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.

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.

Black Chihuahua

This is one of the rescue dogs belonging to my student, who is painting her animals.  This photo was in the studio and I couldn't resist.  Those ears. That anxiety.  Ai yi yi.

I made myself paint it primarily with the 1 inch bristle brush, trying to build on what I have been learning about getting the form down faster.  The paint behaves differently with the bristle --- the oily quality is more apparent and edges merge more easily.  Also, it was fun to paint a dog that wasn't a commission -- bwa ha ha --- no one to please.  This went down pretty much in one shot.

Reclining Nude Study

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.

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.

Humane Society Animals

We had another pet painting class this afternoon at the Humane Society of Williamson County in Leander, Texas. I'm so proud of them! They jumped right in without hesitation and made these charming paintings.

Still Life with Envelope

I was playing with the tying to the edge idea again. Also, I wanted to make the back part of the painting tip forward by using white in the background -- to flatten the picture plane, flatness and depth together. It's much more clean edged than I intended, what was I thinking....

The turquoise painting was the first one, and that bright strip at the bottom was one diagonal too many. In the top painting, I used a gray purple in that space and the composition has enough of a vertical now so that it works better. I wonder what I learned here.

Grapefruit and White Napkin

Big brush, harsh light, simple forms in this one, the object was to find a way to knit the forms together into a painting. I like the word knit for this process, Catherine Kehoe used it in a lecture she gave recently at Mass Art. I wish I had been there to hear it! It is posted on her website catherinekehoe.com.

Head Study, 2

Another exercise. I worked from a mirror practically in the dark, no studio lights just natural lights from the window, which of course is not facing north. I used a big brush and I didn't pre-mix skin colors, just used what was already available on the palette. That made for a great painting experience though.

Bismarck

Bismarck is a warrior even though he has been fixed and I had to use pinks and blues to paint him, no offense.