Meet Gigi, the giraffe.

After more than a year away, I am finally painting again!

Meet Gigi.
A blue giraffe! Well, she's blue right now, but that will change.
What you're seeing right now is her acrylic Phthalo Blue underpainting against a bright Yellow Orange Azo/Napthol Red mix (orangish) background.
After roughly sketching her with a black sharpie (not something I usually do), I washed the canvas with these bright colors, the opposite of what the top coat colors will be.
Ultimately, the sky will be shades of blue and Gigi will be shades of gold and orange with small bits of the bright underpainting peeking through here and there in the finished painting. I love that effect.
Colorful and whimsical are my goals with this painting, and so far, I'm digging the results.
I especially love her sweet face. She's got a dragonfly on her nose, and will be just slightly cross-eyed and grinning as she looks at it.
And, did I mention she's a full 6 feet tall?!
She's a diptych, two 18" x 36" canvases.

How did I find my way back to my easel and paints again after more than a year away?

Well, I've been pretty much a full time caregiver for my hubby these last 3 years as he's fought Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma and Myelodysplastic Syndrome.
And he's doing pretty darn good now considering what he's been through, including intensive Chemotherapy in 2011 (which thankfully put his Lymphoma in remission) and a Bone Marrow Transplant 20 months ago that has put his Myelodysplastic Syndrome into remission as well, but he still needs quite a bit of care. I can't leave him alone for long lengths of time.


So.
I did some minor remodeling of our home, which included converting our home office into a small (9'x10') studio inside the main part of our house.



To reach my other big ole studio (14' x18'), I had to go through two closed doors.
It was way too far removed from the main part of the house and way, way too far away from Brian for me to feel comfy painting there.
I simply couldn't relax or get in a painting zone not knowing if he needed me inside the house. I tried, but just couldn't do it.
In my new smaller studio, I can see and hear him, so I am now totally relaxed when I want to paint.
Yay!!

Yep, Gigi's going to be an adventure, and the perfect project to become reacquainted with painting again. I'm super excited to see where she leads me.
I'll post progress pics as I find small chunks of time to work on her.

'Sometimes, you just have to let it slide'

or ...
'No sense fretting about it'
~a-work-in-progress~
6" x 6" acrylic on canvas panel

I haven't decided if this one will be for sale or not.

Morning light filters through our window blinds on a few of Brian's guitar slides. 

(For those of you not familiar with what a guitar slide is,

here's video of Bonnie Raitt playing guitar with a slide.)

Placed on your finger, you make notes by sliding it on the guitar neck. They create a very distinctive sound.

Brian's got about a dozen slides, each one unique, and I think they make cool subjects for still life paintings.

I love the reflections in the metal slide.

This painting is almost done. I still need to finish bringing the sunshine in with highlights here and there, as well as a few minor tweaks on the metal slide.

I can work on these small canvases in the house, without being too isolated from Brian while I paint, so you will probably be seeing more of these smaller works from me for a while, although I am still working on the giant canvas 'Matheson Hammock Memories' too.

"Men plan and God laughs." ... old Yiddish proverb

I started this year with a plan. To chronicle, 'A YEAR IN THE LIFE' , a year in my life as an artist, with a focused plan to grow my art business and expand my art endeavors. I looked forward to seeing where that new, more focused approach would take me.

Then, on a dime, in March, the plan changed. Brian's lymphoma returned and I had to put my 'YEAR IN THE LIFE' project, along with a whole lot of painting, on hold.

Being there for, and taking care of this man, my best friend, my husband Brian, is (happily) getting almost every bit of my attention.
So, in the spirit of this painting's title, I'm learning to let (the less important) stuff slide right now. And it's ok. It's been necessary to help me these last 6 months.
My (overgrown!) flower beds are actually pretty, in a wild untamed sort of way, and adjustments with what chores are really necessary everyday, has allowed me to still find small snippets of painting time.
Using these small canvases allows me to paint near Brian, to be close by if he needs me.

This newest Non-Hodgkins lymphoma journey has certainly had it's ups and downs.
The most recent up- the chemo is working! (as per PET scan results).
The most recent down- Brian, weak from chemo treatments, fell and broke his back last Sunday night.
Our whole journey, thus far, is chronicled on my blog page, B's journey.

Thanks for visiting.... and please consider becoming a blog follower while you're here. (Click the blue 'Join This Site' button found in the right margin just above all the little thumbnail images of blog followers so far.)
My (somewhat lofty) goal is to perhaps hit 50 followers by years end.

Matheson Hammock Memories

A peek at the process.

I found time to paint today and was able to get the sky almost done on this big canvas. It just needs some minor tweaking where the black gesso is peeking through the highly textured areas a bit too much. Otherwise, I like it. My apologies, as this photo is not very good. It was taken tonight and the colors, brushwork and texture are lost in the poor lighting. It's much prettier in person.

As I was working on this big canvas, I got to thinking about some of the beaches I used to visit in the late 1960's as a teenager growing up in Miami.

One of them was Matheson Hammock Park.  A man-made atoll on the Biscayne Bay, near my hometown of Coral Gables. It was built in the early 1930's,  a part of President Roosevelt's Civilian Conservation Corp that helped put unemployed men to work during the depression.
Back in the day, it was a beautiful place to spend a day at the beach. I hear it's not quite as nice now, which is too bad, but I'm painting it as if it's still in it's heyday.

The only photo I have of me as a baby, was taken at Matheson Hammock Park. I'm in the water, being held by my mom. I've always been fascinated by that photo, probably because it's my only baby pic and because my mom looks so happy. All heck broke loose in my family a few years later, and I pretty much rarely saw my mom happy again. Heck, I rarely saw my mom at all.

Reminiscence emotions got a hold of me and I decided to change the random location of my original beach painting, to this beach at Matheson Hammock Park.
I love it when I have an emotional connection to a painting I'm working on. It takes the painting experience up a notch.
This change of location meant I had to add the sea wall/sandbar and a few palm trees and I had to make the water calm. It's almost like a tidal pool at this beach. The water softly meets the sand, so the big waves I had started in my original layout had to go bye-bye.

Before I added the sandbar and trees to the canvas, I used a technique I learned from artist Robert Vickrey. He painted with egg tempera. When he wanted to add an element to one of his paintings, (such as a hat on a child) he would often place a piece of clear acetate on his (dry) canvas, painting the idea on the acetate first, to see if he liked it. He could move the acetate around, helping him with placement, perspective and such, before he actually painted the new element directly on his canvas.
He, of course, did not use the acetate on wet paint. So, if you use this idea, let whatever medium you are using dry first. Because I use acrylic paint, which we all know, dries in a nano second, I usually don't have to wait long if I want to use the acetate.

I use 3M Transparency Write-On Film. Sold in a box of 100 sheets (8.5x10.5) for about $22. Another neat thing about these sheets is they will static cling to the canvas. Just rub the sheet around on something to activate the cling. No tape needed.


Here are my trees, sketched on an acetate sheet to see if I liked the idea or not. I put the sandbar where one of the original waves was. You can see the lights in my studio shining on the acetate sheet.

The reference photo for my original beach/umbrella idea is one I created by mashing several photos together with photoshop.

I had a photo of a plain umbrella on the beach. I wanted a patterned umbrella, one of my own design, so I replaced the plain umbrella with a polka dot umbrella I found in an advertisement. Fortunately it's perspective jived pretty good with the original (plain) umbrella so it fit in nicely.

The polka dots became perspective reference points for me so I could create the patterned umbrella correctly. I wasn't worried about copyright issues using a published photo, since it was going to be SO different from the original. It was just a perspective tool for me.

 Here's the painting from my last blogpost, before I added the sandbar and trees. I'm glad the silly cartoon clouds seen here are gone now.

Brian's latest battle with lymphoma has kept me out of the studio quite a bit, so my painting updates will be sporadic for a while.
I can't wait to find a chunk of studio time again soon as I'm really having fun with this painting.


Thanks for visiting!

Paint it Black...

or... 'Rocky Mountain Bye'

There were several things I really liked about this painting, before I gessoed the entire canvas black! 

One was the tree canopy... the leaves....  another, the black edges peeking out here and there. I liked that concept. 

One mistake I made with this painting, was tackling a new style without a reference photo on a HUGE canvas ...what was I thinking?

Whenever I changed my mind on a composition element, it was ridiculously time consuming to make the change throughout this gigantic canvas... and then my AAADD* would kick in, making painting a chore (painting should not be a chore!) 'til I finally said "enough!".

But the biggest reason (besides not having a reference photo) for starting over on this big canvas was I simply decided I didn't want a giant Colorado landscape in my living room. This painting is for our home and this canvas is meant to go back to the same area it's hung for 10 years. It's was an (unfinished) ocean scene for 3 years, and I didn't know how much I liked having a waterscape in that spot 'til it was gone. The forest was pretty, but it wasn't water.

This poor ole canvas has been gessoed over 3 times before. It's first two incarnations were colorful abstracts, then it was the simple (unfinished) sea scene. Each time I brought the Colorado landscape in from my studio to see if I liked the colors in my living room's east light, and I'd find myself wishing I'd stuck with an ocean theme. When I mentioned this to Brian, he simply said, go with your feelings. 

Wow. Duh. I couldn't get the black gesso on the canvas fast enough. (except for a few parting photos of the spots I liked). At the time I decided to gesso the whole darn thing, I was happy with most of what I'd finished on the painting... so I took photos of the parts I liked and will use those ideas in future works.

This time, with a reference photo in hand, and a whimsical patchwork umbrella idea brewing in my head, I started this giant canvas's newest life. An homage to my hometown, Coral Gables and to the beach... my ocean. I miss the ocean.

This is definitely a work in progress. The umbrellas will all be COLORFUL, the sand almost white, and I think as soon as I'm done posting this,  those silly cartoonish clouds are going to float right on out of the painting. 

I'm trying to channel a soft, old fashioned vintage post card feel with this. Wish me luck.

 

Thanks for visiting! ... and if you like to see what this giant canvas (finally?) ends up being, please consider becoming one of my blog followers.

*AAADD- age accentuated attention deficit disorder  :o)

'Rocky Mountain High'

Under-painting of a work-in-progress-

3.5' x 4' Acrylic on Canvas

When I was a little girl, I loved crayons and coloring books.... I loved to color! I loved COLOR!

I spent a good deal of my childhood in a state-run orphanage. Sometimes, local charities would deliver donated toys and if those goody boxes had crayons and coloring books, and if  I was one of the lucky kids with a chance to use them, I was thrilled.

Back then, using the black crayon, I'd carefully trace all the lines of the design. Then I'd fill each area with color. Lots of color. Layered colors. This look of beautiful colors, outlined in black, has always been a favorite of mine. I think that's why I was drawn to becoming a glass artisan as well. I love the brilliantly colored glass bordered by the dark lead came outlines. Simply love it.

A few weeks ago, I decided to explore this idea a bit with paint. Bright colors, darkly outlined here and there. I had this big (3.5' x 4') canvas that I'd gessoed black. I started drawing, using the medium and dark colors of the under-painting (this image didn't capture the Prussian/ultramarine blue sky at all), to compose a Colorado mountain scene. Currently, I'm just playing with colors and shape. Once I'm satisfied with the composition, I'll start adding more colors with an emphasis on brushstrokes. I want to play with light. I want this painting to shimmer! 

I'm working top to bottom, and the bottom third of the painting, under the trees, is still unknown. I've got this vague image in my head of dappled light hitting the ground under the trees with a few flowers sprinkled here and there. I'm chasing that illusive idea, trying to capture it with paint. Right now, it's still mostly black gesso. 

So far, there are a few parts of this painting I sorta like, and if nothing else, it's given me a chance to simply play with paint. A little escape from the reality of my Brian's ongoing battle with cancer. He's sick today, so to stay close to him, I'm on the computer in the house rather than out in my studio (it's too isolated from B). Since he was diagnosed, there's been no time to blog....little time to paint. I wasn't even going to show any work-in-progress photos of this random experiment, but I've missed blogging (it's been 3 months), so what the heck. 

I'm only getting small, random chunks of time to paint, sometimes having to put my brushes away for days, at a moment's notice. With this newest experiment in style, I've been able to come back to this canvas days later and easily pick up where I left off. I need the flexibility this style is providing. It's allowing me to be creative....to paint.... and I need to paint. I don't know where this painting is going for sure, but if it ends up somewhere I don't like, there's always black gesso. In the meantime... I'm still chasing.

click image to enlarge



"California Dreamin'..." 2006
24" x 36" x 3/4"
acrylic on canvas

SOLD

Scolnik collection, Washington, DC

I am a huge fan of old VW micro-buses and they frequently show up in my work. 

"California Dreamin'..." is a painting made up of 24 separate 6" x 6" ocean and beach paintings on one canvas. There's a classic old VW van starring in one of the mini paintings.  It was a fun painting to do. I divided the canvas into 24 squares, then played at the beach in each one. Some simple, some more detailed, together a fun mix.

Once again, to keep this blog visually interesting, I am featuring a painting from my archives. I haven't painted for a week. I try to post at least once a week, so, if I don't have any new paintings to share, I'll find an old favorite to feature.

I have been called away from my studio for the last week by the arrival of cooler temperatures and a deadline. November 8th, the city of Tucson is once again providing it's free Bulky Trash pick-up. I have a huge amount of tree trimming to do, and must take advantage of the time and energy saved by this service. It is soooo much easier to drag whole branches to the curb, without having to break them down into bite size chunks.

I had about 2 hours into a new VW van Daily Painting, when it hit me that I was burnin' daylight by not getting outside and getting the trimming started. Once that thought had crossed my mind, that was it. My OCD kicked in and I couldn't give "Rusty '59" my undivided attention anymore. Might as well get the chores done.

Tucson gives us a two week notice of the pick-up and while that might sound like plenty of time, I always seem to cut it close (pun alert) with the serious tree trimming I need to do in that timeframe. Now that I'm a wee bit older, it seems to take me a wee bit longer to get it all done. I even have to climb one of the trees I trim, although I kinda like that part. I get up in that tree and sit there looking around for a while, taking in the view, and then, I thank my higher power for letting me still be able to climb trees at my age. Yep, I like that part.

"Rusty '59"
~a work in progress
6" x 6" x 1/4"
acrylic on canvas board

I've finished the first week of yard-work, I'm half way done, so, it's just for one more week, that the "Rusty '59" will have to keep on rusting. I'm looking forward to getting back to that little canvas.

Instead of painting each morning, I'll be donning my gardening gloves and getting to task outside. Thank goodness I love to garden. Play in the dirt. It feeds my soul. It centers me. It's all good.

Having made it through another hot summer here in the desert southwest, I'm looking forward to the next 5 months or so of our beautifully mild temps. Coffee and breakfast on the patio weather! Lunch on the patio weather! Heck, dinner and dancing on the patio weather! Yippee! And the yard-work will be done! Trees trimmed, gardens planted! Double Yippee!!

Now, on an entirely different note, here's a helpful hint for you other artists using small canvases.

The 6" x 6" canvas covered boards like the one I'm using on "Rusty '59", are only about 1/4" thick and quite lightweight. It's hard to keep them in place while pushing paint around on them, so I've come up with a simple way to keep them from moving while I paint.

Reusable adhesive putty, found in just about any store for around $3. Great stuff!

See how I use it on my newest blog page, 
HOW TO KEEP REALLY SMALL CANVASES IN PLACE WHILE PAINTING.

click image to enlarge

"The Girl" 2010
ACRYLIC ON 22" X 28" X 3/4" GALLERY STRETCHED CANVAS
not for sale

~a work in progress~

I had so hoped to have this done by now. But once again, studio time took a back seat to life's requests. So, I will finish tomorrow (in a perfect world). My goal was to get the finished painting posted this evening, but this work in progress will have to do. I also want to give this to The Girl, whom I will see tomorrow. She is an amazing subject, absolutely stunning.

It is 90% done.  Her hair is blocked in, but not finished and there are still a few things (skin, jewelry and such) that need fine tuning, but it's close enough to post as a work in progress.

I am pleased with the results of this one. Once I get her hair and skin done, she will look even better! 

This was supposed to be a one day painting, but that plan got sidetracked again by.....life.  I guess if you added up all the hours I've spent on this one, it's actually closer to a two day painting, spread out over 3 days. I've got about 12 hours into it so far and I successfully balanced hubby, friends, family and home time with painting. Yippee!

Once again, since this was a brand new style, I played around with different ideas, painting over the stuff I didn't like, which added to easel time.

I used a regular photo of the girl, playing with colors and style, trying to make it dramatic. It sort of reminds me of a comic book character. I think this might become a popular style.

I am excited to add this new style to my portraiture repertoire. 

I'm also excited my painting a day goal, though not reached, did once again get me back in the studio painting. 

So, for now, I think I will continue to be happy with a painting a week. :O)

click on image to enlarge

"Peace~Richie and Me"
ACRYLIC ON 24" X 36" X 1.5" GALLERY STRETCHED CANVAS

~A work in progress~

My brother Richard came to visit from Durango last week. He comes down a couple of times a year and we just play and have fun the whole time he's here.

He's 9 years older than me and in 1966, when he was just 21 years old, he petitioned the courts of Dade County, Florida to become the legal guardian of both me (12 yrs old) and my little brother, Geoff (11 yrs old), rescuing us from what would probably have been many more years in Kendall, Florida's state run home for children. Our parents were hopeless alcoholics, and couldn't care for us, so the state stepped in when we were little and placed us in the dependent section of Kendall. We were there 6 years before Richie was able to get custody of us.

He's not just my brother, but a papa of sorts. I can't thank him enough for the sacrifices he made at such a young age to take on the likes of Geoff and me. We were a lot to handle and he was awesome to take on the task. I will never be able to thank him enough.

This painting is taken from an old snapshot of me sitting on his shoulders the week I turned 18 in February 1972. I'm shooting a couple of peace signs, but it sort of looks like I'm giving him rabbit ears. I am also pleased that captured for posterity will be my favorite shirt with the peace sign zipper pull, and Richard's flowered shirt. Our clothes back then were so cool! Funny, it's all back in style now.

I am once again using the Indian Yellow/Thio Violet wash technique seen in 'Tornado Road', 'View from a VW', and 'First Lesson'.

I really think most of the painting is done, except the skin tones. They are still just under- painted. I will bring out more of our features as I brighten our skin tones to the proper shades seen under full sunlight. I've also got a bit more to do on our clothes, but they're close.

I am going to leave quite a bit of this painting rough. I am liking the abstract quality of the sky and trees and although it looks unfinished, I like it. I also like how the warm washed canvas is peeking though, leaving a neat glow around my hair and our clothes. I'm not changing it. I'm thinking the rough sketched look of the background will be a neat contrast to the bit more finished look of Richie and me. We'll see. I may change my mind, but for now, that's my story and I'm sticking to it. :O)

I'm hoping to find time to finish this painting next week. Let me know by a click on the 'like it' button below if you're following this one, and I'll make it a point to stay on task. I am so easily distracted by other things, but perhaps your interest will help get this finished.

Thanks for visiting!

a new look
My regular visitors to this blog will notice it's new look... for one thing, I've decided to start capitalizing letters again that are supposed to to be, capitalized....I'm not even sure why I stopped capitalizing, I just started doing it one day and the (bad) habit stuck for a few years. I am also using a new blog template. I like the soft green color.

Regular visitors have noticed that I haven't posted anything new since January of this year. ....well, that's about to change too as I'm headed back into the studio after taking a bunch of time off from painting to explore other things that interest me.

Painting is just one part of my life and it had once again taken a back seat while I nurtured those other interests... like my music... my garden.... and my family.

But even when I'm not painting, I'm thinking about painting, inspired by things in my everyday life that I know will make great subjects once I return to the studio... I've been taking photos... jotting down notes... and studying the colors and shapes of this beautiful world. All done knowing that, once I dust off my brushes, I'll have some exciting new ideas to explore.

Two things that have been continually beckoning me to paint them during this hiatus have been The Girl and the guitar... that's all I'll say for now... I'll let the paintings speak for themselves as they are posted.

Oh, and some of the works in progress from previous posts will get revisited, with a few of them hopefully getting finished once the brushes get wet again.

I think it might be interesting (for other *AAADD's like myself) to see the many incarnations some of my paintings go through. I try not to give up on a painting just 'cause it loses my attention.... but I will stop working on that painting until I get a new idea that excites me to continue. I get the best results when I'm enthusiastic about what I'm doing. Consequently, the look some of my painting's start out with, is vastly different from where they end up. This said, I think now would be a good time to add a photo of where the tornado painting is right now. It was the subject of my post in January, and it doesn't look anything like it did then. It's not finished yet, and who knows what the final painting will look like, but I'm telling myself it's not always the destination, but the journey, that counts. So far, Tornado Road has been the one less traveled, but fun, nonetheless. It's certainly turning out to be more colorful than I anticipated.



"Tornado Road"- a work in progress
I've added opaque shades of blues and violets over the warm Indian Yellow/Thio Violet washed under painting. I think greens and yellows will be next but that will depend on which one of my personalities shows up at the easel.

Note- I add labels to these posts, so to follow the progress of a particular work in progress, use the label feature at the bottom of this post, or the links found in the margin on the right.

*AAADD-Age Activated Attention Deficit Disorder :O)

tucson tornado watch
last night tucson was under a tornado watch... highly unusual for us... actually i can't remember ever being under a tornado watch before... and i've lived here since 1971.

i am excited about this new style of painting i'm exploring.... the indian yellow/thio violet wash over a painted sketch.... i have used it on the last two paintings i've done and really liked the resulting little patches of that underpainted warm glow left peeking out here and there.

while painting these last few weeks, i kept glancing around at the half dozen or so paintings in various stages of completion surrounding me in the studio... bigguns and little uns, all abandoned because i wasn't excited about what was happening on the canvas.... it's not unusual for me to put aside a canvas that's not working...could this new style work to bring them back to life?

several of those unfinished canvases kept catching my attention ... they looked like perfect candidates for this new warm wash underpainting i am playing with, even though they were a bit beyond a painted sketch... the biggest drawback was that they already had color on them... and the warm IY/TV wash would look dull over the existing blues on these canvases.... any existing warm and white areas would be just fine with this glaze over them.

this morning i went into my studio and picked up a painting i had started several years ago... a landscape with a tornado about to skip across a rural road....it caught my eye...hmmm....wonder why? ......decided it was the one to be reworked with the warm glazed underpainting.



this old tornado painting needed to be readied for the IY/TV glaze underpainting.....kind of creating an underpainting for an underpainting... not something i usually do, but if this works, maybe those other lonely ole paintings might finally have some attention paid to them too.

unfortunately i forgot to take a photo of this painting as it has looked for over a year, tucked away in a corner of my studio. ...it was simply a very rough washed sketch...it had some dark details with washes of ultramarine blue and alizarin crimson in the sky...the road and fields were washed in warm siennas.

as shown above, i decided to block in white over any areas of blue, to remove as much blue hue as possible ...my reasoning was orange over blue = mud... and i don't want a muddy sky... i also dry brushed white over most of the canvas to soften all the other colors.... i like to see the little canvas nubs created when a dry brush of paint is dragged over it. ....i'm thinking, these little white dots will also become warm when the IY/TV wash is added... of course, this may not work in the real world, but nothing ventured, nothing gained... i mean, after all, this painting has been waiting quite a while to come back to life.

a small hint of blue did still remained after several quick layers of white... but not much, so after letting those layers dry thoroughly, i applied the wash....when i need a layer to dry quickly, i will often times use a blow dryer to speed up the process....can you believe i sometimes need acrylic paint to dry even faster than it does naturally.



here it is with the wash... kinda neat... next session i'll start blocking in the opaque colors, and bring out details, making sure i leave this wash here and there....how much i leave showing will depend on what the painting tells me to leave...i envision the finished work an abstract landscape.... bringing it to life should be FUN!

click on photos to enlarge

'view from a vw' 2010
ACRYLIC ON 40" X 23" PANEL
SOLD
private collection, Tucson, Az

i occasionally work with a local faux artist, janie mccourt, when one of her clients needs a custom artpiece... she came to me with a couple of photos and an idea... her client was having a custom shadowbox made to hide their wall mounted tv when they weren't watching it... they needed a two panel painting that would slide open when they wanted to watch tv... when closed, it would look like a framed artwork... i haven't seen the shadowbox, but i understand it's pretty neat... janie supplied the canvas supports for the painting, 2 custom sized somewhat rigid 20" x 23" panels... the main reference photo was one the client had taken of a favorite spot in our beautiful desert... combined with another photo of theirs they'd taken of a glowing tucson sunrise.

"sure", i said.... "two days?" ...."no problem."

what the heck was i thinking!!??.....obviously a momentary lapse of reason on my part... i've rarely painted anything in two days, (except for my more abstract adventures)... and i'd only done a handful of paintings in 2009...this was a pretty big canvas too.

janie and her clients were quite accommodating with my request for a bit more time...and a mere week later, a 'view from a vw' was delivered... yep, that's what i'm calling it, 'cause there was this one rock that kept looking like a vw microbus no matter what i did to it...of course, once i saw it as a microbus, that was it (have i mentioned my OCD)... i kept trying to make it look like just a rock (whatever that is?) until i finally decided to embrace that rock's 'microbus' resemblance and be ok with it... ....now, go on......look at it again...you see it too ... it's that whimsical westfalia rock....don't ya love it! ( it also looks a bit like a hedgehog, or a silverstream trailer, but i went with vw microbus 'cause i'm a bit obsessed with them)... i could have completely changed it's shape, but the client wanted that spot painted and that spot has that rock, and that rock is what it is, so. :O)

reference photos

on my last blogpost, i mentioned this 'new' style i'm currently playing with... Indian Yellow/Thio Violet washed over painted sketch......used it again with this painting and i know it probably had something to do with the extra time needed.... i could have probably finished a few days earlier if i had done this in one of my more familiar styles, but then, what fun would that be?..... i actually was able to discover some neat new canvas magic playing with this.

clockwise from top left are a few 'work in progress' shots.

black and white painted sketch.... Indian Yellow/Thio Violet wash...and a few showing the sky and mountain colors going on... i let bits of the warm underpainting show on the edges of stuff here and there.

an alternate title i considered was "ocoti!!o" because of that 'in your face' fellow in the foreground... client's wanted it included to sort of camouflage the seam between the two panels when closed.

if you have a photo of a favorite spot that you want painted, you can contact me at jennacorkill@cox.net ....i also do house portraits....and people portraits...and pet portraits.... and.... well, you get the idea.

click images to enlarge

"first lesson"2009
ACRYLIC ON 12" X 16" X 3/4" GALLERY STRETCHED CANVAS
private collection, Tucson, AZ

i am still a self-taught artist.... no formal training yet unless you count the one 'arts and rec' painting class i took in 1980.... i have learned quite a bit from books, but most of my learning has been at the easel, trying this, experimenting with that, painting over THAT, trying it again... painting over it..... AGAIN... chasing that bright, elusive ???....(butterfly of love)

sometimes, clouds clear, stars align and the painting gods help me make sense of the bits of book learning stuff which may have actually stuck to my attention challenged grey cells... composition, perspective, and color mixing knowledge align with the hands on experience gleaned from many painting experiments... and... something clicks... not even the (challenging) physics of acrylic paint hold me back and i finish up with a painting i like more than most.....acrylic paint...really? can it dry any faster? how 'bout painting with it while living in the DESERT? ...can you say ARIDzona.

thankfully, after several months of not putting a single brush stroke on canvas, i was able to pick up my brushes and produce this latest portrait.... it is easily one of my favorites.... as well as being a portrait, it can stand alone as a figurative painting, a direction i really want to take with my future portrait commissions whenever possible... you can appreciate this little father son moment forever captured on canvas even though you don't know them personally.






i'm experimenting with a new painting style, again!... this short attention span brain of mine seems to need constant stimulation so i'm always trying out new ideas... this sort of explains the diversity of styles seen in my finished works...my multiple personality disorder also plays a part :O) .

right now, over a painted rough sketch, i'm playing with brushing the entire canvas with an Indian Yellow, Thio Violet wash... i want bits and pieces of that warm glow to peek out here and there as i add layers of paint to the canvas..

the single reference photo for this portrait can be seen just above the painting... this was a cell phone photo so the quality left something to be desired, but i like the moment captured so much, i decided to use it anyway...i made a cropped copy of the baby's face to help with detail along with a black and white enlargement to help me with values... click on the finished portrait above to see bits of the warm glow i let peek out here and there all over the painting... created kind of an aura... i like it.

A New 'TALL TREE' Painting!

The last few days have been quite productive... and fun...... in the midst of launching my new little website several weeks ago, i kept mentioning to brian how slloooowww my computer was, that i thought it needed a bigger brain... i was spending quite a bit of time working on the new website, but was in 'wait mode' a lot, three steps ahead in my mind, trying to be patient while my computer took it's time thinking about ????... i was getting frustrated which is unusual... i'm usually a really patient person.

So imagine my delight when a few days ago the birthday fairies delivered a new computer!!!.....for me!!! ...i thought all i had wanted was a bigger memory card until this new thing showed up with it's fancy big monitor and sleek design... i've gotta say it was love at first sight!

The computer i had been using was a hand me down from brian... and trust me, his hand me downs are just fine, but it's computer brain was way too small for my newfound geek adventures..... it took brian a few days to get all my data transfered and load the programs i use, so now i'm playing catch up for the few days of lost computer time... i'm having so much fun with this new speedy computer.... thank you bunches brian!

I did a lot of painting while i was computerless... and had a blast!...worked on multiple canvases, including emma's gerbera daises, some WIP's and a new 'tall tree' painting.... it has really neat texture and the colors remind me of warm cherry wood tones... i also used a few metallic copper highlights that look great.... the tree branch texture is especially nice.

Making progress on 'venetian pool'.... the water, the long brick steps that all the little kids would sit on while we listened to our swim teachers, the pergola with it's allamanda vines, the loggia.... there will be many little points of interest in this painting because the actual 'VENETIAN POOL' is just like that... full of beautiful little surprises... the coral walls that have fern growing right out of them, the old carved stone benches , the beautiful old doors now painted periwinkle blue, the archways, wonderful stairways, the waterfalls, the fountains, the sandy beach... they are all just begging to be stars of their own in future paintings... for those of us who grew up with this historic pool as a daily part of our childhood, these paintings will have added meaning...



These detail shots show progress on the background sky and palm trees.

I think this is one of my current favorites to work on... let me know along the way if you like it too.

Venetian Pool~a work in progress

Here's a view of the whole 24" x 36" canvas of my current work in progress 'Venetian Pool'... this is a view of the shallow pool where i learned to swim in the late 1950's.

venetian pool, a work in progress

As i've mentioned in previous posts, i always have multiple works in progress... this is cropped detail of "venetian pool", a current work in progress featuring the historic Coral Gables landmark where i learned to swim as a toddler many many many many, ok, maybe not that many, years ago... the painting will measure 24" x 36" when completed and this little detail only reveals a small portion of the overall painting... this will be a fun one to follow.

i was born in Coral Gables and Venetian Pool was one of my favorite places to visit... it's been around since the 1920's and was once a coral rock quarry pit that was turned into this magnificent pool... it's history is wonderful... it's 820,000 gallons of water are emptied and refilled every night from cool underground springs... and it looked remarkably the same as i remembered it from the '60's when i went home for a visit in 1997... i took a bunch of pictures and this painting is one of many i want to do from that visit home.

"ANNIE" ...also know as 'the boudge dog'

"ANNIE" ...also know as 'the boudge dog'

~a work in progress~

I am currently working on a half dozen new paintings, all in various states of completion... sometimes, when i start spending too much time on a painting, i begin to paint in circles, with little progress and poor results... so i step away from it for a while... i put it aside.......if i find i still want to continue painting during that session, i'll start playing with another 'work in progress'... often times, after i've finished playing with some of these different canvases, i'll return to the painting i put aside and be amazed at how clearly i can now see what the next step will be.