On the Cover

This may fall into the category of shameless self promotion but... if you don't toot your own horn, who will? In today's mail I got a nice surprise - my artwork on the cover of "The Artist", a UK based magazine. I had contributed some images and commentary about working with the new OPEN acrylic paints by Golden Paints, which stay "wet" 10x longer than traditional acrylics. A little fame never hurts... hey - I'll take it!

A Tall Order

Coping with hurricanes is enough to drive one to drinking. We were spared from disaster, but just barely. The telephone pole in front of our place broke in half, as well as two power lines, keeping us in the dark till today. This is nothing compared to what happened in other areas. Power, straight up - it's good stuff.

A Tall Order

Acrylic on Canvas, 12x12"

Price on Request

Ladies Night Two-fers

Ah, TGIF. Not that my weekends are any different than my hectic work week, but at least the potential is there. Love the idea of kicking back and sipping on a tall, frosty something or other.

Ladies Night Two-fers

Acrylic on Canvas, 12x12"

Price on Request

Moonshine Mama

This one is dedicated to a dear friend. A gourmet cook and frequent party giver, she has been known to slip into the caverns of her basement to brew up her own proprietary butt-kicking concoctions, adding exotic ingredients such as the essence of various aromatic flowers from her garden. She delights in serving her friends all forms of lip-smacking delicacies, always performed in a lavish mid century modern style. This ones for you, Nata. Cheers dahling.

Moonshine Mama

Acrylic on Canvas 12x12"

Price on Request

Party of Three

Well I guess its obvious that I'd rather paint cocktails than do my taxes. Last year I got audited - not fun. I needed several of these after that ordeal. And the sour IRS agent - now theres someone who could really use a few of these too. They just don't get it - artists just want to have fun!

Party of Three

Acrylic on Canvas 12x12"

Price on request

Cheers

Every since I finished the book - about three weeks ago, I meant to do a painting that celebrates its completion. Problem was that I was so far behind in planet Earth matters, I found myself overwhelmed with an avalanche late stuff - bills, paperwork, correspondence, etc. There was no celebration to be had quite yet. Since I'm starting to see light at the end of the tunnel, I decided to jump in and start a martini series. I'll truly feel like celebrating when that last way-late monster item gets checked off my list - taxes!

Cheers

Acrylic on canvas 12x12"

Price on request

Best Gig in Town

On Wednesday nights I host a "Jazz 'n Sketch" event at a local tavern. I hire a model to pose so that the artists have a choice of sketching either her or the band. My husband, a jazz musician, invites the top world class players from NYC. This results in what is undoubtedly is the best gig in town. Is there anything more delightful than sketching, sipping wine, while immersed in 360 degrees of an improvisational swinging symphony?

Pencil sketches

11x14"

Sweets From My Sweetie

My sweetie often comes home after a music gig with a little gift - last week he brought a box of chocolates. My first reaction is that they are too pretty to eat, but would make a beautiful painting so I put them in the freezer till the time comes. Finally... time to indulge!

Sweets

Oil on Gessoboard 6x6"

Price on Request

Colorful Collection

Finally, I get to post a painting that is not a class demo. Hopefully this will now be the norm. I was inspired by having the new still life painting box set up, so now I can control the lighting and the angles to my liking. To get back in the swing of daily painting, I pulled out my trusty collection of decades old nail polishes, which got me to thinking... it's about time I treat myself to some new shades!

Colorful Collection

Oil on Board 6x6"

Price on Request

4 Apples (Demos)

Demos in "Color as Value"

Here are some quick demos I did for my class in NYC, showing various ways to interpret the same still life, using different value and color combinations. The point of the lesson is that there are many ways to interpret the values, you can try different combinations and see what you like the best.

4 Apples

12x12" Acrylic on Canvas

Corner Cafe

It's always challenging to make sense out of a crowd scene from a painting standpoint. All those little faces and figures, all that architecture. I chose this scene for exactly that reason, aiming to keep the lively quality but not get too caught up in small details. Waiter - another martini please!

Corner Cafe

Oil on Panel 5x7"

White Rose 4

A rose is a rose is a rose... I seem to have roses on the mind lately. They are a great shape to play with, endless opportunities to explore color and structure. This little study was done in a color-spot-by color-spot approach, a technique I was introduced to in the early 90's when I took a 5 day workshop with a colorist who studied with the late great Henry Henche. Since then I have noticed that my favorite painters were either Henche students at one time, or come from that tradition. The spot by spot approach requires that you constantly judge color relationships, by color temperature, value, and saturation or intensity. It also involves a lot of exacting color mixing, which in some ways is better suited to oils, since acrylics dry fast. I've been experimenting with Golden OPEN Acrylics and mediums lately, they dry up to 10 times slower than the regular Heavy Body Acrylics. I may paint more roses with oils just to compare. Regardless of the medium, painting a white rose against a white background is a great way to discover spots of lovely, neutral colors lurking everywhere.

White Rose 4

6x6 Acrylic on Canvas

Orange on Pink

Some workshops are better than others. The workshop I taught this weekend falls clearly in the better to best category. At the top of the list is the wonderful group of gals I worked with - ranging in experience level from total beginners to very advanced art teachers. The commraderie, sharing, humor, and personality mix made this a group from heaven. They were a joy to work with as well as a hoot to hang out with. Altho I'm a taskmaster with the pace and the exercises, there was a good balance between learning and laughing. Add to that perfect weather, stunning seaside location and roomy gallery/studio sponsored by the ultimate hostess with the mostess, it doesn't get much better than this.

Here is a still life painting I did, which demonstrated using a color scheme of dominant analagous warm colors with small hints of complementary cool color as accents. The painting took an hour and was done with one 2" brush - which I rarely (if at all) dipped into water because the colors were so related. There was a lively discussion that followed about how to make subjects glow, which translated into a series of exercises on color harmony and relationships.

I always hand out an evaluation form at the end of each class and one of my questions is "What would have made this workshop better?" No matter how long the class is, whether it be 3 hours or 3 days, the answer is always the same... "more time". That makes me feel good, I'm thinking about new lessons and exercises for a 5 day workshop. The icing on the cake, however, is always the great people I meet and get to know. Thanks gals, f0r such a great weekend.

Pink on Orange

9x12 Acrylic on Canvas

St. Paddy's Blooms

I'm a little late for St. Paddy's day, but I did have this still life set up around that time, with the green backround, and I painted it but wasn't happy with it. There wasn't enough color with just the yellow tulips and the green. So even tho the flowers are long gone, I went in and added the cherry, which I think gives it a nice little pop of color, to contrast all the green. I basically ended up repainting most of it because its weird to just add one element that is a totally different color. Somehow it changes the game and I had revise most of the the colors so everything played nicely together. Its much better to get the still life elements right to begin with rather than recreate the wheel colorwise after the fact. Next time I'll slow down and analyze my setup better before jumping into the paint.

St. Paddy's Blooms

6x6" oil on canvas

Apple Slices

I taught an all day painting workshop yesterday at Pelham Art Center. There were 10 students, who ranged from very advanced to total beginner ( in other words, students who had never painted or drawn before). That is a typical mix and its challenging to teach so much in so little time. I am often very pleasantly surprised when working with the total beginners, their approach is so fresh. I hesitate to say "childlike" because that sounds derogatory, which is not the intention. But there is a pureness to the way they bravely apply paint to canvas - so direct, so uninhibited, such interesting color choices.

My painting demonstration took about 45 minutes. I talk the whole time I'm painting in order to explain everything from how to hold the brush to how to apply the paint, how to mix the colors, how to find and stay with the correct values, how to match colors to values, etc.

The workshop is called "How to paint Fast, Loose and Bold". After the demo its time for a lunch break and then time for the students to paint. My goal is to have them complete 3 paintings in about 4 hours, the first painting is done in 45 minutes, the second in 1/2 hr and the last one in 15 minutes. Its challenging! But I was very impressed with the outcome of the work, and took a picture of their paintings (not all the work is shown). Three paintings down, many more to go... Bravo, everyone!

Apple Slices

8x10" Acrylic on Canvas

Red Macs (Sold)

I'm in the process of writing a book about acrylic painting techniques, and my publisher has decreed a "drop dead" date of May 15 for completion of all text and images. Until then, daily painting/blogging will be taking a back seat. It's becoming clear why the deadline is described in those terms. Besides all the writing, I am creating about 50 paintings to illustrate the many unique and beautiful effects made possible through working with, and incorporating acrylic materials like gels, pastes, mediums and special grounds into your artwork. If you have ever been in an art supply store and seen that imposing wall of acrylic products and thought 'what do you do with that stuff?', you will soon know - assuming I survive the rapidly approaching drop dead date.

Red Macs (Sold)

9x12" Acrylic on Canvas

Pink Brigade (SOLD)

Pink Brigade (SOLD)

6x6 Oil on Gessoboard

Pretty Party

I finally had a little while to get into the studio yesterday. Since I have not had a chance to paint (traditionally) in several days, I noticed an interesting phenomenon, one that I'm quite familiar with. There is an apprehension that wells up when starting a new painting, if I have not been painting everyday. It goes something like this - 'how do you do this again?,' 'can I paint that?', 'it's so detailed, I'll never get those color/value/shapes to read right', 'i bet this one will be a flop', 'where do i begin?' and on and on.... Just putting that first stroke on the canvas is actually a feat of courage, knowing that all color relationships depend on whats around them, and there is nothing yet to judge by. It's very much like putting the first piece of a 1000 piece puzzle right smack in the middle without any point of reference and knowing that the journey ahead is somewhat daunting.

Does this mental rambling sound familiar? Come to think of it, everytime I do something new in life, in general, some form of this fear raises its ugly head. The good thing about getting older is that it doesn't stop me in my tracks anymore. My favorite saying is "feel the fear and do it anyways" which is also the title of a book I read in the early 90's, which forever changed my relationship to fear. The big revelation from reading the book was ... drum roll... the fear never goes away. (Damn! Thats not what I was hoping) The other revelation was, since the fear never goes away, get comfortable with being uncomfortable - which means you are growing - which is why we are here (in my humble opinion). For me, the best way to deal with fear is to just dive in, head first. Starting a drawing, starting a painting, starting anything that requires you do dig inside and make hundreds of decisions and think on your feet, IS daunting. It is uncomfortable do a painting or drawing that turns out poorly. But the alternative, not doing anything for fear it won't turn out well - is stagnating (for me). So what if its a flop, so what if its hard, so what if I make hundreds of wrong decisions? No doubt I will learn something from the endeavor, but best of all I'll show my old pal fear, who's boss - again.

Pretty Party

6x6" Oil on Gessoboard

Click to Bid

More Tulips (SOLD)

The nice thing about painting this tulip is that there are no angles where it's more lovely than other angles. Every position I turn it is a painting waiting to happen. One can see why artists sometimes take one subject and paint it the rest of their lives - to depict it in all its splendor, from every viewpoint. I could go that route. But... I've already got a new subject in mind for tomorrow's painting!

Pink Tulip in a Glass Bottle - 3

6x6" oil on gessoboard

Pink Tulip in Glass Bottle -2

Pink tulips are my all time favorite flower, I could paint them forever. There is something about that hot fuschia pink contrasting with the vibrant yellow- green of the stems. Those stems - so beautiful in their simple, graceful tubular way. It sure works for me.

Pink Tulip in a Glass Bottle - 2

6x6" Oil on Gessoboard
Click to Bid

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