Value Study 11

A cautionary tale, this little one.  THEY say, you should have a ratio of 1/3 : 2/3, light to dark or however you want to divide it, but not equal parts of everything, and why is this? because for one thing, it is much easier to read, or to quickly grasp the forms and their relationships to each other.  In this, I have 1/3 black, 1/3 dark, 1/3 light and a few highlights (white).  When you look at it,  you have to stick with it for a white to figure out what is happening.  I am usually one for chafing under the rules, but in this case it is easy to see why the light to dark ratio is useful.  Also, it is another element that needs thinking about before you start painting, even before you set up the still life.

Value Study 10

I gave some thought to  the traveling rhythm of an elongated horizontal composition, how the forms would touch and separate - it's a whole universe! just that, the touching and not touching, the syncopation of it, and then the forming of a whole as well.  This was fun and illuminating.  I spent more time on the thinking planning part than the painting, maybe 40 minutes for the painting.  And the early morning just waking up time and the standing in line at the post office time, etc. for the planning. I also darkened my  light/medium value, so I was using the requisite 4 values, black, white, dark gray and light gray, but a darker light gray than previously.  I am becoming more aware of what would be the better workable values for the desired end.

Value Study 9

I went back to look at Liz Wiltzen's explanation of these exercises and just as I suspected, I was missing an important element, the part about finding ways to link the darks so a rhythm of forms appear.  Those are my words, the rhythm part, but I think that is what would happen...so I set up my still life more carefully and painted it more slowly, thinking about what I wanted to happen.  I might not make the 50 in 30 (days), but it's worth it to take it to the 50.

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.

Value Study 2 and 3

This has been unexpectedly interesting. The still life above had very little white in it and I felt a little panicked at how I was going to get some of the edges to show up...and yet, there they are.

The figure was harder, more info, and with my schmutzing the paint around I probably made a few extra values. Today I have been looking at Jane Freilicher's paintings of flowers in landscapes and noticing the small value range --- never even saw this before.

Mugshot 51, and Value Study 1

The top painting is a mugshot that I set up myself with strong lighting so I didn't have that police glare flattening out all the forms and making hell of my painting life, much much easier to see stuff. And the second little painting, (these always photograph so much better for some reason) is the first of the value studies for the Liz Wiltzen challenge (50 in 30 days). It requires black and white and 2 other values only, so these are quick to do, but I have to say it was really exciting! I felt like I was painting a Philip Guston, so direct, and oh, the heaven of using black from the tube! The most notable issue was this: I had to decide where to shave the value down or up so I could include everything in 4, therefore, I was NOT painting what I saw, but what I decided to see. Verrrrry interrrestinK. And so strong, this little one.

Asters in Orange Vase

Ai yi yi, the values, the values. I set this up in a close color range with lots of shadow to work on this issue. Color complicates value. I think I will have to do some of Liz Wilson's exercises, 50 value studies in 30 days and see if I can't jam this into my brain.

Cemetery Bluebonnets

It's really fun to get a riff going on an image, makes you want to see how many ways you can do it. These bluebonnets are a little straggly - their white tops are almost gone and there are only blossoms at the very top. I thought the season was about done but I saw lots on the side of the road when I was driving. I'm leery about picking where I can be seen though, do not want to get shot. May have to resort to snake filled ditches again this year.

The Last Bluebonnets

The bluebonnets are on the wane here, only a few left and those look exhausted. I admit to poaching the yellow flower from the library beds early this morning. I think it is a kind of day lily, so it only had one day of glory anyway. These look like tiny orchids and float on long stems above the thin grass-like leaves. I was very economical with my brush strokes here, did not repair much in the process of painting it and mostly tried to leave the edges alone.

Daisies in Square Glass

I kept this one in all grays and slathered on the paint again.

Daisies on High

I put these daisies up on a brick to get them at eye level. Even thicker paint on these, slabs of paint!

Daisies on Pink

Another daisy study, this time using really really thick paint.

Daisies and Blue Bonnets

Here is my first shot at daisies. There are so many parts to it and so many whites! I have to learn how best to consolidate the info.

Mugshot 50, Possible Family Member

This is the second go at this portrait - thinking Queen Mariana the whole time I was painting.

Blue Bonnets and Striped Napkin

This one, not so weird....I kept it to all blue and some form of blue as much as possible. It was a good color exercise and I also kept the paint relatively fresh. What I want from the flowers is a particular energy separate from prettiness. I know this is possible, because I have seen it done: Van Gogh, Alice Neel, Redon, to name three, I know there are more...also, Jane Freilicher, also Wayne Thiebaud, who did plastic ones that knock you out.

Texas Wildflowers

Ai yi yi.

It's blue bonnet time again, and they must be painted. So I tried some more robust color combinations and crammed all the wildflowers together in my thrift store loving cup. More exploration.

30 Minute Nude

This is another good model. She is absolutely perfectly still, AND she remains smiling the entire pose. Also, she has a very distinctive elongated head which is shaved on the sides, cut very close in the back and top front, and for the crown(!) a top knot of dreadlocks bleached to a very pale yellow. I always mean to get that top knot in the painting, but frequently, like this one, the adjustments that I have to make for that long head and face force the top of the head off the panel. Oh, but she is fun to draw and paint!

Rose for Pamela

This is a commissioned piece for another birthday present.

Mugshot 49: Possible Family Member

I have had this photo for awhile, thinking how I would go at it, than finally I had the idea. I didn't want it to be prettified or babied, hence the brown background. I have had a bad cold during the painting so there have been lots of stops and starts, never a good thing, but I kept at it even when it was clear it was overworked, just to finish and see what I could do with it. The child is very serious in the photo, and I wanted to get that. Also, of course, the luminous skin. I think a large part of getting beautiful skin is using lots of thick paint, which makes skin on all its own. I didn't accomplish this, somehow I forgot about loading up the brush. Anyway, I'll have another go at it when I'm using all my cylinders. But I did like the positioning of the head in the space and the size of her, that was the most successful part.

Larry's Bouquet

This is a little painting for the birthday of my friend and neighbor, Larry, who grows loverly flowers and then he and his wife let me have cutting privileges in their garden. They are the Veuve Cliquot of neighbors.

Mugshot 47

This was a straight forward attempt to just get a likeness! I finally got it though after a few wipe downs. Mostly the likeness just appears without too much agony if all the shapes and darks are correct, but sometimes, if I can't get it fairly soon in the process, I can't see things correctly any more. And then I want to put my foot through it.

Blue Bottle #2

Another go at the fish oil bottle. I set this up as a color problem also, using the complement of blue, orange, and an analogous color to it, pink. Sometimes I can make things work in the set up and I can't quite get it in the paint. This sort of works overall though, making an orange painting with some blue in it. Soon, the reverse.

Blue Bottle #1

This blue bottle is the fish oil bottle I have been saving to paint, and I've been looking at in the studio for a few weeks, thinking, I will have to get used to it first and do a get acquainted painting. I also made a gold foil box to use in set ups for some reflective surface. I learned a lot on this one, particularly with edges and color.

Chicken Leg on Paper Towel

This is a raw chicken leg, but the lights... they sort of cook it as you go. This makes for much more interesting colors in the flesh, but also promotes thoughts of becoming a vegetarian.

Black Pansies, Pink Box

One more black pansy -- I had a smallish block of time for painting today, and so another little one.

Pink Cyclamen/Orange

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

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

Son of Cowboy, Magritte Spoof

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

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.