Santa (sold)

Hello Friends:

Believe it or not, Santa stopped by the studio and sat down for a breather. In this rare moment of repose, I decided to dash off a quick portrait. He seemed to be having a difficult time with his "naughty or nice" list, saying that the lines were pretty blurred this year. This may explain his thoughtful demeanor as I painted.

I do hope that you squeaked into the "nice" category again! I certainly believe that everyone that follows my blog gets a "nice pass" for the entire year. Happy Holidays!

Home for the Holidays

 

Hello Friends:

This is a portrait of Steven, son of my friend and coworker Fontaine. He's wearing a Harvard sweatshirt to commemorate his Dad's earning his MBA there recently.

Even though Steven wasn't melancholy during the sitting, his portrait sort of turned out that way anyway. It made me start to think about all the kids coming home from school for the holidays, and how this can be a time of see-saw emotions. Happiness to be home/sadness to have to follow the rules at home. Happiness to see siblings/sadness to put up with siblings' idiocyncracies. I remember those times. And now that I'm the mom, there's no conflicting emotions at all-- just elation to have them home. 'Til I see the laundry, that is.

Bethany

Hello Friends:

I loved painting Bethany in this deep purple hood. She has such a sparkly vivacious personality, but as soon as she donned the hood and cast her eyes down, the effect changed completely. I chose to paint in muted colors to convey her moments of serenity. As soon as break time arrived, off came the hood, and the sparkle reappeared. Someday perhaps I'll paint the other side of her personality!

DeLawn

Hello Friends:

This portrait of DeLawn was painted in two sessions. I painted him on a very loose, colorful background and then tried to continue with that theme into his hair and shirt. The color on his face is extremely chromatic, which is also a departure for me. You would not have believed the blinding colors that were mixed on my palette-- they didn't appear to have anything at all to do with the model sitting in front of me! I resisted the urge to knock it all down into a duller scheme, and in the end, I liked the brightness and the energy it had. I wouldn't use this technique for a more formal portrait, but as a painting, I think it's pretty interesting. I'd like to know if you like it too!

Ethan With a Cap

Hello Friends:

I painted Ethan, a young teenager, in open studio last night. I like painting with a time constraint because it forces me to use lots of paint in broad strokes from the beginning. I try to get the major shapes right in the beginning, and spend most of my time doing this. The details aren't addressed until maybe the last 15 minutes of the session. I never know until the very last few minutes if the portrait will be a success or not. But one thing is for sure: if I didn't spend the time to get the structure right, the details won't help a bit.

As John Singer Sargeant would say, "The features of the face are like the spots of an apple". In other words, the structure of the head is the most important part of the portrait.

The Olympian (sold)

Hello Friends:

This beautiful horse belonged to Nancy, a dear friend and horsewoman who lives in California. The challenge in this painting is to put the focus of the viewer entirely on the horse, making the rider secondary. To do this, I darkened the background behind the rider and lightened it behind the horse, giving the horse the most contrast and interest. I also softened several edges to give the impression of movement and energy.

I do miss being part of the horse world, but for now, I'll be content to study and paint them whenever I can!

Jessica

Hello Friends:

I painted Jessica in Open Studio the other night. For this portrait, I used illustration board coated two times with gesso. What I loved about this surface is that I was able to use a cloth to "sand away" hard edges and light areas on her face which gave the drawing a bit of a glow that would have been difficult to achieve on canvas. I'm also liking the mysterious quality that comes with monochromatic drawing and painting. I hope you enjoy it too!

Monochrome Study

Hello Friends:

It's been awhile since I've made a posting. For the past few weeks, starting with Romel dela Torre's charcoal workshop, I've been concentrating on drawing and painting in just one color. This process has been frustrating for me at times, which tells me that perhaps I've gotten too comfortable in my usual way of painting, and that I may have been relying on color a little too heavily.

When we paint monochromatically, it forces us to examine edges. Since we no longer have different colors to describe where one thing ends and another begins, sometimes these edges will be quite fuzzy and at times will dissappear althogether, as they do in the study above. Observe how the edge of the model's face disappears into the background. The viewer's eye must fill in the missing information, which I believe makes for a more interesting portrait. I'll try to use this softness more often in all my portraits in the future.

Hopefully, this frustration will result in some growth!

Gallery Show

Hello Friends:
I have exciting news! Many of my paintings are hanging now in the Clair E. Smith Gallery in Barrington until October 22. I've created a virtual gallery tour so you can attend without leaving your comfy chair. Simply click on the link on the lefthand side, titled: Virtual Gallery.


I hope that you enjoy the tour!

Drawing of Nitzia

 

Hello Friends:

Unfinished drawings can be very intriguing. The viewer is left with a bit of mystery, and it's up to her to "fill in the blanks". This drawing was done from life with a brown-hued pastel pencil on Rives paper in portrait class. Today I'm off for a three day workshop with Rommel de la Torre to work on figure drawing in charcoal. We'll be working with charcoal powder, brushes, water, and gessoed boards. I can hardly wait to get started! I'll fill you in on any interesting techniques I'm able to pick up while I'm there.

Akhila

 

Hello Friends:

"Were I called on to define, very briefly, the term art, I should call it "the reproduction of what the senses perceive in nature through the veil of the mist"" ~Edgar Allan Poe


When I saw Akhila in the studio a few nights ago, I couldn't wait to paint her. The shimmering costume and exotic dark features are what we artists recognize as the basis of an eye-catching portrait. This painting was completed while she sat for us, in a bit more than two hours. When I got the painting home, I decided to lighten the background to bring the focus completely on the model. I tried to do justice to Akhila's quiet smile-- it was as if she had very pleasant or humorous thoughts running through her mind the entire time she was sitting. It was such a pleasure to paint her.

The Visitor

 

Hello Friends:

"To know what you prefer instead of humbly saying Amen to what the world tells you you ought to prefer, is to have kept your soul alive". ~Robert Louis Stevenson

Once again, I picked up my palette knife to lay on thick color from the beginning. Once I was happy with my colors and the basic shapes, I used a brush to soften certain edges and to lay in the model's features. This portrait started as a very large painting, encompassing the top half of her torso, but as it came closer to completion, I realized that a smaller painting focusing on her face would be more impactful.

I've been painting on large canvas sheets lately, so when I see how I want the painting to be "finished", I take an exacto knife and slice off the parts that I don't need anymore. I take the remaining canvas and adhere it to a hard board for framing. Such liberty! I'm not forced to comply with a pre-set size anymore! My composition changes as the painting develops.

Firelight

Hello Friends:

This portrait is all about that ravishing hair. What fun it was to load a palette knife with all that fiery color and let it cascade down.

A Momentary Distraction

Hello Friends:

"All the arts we practice are apprenticeship. The big art is our life" M. C. Richards

The big art that is MY life has certainly usurped a good deal of energy from my art practice these last few months. Family vacations, a daughter starting a new career, a son off to Colorado for college, and a son starting a challenging year in high school have taken my focus away from painting. But I needed to devote myself wholeheartedly into my life to be able to return with a fresh perspective to my painting.

I hope to include this piece in an upcoming gallery show. I'll give you more details as the date draws closer. My plan is to paint people of different racial and ethnic backgrounds surrounded by loose splashes of color. It's an exciting new phase for me, and I hope that you find it enjoyable!

The Bodysurfers, Costa Rica (sold)

Hello Friends:

"Painting is the expression of ideas in their permanent form. It is the giving of evidence. It is the study of our lives, our environment. The American who is useful as an artist is one who studies his own life and records his experiences; in this way he gives evidence. If a man has something to say he will find a way of saying it." Robert Henri, The Art Spirit

Well, I'm not a man, but I do try to study and record the people and events in my life. This painting of my husband, sons, and nephew is a record of one of many long days of body surfing which came to an end with the setting of the sun. Even though they were painted in shadow, their forms make them instantly recognizable. Small areas of warmth from the sun are all that are needed to give them a bit of life. Exhaustion from the beating waves makes their forms relaxed and happy. I hope you can pick that up too.

As an aside to my artist friends, I'd like to tell you how much I've been enjoying reading and rereading The Art Spirit by Robert Henri. An American artist and teacher who lived until 1929, his gift for verbalizing his devotion to art and creative learning is endlessly inspiring to me. I find myself picking up this book and letting it fall open where it may. I'll start reading there and find something to inspire me anew. I highly recommend this book to any artist.

Emily and Angus (sold)

Hello Friends:

This is a painting of my daughter Emily and her very good friend Angus. I decided to place her in a very formal setting to convey the more "civilized" part of her life, such as her classical music and education in economics, but I had her kick off her shoes and relax with her dog, because she's really a down-to-earth, homey kind of girl. This painting started out with very thick paint applied with a palette knife, then I went in with smaller and smaller brushes to put in the details on top of all that paint. Her eyelashes and the whites of her eyes were put in with a brush with about 5 hairs. And now I need to rest my eyes...

Candlelight

Hello Friends:

I decided to keep this portrait rather loose and impressionistic. I have been trying to find a way to say as much as I can in as few brushstrokes as possible. This style may appeal to some people, while others may prefer a more detailed approach. I'd love to know what you think!

Demo of Michelle

Hello Friends:

Many of you have told me that you enjoy hearing about my thoughts behind my paintings. Today, I thought that I would show you the evolution of a portrait, step by step. I painted this portrait of Michelle yesterday during an incredible thunderstorm which made the lights flicker and the windows rattle. Undeterred, I stuck to my normal process and came out with a very nice painting, I think.

First, I start out with a very watery mixture of paint and let the different colors mix on the canvas. While it is still very wet, I take a brush and map out the general dimensions of her head, face, and neck. It looks like a Picasso at this point, and I'm liking the composition already.

Second, I take out my palette knife and start to lay in thick paint where I see the darkest colors happening. I find it best to work from dark to light. I try to be very loose and free with the paint at this point, because I want the painterly feel to be there at the end.

Third, I use the palette knife to lay in my lighter colors, now covering the entire canvas. I use the knife to adjust the background color as well, now that I can visualize how the finished portrait may look.

The fourth stage is where I slow down to a crawl. I take out a regular paint brush and carefully put in her features and adjust the big blocks of color to be more realistic. At the very end, I pull out the palette knife once again and put some thick highlights on to add a bit of excitement.

The entire process took about 3-4 hours. I felt a bit like Dr. Frankenstein in his lab, with the flashing lightening and howling wind outside my studio window. But I like my creation better than his!

Flowers for Linda

Hello Friends:

My friend and neighbor Linda is retiring from teaching this week, so to commemorate the occasion, I thought I'd paint her something. This painting started out as a landscape, but I grew unhappy with it and ended up scraping the wet paint off and starting again. My eye fell upon a bunch of flowers that my kids gave me for Mother's Day, and I loved the way the sunlight was catching just the side of some of the petals. I believe it was Matisse who said that a drop of red is more powerful than a bucketful. I had this in mind as I tried to make that small part of the painting the focal point. I think that just this small amount of red is more powerful than an entire bouquet of such an intense color.

Busse Woods Near Dusk

Hello Friends:

Once again, I packed up my paints and easel and headed out into the woods. This time, I was accompanied by many friends and teachers who specialize in plein air painting. Alas, when I returned home and took a look at my paintings, they were once again quite dark and muddy. Painting in bright sunlight is so deceiving! I pulled out my palette knife and went to work. On this one, I layered pink, yellow, and purple over the mud I had created. It gave the painting a rather pleasing twilight effect. I hope you like it too.

Dora

Hello Friends:

Dora modelled for us at Mainstreet a year or two ago. At that time, I painted a head and shoulders portrait of her, but kept my reference photos to develop into a larger painting. I'm so glad that I did so-- her striking features along with the intense reds in the background and the brightness of her top lend themselves to an intriguing composition.

I also wanted to let my artist friends know that I'll be conducting a portrait painting demonstration this Thursday, May 13th at the Hoffman Estates Art League at 7:30pm. If you'd like to attend, contact me and I'll let you know the details. Hope to see you there!

Crabtree Forest Preserve

Hello Friends:

Yesterday's plein aire outing resulted in a painting covered with nothing but dark green paint, since my canvas had bright sunlight beating down on it as I painted. At the time, I couldn't understand why my painting kept getting darker and darker and greener and greener! Now I realize that I was trying to fight with all that bright sunlight. When I got it home, I put away the green paint and added nothing but yellow, pink, and blue. I also tried to lighten it up a bit, and this is the result. I'm liking this painting a bit better now!

Anthony and Harold

 

 

Hello Friends:

Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter. ~Oscar Wilde.

These two portraits were painted in open studio at Mainstreet. In any given session, there will be a group of artists painting the same person, from a different vantage point. At the culmination of the evening, we will circulate and see how each of us interpreted the same individual. Some will have soft edges and muted skin tones. And then some (like me) will push the color and edges as far as they can go. Each painting is lovely, and indeed often says more about the artist than the sitter.

Molly

 

Hello Friends:

Molly's grandmother (and our cousin) sent me a photo of her that she thought would make a Renoir-esque portrait. I couldn't resist such an opportunity. I went to work, focusing on Molly's creamy skin and pink cheeks, while keeping her eyes and hair more intensely dark, with punches of vibrant color. I kept the background lively, in an impressionistic, loose style. I find this style very appealing, especially with young children because it captures their vibrancy and personality without getting lost in detail. I hope you like it too.

Early Spring, Fox River

 

Hello Friends:

This morning, I set out to paint "en plein aire" with my artist friends Carol, Lynn, Bob, and Susan. We staked our claim on the side of the river in the morning and didn't stop painting until the sun was high. Early Spring on the river means lots of earthy colors, with punches of yellow-green just beginning to emerge.

Rod Blogojevich "Official" Portrait

 

Hello Friends:

Did you know that our great state is contemplating spending $25,000 for an official portrait of Blago? I decided to provide the state with an "official" portrait of my own for free-- half finished, just as he left his term! I've sent it to WGN radio, who is putting on a Blago free portrait contest. Perhaps I'll be able to save the taxpayers some money, and make a statement in the process.

Sandy

 

Hello Friends:

Pablo Picasso said that painting is just another way of keeping a diary. I love that thought. I have mementos of my interactions with hundreds of people, and I've tried to capture something striking about their face or their personality in each one. With Sandy, it was her serenity and intensely dark eyes. Since I only had a couple of hours with her, I started with a wet wash and built up with thicker layers of paint as I went along. As I was working on her face, I was unaware that the background had started to run down as it did. But when I stepped back, I was happy with the moody effect that the drippiness gave the painting.

Playa Grande, Costa Rica

 

Hello Friends:

I know this is quite a departure from portraits, but I couldn't resist painting this spectacular sunset that we saw on Christmas in Costa Rica. Lots of thin washes of paint gave what I hope is a luminous quality to the painting. It's alot larger than I usually paint, too-- 24"H x 30"W. It'll take up most of a wall! Once again, breaking away from routine is very refreshing.

Jenny

 

Hello Friends:

This portrait was painted in two sittings with Jenny at Mainstreet Art Centre. I was sitting on a bench below the model, which gives an interesting perspective since I was looking up at her as I was painting. I really like the tilt of her head and the faraway look in her eyes. I began the painting with lots of paint and a palette knife and then refined her features with a brush in the final stages. Many artists would think that my process is a bit backward, preferring to begin a painting with thin paint and ending with thicker paint for the final flourishes. But I'm enjoying this technique for now and I'll stick with it while it's working!

As Yet Untitled

Hello Friends:

I would like to enlist your help, if you'd like, to help me choose a title for this painting. I'm finding that different people have different reactions to the model's pose, expression, and setting. What do you see? I think it would be fun to find out what the viewer takes away from the painting, much like an ink-blot test. Your opinion may have more to do with YOU than the painting itself!

Study in Red and Copper Pot

 

 

Hello Friends:

I thought you might enjoy seeing two of my paintings from my recent workshop with Qiang Huang. The red painting was a challenge because I needed to create so many different varieties of "red" to differentiate the cloth from the apple from the grapes. The challenge in the Copper Pot was to make the copper look realistic without being overly detailed. Taking time out from painting portraits is always worth my while, since I learn lessons which can be translated to whatever subject I'm working with.

Thank you for your interest in my art!

Barb

Hello Friends:

It's been quite a while since I've made a posting! While I was away, I attended a workshop in Sacramento taught by Qiang Huang, a painter that I have admired for quite some time. I learned quite a bit from him about color and value relationships that I hope to incorporate into my paintings in the future.

This portrait was painted from a model sitting, and I approached it with lots of paint and a palette knife to start. Since the model was interested in purchasing the final product, I took it home and softened some edges with a brush, but tried to maintain a spontaneous, painterly quality.