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.

PFF - more boats!

Rio valdivia my version

Hi all at PPF! As they say, 'stop me if you've seen this one har har///'

I went through a many paintings painting phase a month or so ago and still have not shared them all with the lovely PPFers so, here it is!

This is modeled on a painting by a CHilean famous painter called Arturo Pacheco Altamirano. As you can see, the painting I did is basically an identical study of that one. Not sure why I felt the need to do it save I was looking for styles and I have ALWAYS loved his style most of all! It is so wonderful and speaks of long-lost landscapes.

I would def. say his was crisper and better, heaps better, but to be fair the one I did above is in a really small canvas and I sought to finish in record time - don't remember how long it took now, but less than 2 hours.

Rio valdivia Arturo Pacheco Altamirano

Hope everyone is having a great weekend! Fun to be back amongst the peoples again, even if only once in a blue moon. We are spending lots of time selling our wood relics, going to different fairs, etc. It takes a lot of time and energy but at least we sell something, LOL!

here is a facebook page of 'Marshall Arts', the pieces I make and sell with my husband Jim.

There today again! Wish me luck, all

(Connecting to Paint party Friday)

PPF - Canal Magdalena

Hi all at Paint party Friday! I am sharing a mini oil painting on Canal Magdalena, one of the many I worked on pre my big ocean painting. I really worked hard here to convey the true colours of the water and the somewhat stormy sky - or at least the mood, lacking that. It sure is hard catching the right tone, isn't it?

The place itself is a channel in the stormy cold South of Chile, near Puerto Williams and other such places. It was such a beautiful photo even though online I see nothing really about it, though apparently there's a rock band (from Chile) named after it! Who knew?

Have a great time!

PpF - Valparaiso

hi all at paint party friday! its good to be back. i took a global blogging sabbatical but now would like to get back with it. Generallywhen i get so overwhelmed that i lose the komentum or inclination to visit other bloggers, I take a break. then, when i get the desireto see what everyone else is up to, i log back in.

this piece is called Valparaiso which is the best place in the whole world. No exceptions. I would go onbut am postung from a keyboardless tablet which is kind of a pain ha ha! this painting is just a draft whichI may or may not improve Hope everybody is grear!

Creative Tuesdays - Voyage

Hi all at Creative Tuesday!

what better homage to Voyage than a wonderful ocean landscape sketch?

I am here continuing my studies for the large painting that it seems, at this time, will never actually be started, am having so much fun with the preliminaries!

This is a sketch I made of an oil painting by the British born painter THomas Somerscales who, by a weird twist of fate, spent virtually all of his career in little-known Chile, south America. As such, he is no doubt not nearly as famous as he probably deserves to be. Here is a wiki link in English, which says practically nothing. The Wiki entry in Spanish is more forthcoming.

The circumstance of Voyage is, of course, represented by the boats. As well, it is represented in the life of a British painter, through some random voyage, having come to inhabit and belong to as different a place as you can, if you're from England (probably). At least a handful of British artists and other sorts decided to migrate to Chile, though, so it can't have been that lonely.

original by Somerscales

Speaking of voyage, Chile is actually sort of rife with it. Heaps of people either coming and going - Chile has, bizarrely enough, the 3rd largest population of Croatians in the world - Chile also has a huge percentage of expat Greeks. Also a large collection of Palestinians, Armenians, Swiss, Italians, Hungarians, Russians, Spaniards, British, as well as any number of native Amerindians and travellers from other places. From the 1840s on, a large percentage of Germans went over, and this group has largely contributed to the cultural & ethnic genotype of what one might call Chilean society ever since. During WWII you get the curious phenomenom of Jews fleeing Hitler, and some 10 or 20 years later you get the phenomenom of ex Nazis fleeing a post Nurenberg Trial Europe. What a confused mishmash! I wonder if they all ever met in the streets of Valdivia and if so, what did they say to each other....

Same thing happened in Sweden and nearby countries. Elite CHileans fled the communist elected president Allende in 1970, and 3 years later, Allende's advocates fled when the wheels of history turned against them. What did a 'facho' anti Allende say to an Allende advocate whenever they happened to meet at the market somewhere in Östermalm?
Here, an art critic's rendition of Somerscales' contribution to ocean landscapes:

Nos instalan en alta mar. Ahí respiramos ráfagas de humedad salada, en tanto que consiguiéndose así el acorde cromático preciso con los azules intensos del abismo acuático. Están "Fuera de Valparaíso";"Homeward Bound", el gran lienzo del Congreso Nacional, etc. Para sus versiones de "El Estrecho de Magallanes" cambia la paleta: verdes y azulosos se contraponen a picachos nevados y a cielos henchidos de nubes lluviosas. Unos y otros rescates del mar nuestro, por supuesto, transmiten la circunstancia climática de latitudes diferentes.

a rough translation would be:

The best moments of Somerscales take us to the high seas. There we breathe bursts of salty moisture, insomuch as the winds blow up voluminous quantities of orange, managing thus the correct chromatic precision with the intense blues of the aquatic abyss. There are "Outside Valparaiso", "Homeward Bound", the great canvas at the National Congress, etc. For his version of "THe Strait of Magellan' he changes his pallete: greens and blues are counterpoint to snowy peaks and skies swollen with rain-soaked clouds. One or another rendition of our ocean, of course, transmit the climactic circumstance of different latitudes.
I really like Somerscales work in general, from what I've seen. Doesn't have quite the scope of Turner (but then, who does) but he does make some magnificent, dramatic seascapes.
Hope all y'all having a good one!

ppf - studies of oceans and waterways various

Hi all at PPF!

Here I am continuing on beachy themes, all which I have mostly developed already on charcoal. THe one here is a beach in the northern town of Iquique in Chile - an interesting place way up north, near Peru, and very near one of the dryest deserts in the world, the Atacama. It's oil on some crazy oil painting paper I got for Xmas which seems to work out OK though is somewhat drying.

This one is the oil painting rendition of a sketch I had already composed in charcoal, and which I had posted for Creative Tuesdays and can be seen - in terms of info on the piece and the town it represents - here. BTW, Creative Tuesdays is a greatly fun blogging co-op! Biweekly challenges/prompts are given and we are then prompted to channel all our ideas into a common theme. Visit here for more. The piece is done on oils on a gessoed wood panel, reministent of my last year's painting project.

Hope all are having a great weekend! Will strive to look at everyone by end of Sunday.

PPF - painting binge

Greetings PPFers!

I undertook the 4 above oil paintings within less than 48 hours. That's almost 3 times my painting level during my Epic Painting Project of last year!

They are all the ocean, as can be seen, very specifically, the same wave, as seen here (last image on page). What I was seeking was to see how the colours showed up, regarding choice. 

So the bottom one is made with only blues, the one above that adds greens, the one above that adds yellows to blues and greens, and the last one adds purple, oranges, yellow, greens and blues. This last one is probably the weakest - but that's why I do this now, so as not to get stuck with some ugly-ass thing when the time comes to do it for reals. (this is still referring to a painting commission I received almost 6 months ago... wow!)

hope all have a groovy day!

PPF & SS - a public service announcement

The following painting is 3ft x 3ft and is, alongside another smaller still life (oil paintings both) gone - dissappeared.

I wanted to take the time to share folks in art blogs my cautionary tale.

Sometime last year, i began to think about maybe hopefully possibly dedicating a more serious attitude to what one might call an art's career. and went out looking willy nilly for places to display. I settled on a restaurant 30 minutes from where I live. Later on learned for many reasons why displaying at restaurants is such a bad idea - people go to eat, not look at art, you appear as an unserious artist, etc - but at the time I figured, I'd rather the large thing be on display somewhere than gathering dust in my garage you know?

I remember this was, say, last September. I showed up with my two paintings, signed a release of liability (wear & tear, damage, etc), and never bothered about it again.

I decided this week to get my art back since I've been managing to make some sales of my own, etc.

Turns out the restaurant is out of business, was out of business for I don't know how long-  the new restaurant only could say they had been there a week, and to contact either the original owners or the building owners. No number or email works for the previous restaurant owners, and I have yet to hear back from the others.

So - I might have lost this painting, for good. A good 3 months went into it, not counting expense of materials.

I wanted to warn others to please, please take care of what you do with your art!

1) I agree with what artists have previously said, don't waste your time with restaurants or coffee shops, unless these stores are willing to purchase your work outright. It's a waste of time for all concerned, and essentially free decoration for a business that has no interest in reimbursing artists for work

2) Don't be like me - check up on your art! Inconceivable for places and things to go belly up like that, from one second to the next, but it does happen. In fact, if you have your work at a place (store, cafe, etc) and you haven't monitored it for a while, please go check up on it! now, right now! And either bring  it home or verify it's ok

other than that have a good weekend - seriously prob. won't get around to visiting anyone till well after the weekend is over - busy at craft fairs, etc

am conneting to paint party friday and sunday sketches

PPF - Ocean painting updates

Nat'l Geo water acrylic

Hi all at Paint Party Friday! Am still working through this process. I am taking a dual approach of seeking to paint water and sketch landscape elements I might use in the final piece.

Am having fun but being frustrated by the water abstracts at the same time. The one at left is actually done in acrylics (since I had to be out of the house that day), and based of a cool National Geographic photography book we had .

All the drawings are charcoal.

Andes mountains

I feel sort of behind in this process. Unfortunately, last week I was involved in a lengthy, painful slide-presentation project that consumed all my time, and a big chunk of time during the summer is devoted to selling art at fairs anyway - I have still to clear the final drawing, but am making progress as much as possible.

possible scenario

I will share more on Sunday, but for now this is what I am up to! Hope all are having an awesome time, and hope to catch y'all by Sunday eve at the latest! Go art!

BTW- I can't resist, I though painters would LOVE and APPRECIATE the sight of this painting elephant --  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=He7Ge7Sogrk

video below as well

it is absolutely adorable! I think this is the only sort of animal who can do this - though maybe different sorts of simians can as well.

Valparaiso composite

Happy PPF!!

Sucesss.... and Sunday Sketches

Against incredible odds, I managed to fund my Kickstarter campaign.

It can still be seen here and I will be posting updates to keep my wonderful backers informed of all proceedings.

I have also begun a separate blog to document my Turner adventures.

Thanks to all who played!!!

Also, in time for Sunday Sketches, I would like to simultaneously submit this sketch which I doodled during the whole madcap crazy process. It was actually one which I did as a demo for the nice lady from the Marshall News Sentinel who did a story about my project for the local paper. She has asked me if I could do a demo of a painting in action - but my oil painting studio is put away for the winter! and due do generalized lack of space....... so then I suggested I could quickly sketch something for her for the newspaper - this sketch actually appeared in the photograph that accompanied that story.
This really could not have come at a better time for me. I've suffered misfortune after misfortune in the financial arena, and a time of few contracts and jobs (the plight of the freelancer) had left both hubby and I in a funk of diminished income and idle time. Now I can spend the next 3 months productively - AND have the funds to do so - something which has not been generally true for me in the past.

I also have to give a shout-out to my dear mother who went in there and PUSHED the thing to everyone imaginable right when the campaign was more than 75% done and only 25% funded. Her efforts made the pledges double, which gave me the impetus to go after the rest.

Thanks to the lovely Sophia for hosting Sunday Sketches! All go here to see more groovy sketch entries

Soul Challenge - Andanza

The Animus & the Anima, riding in on horseback

This painting, which Elis Regina and her heraldic Andanza helped create, seemed to me the perfect candidate for a "Soul Challenge".


All my life Brazil has called to me as a primary receptacle of what one might call 'soul'. The music, in particular - and the few times I managed to visit, there was something in the air, the people, the way skyscrapers clung to the seascape, the vast diversity of people, electricity everywhere, the giant butterflies, the portentous weight of humidity - but especially the music. Brazil has duende, Elis has duende, and duende is 'soul'.

Something of proudly forging ahead on a trusty horse (the physical body, or vehicle), through shadowy, uncertain, swampy grounds (real life), looking out for friendly guides and co-travelers (the animals various), and never forgetting those shadowy hungry things that follow us (cloud person), we, the brave riders (as soul on the horse), can find our brave and epic passage through life.

Whee!

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.

A Tiny Before/After Interlude

I began this painting early Winter 2010, and did not finish it till a few weeks ago.

What was missing? the background.

The new digs (ours as

long as Providence allows it) has these red-coloured walls. When I picked up the painting again, a

fter having moved it clear from Atlanta, I looked at it, looked at the walls, and saw the rust-red was the missing ingredient. Somehow I had to wait a year & 1/2 to see the needed background manifest.

A symbolic still life, all describing the same process - I had a particular muse, if you will, for that entire period of my life. To describe it in a modest, succinct way, the Muse waxed eloquent re. the Good Things in Life - how intoxicating and seductive they be - and sought to beguile and impress. Yet - how quickly they fade and die, no? How silently all the systems and infrastructures of a home, a town, a society fall asunder while its drunken boozed-up glazed-eyed residents turn towards the next amusement... The concept that most encapsulated my imagination at this time (and I had been plotting this painting for a long time, since May 2008, actually) was that of the Vanitas Still life. The poetic passage from grape to wine to vinegar, the noble life cycle of the grape The Vinegar bottle I've had since about that time - the wine bottle (and, in an inexplicable twist of fate, the grapes) came from our Good Friend Larry Taylor - sort of weirdly perfect, considering the thematic, for all who know the slightly hedonistic over-the-top larger-than-life personality.

The true still life was a smaller, more air-tight version that has ended up at the house of one Stuart Thomson, aesthete and excellent backgammon player - and, of course, a Very Great Friend in addition to Art Patron Extraordinaire. After finishing that version, the grapes, Thanksgiving dinner, and scores of petty tragedies and minor triumphs provided the oomph for the completion of that still life's more psychedelic cousin.

I believe I like this version better - it tries less hard, and is more honest. Plus, I had a whopping "if I only knew back then what I know now" moment informing the whole process that made the new reality more real, if not more agreeable.

The Vanitas still life theme wherein grapes turn to wine turn to vinegar continue, with the added baggage/residue of a Thanksgiving dinner (turkey bones), a half-smoked cigarette, a half-smoked cigar perched on top of an extinguished candle -proably extinguished in desperate pursuit of some magical conjuring or other, by the light of a last-quarter moon, a half-smoked cigar and a wine long since soured), a half-finished painting by Good Friend Colleen Hackett, a portrait of my grandparents (Alicia Moder and Arturo Araya Peters - see p. 9) and (though I didn't know it at the time) the background colour of the walls in the New North Carolina abode.