A Kick in the Paints

I was intending to title this blog post "A Kick in the Pants" but instead typed paints. I started to correct the typo but thought this was somehow appropriate. For the last three weeks I've been taking a class from Art Business Guru Alyson Stansfield designed to help artists get clear on their goals, set up some great habits, and get systems in place to help keep track of the endless tasks involved with being in business for yourself. How I've found the time to keep up with it as well as I have is a wonder to me considering I am:

1) preparing to hang my first solo exhibition next week,

2) knee-deep in wedding planning,

3) designing upteen bazillion brochures and other graphics and coordinating about 10 booths for a user conference at work (which is now over, thank goodness).

All of it's been fun but dang. I needed to clone myself, or hire a secretary, or take a nap. Instead I am learning how to handle it all. I'm pretty excited about some of the skills and tips I've picked up, and the goals I've set for myself. One of those is to post more regularly. Which shouldn't be too hard; I have plenty to say. I guess I keep getting caught up trying to imagine who would read it or care. Can you have stage fright sitting behind a computer? Because if so, that's what this is I guess.

The image I've posted is a gargauntuan (for me - 60" x 48") painting called Kahana Dreaming I'm completing for the Art on the Walls show next week. I'm in the final stages of tweaking, and after taking a good long look at it today, I've decided that I am going to make more than a minor tweak: The pink bud peeking over the bottom flower has never worked for me - it's time for it to go! I'm pretty excited to get it out of there. I got the frameasaurus for it yesterday and bejeebus it took 30 minutes for me to unpack that thing, and I'm going to have to MacGyver it onto the canvas. But it looks great!

If you're in the Boulder area, come on by Tuesday, July 7 at 5:30 for the public reception!

St. Stephen's Art Show

I am going to be in the St. Stephen's Art Show later this month with two of my recent paintings, A Wash of Fragrance (Oil on Canvas 12x 24, left) and Reach (Oil on Canvas, 18x36, right.) It will be my first event of a busy few months. I have also been selected to participate in the Boulder Open Studios 29th Street Art Fair (May 16-17) and in July I will have a solo exhibition for Art on the Walls at Barnes & Noble in Boulder. I'll add website updates as the organizers make them available.

The opening reception for the St. Stephen's Art Show will be at 6:30pm, April 24 at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, 1303 Bross Lane in Longmont. The show runs from April 23-26. Paul and I will be there for the opening so if you're around, please stop by and say hello. We'd love to meet you!

Portrait Study - Pam

Portrait Study - Kathryn

Portrait Study - Maddy

Portrait Study - Pam

Figure Study - Collin

Collin - 12" x 16"

This figure study was done last night at Michelle Philip's figure study class. I came to class prepared to do a color study, but once we got into the session, there was so much interesting stuff going on with this pose, structurally, that I just had focus on that. The wash effect is always so interesting to me.

Portrait Study - James

Work in Progress - a Demo.

I began this oil sketch of a young woman by blocking in her features and setting up the relative values I saw. This is a good example of the "imprimatura" method I tend to favor. Her slightly tilted and rotated head provide an excellent opportunity to work on drawing skills. I'm always amazed at how tricky the human face can be.

Laying down skin tones, beginning the eyes. As you can see, between the initial block-in and this, I redrew the face to correct the axis of her head. It's not uncommon for me to have to make a few adjustments while I work, but the earlier I can make them, the better off I am, especially if they effect the structure of the face. So I spend a lot of time on the initial stages of a painting compared to the finishing stages.

At this stage, the skin tones are evolving nicely and I'm comfortable with the placement of the features, though I will continue tweaking them. There is a cool light shining on her face, so the shadows are warm, and her green sweater will throw up some interesting cool reflections on the underside of her features, but that will wait until nearly the end.

Laying in the hair and background. The introduction of the colors of her hair, sweater and background effect the colors of her face, so the next steps will be to harmonize the colors and correct the temperature of the highlights and shadows.

I'll continue working on this tomorrow until it's done and will post my finished painting. Still to do is the sweater, hair and background, plus some minor adjustments to the face. This is the point at which I spend a lot of time idly looking at it, waiting for anything to jump out at me. I can't remember who said it, A big part of painting is just figuring out what's wrong with the work and correcting it, and I've got my list going!

Jasmine

Jasmine

12" x 12" Oil

Little Babushka

Little Babushka

12" x 16" Oil

First Big Show!

"Forest Apparition"
Oil and Silverleaf
24" x 36"
2008

I am so happy to be part of the 2008 Oil Painters of America Western Regional Show. After only a year of getting re-focused on my painting and exploring the possibilities of art as a career, this is a huge honor for me. I love painting dogwoods since they remind me of my childhood back in southern Indiana. Every once in awhile I'll run across someone who recognizes the blossom - usually they're someone who came from the Midwest or the south. Just last weekend I sold a smaller dogwood painting to a man whose parents lived in Atlanta for the past few decades, and had recently moved to Washington state. Apparently they had remarked to their son how much they missed the dogwood blossoms so when he saw my painting he had to purchase it for them. I thought that was such a nice gift!

Anyway, the opening of the OPA show was last month at the Devin Galleries in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. I am happy I decided to fly up there - it was such fun to be around all these amazing painters. It was standing room only in the gallery - what a great experience!

Loving Maui

Frangipani

Oil on Canvas
30" x 60"
2008

Paul and I enjoyed an amazing trip to Maui over my birthday earlier this month with two of our good friends, Will and Jasmine. It was my first trip to that island and it was about as perfect of a trip as I could have hoped for. I painted this shortly after we got back and I have a few others that I'm prepping now. The flowers, scenery, sunshine, endless leisure time and company was all wonderful, but the best part of the trip was that Paul asked me to marry him! He asked me on a sunrise trip to the rim of Haleakala volcano on my birthday - how cool is that?!

Paul has been very supportive of my decision to pursue art as my career. He always offers feedback on my work which can sometimes be hard to hear, but more often than not he's usually right. He's so encouraging and tells me often how proud he is of me. It means a lot to me - I'm a very lucky woman. No plans yet for the wedding but we're vacillating between a full-on Maui shindig with the whole family and just escaping to Jamaica by ourselves and getting hitched. Either way, I think we'll end up on the beach somewhere.

First Bouquet

"First Bouquet"
Oil on Canvas
16" x 20"
2008

I am happy with the way this painting turned out. There is something about the deep, rich reds of the roses that appeals to me. I didn't use the silver leaf border this time and it felt nice to focus only on the painting itself.