Sandy finished...

I am the "featured artist of the week" on the Top Artist's Directory...kind of unexpected. I have only been on the site a few weeks. Very nice, though! Kim put my painting of "Nicole in the Rose Trellis" on the page. I have also, as apparent here in the photo above, completed the painting of Sandy. I had to work my way through some difficult stages with this one but Sandy is happy and I am happy. Reading Portrait Painter Atelier by Suzanne Brooker and finding out a few things regarding the use of glazes. I decided to try some of that on this painting and I like the results. I have used glazes many times in my work but never with medium, just a thinned down paint. Geez, LOUISE (my middle name for real)...mediums really make it flow! I used Liquin here but there are many versions of medium that are possible. To much of the technical end of some of this stuff makes my eyes glaze over, though.

Getting Unstuck

This is no moment quite like the one where you are stuck in the middle of a painting. This one is going fairly ok but not really to be commemorated as a undisputed success. It would help to have my subject present but I am left to working from the photos I took last November and, like other portraits where I have only my photos to work from, I find myself wishing I had thought to use this or that lighting, this or that pose, this or that setting. It comes to me too late, what might have worked better. This is the advantage painting a still life has over using a living model. You

can reconstruct the entire setting at will. I shall persist with this piece and I expect it will be just fine and really appreciated by my in-laws upon whose wall it will hang. So few things turn into real masterpieces. Good enough is going to have to do.

Miz Sandy's encore

And now, onto the next project. To get my feet wet again, so to speak, I am working on a small portrait of my lovable and beautiful sister-in-law, Sandy. Her parents, my terrific in-laws, requested a portrait of her to go along with the one I did of their son (my husband Bob!) and since they have been so incredibly generous and supportive of all us "kids" I am only too happy to do this. I started over a week ago and have had some trouble getting it rolling but now feel I am getting somewhere. So many of the artist's sites that I go to express this difficulty with motivation and persistence in the face of possible failure in the work. It is indeed hard to keep going, to keep trying when you see so much of what you are doing doesn't turn out as expected or hoped for. I know it is only paper or canvas, pencil or paint, but the expressions coming from the hand are directly from the heart and soul and to expose yourself requires courage and stamina. Today I posted a list of shows to enter this year - written in bright red so I can't fail to notice them. I dislike entering shows but feel they are a necessary way to get the work out there, to find a market, to connect with other art lovers. The pain of possible rejection never really gets easier but I find I can let it roll off me much easier now that I am older. None of it will matter in the long run, but living up to my potential (I got a lot of that as a kid) requires the struggle. I tell my students and artist friends who ask for help that it is important to keep doing the work no matter what. Put those miles of paper or canvas behind you! Just do it! Enjoy the process while you're at it. Don't allow discouragement in the door for too long - kick it out and welcome in the joy. Improvement comes in spite of yourself if you practice, practice, practice.

The Sunshine Award

Karen just helped me learn how to move a logo from a blog over to mine! And here it is. Now I need to locate some other bloggers to send this one to - I have a couple of people in mind.

Sunshine Award

I have just received a nice surprise - the Sunshine Award from a fellow artist blogger, Karen Hargett, from her Karen Hargett's Fine Art Journal. Thanks so much Karen, it is always nice to receive recognition from another artist! I love following her site and recommend it to others for an uplifting look at life.