Portraits

 Glad I got this portrait of my grandson done- as he has cut his hair and donated it all to an organization that makes wigs for cancer patients. Way to go Aidan- an example that his Mom has set more than once! His hair was absolutely gorgeous, thick, blonde and wavy! Working more on drawing lately, will share in next post.

Resolutions

 How does the idea of New Year’s resolutions resonate with you? It’s already almost the end of January, so some have probably been broken already. Ok- I’ll just speak for myself! Haven’t given up sugar! Haven’t been to the gym 3 times a week! Not even meditating daily! But what I have done is started a consistent study of portraiture. I want to paint the family- we’re a small one so that’s good- in oil on 8x8 cradled panel. I’ll be sharing my portrait drawings too- I’m going on a deep dive into portraiture!

Here’s the first one- my granddaughter Teagan. She’ll be turning sixteen in a few weeks! And did you notice too, how the time is flying by!

Painted over an old panel, I did a grid first then did my best at getting the features where they belong and the proportions correct.

 I ended up pleased, but after a lot of tweaking, scraping and reassessing!

Leslie

My dear and longtime friend agreed to sit for a 2 hour portrait. She is so beautifull,with translucent skin and lovely bone structure that it was almost harder than painting someone plain that you don't know! I wanted to do justice to her, to the cause! Alas, I fell short of my own expectations. However, there IS a Leslie ness to it, and that's good. Putting the paint into shapes of the right color,right value, and in the right place is the top priority. Happiness.

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....

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.

Abe Works

Here's my submission to The Daily Paintworks Challenge. This came from Raymond Logan and was meant to be done using A) ultramarine,burnt umber,and titanium, B) full color, C) do both and post together,or  D)Do your own thing. I kept it simple and chose A but then got utterly and sadly, bogged down. Ready to start scraping at it today, I said what the heck and submitted as is. I will use the challenge to paint some more portraits and see where it goes, rather than labor painfully over fixing this one. Always a lesson to learn from honest Abe! Thanks Raymond and DPW.

up close

Our figure in the landscape group met  and for some reason I decided to just focus on the face......now, I considered NOT posting this one, maybe waiting til my work reached some level I could be proud of, rather than this utterly searching portrayal of the lovely model, which doesn't do her a bit of justice. But I decided if I really want to share this path I'm on, I want to be honest and share the struggle as well. So that's how it may be for a while, paintings that aren't so"pretty", although "pretty" has never been my goal. Truth is my goal and sharing whats going on with me and my growth as an artist.