Betty progress

Betty progress

When I look at a painting in progress, I will often plan in parts.  “OK, I just need to 1) work the darker blues and black into the face, 2) blend the side reds, and 3) add the highlights,” and it seems simple enough.  Then I start working and find myself redoing aspects that I thought were already done.  This week, it was like I hadn’t realized that  my glasses were smudgy, and once I cleaned them and looked at the painting, I thought “Oh, well, that’s just horrible, that part right there; that needs to be done properly…” And so, while I thought that this was going to be finished several days ago, I haven’t even gotten to the originally planned objectives because I’ve been dabbling elsewhere.

Betty (redirect)

betty 1

No, this doesn’t look anything like the sketch in the previous post.  Betty has very soulful eyes, and although the previous image carries with it a touching story, it failed to capture the essence that her eyes normally possess.  Betty is the wise older woman to Addie’s imp.  Betty is the regal queen to Addie’s court jester.

I like this image not only because it reveals her in more of a royal portrait style, but because of the contrast from shadow to light.  As it works up, the blues off of her black coat will come out, as will the soulfulness in her eyes.

Betty Begun

I suppose this looks more like a Rorschach test than anything else, but this collection of cryptic lines will, in fact, become a dog.  A Greater Swiss Mountain Dog named Betty.Betty begunAgain, my exceptional photography skills are exhibited (sarcasm alert). I tend to sketch very lightly, so capturing it in a manner which would allow it to even be visible was a challenge.

Addie (Almost Done)

addie almost done

The lighting on this dreary day is not cooperating with my attempts at getting a clear pic, but it’s a quick update.  I still have to do the muzzle and white, and all of the highlights  (which are everywhere, and cast a soft white outline around her ears and shoulder, too) – especially her eyes.  I always feel like the painting doesn’t come alive until these final touches are added, and can’t wait to finish this up in the next few days.

I softened the red background.  The trick here was finding a color that would expose the dark black while also allowing the highlights to pop.  The original red was too vibrant, which was competing visually with the face itself.

 

Addie (underpainting)

addie underpaintingThere is this odd hesitation that I have between the sketch and the underpainting, as though it’s not just the quick, playful application of paint to map out the colors.  Ah, well; it’s mapped out now, and I can start to apply the real paint.  Background will change to a deep red to help the highlights pop. (Oh, and I left my camera at my brother’s on Thanksgiving, so please pardon the rainy day phone pic!)

I like that an expression of relaxed happiness seems to be coming through, and I’m happy to go with that.

Addie (sketch)

addie sketch

Sometimes I’m impatient and start painting before the sketch is well laid out, and those are the paintings where I waste a lot of time standing back from the easel and looking at proportions and shapes and comparing to the photo and just basically driving myself crazy.

This will not be one of those.

 

my lack of breadth

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I have to say that I never did work on that urban landscape that I had planned to do.  Or the scientific portrayal of herbalism.  Or the abstract representation of nature.  But I have enough faces to cover the warm brick walls at iYo Cafe in Davis Square, and that’s representational of my work. Although the request of more diverse subjects did interest me, it’s just not reflective of what I actually paint.

I find this interesting mainly because I am such a scatterbrain.  I am what has been termed a scanner; I don’t like being confined to one focus or subject in any aspect of my life.  And yet here, when diversity was requested, I found comfort in faces, and only faces.  Hm.

Anyway, I just finished priming a new canvas and am anxious to start a new painting.  A dog face.

Here

IMG_7176There were days when I aspired to having a studio.  To be in the company of other artists and to have a space that was devoted only to making art.  DaVinci once said “An artist’s studio should be a small space because small rooms discipline the mind and large ones distract it.”  As someone incredibly susceptible to the tiniest whiff of a distraction, I suppose I can see that. To me, though, it’s not so much about size but content.  And location.

See, although I will drop what I’m doing at the slightest thought of something that I should have done, I am also a procrastinator.  I fear that if I had to get into my car and drive to a separate location to paint, the easel would merely gather dust.  It’s not so much that I’m lazy but that there would always be something that I will do first, and then go to the studio.  Like feed the dog …which can take an hour.  Oh, right – the dog can’t come to the studio?  Forget it.

Here in my home studio (with my dog snoring), I can step into the kitchen and make a pot of tea.  I can start listening to a podcast of Fresh Air or Radiolab, but then decide that I want to put in that CD of Porgy and Bess.  Wait, maybe Josquin des Prez.  Perhaps neither.  What else do I have here amongst the racks of CDs?  I know, I know – there’s this thing called iTunes and I can just put it all there and it will always be with me, wherever my studio is.  But I have a lot of CDs and a perfectly fine stereo (remember those?) right there near my easel in my home.  It’s tactile.  I can wipe the grooves of the iridescent plastic and press buttons and turn knobs.  Over on the other side of the room, there is a drawer with incense because I love painting in a room filled with the aroma of sweetgrass or frankincense or some Japanese blend of flowers I’ve never heard of.  I can remember that I’m supposed to be drinking more water and step into the kitchen to get a big jar of it to place next to the easel, practically stepping on the dog, who is still snoring, but is now starting to harmonize with the des Prez chorals.

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But, really, the essence of why I love having a home studio is that when I get up in the morning and shuffle toward the kitchen to make coffee, I come face to face with whatever is on the easel and it enters the realm of my subconscious.  I can be sitting in the adjoining room and, from that particular angle and distracted state of mind, notice something off in the painting; something that I could fix right then.  Because with the painting right there, there is no cleaning up and putting away.  The palette sits with wet paint, the little solvent cups filled with linseed oil and natural spirits, always at the ready.  Just a couple of dabs before I run off to meet that client.  When I return, it will still be there, all oily and ready to be continued.  So, I may make dinner and do the dishes and check email and try to write a blog post and call that woman to ask how her cat is doing, but whenever I am ready, the painting is right there.

I still have a romantic notion of having a big old loft studio with sunlight streaming in through huge windows revealing white paint peeling from the pipes, paint-stained rags on the floor, and discarded canvases stacked up against the wall.  I suppose, though, that it would be too cold in the winter and too hot in the summer.  Here, it’s just right.