Mockingbirds

I have begun articulating the pyracantha bush. This work is very slow going, and I have been spending a lot of time waiting tables. So there haven't been many uninterrupted afternoons of painting.

More work

It only took a few shifts at work to remember how much I like painting. I feel inspired by this piece again. I have put the pomegranates aside and after I got a good opaque layer of paint built up, I am ready to articulate the details. I had thought to put a crane in this piece, but it doesn't fit. It would cover up too much of the painting that already exists. Instead I think the crane will find a home in a future painting that I am planning.
There is still a lot of work to do. I am hoping that I could use some of my current pieces during a grad school interview, thus expanding my portfolio even further than the January 15th slide deadline allowed. Additionally there are so many ideas knocking around in my head right now, and I am anxious to produce it all. There is however only one speed in painting so I must be diligent.

Mas granadas

I have been refining the pomegranate painting. I suppose it may be a little hard to tell what I have changed since I haven't actually "covered" anymore of the canvas perse. But I built up a good layer of paint and continued to make increasingly specific observations of the tablecloth and fruits.

Grad school

I got the last of my applications in the mail today...


YEA!

Pomegranates 12" x 12"

I am still working on the baby/skunk cabbage thingy, but here is a smaller still life that I began yesterday. I am recovering from the push to finish the portfolio and the race to finish my last very large painting. This seems a little easier to tackle right now. I am considering it as part of a larger piece - three or perhaps nine same sized canvases with more pomegranates. We will see. Happy New Year to everyone!

Skunk cabbage and baby heads

I know...

I don't know...
I couldn't help it.

We spent Christmas in Silver City and I saw these amazing rattles at a local art gallery. (Click on Helen Wilson.)

This painting definitely has a direction of its own.

Sorry, the photo is most certainly not in sharp focus; but here is some of the work I have completed in the last two sessions.

Finished photo of Memphis posted under the Portfolio link.

AND In the Garden was accepted for a show next summer at the Central Gallery in Phoenix Public Library. YEA!

Mockingbirds 36" x 54"

I have started painting again - amongst the mess of all the grad school applications. This piece is on the same venetian red background that I used with the painting of Memphis. I like the effect upon the color that working on a darker ground has. This is a closeup of the composition. I'll show you the rest after I put in more time.

Slides for the Portfolio

Not a new image today, but enough of an artistic happening to post it on my blog. My slides didn't turn out. I spent two days this weekend orchestrating amazing feats of camera artistry and lighting technique (or rather my photographer friend, Scott, did the orchestration) only to find through a cruel twist of technological fate that the whole thing was for naught. So tomorrow the only thing to do is to do it all over again.

Nearing the end

I can't believe it! Blogger let me upload my photo! Wow. As you can see, I have spent hours painting stalks on this canvas. This painting is reaching a wrapping up point, and none too soon I might add. It's time to start shooting slides for gradschool!

The Patron Saint of Mothers

Here is the painting of Memphis after the photos were stitched together by a computer program. The bottom left hand corner in the foreground may appear strange. Through an oversight in my photographs the corner was empty after the autostitch was performed. So I tried my best to photoshop some virtual paint into the area. This is a fairly close representation of what it actually looks like. I haven't really taken any liberties. I have already put a lot more work into this piece - steadily painting stalks of sunflowers until my eyes cross. I'll post an updated photo in a few days. Meanwhile the list of colleges for application has been finalized - Rhode Island School of Design, Mass Art, Temple University, Virginia Commonwealth University, University of Washington, and Arizona State University. Now begins the arduous process of checking boxes and collecting the neccessary forms.

Post number 100: So much work!

I am going to have to fiddle around with a program Tyler found that will knit photos together. It is impossible to take a single photo of this piece at the moment, and I would bet that the piecemail presentation of this painting looks a little weird.

It is going very well. I have been painting my fingers to the bone as I am hoping to finish this piece and the painting of Tyler this month. That leaves the diptych of the apple and grackle from way long ago and the actual compilation of applications for next month. Phew. Why did they ever schedule this deadline over the holidays?!

A better photo

This painting is so large that is impossible to snap a photo of the entire composition in my piddly little studio. But most of the work I am doing is on the right hand side of the canvas at the moment so here is a good photo of that. (It's actually a little out of focus...sorry.)

Datura

I asked Tyler for a little bit of his biologist's mind and we discussed what I could add to the composition of my painting. I am afraid I will quickly tire of painting sunflowers so the "field" I had envisioned may have to be abridged. He suggested plants like thistle and teasle, and was fairly insistent that I have caterpillars wheedling their way through the picture (Yuck)...Today as I gathered some of those source photos for his good ideas I had a few of my own - datura, and a beautiful sphinx moth.

Mucho Memphis

I spent six hours painting today, phew! It's going really well. I was telling my friend, Nina, today that I think this painting is coming easily because I have sat on the idea for a while before beginning the actual work. I have already made quite a few compositional decisions, now it's just a matter of getting it down on the canvas. It doesn't hurt that I am racing to finish for my portfolio deadline.

Small addition

Wow, Blogger actually loaded this photo! That's a first in a few weeks. I snuck in an hour of painting today after a work shift and was able to lay in the sunflower. Sorry about the moll stick in the frame, but I didn't realize how distracting it would be when I quickly took the snap.

Memphis

I began a new painting today, and it's all very exciting. The painting is HUGE, and I started with a venetian red gesso ground. But I can't get blogger to load any of the photos of the piece, boo! Good thing Picasa Web Albums works. Just click on the link titled "portfolio" on the right hand side of this blog. Then you can click on the new photos for a close up peak.

Newly finished pieces

I have been wrapping a few things up as well as pushing to compile a portfolio for a series of college interviews I have on Saturday. Here are photos of a finished Eve, a reprinted linocut (white on cream so I apologize if it is hard to see), and a little more work I have put into the old painting of the squash. (Check the portfolio link to the right for pictures of the squash painting. I can't get Blogger to load it to this post for some reason.)

She said, "Let there be background"...

and there was.

Slowly plugging away...

I worked on this piece a little more today. Really I was just putting in some details on the prickly pear cactus and some highlights on the open fig. I also tried to work out the feet. I stared and stared at my feet in the mirror, and I think I've ended up with statuesque Rodin sized clonkers on the ends of my legs. But...I may leave them out of proportion. I'm not really going for photorealism here anyway. I have been puzzling over the composition of this piece as well. It seems empty compared to its twin - the painting of Tyler, and I am toying with the idea of laying a ground and horizon line; but pretty annoyed that I am thinking of doing this now. It will mean some backtracking... hmmm.