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Friday, May 24, 2013

LA Found Plants 3




Found this hibiscus-like flower in a hedge on the way to the Asian Grill and Donut Shop early this morning.  I used my green thrift store polo shirt and my mouse pad.  Also, I have been using medium so the paint is more slippery, trying to have the paint application be more fluid.

Thursday, May 23, 2013

LA Found Plants 2


Boy o boy, thanks for the kind comments. Props a girl up. Today I made it to Lowe's and back without killing anybody or getting lost. Bought another clamp lamp and regular bulb and spent some time on the ladder in the temp studio trying to figure out how to position the lights. These lemons are from the tree in the back yard here, and there is a tree next door loaded with grapefruit, owners absent. And all sorts of strange succulents in neighbors' gardens.....

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Found Plants 1


Yo.
Made it to LA.
Am working temporarily in a dark place (physically, not noir-ish) and so have bought a $35 LED bulb. Noon light!  But the shadows are very dark and sharp, so I have to think on this, what to do.

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Farm Girl Jam Jar Labels, Orange Marmelade and Red Pepper Relish



These paintings will be used on the labels for Farm Girl Orange Marmalade and Red Pepper Relish.
(All these products, delicious.)
Am in the studio breakdown stage for the move and having anxiety, Oy!
These may be my last two until I am rooted somewhere again.

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Bluebonnets 3 (2013)



This time I tried more color. I'm working the flowers first because they jump all over the place like tulips, then doing moving stuff, then going back to do a different section of the painting, etc.  I am using an led lightbulb ($14!) which emits very little heat so the flowers don't wilt and move as much. This will be a great light to paint a chicken by, which is fun and I haven't done for a while. The incandescent bulb pretty much cooks the chicken so you have to race.

Sunday, March 31, 2013

Bluebonnets 2 (2013)



I've got two done, so happy .....  getting an hour here and there in between crises.  Sometimes it's just enough to be painting!

Thursday, March 28, 2013

Bluebonnets 1 (2013)


Been gone so long.
I am in the middle of moving from Texas to Los Angeles, and oh, moving is hellish.
I stole a morning to paint the bluebonnets, which I have done every March I have lived here.
I have 6 other panels prepared and hope to have a little run of them if I can manage it and don't get caught.


Thursday, February 21, 2013

Mugshot 79 and Student Mugshot: 2Pak






I currently have a student who is interested in painting African American celebrities, so we are working our way down a long list of them. Hence, 2Pak.  We have been looking at Marsden Hartley and other more primitive painters to look at some of the ways a painting can be made and accepted as successful art. Also Bill Traylor and Mose Tolliver for ideas about paint handling, mark making and general fun with color and image.
The photo of 2Pak has been up on my wall for weeks and finally I had to paint him. He's so beautiful.

Monday, February 4, 2013

Mugshot 78 - Cowgirl



I have been so impressed with the paintings of bloggers who did the 30 paintings in 30 days challenge. The paintings are very  interesting and there is the sense even for the viewer, me, of the momentum building, and then it looks like more risks are being taken and fun is being had!  Something light hearted enters the experience and also the finished painting. Cobwebs gone.  Besides, it's more better to see a group of paintings from one person than one good painting from same, in my opinion.

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Mugshot 77 Cow Mask



Looking at Freud regularly these days. It sort of puts you in a gray frame of mind. This one was more difficult than I expected, that cow mask required some real  investigation. I painted it first and as I adjusted it to the nose mouth ratio (correct relationship of nose to mouth) the horns went off the top and Elmo went off the bottom.  So back to drawing on paper to get the image accurate, kind of. Second try, this one, I managed to get some of everything on there.  A subconscious part of my interior engine wants to make everything, everything life size. Sometimes I see painters who use calipers to measure the head, and I want to run screaming into the street.

This mask also moos.

Friday, January 18, 2013

Mugshot 76


Ok, ok, it's NOT primitive. I used the term incorrectly.  I have long lamented that I CAN'T make a real primitive painting because my brain is already too trained.  But in this painting, I did it in a very short time, two sessions of about 40 minutes each, and I didn't worry about stuff, just worked fast and put the paint on thick and sort of mushed it around where I needed it to be.  I'm looking for a different way to work, to put the paint on the surface and I don't know what that way is.  I think I did this guy so often my head already knew where things went and I could concentrate on other stuff.  All in all, the process of this one was the most satisfying.

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Mugshot 75 for John M.





I have been wrestling with this one for a while. The first one, smaller, I think 8 inches square, was a sort of quick practice to see what I was up against. I got, as usual, the face too short, primarily in the nose to eye section. (My own face is short there and this poisons my eye.) But I just forged ahead anyway, playing a bit with the color. This is an actual mugshot of an alleged criminal and the photos are usually very bad, but this one did have a violent blue background that was interesting. I also was reading a borrowed book on Marsden Hartley at this time and fell hard for him  and his painting. Do not want to give up this book! One of the many interesting things discussed was the way he related everything to the color black.  And also, there was the idea of the elegy.  Many of the strongest paintings of his seem elegiac. I LOVE NOIR! So - between the blue one and the one above, I tried to figure how I would deal with the element of sorrow that I find in almost all real mugshots. They are either mournful or mournfully funny.  Actually mournfully funny is of the first order.
On to the second one, above the blue one. I tried to keep it mournful. Meh. Not so interesting.  In the third one, the top,  I lightened the background some so his hair would come forward and gave myself over to the color in skin. Lots of yellow and yellow green, although I tried to keep it to a purple/yellow range mostly. So now I'm sick of the whole thing. However, today I decided I would try ONE LAST TIME and paint a primitive painting (a la Marsden, my man) in which I did not worry about likeness or anything else but just whacked it in for the pure fun of it.  I am halfway done with it, will finish up tomorrow.  The thing is, this guy has such a beautiful mouth, it is so exciting to paint it. Maybe in the last painting I can do it justice.

Thursday, January 10, 2013

Possible Family Member in the Bathtub


OK, so this one is a present for the 40th birthday of the sitter who may or may not be a family member.
I did it a million times trying NOT to get a likeness so she would be unrecognizable to her children and of course, I couldn't help but get her exactly. If only you could make that law work FOR you rather than against.