at the top, leaving the women susceptible to the sunlight.  Shapes were simplified.  Although most of the problems were worked out by the sketch, there were still problem areas, mostly involving the extreme foreshortening of the legs in the center figure.  Layers were worked and reworked Swiss-cheese style, while trying to retain passages that appealed to me.  I think I am finished.....now for a glass of iced tea.

Posse

Posse   oil on canvas   20 x 20 x 1.5

The thrill for me is figurative painting.  Despite the fact that less personal (?) subject matter such as landscape and still life are more frequent sellers, I will stick to my guns...no pun intended.  My quest, most recently, is to explore archetypal moments, those scenes and memories that transcend generational gaps.  This, of course, is subjective..  As the mother of three sons, I just couldn't resist revisiting and reviving this vintage photograph of my husband, his brother and an unknown friend.  Little boys are superheroes.  They are policemen...and firefighters...and ghost-busters.  Wielding pretend swords, badges, karate chops and ghost-busting juice gives them power and helps them to feel not-so-small. This is my take on an age-old scenario from the life of little boys....posse.

S and K

S and K   oil/canvas   30 x 40 x 1.5

Some images become iconic to me...those scenes that repeat themselves throughout one's life so much that they become embedded in our memory banks.  I am lucky to have so many beautiful ones.  The boys in the photo that inspired this work are now adults...both almost 30 and one to be married within the month.  The bodies have been replaced by other children but the same scene was repeated at this year's beach vacation...the castle builders now Jaidyn and Logan, children of our niece Katie.  In this case, the image becomes more than a singular painting...the work represents, to me, the impact of important familial traditions.  In my work to come, I hope to visit other such scenes/memories...they are the stuff of impact...that which makes my life worthwhile.

In the canvas, the figures were sketched in different positions than the reference photo provided.  I wanted the two figures to work as one in their singular endeavor.  The forms became pretzel-like, in a singular shape that includes the somewhat tangled arms and legs.  The figure on the right became slightly larger to create more interest.  The drip castle is indeed the tie that binds, but has become less consequential...a supporting prop.

Stem to Stem...painting a group gesture of pumpkins

Stem to Stem   oil/canvas   20 x 10 x 1.5

is the result of a visit to a local farm....Dussel's...that really does it up for Halloween.  Pumpkins!  I love all-things-pumpkin...bread, cookies, truffles and pie.  Oh, yes, also the ale.  I love their look, their shape and their thick skin.  But I especially love them for their role as a harbinger to my favorite season.

"Stem to Stem" can be seen in person at Hudson Fine Art and Framing in picturesque Hudson, Ohio.

Gesture...

Brooklyn Beat   Watercolor/Mixed on Paper   20.5 x 28

spins my fan.  It is really the invisible line that defines the energy of the figure's position, its weight.  Gesture is often based on an S-curve, an organic line that leaves and returns, a staple of calligraphy.  Group gestures use this line as well.  Individual gesture takes a back seat to the gesture of the group.  Last evening on "So You Think You Can Dance", there was a lovely bit of choreography done by a former winner of the show that was performed by the top 10 females which described going into the light.  It truly was one of the most beautiful dances I have ever seen.  The group of dancers moved as one, as an amoeba, to and fro, up and down, sideways and back.  I was moved and inspired.  The group gesture in "Brooklyn Beat" was a slight diagonal, with each percussionist in a backwards tilt, supporting the weight of the drums and cymbals.  This work was executed with a very large brush in watercolor and gouache.  The drums are basically the white of the paper showing through with a light glaze of Chinese White over top to soften the look.  I wanted to recreate this wonderful experience and to hear...hear...hear...the beat...beat...beat.

Gourds...

Gourd Fest   Watercolor   8 x 12

were another subject matter shared by both drawing and watercolor artists in my classes...those bumpy, shape-shifting and colorful natural objects that catch our eyes in November markets.  Each artist had his or her own goals.  Some chose simple monochromatic renderings with wispy shadows.  Others went for more complex compositions and a more filled-in background spaces.  In some cases the gourds are used only as a motif. for further design.  In others, they are incredibly lifelike, resembling serpents.  The addition of color always makes for a far more complicated problem. I am delighted by all of the results.

Stem to Stem...a group pumpkin gesture

Stem to Stem   oil/canvas   20 x 10 x 1.5

One year ago mid-morning,  I shot lots of photos at a local farm that puts on fabulous fun Halloween displays to tickle the fancies of children and adults alike.  Until now, I have included pumpkins in many still life paintings, but this time felt drawn to render a row of pumpkins....a row of $5 pumpkins, as they were lined up according to size.  This project became rather tedious as my goal was a vertical wedge of orange, rather than individual pumpkin portraits.  As I worked it became harder and harder to tell them apart, to separate them.  The crevices in-between became more and more important.  The rhythm throughout became a bit of a tangle.  The intense colors urged me on.  The stems (hats?  hair?) with their twisting, turning and varied directionality was the turning point.  I chose to leave the $5 signpost out of the work... that touch of commercial seemed just too vulgar compared to the beauty of the skins, the shells.

The work has been drying for several weeks now.  I am quite pleased.

Group Gesture

Young Warriors   watercolor   12.5 x 17.5

It seems to take me a while to process large groups of art seen at exhibitions and critiques. Within days, however, those works that really touch me seem to float to my surface consciousness. There is an artist at "The View From Here" at Second April Galerie in Canton whose work has nipped my artistic aesthetic in a big way. I can't remember his name but all of his 5 or 6 paintings involved group gesture.....he is a very astute man. Using color and gestural groupings of figures, as well as the negative areas between them, he has so accurately described many social moments. One is called "Awkward Moment" and other something like "Just Arrived" (before the party begins). As a person who struggles with social engagements, I found these works to be all-powerful and all-telling with a minimum of description. Bravo! None of these figures has faces or distracting detail. The evolution is complete. We must learn that in the telling of the story of a figure, the face is secondary. When we tell the story of a group of people, facial detailing and other details simply must go. There is a limited amount of power innate in a picture....and that power is divided between all of the elements in the work. We, as artists, struggle to eliminate the non-essential in order to place the power where we want it. "Young Warriors" is my earlier attempt at a group gesture and was done before my work incorporated this important notion. It is in the collection of The State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio.

Group Gesture

Young Warriors   watercolor   12.5 x 17.5

I don't often paint people in a group. I guess that this is because I want to visit personal issues of my own as seen through the beautiful people that I paint. However, I became excited about this notion again when viewing the work of Alice White, the juror for "Real People" in Woodstock, Illinois. Her work is very big, very powerful. In the group setting, the individualization of the models is sublimated while the group gesture takes on a life of its own. That is not only ambitious, but difficult to do. While paying attention to the spark that White's work ignited in my interest, I am making a mental note to try it again. "Young Warriors" was done many years ago and is in the collection of the State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio.