Spring Flowers WIP 1

I decided to do the spring flowers instead of the rusty colored still-lifes. Maybe the bright colors of the flowers will allow me to put together some more saturated still-lifes when I try it again! Which I really need to do soon, but sometimes if you push yourself too hard you'll just end up with a poor composition and a waste of time. 

Working on vased flowers like this feels a lot like piecing together a puzzle... which I must like because I am really enjoying myself!. So much so that I am thinking about going to In the Co. of Flowers on Main St every month and drawing one of their arrangements! Here's a similar spring arrangement I did last year.

Working on this simple arrangement also reminds me of the flower paintings of Manet that I read about in the book by Robert Gordon The Last Flowers of Manet (Abradale Books). 

description from Amazon.com: In the winter of 1880 Edouard Manet, then 49, was dying. In the last months of his life he funnelled his waning energy into a series of remarkable still lifes - 16 small paintings of flowers - which are brought together in this book. An essay by Andrew Forge pays tribute to the artist's struggle and his legacy, and Robert Gordon's selections from Manet's letters add poignancy to this last glow of a brillia artistic flame. 

A simple way to see some of his flower paintings is to do a google image query for Manet flowers.

Feels like starting at the beginning!

Still-lifes... oh still-lifes... I haven't done any for quite a while - I've been working on portraits all winter for my show in the fall with Gary Ruuska at the Jaffrey Civic Center. I want to have a full half a gallery of my portraits and I'm getting there, but in the meantime I need to freshen up my still-life stock! 

Its funny though, I spent all day yesterday and today working on some compositions. I started like I always do - going to buy some produce at the grocery store and chose some key pottery pieces, but everything felt "out of practice.". Its kind of like when you work your way up to a rigorous exercise regimen and then go on vacation. When you come back everything is more difficult. In no time however you're up to speed again so I am hopeful it will be that way with the still-lifes! 

Here's the best products from yesterday and today. I don't know how I picked such drab colors for the fruit still-lifes! Its like I was just thinking about what I like when choosing but forgot about color! I love the rusty and gold combination - but its just not what people want in the spring!

I always photograph my still-lifes unless just sketching for fun. It started out that I photographed them because it was hard to keep the arrangements safe  from the kids when are working on the kitchen table, but even though I've moved to a studio I still like to work from photographs. Photographs don't rot, move, or change their lighting. I can also store up ones I like or think I like and take them out later when I have time to work on them. My hours of work are pretty unpredictable so knwoing that the grapes don't have to wait another week and a half to finish a drawing is reassuring! I do find that its harder to get myself to change things from the photograph, so I work hard on "photo day" to get some good compositions right with the camera. Then I might move things around in photoshop.

So today I went to the flower shop on Main St (In the Co of Flowers) and bought one of their gorgeous vased flowers.  :-) 

What I Did OverSpring Break & What I am Doing Now.

I know, I just got back to work from helping my husband with his eye condition and then I had another hiatus for the kids' Spring Break. My mom flew in from Chicago and had a visit while the kids were off - so I was busy busy busy - just not with drawing. I did take the family to the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge MA which is art blog worthy. I had wanted to go since I found out about it and finally I had the excuse of going with someone (my mom) who would also appreciate it. The kids actually loved it too - they had a fabulous scavenger hunt for the kids to do which lessened the "I'm bored" factor.

The paintings were as fabulous as I thought they would be, if not more. Its always fun to see famous work in person and since I grew up with Norman Rockwell prints throughout my house - his work  is up there with the Sistine Chapel ceiling. The things I was most surprised about were the size of his paintings - which I knew about about but to see them large in person made that fact real. It was reassuring too - since I had decided recently when working on my portraits I would only do them life-size or right around life-size. Every minute detail in a small portrait can make or break a likeness or the emotion of the sitter. 

Another thing I noticed throughout many of his paintings was how much he pushed back lesser significant details into the background using low contrast values or desaturated colors. Take a look at the famous Thanksgiving painting by Rockwell and really look at the objects on the table and how low contrast the values are. The low contrast on the table really lets the faces pop out around it - which are the important bits. He uses this throughout his paintings with the backgrounds as well as objects. I wish I could find the boxing painting which is a really great example of desaturating the colors as well as lessening the contrast - but I can't seem to find it on the net. 

Another surprise was how on certain paintings Rockwell added an overall texture t the paint for effect. Not on certain objects - but over the entire painting. They even had a photograph of him adding this texture to a top layer of paint using a broom! 

Since my visit I am a bit obsessed with the idea of doing a modern version of the painting below complete with all the modern toys kids seem to bring along with them on car trips... I'm amassing the props now - I've got my friends car that would be perfect complete with kayak on top, my kids of course... but I need to borrow a dog from someone??? Anyway - I greatly recommend going to the NR Museum if you get a chance. 

As far as what I am doing now... I have started a still-life and should be doing several as I need to bring some to the Monadnock Gallery in Keene. I bought a bunch of produce and various items today and had a photo shoot. I'll be bringing them (washed) to class tonight... to eat not to draw. :-) 

Shiver Update Friday the 10

Its getting there! I still need to give her a hand... Its at the point where I need to decide what to change... and what to keep. For starters I think I may cro like the lower pic... not sure yet. 

Shiver Update... again

Woo.... this thing is big so it is taking a while just to fill in parts! The jacket I want as mostly a big dark shape... with a bit of suggestion of color/form on the right side. I'll leave it now until the background is in to determine if I need any more details on it. 

Regarding the background - I'm going to lift the trees up some to create larger shapes on the bottom of the composition. I think it will keep the viewer focused on the figure more than if the trees went all the way down. I took so many photos that day of the different areas of woods/snow so I have plenty to look at for inspiration. 

I can't tell if the photo is accurate. It is the picture straight off of my camera (with a flash) and looks very foggy on my monitor. I desperately need to configure my laptop monitor though because everything looks foggy on it. This piece should look foggy by the way - just the degree of it I am wondering about!

Studio Pics & Shiver Update

Besides helping my husband during his eye injury, I've also been moving my studio. This is my third studio in about a year! I had one in my house, then downtown with my husband, and now I have my own downtown! Its right across the hall from my old space, but its a little bit smaller since I am not sharing with my husband anymore. 

Its not fully in order yet (try to ignore the pile of junk by the door) but I thought you might enjoy seeing it. As soon as I have it fully in order I hope to open it to the public every once in a while. 

I'm still helping my husband each day with his injury and not back to the studio yet... so Shiver has not progressed any further.

I do have some other things to share however:

- One of the gals at my Portland workshop, Kathee Nelson, has started a portrait using the supplies from the workshop and is making a fabulous drawing! You can see it on her blog here. 

- They are trying a First Friday Art Stroll in Keene, my hometown, that resembles the Brattleboro VT. Art Stroll... So this Friday I am bringing a few portraits to Ann Henderson Interiors on West Street and will be there to chat with anyone from 5-7 pm.