One Hour Oil Portraits- Yesterday at the Coppini Academy

Whew! I painted seven oil portraits yesterday back to back. Was my shoulder sore? Heck, yeah! But I had such a good time. Not sure I'll do it again, as I wanted to continue working on every painting to a much more "finished" state, but had to stop wherever I was at the end of the hour. I had planned to do eight... but the last one was to be my daughter, and, you guessed it! I begged to be let off for good behavior, but promised I'd do one for her soon.

This was an excellent learning experience, and it readjusts my thinking about a program I'm developing for businesses and clubs and organizations. I'd thought I would paint an oil portrait while speaking about creativity, but now I think it's too much to try to fully accomplish in an hour's program. I'd wouldn't want to leave a painting in such an incomplete state. Hey! Maybe that would be ok after all... Maybe take photos of the subject with the understanding that I would continue the painting in my studio and deliver it finished later. Let me think that over.

Well, thought I'd post these so you'd know how I spent my Saturday. Thanks in advance for your comments. They mean so much to me.

I'm back! New painting to share...

Golly! I haven't posted anything for over a month. My apologies to my sweet friends who've been gently poking me to post something.

I've been busy with a thousand things, most of them art related, some garden, some patients, some family, but mostly I got to have my mother here in San Antonio with me for two and a half weeks while my Dad and brother were in Africa.

I promise to be more present now.

This painting above is going to be the example for a donated portrait I'm offering to the highest bidder on KLRN's Blazing Gavels on air auction. It's our local PBS station.

I have two small commissioned portraits to do now and will post them soon. Going out to Fredericksburg to see the Oil Painters of America show tomorrow. I'm sure I'll come back all juiced up and rarin' to paint!

Wonderful Award at San Antonio Art League yesterday

A couple of weeks ago I got the little self-addressed postcard with the Award line topped with a "yes." Ooooohh.... That could be anything. I'd entered "Morning Flight." So I had two weeks to wonder. Yesterday Karen joined me at the reception and we picked up the exhibit catalog at the guest sign-in table on the front verandah of the marvelous King William house that has been been converted to the beautiful museum and gallery that it is today. I got third place! Well, it's officially called the Ethel T. Drought Memorial Award. $500. I'll have to find out who Ethel was, for sure.
The reception was just great... refreshments upstairs on a wide verandah overlooking the beautiful gardens, then the awards presentation in the main gallery downstairs. I got to meet a few new artists and enjoy their work on display. On the way out I crossed paths with Sara Eyestone- such a delight she is.
Can you believe I forgot my camera??! Gary Walston, husband of the second place winner, Dona LeCrone Walston, had his digital camera with him and took some shots of me and sent them by email, so I'll post this one. Thanks, Gary!

First Place Portrait in Austin Show

"Caldo" won a nice blue ribbon at the Austin Pastel Society show on Sunday.

Yesterday was the pastel class and those who came got lots of good work done. Today I'm finishing up paintings. I've finished two small pastels, and have another pastel and an oil to put final touches on. Then errands and a patient late afternoon.

I spent my weekend in Bastrop at Jo Castillo's house in the pines. She and her husband, Gene, took Karen and I to dinner and amazed us with stories of their travel-filled life. She had an art opening and reception at a local restaurant so I got to meet her daughters and her adoring friends, too. The bluebonnets were out in great heaps and mounds and we took a two hour hike through the beautiful state park in Bastrop. Thanks, Jo! The weekend ended in Austin with the reception of the Austin Pastel Society's annual Exhibition. I know I've mentioned it before, but I just love that group of artists.

Hope you're all enjoying the beautiful Spring! Happy Spring Equinox.

Sweet little still life from Pastel Class yesterday

As a departure from dishes and fruit and flowers, I set this simple still life up in class and three of us worked from it. Ron and Neka and Stacey worked from a lovely still life arrangement of nectarines and an ivy plant with flowers. Gene did further work on his self portrait. I worked another hour on this one today and am calling it done. It's an 11"x9" pastel on Colourfix sanded pastel paper. Will likely frame it down to a 10"x8".

Karen did well with her dental work yesterday and is out running errands today. Such a big girl. Not at all a whiner like me.

Oil on linen profile of girl in pink hat

This painting is 16" x 12" on stretched linen, done yesterday at Diane Manousos' studio. What a fun day! I only got to be there from 10-1, but got a good start on this, then came home and finished it here. I'd like to do this painting again sometime and try using much cooler colors in the little girl's face to see if it works even better.

Today is the pastel class and then I'm handholding Karen while she has dental work. She did the same for me last week.

Hope everyone's enjoying this great Spring weather!

Commissioned portrait of a girl and her dog

This was fun. 18" x 18" oil on stretched canvas from a digital photo. It's to be a birthday present for the woman.

More like this, please! It was such a pleasure to paint more loosely.

Small portrait commission finished.

I finished a small (14"x 11") oil portrait commission today. It was a posthumous painting of a young man his sister commissioned for her mother for Mother's Day. He and I have been eye to eye for two days. The reference photo was tiny and bad. His face is less than a half inch tall. I scanned it into a file at a high resolution and brought it up lifesize on my monitor, which helped, but it was still grainy and poor. But I could tell it would mean a lot to the family to give it my best.

Anticlimactically, neither of my paintings were accepted into the Salon International. I'm a little disappointed. But not too surprised. I will keep working to improve my oil painting skills and plan to try again next year. Thank you, my sweet friends, for sending words of encouragement these last couple of weeks while I pushed to meet the deadline.

My jaw is starting to feel human this evening. Of course, it could be the 800 mg of Ibuprofen I have swimming in my system. Thank you Jo and Sharon for your sympathy. I needed every bit of it!

Doing the Happy Artist Dance

Pastel Class was today. My verbal editor was nowhere around and I found myself saying every ornery thought that flitted through my head. But we all painted like crazy and sang Bee Gees songs together as we painted. I love those guys.
Went right from class to the dentist to have a molar extracted (a barbaric, brutal experience, I might say.) I came home to find a postcard from the San Antonio Art League saying my "Morning Flight" pastel painting had been accepted and has gotten an award. Now, knowing what that award may be will have to wait until the reception on April 1st. This will be the first year I've gotten to attend the reception as it's always been on the same date as the one for the Austin Pastel Society's exhibition. My loyalty to APS has taken precedence those other years, so I'm looking forward to being at the SAAL Museum for the festivities! Cheek and jaw throbbing, I'm smiling on the inside.
Tomorrow I find out if either "Evening Comfort" or "Holding On" were accepted into the Salon International. I'm trying not to have my hopes up, but I still have a thread of hope..... and I'm hanging by a thread.
Tomorrow is also my day to paint with Donna and Mary. I may whine and moan all the while about my assaulted mandible, but I'm going to paint, By Golly!
Karen has taken good care of me this evening and filled me full of Vicodin, then Ibuprofen and Pina Coladas. Ice pack on, ice pack off. Ice pack on, ice pack off. My brain-spin got me back up to check email and to post this entry. Now, to sleep, to sleep, perchance to dream.

Evening Comfort done!

Dad suggested the title "Unqualified Companions" for this painting. I like it a lot, but thought I'd choose a title for the mood vs the characters creating it, so "Evening Comfort," it is.

This took four days of painting pretty solidly. I'm rushing it (with the flower girl painting) to Adtech for them to make slides. The slides are due on Wednesday! Cross your fingers, folks.

Tomorrow I do the pastel portrait demonstration in Kerrville for the Kerrville Arts Club. Karen moved heaven and earth to find someone to teach her classes tomorrow and will go with me to run the video camera and be support. I'm so glad!

I've been watching Pollyanna and Swiss Family Robinson today on tv while I painted. Loved it. I remember seeing them in Collinsville, Oklahoma at the Crown theater when I was growing up. Movies cost 35 cents, if I recall correctly. Ok, so I'm old.

Off to shower and race the paintings to Adtech.......

Revision of Sadie

My canvas shipment still didn't come in today, so I reworked some of this little portrait for my friend Karen. I moved Sadie's nose and mouth up just a fraction. We'd both looked at the first version and agreed that I'd gone a little long with her button nose. I like this better.

Pastel class was today and we discussed something that had been on my mind over the last several days. Criticism. How we offer it, how we handle it, when it's out of line, when it's useful. Twice over the last couple of weeks I've received detailed unsolicited criticism (once from a complete stranger and once from a local artist acquaintance) which felt impertinent and unwelcome to say the least. I much prefer to invite critique from those whose eye I respect and only when I have a specific problem I'm working to resolve. I realize I will have to handle this issue with rude or thoughtless people over the course of my career as an artist and should be prepared with words to silence them quietly and quickly. It makes me value even more my beloved artist friends who have some social skills as well as their artistic skill. Bless them!

I can't wait to start this next painting. I'm fairly chomping at the bit.

Sadie, Karen Wagoner's granddaughter

I spent part of my day painting this small oil on 11"x 14" gessoed panel of little Sadie. Karen took the photo in December, I think. I'm not sure why my camera is emphasizing the yellows in this painting... at least on my monitor it seems so.

This was a fun project while I wait for the canvas to be delivered for my next painting. Thought it would come in today, but perhaps tomorrow.

Tomorrow (today) is my pastel class, marking one week before I do the portrait demonstration for the Kerrville Arts Club Tuesday the 20th. Jane Goosby has volunteered to be my subject that day. Should be much fun.

Nighty night, All!

Photo session tonight for new painting!

A couple of days ago I was talking with a patient, Tracy, about the new painting I've had in mind and mentioned I needed a model when suddenly she came into focus for me and I couldn't believe she was the ONE! Luckily, she agreed. I'd been speaking to another patient, Linda, earlier about the same painting, saying I was looking for a dog to be in the painting, preferably a greyhound or whippet for the long face and elegant profile I wanted. She said, "I have a greyhound." Omigosh. So tonight I called them both at 5:30 p.m. and they said they'd come at 7:30. Peanut and Linda came a bit early so we had time to acclimate her to her surroundings before Tracy arrived, right on time. The four of us had a ball arranging Tracy and Peanut on the sofa and taking lots of digital photos then running to the computer to see what we'd done. We did that four times and I think we got enough variations that it should be possible to piece together a great composite of face/arm/hand/shawl/dog/lighting. The canvas will arrive from Jerry's Artarama via UPS tomorrow or Tuesday. I may not see the light of day for the next several days while I see if it's possible to get it painted by the 18th or 19th. Then it'll go to the photographer to have slides made and I'll hand-deliver it with the entry fee to the Greenhouse Gallery for the Salon International on the 21st. I don't truly think it's likely to have an entry accepted, but I promised myself last year I'd at least enter something this year. I need to honor that promise. I figure if it's not accepted at least I'll have an interesting painting to my credit. I'm so excited! Thank you Tracy! Thank you, Linda! Thank you, Peanut!

Sketch of Beautiful Sisters

This was a commissioned sketch from many images sent by email and grouped together. The lighting is very different on the sister on the left from the lighting on the other two, but there was nothing to be done about that. It was done with charcoal, black and white, on grey Canson paper. 11" x 14." It took me 9-10 hours of drawing and probably two hours preparation... emails, phone calls, preliminary sketches, etc. I vastly underquoted my price, turns out. But I'm pleased with the results.

Whew! Done with the Flower Girl tonight.

Of course, I may wake up tomorrow and see something to change, but right now, at almost 1 a.m., I think I'm done. This oil painting is 18" x 18" and done on stretched canvas.

Her little face has been such a pleasure to paint. I can't wait to see the painting come alive again under its varnish in a couple of weeks.

I've been kept company tonight by Charlie Rose, Tavis Smiley and now America's Ballroom Challenge on PBS. Lee Ann Womack before all that on Soundstage. Wish I could've had a conversation with a real person, but the TV fills in when I paint so late.

Any night owls out there who might want to talk on the phone some night when I paint.... let me know! I'll put my headset on and we'll chat.

New pastel... and still more on the flower girl

Pastel class was today. Did a fun still life of objects I'd brought in and placed on the floor. It was a loose, bright welcome detour from the flower girl. I know I'm spending a lot of time on this one.... just want it to be something good. Still need to work more on the lower hand, but have done quite a bit more on the upper hand and Dad's hand and some on the suit. Also on the shadow side of the dress.
Hang in there. I'll be done soon.
I hope.

Removed window

I deepened the value of the wall behind, refined shadows and removed the stained glass window. (The spots there are part of my easel.) I still need to do much more on her hand and then give more depth and texture to the dad's clothing. But it's coming along. Another day? Two?

Tuesday is the pastel class, so may I may not get back to this painting until nighttime or Wednesday.

Drove to Austin tonight to talk with a gallery owner about a possible portrait commission and to also meet with the Austin Pastel Society board concerning details about our annual exhibition and this year's workshop with Richard McKinley. Easy drive both up and back.

Further yet...

Well, I couldn't quit. It's 12:35 a.m and I'll have to look at this again tomorrow. Still haven't painted her lower hand and it looks as though the wall of the church behind needs to be more in shadow, considering the cast shadow coming up to it. I think I like how the dress looks, but need to deepen the shadow side, especially under her arm.

Thanks, Jo for the sweet comment. You're the best.

Nighty night, All.

Further progress on Flower Girl painting

This is the fourth day on this painting. It's coming along but I'm still puzzling out how to meld the effects of the smoothly, tightly painted face and hand with the palette-knife-applied looser painted background and dress. Her lower hand hasn't been addressed yet and the brick walkway hasn't been painted...just a wash of purple so far.
Just keeping you up on what's happened since late last night.
Beautiful day here in San Antonio. Walked my four miles with friends in a t-shirt and jeans this afternoon. We pay for our winters with wicked summers, but right now it's great.

Flower girl continued....

I got to spend much of today on this painting. Still so much to do, but I'm liking what I managed to improve.

So sleepy.... will work more tomorrow.