daffodils!

                                11x15

                                9x12

Most of the daffodils have opened ... and I'm panicking because I am too busy working to devote as much time to them as I want to.

I really think I used to have more "leisure" time!

Next year I should take this week off!

a self portrait

11x15

I love this hat, especially its color. It gave my face a nice reflected pink glow.

I was proceeding slowly, just trying find and paint all the little planes ...

Stopping here for now; though theres not much left to do, I dont think: some hair? pupils?

arya and melo

9x15

This is Arya and Melo on a windowseat.

I like the shapes of their bodies but I dont know what to do with the surrounding space ...

winter landscapes

                                  11x15

From a Zoom landscape class with Bill Rogers at Chesapeake Fine Art Studio. (Check them out: they offer classes, open studios, and some free demos.)

I like the class: he talks and paints and we paint along. 🙂

I like his approach too: it's methodical but simple and painterly.He says not to ask how you can reproduce what you see in the photo but how you can represent it.

This really looked like a fail to me while I was painting it--too busy ... But looking at it after I photographed it, I found things to like, mainly how the river recedes.

Have to go back and paint that overpass--yes, that's an overpass--in the back.

still life starts ...

                                7x11

                             7x11

A couple of still I started, then abandoned. The top one because it lacks interest; the bottom one because I didn't like how the cactus was coming out ... too messy. But this setup is not so bad so I may give it another go.

I love still life but am constantly frustrated by my inability to set up a "good" one! If I go for simple, it's too simple; busy too busy ...

If anyone has any tips/tricks/advice on setting up still lifes, I'd love to hear them!

shell

10x10

I have so many seashells! Some I bought, some I found. The idea has always been to draw and paint them ... but I rarely do. Going to try to remedy that.

A bit of a challenge getting the shape right, or close to right, but an engaging challenge. 

dried hydrangea

                             7x11

A dried blossom from my limelight hydrangea.

I was inspired by Piet Mondrian's flowers paintings, which are so beautiful and ethereal!

And: getting ready for daffodils!

undone

                               11×15

Two faces from Sktchy.

I chose these because they both have their hands by their face, and the hands were in positions that made them not so hard to draw!

But I felt a got off to a bad--hesitant--start on each ... and so I just stopped here.

class assignment

                                11x12

Last week the class looked at the work of Bloomsbury painter Vanessa Bell; I wasn't familiar with her work, but I am now a big fan.

She painted landscapes, interiors, people, still lifes: I think I like the last best.

So this was my first attempt to try to apply some of her Modernist techniques to a still life. 

I am really finding this difficult ... it requires me to think and practice and try and refine in a way that's wholly unfamiliar to me! Which is not to say I'm not enjoying it!

For this one I was simply trying to arrange/divide the space in an intentional way.

It's not a bad little still life ... but it doesn't really work in the terms I was going for.

I'll see what I can come up with tomorrow.

odalisque

                                9x12

My final go at my new class's assignment.

This was a good exercise for me: I usually paint something, am happy with it or not, and move on.

This week I had a problem to solve and it led me to evaluate and rethink what I was doing. Which, in this case anyway, led to a kind of distillation ... and I think I may even have approached the painting of this one a little more confidently. 

For this week's assignment I'm going to try a still life, and I'm hoping to go through several iterations ...

new class

                              8x10

I started a new Zoom class this week. It's a little unusual: the first half is an art history lesson. In the second half we critique the paintings we did based on the previous week's lesson.

This week the lesson was on beds in art.

I went through three ideas, below, before settling on the one above: in which my cat Arya plays the part of an odalisque.

                            5x7

Just always wanted to paint this: white cats on a white bed.

                               11x15

This was was inspired by Van Gogh's Bedroom. at Arles, but very soon began to look like a dud: I didn't divide the space or add enough things to to make it interesting. Also couldn't figure out how to add dark values.

                                  9x12

This one was inspired by a watercolor sketch by Edward Hopper; in his sketch, his naked wife, Jo, with her back to us, hugs a bunch of pillows. I have no model, so it's pillows only.

winter landscape

                              11x15

For the last week of class we painted this icy stream.

All the time I was painting it, it looked like a horrible mess. When I put it across the room, it seemed to hang together much better.

Not to say this particular painting doesn't have problems--chiefly the shadows, which are badly done (bad shapes, ugly color); and that bottom right bank, the shape of which I messed up, repearedly.

But, having seen that it wasn't as bad as I thought, makes me want to try again.

virtual life drawing

                             7.5x11

Just to show every day is not a winner!

I had high hopes for this face--the strong features ... Maybe the eye makeup she was wearing really threw me off, idk.

But, whatever it was, the worst thing is how much I overworked it!

A reminder to not overwork!

winter landscape, week 5

                                 11x15

This one got away from me: it got very wet and I should have stopped and let it dry, but I kept at it ...