Taboo-B

Aristide Maillol, Flora (French 1861 - 1944) 65 x 19 x 13 1/2 in. Bronze Dallas Museum of Art, gift of Mr. and Mrs. Eugene McDermott

I want to share with you a bit of insanity. This is from an article that I came across that was printed in 2006 in the New York Times, so perhaps this is old news. But I fear we have not come far in the past few years.

Apparently, an elementary Art teacher in Frisco, TX, was dismissed from her classroom and banned from teaching anywhere in the county, because she brought her fifth graders into an Art museum in Dallas that exposed them to Nudity. She let them pass by "the marble torso of a Greek youth from a funerary relief, circa 330 B.C.; Auguste Rodin’s tormented “Shade;” Aristide Maillol’s “Flora,” with her clingy sheer garment; and Jean Arp’s “Star in a Dream.”images and sculptures". Wooooh. Can you imagine eleven and twelve year old students put under such duress?

Is this why the average American adult has an Art's education up to about the 6th grade level or is this the result? I'm so disappointed by our society. How can we allow images and videos of guns and violence to permeate this age group and then complain about their exposure to Fine Art that celebrates the human body, human condition or beauty?

Please share your thoughts. Perhaps, you have suggestions of how we can help to change this for the betterment of our society.

she's still going...

Mother Reading

oil on panel

20" x 16"

Flesh Tones

There are so many ways to get flesh tones, but I thought perhaps I could share my flesh tone palette with you (who are interested). My two strongest mentors in school were Stephen Douglas and Wade Reynolds (as far as I can tell, Stephen doesn't have a website, and his current work holds much less sway on me than his paintings from the era when I was his student, so I've included a picture from a catalogue of a show that was at the Arnot Art Museum at the end of 1999). These painters have extremely differing approaches to painting the figure and differing palettes as well. But as often happens, I used what I thought was best from each and tried to make it all combine into my own.

















Stephen Douglas, The Artist Advances Toward Middle Age, 1998 oil on linen 88" x 33"















Wade Reynolds, Seated Figure, oil on canvas (size unknown)

In one of the previous posts I mentioned the colors I place on my palette, but I didn't say how I mix them. As a reminder, here are the usual colors on my palette in the order placed counter clockwise on my palette (note this time my white is different from the Flemish White previously mentioned, and unless otherwise noted, all colors are manufactured by Old Holland):

Lead White with Mica (purchased from Robert Doak),
Green Earth,
Lead Tin Yellow,
Yellow Ochre,
Raw Sienna,
Burnt Sienna,
Vermilion,
Manganese Violet,
Raw Umber,
Burnt Umber,
Cobalt Blue

(occasionally I will add Cad-Red Medium, Olive Green, or Vine Black)

So off to the mixing... I use a palette knife to pre-mix my flesh tone starting with a mid-color-value. That approximately consists of 1 part Raw Sienna, 1 part Yellow Ochre, 1/2 to 1/4 part Burnt Sienna (depending on the ruddiness of the model). Without cleaning my knife I then start making tints of this by adding white to separate pools of this mid mixture. I also then add Green Earth to this mid mixture to aid in neutralizing some areas (bottom left mixture). I then clean off my knife and start my shades. Again, using the mid mixture, I add about 1 part Manganese Violet (for warm shadow masses), then the next puddle is that plus about 1/2 part Raw Umber. The next puddle is that mixture plus a tiny bit of Cobalt Blue and then the last puddle is that mix plus white. This also gives me a cooler neutralizer which doesn't affect value in the mid to light areas (as much as if I were to use the darkest puddle). These pre-mixed puddles act as a starting point. Once I get into the painting, I often add colors to these mixes using my brush. I find having these puddles at the ready speeds up my process greatly. It also gives the painting good color unity. The Lead-Tin Yellow is a really strong beast but is a clean yellow which I can add a tiny amount to my light flesh tones if needed. I use Vermillion in the same way.

And voila... now go to it and see what you can do!

Mother's Day

Seems only fitting that I should post my progress on this painting today. I was hoping to have more done by now. I've had one more 2 hour session from life and then another session (longer, but I lost track of time, so I can't be more specific) using photo reference. There is obviously much to be done still. Happy day to all the Moms out there!

Mother Reading, detail
oil on panel
20" x 16"



















Mother Reading
oil on panel
20" x 16"

More Family

Maybe it's like when you have a crack in a large dam, holding back the nourishing flood waters. Or maybe it's just a coincidence or strange timing, that has opened me to the idea of painting my mother. She is visiting from Boston this week to celebrate a birthday. Although now she gives much support to me being an artist, she wasn't always so enthusiastic. She's often warned of the hazards of pursuing a career in the Arts (that I would become a perpetual waitress). Her scientific mode of thought and her fear of what the future may hold, has until recently, prevented her from seeing the value of a career as a Fine Artist. She once told me that she NEVER wanted me to paint her portrait, because I make people ugly. To be fair, at the time I was in college and I was really pushing the psychology I found in my sitters (although I never considered that to be ugly). Having recently finished the portrait study of my son (and I am still working out the larger full figure composition), I must be more open to painting those I love because I got up enough courage to ask my mother to sit for me. Much to my surprise she complied. This is the first pass (about 2 hours in). I hope to get her to sit at least one more time before she leaves and then finish the background on my own time.



















Mother Reading
oil on panel
20" x 16"

Never Long Enough

Here is a drawing from today. These days, it seems that I'm always wanting more time than I've got. I would have liked to have gotten more of the environment and her feet resolved... but it is what it is.

Model Recline
charcoal on paper
18" x 24"

Portrait Study

UPDATE: 4.25.2009
I couldn't help myself... I had to work on this more. The eye on the left was bothering me, so finally on Friday, I got a chance to get to it. I'm glad I did, because all though it seems like minute changes, it really made a difference in likeness.

ORIGINAL POST:
For the last few weeks I've been working on this portrait study of my son Wyeth (I know, we are total art geeks for naming our son Wyeth, what makes it worse is that his older sister is named Sienna). Much like nature, it is very hard for me to paint my family, without feeling inferior in my skill. They are held up so high in my esteem, that I just can't see them clearly. Yet here, I am trying to conquer that notion, with one small step at a time.

This is a study for a much larger, full figure composition that has been brewing in my head for sometime. It is rather atypical of me to work so long on figuring out a painting. I usually can work off of a tiny thumbnail to get a painting started, but this one has such high meaning and importance to me, that I'm taking my time. What I've discovered from this study, is that I really need to work on getting accurate colors in my shadow masses. I use a very limited palette (Flemish White, Green Earth, Lead Tin Yellow, Yellow Ochre, Raw Sienna, Burnt Sienna, Vermilion, touch of Manganese Violet, Raw Umber, Burnt Umber, Cobalt Blue- in that order counter clockwise on my palette) and lately I indeed have found it a bit too limiting. This painting also has mixes with Cad. Red light.

Portrait Study of Wyeth

oil on panel

14" x 11"

Apex

Today, I got a few hours to steal away to do a landscape study for a big composition I'm putting together. I do not consider myself a landscape painter, so this was a bit intimidating for me. Nature is my church. It is where I go to find grounding, meaning, inspiration and peace. And yet, I hardly ever paint it. I think that is because I have such high reverence for it. I can never do it justice. For many cultures it is not permissible to depict their Deity, and I guess for me it has seemed the same. So here is my humble attempt at nature.


Apex Community Park, NC
oil on panel
8" x 10"

Share the Love

I want to share with you one of my new favorite blogs. Painting Perceptions is a blog by Larry Groff, who is a wonderful painter of both urban and aux naturale scenes (I am purposely avoiding the term plein air painter). This blog however does not focus on his work, but on what else, perceptual painting. What is perceptual painting, you ask? As Larry describes it, "perceptual painting is painting with your vision as well as all the other senses. Not just the obvious easel set up in front of a landscape or still-life but also paintings done from studies, even photos and memory on occasion. Perceptual painting is not just copying nature but painting life from both vision and experience. As Cézanne said, “Painting is nature seen through a temperament.”

I stumbled onto this site at a most opportune time. You see, since starting this whole blogging adventure, I have begun to question categories and where exactly I and my work fit in. That was an unexpected side affect of becoming a blogger. Over all, I have always had a confidence about my work and why I do it (for joy and being able to 'say' something). So to be shaken and distracted by other ideals was, as I said, unexpected. I guess I was naive in thinking realism was realism. Over time (you think I would have gotten this from art school) I've discovered that their are all shades of realism, with all different definitions. I've discovered my work does not embody the ideals of classical realism, nor the refinement of atelier style realism, nor am I an alla prima painter as I often spend several sessions on each painting. I think my ignorance was wonderful and wish I could go back to it. I didn't have such questions about my work. I simply enjoyed making paintings. I used the terms representational, figurative and realist interchangeably. Now I stammer when someone asks me what I do. Larry's blog has given me comfort by describing and giving examples of other artists who represent their world in a similar way. There is no pretension, or elitism in his statements or the work shown. There is more I could say, but I think you should just make your own discoveries by visiting Painting Perceptions often.

Larry Groff
Mt. Woodson Boulder Group #9
oil on panel
8″ x 10″

Pleased to Announce

I'm pleased to announce that I have been selected as one of the 2009-2010 artists to exhibit at Visual Art Exchange here in Raleigh. We still have not yet worked out all the particulars, like dates and what to show, but I'm excited to be showing work in this beautiful space, and working with the great people over at VAE. As more information materializes, I'll be sure to let you know here.

Visual Art Exchange 325 Blake St. Raleigh, North Carolina 27601

Open Book...

I can't decide. Do I show you what I'm working on or not? I'm doing a lot of comps and figuring out in general for my next big figurative painting. I don't always go through this process, often jumping into paintings and solving problems as I go. Should I share this process with you? Do I risk being seen as an artist with a lot of unfinished works? What if it all sucks, and I end up scrapping the idea completely? Open Book, full disclosure, or hidden secret production only showing the final gem image (or nothing at all if it doesn't work out)? I am really conflicted about this. Please share your thoughts...

Spectacles

Why don't figure models wear glasses more often? This model has a wowser of a body with beautiful skin tones to boot and as if that wasn't interesting enough, she decided to wear her peepers throughout the whole session. I hadn't realized until that moment that I don't often get the chance to draw glasses on hired models. It's easy to find people donning glasses when doing impromptu cafe drawings of strangers, but for some reason, models of both sexes usually choose to take off their glasses before stepping up on the model stand. Hummm??

Model with Glasses Reclining

charcoal on paper

18" x 24"

Model with Glasses
charcoal on paper
18" x 24"