at jay's suggestion ...

Jan Hart, the artist who hosted/taught the New Mexico workshop, was assisted by her son, Jonathan (or Jay), who is also an artist (her other son's a musician). At critique one day Jay suggested I try a tertiary color scheme; this unfinished painting is the result. Looking at it now, I see that fussing with the little shapes is hindering reading the space ... especially in the parallelogram(?)-shaped formation in the top-middle section; maybe a neutralizing glaze over the area to the right of it will set that area back in space and make this less troublesome. May have to glaze over the saved whites here too though; it's too jumpy. Well, I do like the colors and the cascading pale shapes in the foreground. Those pinons just fascinate me ... leaving some circles intact and pulling a wet brush across others to let them run and bleed: they're fun to paint--you muck them up, but they still look like something!

Oh JMJ! I just noticed that one pinon dead center at the top ... Just when I say how I love them ... Well, it's easy to fix. One lesson I mean to take to heart from the NM workshop: when something bothers you, add more of it! It's counterintuitive, but it works. Dilution.

24

No time at the moment--wading into a large job, which is also occupying most of my work space--for a larger painting, so I did these four small (about 4x6) studies over the last 24 hours.
Feels important to me to keep the New Mexico momentum going. These small paintings, though not tremendously satisfying--they don't represent any kind of a breakthrough ... more of what I feel safe doing--at least have me keeping the paints wet.
The first two were done from sketches made here in Jersey; the second two from photos from NM.
If anyone is interested in viewing my New Mexico photos, email me, and I'll send you a link.

santuario de chimayo

new mexico sketcbook II

new mexico sketchbook pages I

Land of Enchantment

"If we wonder often, the gift of knowledge will come."
--Native American proverb

Here're the paintings I completed in New Mexico (there are two more--one incomplete, and one a small one done on location at the Santuario de Chimayo; I'll post it tomorrow; I'll also try to post better photos of these first two). I'm surprised I don't have more--I do have some nice little sketches--especially since the workshop was full of hardworking and talented painters (there were twelve us, from all over the country: CA, AZ, FL, MD, TN and yours truly, NJ).
These paintings are all on quarter sheets (11 x 15).

Our teacher, Jan Hart--a lovely person and a terrific teacher; we got not only encouragement and great critiques, but also some very useful information about the properties of organic v. inorganic pigments --was also very good about getting us around to see the sights: her itinerary for us was ambitious, exhausting ... but I'm glad she went to the trouble; I feel like I saw everything I should on a first trip--Taos, Santa Fe, Chimayo, Ghost Ranch, Abiquiu. (I ate everything too: all manner of tamales and chiles rellenos, killer breakfast burritos, stuffed sopaipillas--amazing!!--and fabulous Frito pie.)
Jan's son, Jonathan, a pastel artist, was visiting from Seattle, and was wonderful--he was just always there to help with anything you needed, and offered very valuable comments at critique time. One morning he gave a demonstration of his pastel technique: it was amazing, like magic!
Visit Jan's website, http://www.janhart.com/, to see her artwork and link to Jonathan's.


We met in the studio for breakfast around 8:30 and critiques and/or painting. Jan would answer questions and often gave a demonstration. The demos were highly instructive--and inspiring: you wanted to try it right away! At lunchtime we headed out for photo ops, sightseeing (the O'Keeffe house was a revelation; if I lived there, I'd live to be 99 1/2 too), and, on at least two occasions, painting on-site (though there often wound up not being enough time for this before dinner; and no one wanted to be late for dinner). We were welcome to return to the studio after dinner to paint, and many did. One night I painted until around 10:30 before retiring to the Days Inn for a Tecate.

One very useful thing Jan shared with us was her sketchbook.
When she works from a photo, Jan tapes the photo to the left page and does a value study on the right-hand page. Along with the value study, she also thinks about a title (I had always discounted the importance of a title, thinking of it as no more than and possibly a great deal worse than a label; but it also makes you think of what the painting's about--something else I am not in the habit of doing!), and notes the direction of the light and any other things she wants to keep in mind while painting. It seems a great way to prepare to paint, to gather your thoughts. Like in Chinese painting, when we would grind the ink before beginning.


This flat-topped mountain is the Pedernal, the one O'Keeffe said god told her she could have if she painted it enough. And I guess she did, since her ashes are up there.

starting again ... again

I haven't posted since early February, when my Tuesday/Thursday Berwyn class teacher, Carolyn Howard, passed away. Carolyn was a wonderful teacher and an even better critic; she always was able to put her finger on exactly the thing you needed to do to improve your painting. I was in awe of her astuteness. She died suddenly, after many years struggling with lung disease, and I still think of her often and miss the wonderful group of painters she had taken in. I think I probably grew more as a painter, and thought more about painting and my paintings, in the year I studied with her than I had in all the years before.
Spring is here ... time to paint! The apple blossoms and lilacs are almost done--have to paint them this week or wait until next year! So check back later in the week and see if I beat the clock.
In the meantime, I dug up these two 20-minute studies of Megan from last winter. There are problems with each (but of course) but, from this remove, I'm happy with color ineach and how it is applied, sometimes bleeding, sometimes holding a shape. And Megan, because of her lovely 19th-century (to me) looks has to be one of my favorite models; I can imagine Sargent painting her ... and maybe that thought influenced my color choices!

Sorry ... the photos for yesterday's post didn't/wouldn't upload.
I used a different photo software program, and here they are ... with a page of (out-of-focus) 5-minute poses of Ruth.

wednesday 2/7

This morning our model, Ruth, was late because of the snow and ice, so Bonnie modeled for us until she arrived, giving us a chance to concentrate on the head.
When we critique classmates' paintings when the model's on break, Bonnie always begins by asking us what we like about a painting. Here, I like the light on the hair and the left cheek, the lips ... the way they fade. Problems: the ear's too small, which I think I can slightly remedy; the eyes are too close (not fixable); and I got confused about the shape of the bottom plane of the nose, which I suppose I could try to fix, but I don't want to go in and start lifting and redoing areas, because that might ruin what's probably the best thing about it: it's a sketch, it looks un-labored-over, and that's more important to retain, to me, than "fixing" everything I can identify as "wrong" here.
I'll just leave it alone and try to observe that shape more accurately next time.

We did a long pose with Ruth and Bonnie asked us to think about breaking up the background into shapes ... This isn't finished, but I can work on it at home. A few problems to fix here--the left foot, the left arm, which looks hiked up or stiff (not sure this can be fixed, actually)--and some areas to finish--the hair, some cast shadows.
But I already feel disappointed with this effort, since it's so similar to my last painting of Ruth but, to my mind, not as good a painting ... there's something clunky about the torso, and I'm reluctant to add more washes there.
Maybe once I get her hair on (!!!) I'll see it differently. Don't know why I didn't paint the hair when I put the first wash on the face. Face and hair should painted at the same time, letting the paint mingle or run (a bit) to avoid making the hair look like it's sitting on top of the head.

2nd attempt

Took another try at the battenberg lace yesterday; this is an improvement on the first go, but still a little clunky, I think. Another practice session may be called for ... Working on this--with the very light washes for the folds of the cloth--I could see doing a small series of limited-palette paintings of different lacy white clothes. On very large paper, a full sheet (22 x 30) say.

The Chester County (PA) Art Association is having two shows, opening 3/2 and 5/25, the first juried, the second not, and I'm going to try to enter them both. It's been a long long time since I entered anything in a show or sold anything, and there is a school of thought that you have to show your paintings to really grow ... I'll post the paintings I'm considering.

1/25/07

Arranged a new still life setup in Berwyn Thursday.
I had nothing in mind particularly, except that I wanted to use my battenberg lace curtain ... Somehow it wound up being all pinks. But it doesn't bother me.
I finished the drawing (which is a little tight; I'm hoping to disregard the finer details when I start painting, especially on the large peachy-colored rose) and thought I should start painting with the yellow orchids and little daffodils, so that I don't lose them; I think the yellows will end up being an important relief from the pinks.
Thought I should do a practice run of the lace. And, as you can see, it's a good thing I did!
I've only painted lace twice before and both times, I can see now, I made the
same mistake, of painting the holes too dark. It has to be way more subtle.
I think I will also have to break with my usual practice of just painting my way across the paper in a trance and actually plan where to make a lot of the lace and where to let it sort of just fade away ....
Anxious to work more on this one, but missed this week, 2/2, due to the bronchitis! Will take this as a chance to practice the lace again.

1/24/07

Day 2. The model was Ruth, who took some--from my view--very challenging, active poses. Ruth should model for anatomy classes: you can see every muscle and bone; there is not an ounce of fat on her anywhere. The 2-minute poses were largely brain twisters.
The 20-minute pose I should have spent more time drawing ... Ruth does have a largish head--or maybe it's just all that hair--but I think I made her look a little too "caveman" here; the stick she's holding doesn't help!
I'm not a big fan of props as a rule ... they look too contrived.
I'm generally not concerned at all about getting a likeness of the model; I just want a fair facsimile of a human, first, and some interesting painting or paint handling, a close second.
After being not too pleased with the short poses (which usually produce my favorite work), I wound up being pleased with the final, long pose (which I usually dislike doing). The head is not overlarge or coarse-looking (Bonnie pointed out to me that I had her chin too prominent; a very small correction made all the difference!), and, except that it's overpainted (which you can see better in person than here), it's not bad! I especially like the light on the left shoulder, the right shin, and the flat of her stomach. The darks could be darker, but I don't want to fuss with it any further.
As Chris would say, It's good enough.


Missed class 2/1 due to bronchitis; back on schedule 2/8 I hope.

1/17/07

Mike: Per your request--larger pictures!
1/17/07 was the first session of this winter's life drawing class at Wayne with Bonnie. I got there late (!) and so missed the model's name ...
It was a bit intimidating and frustrating, having missed nearly all of the fall semester.
Trying to remind myself it's the process, not the product.
A good-sized group this session, and good painters too.
Bonnie has asked us to bring in paintings we're working on to critique during the model's breaks. I think it's a great idea and look forward to seeing people's work and also, I hope, honing my critical skills.
Of this day's paintings, my favorite is the middle figure on the 2nd sheet ... I think I like how some of the forms are "open"--there's no line or shape separating them form the background ... Have to try to do that on purpose!