Eye Surgery. 16 x 10 inches, oil on canvas paper

It is what it is.

How many times I have thrilled, I mean really gasped out loud --  to see that line that Freud can paint on the top of the lower eye lid. It is usually pinkish or reddish, it gleams on the edge of that flap of flesh that embraces the lower part of the eye,  and all the complexity of the eye ball and lids pass into my understanding, and also its aliveness, its wetness.  I am waiting for that day to come for me. I have painted it, and wiped it out 10 thousand times. Maybe his models had more protruding eyes,  his lights were better, they all had allergies.....I don't know the answer. I wanna see that line and paint it and have it work.

Mugshot 101: Mario/The Nose

I've done this motif several times, trying to work my way through it, to learn about the space, color, landscape (aaaugh!) clouds, lots of new things, but fun things. This still isn't what I want...I wanted something that is  more abstract and modern in regard to color and space. Still this was fun to execute. And I can see better what the problems are that must be dealt with in the planning stages. Upper one is mine and the lower is by Piero della Francesca, known in Italy as "The Nose". Correct title is: Portrait of Federico da Montefeltro, c. 1485.

Mug Shot: Boy in Class

This is the second painting of a boy/man in a painting class I took last year. He was indifferent to everything that went on, never brought supplies, borrowed everything from the rest of us, came late or not at all, was emotionless on the surface. And yet, he had a sort of princely thing about him. He was young enough to have softness in his face still. He seemed strongly rooted.

It has occurred to me recently that I have underestimated how long it would take to learn the skills that are necessary for realism - and I don't even want to do photorealism, or any heroic form of realism....just a straightforward realistic take on the beingness quality of  the model - how to state that? - and also to have the physical presence of paint, lots of paint. So now that I realize I had that (ridiculous) goal, of thinking I would reach a level of competence and could go on to other issues, maybe I will have more room, more ease in the process of doing it. Maybe be more r-r-r-r-r-relaxed.

Italian Paintings/ Frida #1(G.)

I have stolen/appropriated/lifted this idea from Ellen Heck and her Forty Fridas (please Google, they are so lovely). This is how it came about: When I first arrived in Italy in June I was invited by a group of Italian women to go with them to Rome to see a Frida Kahlo show. I had two words of Italian under my belt at the time so I was reluctant to go out and about much, but they shepherded me around the show and the city, and it was a great day. I told them that if they would dress up as Frida, I would paint them, and so they did. Here is the first of them.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Mugshot 75, Scott with Clown nose

This one was fun to do, the straight gaze.   I photographed the live Scott in my studio with lights so I could control the amount of shadow on his face. Control is good, I want more of it. Still, I spent a long time messing with the drawing, the part of it that I always think I will speed through and then get to the painting part, the fun part.  Also regarding background, I  started with a viridian/winsor red base from which I mixed all the skin tones, then used a grey with predominantly viridian in it - trying for some overall color integrity.  I mean, I don't know how you get there....I'm just taking a whack at different ways to do it.

I uncrossed his left eye and re-shot this so am re-posting.

Mugshot 73: Baby 3

On the last two babies I used a winsor red/viridian combination for the basic dark out of which I worked all the other flesh tones. In this one I used a purple/yellow combination just to see what it would look like. Pretty much the same overall, but I kept all the colors in the purple/yellow range for continuity. Also used a paler background this time to see if the color in the face is stronger (not so much) and to see what the softer color overall looks like.  I think still the color could be stronger in the skin, more pigment.  There is SO MUCH gray, a million pearly grays.  I think more experimenting...

Mugshot 72: Baby 3

Same deal with this one, fast and as direct as I could make it.  I was more aware in this one of the vast and subtle range of half tones -- that if I could identify the tone that ties the dark and light together and then get that patch of paint in the right place, the form will bend. Just that there are so many half tones. And half/half tones. These last two babies were less than 10 minutes old.

Mugshot 71: ( Baby 2)

This was quicker and more fun and resulted in more muscular painting.  It takes the pwessure off if I think I am going to do it fast and have fun with it, even if it's no fun and I get stuck.  Also, I was looking for a way to reduce the sweetness - I mean not to have it be sentimental.  Thus, the black.  But it is what it is, a sweet newborn.

Mugshot 70 : Baby 1

I have recently acquired new progeny.
It's fun to paint these mashed heads. I was allowed to be in the delivery room so I could get shots immediately at birth.  It was so exciting though, that I was just wildly shooting everything hoping I got something good. This is my first go at it and it's largish, 10x16 inches. For the next one I'm scaling down because I want to work toward getting it down really fast, by which I mean getting the planes of the head and large masses established with a big brush before I get any detail in there.  Maybe I can get everything with the big brush and won't have to stoop to the little one at all.  Also, I want to get strong values stated immediately, so if I do smaller size and greater number I might practice my way into doing it habitually. Hoping for this.

Mugshot 62, T.P.

In this painting I used the big bristle brush for the first 3/4 of it.  It won't let me get specific and forces me to address the masses, which is not my inclination.  I remember once looking at a painting of Freud's and there was this febrile pink line under the eyeball, which was the top plane of the lower eyelid. It was so beautiful, so unexpected and true.  Instantly brought me to my knees - how to paint that, how to get it down.   I'm in love with those details of the face, the portrait, and I always want to get right to those parts of the painting.  However, now I know this must not be done until the end, so the big brush is a help.  Just in the last few months I have been able to  use an array of brushes depending on what was being painted, saving the brush with 3 hairs in it for the pink lid, should I have one.

Mugshot 56 Zombie.

I just felt like a Zombie.

Mugshot 55

In this one I used a purple/yellow palette as opposed to yesterday's red/green.  By this I mean, I mixed a large amount of winsor red and ultramarine blue to make a dark purple, then combined it with yellow ochre to give me a good gray. I worked from this base, combining other colors as needed, particularly viridian to give me some cooler grays and some violet blues where ever I could arrange that.  This is the second go at this possible family member who happily eschews the computer, and therefore won't be upset.  She has  always had the most fabulous skin, luminous in fact, so it is a challenge to paint it.  I tried again to have the background be made from the color of the turning edge of the shadow, but it has photographed bluer that it really is.  I was going for atmospheric grey/blue/purple, the color of air.  Sort of.

Mugshot 53, Mad Baby and Value Study 8

Above is a mugshot of a mad baby, below is the value study for today.

Mugshot 52, Possible Family Member, Value Studies

The first painting is another mugshot in which I concentrated on stating the values as  strongly as I saw them - harrowing and funny. So much is really dark!  I know this philosophically, but with my eyes, not so much. The rest of the little paintings are all studies, again using pure black and white and 2 other values.  Interesting how much it takes to imprint this way of seeing/painting, I would have thought just having it explained would have made it happen.  Whatever -- it must be grasped!
I also discovered today there is a new format for posting, so these value studies are wandering around on their own. I will figure this out tomorrow.

Mugshot 46: Halloweener 2

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 44: The BMW Man

This is definitely the best zipper I ever painted.