From photos by my daughter and myself! Trying to stay loose, use big brushes and capture their spirit and how much I love them!
Sophie and Bindley hugging .....Nina not finished, but she is stirring up,a birthday cake for her Mom!
Nina's is a collage too.....papers for her hair, plus glitter! Papers in the green background too!
Here is the final version, she is wearing a dress and apron which I sewed for her....makes me smile!
It was a rainy day. I wanted to paint a girl curled up in a chair, reading.....
So I bit off quite a bit, putting in a window and more wall under the window ....
She was this far along after a 3 hour class.....I worked on her a lot. Sought input.
She grew, the chair shrank and straightened up. A plant appeared beside her , shadows were blue violet.
I collaged papers above her and under the window. I worked on her face, hands and feet (only one foot shows!). I took her back to class for more input.
It was decided that red/ coral is the dominate color, that blue violet and orange were fighting for second place, followed by green then white....so more orange less blue violet! Also more light around her as the center of interest...
So that is better...time to move on...the next painting will be a blond outside on a hillside by a small lake.
She is almost done now...awaiting final tweaks!
Working on a collage/acrylic painting of Black-eyed Susans....
16x20
Finishing this woman on a bicycle in a French farmyard.
Working on a collage/acrylic painting of Black-eyed Susans....
16x20
Finishing this woman on a bicycle in a French farmyard.
Close up. Painting is 16 x 20.
This painting/collage of the shared community of knitting is finished, I think. Cool and quiet, with a bit of joyful bright sunlight from the window, it honors good times with special friends!
I am painting these days to build up my body of work, so I am not anxious to make sales and find homes for these yet! The time will come, I know!
I keep ideas in a notebook.
This is a sketch I did from a magazine photo (National Geographic?) last summer. I am "on" a theme of women with a landscape....so I decided that she is Afghani. I found images of landscapes in Afghanistan, and chose this one to print out and add to my idea page.
Took this to painting class, Thursday, along with a blank canvas. I purchased cadmium orange on sale (!) and lightly covered the canvas. Then I took this stencil from Stencil Girl (she designs and sells lazer cut stencils)'
With the stencil, I added deep rose colored lines in the background. Much will be covered as I paint, but I hope to keep some where appropriate! I venture on....block in, using BIG brushes only the head and shoulders. The rose stencil will make a great drape on her shoulders! (Afghani infinity scarf, LOL?), so I allow some of it to show, and fill in the blue just a bit.
At this point, I had checked the Internet for images of Afghani women, only to find that many had been mutilated by Taliban justice, their noses and ears cut off! But they were strong images for sure, my heroine will still have her nose! I wanted to see the colors and textiles they wear. Here is one image I like(above), but she was facing the wrong way for this painting.
Still, how the light hits her face and the skin tones are good information.
I choose indigo violet/blue for her head scarf....and decide that I will try to work from my sketch, but since I feel a little blocked here, it is time to work on the landscape!
Blue violet mountains. Paint quickly with a big brush, leave the orange sky and half roses....good atmosphere feeling for strong war torn emotions....
There is large bag of collage materials available. I decide that this will help me break up the endless desert-like foreground. So I pull out those papers, and fibers which I like....there is even flat cork for a hill....
I realize that the cork "hill" is also shaped like a heliocopter. OK, that is evocative of wartime...... I guess everything down with GOLDEN gel medium.
Thinking more of the colors I am using, I decide I need more reds...WOW! Artistically, it is very fortunate that poppy fields are beautiful. Though opium trade is the dark side!
I study the images of Afghanistan's poppy fields and paint my landscape, even the heliocopter hill is covered I waving poppies. The woman's face is emerging, sunlight hitting her. I'm still blocked and not ready for the struggle of who she is.
I find this photo. Appropriately somber and pensive.
It would take a lot of change....tilt of head, lift of chin....so I try to skip all that re-doing....after all I like to paint quickly and keep it fresh.....in the meantime, I found red rice paper with golden strands imbedded, and made the foreground poppies more dimensional....unable to make her less pretty and more troubled, this is where I leave her now.
Hmmm, just seeing this on the screen, I notice I could make stronger shadows by her nose which could add character to her face. What troubles me is that it is lacking....so much for fast quick paintings! LOL!
Off to work on that now!
I jumped right in with some shadows...and think it made her more "real", living in a dark world....
All suggestions will be considered.
A 16x20 acrylic on canvas. Some art papers add texture.
Love this domesticity and peace!
The inspiration photo.....from Catholic Relief Services
Working loosely and with Nadine Ripplemeyer's excellent teaching, I painted this one.....
16x20, acrylic and torn paper. Very sunny and joyful!
Then using a photo take by my daughter, I made a painting of my granddaughter seeing the ocean for the first time.....
In progress....
Finished, I think!
I just finished this mixed media painting!
It is a work done in a class with Nadine Ripplemeyer, a local artist and business owner.
Have started 2 other paintings this week too....as well as this one finished of butterflies and milkweed.
