Green Apples 8" x 10"

After a wonderful discussion about art this Sunday with my sister in-law, Diane, I have the feeling there is much to learn. (Maybe I'm just getting in touch with reality...) Today I started a new painting in the studio that I think has a different style to it - born of the aforementioned Sunday conversation. I'll post a photo of that tomorrow. But tonight I'll post an older painting - the first one I sat down to do this summer.

Work in progress

The studio smells faintly of strawberries right now. I am posting a picture that I am still working on (a first). I have taken some digital photos of the strawberries as I do not expect them to last, and am going to try to complete the painting from photograph - something I have been prejudiced against since art school. I think one of my professors said, "There isn't enough information in a photograph to paint from..." Perhaps he was right in some cases. I've seen artists render objects that don't convince me. Did the artist really see that? They haven't put down enough details to tell me what it looks like - usually because they are working from a photo that didn't contain the information in the first place. But I have also found that working strictly from observation is equally limiting. There are time and logistical constraints surrounding your subject matter. "Will it rot?...Will it look the same tomorrow?...If I can't recreate it in the studio, how do I paint it?" I get hung up on these things. Thanks to everyone who has visited this site and especially those who have responded with comments or emails. The support keeps me going.

Long pose and fourth sketch

Here are three more life drawing images that I couldn't load on the last post. (Did I mention that I am not particularly technologically proficient?!) One is a quick 15 minute pose with a detail image also posted. The second is the long pose I spoke about in the previous post. I didn't take time to crop these images either; i.e, nevermind the bar code and sales price on the sheet of paper with my long pose...tee, hee.

Life Drawing

My first life drawing session in six years! Wow. I'm glad I didn't think about it too long else I would have gotten too nervous to enjoy it. I was definitely rusty - it was hard to quickly get the poses onto paper, like I had forgotten how to look; and my shoulder got sore (even with all the whisking and lifting I do at work in the kitchen!). But it was so good - so, so good to get back to it; to let my hand glide along the newsprint with the charcoal nub between my fingers. It works like an extension of your body - like your nails could be made of charcoal and you are just drawing with your hands...

The session was in a woman's home in Cave Creek - an offshoot of the Arizona Artist's Guild group. And they were lovely, warm, and welcoming. What more could you want for a return to life drawing?!

Here are a few of my more successful sketches. The poses were 10 to 15 minutes in length. The final image is the drawing I completed during the long pose - not too successful I think; but great for the little practice I've had. I got really involved with rendering the face and may have done better paying attention to the organization of the entire piece. But then again, it's nice to be indulgent...(I love to draw faces). Let me know what you think.

Bowls and Limes 5" x 10"

This week it was limes in little glass bowls. I found some stunning artwork on the web http://www.twinhouse.com/artists.php4 . Check out Neil Hollingsworth and Karen Hollingsworth. The kind of heart achingly beautiful stuff you only wish you could paint. I think I was most struck by the austerity of their color pallete - very stark, neutral, almost white. So that is where this began. I snapped a photo of limes out on our kitchen counter. But somehow, and it's always been this way with me, when I sat down to paint the painting or more correctly the palette took over. In the end I stopped out of frustration, but as with any painting I work on, I have an affection for it, although it's most certainly going to need some time to grow on me.

Image number two...

This is a sketch in oil 3 inches by 5 inches. (By the way, the painting pictured below is 18" x 18"; and has progressed beyond the photo I published. It has not been finished as the still life went to rot. Other people must paint faster than I do, I never see mold in the paintings I look at by other artists...)

Hope is a thing with feathers...

It has been a long time since I have sat down to paint, even fleetingly. And I haven't been able to consistently sit down to work for years; but it's been even longer still since I sat down and tried to cope with oil paints. I guess anything can happen.

Work has been very slow and frustrating. I just got married after putting in a hellaciously long season at my pastry chef position; and once we returned from our honeymoon in Europe I wondered, "What the hell do I do now?" And not just "now" as in "to occupy my time"; but "Now" as in "with my life". Although I am trying not to let this all be burdened with too much meaning. We've no money, I've too much free time, and Phoenix has become excrutiatingly hot. Usually for me times like these are the antithesis to painting. (Although the last six years of life have seemingly also been the antithesis to painting.) Somehow, I have managed to eke out a little space in the studio and in my mind to try this out again.

Let's hope (with bated breath).