Moving On

I am abandoning this blog because of the lack of copyright protection from Google. Basically, Google has the legal right to use any of my images in any way that they choose. That is not ok with me. So, I will move on and create a web page that is all mine and protected. Anyone curious is welcome to look through this site. The older posts are missing and it is a real mess. My first Google counter offensive was to try to remove my images. I don't think that worked as the images persisted somewhere else on Google other than the blog. Oh well. It was time to grow up anyway. I won't make the web page until I have more work completed so it is worth viewing. Thank you to everyone who has followed my art blog here. Phyllis

Sian

This is the last post for 2013. The photo shows a bit of reflection on the left side of her hair which is not there in life.

This portrait was started in class and then finished in my studio from a photo. Sian is the second human head that I have painted. She has had two rounds of glazes, one by me and one by Edward Povey. I learned from him that I should be more aggressive in my glazing. Sian's portrait is part of my ongoing learning and practice creating form with warm and cool colors. Good bye Sian and sleep peacefully.

Painting for passion, love or money

We make art for lots of reasons. Some of us are driven to a paint from our passions. With passion we seek beauty, an accomplishment, or an idea of something new that we are sure we cannot achieve. Some of us are driven to paint for money. Sometimes this is a necessity or it might be a form of validation or ego. Some of us are driven to paint for love. We want to express our love through painting or give our love to someone that way. Or it might be self love because we simply love to express our selves in paint.

My mother-in-law, Martha W, Murray, made this painting on the left in 1934 when she was a student at TCU. The Perdue family treasures it. Unfortunately this little painting has not fared well through time. My sister-in-law asked me to make a copy for her before it dissolved. In this case I suppose we have to say this painting was motivated by different kinds of love and by the love of several people for various people.

A toast to you Martha as we end 2013, nearly 80 years after you signed your painting. I hope this makes you smile in heaven.

Doing the Work

This is not a painting just an exercise using color temperatures to create the illusion of solid forms. Look at what can be done with a piece of folded paper and a Styrofoam ball!

Jump

An image of standing on the brink, ready to jump unprepared into oblivion, has been with me for some time. I made this painting just for me. I am now ready as I have never been before. So "Jump" is NFS.

The colors in this painting are yummy. Mike took the reference photo at Laguna Gloria. It must be a photogenic spot because later I saw a slightly different version of it printed in The Austin Statesman.

Hometown Series Limited Edition Prints

My Hometown Series sold too quickly. The Series capture scenes that I see every day in our little town of Driftwood, Texas. I'm not complaining but rather missing the little paintings. So I made a very limited edition of 30 high quality giclee prints. Each one is a true facsimile like the gallery wrap originals with images on 5 sides (face and 4 sides). The size is 8x8 inches and priced at $100 each.

If you want to have your own, send me email at driftwoodtxartist@gmail.com.

"La Ventana Light"

"Back in the Day"

 

"The Salt Lick"

Light Play

My newest painting is all about the light and shadow. We can only see color when there is light. That's just the way the human eye works.

The first image is the painting in its completed state. I have drawn the image and applied opaque paint. The second image is the completed painting after applying a permanent mauve and raw umber light glaze over all, and then pulling out the lights and highlights. Both versions are appealing in different ways, but the second painting is stronger overall. 

Hometown I: The Salt Lick - SOLD

This is the third in the Hometown I Series. You can't create a series of iconic local scenes  of Driftwood, Texas and omit The Salt Lick. It is a mecca for barbeque eaters and the most recognized landmark for the area.

I am ready to leave these small format paintings for a while and choose only large brushes in my studio.

Hometown I: Back In The Day - SOLD

This is the second in the Hometown I painting series. Yes, I did modify the La Ventana Light listing so that you could see them together and because I changed the name from La Ventana Entrance to La Ventana Light. Hey, I'm the artist so I get to say.

This building was once the hub of community activity in Driftwood. It housed the General Store and the Post Office. Now it is the photography studio of a notable photographer, Dan Winters. Dan works for the likes of The National Geographic. Dan now owns the building and keeps restoring and improving it. This view is from a few years ago before the color of the building to the right was modified and the old sign identifying it as the Driftwood Country Store was wiped out. Many will remember this landmark as it is depicted here.

Hometown I : La Ventana Light - SOLD

"La Ventana Light"

This is the first in a series called Hometown. It is oil on a 8x8 gallery wrap canvas. I intend to make this my first painting for sale, once I have two in the series completed. The second is on my easel now and is going well.

My hometown is Driftwood, Texas. We sometimes ignore the scenes around us in favor of the more exotic. Every day images can evoke strong emotions. Each time I round the bend at this entrance this scene says, "Home" to me.

Red Cup A or B

These are two black and white graphite drawings of the same subject, a red cup sitting in a white saucer with a black card in the background. This was an exercise of manipulating values, the lights and the darks in a scene. I hand drew the same image twice by using  graphite pencils on Bristol Smooth paper.

In image 1, A, I used no pure black. On a scale of 1-10, black being a 1 and pure white a 10, there is no value 1 in the image. The card is a 2 value. Notice that the contrasts are extreme and the scene looks sharp. If I had taken the dark down all the way to black, the contrasts would be even more extreme.

In this second image, B, I used no 1 values, no 2 and no 10. Notice how the scene looks more soft and dreamy as if it is in lower light or viewed on a misty day.

 

 

It is interesting. Artists make lots of choices that influence how we respond as the viewer.



Mary's Bedroom

The intention for this painting was to paint an interior in the style of Mary Cassatt, the American Impressionist Painter from late 19th and early 20th Century. Mary befriended Edgar Degas and the other Impressionists, often funding their exhibitions from her wealth. Well, that's one way to get the good old boys to let you in. This painting is quite different from my usual style but I like it very much. I'm not sure that I was successful in channeling Cassatt, but I do think that I followed her maxim to "do what it takes to make a good painting".

"Mary's Bedroom" is an 11x14 inch painting on canvas.

First Portrait Glazed

Here is the same painting after a mauve glaze has been applied to unify the painting, integrate the subjects into the background, and improve the 3-D modeling in the face. The effect is subtle. Do you think it is better?

I could improve her more, but she is just a study and I am ready to move on to the next one. I've learned what I had to learn from this young lady.

First Portrait

This painting is my first attempt to paint a human head. I painted her from a reference photo, a young English woman posing in the cold light of Wales. She has an odd look in her eyes, not really looking inside her cup but rather looking inside her head.

She isn't finished but she is at the stage of "the best I can do at this point". Soon I will take her to Edward Povey's studio and he will coach me through applying a series of glazes to bring her more "in tune". The 3-D modeling and colors on her skin aren't right yet and I am hoping that they can be improved with glazing. Her eyes need to be set back into her head a bit too. So stay tuned and consider this the BEFORE shot.

I have to admit that I was pretty terrified to try to paint a person. With that in mind, I am now feeling much more confident and am pleased with my first try. I'm anxious to get her glazed so I can try another.

Human Figure Drawing

 

 

 

 

 

I'm still working on the Hometown Series and am nearly finished with the second painting. They are more difficult than you would think that they would be, finicky.

In parallel, I am also working on other projects like figure drawing. The work above is a work in progress, a drawing using graphite drawing pencils on Bristol Smooth paper. You are looking a small portion of a complete nude female figure. This little bit took an afternoon to accomplish. Actually the process is a rather Zen experience. The goal is not to see any lines, just graphite that looks like a human. Tricky. Taking a photo of the piece helps me see what errors I have made. Now I have to go pick up my sticks and try again.

Opposing Views - Jan '13

 

I needed to do a little painting just for fun and silliness after all the serious work this fall in the Austin Atelier. These three fit the bill in a little 6x6 inch canvas. The subject seems right for the times when we can't seem to see issues from a shared perspective. I stopped before actually naming names.

Limited Palette Value Study

Note new blog format. Click on the image to see the full text and comment if you like. This study focuses on values using only 3 colors plus white. The goal is to control tonal value (light and dark) in order to get the architecture of the object correct, creating an illusion of 3D on a 2D canvas. The idea is to observe light as it strikes objects and the relative lightness or darkness and warmness or coolness of that light that we see, then recreate it on the canvas. In this exercise the palette is limited to 3 colors plus white: Burnt Sienna, French Ultramarine and Lemon Yellow. You might think that is a big drag having only 3 colors but it is actually very freeing. I didn't have to even consider using all those other colors in my paintbox.

I learned a lot from this study about how to make the color that I have in mind to make (mix), and how to adjust the value and the color temperature to get it right.

 



Color Steals Back Into the World

Happy Birthday Dear Janet....This painting was a present for my sister, Janet. I got it completed, framed and delivered to her in Massachusetts just before Christmas arrived. Not too bad considering that her birthday was in November.

This scene is dawn at Long Lake in Southern Maine. Janet and her husband Peter have a home right on the lake and they wake to this scene many a morning in fair weather. Janet calls the lake in this condition "smooth". My goal was to capture the sun just as it was about to break above the horizon, to make the canvas look like it was literally being lit by the sun. It was fascinating to notice and capture all the colors emerging from the dark. The hard part was holding back on the colors to let the sun's light remain center stage. This photo doesn't do a great job of capturing the effect of the painting in real life for you to judge if I succeeded. One of my 2013 resolutions is to get better at photographing my own paintings.

A Perfect Canvas

Once the Rabbitskin Glue coat was dry, I applied a coat of lead-based white primer. When that was dry dry, I tested the canvas for taut (It should sound like a drum when pinged.) and adjusted the stretcher keys in the corners until the canvas was tight. You can see the keys in the corners of the back side in the second picture. Then I applied a second coat of primer. The canvas is now ready for a ground coat color as the final step, often a thin wash of burnt sienna.

Before tackling this beautiful surface I will take my courage pills.

Classic Canvas Making and Preparation

Very interesting process. The photo shows the result of Day 1 of Canvas Making with Edward Povey and Donna Tolar. The stretchers are assembled; the linen is prepared and stretched; and one coat of rabbit skin glue has been applied to seal the linen. (Yup, glue made from actual rabbit skins just like in the time of Van Gogh.) In the next step we apply primer. I am learning the methods of the Masters that have stood the test of time. Paintings from the middle ages remain intact while 20th Century paintings are challenging conservators. Poorly prepared canvas causes the paint to fall off over time. My canvas is on the right in the foreground.