White Espresso

White Espresso 6" x 18"

Coloursofts on Green Pastebord 

I hope everyone has made it through this week's crazy weather! It did alter my week a bit, having a snow day for the whole family on Wednesday... that was our 4th snow day. The kids are getting a bit bored with it and unfortunately they have a week off at the end of the month called  "Winter Break."  Don't worry though I've gotten pretty good at working with constant interruptions. My husband was pretty impressed even, as he usually ends up stopping his work and playing video games with the girls. 

I barely finished this piece in time to have a post for the week as tomorrow I am going into work (which is usually a dedicated art day), but I am glad I finished. I did have to photograph it with a light shining on it  since it was dark, so I will try and replace this photo with a better one when the place is lit up tomorrow after work. There's a bit of a glare on the left side - you can tell especially in the the dark space of the bottom of the espresso pot. It is a bit blurry too. 

 The idea behind this still life was to have all silver and grays, but hidden inside are pops of color. Kind of like what it looks like outside my New Hampshire home right now!  

There are a couple of progress shots below that were taken during daylight hours!

Italian Decadence

Italian Decadence 6" x 18"   Coloursofts & Prismacolors on Pastelbord

You might notice I chose a different reference from the one in the video in the last post. I wanted it to look more decadent so I decided on this set up  where the satin fabric played  a larger role. There are a lot of objects in this piece, but I think it works because of the way like colors/values are grouped together. Please click on the photo to view it larger. 

People often ask how long my drawings take to do, so for this one I tried to figure that out.

Thursday: 4  hours setting up still-life, Photoshopping and drawing line drawing on board.

Friday day: 5 hours drawing (with breaks)

Friday night: 4 hours

Saturday day & night: 8 hours

That adds up to 21 hours for this little piece. Although I have to admit that the cow still-life, which is the same size, took me about 14 hours. The Italian one has more objects that are also more detailed so it took a lot more time. 

Still-life with Moo-cow

I bought this cow creamer a while ago, but had trouble fitting its long shape into a still-life. Putting the tipped over cup behind it offered the composition a similar shape which I think makes it work. That same cup with the spoon sticking out of it plus the curving and waving fabric added a lot of movement to the composition which was a lot of fun. That movement almost animates the rest of the objects, which makes it seem like the cow creamer is threatening to walk out of the composition. Which makes me think... if personification is "the attribution of a personal nature or character to inanimate objects" then is this animalification?

I  tried something of a new technique on the background. Since I was using a grey board and I wanted a grey background, I laid down a colored pencil the same color as the board: Dove Grey Coloursoft. This gave me a smooth texture to smudge other greys into by first scribbling them on, then swirling them around with a 1/2 inch bristle brush. I like the effect and it took less time than usual. 

Sorry for the blurry photographs (like usual) and you can click on them to see it larger. 

Good Luck

Good Luck

12" x 12"

Coloursofts and Prismas on Fisher 400 paper

I just finished my Good Luck still-life. I should have photographed it before I varnished it as it glares all over it. It still needs to be mounted then I'll bring it in to the gallery.

Final Wrong Place, Wrong Time

Its finally finished! I am going to get my references ready for the second of the series asap, but in the meantime look for some still-lifes from me for the holiday season!

Nopales

Cactus Salsa

In November I am going to be part of an exhibition at Mission Trails Regional Park in San Diego California along with my online critique group: Louise Sackett, Katherine Tyrrell, Gayle Mason, and Vivien Blackburn. 

The show is supposed to reflect the wildlife in the park. Here's a snippet from the Mission Trails website:

Mission Trails Regional Park encompasses nearly 5,800 acres of both natural and developed recreational acres. Its rugged hills, valleys and open areas represent a San Diego prior to the landing of Cabrillo in San Diego Bay in 1542. 

It has been tough for the group to come up with subject matter for the show as all but Louise lives far from the area. I live in New Hampshire, on the east coast, which seems mighty far away, but Katherine, Vivien and Gayle live even further away in England, so I am not going to complain. 

On the Mission Trails website they have listings of pretty much all the plants that live in the park. One was the prickly pear cactus (the one and only cactus in the park) which I am very grateful for! So when I went back home to Illinois this summer I visited a Mexican grocer and got myself some prickly pear cactus! I know... show in California, I live in New Hampshire and I picked up the subject in Illinois... at a grocery store. Well you do what you have to do!

So to end an unnecessarily long story, my cactus has been getting browner and browner in the fridge so I had to do this piece now! Its a collection of ingredients for Nopales Salsa! 

I'll be doing a couple of more pieces for the show soon... thanks to my stepsister Lisa who lives in San Diego and who sent me a bunch of goodies she and her son picked up for me! 

Updates

Updates!  Another kitsch piece finished! I am hoping to get one more done before Art in the Park on Labor Day weekend. That is our local art fair that happens in town that same weekend every year. I missed it last year with it being my first year teaching but will be back this year! Hope to see you there!

A Bird & a Feather

8" x 10"

This portrait isn't quite finished. I'm still working out the likeness that is a bit off, but its close!

 I did nail his hair and t-shirt though! ;-)

New Works

I went for a trip back home to the Chicago burbs for a couple of weeks. Here's what I have been working on since I got back. I don't often have more than one going on at once...

To the left is another one using whimsical pottery and fresh flowers. I just love these and plan on having several for the Art in the Park Show in Keene in September. So far they are all 8" x 10."

Below is a new portrait I'm working on that is about 12" x 16." It is the second half of a diptych I started a while back - kind of a contemporary engagement portrait. 

Then finally what I think is the final version of Artifact. I hope!

Bird's Eye View

Bird's Eye View

8" x 10"

Prismacolors and Solvent on Fisher 400 paper

I need to go in and touch some things up on this but I am impatient to post it. 

My daughter and I picked these lovely flowers on the side of the road. I think I need to go back and just get a whole vase full of the black-eyed Susans! They were really fun to do.

A Fish Out of Water

A Fish Out of Water

8" x 10"

Prismacolors of Fisher 400 paper

I could do loads of these... I am such a fan of kitsch! 

A Walk in the Woods

10" x 8"

Prismacolors on Pastelbord

We have been enjoying loads of wild raspberries from our backyard. We've had raspberry muffins, pancakes and they are great in my greek yogurt with some walnuts. So this little still-life is just some things I found in the woods behind my house and stuffed in a little metal green teapot. 

Sorry for the lousy photo.. it was late and I only had artificial lighting. The photo below is interesting though. The butterfly still-life on the left is under Museum glass and there is no glare and the orchid one next to it which is on Pastelbord and has been varnished has a terrible glare! The Walk in the Woods has not been varnished yet so again no glare there. 

I hope to drop these 3 off to the gallery tomorrow along with some portraits. That is if I can get them framed! They are just sitting in the frames right now. 

Oriental Flair Big

Oriental Flair Big

11" x 14"

Prismacolors and Coloursofts on grey Pastelbord

I hope everyone had a good weekend. I carved out some time this weekend to work on a larger version of the oriental inspired orchids (mostly the rainy Saturday we had). I haven't varnished this piece yet, so I hope the grey board won't darken it too much when  I spray it. I think what happens is the varnish makes the board show through more making it darker. 

Below is this piece paired with the mini piece for scale. 

Oriental Flair

Orchids

         6" x 10"

Prismacolors of Fisher 400 paper mounted to Gatorboard

I'm kind of hooked on this 6" x 10" shape. Its kind of funny because this shape is just the leftover piece from the board I had Creative Encounters cut & mount off of my sheets of Fisher 400 paper. I just like that little bit of extra height to cure that perfect rectangle feel of an 8 x 10. 

I am also stuck for a little bit on the tiny details after doing these! I better do a bigger one next to get me out of it for a bit - but I have 2 more 6 x 10's left!

Here's a pic of the three small ones sitting on (a very dusty) ledge together. Seeing this I may darken Maggie's figure  on the first one. 

Well Read

Well Read

6" x 10"

Prismacolors on Fisher 400 

The last one was so much fun I had to do one more. Unfortunately I had to use me as the model because Maggie and I posed at the museum. That's fine really but its just not my best side. 

Anyway... the work of art I am in front of has some meaning too, but not as much as the other one. My husband had a print of this painting hanging in his room in college which is where we met. It is Fragonard's Young Girl Reading.  On the National Gallery's website it has this to say about the painting:

 "Fragonard painted several young girls in moments of quiet solitude. These works are not portraits but evocations, similar to the "fantasy portraits" Fragonard made of acquaintances as personifications of poetry and music. He painted these very quickly—in an hour, according to friends—using bold, energetic strokes."

The fun thing about doing these miniature paintings is it feels like your tiny pencil tip is a big paint brush - with every stroke counting!

detail of my drawing about actual size!

Mini Maggie

Dress Casual

6" x 10"

Prismacolors on Fisher 400 paper (mounted to Gatorboard)

 It is my contribution to the CPSA convention Silent Auction.

This piece was fun for me  in many ways. First off I am a HUGE fan of Karin Jurick and her popular series of people at museums, also of the famous Norman Rockwell where an older gentleman is looking at a very modern painting.  I'm not trying to be either one of them, but wanted to try the scenario of a museum goer myself. Since I am working in colored pencil with a very small tip it lent itself to a miniaturist's approach which I very much enjoyed doing.

Okay now for the meaning in the picture. It may look like an innocent girl just at the National Museum of Art looking at  a Whistler painting. Well... its not. :-) It is of my friend Maggie Stiefvater. Recently we went to that museum together and walked through beating up some very famous paintings.  This one - Whistler's Symphony in White - was one she liked that I was not too keen on. I couldn't get past the fact that when viewing it at the museum you don't even see the girl. When in front of it you look smack dab in the open mouth of this scary looking dead wolf rug that she is standing on!  Then if you look up at the girl's face you get nothing but glare on the mirror-like surface of the face. It seems that Whistler at some point rubbed the face off and repainted it, but left an oval of a smoother surface around her face.

That's not what is funny about my drawing though. The girl in the foreground is Maggie Stiefvater - bestselling author of the Wolves of Mercy Falls series. The first book, Shiver, is about a girl named Grace who falls in love with a wolf/boy. In the summer Sam is a boy  but when the weather turns cold he becomes a wolf (not a werewolf but a full wolf which is much prettier). The story turns into a race of time to treat his wolfie affliction before the weather runs out.

Shiver has been on the NYT bestsellers list for a gazillion weeks and is still there now on the paperback list. The second of the series Linger is due out in July.

The girl in Symphony in White is very different from the character Grace however. She is emotionless, almost a shell of a person staring out in an odd gaze. Grace is much more like Maggie in the foreground with her sassy stature, ponytail, and mail bag. So why does Maggie like this painting? Could it possibly be a melding of her Faerie series and the Mercy Falls wolves (the Ice Queen Faerie defeats the wolves of Mercy Falls)?  I don't know but this drawing is my way of asking that question. :-)  Don't tell me though Maggie - some things are best to wonder about! I'd be crushed if you told me you just liked the brushstrokes!

Below are some more pics to get a sense of scale. The wolf and Maggie on the left are about actual size (Maggie's body is only 4 inches tall). The picture on the right has a couple of pencils and a penny for comparison.

Weird Purple Flowers

Oh you don't want to know how busy I've been lately, so I won't bore you. I'll just say I brought my studio home so I can sneak in more work here and there.

Here's the newest, some strange purple flowers from Lina's house. I don't know what they are. :-)

The framing on this one will be difficult to get the illusion right so I will be taking it to the framer instead of doing it myself. I have a couple of others I need to frame too.

No Props Required

No Props Required.. okay not a good title, but something I was thinking while I saved the photograph of it. I believe the size is 14 x 22, but as I am down in the Prime Roast  coffee shop around the corner from my studio (for a cappuccino and to bum internet) I can't be sure. 

The full view.

The close-up

The set

Finished Portrait 1 on to 2!

Here it is finished. Below are some close-ups that you can click on to see larger. Now the difficult task of titles! I think its between "Testing Boundaries" and "Hide and Seek." 

& I started this one today... I plan on submitting both to CPSA at the end of the month if this 2nd one turns out ok. 

EDIT: It is Thursday and my little one (the one in the picure actually) has a stomach bug, so 'till Tuesday then...

Traditional Lemons

I just finished a more traditonal looking lemon still-life. Its 12 x 12 - which I guess is not a traditional format. I placed the glass almost dead center and flanked it with lemons. Click on it to see it bigger.

I've been spending a lot of mental energy on trying to figure out what to do as a sequel to my Zen piece. Search my blog for the word Zen if you are not familiar with it. I've come up with some good ideas I think... but will not know for sure until I sit down with the model - hopefully this weekend I can do that. I did get some really bad ideas pop into my head too... like having her lean over in the same pose but instead of a stack of rocks in front of her, place a very tall sandwich or scoops of leaning icecream. See I said it was bad! I did have a couple of good ones however and hopefully I can work with my model soon.

Well my little flu case is feeling pretty good today... but the school doesn't allow kids to come back to school the day after they get sent home with a fever. With all the flu going around it is a good rule, but bored little 6 year olds who are missing their Halloween party at school are not that fun to be around!

But look! I got it finished except for sealing it first with a colorless blender and varnishing.
I am also trying to decide if I should erase some of the background and add another lantern on the left side? Take a look at the next picture and see where I copied and pasted an extra lantern... it wouldn' be an exact copy like that but it just shows that space filled. Should I? Maybe it looks better without the arrangement perfect like in the first photo?

& I wanted to talk a little more about the composition. It had a little problem from the start since the chinese lanterns are so tall and the other objects are so much lower. At first actually I had some artificial lanterns from the client... but those proved to be way too tall when I got back to the studio and looked at the photos I took at the client's house, so I went out and got some real ones. Much better fit then... and I just had to move a couple lanterns when I drew it and delete one and it was a good arrangement... nature somehow usually works!

The lanterns are still pretty tall though... and the other objects pretty short. So to fit it all and stick around the size the client originally asked for, I had to put the whole arrangement lower on the board than I usually do. It doesn't look great, until you put on a faux frame which visually lengthens the bottom of the composition. :-)