New Exhibit at Gallery B Nov 6 - Dec 19

 "Ending 2020," an exhibit of my work and artist Sara Liebman, will be on display at Gallery B from November 6 - December 19 at 7700 Wisconsin Avenue, Bethesda MD.  The gallery will be open to mask-wearing art lovers on Fridays and Saturdays from 12-4 pm.  Come join us and cheer for the end of 2020 with some new artwork for your home or office!

Lobsters, Again???

The top 5 ft x 3 ft oil painting of lobsters is still on my easel, not done yet.  But I am loving painting lobsters again.  The image below is a 9" x 12" gouache painting I did from my live model in Maine, done on slippery yupo paper.  

I shared the painting of the lobster below with a friend of mine, whose reaction "Lobsters again?" made me laugh.  Did anyone say to Monet, "waterlilies again?" and suggest he find a new subject?  Well, lobsters are my waterlilies.  I still have more lobster paintings in me.

Seawall, Maine

When I was in Maine a week ago, I went out to Seawall, a natural rock formation on Mount Desert Island along the coast.  I intended to paint there, but the weather was getting stormy, so I sketched in a notebook, took reference photos and worked on a oil painting when I got back in the studio.    

I've been painting in gouache so much lately that the oil paint felt like great.  I loved playing with it and having it move around and mix.  And the soft edges!  What a lot of fun.

Digital Painting

I have had Procreate software on my iPad for at least a year and I have been playing with it, but never really understanding all its features and how it works.  I finally was nudged by my friend Marie to take a class in digital painting.  I love it!  What an amazing tool and so much fun to play with.

The process we were urged to use followed classic drawing techniques, building a face by drawing the skull, the muscles, and layering on up.  The layer feature in the software makes this really work.

We were given the assignment of a profile face with dramatic lighting.  I uploaded a photo of a famous actress, and drew with that as my reference.  You can see the results in time-lapse video.

Finding Creativity

I'm like everyone else struggling to make sense of the world today and imagining what the future will be like.  One thing I love about painting is that it gets me out of the wordy world -- so much talk, so much writing, so much sound -- and into a place where paint is the expression.

I've been trying out online workshops and open studios and much to my surprise, I've been loving them.  And in spite of being largely isolated in my home, I'm in these online sessions with people in Madrid, in Dublin, in Texas, Seattle and you get the idea.  Connecting through paint isn't like connecting through words, it's almost like the paint bypasses the brain and goes straight to the heart.  Thank you to the Seattle Artist League, Atelier Dojo in Texas, Peggi Kroll Roberts in California and the Art Digger Lab in Madrid for a lot of inspiration.'

I'm working on on a new painting that I've got in my studio, where I'm.using a wire figure and a wooden person  (studio models used for exploring ways the body moves).  I'm. hoping to express in paint thoughts that completely are failed by any words I can say.

here's the original painting

 I've also been challenged to take a successful past painting and repaint it, thinking of new ways to approach the composition and expression of the paint.  Years ago, I painted metro escalators and here's the original painting and the new ideas I'm working out based on that work.

and my new approach

Brooklyn Row Houses

Here's two works in progress -- both 36 x 48" in oil.   I'm working on them simultaneously!  I have a show at Gallery B in Bethesda in April with my studio mate Sara Liebman and I plan to have these two plus a few other cityscapes to show.

this was the early stage of the above painting

Cityscapes

I'm now working on cityscapes in preparation for a show coming up in April.  I've been doing some sketches and have just started on a series of larger works.  More to come!

This is a small oil study of a street in Crown Heights, I'm planning to make a larger painting of it

Work in progress on another cityscape -- this is a 36 x 48" painting

Wedding Dresses - Updated!

This is the final wedding dress painting, I ditched the hangers and added flowers and wine glasses to the scene

Happy to be back in the studio after my latest bump in the road (4th knee replacement!).  I saw a friend's daughters' wedding dresses hanging in her house not long ago and I thought how much fun it would be to paint them.  The dresses are so different in style -- apropos of each daughter's personality -- and I added a flower girl dress and my own old wedding dress to the mix to hang in my studio.

I sketched in gouache today to try to get down some ideas about how to approach a possible painting of the dresses.  I tried a few different backdrops, including an old quilt, but went with plain gray panels.  Under strict orders to avoid getting paint on the dresses, I'm going to take them home after studio time today and work from my sketches and some reference photos I took.