Jean Townsend's Daily Painting

Pink Cyclamen/Orange

2012-03-02T16:18:00.002-06:00

This is a plant brought back from the dead. I have been trying to get to it to paint before it got any more complicated. Those pink heads bunch up into an unrecognizable mass really quickly, then there are all those patterned leaves to deal with. They are strange and beautiful, though.

Black Pansies in Little Vase

2012-03-01T15:39:00.002-06:00

Nice to do a quiet little one after all that cowboy, gun-totin' stuff.

Son of Cowboy, Magritte Spoof

2012-02-29T11:09:00.004-06:00

This is the large painting I have been working on. The top one is mine and the bottom one is Magritte's Son of Man. Mine was commissioned by a friend and will be used on a poster calling for art work for a juried show here in Texas in late spring. It was all my friend's idea and I was very happy to be an accomplice. I'm so looking forward to seeing the work that comes in.

Timed Painting 5: Best Nude

2012-02-19T12:20:00.003-06:00

I am currently working on a larger commissioned painting, a spoof on a Magritte, so I am posting some timed exercises. This one is my favorite of all of them, 50 or so, and this is how it came about: I was in a Jennifer Balkan class and it had just begun, but for some reason everything was out of synch. My position was wrong and I had to move, my French easel was unstable and I had to keep trying to adjust one of the legs, my new position was under some spot lights that made so much glare I couldn't see the paint or the panel, I had forgotten the brush I wanted and had to make do with another worse one, the class had already got 15 minutes into the pose and I was behind and really shook up by all this. And yet somehow, I managed to get the feel of her in crude way that I love. Love! I did it almost blind, just feeling my way through it. I have all these nude paintings up in my studio loo from floor to ceiling, so I see them frequently, and still I like it best.

Gerber Daisy and Plums

2012-02-16T13:03:00.002-06:00

I intentionally wanted it fully and completely pink and in reality it is even pinker!

Cruiser in Shades

2012-02-14T18:06:00.002-06:00

This is a commissioned painting for a wedding gift.

Also finished The Forgery of Venus, a real painter's novel, I don't come across many of those.

Lots of info about Velazquez, too, such as: he was a social climber who was very interested in getting ahead at court; he only did 150 painting in his lifetime; his understanding of drawing was so thorough that often he began painting without preliminary drawings; and most interesting to me, his paint was very thin, even runny and lots of the linen showed through. This must be why you can't see brush strokes much. I looked at his dogs this weeks, there are many of them, and they are all done very simply without much detail and with very soft edges. And so I took what I could from that, it was helpful.

Timed Painting 4: Karma

2012-02-11T16:19:00.003-06:00

Karma again, this time on black gesso with her hair to one side. I am halfway through Michael Gruber's The Forgery of Venus (riveting read, protagonist a painter!) which is about Velazquez. It is a psychological/ metaphysical/ science fiction/ art mystery and there are naturally some Italian art terms in it including "sprezzatura". This means studied carelessness according to the computer dictionary, but I think the word has no sense of affectation to it, it means the lack of laboriousness and resulting ease because the subject is so thoroughly understood. Of course I am beating to death the perfect effervescent word here, but when painting is not overworked and you have somehow caught the thing, it is such a triumph! In 30 minute paintings there is no chance to overwork, they are always fresh, even if they are wrongly painted.

Timed Painting:Karma 3

2012-02-10T16:38:00.002-06:00

Yet another 30 minute painting of Karma. She had rope of red hair pinned on her head. Unpinned, it fell to her waist.

Timed Painting:Karma 2

2012-02-09T16:39:00.002-06:00

Another 30 minute painting. Because of a strong back light, she had a very complicated light pattern on the front of her body with only a little sliver on the left breast fully lit. It sort of makes a design pattern here rather than making a body feeling mass -- however, interesting to have to get all those grayed colors down fast. Still loving the sense of bulk though.

Timed Painting:Karma

2012-02-08T16:32:00.002-06:00

This is my favorite model, I am over the moon when she shows up. She is so paintable.

It was a 30 minute pose. When I look at the painting the next day, it seems that the strokes are so few and the painting is so small, how could it have taken that long -- but when I am doing it I am going like a house afire and always irritated that the time is up. So much has to happen before the paint even goes down though....I have to figure out what part of her I want and then get the parts connected and then decide on and mix the paint and then get it down. Well, this is no big deal, it's the same for everybody, just that it has to happen fast, so it's amazing to have anything coherent at all. The fact that there isn't time to think is maybe the best and most valuable part of the exercise, because I am frequently surprised by what I did.

Mugshot 46: Halloweener 2

2012-02-07T14:58:00.003-06:00

Here is another sort of head dress. This is one of the boys in my neighborhood on Halloween, at twilight. I gave out candy for photos on the street. I would like to figure a way to have the portrait more formal and yet not.... Maybe what I mean is, I want to paint like Velazquez, which I do, I do.

Mugshot 46: Queen Mariana of Austria (2) after Velazquez

2012-02-03T16:06:00.003-06:00

This was the painting I was really wanting to copy because it was mostly black and grey and only the face was treated with luminous color. I think this must have been a study for a final portrait as so much of it is abbreviated, for instance the bodice is just suggested. And that hair! It looks like coiled intestines stuffed into a head dress. Most everything including hair is a combination of ultramarine blue and raw umber. I had forgotten what beautiful browns and grays can be made with them. The skin was this pale I swear! I worked from a 2x3 inch image from a museum postcard. Learned so much!

Mugshot 45: Queen Mariana of Austria, after Velazquez

2012-01-29T11:11:00.003-06:00

Boy o boy, this was really fun. I have loved Velazquez's paintings of this queen and her splendid hair and I learned so much doing it, it was like a little workshop. There is a child's portrait I have been wanting to do but couldn't figure out how the wrinkle-less cheek would be treated, and it was all there in the portrait. I did it once using my regular palette and couldn't get the color right (I mean it's not really right anyway, but way too far off) so I wiped it and slept on it, then the next day realized I could get the color with the earth tones that V. undoubtedly used, raw umber for one. I also used Indian yellow for the skin, it was so much more delicate than yellow ochre. As a matter of fact, the skin was all yellow, red and blue - the eyebrows were straight ultramarine and white. Of course I am working from a copy in a cheap magazine, but so what. This was a great experience, I can see why copying paintings is so valuable.

Mugshot 44: The BMW Man

2012-01-23T15:56:00.002-06:00

This is definitely the best zipper I ever painted.

Mugshot 43: Halloween

2012-01-19T15:59:00.003-06:00

I have a Velasquez in my studio - not a real one, of course, a Chinese catalog of his work with all the copy in Chinese - opened to a painting of the Spanish Infanta, with her hair done in the most rapturous architectural shape, and then white plumes with red bows attached to it. So I was just thinking...children with headpieces, hmmm...and thought I'd have a go. I can see that the thing to do is to copy the painting to really understand it, so I am preparing a canvas. I'll see if I can find a photo of this painting. One of the interesting things about V. is that you can't see any brush strokes. At all. I don't know how he achieved this - there are directional marks of paint but no typical strokes and no edges, either. On this painting I tried to have no edges, really that's difficult to believe when you look at it, it looks like all edges. And so to work.

Mugshot 42: Worried Man

2012-01-17T10:28:00.002-06:00

I suspect this is another iphone photo, but still pretty good to work from.

Mugshot 41: Another Popple

2012-01-16T11:19:00.001-06:00

She sent me some good photos to work from so I had another go. I don't know what it is she's

holding in her hand, some sort of machine with an antenna.

Mugshot 40: The Splendid Linda Popple

2012-01-14T15:42:00.002-06:00

Linda Popple sent me these pictures so that I could do her mugshot. Her own mugshots are very lively and interesting, please stop by and see them: Click here.

Mugshot 39: J. from an iPhone

2012-01-13T15:49:00.003-06:00

This was from a terrible iphone picture, maybe taken in the dark. It was very blurry, which was a help really, because there was a lot of detail I couldn't see and so I couldn't get hung up on it.

Purifying Mask, Value Study

2012-01-12T12:55:00.002-06:00

One last one with strong value shift on the face. And as ears are a favorite thing of mine to paint, it was fun to have a shell pink baby one and a brown boxer's ear on the same head.

Value Study:Purifying Mask

2012-01-11T16:10:00.002-06:00

More grappling with values. I am following an exercise from Catherine Kehoe's student painting collection posted on her teaching website, Powersofobservation.com. Although the directions were not stated, I could see one group of portraits done with very close dark values and one group done with lighter values. I went back through my photos to find something dark, and it would have been better without all the white, but as it was I found it challenging. The lower portrait is done by a student, I think Jamie Baldwin is the correct name. Those student paintings are wonderful.

Cowboy Hat

2012-01-10T11:27:00.003-06:00

I went back through my cowboy hat pictures to find some photos with pronounced value differences. Since I have a painting session once a week with a model, I can see that it is ever so much easier to work from a model (with strong lighting) than from photographs. I don't know if I can rope my possible family members into this mindset.

Lemon on Oriental Rug

2012-01-09T16:41:00.002-06:00

This is after Robert A. Johnson' s Pear on an Oriental rug. It's a great DVD, I recommend it. One of the most valuable things he discusses is how to keep a painting from being overworked and yet have a high degree of finish. I am not so interested in having a high degree of finish, however all the issues he addressed were interesting and helpful. Also, the way he put the paint down was wonderful - there nothing like seeing it done to help you get the idea.

The Lemon Trials.....

2012-01-06T16:19:00.003-06:00

I am about done with this lemon thing, however....it has been interesting. I have been looking at a DVD about Robert A. Johnson, a taping of a workshop I think, and of course he shows a whole new way to paint and also a palette with some colors I haven't used before, so there is lots to play with. In this painting I used for the first time terra rosa, which when mixed with ultramarine makes a very civilized blue grey, even going to a rich black, which is behind the lemon. In the DVD he works on a still life in a much looser way than I am used to, but I like the play, the give and take of shaping form that is gradual rather than getting it in stone on the first go. The paint intermingles more this way too. He can even speak intelligently about painting in general as he is doing it, which is impressive. He mentioned the difficult but important goal of being able to paint without thinking, my kind of guy, and also said this was a result of lots and lots of painting. I found considerable consolation in that, because as long as

you keep painting, well....it could happen.

Lemon on Pink Cloth

2012-01-03T14:57:00.002-06:00

Another exercise using a white ground. Also I used hog hair filberts on this, a couple of small ones and a medium. The paint goes on differently and has more of a drawing quality to it when I use these brushes. The brights and flats force a plane and I like this too. I feel I shouldn't be drawing, though. It's probably all in the head, how you see the shape of the space and then get that down with the brush. Just thinking out loud here... Van Gogh's paint and the way it went down is generally with a smallish brush and there are lots of marks which follow the form. I love the vitality of this! Oh, and the feel of the paint, with ridges and valleys and scumbling, still apparent after a hundred years. You can get more paint down with that hog brush, for sure.

Lemon on Orange Kimono

2012-01-01T15:44:00.004-06:00

The back story: a good painter friend mentioned looking at Diebenkorn, the forms, space, etc. and so I picked up my own book and spent some time looking at the way the color flattened the space, even when there is minimal modeling. I love this idea when it works, the perfect tension of the color and the picture plane, everything pressing outward in dynamic balance, if such a thing is possible. So I tried to set up that situation using a single bright lemon with enough other color and pattern that would cause it all to hang together in that "fresh but inevitable" manner. Regardless of the success of this painting, it is a direction I have been going in for a long time and still find thrilling and natural to my view of the world. Just how to combine it with a mug shot.....how to use the modeled figure with this degree of abstraction. Oy.

Also -- Happy New Year! Thank you everyone for your support and encouragement, I appreciate it enormously.

Jean

Lemon on Blue Stripes

2011-12-31T16:25:00.005-06:00

I have come back from L.A. with a sack full of meaty weirdly shaped lemons with big leaves attached! If I don't paint them, the leaves will soon fall off and I'll be full of regrets, so I might stick at these for a bit and have a rest from the mugshots, with which I am still obsessed. I am also reading the book Man With A Blue Scarf, On Sitting for a Portrait by Lucian Freud by Martin Gayford, and there is the most discussion about Freud's process of painting I have ever seen in print. He didn't give interviews much and didn't do art talk. Gayford' s book, however, has lots of their casual conversation. I was very surprised to find that LF doesn't tone the canvas at all, leaves the naked blaring white of the canvas there and then proceeds to work very slowly from the top down, as if he were doing a paint by the numbers picture. And it is very slowly, as long as a year or more on a single painting. When asked by Gayford why he left the canvas white, he said, because it seems more difficult to get the values with the white and this made him work harder at it. (I always try for the easiest way.) So on this one I left the white ground to see what difference it made. I wanted to be certain to get a deep enough value on the white stripes in shadow, so I really paid attention to this as I was mixing. I can't yet see if this is a meaningful improvement, probably too small an exercise.

Mugshot 38, Putin

2011-12-29T22:18:00.002-06:00

I found this photo in the New Yorker magazine along with a big article about Putin. It said he has had lots and lots of botox in his face. It is VERY smooth....

Double Portrait, Purifying Mask

2011-12-27T04:00:00.000-06:00

These are two of my possible family members roped into the mask project.

Mugshot 37: Halloween

2011-12-25T00:00:00.001-06:00

Happy Holidays!

Dog in a Boat

2011-12-14T11:37:00.002-06:00

This dog really was in a boat. It can be a conceptual piece as well as realistic.

I am finishing up Christmas paintings this week and can't post everything without ruining surprises, so I feel like a blog slacker with so few postings. My nose is pointy from the grindstone though.

Baby Lucas

2011-12-08T16:30:00.003-06:00

This is a commissioned painting for the Dallas family who rescues sick dogs and gives them the most luxurious life imaginable. I should be one of their dogs. Lucas is a parti Pomeranian and is the newest addition to the family of, I think, 8 dogs.

J. and L., Double Mugshot 36

2011-12-06T16:37:00.001-06:00

This is the final answer.

Mugshot 35, The Acupuncturist

2011-12-03T19:25:00.002-06:00

Ok, back at it. This is another stab at the shadow vs. light issue. Actually the painting is much redder - more red? can't remember how that is written, but maybe because we finally finally have rain here and there is little daylight, it didn't photograph correctly. Small price to pay for rain.

J. and L.

2011-11-22T12:01:00.003-06:00

This is the final painting, done on a 6x8 2inch cradled panel, (for non painters, it's like a shallow box, 6x8x2 inches, open on the back). I loved the scale element here - a human sized subject made small and intimate, so that you have to get right up on it to see. The other challenge was the fact that the faces were in deep shadow. I used a Balkan trick of working with a black and white photo as well as color to help me see the values, my bete noir. In some passages there were very dark values next to each other that only differed in temperature (warm/cool) and the b&w photo helped me to see them.

L. and J. Practice Painting

2011-11-18T09:39:00.002-06:00

I have been painting back lit subjects for a while as practice for the one above. This is the first shot and it went pretty easily. Also it is only 6x8 inches, which is the smallest I have done a portrait, and requires little brushes. Working really small was not as difficult as I anticipated, but there is added pressure to get that drawing right because there's no room to expand anything.

Pig's Feet on Black and White

2011-11-14T16:23:00.003-06:00

I don't know why they saw the feet in half...I tried matching up halves of the feet to make a whole foot, but the cuts occurred at different angles, so it was hopeless to try and make a standing one. I will have to explore other markets, maybe the Asian market, to try and find paintable animal parts.

Pig's Feet

2011-11-13T10:41:00.002-06:00

Another small one because I don't have a block of time today for a mug shot. These are pig's feet, which I remember my father eating when I was a child. Fascinating and grisley.

Three Shrimp

2011-11-12T14:30:00.002-06:00

I am taking a tiny break from the mugshots to do a fun painting, slightly more restful...

I did a quick practice on one shrimp yesterday and you can see how the lights cooked it, it is the pink one. I think it had row in it -- the coral color on that shrimp had to be eggs, right? I see I am uncertain about shrimp reproduction. I tried to use thick paint here which doesn't show much, also I used my very small bristle brushes as opposed to my larger flats and brights. I am learning my way around the brushes at last! In addition, I purposely used a larger panel, thinking to have the empty space around the forms have more importance. Or the colored space give the forms more importance. Whichever.

Mugshot 34: Possible Family Member

2011-11-11T15:54:00.002-06:00

This person might really be a musician even though he looks like a serial killer in this painting.

I have discovered how to use a small bristle brush for getting in all those little places, like between brow furrows, etc..

Mugshot 33: Possible Family Member

2011-11-09T15:56:00.003-06:00

I am practicing painting flesh in deep shadow, those elusive values. Tormenting.

Mugshot 32: Possible Family Member

2011-11-06T16:51:00.002-06:00

This possible family member has always been enraptured with color, so I tried to use as much of it as I could. It is more colorful than this in real life. I think it made a difference that I started with a decision on the palette color (blue/orange) and tied everything to it, not by thinking so much, just by drawing from a blue/orange mix a base for all the grays, so there's more coherence. I remember getting into trouble really fast by just trying to use a lot of color. This is another idea I learned in Jennifer Balkan's class: decide on a color palette and stay with it. Also, this is a pretty good ear, so I'm content. And a second also: these are getting easier and quicker.

Mugshot 31:Possible Family Member

2011-11-05T16:29:00.002-05:00

This painting does not capture the person at all and the color is not exciting as her color was in real life, however, it is the best ear I have ever done, almost a Lucien Freud ear, so I am not wiping it. I will try her again soon, and maybe having this to look at will help me remember what I wanted and did not want to paint.

Larry in a Groucho Marx Mask

2011-11-03T22:11:00.001-05:00

This must speak for itself.

Blackberry Season

2011-11-02T20:50:00.003-05:00

This is a commissioned painting to be part of a banner for the New York Times best selling author, Susan Mallery. It will be part of her website advertising her new book, BAREFOOT SEASON, coming in April 2012. The romance novel is available now through pre order at Amazon.com. The painting will also be posted at www.blackberryisland.com.

Mugshot Twenty Eight, Possible Family memeber

2011-10-30T16:56:00.003-05:00

This one was really hard. I tried it twice, this is the better of the two. The majority of the face was in shadow, but the skin was all pink and green, and the pinks were green and the greens were pink! I did the underpainting as I learned but it was more difficult to get the values down simply. I was seduced by those shimmering half tones.

Mugshot 27: Possible Family Member

2011-10-27T15:08:00.003-05:00

OK, back in the saddle. Returned from frolicking and resettled into the routine. While I was away I terrorized my family members, pleading for photos. Most relented but said they never want to see the paintings. (!!!!!!) Thank you everyone for your forbearance, and I won't identify anybody.

Last night was the final episode of Jennifer Balkan's second figure painting class. In this second part I learned the importance of doing a loose underpainting for the values. What a difference it makes - ain't no words! This single thing allows you to keep your values in a family, which helps the image to have weight and coherence. This is the piece of information I have been looking for but I didn't know how to ask for it or even what it was. It was a very exciting class, only 4 of us , so lots of one on one help. Jennifer is funny and generous and pounded everything into our heads, reinforced with demos and our own hands on experience. A great class, great people...I should have tried to get their photos as I will shortly run out of possible family members soon.

Reclining Nude Study

2011-10-19T11:19:00.003-05:00

Still more wiping...full moon I hear.

This is the last of 4- 30 minute paintings from the painting group, first 3 really unspeakably bad and I could feel myself sliding into the abyss, and then I got one! I am quite proud of myself when I do an acceptable one because working with this time limit and all the discomfort of bad light, French easel, forgot the necessary color (cad yellow), etc., requires such absolute concentration that I lose all self consciousness. Then I am exhausted and have to have a beer.

I will be in North Carolina for a few days helping my father celebrate his 90th birthday. Maybe when I take up the brush again the wiping phase will be done.

Fernando/Study

2011-10-17T22:04:00.003-05:00

I have had a whole week of wiping paintings! Not too upsetting though -- I am trying to do something new, a new way of using color, so this just has to be worked through. This painting is a quick study I did with cad red light and black. I got a good likeness without much suffering, which is always encouraging.

2011-10-17T22:01:00.000-05:00

Nude Study/Back

2011-10-14T15:43:00.004-05:00

I have been working hard on another project this week and there's nothing much to post.... but here is a study from my painting session with a model. This was a 30 minute study and a huge improvement over the last back I painted a couple of weeks ago. At the beginning of the first back I mumbled some remark(out loud even, such hubris) about how easy a back was going to be after doing a complicated and difficult front (limbs, stomach, breasts, facial features, hair, all!) and then produced a painting of a flat porcine slab.... frightening. But this one is much better because I am improving in my understanding of value and temperature. Backs can be hard! I love this model though.... something about her wants to be painted.

AND THANK YOU FOR YOUR GENEROUS SUPPORTIVE COMMENTS!

Mugshot 26: Sylvester S.

2011-10-09T16:37:00.002-05:00

I am now in the second half of Jennifer Balkan's class and we are doing color mixing, then doing a painting with the mix. So far we have done two red/greens: Viridian and cad red light and sap and Winsor red. Since I had already taken Sylvester's picture and was ready to go, I used purple/yellow (which we haven't discussed yet) because he seemed to require it. Having a decision about which color range you are going to use greatly simplifies the process, you just line up the colors and get going. I was slinging stuff around on this one not quite knowing how to get what was necessary out of a purple/yellow combo. In any case, he is a handsome devil and reminds me of Zapata.

Mugshot 25: Jill W.

2011-10-06T15:06:00.003-05:00

This is an honorary daughter who came for a visit and succumbed to the purifying mask.

Also, I want to thank all of you for your generous comments on these paintings. It's so exciting to open up the blog and see response. It helps to keep the fires lit.

Tom P.

2011-10-04T16:05:00.002-05:00

This is a mugshot of a good friend. I am thinking I have to shift out of the criminal element because their photos are so terrible, bad light, bad color, pixillated when enlarged....it shouldn't be that hard. I am thinking I will take my own mug shots of the people in my life with my new fancy pants camera and have more CONTROL over some of these issues.

Mugshot 24

2011-10-03T17:28:00.002-05:00

This guy had a very high creep factor.

Mug Shot 23

2011-10-02T17:17:00.003-05:00

Ah, testosterone. You can see it at work.

I admit I was in a rapture working on this nose, It was so --- there, such a fleshy anchor for this boy's face. Also, since I have been getting in bad trouble with backgrounds that I add after the figure is painted, I laid in an acid yellow wash first thing to give me some color to relate to as I painted the head, and it was a much more comfortable way to go. I had to soften it tremendously later, but at least I was in the family of yellow at the end.

Purifying Mask, Spa

2011-09-26T17:36:00.002-05:00

This is the big one I have been working on, it is 40 inches square and was commissioned for a spa in Kansas City. I was initially planning to use a more youthful model but they asked for this particular one....which I thought either barking mad or enlightened. I will go with the latter.

Nude by Andy Pankhurst

2011-09-25T20:00:00.001-05:00

Another day in the barrel, so here is yet another painting by a painter I like very much.

Outdoor Portrait by Mieke Teirlinck

2011-09-24T21:56:00.002-05:00

Still working on the big painting. In the meantime, here is another painter's work I greatly admire: Mieke Tierlinck, Dutch. She paints everything from life and does it quickly, in one shot. She also paints everything, landscapes, interiors, still lives, people. Is there enough time in one life to master all these?

Self Portrait by Lucian Freud

2011-09-23T17:55:00.002-05:00

I am working on a large painting and so have nothing completed to post, but here is a painting by one of my favorite painters, Lucian Freud. He died last month, in his mid 80's, and he painted right to the end, which is how it should be done.

Red Peppers on Pink

2011-09-19T19:01:00.002-05:00

Down to the last two peppers. Another wave of family came through and we went to the ACL festival in Austin, so now I am recuperating and gearing up for a big painting that is already in the works. This one is also a painting for the Texas Moleskine Roundup group.

Peppers and Sprouts?Green

2011-09-15T18:39:00.002-05:00

On this one I tried some color things.... mostly green, a bit of red. On the next one I did mostly red, bit of green. This is along the lines of three (everything should occur in this relationship: most, some, a bit). Except that it is along the lines of two. I have been told also that it should be in the same relationship as a martini, which would be mostly gin, some vermouth and a bit of olive. But then the olives you get these days are huge and you often get two, and sometimes very little vermouth. Treacherous.

Peppers and Sprouts

2011-09-14T17:21:00.002-05:00

This is all that is left in the fridge after a wild family weekend. Also, it is a practice painting for the 2 Moleskin journals which I have not done and mailed on, and no one has emailed and nagged me about it, such a nice group, so I have to get at it. As usual, when I am away from the studio for a few days and get back to painting, I am all thumbs. This won't do if you are working in someone's journal.

Campari Tomatoes

2011-09-08T20:19:00.002-05:00

I had just a bit of time in the studio today because I have family about to visit and I had to stuff everything under the bed and clean the rest of it. These little tomatoes are sitting on a piece of silk taffeta I have carted around for years.

Nude Study 3

2011-09-07T16:17:00.003-05:00

In last night's painting session, I had 2 wipers, 2 keepers, each a 30 minute pose. We had a great model which makes it more fun. I ran out of steam in the last half, whipped from a long day.

Mugshot Twenty Two

2011-09-01T18:02:00.003-05:00

This is a great whopping 12 inches square -- intimidating to have all that room, but also really great, exciting. I feel like I have known this guy forever, he is life size and I have been in his nostrils and ears all day. Also need more stamina to get it done in one go.

Nude Study Two

2011-08-31T15:42:00.003-05:00

Another meeting of the painting group last night and I painted hard and fast and didn't get home till 10:30. No juice to paint today, so I am posting the best of the studies. These are 30 minutes long and I am using Jennifer Balkan's formula: 3 generous batches of paint, a warm dark, a cool mid tone, and warm light; with burnt umber quickly lay in only a gestural form of the body and then the darks, followed by mid tone and light, finishing with restrained use of highlights if any. I got 3 ok studies and 1 wiper, not too bad for the end of a long day. It's so amazing and riveting to paint or draw from life -- total concentration and no thinking, you just have to keep your energy up and your concentration skewered to the model.

Mugshot Twenty One

2011-08-30T15:26:00.002-05:00

I'm thinking of bumping up to 10 inches square. This guy had a swan's neck...but I had to abbreviate it because I wanted to get that black net top in there. My painting self wants to work bigger and my thinking self wants to learn how to get it all in no matter what the size.

Mugshot Twenty

2011-08-29T16:58:00.004-05:00

This guy was so pink.

Mugshot Nineteen

2011-08-28T19:26:00.002-05:00

Lots of chin.

Mugshot Eighteen

2011-08-27T20:52:00.004-05:00

I painted this six times, the first 3 I didn't post. She had these red rimmed thyroidal eyes that I just couldn't get down and this pale yellowish translucent skin. These mugshot people aren't healthy for the most part. And I want to say only once without defensiveness, that it is hard to get it all when jailbase.com is repeated every inch across the faces, because often the type will cover a tricky shadow at the corner of the mouth or eye and it can't be seen clearly. Not that I'm whining. But the more I couldn't get it, the more determined I was to keep at it. The top one is good enough for now, I can't stand to look at it any more. As they say, the line is oh so thin between the heroic and the pitiful.

Thank you everyone for such nice comments on the last study.

Nude Study

2011-08-24T20:48:00.003-05:00

I painted a mugshot today but it turned on me in the end and I had to wipe it. Will try tomorrow. Today I am posting a study I did Monday night in a painting group. We have a model and do 4 30 minute poses. At the end of the session we did a quick 15 minute pose (this one) and I was able to get it down in broad strokes with the parts in the right place and the values pretty much ok. I feel encouraged because I see that I am learning to condense visual info faster and establish the form without too much thinking. I just want the image to go from my eye to my hand without cerebral detour.

Mug 17

2011-08-23T14:24:00.003-05:00

This boy was completely magnificent. His skin! There was every color in it and they were all practically the same value. Very interesting painting experience.

2011-08-21T20:01:00.002-05:00

I don't know the reason for this, but the women in the mugshot sites routinely have the thinnest eyebrows I have ever seen. It would be interesting to hear what a sociologist has to say about that, what conclusion could be drawn. I have a feeling it is heartbreaking.

Mug 15

2011-08-20T15:09:00.003-05:00

I painted this guy yesterday and it was a bust, but he is so beautiful I wanted to try to get him down if possible. It helped to have done him once before because my observation was much more acute. Also, I worked with a big hog bristle brush and tried to be economical in my description and to stop before that poisonous period that I often have at the end of the painting where I am trying to fix and smooth things (AAAAUGH!). I did drop it face down outside, though, so then I did have to go back and fix things, but it is good enough and much better than yesterday's painting.

Brianna's Brother

2011-08-18T18:33:00.001-05:00

This is Brianna's tag along brother. His mouth was really that red. Tomorrow it is back to the criminals. Alleged criminals.

Brianna,

2011-08-17T21:40:00.003-05:00

This is a mugshot of my neighbor's grandchild. I like this kid a lot, she is smart and really present and interested when you talk to her.

Thanks everybody for your very upbeat comments on the banner project painting, I really appreciate it!

Purifying Mask/Banner

2011-08-15T22:01:00.003-05:00

This painting is for a banner project for the city of Georgetown, Texas. For the last couple of years they have invited artists to design banners, then they are printed and hung through out the town. They hang em high, as I remember, maybe from lamp posts, and the finished piece is 2 feet by 4 feet.

Challenge List

2011-08-11T18:52:00.017-05:00

I have been tagged by Lorraine Shirkus to list paintings in the following categories. It was a great exercise to go back through the work and evaluate it more objectively than you can right after you finish one.

Thanks, Lorraine!

This painting was the most beautiful, in a traditional way. Pansies in the Mirror, 6 inches square.

This was the most popular painting with the most responses. Radish Finale, 10 inches square

This is supposed to be the most controversial category, but I don't think I have done anything controversial for which I am very sorry. So I have altered it to be The Most Fun. This was fun because I wrote a Haiku for it and everyone left comments in Haiku. Hilarious. Belligerent Eclair, 6 inches square

This is the painting that might have been the most helpful. I am a little cloudy on this category.

I figure it must mean helpful to others. It is the last in a series of 10 paintings of this damned plastic bowl with an impossible curving square lip. Plastic Bowl Number 10, 8x6 inches.

This is the painting whose success surprised me. There were lots of encouraging and appreciative comments. Blue Green Still Life, 6 inches square

This is the painting that didn't get the attention it deserved. I was very proud that it carried itself abstractly, realistically and colorifically. I know that's not a word, but you know what I mean. Light Socket and Pink Box, 6 inches square

This is the painting I'm the most proud of: The Nose, 8x6 inches

Mug Fourteen

2011-08-10T20:18:00.002-05:00

This guy's hair was truly this big.

Mug Thirteen

2011-08-09T19:09:00.002-05:00

This guy had such an unbelievably long face it was quite challenging to jam him into an 8 inch square. Since my own proportions are all short and compact, I naturally see things that way and had to keep checking the measurements and then make him longer and longer. He must have been 7 feet I figure.

Mug Twelve

2011-08-08T10:51:00.004-05:00

I rarely see the crime listed with the mugshot, but this time I went to a criminal speciality, gang crimes, and found this guy. He was so serene, like a Hindu god. The background he came with was a deep cobalt blue which I loved and intended to use, but I did a yellow wash on the panel before I started and then I was feeling he needed a sort of religious golden surface behind him, to emphasize his perfect equilibrium.

Mug Shot 11

2011-08-04T16:30:00.002-05:00

In this one I used a huge flat brush for the most part, with some effort to find larger planes of color and get that down in minimum stokes. I sort of forgot my intention as I worked, but it was a good beginning. These mug shots are great for practice -- maybe like running sprints, not that I have ever run one, but I think it might help mesh all the necessary skills.

Mug 10

2011-08-02T15:19:00.003-05:00

This girl was cadaver pale. I actually got too much color in here, it was mousy grays everywhere. I will have another go at her soon.

Mug Shot 9

2011-07-28T17:19:00.002-05:00

Mug shot number 9....

This woman had unbelievable hair, flowing and shiny and soft looking.

Mug Shot Number Eight

2011-07-27T18:50:00.002-05:00

A cautionary tale concerning hair color. She had her chin cocked way over, I think from disgust.

Flowers for Pamela

2011-07-26T18:57:00.003-05:00

Just some flowers today. I had to wipe one of my alleged criminals

but I will have a go at her tomorrow.

Mug Shot Seven and Rock Roses on Aluminum Foil

2011-07-25T16:39:00.003-05:00

One more study on the aluminum foil and another mug shot.

Mug Shot Six and Forms on Aluminum Foil

2011-07-24T19:15:00.006-05:00

First the study, this is my entry for the challenge at Some Texas Artists Like to Paint, the topic this month is Upside Down, which these reflections are. To see what others have done, you will have to go to sometexasartistsliketopaint.blogspot.com. Blogger won't let me put a link in for some reason.

Next, the mug shot. I tried to find somebody mean looking to paint and to paint him in a mean way. I could have been meaner. It's hard to not be enthralled with a human being that you are scrutinizing, looking up their nostrils, etc. I know, I know, paint what you see. But that itself is a vast philosophical question.

Mug Shot Five

2011-07-23T18:53:00.002-05:00

This is my first grapple with African American skin. For the first half hour or so of painting I was flying blind, no idea what to put together to get the right skin tones. Also, those mug shots, not to be whining, but the light is horrendous, so things have to be invented. This is good experience, but painful. Still and all, these are fun to paint.

Mexican Ashtray on Aluminum Foil

2011-07-22T16:58:00.002-05:00

Only this one today. I had to make peach pies to pay back favors and since it is as hot as the Congo here in central Texas I got started early and didn't get into the studio until afternoon. This set up was really too complicated for the sort of quick study I wanted to do, but sometimes I like all the visual overwhelm of lots of detail, you just make yourself hack away at it. And I like so much aluminum foil, it is just a magic surface with soft reflections, sort of Ingrid Bergman in Casablanca in the rain.

Mug Shot 4 and Bowl of Cherries

2011-07-21T17:38:00.003-05:00

This guy seemed very self possessed to me, very cool. Maybe a Scot, and they are both cool and wicked. He actually had on a plaid shirt, which I took as a sign he should be chosen. Some of the counties (I am currently working Florida) have everybody wear the same thing, sometimes hunter orange, sometimes a blue scrub shirt. One wraps all of them up in a black plastic bib, like a hefty bag, so all you see is the head. I might write them and complain.

The study was not so easy today, but I am posting it anyway and not looking back.

Mug Shot #3, Bowl of Shrimp

2011-07-20T19:37:00.003-05:00

The study again was quick and fluid. It helps to have another painting to get to that is the REAL painting, so this one doesn't count so much. I am seeing some improvement in the bowl issue I think.

The second painting, the mug shot, was just --- well, really fun. They are wonderful exercises for painting the head and the sitter cannot complain. The photos are execrable, and there is so much you can't see, so if you can't see it, you can't paint it, you have to consolidate the information and simplify. I can see that there are lots of things you could tweak for your own amusement.

Mug Shot #2, Study of Yellow cup

2011-07-18T15:46:00.002-05:00

I like getting the study done fast and out of the way - no obsessing, and I just try to get it down.

And then, wiping! Very good.

The second one, the mug shot, was again lots of fun. This guy must have worn his hat while he was allegedly committing a crime, and then he had to take it off for the picture. These mug shots are very interesting to look through - there is every sort of expression, from open weeping all the way through grinning. I kind of feel protective of them, which is ridiculous. Just that I hope when my own mug shot is available for artists and who knows who else to pore over, there will be some mercy.

Boy with Hair (mugshot)

2011-07-17T18:57:00.003-05:00

OK, a really good painting day today, stress free and quick execution of everything, no agonia.

Those mugshots are fascinating and hilarious to paint, I can't think when I have enjoyed anything more. I just set my laptop (!!!!!!!) up next to the easel and off I went. Thank you, Linda Popple! Go to her site and see her wonderful paintings.

Peaches and Batik Napkin

2011-07-16T19:30:00.004-05:00

Above the daily painting...camera issues still, the cloth is really black and in this all the yellows look like they are on fire. I will try to re-shoot tomorrow. And the below painting is the study for today, a small espresso cup.

Bowl and Batik Napkin

2011-07-15T16:51:00.002-05:00

Today I only had time for a study, which mercifully, is taking less time to do every day. Something about an interruption in the routine of the morning means a wreck of a painting day -- not a phone call or something like that, but if I have to leave the house and marshall my wits to deal with a non painting issue, suddenly it's 4 pm and I'm tired and hungry and haven't finished anything. I think a painting life requires protection of large blocks of time, and then soon you have the thought, I have used all this time and what do I have to show for it, BUPKIS!

However, I just saw a wonderful documentary (Art City: Episode 1) that included the great Agnes Martin, who at 86 said two things that got my complete attention. (1) She painted for 20 years and knew she had not found her voice, and she burned every one of those paintings. {TWENTY YEARS} (2) You don't have to listen to anybody. AHHHH.

Zinnias and Napkin

2011-07-14T21:20:00.003-05:00

Still having some camera issues. There is quite a bit of blue in the bowl study but it disappeared in every shot. My SLR for Dummies has arrived, so maybe I can dig out the answer. And the other painting is of my brave zinnias, trying to survive through our blistering

heat. Even with daily watering they are gasping by nightfall.

Zinnias on Turquoise

2011-07-13T19:19:00.002-05:00

Here is my study, arduous, and a little painting, fun, mostly.

Bowl Study

2011-07-12T19:33:00.003-05:00

For the past couple of days I have been doing lots of small studies of forms inside a bowl. This was the best one today, but I wiped everything and will start again tomorrow. It's kind of nice wiping everything....liberating, nothing to lose.