Judy Week 4

I want to start off apologizing ...wish I had had more time to do this portrait, wish it had turned out better. I could go on and on. But this is what I got as we posed for each other as part of our homework for class at MassArt. A total of 60 minutes went into this. Ah, what I could have done with 3 hours! Ha Ha!! It is what it is, just glad to be painting, glad for a friend, glad to be studying the figure with  Catherine Kehoe. Class tonight!

Another View

This is my entry for the weekly challenge proposed by Jean Nelson for The Daily Paintworks. Jean submitted a photograph of an old mill near her home.  There was so much information that I almost took a pass on the challenge. But then I thought, a perfect opportunity to really simplify the shapes, and get the values down, while having my way with color. Thanks Jean, I had alot of fun with this one!

4th Week

Still adjusting values right up to the end of class. Seems I have trouble getting my lights light enough,or is it getting the mid values dark enough? It's all about value for me at this point.

Self Portrait 3

I should probably work on this more to try and make it look more like me (like those beestung lips oh my! are NOT my lips) but I got caught up more in the painting than the likeness.Took the time to hang fabric behind me and wrap my head to have the color note. After all, it is my painting and I suspose I can look any way I like. On the other hand, I want to be accurate with what I see. There's always a next time....

Anna Week 3

This week we began to use a full palette, an interesting demo with a mix of cad green pale and vermillion to make a skin tone. Ultramarine greyed it down more than I knew it would when compared to adding cobalt, which kept it very lively. I'm using colors on my palette which are unfamiliar to me, having worked with NO greens on my palette before and really only using ultramarine as my only blue. This is gonna be FUN! Also using an 8x10 sheet on plexiglass and a brush to determine angles on the figure then  to transfer them to the painting. When I did that I had to readjust the position of the head completely! So much to learn....

Value Study

Last week Judy and I posed for each other to get our homework done for the figure painting class at MassArt. I sat for 20 mins while she painted me, then she sat while I painted her, you get the drift. We went on for 2 hours, which gave us each an hour with a model! What a deal. Trying to simplify and just paint the shapes I see. She was sitting by the window with the light coming onto the right side of her face, which helped me to see plane changes.

Self Portrait 2

My daughter came by and saw this self portrait,homework for the figure painting class I'm taking and said," Oh no  Mom,you look like a guy.You are way prettier than this!" So my vanity almost won,but I thought,no! I painted what I saw, and so be it!

The Gift

My painting of a gift,wrapped simply in brown paper and tied with a shimmery green ribbon, is my response to the challenge from almost 2 weeks ago(!!) from The Daily Paintworks  by Carol Marine. I set it up the night before and did a few thumbnails to get the composition I wanted. The next morning, when I was ready to paint, it came together surprisingly quickly. There are so many wonderful paintings,check out the link and see for yourself!

Figure Week 2

Last night as I looked at the model on a low cot on the floor, lit from overhead, all  I could see was the light of her body. How am I ever going to find form? Well, it took awhile,but gradually my eye began to see the plane changes. I had to darken the background, which was a very light grey floor, 2 times. So you can't paint what your head tells you you see, but what you actually see. Ah, to discern these subtle nuances is the challenge. Meanwhile, someone in the building was using the WRONG kind of thinner, and we all left feeling woozey from the fumes. Into the Boston  hot summer night air and we're heading home,happy night painting.

Self Portrait 1

This self portrait is homework for the figure painting class I'm taking at MassArt on Thursday night for the next 8 weeks. I am going out of my comfort zone on this one, as I'm usually an early to bed girl, and Boston is about 1 1/2 away, with the class ending at 10PM!! However,  I wanted to study with Katherine Kehoe, whom I discovered through a fellow blogger Jean Townsend. I set it up with a strong light so that I could see the value/plane changes better. Still so hard, but as they say, we always have an available model!

From The Kitchen

This is my entry from last weeks challenge from The Daily Paintworks, by Ann Feldman. Look outside, from the window, the deck, and paint what you see. My first one is still questionable,even though I overlook the water, I couldn't make my painting "come alive", it kept needing something. So I put it aside. As Catherine Kehoe said on her lecture video, "If the painting needs something, change the setup." Does that just apply to a still life,do you think? So I turned around 180 in my house and painted looking up the back from the kitchen window.

1st Class

This is from the 1st class at Mass Art where I'm taking an 8 week summer session class on figure painting taught by Catherine Kehoe. We are only using titanium white,raw umber and ultramarine blue for the 1st 2 sessions. I'm having difficulty really simplifying what I see- so much information when I look at the model.Catherine let us do our own thing this class, to see where we are at. Really grateful to be in this class!

Reflect

I posted these images separately in the past, but had always planned on framing them together , which is now done! The painting was also accepted into an Open Juried Show at The Spring Bull Gallery in Newport, Rhode Island. The juror was Richard Harrington, one of the founders of The Art League of Rhode Island.The show runs from June 4th-June 30th. Hope you can stop by the reception this Saturday from 5-7pm.