Finding Your Voice

We just started a new session 

 in the on-line class called "Finding Your Voice".

He had us all choose five artists 

whose work has influenced us in some way. 

It was very difficult to narrow it down to only 5 

so these are my 8, somewhat in order.  

Edward Hopper

Kevin MacPherson

Peggi Kroll Roberts

Charrles Sovek 

Ken Auster

Catherne Kehoe

Melinda Cootsona

Nancy Gruskin

Mark Daniel Nelson

This exercise is very revealing as certain trends pop out. 

A terrific way to dig a little deeper into 

"finding your voice"!  

Building a Painting

I've begun to work on paintings over a period of time,
which is very different from my usual alla prima,
 direct painting approach.
This is the end result after two weeks of changes....

(Untitled As Yet)

24 x 24 oil over acrylic 

Here is my process:

This is the image I used as a jumping off point.

(Once I got going I never looked at it again) 

 I put into Procreate and broke it down to this:

Then I did a quick "lay in" with acrylic

This was my first "pass" with oils.

After letting it dry and looking at it, it bugged me 

that the everything interesting was on the right 

and all the shapes were the same size. 

So I marked it up with charcoal. 

And ended up with this!

I find this way of painting very challenging  

but I am inspired to keep "just showing up!"

NOTE:
I haven't been posting 

many finished paintings this summer; 

a result of all the experimenting I've been doing. 

Embarking on learning a completely different approach to painting,

can be exhilirating, and daunting at times.

Days / weeks can go by before you produce anything "meaningful". 

Frustration from not having any work to "show"

and the lack of a sense of accomplishment 

creeps in and does a number on your self-confidence. 

All you can do is keep showing up

 and hope something happens!  

I hope my muse knows what she's doing. 

Workshop magic

A terrific weekend workshop at Rockport Art Association.

We had a brave group of painters of all different levels,

 who were up for anything. 

I decided to go back to the basics 

with some classic exercises like;

Designing with three values 

Value to color

Two Value/ Crazy Colors

Limited Stroke 

Painting Upside Down 

This workshop reminded me of 

how much I enjoy teaching,

and as always,

I think I got as much out of it 

as they did. 

Happy Painting everyone! 

Rockport Art Association

I was very excited to see the recent Members show at the 

at The Rockport Art Association. 

There was a surprising and delightful eclectic mix of 

representational and contemporary abstract work.

Here are a few of my favorites: 

Emily Passman

Susan Guest Macphail

Karen Rovner 

 (sorry, I didn't get this artist's name)  

 I've become more attracted to,and intriqued by less representational work. 

However, my foundation in the traditional plein air approach to paintng
will always prevail.

NOTE: 

I'm teaching a two day "Expressive Painting" workhop 

 up there this weekend in this incredible space! 

Can't wait.

I'll keep you posted. 

Labor Day Weekend

There is always one die-hard
on the beach Labor Day Monday at sunset.

"Last To Leave"

9 x 12 oil

mixed media

This was a demo done this summer 

in my Expressive Figure class. 

I recently revisited it and 

played with the shapes and values. 

Balancing representational and abstract. 

The journey continues. 

NOTE:

Click HERE to read my 

thoughts on this time of year.

Last year.