another great photo session

i have enough material to give me inspiration and references for paintings at least until the ice next descends from the polar regions. ashley met me at the studio gallery 1311 for a photo shoot a few days before christmas. she was her usual energetic, inventive, gracious and lovely self. putting up with my ridiculous ideas and coming up with much better poses has turned into her stock in trade. here are some of the photos that i am pretty sure will end up as inspiration for paintings.

speaking of trade i also delivered her commission piece for which she is trading the modeling  sessions. it is for a dear friend of hers whose father died recently. he served in vietnam in the late sixties and early seventies. he and three of his friends were involved in a fire fight in long an province on august 3, 1970. he was the only survivor, the other three kia from a ground explosive device. the painting is he standing in front of a stylized vietnam war memorial wall with the names of the three friends kia that fateful day. it may not be the best technical painting i have done, but it is full of sentiment for the family, ashley and now me. hope you enjoy it.

"lingering memories"  (16"X15)

" in the moment" (wip, 15"X21")

" in the moment" (15"X21")

i have been working on a couple of things for the last week or two. one is a commission for someone of a vietnam war vet who died recently. i bartered some modeling time for the painting. i think i came out ahead on this one as she has proven to be delightful to work with and i have gotten some pretty amazing images to use as painting references. after it is delivered, gifted and an okay from the client i will post the image of it soon.

the second piece i am doing is of the same woman client mentioned above sitting in a chair in the studio whilst discussion our options. she is poised but charming, full of fun but very serious about what she wants. she is exactly what the world needs more of. so, without much ado i will post the work in progress of this painting, "in the moment".

hope you are having a great weekend.  cheers.

"somewhere between there and now" : finishing up

well, i finally got up the gumption to put in the marks along the left side of this painting à lá daniel sprick.

i chose a compliment of the glowing yellow background washes. i think i like it. i also liked the saturated red along the top that sort of recapitulates the strap on her shoulder. together, i am just not sure. like most things it will most likely grow on me or, at least, become something minor when compared to the main character: the figure.

i put it on by spritzing some clear water in the upper left with a bottle that puts out rather large drops and then put a few sprays down the left side. i then took a wet rigger and "painted some wiggly lines along the left side from top to bottom. then the hard part, i loosely mixed up a mid-value ultramarine blue and alizarin crimson permanent (or carmine...not sure what it is on the palette) and sort of scumbled in the upper left hand corner. it ran down the side along the path of least resistance, namely, the already wet areas, drops and lines. lastly, i lightly blotted a few areas that looked too dark.

so, it looks like i had seen it in my mind's eye. now i have to see if it will work. that might take some time as right now i am in the place where i usually am at this point in a painting (right after i've done something edgy or just finished) : pretty sure its a ruined mess. i've got enough painting under my belt to intellectually know that probably isn't the case, but it will need a bit of time.

"somewhere between there and now" (13"X21")

the figure i don't have any problem with and i actually think it may be the best painting of this type i have done. so here it is for your edification.

finished the class demo....figure in landscape

the class was back at it monday morning after a 10 day vacation over the thanksgiving holiday. we tackled the figure in landscape of the fisherman the demo of which i started at the end of the last class. it will incorporate virtually everything that we have gone over through the first 5 sessions.

first washes done last time, we incorporated some of the background, whatever they chose to do, as we went along so that nothing got way out ahead of anything else and the figure looked part of the whole rather than a pasted-on cutout. i chose to put in a somewhat more complicated background as i got queries like, "what if i want to put in a cloudy sky, some buildings, some distant boats?" so my demo got a little more crowded with these things than i had originally intended.

i did take some photos of the class and their work but the photos didn't turn out for some reason. so all i have is the final photo of the demo.

mary won the raffle and was compelled to take this home.....poor girl.