Italian Paintings/ Ludovica's Dog

This sweet dog was afraid of me and the camera. She is a timid dog anyway, so there wasn't going to be a happy pose...but this one was so nice to paint. She has the best possible life, out in the country among the olive groves and meadows filled with wild flowers. Also 4 other dogs, a goat and 2 ponies for friends. And rabbits, geese, ducks, doves, and chickens and cats.  The Italian country life.

Italian Paintings/ Two Plums

These  two plums are from a little tree very near to the exact coordinates of the spot my father landed in Italy when he parachuted out of a plane just prior to its crashing into a lake in 1943.

I painted this on card stock. I was in a hurry to get it down and didn't have a smaller sheet, and I didn't have a natural boundary to relate to as I worked -- very uncomfortable! I should have drawn myself a square to work within, will know for next time. Here I have just cropped it with the camera.
Am still sneaking up on the landscape as subject, taking walks in the early morning and evening, trying to find the light conditions that are most compelling. You could die of beauty here in Italy.

Italian Painting/ Italian plums

Actually, it's not quite this red.... and the red is not uniform. Again, the camera.

I am out of reading material (AAAUGH!) so I am all over the internet reading people's essays and looking at painting, good, bad, student, pro -- tutto. I should have done this earlier....
Fascinating! some say, I hate line! I do everything to avoid it...Painting is not drawing. And then, I love line, it is another element to use in painting, part of the rich vocabulary. And so on, very entertaining. But what Sargent says has been tremendously helpful to me in the last few days: Painting is the arrangement of tones, he says.  That is a big statement and a clear one - In observational painting, color cannot be the king. It has to be value.

Tomorrow the first of a long line of visitors arrives and I must dismantle the studio and go outside to the landscape.....(so scary!) but I want to learn it, therefore, into the breach!

Italian Paintings/ Five Apricots

I had only an 8x6 panel to work on and wanted to do a string of the apricots, those that were not too badly decomposed. I like that format, the length twice the height. Although I tried not to get the forms half exactly in the middle, somehow they ended up there. I have cropped the second one here to be what I was wanting --  but I sort of like the big slab of yellow on the top one, and more air.
These apricots look all bloody because of camera  color distortion, no clue how to fix this.

Italian Paintings / Apricots

The apricots are in season here so there are mountains of them in the green grocers. My Italian family is making jam  from the trees on their farm, and they say there is a jar with my name on it.  The afternoons are hot now and the twilights very long, perfect for eating outside and just sitting still to watch the light.

Italian Paintings/Eggplant Lemon

Today was a good painting day -- and yesterday was also, although only one quarter of yesterday's painting was worth anything, but that quarter was a breakthrough.  I made some leaps in my head -- or I made some connections between my head and my hand. My camera is all off though....but I can't worry over this, so I'm just moving forward. Maybe will reshoot later.

Here I am at the train station in Orvieto, ready to catch the train for Rome and get art supplies.
Long trip, but delightful: little bus from my village to  Orvieto, train to Rome, on foot in horrendous Texas style thunderstorm to the art supply store.  And once there I was sort of forced to buy a tube of Old Holland Veronese Green (20Euros) and a tube of Michael Harding Titanium White (12 E, and quite small). Oh, how velvety the texture....And then suddenly I was looking at the sable brushes, because they didn't have the kind I use, the Bristol brights, and I need a brush that can make a good edge, so I succumbed. And they are fantastic!
The Veronese green is  one that Matisse used often and I always thought it was made from Veridian, but no -- it is a blue green, a cross between permanent green light and ultramarine, and it makes a glowing green, a sort of mid tone that radiates in the same way yellow does. Of course, it just got all over my palette and into everything, completely unmanageable today, but with practice I think I will be able to use it. Working on an 11 x 14 inch palette is definitely a significant HEMMING IN!
The other reason I need this green is because I am thinking landscape -- but I am so not a landscape painter! Never, not one! And yet, I am here is Landscape Nirvana. And there are a million greens.  So I'm just sneaking up on the whole thing. Bonnard uses that green often also. It brings light to the shadow side of trees and such, quietly  glowing.

And here is my little studio in the bathroom which has white walls and a pale green tiled floor and good light. But once set up in there,  only painting is happening.

Italian Paintings/ Little Peaches on Pillowcase

These are little do-nut peaches, I don't know what the real name is for them. They are flat and fleshy, and with leaves still on them! Miracolo! My camera is not working too well, but  a camera expert is soon coming to visit.

This is dinner: green beans, blanched; pomodoro tomatoes, chopped; beautiful sort of watercress, very curly and larger than the American sort, more substance to it; parmigiano (slabs); lots of green, green olive oil and a bit of vinegar.  And I sort of splurged on the wine, 8E for this bottle, which isn't too bad a price - wine peppery and robust. So happy! I think it is my duty while here to learn about Italian wines.

Italian Paintings/ Prunes on a Pillowcase

These are Italian plums (prunes) from the market next door, and the pillowcase from my bed.

And THIS is a little frittata made with new laid eggs. The yolks were orange! I threw in some cipollini onions and a slice of a plum tomato in the fold -- green unfiltered olive oil on the whole thing. On Italian bread, with a little more oil and some salt.

Italian paintings, Fruit

Been painting hard every day, but everything, um, terrible. This is best of the lot.
Will persist, and in the meantime have double scoop of cioccolato gelato.

Tomato and lemon

I'm rolling along here, not flipping out about small stuff, just trying to get a good routine going without too much crushing self criticism....some aspects of the studio and camera not optimal, but SO WHAT is my present attitude. This is Italy.

There are 400 kinds and shapes of tomatoes here, pleated, bulbous,  pickle shaped, grape sized, cabbage sized - I am just agog at the produce.

 Painting went a little easier today. I am carving up my days into painting/eating segments: morning,  any kind of cheese and tomatoes on toasted bread, LARGE espresso; painting, lunch, wide selection of pizza by the slice next door to me; painting, weenie nap, study Italian verbs, dinner late --9 at least--1000 choices for take out or if very good painting day, then reward of dinner outside at cafe on corner. This hasn't happened yet. Also, there is a beautiful lake here for swimming, which must be done. 

Self Portrait 1, Italy

ok well....Some how I wiped 15 years off my age. Possibly more.
Also, I am wrestling with lighting issues in my Italian bathroom studio. I finally decided I had to have a light ON the canvas so I could see what I was doing, so I got the light, got the bulb, got the extension cord after I found the word for it (la prolunga) hooked all up and feeling triumphant -- still the light available on the subject was minimal and everything was gray gray gray, so I just went with it, and now my camera has made it all colorful.
Reality is more plastic in Italy, maybe.
Whatever, it can be a baseline.

Two Peaches, 5x7 inches

Buongiorno!

For reasons too magnificent, complicated

 and surprising to state here, I am posting from Italy where I will be living and painting for -- yes, I can't believe it myself -- three months.  I am in an apartment in Bolsena about 6o miles from Rome. 

My working conditions are awkward - I am painting in the bathroom because the light can be somewhat controlled there and also the floor is tiled,  so  no worries

 if I make a mess.  The apartment has white couches, I am in constant terror of this!

I figure I have had about a year away from the easel now and I am certainly feeling it, hobbled in every way. Also, I am working with a reduced palette and on some sort of carton board impregnated with resin so the brush drags and the paint won't move, waaa,waaaa!

Nothing to do but throw oneself in the briar patch.

Thank for all your comments, guys, so good to have them and to be back painting, I suffered without it.! Jean

Mug Shot 80

Oi vey.
I had a longer interregnum than I thought,
but now I am back in the saddle.
Painting feels like I am on a runaway train, can't control anything.
Even so, glad to be doing it.

LA Found Plants 3

Found this hibiscus-like flower in a hedge on the way to the Asian Grill and Donut Shop early this morning.  I used my green thrift store polo shirt and my mouse pad.  Also, I have been using medium so the paint is more slippery, trying to have the paint application be more fluid.

LA Found Plants 2

Boy o boy, thanks for the kind comments. Props a girl up. Today I made it to Lowe's and back without killing anybody or getting lost. Bought another clamp lamp and regular bulb and spent some time on the ladder in the temp studio trying to figure out how to position the lights. These lemons are from the tree in the back yard here, and there is a tree next door loaded with grapefruit, owners absent. And all sorts of strange succulents in neighbors' gardens.....

Found Plants 1

Yo.
Made it to LA.
Am working temporarily in a dark place (physically, not noir-ish) and so have bought a $35 LED bulb. Noon light!  But the shadows are very dark and sharp, so I have to think on this, what to do.

Farm Girl Jam Jar Labels, Orange Marmelade and Red Pepper Relish

These paintings will be used on the labels for Farm Girl Orange Marmalade and Red Pepper Relish.
(All these products, delicious.)
Am in the studio breakdown stage for the move and having anxiety, Oy!
These may be my last two until I am rooted somewhere again.

Bluebonnets 3 (2013)

This time I tried more color. I'm working the flowers first because they jump all over the place like tulips, then doing moving stuff, then going back to do a different section of the painting, etc.  I am using an led lightbulb ($14!) which emits very little heat so the flowers don't wilt and move as much. This will be a great light to paint a chicken by, which is fun and I haven't done for a while. The incandescent bulb pretty much cooks the chicken so you have to race.

Bluebonnets 2 (2013)

I've got two done, so happy .....  getting an hour here and there in between crises.  Sometimes it's just enough to be painting!

Bluebonnets 1 (2013)

Been gone so long.
I am in the middle of moving from Texas to Los Angeles, and oh, moving is hellish.
I stole a morning to paint the bluebonnets, which I have done every March I have lived here.
I have 6 other panels prepared and hope to have a little run of them if I can manage it and don't get caught.

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 77 Cow Mask

Looking at Freud regularly these days. It sort of puts you in a gray frame of mind. This one was more difficult than I expected, that cow mask required some real  investigation. I painted it first and as I adjusted it to the nose mouth ratio (correct relationship of nose to mouth) the horns went off the top and Elmo went off the bottom.  So back to drawing on paper to get the image accurate, kind of. Second try, this one, I managed to get some of everything on there.  A subconscious part of my interior engine wants to make everything, everything life size. Sometimes I see painters who use calipers to measure the head, and I want to run screaming into the street.

This mask also moos.

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.

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.

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.

Paco and Cookbooks

This is the resident (very vocal)  cat at the home I visited over Thanksgiving.  Many surfaces to address, glassiness, hard planes, soft fur, etc.

Greyhound and Squirrel

Since I have always had small jittery terrier type dogs, greyhounds seem like ghost dogs, or maybe (not to imply death) angel dogs.  Vogue dogs, maybe. They look elegant and tranquil, although this dog had a lot of puppy still in him and wanted everything on the dinner table. Such sweetness in their faces. They don't look like they could cuddle up with you on a bad day, though. How would you fold up all those legs?

Belle and Student Work: Cherry Pie

Upper painting - Belle, an English bulldog I think. I tried this painting twice, the first time mostly grays and yellows and it didn't feel right, it wasn't light hearted enough. This was not because of color, who knows why, I'm sure Wayne Thiebaud could do it.  Also I have been looking at other peoples' backgrounds.... as usual, it is another world all to itself. I lifted a lot of paintings out of Catherine Kehoe's Powers of Observation site and made them as large as possible on the screen of my Mac, so every time I sit down at the computer, there are ten of them to look at with various background treatments.  Bielen's backgrounds are the most stunning -- both there and not there. How to make the background the perfect surround for the image, integral to the  painting of the dog/baby/sugar bowl? How not to see the back ground as separate -- In this case, there was so much baby pink in the dog's muzzle, I had to go for the quinacridone rose, and then the cadmium red light was not far behind.

Lower painting - a student's work. I think it's so nice, good color and positively iconographic.