Portrait Demo at Weiler House Fine Art Gallery

Last Saturday I was thrilled to present a live portrait demonstration at my local art gallery in Fort Worth, TX. I started painting around 5:00 p.m., and visitors could come and go as they pleased, or stay and watch the whole thing. I had an absolute BLAST! I always wondered how my piano-playing twin sister came to be such a performer who loves the spotlight, when I didn't enjoy performing at all. I'd start a recital piece and mess up the very beginning, then involuntarily say, "Oops!" Well, it turns out that I am a performer after all... I just needed a different kind of spotlight! :-) I've discovered that I love painting for an audience. I somehow managed to paint not one, but TWO portraits during the 4 1/2 hours that I demonstrated at the gallery, and I enjoyed every second of it.

The event was part of Fort Worth's monthly Gallery Walk. Since the demo was so well received, I plan on making this a regular thing. I'll be continuing to post on my Facebook page and monthly newsletter, to ensure that you stay updated as to when my next demo will be.

Meanwhile, here are some pictures from the evening.

My model was Joan Ryan, the wife of gallery owner Bill Ryan. I've been wanting to paint Joan since I met her - she has lovely cool skin tones and such a sweet expression. It was an honor to paint her!

There were actually two artists in the room... :-)

Above: The finished portrait of Joan. 16x12" - oil on Raymar linen panel.

Above: I started my second portrait quite differently from the first, since Audette, my beautiful volunteer, had much warmer skin tones and colors in her clothes than Joan did. Instead of using the white canvas, I toned with a wash of transparent oxide red, then moved in to the block-in.

Above: you can see all the finger prints on the canvas where I used my pinky to steady my hand. :-)

Above: The finished portrait of Audette. 14x11", oil on linen.

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!

A Studio Filled with Potential!

Taking a look around my studio today, I counted twelve works in progress, or paintings that I've started within the past two months or so, and have yet to finish. Three of them were started just this week, and two of those were started yesterday! I'm not going to share pictures of every single unfinished painting; some have more potential than others. Some will be finished very soon because I'm excited about them; others may never see completion but will instead get sanded off and painted over.

As a 20-something, my life is in a stage of constant change. During this decade, there are so many things that happen: we graduate college, get married, buy a house, have kids, change jobs once or more, and essentially leave all of our childhood familiarities for the new and different. If I look back at the past three years since leaving my home state and moving to Texas, it's quite remarkable to see how much my artwork has progressed. Just look at some of my past blog posts -- you'll see the difference, too!

What's my point in telling you this? Well, each painting is an opportunity to learn something new, to experiment or try something different. The goal is to take my artwork to the next level and make each painting better than the last. As long as I keep this goal in the back of my mind, I can't fail. Some paintings might turn out better than others, but at least I'll have painted with intention. We think that painting is supposed to be relaxing... but that is the difference between a hobbyist and a true painter! When I "check out" during a painting, that's when I start to fail. Instead, my mind has to be utterly focused on the task at hand, without distraction. How many of us spend our time picking away at our work, or as some describe it, "licking the canvas?" How many of us actually try (and I say try because with the exception of a very few, this is impossible to perfect...) to make every single brush stroke count? As painters, we should be absolutely exhausted at the end of the day!

Well, that's what happened to me yesterday. I began two new paintings, employing some of the methods I learned at my latest workshop with Clayton Beck. I decided to go with the flow on these, and allow my style to change somewhat if it serves the painting better.

The first is a huge canvas (54" x 36") of a full-length girl, seated on a wooden chest in front of a bookshelf. The shelf is filled with old classics, art books, and various objects, including a stem of orchids, a brass pitcher, and a bust of Michelangelo's "David." The girl is holding a note and appears deep in thought. The painting is still untitled. I'm leaving her expression and pose up to interpretation, but am still working on  story line of my own. Anyway... it took me literally all afternoon to block this in. I only used white, terra rosa, and ultramarine blue for the block-in, and limited my values, especially on the figure. In the next painting session, I hope to begin developing the values more, while incorporating accurate color temperature. The light source is very warm, which is somewhat different from the usual daylight bulbs that I work with. I believe the warm lighting appropriately creates a more intimate atmosphere for this setting.

Here she is: the first image is the scene as it's set up in my studio. The second is my painting on the easel from the actual vantage point that I decided on (I'm doing this thing from life). I had to sketch the image on with charcoal before starting any of the painting. It was just too large to try eye-balling! Click the image to see larger:

I began a second painting yesterday, some time in the evening after my husband got off of work. I have been badgering him for months now about modeling for me. We've been married for three years and he's never modeled for a portrait! Finally, last night, he was willing to sit for at least the start of one. My idea with this portrait was to bring out his wonderful quality of being a good problem-solver... and that will actually be the title of the painting: "The Problem Solver." He'll be holding a rubik's cube and looking out directly at the viewer. That's just his personality: direct, bold, strong. And since it would take me forever to solve a rubik's cube, I have to brag on my husband just a little - he can solve it in about two minutes!

Since the model lives with me (ha!), I am doing this portrait completely from life. I was only able work on it for about 40 minutes, but here is what I accomplished during that time (the dimensions are 24" x 24"):

More progress pictures to come. I'm very excited about all my projects, even if a dozen seems like an overwhelming number! I love what I do, and feel privileged every day to come into my studio and paint. I hope those of you reading this are also inspired to do what you love, and do it to the best of your ability. :-)