Precious Family Time

After two full weeks of GO GO GO, I am finally home, at my computer and in my sweats, enjoying a moment to take a breath. It's all been good stuff, but I'm the kind of person that needs to recharge after a period of craziness by spending time alone. So here I am, reflecting on everything that's happened in the last couple of weeks.

On Sunday, my mom, younger sister, and youngest brother, flew down from Wisconsin and spent five days here in Texas visiting Emily and me (they just flew back this morning). It was wonderful to see them, and they enjoyed replacing snow and cold with 60 and 70-degree temperatures, blossoming trees, and blooming hyacinths. Part of my craziness from the last two weeks was that I wanted to finish a portrait of my brother Joseph, who I knew was coming to visit. While everyone in my family is talented in some way or another, Joseph has taken to the guitar, and has been teaching himself for several years now. He spends every afternoon in his room for hours, listening to music and playing along. I wanted to capture that in this painting, "Being Sixteen."

"Being Sixteen" - 42x30" - oil on linen (details below)

Actually, Joseph turned seventeen the day he and my mom and sister arrived. So Emily and I threw him a little birthday party, which included a guitar-shaped cake. :-)

Later in the week, we enjoyed a visit to Dallas Blooms at the Dallas Arboretum. Thousands of tulips, daffodils, and hyacinths lit up our senses as we strolled the perfectly curated grounds, and I couldn't help but feel awed by God's perfect creation. There is no painted pigment than can ever come close to the intensity of color one sees in sunlit transparent flower petals!

Below: my mom, sister Cara, sister Emily, and me, enjoying the weather and blooms at the Dallas Arboretum. We saw several plein air painters while we there and I was tempted to join them... :-)

My week with family actually overlapped with a pretty major art workshop that took place here in Dallas. I was the class monitor and assistant at this workshop, which was hosted by Michael Mentler at the Society of Figurative Arts. Our visiting instructor was Clayton J. Beck, III, someone I've studied with before and highly respect. I will write about this workshop in my next blog post, so stay tuned!

Taking Advantage of Dallas Blooms

This week is spring break, which really doesn't mean anything to me EXCEPT that my twin sister is off from her music teaching all week! So, that means she and I can spend lots of time painting together. Lately she has taken up painting again (she and I had flip-flopped majors and minors in college... I was the art major, music minor, and she was the music major, art minor). This makes me very happy as she is always great to hang out with, and she's a pretty good artist, too, especially for not spending nearly the amount of time at it as I do!

Today the Dallas Arboretum was packed, due to gorgeous weather, spring break picnickers, and various wedding shoots and quinceañeras... but Emily and I found a quieter spot and sat down for two solid hours to paint some of the sunlit tulips.

Notice the matching DSW totes... are we twins, or what??

We had a wonderful time and our paintings didn't turn out too bad, either. I may tweak some of the edges and color temperatures on mine back here at the studio, but otherwise, it's a finished sketch.

Aside from my plein air excursions, I am working on a number of new pieces for a fast-approaching group show at Weiler House Fine Art Gallery in Fort Worth. The opening reception is on March 24 from 5-9 p.m. If you are in the area, please stop by! In addition to some other work, I will have 7-8 new pieces. More info at: http://www.weilerhousefineart.com/#events.

Lists of Blessings, New Paintings and More

I would love to write on here more... but lately I've been spending most of my time painting, which is what I'm supposed to be doing! However, a brief update is long overdue.

First of all, I should mention that for the past week or so, I've been greatly encouraged and inspired by a little book my mother sent me for my birthday, called One Thousand Gifts, by Ann Voskamp. The book talks about how to experience joy, and a full life, regardless of your circumstances. The key is in finding gratitude for all of God's gifts, both big and small, in your everyday life. So the author took up a dare, to record a list of one thousand "God-gifts". Her writing style is beautiful; as my mom said, she "paints with words." And, as a result of reading this book, I've begun to deliberately slow down my mad rush -- taking time to enjoy the little things, and to give thanks. I've also started a list of my own... today's additions:

- Perfume of full-bloom hyacinths by the hundreds

- Smiling pansies along the pathway

- Wearing flip flops, ridding warm body of sweatshirt and soaking in the sun... in February. :-)

After a day like today, who could be ungrateful, after all?? It was a high of 78. I spent the morning plein air painting at the Dallas Arboretum, enjoying in the way that only an artist can the full beds of hyacinths and pansies in all of their glory. Here is a picture of just a tiny fraction of what I was surrounded by... I'll show the painting soon. It still needs a couple little adjustments (I had to stop sooner than expected, thanks to some little mites that decided to form a parade up my pant leg).

Other painting projects... well, these all seem so unrelated to one another, but that has been my working method as of late.

I recently completed (er--tentatively completed) a new self portrait. I began this painting last week when Steve and I got dressed up for a Valentine's Day photo shoot, and I decided, "Hey, why shouldn't an artist dress up for her own portrait?" I managed not to get any paint on my clothes. The painting is titled, "Self Portrait with Red Lipstick." I never wear lipstick - in fact, I hate it. But I will admit that it does look good. :-)

"Self Portrait with Red Lipstick" - 20"x16" - oil on linen

I need to get a better photo of it -- AND I still might make some small changes -- but this will do for now.

One more painting I did just for fun... I've been meaning to set up this scenario for a while and finally made it happen. My dog, Bella, was curious about a new studio pal, a plaster bust that my painting student dubbed "Houdini" (after the sculptor, Houdin). Here is the painting, "Getting Acquainted." Bella sat for much of the painting, thanks to a tempting treat sitting on top of Houdini's head.

"Getting Acquainted" - 11"x14" - oil on linen panel

I will have much more new work coming out in the next few weeks, in preparation for a group exhibition at Weiler House Fine Art Gallery. The show opening is on March 24 from 5-9. More details to come!

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