new work on top of old one

I have agreed to participate in Works on Canvas's Size Matters Show. So I took a large failed painting from a class and re-painted it. Already this photograph is out of date because, in looking at the photo, I realized that the lines are too hard, took a paint brush and painted over them. I really should make myself stop around five. I get too tired to be sensible.

I waited forever to work on this painting because I was afraid that I wasn't going to be able to do anything worthwhile. If I keep that attitude, I'll never do anything so I decided to plunge right in. At the very least, I can tell myself that someday, if I keep practicing, I'll get better. Certainly won't get anywhere dithering. I know that I can do something more subtle as there is an example earlier in this blog. Someday I'll be able to do it purposely, not by happy accident.

Pacific NW Abstract Show

Tomorrow, I drive to Anacortes to attend a drawing session afterwhich, I drive to Stanwood to deliver this painting to the Gallery by the Bay's Pacific NW Abstract Show. I will be showing with many other local artists. I feel lucky to be able to participate.

Now that the holidays are over, I am looking forward to taking up my regular schedule of drawing and am ready to move on to painting. I have also signed up for a Gage portrait painting class. We'll see if I'm able to absorb anything useful there.

Ski bum

I drew this guy in at the ski area I was visiting this holiday vacation. He never stopped moving but his face was so interesting, I wanted to see if I could capture it. I don't know if I did, but I really liked the sketch so I thought I'd see if I could turn it into an interesting painting. I'm certainly interested by it, hopefully others are, too.

I like the sketch much better. Perhaps as time goes by, I'll get better at transcribing the original marks onto the painting. On the other hand, painting can be about something else. This painting is the original image after reflection. It's also about a guy with jowls whereas the first guy is really more sporty. Hum.

Notebook drawings.

I did some drawings in my little daily notebook in one of the whistler pubs after a day of skiing. I really, really like these. I don't worry about finesse at all. I just do what interests me which is the faces of the people and their relationships. Lines, movement in space, the content of space, lights and shadows entertain me endlessly.

figure painting

I feel rather triumphant when I succeed in forcing myself to address paints and a paint brush when doing figures. It's like making a two year old clean her face. She dodges, twists and turns, anything to avoid the wash cloth.

I made her rather fatter that she is so I simply brought the blue background in further. Her breasts were glowing like headlights until I darkened just a tad the shadowy side. I also worked on subtle value changes and using warm versus cold, all things I learned about in my classes and now just have to work into muscle memory.

I had thought that I wasn't so interested in realistic figure painting but the more I do it, more I enjoy it. I'm still not so interested in getting a person's real skin tone down. I'm still looking forward to seeing where I am in March.