I have two of these chairs. I bought them when I lived in Baltimore, from a junk shop for $20 a piece. They were light blue at the time. A few years later, I decided to spray paint them this darker shade. They used to be our dining chairs, then they did a stint in the computer room, and now they've been relegated to the studio. Jesse tried to convince me to get rid of them altogether the last time we moved, but not a chance! I haven't been lugging these (heavy) things around for eight years through three different states just to give up now.
I've been thinking about the best way to pack these paintings for shipment. Padded envelopes don't seem to offer enough protection, but cardboard boxes add weight, and are often too big for these small paintings. If anyone has a great packing or shipping trick, could you jot it down in the comments? Thanks in advance.
After getting so much positive feedback on yesterday's painting, I decided to use my new canvas panels again today. This time I put another coat of gesso on the surface, to smooth it a little. I also added some stand oil into my paint as a medium, and I didn't feel I was struggling as much to fill all the little "holes" of the canvas texture.
Today I'm trying out some new painting panels I bought online here. The price is right, the shipping was fast, and the panels seem to be very good quality. You can really see the canvas texture in the finished painting, compared to my work on gessobord. Whether this textured appearance is a good thing or not is a matter of personal preference. I'm more comfortable painting on a smoother surface right now, but only because that's what I've become used to over the past few months. I'm defintely going to keep using both types of surfaces in the future.
This is a very large beaker my mother rescued from the garbage at a hospital where she used to work. I started out this morning with a more complicated setup involving another vase and more flowers, but ended up wiping it off after two hours - this beaker (or whatever it's called) was the only thing I was really interested in anyway.
This one was lots of fun. The painting part was fun, and as I was doing it, I was listening to a podcast of Terry Gross interviewing Will Farrell about his new movie - also fun! I listen to a LOT of NPR podcasts, mostly the aforementioned Fresh Air, and also The Diane Rehm show, my absolute favorite.
One of the most interesting desserts I've ever had contained only three ingredients: milk, sugar, and avocado - all blended together to the consistency of pudding. I first had it at a dinner party, and it was a real conversation piece!
A really beautiful and simple way to decorate for Christmas is to get a glass fishbowl or vase and fill it with an assortment of various small ornaments. A string of lights can also be tangled in for added effect. That kind of still life setup is a little more than I could tackle this morning, though, so I did this instead!
After spending time watching David R. Darrow painting on Ustream this morning, I had to do a portrait of my own. I found this photo on WetCanvas.com in the virtual life drawing archives. I love the beads in her hair - they remind me of illustrations of princesses in my old children's books. For the first, oh, 12 years of my life (after the inital stick figure years, that is) I don't think I drew anything but princesses. As regular visitors to this blog will be starting to figure out, the books and artwork I was exposed to when I was very young have had a large impact on my art throughout my life - and on my entire mentality, for that matter!
I painted this yesterday afternoon, and I'm spending today finishing (hopefully) a portrait I've been working on for some time.
I'm having trouble thinking of something to say about this little painting. I'm pretty much having the greatest weekend ever - for no reason at all. Hope you all are having a great one, too.
There are sunflowers blooming up and down the street this week. They all seem to be watching each other from their respective yards, maybe planning where they will spread their seeds for next year's blooms. All the sunflowers in our yard are "volunteers," and if we hadn't uprooted many of them in the earliest stages of growth, we'd truly have a forest of sunflowers out there right now.
My sister found me the second green bottle at a thrift store while she was visiting. I was delighted. She's a champion thrift store shopper - a talent which I thought only encompassed designer clothes, but now I know it also extends to awesome still life objects.
I got these tiny little canvases on a shopping spree at Art Media in Portland. It's a really nice art store in a cool neighborhood. The garden is still going nuts here, and I picked up some new colored glass over the weekend, so I expect to be busy in the upcoming days.
On the second morning of Jessie's visit, I attempted my second portrait sketch. This one came out much better than yesterday's, which is lucky since I painted it over that one!
This afternoon we are all going to the Oregon Country Fair - a truly wierd and wonderful time should be had by all!
This is a sketch of my sister Jessie, who is visiting from Chicago this week. She was sewing while I painted this, and moving around somewhat - a challenge I usually love, but in this case, the perspective got a little messed up. Oh well. I like it.
When I paint self-portraits, they always turn out looking either mad or sad. My expression in the last one I did (which is now my profile picture) has been described by people who know me as "harsh." Well, it's been said before by better artists than me: it's pretty difficult to look in the mirror, paint, and maintain a benign expression for several hours at a stretch - let alone smile! So, if you think I look a bit sad in this rendering, keep in mind that it's 95 degrees here today and my studio is in the attic - you'd be crying too!
Here is my Tuesday morning painting. I've been working on a large double-portrait this week, and I've also given myself an assignment of doing a Sargent master-copy - at least of the hands in this painting. So, back to the easel!
I have learned about more kinds of radishes since I started doing these small paintings than I ever knew of before. At the farmer's market this weekend, these were laid out in huge colorful pyramids, and labeled "Independence Radishes," I'm assuming in honor of the holiday. An online search turned up nothing for "Independence," only a variety called "Easter Egg" radishes, but Easter is long gone for this year, so I suppose this was just an example of farmer's market marketing.
More flowers from the yard. So far I'm having an excellent long weekend. Hope you all are too!
A little something patriotic today. Enjoy the fireworks...and the hot dogs....all that good stuff.
I was having so much fun yesterday with the ornaments that I did two paintings in a row. The light was slowly changing, so this one came out a bit darker and more contrasty than the first. I've been having zero luck with ebay lately, but that's no reason to stop trying!
I can hardly believe that it's July already. Pretty soon I'll be starting to get ready for Christmas! For the past two years, I've been employed making Christmas decorations for corporate spaces. It's very different from home holiday decorating - for one thing, the ornaments don't have sentimental value (and most of them are held together with hot-glue and florist's wire.) I've decorated everything from small desk-top trees to 40-foot-tall atrium trees. When you're working on a tree that tall, you know someone's going to be suspended from the ceiling! I've never been that person, but last year I did get to ride around in a cherry picker in a torrential downpour. Which I enjoyed. I know, it's perverse.