Mug 15

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

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

Brianna,

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

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

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

This guy's hair was truly this big.

Mug Thirteen

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

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

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

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

Mug shot number 9....

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

Mug Shot Number Eight

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

Flowers for Pamela

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

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

Mug Shot Six and Forms on Aluminum Foil

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

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

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

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

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

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)

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

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

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

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

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

Bowl Study

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.

Plums and Pear Paper

So....this is ever so slightly under exposed, but I am making progress with the Dslr camera. I have figured how to navigate within the vast menu but have to be completely calm to do it. Have mastered white balance, aperture and shutter speed, but am stalled on metering a mid tone. I do have a book on the way, DSLR for Dummies, isn't that the most infuriating title, but whatever, I have to have it to move ahead. I used to think that one should acquire a doctor and a lawyer as a life partner but I was way wrong. It should be a carpenter and a photographer.

In the painting, I tried to keep it all dark and close valued and saturated.

Geranium and Pear Paper

Another one of the old medicine bottle, blacklit.

Horned Hat

This is my late entry( hat theme) for the June challenge for Some Texas Artists Like to Paint. To see other people's entries, click here.

Geranium and Tangerine

I got a painting done today AND I used the SLR camera and this shot is reasonably like the painting. I am not sure what I did right with the camera yet and don't know if I can do it again,

but I am encouraged.