This is a 9"x12" oil painting on panel which I did today while 'working' at River Art Gallery. I may work on it a bit more tomorrow when I can look at it again fresh.
The photos of me were taken by a visitor to the gallery named Rosemary. She emailed them to me this evening. Thanks, Rosemary!
I came home to find a postcard from the San Antonio Art League saying my painting, "Caldo" not only was accepted into the show, but has won an award of some kind. Way cool! Wah HOOOO!
Back to the painting of the pot and stones- I managed to get my paints, palette, brushes, table easel and panels down to RAG, but forgot to bring a photo of something to paint. So I scoured the gallery for something to paint and came up with this glazed pot, three river stones from the jewelry case, and a blue towel I'd used to wrap my paintings in for transport. I set up on the porch in the most perfect weather. Tourists from Vermont were walking around in thongs and short shorts grinning ear to ear and looking like cats who'd eaten canaries. I love the other artists I work with on my one-day-a-month down there. All hail to Donna, Kathleen and Tina! We missed you today, Mary!
Raced home for the Valley Forge Residents Association meeting and then home to watch American Idol and Amazing Race. Ain't life grand?
Leave me a message if you will, please!
Award and Painting of ceramic pot and stones
Caldo delivered!
Becky came down from New Braunfels with her three entries to the San Antonio Art League exhibition, picked me and my solitary entry up and drove us down to King William Street to deliver the paintings. Ahhhh....... So glad to have that done.
Now that Caldo's done I can start on the first of the Lincolns and the portrait of the two beautiful children. Their mom came in yesterday with her newest child, Kyler, also just a stunningly beautiful baby at 8 weeks old.
I must've picked up some stomach bug. Haven't eaten today. The idea of food makes me nauseous. Thank goodness THAT doesn't happen very often. I've got the achey muscles and marked fatigue that goes along with flu but I don't want to concede the point.
Back to bed.....
Done?
Well, I'm going to leave this 'til morning and frame it then if it still looks ok to me.
ZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
more Caldo for Lunch
Still plugging away at this one. Parts of it I just love. Parts still call for change.
Am I the only one who finds this an interesting image?
Artist of the Month
Been working on Caldo today. Really. In between patients. This is the photo Louis Mar took at Coppini on Sunday of Morning Flight (and me). At least the only glare is on my glasses, not the painting.
Bonnie Raitt gets to see me tonight. I'll bet she's excited! I know I am.
Increased visual art consumption good for soul.
(Ron Rencher demonstrating a still life oil painting at the Coppini Academy this afternoon)
I spent Saturday with my artist friend Becky at the Greenhouse Gallery soaking up the new paintings and watching several oil painters do demonstrations of portraits and landscapes. I got to see several other artists I've met in one league or society or another, too. I'd like to see a painting or two (or ten) of mine on those walls someday. A small David Leffel still life had a red dot (sold) on its tag. A mere $40,000., my dear. Many red dots from that day alone, I'm sure.
Today I took my newly framed "Morning Flight" to the Coppini to let it compete with 5 other paintings at the monthly meeting for "Artist of the Month." It won! The honor comes with a blue ribbon and a nice check. Very swell. Ron Rencher did a still life demo for the meeting. It was great to hear him think aloud about his process and what he keeps in mind as he paints.
I also met with the friend who's commissioning the Abraham Lincoln paintings. We got colors figured out and the canvases have arrived. Each of the four will be 18"x18." So as soon as I get the Caldo painting completed I can start. I also had a new commission come in- an oil of two children picking dandelions in a field with a West Texas landscape behind them. I'm really going to enjoy that.
After a three or four weeks of an uncomfortable absence of direction, I feel excited again. I made a few people wonder if I'd fallen out of this dimension while I was turning circles at home. I got my house in order during that time... literally... and now have clear surfaces, alphabetized CDs, an organized underwear drawer AND artistic direction! You just can't beat that with a stick.
My prescription for anyone wanting a soul thrill while waiting for Spring to arrive:
Get your nose within 24" of the paintings in two good galleries or one good museum, sit knee to knee with a happy friend and tell life stories over good coffee and organize your underwear. Toss out the old! Fill with the new! Fold neatly and smile.
I just couldn't leave it alone. I spent a little time yesterday removing the unnecessary highlight from the jar, refining the page edges in the center front, darkening the shadow side of the painting frame, touching up edges in general. I like it better. Spent part of yesterday building a frame out of two separate frames for the Morning Flight painting. Got the nonglare glass for it this morning, so I'll assemble it in a while and see if I can post a picture of it framed. My sister helped me talk through an issue I was having with the Caldo painting, so I'm eager to get busy on that one again, too. Becky suggested starring the Mont Blanc fountain pen in another painting. Love that idea! This time showing it's cute little star on the cap's end, maybe. First things first. Frame Morning Flight, finish Caldo and frame, THEN fountain pen. A friend is commissioning four paintings of Abraham Lincoln, semi-Warhol-style, to be displayed in a two-over-two format in their living room. Her partner is a Lincoln expert/appreciator and they're going for a more contemporary style. I'm slightly trepidacious with the process of translation of what the commissioner sees in her head into words which convey the image, which I then translate the verbal picture into paint in order to match the mental image. Hmmm. Wish me luck.
This is how I spent my Sunday afternoon. I set this up yesterday and then started in on it this afternoon. My friend Sherrie is coming over after her dinner to paint with me. Guess we'll set up something new. I had intended loose. It got tighter and tighter as I went along. Ah, well. I like it, anyway. I got out my Mont Blanc fountain pen a couple of days ago and spent over an hour getting the old dried ink out and new ink in. Wrote a couple of letters just to feel the luxury of it again. It's a lot of trouble- getting the right flow, dealing with the skips, etc., but there's nothing like the line a fountain pen makes.
I'm having a real issue with putting objects right smack in the middle of a painting. I mean to not do that.... really, I think about it. But here's a painting with the ginger jar smack in Kansas. By Golly, the next painting will have no centered objects! So there.
Painting again!
Mary and Donna came and painted with me today in the studio. I loved it! It took a while to set up a still life arrangement in a cardboard box with black fabric inside behind the objects, and of course we had to take some time for lunch and talking, but all together I imagine we painted 3 1/2 -4 hours. So good to have company while painting. This will need more work, but for now I'm going to let it sit and will look at it again later.
We already have a paint day planned for next month. Next MONTH???? Now that the studio is clean and organized, I'll have to call up artist friends to come play with me while the weather is so perfect. In the meantime I can put on the TV for company, I guess.
Now a nap......
Two weeks later....
Wow... It was two Thursdays ago that I wrote the last post. I've done very little art since then. I did get a start on the Caldo painting and last Thursday I spent the afternoon teaching 11-14 year olds how to draw in Wimberley, TX at an afterschool arts program. I've been spending my time cleaning. Organizing. Mulling, swirling in place, ruminating. I'm reading Caroline Myss' "Sacred Contracts" and doing the work involved to tune in more clearly on what I'm here to do.
The woman who lived next door to us when I was a small child, Charlotte, and who adopted my sister and me as her surrogate daughters (as she had a houseful of boys), died last Friday. She was 83 or 84 and had been living with a neurological disorder which appeared in her late 60's and which incapacited her left hand (she was left handed) and finally kept her from walking or calling people. She'd asked to die at the end, I'm told. Three years ago she'd told me the story of having gone to visit her mother's grave when her children were small. She experienced a visitation from her mother while there in the form of the feeling of a hand pressing down on the top of her head so strongly it resulted in her feet leaving indentations in the ground, as a way to answer a question Charlotte was asking in her mind at the time about how her mother had felt dying and leaving her children behind. We talked, too, about her other experiences with the spirits of people she'd lost. The Friday she died both my sister and I were thinking of her. Patty was in Africa at the time. I heard days later Charlotte had died that day. I feel pretty certain she wafted through to say goodbye on her way home to her mother.
The last two days I've been digging out the studio getting ready for two artist friends who are coming in the morning to paint much of the day. We work together at the River Art Gallery and are looking forward to playing in the oils. Both of them do watercolors primarily. Donna worked in oils for years but hasn't in a long time. Mary's newer to oils but is taking to the medium easily, in my humble opinion. I love being with these women and am looking forward to playtime together. Tonight I bought fruit and veggies and flowers to see what sort of still life arrangements we can make.
I checked my blog fairly often these last two weeks for comments, but with the exception of Darling Becky, you all who dropped in were stealthy. Please leave a comment when you come by! I promise to reply.
'Night All.
Demo tonight in Austin was fun!
I was extremely nervous to be in front of "my people" and doing a portrait from a sitting so quickly again, but Libby Peters introduced me in very complimentary terms and everyone made me feel appreciated and at ease. Jan Frazier agreed to sit for me and did a great job of handling all that focus. The room was packed and I don't think everyone had chairs! I asked for them to keep the questions coming so my brain was working as fast as my fingers.
I totally forgot to get a photo of the portrait when it was done (or as done as it could be in that short a time...) If anyone was there who took a photo of it, I'd love to be able to post it here- hint, hint! I did put it in a simple frame under glass at the end and Jan wanted it to give to her husband. Nicest compliment ever. I love her work so much.
Sherrie Allyn and Morgan drove up with me and helped carry everything in, along with Johanne Morin who met us outside. Holly Trap helped us carry it all back out again.
I'd gotten very lost on the way, so raced in moments before the meeting started. I'd been feeling so smug, too, about getting up to Austin early enough for a visit to Jerry's Artarama before the meeting. Got a couple of frames and a fine weave 18"x24" canvas in order to start an oil portrait commission of two beautiful children. As soon as I complete the Caldo pastel, I'll get started on the oil.
If anyone reads this who was at the demo, please leave a comment to assure me I'm not just talking to myself, will you?
Good night, All!
Susan
Pastel Portrait Demo in Austin tonight
http://www.austinpastelsociety.org/ I'll be doing a demonstration tonight at 7 pm in Austin for my favorite group. If you're within driving distance, come on up! (Or down or over!) Best Western Atrium North, 7928 Gessner Drive, Austin, Texas, 78753-6506 from 7:00 - 9:00 p.m.
Johanne Morin is our exhibition chair and has images of all the paintings in this year's exhibition online: My three are the second row of images.
http://www.austinpastelsociety.org/6thAJME2006.htm
Hope to see you tonight!
Caldo for Lunch
Well, this is as far as I've gotten tonight. Just sort of blocked in values and some color. Will likely not get to work on it tomorrow since it's my day to work at the River Art Gallery, but maybe a little in the evening.
'Night, All.
Sketch of new painting.
Hmmm. Well, after pondering much and arranging, then rearranging possible elements, I've sketched out a new painting to be done from photos I took in a Mexican restaurant in October. I felt like a spy taking these photos but was afraid that if I asked permission, the fellow with the hat might change his posture. I was so taken by his classic look. The fedora, the beard, the cigarettes in his pocket, the eating lunch from the huge serving-bowl type caldo bowls. The backlighting and the contrast of the young couple to the workers in the foreground, all made it interesting to me. In taking the photo, I got a close-up of Kim Roberti's plate and crumpled paper napkin and think it might be interesting to just include them. Anyway, this is the next project. Will post images as I go. This will be a pastel on 24"x18" Kitty Wallis sanded pastel paper.
Sweet dreams, friends.
Susan
Finish? of painting of Mo.
I think I'm going to call this one done. I'll look again at her foreground fingers later, though. Something may not be right there, not sure.
Now on to the next one.....
I got word today that all three of my entries in Austin Pastel Society's annual member's exhibition got in!!! I'm doing a pastel portrait demo for APS on Thursday evening.
Tonight I worked more on the little 12"x12" oil-on-canvas painting of Morgan which I'd started during a portrait demo in Seguin last week. The camera sure does odd things to the colors sometimes. The pink of the lips shows up far brighter in the photo than the painting, for instance. Still have lots to do on the hands and the book, but the face is fairly far along. I'll look at it again tomorrow and see what needs tweaking.
Watched History Channel's program on Lincoln while painting tonight. Well, listened, mainly. Fascinating stuff.
The big brush pick up for our neighborhood is Monday, so I worked long and hard this afternoon cutting back all the dead branches and old growth on salvias and coneflowers and, well, anything that needed cutting. The pile by the curb is enormous. I'd gotten indoctrinated in the "wisdom" of replacing lawn with native plantings with the thought of reducing the use of water and energy. HA! The plantings have taken far more water and attention than I ever gave my grass. What a crock. Chopped down an ugly tree, too, while I was at it.
My sister sent an email today from Africa on her first day there. I'm so proud of her for going and reconnecting with her childhood friend, Sandow, there. What an adventure!
Will work more on the the little painting of Morgan tomorrow and maybe start on a larger painting for entry into San Antonio Art League's annual exhibition. I have an idea for it. Will see how it goes.
'Night all!
Two finishes... Providence RI's Roger Williams Park
These are two plein air pastels I did while visiting my friend Joan in Providence RI this summer. I rarely paint outdoors. I do try to be a good sport when folks are getting a "Paint Out" together, mainly because I love the company while I paint. But I did these sitting in the grass, warding off geese, bugs and the sun. Joan was good company, though. These have been sitting under waxed paper in my studio since then. I'm doing a big declutter excavation (Flylady of Flylady.com calls it a Super Fling Boogie) of all the surfaces of my home. My house looks Mahvelous and half-finished projects are either getting tossed or finished. I decided to finish these, for better or worse.
I went with Becky (www.BeckyHicksArt.com) to the New Braunfels Art League Gallery last night for the artists reception for all the artists-of-the-month for that organization. Becky was December's and also got First Place for Pastel in the annual members exhibition. I got to catch up with a few artist friends there and spend time with Becky there and at her home studio. We should all have studios like Becky's! Overlooks the Guadalupe river through a huge window in the brightest, happiest studio ever.
Sure would appreciate a comment when you drop by. Feel like I'm talking to myself.
Enjoy your day, ya'll.
It's Done! It's been submitted! Yea!!!!
Done!
I've sent the file on to the exhibition chairperson who will forward them all to our judge this year- Susan Ogilvie
http://www.susanogilvie.com/index.html
We'll be notified which paintings got in to the competition and those we deliver to Austin on March 5th. So I have time to get these framed. I submitted this one- "Morning Flight", the one of Libby's living room I call "Her Grandmother's Chair", and the one of my nephew Jake swimming underwater, called "Submerged Dreamer." I submitted that one in reaction to it being rejected last year by our judge, Doug Dawson. Nice man, flawed ideas. He told me to only paint young beautiful women and old grizzly men, as that's all that really sells. In reaction to that I painted the large, 'ordinary' woman reading in the library and got first place in Pastel at the Coppini in October. So there! (Did you see the fists on hips and the stamp of the foot?)
Well, now I need to put my house back in order. I have a stack of dishes in the kitchen, laundry on the sofa and a guest room to excavate in order to welcome an overnight guest on Friday. This painting took over my life the last week or more. Anyway, thank you all for cheering me on. Kisses and hugs to you all.
Decided on the title of this one... "Morning Flight." Thanks for all the great suggestions!
Ok, I'm getting closer. Time to start on the 'outhwest sign. Think I'll leave out the No Smoking sign... just to keep it all as positive as possible. May have to turn it upside down to keep the rain of dark pastel from leaving tracks on the people. Small prayer: Let me remember what sort of time this painting is taking when I consider anything else so detailed.
Amen.
Oil portrait demo
This is a a little 12"x12" oil on stretched canvas start of Morgan reading which I did during an hour and a half in Seguin yesterday as a demo. I worked from a photo I printed off from some shots we took the night before. It's just sort of blocked in.. lots more to go, but it makes me want to get back to it sometime soon. In the meantime I'm still working on the airport painting.
Linda, you asked the dimensions of the airport painting. It's 24" x 18" on Kitty Wallis sanded pastel paper. Back to painting!
