PPF - Ocean painting - finally!!!

Hi everyone at Paint Party Friday!

As always so sorry to have been gone for so long  but I did want to share that finally I managed to finish the giant ocean painting I had been talking about for a full year!!! This is a picture of it.

I actually finished it like a month ago (or maybe it was only a week? hard to keep track!!) but for some reason once you lose the thread of blogging it's hard going back. In any event, here it is.

Some lovely painting people I have on FB and G+ may have already seen this, and the WIP process. The process was fun! I began weirdly not committing to technique, with some weird garish alizarin crimson and olive green in the ocean and somehow, using linseed oil, managed to turn it into an indirect painting, which is what I wanted from the getgo. The only real impasto parts are the waves/froth of the ocean and some in the details re. the castles and such. And it is a real place called Vina del Mar from Chile. A nice town to visit. Got to view lots of photos to reaquaint myself!

Here is a link of the WIP from a Facebook album for all so inclined - if you do stop by do say hello!

I'm happy to be back! I'm sorry to have less time for this nowadays but I will strive to visit as many as I can, and will always 100% guaranteed visit/comment back on everyone who here visits.

Sunday Sketches - Eerie Spaceship

This week has been artistically interesting!! Started my Epic Painting Project on Wednesday and have thus far completed one oil painting, and have 1 large one almost (I hope!) finished and a third one needing many layers. So... in a sense i am on track re/ one painting a day but in a sense, not.

As well, a filling on my front tooth decided to go AWOL meaning I need to locate dental insurance and a dentist ASAP, before I start to have actual pain. On the bright side it has made me take a break from smoking.

As well, my Windows machine eats CF camera cards and card readers. THus, no access to photography taking, thus no access to documenting Epic Painting Project. THus, needing to create silly webcam videos documenting the process.

As well, a mysterious chest pain for over a week which served to remind me that the last time I saw a DR was 2006.

As well, a possibility to market a previous past as a tarot reader through this site: it is an exciting opportunity. Needing to call into the system.

As well, a possible buyer for a bunch of old epoxy works. That would be so great!!!!

So, here, for Sunday Sketches, a spaceship from my FIVERR gig, draw whatever you want. And the interesting mixed-bag week. Will go check y'all out either late late today or tomorrow ---- after the obligatory painting a day!!

Have a great day Sophia and all else at Sunday Sketches!!!!!!!!1

Turner in Madison County

As an artist, I am inspired by the wonderful landscape work of J. M. W Turner, the British Romantic landscape painter and printmaker. He revolutionized landscape painting and developed luminosity through colour to an almost equal degree that Vermeer did.

I own the following book, “Turner at the Tate”, which profiles 93 of the paintings that this prodigious artist produced. I have long studied these works in my own artistic quest.

Lately I have decided to honour the work of Tate by reproducing each painting in this book on a piece of found driftwood. I find that the ragged edges of the wood match Turner’s lively imagery in a spectacular manner. At some point in the near future (depending on funds and timing) I plan to paint all 93 paintings from "Turner at the Tate" on found driftwood. In order to complete this project, though, I will seek funding (probably through Kickstarter or something) in order to bring it to fruition. Reasons as follow:

Each one takes me over 3 hours - longer, if I am choosing to apply an indirect painting method. Therefore, in order to begin the project, I need the capacity to dedicate a good chunk of time to the enterprise. In addition, I need additional materials: more oil paints (running low on Prussian Blue), more paint thinner (running low), and gesso. In addition, I will need a steady supply of driftwood and found-wood panels - all cut, sanded, and gessoed - all in advance, so that I can just start painting right away. I already have a source of wood, who will charge approximately $3 per piece. If I have a budget, I will want to hire someone (and stimulate the economy, ha ha) to have an assistant who will gesso the wood for me.

I will do something with this series something I've never really done before: take time to present the work in an appropriate manner. I will need to invest in appropriate varnishes to preserve the wood. In order to effectuate that, I will either need to take a course or hire a consultant, since I understand that presentation is my weak spot. I will also explore (and possibly invest in) different framing techniques.

Additional ambitions attached to this project might be a dedicated, one-a-day blog, audio/video when appropriate, and hiring some sort of marketing consultant (online or otherwise) to see where I could take this further. Ideas include contacting the Tate museum (the institution that houses Turner's work), and otherwise finding a 'real art venue' that will allow me to have a show.

But all of this is happening in some undefined future. For now I have finished the first three of this series, seen currently at Common Ground, a great vintage/repurposed art locale in Asheville.

Landscape Commission process

In a previous post, I mentioned a particularly beloved painting of mine which found a home with the wonderful Stuart Thomson. The notion of the 'Vanitas Still Life', showed to me the natural life cycle of the grape, yet reminds one that all phases of life are useful - from sweet youth (grapes) to the potent prime of life (wine), to bitter, brittle old age (balsamic vinegar). The technique was simple alla crema oil application, and the daily scrutiny of the same still life that occupied the cramped room used as a studio at the time.

Stuart, who came up from Atlanta to escape the noisome toxic noise of the city at least twice this past summer, then commissioned a landscape painting. I have been busy with that piece.

The technique this time used is that of indirect painting through the use of an original underpainting, and then glazing techniques:

Indirect painters put their first strokes on the canvas with the expectation that they will paint over them again when they are dry in order to change their effect in some way. Therefore when they put on the first layer of paint, called the underpainting, they do not try for a finished effect, complete in final color, drawing definition, and pattern emphasis. Instead at the beginning of the work they concentrate on one or two of these problems, and they depend upon [and make allowance for] the subsequent layers of paint to develop and modify the underpainting until the remaining problems are finally solved.

Indirect methods of painting have been employed in the past by many artists including Van Eyck, El Greco, and Rembrandt. More recently such painters as Soutine, Modigliani, Rouault, Braque, and Paul Klee have utilized the optical effects of indirect processes.

I first used this method in Teresa Bramlette Reeves' oil painting class in 2008. I simply ADORED the technique. The technique itself is incredibly difficult and requires a lot of practice and conceptual know-how. But, even though I understand I am far from mastering it yet, I have faith that it will help me resolve the riddle that old Flemish masters' paintings posed for me when I saw them at the National Art Gallery as a kid: how do you get an oil painting to be so luminous, so real? So... I may not be there yet - but I know, if I live long enough, I will get there.

I have played with the technique in other contexts, and it also a landscape commission work seemed a good candidate.

As can be seen, the underpainting layer is completed. I'm on the fence still about having used such a light colour for the underpainting, but we will see what comes up.

I estimate I will need at least 5 layers to complete this piece, if not more.

Like in the still life, I prefer to work from real life, vs photography. IT just seems so much better, though working from a static still life setup under controlled light conditions differs widely from working plein aire, where the artist is at the mercy of weather and light conditions.

It is fun to work on - it is our backyard, and neighbor children and dogs and cows and donkeys dot the landscape and distract the concentrated eye. Sometimes the weather is tricky and I have to wear an umbrella and hide the thing under a layer of sheetrock I had lying around.

Hoping to finish it before the weather becomes completely impossible as well.