Cherry Blossoms 2009

It's a little early -- the weeping cherry is in full bloom, but the others need another warm day or two.  While I was painting this a camera operator from a local news outlet filmed me.  Cherry blossom admirers stopped to watch and only a few asked "what are you painting?"  

A Little Modification

Back in the Studio

End of A Short Show

My show ran at the Yellow Barn Gallery this past weekend and  here's how it looked hung up.  Attendance was great -- well over 200 people came through the gallery -- and sales were ok.  I had struggled with pricing to ensure that I wasn't completely out-of-touch with the reality of an uncertain economic time, but in balance with the value of the work.  

Portrait of Sam

Something I swore I'd never do...

This is a painting of Biddeford Pool, Maine.  I wish I was there today, but I wasn't -- the painting was done using a photo from this past summer as a reference.  I swore I'd never paint from a photo.  For what it's worth, in my defense, it was an assignment in the class I'm taking to force myself out of my comfort zone.  I did not keep all the crisp edges that digital photography provides even though our eyes don't see that way.  I made sure that the painting was still about my vision (I did take the photo) and especially that it felt to me like Maine in its light, its idea and mood.  Excuses, excuses.  I will put in it my show next week and it will serve me right if it's the only painting that sells...

One 40 minute painting, one 10 minute sketch

Nude and Imagination

I've been reading Matisse on Art -- might as well admit that up front! -- and when looking at the same model, same pose I've had to work on for several sessions thought I'd make a bit of a leap.  First, I never paint only the left side of a pose, although I've painted the right side only plenty of times.  So that was the first thing.  Second, the question of what would be next to/behind the model to support the intensity of the color and the warmth of her body ... I didn't want to paint what was there.  After I painted the model, I turned to look out the studio window (which was shade-down, of course, to provide some privacy for the model) and painted the early spring trees.  The "wall paper," an imagined soft hydrangea blue print, came about because I wanted the texture of the background to support the brush strokes in the model.  

Why Artists don't get real work done

Here I am, swamped with volunteer stuff, a show coming up, all huge list of things I need to get done ... and I am working on "Some Peeps," an entry I hope to get ready for the Washington Post's Peeps Diorama contest.

This is the rough version.  My 11-year-old is helping me add more adoring fans and finish the set.   The entries are due March 15th.

Imagining the Still Life

I had started this painting (you can see an earlier version of it in a previous post) and when the still life was taken down, I had nothing to go on in terms of finishing it.  That is, except "what it needs."  It wasn't all that hard to identify what I wanted to finish/fix, but some of the choices would have been a lot clearer with the still life in front of me (never a photo -- sorry to those who believe in them, but I don't work that way).  It was actually freeing to deal only with the painting, much to my surprise.  This painting will dry in time for my March 21 show.  

First Day on the Water for BCC Crew

Today was the first day down at the Potomac for my daughter's crew team -- it was windy but beautiful.  The Kennedy Center is always a challenge to paint.  Its cantilever terraces loom over the water's edge, making it always seem too massive.  We've got a whole crew season I'll be working putting it into perspective.

Nude in the Studio, Again

I took a different approach to the nude in the studio today, making the touch even lighter.