Painting water & people bring up good memories

Painting water and people bring up good memories.  This is a new painting... someone gave me a photo of their grandmother at the beach.

Since I also spent many hours at the South Carolina beaches growing up... also many of those times with my own grandmother... it ended up being quite a fun piece.

I have not painted the ocean in many years, but honestly really enjoyed the freedom.

So, here it is in a few stages:  The top one is detail of almost completed painting.  (I might add a touch of something else...)

(This is almost final stage... notice the shoulder is fixed and I brought out light in hand, neck and some other colors in water...)

                          (Earlier "roughed in" stage... getting motion, light/dark)


(This is a 12x9" Richeson Premium Pastel Board-originally reddish color-that had a previous pastel on it.  I rinsed off most of the previous painting... but had some cool 'ghost' markings remain-like the turquoise in her shorts.  I used mostly Unison Soft Pastels, but added a little Sennelier metallic soft pastel too!)

Painting with oils

For about a month, I've been painting with oils in my studio. You may know that I am best known for my pastel paintings, but I love working with both mediums for different reasons.

Below you can see detail shots of my two most recent oil paintings. I like the contrast between the first one which is more layers of "dry brush" oil application and the bottom one is very wet oil paint applied with palette knives.




The above detail illustrates the similarities between oil and pastel. My surface is textured with earlier applications of gesso and first paint layers. Then, I drag oil paint on a brush across this texture. (When I paint with oils, I work on several paintings at a time to ensure a drying of most recent layer.)




This painting is done all at one time, with lots of wet paint pushed and pulled across the surface with a couple of my favorite palette knives. It might be finished... I will let it totally dry before deciding. I may glaze over it. (On a side note, I love the way this looks like the surface of moving water... inspired by many hours of river studies!)

Having fun with oil painting

This is a detail shot of my latest oil painting, "Rest". Whether I am working small or on a bigger canvas (this one is 24x30"), I paint with my bare hands as well as brushes!

I use a variety of oil painting brushes, but in addition to adding paint with brushes, I like the subtractive nature of scraping back with 'shaper' tools. I also blend and move paint with my fingers as well as the heal of my hand.

If you look at the light area above the hand in this detail shot, you can see the cast shadow created by oil paint when I scraped back through.




(PS... both of these are quick pics from the easel. I'll post better images soon. Oil paintings are tough to photograph until the surface dries a bit... don't like the glare.)

Another one completed...

"Below" (12x16", soft pastel on board) is my newest pastel painting completed. I really like working on the textured pastel surface. (See previous blog entries for in process shots... including the original textured surface.)

"An underwater composition"

"An underwater composition"... here it is finished.


... a detail.

On the easel.

This in process pastel is the current one on my easel. It's also a great illustration of the last blog entry, "the angle makes the proportion." Notice how her left arm is folded... in order to show the weight of that shoulder, I must accurately show the angle those edges create. (This might not make sense to some folks... verbal VS visual explanations. But, I have to try.)

Now some other areas are rather unresolved, like the hands, right shoulder and breast area... but that is what "in process" means!

First stage of a pastel painting

This is the beginning of one of my newest pastel paintings. Tonight I almost finished it (so it looks more colorful, detailed and smooth... will post pics as soon as I share new work with Red Sky Gallery).

One day, I'll do a series of these really rough, sketchy impressions of a moment in water. There is something lovely and raw about the marks capturing that suspended moment of light & movement... body & water. But, finishing a painting and pushing color into color... thick and rich is cool too.

Being dedicated to my own art is why I quit my full time teaching job three years ago. I think this is the first fall I was totally absent of that 'back to school' feeling... finally deprogrammed from 13 years of teaching and how many years was I a student before that?? This fall is about painting in my new pastel studio space and enjoying September... with it's crisp nights.....