Mum's the Word

This one's for you Mum :)

I did this acrylic painting last summer and it is a landscape from my imagination. My mother loves this painting and we disagree on this one - I really don't like this one at all. Maybe the little house in the background - that's it.

The one thing that was cool about it (and a little spooky) was that when I was painting it, it was like the scene was already there and I just filled it in.

I'm looking forward to painting outside this summer and trying real landscapes.

What do you think of this painting?

Underpainting II

I couldn't paint much today - started very late. But this is the underpainting from yesterday's post with color layers added. It is still in progress, but I put it aside for a while because it was bugging me.

I changed some things from the original after getting feedback from Abby and removed some of the folds in the lower left. Among many things to be done - the background needs to be toned back to a more neutral color and I want to work on the cloth. (Also the drip of paint on the yellow bowl :) ).

It's been at least a month since I've touched it. Here's a pic of what's on my easel now and you can see this still life sitting there in the background waiting for me to finish it. I think I might start working on it again tomorrow. I love 3 day weekends!

One of the greatest things about having a studio is that you can leave things up - like still life setups or paint or whatever - and not worry about it. Can't do that at home.

Tip for those family members (Mum, Dad?) and friends who are new to blogs, etc - you can click on the pictures themselves and they will open in a larger window so you can see them better.

To overwork a painting or not, that is the question

I just found this blog post by a local artist, David Rourke, on the whole concept of "overworking" a painting. He makes some really valid points, especially how the fear of overworking impacts a new painter's progress. His advice really hit home for me because I think about that a lot and I am most definitely a new painter. One of my all time favorite artists is Lucien Freud who sometimes takes months to do a painting and there is clearly nothing overworked about his masterpieces.

As an aside, did you know that he broke the record for the highest price paid for a living artist's painting? $33,600,000.

I don't think they bought it to go with the drapes.

Underpainting

This is an underpainting - I talked about underpaintings in an earlier post. I did this underpainting in acrylic - it is just burnt sienna and white and I tried to capture all the value changes in the color. I don't have a picture of this painting after I started applying color - I guess I forgot. I will try to remember to bring my camera tomorrow.

I took this with my iPhone - not bad for a cell phone :)

Man with the Hand

First figure painting. We had a model early in the semester, but I don't have a photo of it. Actually I think it would be a good thing to post because there's a huge difference between that painting (2nd class I think) and this one.

This photo doesn't show the shadows accurately - too light.

Ok - self critique time - what I like - I captured the pose and his relaxed hand, I like his left jean leg and the folds, also his boot, curve of the chair arm. I overworked this because I finished it in the studio without the model. I did it because I wanted to try different things with the skin tones and I learned a lot doing that.

Dislike - it's overworked :). I think it would be fine as an illustration, but that isn't what I am shooting for - the overall feel is too stiff.

But I just signed up for a summer Life Painting class at the MFA - this isn't through the school, but through the museum. The artist who's teaching it does some great work - Samuel Gareginyan - and I am looking forward to it. I hope the studio is air-conditioned because the last few classes at the SMFA were uncomfortably warm.