The S6"x6" inger

6"x6" oil price $100

One of the nice things about going to gallery openings, besides the wine and appetizers, good company, and great art, is the music.  I took a photo of this musician singing and playing at the Chaffee Art Center which is housed in a lovely old mansion.  It really is a treasure for Rutland City, and the central Vermont area.  I liked using the birch panel for the floors and walls.  Actually the walls are white and the floor is oak.  I do not know this musician and am sorry I didn't write his name down. He looked to me to be part Native American.  Is it wrong to mention what you think someone's ethnic background is???  Mine is Dutch, English, Irish and German.  There You go!

Raven Mad

This is the second raven I did with an abstract background.  It was a demo for an art class I taught this week to beginning artists.  I have put a couple of their versions here as well.  This was about color mixing and experimenting with ways of applying paint.  For some it was there first painting since elementary school!  We have 2 hours to do a complete 16"x20" painting.  I think it is rather a daunting task, but it is always fun!

Attitude

16"x20" acrylic

I am back from traveling and ready to paint!  This is a demo for a beginners class at the Chaffee Art Center.   Everyone had a good time and some really nice paintings came out of it.  I focused on creating the design using geometric shapes and how to create varying brushwork.  When I do these demos I don't feel like I am painting subject matter that is most exciting to me, rather I try and choose a few things that offer teachable moments and subjects that are interesting and simple enough to not be intimidating.  I am still refining how I do this; the learning curve for me seems to be infinite!  On another note, I went to Washington, D.C., a city of abundant free museums and excellent artwork!

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Kate ink #245

This is a quick sketch of my friend and fellow artist Kate. I didn't like the pose the model was holding so I did her instead. She is making a funny, serious look with her mouth as she studies her work.

fast sketch water marker #239

15 minute pose II oil 8x10" #238

This is another quick pose. I see there is a glare on the photo. I don't usually paint on canvas board which is what this is. I, like so many other daily painters, like gesso board or a similar slick surface. There is something to be said about trying different effects, surfaces, colors, brushes, etc. I also painted these with a very thin purple underpainting instead of the usual black or red that I use. Yesterday I took a new lift to the terrain park when I was skiing. The lift is the oldest three person lift in the state and is pretty jerky. It doesn't take much to throw me off, and although I did fine, my nerves were on edge the whole time. This is what it is like for me when my "usual" conditions are challenged in painting.

15 Minute Pose oil 8"x10" #237

Belinda del Pesco posted this today: "Painter Gerald Brommer says you have to paint a minimum of three days a week just to keep from getting worse." That is motivation! I am a newer skier and although I am approaching 60 and not a big athlete, I know that I have to get out a couple of hours almost every day to keep my rhythm and courage, especially when I have half the year when I can't do it. Next year when I go out again it will take me a couple of weeks before I start to feel comfortable on the slopes. That is the way it is with drawing and painting. It is a bit like riding a bike in that you don't forget, but it takes practice to keep the rhythm and there will still be failures, but they will be wrapped in a lot of successes. I have really busy Thursdays so I don't get to paint until the evening when I meet with other artists and a model. It is mostly short poses and a lot of drawing, but I try to do a couple of really quick oil sketches so that I can get better at them. Even though they don't take much time, they take a lot of effort, quick thinking and fast movement. Sometimes I get something exciting and sometimes it is just a hot mess!

Thinking Legs 8"x10" oil #182

These legs are about to do something....get up....cross.....put on shoes...maybe move into position to have a baby, like my daughter did yesterday!

Ink Portrait #170 ink 6x6"

Headed home today. Parked the car in the road so Carl could snowblow the drive and walkways. I came in, built a fire, turned on the thermostats and baked potatoes and brownies in the oven to facilitate warming up the house. Life is good and this relaxed pose reflects that.

mug shot 6x6 ink #169

This isn't really a mug shot, but Karin Jurik is doing a series of 100 4"x4" portraits from mug shots and I think this one kind of looks like it could be one. The model almost fell asleep during this pose and it was a short one...which is why her eyes look so droopy!

Under Cover 5"x7" oil #156

The model struck a reclining pose and we set up for a 1/2 hour session. A couple of minutes into it I noticed she was twitching all over. I thought she was going to have a seizure but it turned out she was just freezing cold, so we covered her up and took a break. This is as far as I got. It is a winter wonderland here and we need to remember to kick the heat up for the models. I like the quick little portrait though.

Samara the Teething Garden Fairy 8"x10" watercolor #155

This is the second (and last) painting I did in Robert O'Brien's workshop this weekend. It was a watercolor landscape workshop, so I don't know what I was thinking when I chose this image to paint, but it is all about shapes, right? I really like watercolor and it requires me to exercise a huge amount of patience, which is good for me, but I love the immediacy of oils and the edginess I get with those. I want to keep practicing with this medium, but also keep up with the oils, which is already a challenge. A samara is a maple seed (also called helicopters). It is appropriate for my granddaughter, Samara, to be a little fairy in the garden, however she is the teething queen of fairies, so something has to go in the mouth. In this case it is her tutu. I am still struggling with grays, and I am not referring to my hair color.
SOLD

Snowy East Mountain Barn 14"x18" watercolor #154

I am taking a watercolor workshop with Robert Obrien www.robertjobrien.com this weekend. He is a master at watercolor, a medium I have always wanted to use but haven't had the courage to try, except one workshop last year. So this is my first watercolor landscape and I am happy with the results. It is such a wonderful thing to observe an artist doing a demo because I think that is where I really learn. The way he swishes the brush, paint and water on his palette is where the work happens and applying the paint is the magic. As Lisa Daria (lisadaria.blogspot.com) said today, "The best thing about painting with other people is you get critiqued which results in hearing ideas about your work you wouldn't normally think of."

Edgy charcoal 14 x18" #153

a very quick portrait of a beautiful model...I was really pleased with how much it looked like her....she was very thin and it was fun to paint her edginess...

20 minute pose 8x10 oil #138

To paint at this angle I sat directly in front of the model on the floor. I wanted to get the most intense foreshortening that I could with the pose. I am overall happy with the results, although I did not spend much time on the arms, hands or face, and I think it would be better if I had worked on those areas a bit more. Her right arm looks a bit like Popeye's! It is all about learning, finding out what I do well, working on what I don't do well and finding meaning in the process.

10 minute poses 1&2 8x10" oil #136 and #137

Happy Thanksgiving. I have very limited access to computer for a few days and missed posting yesterday so I am posting 2 today, both 10 minute poses. I want to keep doing these fast oil sketches with the goal of improving my ability to capture more of the important aspects with accuracy.

3 Minute Pose 8"x10" oil #135

It is what the title says. Short and sweet.

Creative Block Revisited 8"x10" oil #134

This doesn't count as a new painting, but I reworked numerous ones and did a lot of framing, so I am showing this one. I didn't like the background or the block, so that is what I re-did. The Chinese characters say, "Creative Block". I have to admit that I have a love affair with Chinese calligraphy, although I am not proficient at it.

Creative Block 8"x10" oil #127

This is a 20 minutes portrait and I didn't have the best angle so I called it "Creative Block." I read a list of "creative block-busters" which included the suggestion to do something counter intuitive. I think this is actually a helpful idea, but my favorite is just to do it and know that every piece is not going to be a masterpiece, but in the big picture, continuing to try will teach me lots of unexpected things.

Dreamer 8x10" oil #126

The reason I love to do these very quick figurative oil studies is that the model only poses for 5-20 minutes and for me to capture any kind of realistic image, I have to work really fast and not think. When I think too much I start to fuss at my painting and I inevitably create problems with the painting. There is definitely a reason for doing longer poses, even poses that are repeated over several days, but I don't have that kind of opportunity right now, so I am trying to get as much as I can from this exercise. The better I get at capturing a position, the body weight, the proportions, and the values, the better I will be in getting spontaneous poses on the street. There is a terrible glare on this. I tried to rephotograph it, but it didn't come out any better. I will try again later in better light.