Saying Goodbye

 

Luther   watercolor   13 x 9.5

Eleanor...a sketch 

Within the past year, both my mother-in-law 
Eleanor and my father-in-law Lu have passed away.  She was 94; he 97.  All of my memories of them are activated by the many sketches made of them over the years at our visits.  "Luther" (right), is a recent watercolor done from a sketch made a decade earlier.  

I love my sketchbook diaries as they represent me to the fullest:  the searching; the finding; the visits; the moods and a bit of experimentation.  

Jane

Jane   oil   30 x 24

This past month I had the privilege of painting Jane, a woman whose beauty (inner and outer) and strength will put her in my personal trove of women to admire and to model myself after.  She is witty...a coiner-of-words as she herself describes it, personable and enthusiastic.  She has flown planes and piloted boats. She is a photographer who understands composition and visual lingo. She is well-traveled.  As I painted her, I pictured her as a modern-day Amelia Earhart.  Her life has been spent in several parts of the country but is recently transplanted and blooming in northeast Ohio.

Painting a portrait only works out well for me when I am able to feel an emotional connection to the model.  For that to happen, the sitter must be open to the silent visual conversation and intimacy that must take place.  For me, all of the pieces fell into place.

And her name?  Jane is simple, direct and feminine.  Thank you, Jane, for a wonderful experience!

Portraits...

Delores in Fendi   watercolor   11 x 8.25

are an amazing opportunity to commune with another individual in a very personal way....an intimacy beyond measure.  A silent wordless relationship.  For me, a portrait painted in love is the only way to travel.  I am inspired by real people with real humanity and a real soulfulness.  When presented with whiny uninspiring models or those in costume, I am at a bit of a loss, as a boundary has been laid which I am unable or unwilling to penetrate.  Portrait painting for me is so undeniably connected to my brain.  Painting Delores was such a work of love.  She is a perpetual student who is 86 years young.  We have been painting together for many years.  The muse seems to guide me in these joyful endeavors.  The work was started from a classroom situation where she was painting someone else, so the simple shapes changed a bit from time to time as her head rotated both from up to down and from left to right as she dipped into paint.  Once the groundwork was laid I was committed and finished as best I could.

A tribute to my friend and colleague Delores.  I am pleased.

Model Night

Filling In   watercolor   10 x 10

Tonight is Model Night, the first Wednesday of the month, at my club, The Akron Society of Artists. It's my favorite........drawing or painting from a live model. Although it would seem otherwise, it most definitely involves a silent communication between the model and each of the artists who works to capture his/her essence. When I get a good feeling from the model, I receive an empathic feeling that helps me commit to the work and, I believe, makes me more receptive to what it is about the model that is his or her genuine essence or beauty. "Filling In" was painted many years ago....our model didn't show up and a newcomer freely took the model stand. I have thought about her and her wistful essence throughout the years. She used makeup tubes from her bag to create art. Her husband picked her up at precisely 10 pm. She shared a bit of herself with me and, although I don't know her name, we were connected for three short hours.