Saturday, January 31, 2015

Expressive Paintings

Just completed a wonderful two day workshop
"Expressive Paintings from Photos" 
at South Shore Art Center
with 10 amazing artists.

My demo from the first day below.
Notice how I divide the palette in half,
darks on the right, lights on the left. 
A great way to keep your colors clean! 

The first exercise was a value study plus one color. 
I had them plan out the value plan directly on the image.

Bingo!

Then the "Limited Stroke" exercise.
Again they had to count the strokes ahead of time, 
right on the image.


I just love this. 


Now, below is a sampling of more work done.
Sadly, I was so excited the whole time,
I didn't get images of everything!  






 Now, this gal used an image she took by pausing
her TV during a movie. 


She was able to capture the men's fear and the 
cold, eerie feeling of the scene beautifully 
in her painting. 
Every value, color and stroke was geared toward that goal. 


As always, I learn so much from these workshops. 
A great big thanks to all the talented and dynamic 
participants.
My batteries are re-charged and I am ready to go!   

Monday, January 26, 2015

Lesson Plans

I'm working on some exercises
for a new class I'm teaching; 
"Expressive Paintings From Photos" 


Three Values Plus One Color Exercise

The idea is to simplify a subject down to just three values,
planning them ahead. 
M- middle
L - light
D - dark
M+ - any middle value color 
(for background only) 


Afterward, I put the photo into the Value Viewer App 
and discovered I wasn't very far off! 

Value Viewer set on 
"levels" 
(three values) 

I took the image with my I phone 
from across the room at a restaurant. 


There are paintings everywhere!  




Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Snow birds

The Copley Society
is presenting a collection of my paintings entitled
"Snowbirds" 
at their off site exhibit space in the 
Boston Private Bank and Trust
Prudential Building
800 Boylston Street
Boston
Jan. 21 - March 20


"Snowbirds"
8 x 16 

January Get Away 
12 x 12 

Life is Good
16 x 8

Winter Vacation
12 x 12 

Stop and take a look if you're walking by 
for a quick burst of sunshine! 






Sunday, January 18, 2015

Abstraction / Expressionism

I'm excited to see so many fellow contemporary painters
experimenting with being less representational.
Some are trying out an abstract approach
and some are leaning more toward a form of expressionism.
It's all new and refreshing!

I've been researching "movements" from the past
and found this simple description of the two
with classic examples of both.

Abstraction:
1.     The quality of dealing with ideas rather than events.
2.     Freedom from representational qualities in art.

Expressionism: 

            To present solely from a subjective perspective, distorting shapes and colors radically, for emotional affect in order to evoke moods or ideas.

Edvard Munch
The Scream 1893

And then there's Abstract Expressionism!

Hats off to every one out there
pushing themselves beyond what they know!










Sunday, January 11, 2015

From Above

I've always been intrigued by 
the "from above" perspective. 

"Last Set"
16 x 20 

The photographer at the end of our daughter's wedding 
took some incredible images of 
the dance floor from above!  

I'd been trying to imagine how I could express that 
feeling* in a larger painting.

When I saw this painting by the amazing 
I was inspired to try it out!

Figures by Mark Daniel Nelson




*a crazy, frenetic celebration of love!



Friday, January 9, 2015

"Journeys" Show


I'm excited that one of the first pieces I did
for my recent "celebration series"
was chosen to be part of the Journeys show
at South Shore Art Center.
(January 9 - February 8) 

"Hora" 
9 x 12 

The Juror was 
Zola Solamente, Director of the Arden Gallery Boston
and it's quite a show! 
You can see it here.

Tuesday, January 6, 2015

Class Prep


I'm prepping for a two day workshop 
and a 6 week class I'm teaching for the first time.
"Expressive Paintings from Photos"

I'm playing with the idea of using shape, color, 
design, edges, paint application
and a lot of "letting go" in order interpret 
an idea with a lot of feeling. 

 "Greek Wedding" 
16 x 16 







Sunday, January 4, 2015

Inspiration

In preparation for the New Year
 I re-organized my studio office today. 
I found this in my "inspiration" file 
and thought I should share it again. 

  
Simple. To the point. 
Realistic. Do able. 
Thank you Austin Kleon !

Saturday, January 3, 2015

There is no THERE there!


The best thing about being an artist is
there is no "there" there. 
(The journey never ends!) 
You are always evolving and growing and changing 
and I find that exhilarating. 


"Slow Dance"
8 x 8 


I recently found these 6 x 8 paintings I did in 2011 
after a trip to Puerto Rico.
I had taken a workshop with the fabulous Karin Jurick 
where we painted on smooth black boards and used synthetic brushes. 
(Sorry about the lousy images) 


Salsa Dancing
6 x 8 
They were such fun to paint 
I'm not sure why I didn't keep going in that direction.

However, it's fun to think they were the precursor to the 
"Celebration" series I'm having fun with now. 

I hope everyone is recovering from the holidays 
and are happily getting back to the journey!