Clayton J. Beck, III Workshop Recap

I wish I had more time to write about this, but for now I'll have to give a quick recap.

This month I had the great privilege of attending my second Clayton J. Beck, III workshop. This time it was here in Dallas at the Society of Figurative Arts, and I helped organize it, hire the models, even pick Clayton up from the airport. :-) He probably got tired of me after a while, but I sure enjoyed the one-on-one time, picking his brain on all things art-related. :-)

Below are some pictures from the workshop, and my notes with some of the main points from his discourse that I found particularly helpful.

- Every brush stroke you lay down is a reflection of your thought process.
- Making the highlight on the upper eyelid too light will cause the model to look sleepy (ha!)
- Don't add a background to a figure - add the figure to the background.
- Don't constantly try to get the model back into the first sitting's pose, when they were in a different mindset.
- Everything is just as important as everything else.
- Establish from the beginning something that is absolutely correct, and use that as your "key" or "anchor."
- Don't have anything in your line of sight that disturbs the harmony.
- Leave some white on the canvas. If you take it all out, you'll never be able to put it back. Resist the urge to "fill in all the holes".
- Each time you look up at the model, gather specific information.
- A block-in = enough information to move to final painting. The block-in should be a success. Don't degrade it or take away the excitement. Adorn it.
- Ask yourself the right questions, in the right order.
Here's a big one: Don't get bored with your own paintings. Your work should show that you love painting. Love every square inch of your canvas. Each part of it should be a gift to the viewer.

Of course, probably very little of this makes sense to you unless you attend Clayton's workshop and watch him paint. It's truly amazing - and he is a fantastic teacher!

I didn't get photos of every demo, but here are pictures from his first demonstration. For a classical realist, this method probably looks like chaos, but Clayton put every brush stroke down with complete intention and clarity of thought. It was fascinating to watch.

The first three days of the workshop were portrait-focused. We had a different model every day, and attempted to complete two or more paintings each day, with a specific goal for each piece (OTHER than "making a pretty picture").

Here are my efforts from these three days - all different, for sure! I didn't get two paintings in every day, since I was the class monitor, AND I was always the last to get a spot in front of the model. That made it more fun for me, since I had to try and make the absolute most of whatever perspective I was given.

 Above: My goal was to turn the form using color temperature, since the light was so flat from my angle. Below: My goal was to keep the focal point in the light, even though the face was 3/4 in the shadow.

Above: My goal was to have very soft edges, with only 2-3 relatively harder edges based on the contrast in those areas.
Below: My goal was to stay high key and not ever get to "black" in the value scale. That took a great deal of self-control, since I love drama in my paintings!

The last two days of the workshop consisted of figure painting. Below is the setup on the model stand, and pictures of Clayton's first figure demo, which turned out beautifully.

Below: Clayton's second figure demo, completed in perhaps no more than 45 minutes.

 Below: my efforts from the two days of figure painting. Having an absolute blast. When I set up in front of the model for this first painting, the pose and dramatic lighting took my breath away.

I would like to give a big thanks to Michael Mentler for hosting such a great workshop, and allowing me to participate. And of course, thank you to Clayton for coming all the way down from Chicago and doing such an excellent job teaching and demonstrating. :-)

The Challenges of Self Portraits (from a mirror, or course!)

American Artist magazine is currently running a cover competition featuring self portraits, so that gave me some incentive to try my hand at, once again, the ever-intimidating self portrait done completely from a mirror.

Some things I learned from the experience this time around:

• You have to cope with the model moving all the time. You'd think that since I look at myself in the mirror everyday, I'd have my features memorized. But this time it felt like I had to learn them all over again, in this specific lighting, under these specific circumstances. The lighting changes everything!
• I asked myself the question: "Do I want to idealize myself or paint me the way I look, in this moment?" True to my classical-realist tendencies, I answered with both. The idealization was unintentional, as it is most of the time when I do a portrait. I have a real empathy for my subjects, especially this one! I also included some of the not so perfect things that make me the way I do... like the dark circles under the eyes, the big chin, and the fact that my mouth is always open when I'm concentrating on a painting!
• You can still squint at yourself as a subject, unless you're working on the eyes. :-)
• You can only look at one eye at a time! So, I had quite the challenge making sure my eyes in the painting weren't focused in two different directions!
• Each self portrait should be different in some way from the last. I wanted this one to include at least one hand (mission accomplished, in natural window light, with the addition of my easel and canvas inside the composition.

Self Portrait by the Window - 15" x 14" - oil on linen

I also realized (and this was completely unplanned) that in my self-portrait and the portrait I'm working on of my husband, we are wearing the same color shirts. Weird. I'll post pictures of that one soon.

Meanwhile, here is a picture from this morning's 2 1/2-hour painting excursion at the Dallas Arboretum. It was absolutely gorgeous out today, and I hope that while the beautiful fall weather lasts, I can make this a weekly thing. There are thousands of pumpkins out there right now, as well as azaleas, roses, and chysanthemums. It's just beautiful!

I may tweak this a little more in my studio, but here is my rendition of the Poetry Garden.

"The Poetry Garden" - plein air painting, in progress

New Plein Air Sketches

I have been doing more plein air painting, now that the weather is finally cooling down. Here are a few little studies, the first three of which are from the nature preserve that is within walking distance of my house. Because the rocky stream curves and bends so often, there are countless potential paintings waiting to be created just in this one small area.

I went out with my painting students on a couple different occasions and created these sketches.

8" x 6" study - 1.25 hrs

7" x 9" study - 1.25 hrs

12" x 9"study - 3 hours

This last one was painted at Lake Lavon in Wylie, Texas. It was about 95 degrees, with mid-day lighting, so all in all, VERY uninspiring. However, I decided to give it a shot. At least I had fun!

The Finishing Touch: When a Painting Finds a Home

As promised in an earlier newsletter, I thought I'd share a couple pictures of paintings in their owners' homes. This is what truly finishes a work of art... when it finds a home, the picture is complete! Commissioned portraits, especially, are often designed with a specific wall or space in mind. It's very gratifying to see the finished painting in its frame, hanging in the space that it was meant for.

If you own one of my paintings and would like to share a snapshot of it in the room where it's hanging, please send me a picture! I would absolutely love to see the art in its home and share it here on my blog! Please send pictures to: annarosebain@gmail.com, and thanks in advance! :-)

The first picture features a 30" x 24" painting called, "The Young Explorer." The owner (the mother of the 18-month-old little girl) decided to hang it in her music room, and I think it looks fabulous there!

The second image is from another client's dining room, which she painted and re-decorated just for the portrait of her son. I think the finished painting makes a wonderful statement and is a beautiful centerpiece to the room.

It is the perfect time of year to commission a portrait. If you are interested, please visit my website at http://www.artworkbyannarose.com/commission.html, or email me at annarosebain@gmail.com.

New Painting: "A Venetian Spectator"

Today I finally finished one of my paintings from this summer's trip to Italy. I enjoyed working on this one from start to finish, and found myself continually imagining up stories about this old woman's life, and what she might have to say if I were to sit down and have a conversation with her. Her expression could read any number of ways, from sour and grumpy (i.e., "Those damned tourists!") to thoughtful and lonely or simply enjoying the fresh air. Either way, I purposefully juxtaposed the old woman with a very cheerful scene at her window: brightly blooming flower pots, topped off with a rainbow-colored pinwheel. Of course, flowers, green shutters and pinwheels are familiar sights in Venice and other Italian cities, but I felt that this image had something special about it that was worth capturing in a painting.

"A Venetian Spectator" - 30"x24" - oil on linen

Originally, the old woman was looking out from a very boring window. I decided to take her and put her in the scene that I created in the painting. Here is one of the original shots (a slightly different pose in this one but it gives you an idea of the original setting):

 I looked all over for the perfect reference photos (Steve had taken at least a thousand pictures of windows!). Here are a few of the images I considered, but none of them ended up working out.

I did at last find an image of a window that I could use. Thanks to Photoshop, I was able to piece my reference materials together, making sure that the lighting matched. I was able to place the pinwheel and flowers exactly where I wanted them. I am very happy with how this painting turned out and look forward to sharing more of my works in progress soon. :-)

Marshana

http://www.annasblankcanvas.com/gallery/adultoilportraits/Marshana.jpg

Just to let you see some more painting development...

Here is my painting of Marshana (one of our models in Michael Mentler's life drawing/painting group here in Dallas). Marshana was a wonderful challenge, with her beautiful dark skin being lit with warm light on one side, and cool light on the other. This made for a huge variety of color, and since color is my specialty...well, I had a great time with this one!

Session 1 (20 minutes):

Session 4 (finished):