Before and After

The second painting of Samanda's face is completed and I can get back to the rest of the painting with an easy mind. I only have a couple of weeks left to complete it if I want to submit it for one of two shows next month. I lost almost a week here with this redo but it had to be done. I might spend more time in the studio painting if it weren't so dark every day! I prefer
natural light and there hasn't been much of that lately. By 4pm I can barely see in here. The colour corrected light definitely helps but it has a negative impact on my "looking" sense. I guess I should get over it. Meanwhile, I am struggling to finish up tax forms since Bob wants
to send his in soon and he is mostly done with his except for the part about my income and expenses, etc. I consider myself a reasonably intelligent person but income tax forms make me glaze right over. It's stupid, it's psychological, and it's my little way of protesting...all to my own detriment. 
I am already anxious to move on from this painting. I can see so many flaws in the composition and the concept. I should stop looking at the work of other artists whose work is better than mine...except I still want to learn. It's a bit galling that these other artists I admire are about 1/3 century younger than I am. Then I realized that there is positive regard again for the realist schools and old masters ways of painting, which wasn't the case when I went to art school in the mid 60's. Then the NY School of Abstract Expressionism was God with acolytes following the headliners and the newer schools of Pop, Op, and Conceptual. I leaned toward Pop in order not to be completely ostracized but my heart was with Magic Realism, Art Nouveau, and Pre Raphaelites.  I drank up Holbein, Van Eyck, and Botticelli. I took Graphic Design and Illustration rather than Painting Techniques (had to be practical) and over the years painted my own things struggling to find that which I could only know when I saw it. Suddenly there is a whole new school of fabulous young painters out there painting the things I envisioned (but vaguely) and had no encouragement for. Now at 65 I think I am just opening up to what has been inside all this time. Better late than never I guess.


Here are some of my favorite young painters:


www.tarajuneau.com

www.terrystricklandart.com

www.maryjaneansell.co.uk

http://marinadieul.blogspot.com

It's going to be OK

I worried myself through this face redo but it is coming along well now so I think it is going to be OK!  Just worked on eyes, nose and skin tones on the left side (our left, not hers!). I don't know what I was thinking the first time I painted Samanda's face in this work but obviously I wasn't thinking very hard...

What colour is that again?

I moved away from the face of the subject today as it still a bit tacky from yesterday.  Painting fabrics is one of my favorite things to do but the concentration necessary to catch all the changes in hue and value, to say nothing of the folds and creases, can be exhausting. This 
represents several days worth of work. Today I spent time on the lower section and after only two hours I had to quit. I have always had limited energy stores and it is sometimes a detriment to how quickly I move through a painting. If I force myself to continue past a certain point I begin to make mistakes and they have to be fixed in the next session so I have learned to listen to my body and stop when I'm tired. I am always amazed by this tiredness...it feels the same as spending time doing heavy physical labour.


The palette for the colours in this shawl are Titanium/Zinc White, Naples Yellow (W&N), Naples Yellow Hue (Gamblin...a very different, brighter yellow than the W&N), Yellow Ochre,
Burnt Sienna, Olive Green, Viridian Green, and Cerulean Blue. The embroidery colours are a separate palette than includes Radiant Magenta, Alizarin Crimson, Burnt Sienna, Cobalt Violet, and White. I pay special attention to the colours inside folds as they can not only be darker but more intense and often reflect light in unexpected hues.  Painting fabric is not a matter of finding the colour of the material and then just adding white or black to make the shadows and highlights. All fabrics, even pale ones, are full of colours and temperatures and
spending time mixing those colours adds to the tactile sense of the material and its seeming reality to the eye. As I mentioned, finding and mixing all those colours, that are usually in small amounts and many areas right next to each other, can be an energy sapper...but if it also weren't so much fun I wouldn't do it:-)

Second time around

I appreciate the comments so far regarding my displacement of Samanda's head and while to some it may seem to require "courage," for me it was a case of do it or lose sleep over it.  I did put it off for days and days, hoping by some miracle the image would suddenly seem right all by itself.  The magic painting fairy must have been elsewhere. The studio elves aren't much help either.


Regarding the use of the Quick Dry White I have posted a picture of it. It is oil paint (by Gamblin), and I only painted a very thin glaze over the previous image. I needed to obliterate the underpainting enough to see where to place the newly drawn features. It was dry enough to paint on today, which it would not have been if I had used a regular white like Titanium, or Zinc. It would possibly be several days drying and I didn't want to wait that long to get back on track. I honestly don't know how archival this is but my underpainting was not heavy. I don't paint thickly as a rule, although reworking a totally finished painting is not something I would want to do. The layers change chemically over time as I understand it so reworking is best done fairly soon while in the midst of painting. Having put the thin white glaze on I was also able to start applying new colour without having to paint the new layer too heavily. This is the first layer and I will need to go back in and apply yet another layer once this is dry. I will then be able to work in the subtle value and hue changes in her skin. I am also attempting to make her expression a bit less sombre...moving her lips up at the corners just a tad. Once I have completed the new face I will post it next to a picture of the former face to show the change.


This turned into a great day to paint in any case. The sky cleared up some and I can see BLUE up there and a little sun off to the south...still pretty low in the sky. I like winter and the warm soups and bundling up with blankets and books, etc., but by February I find I have had enough. I need to feel real grass under my feet, not the ice that continues to thwart my outdoor walking efforts. And dragging my easel out on the deck will be welcome, but that won't happen for at least three or four more months.

Redo

I have been ignoring the little voice in the back of my head informing me daily that this painting needs some radical fixing, at least in the head of the subject. Today I could not stand it another minute so I went back to remeasure and reconsider the placement of the head in this portrait. Too small in the nose, too big in the eyes and then I had to decided how it was actually sitting on the neck. My reference photos show her torso one way and the head another way, but I have reversed things so now I have to make it work without having the actual model in front of me. I have moved the head over and resized my reference photo. Then I put a light coat of quick dry white over the face. Once it has dried I can redraw the features and repaint the face. I am very annoyed about it but I would be more annoyed, like for the rest of my life, if I didn't fix this. I just moved on to finishing the hands and that put me back in a good mood as they look better now. Sometimes you just don't see the forest for the trees.

My Red/Green Bias

I have been noticing over the past few years that I use red and green combos quite a lot. Depending upon the hues chosen this colour use does not have to be Christmas-like. I have always professed to love bright purple (like Iris Purple) as my favorite colour but I seldom use it in my work. I seldom wear it. I do not like decorating my house with it. Still, whenever I see the blue/lavendar tone anywhere I am drawn to it. Small doses seems to be best. An accent of
exotic purple brightness fills my need. It is not an easy colour to live with. So, I am living with a  red/green scheme in my house, my clothes, and my painting. Soft yellows are a favorite too...and sometimes blue, but not a raw ultramarine...more cerulean or cobalt or turquoise. Some colours I really can't deal with (for my own use) are Fushia, Rust, and Mustard Yellow. They may sneak in on occasion but could never take center stage in my life. 
The psychology of colour choices is fascinating and there are many books on the subject. Reading them can be enlightening but I think I try to bend my personality to fit what the experts say my colour preferences might mean so it is an area I like to let alone for the most part and just follow my instinct. Once I start using a colour, however, I spend a great deal of time balancing it with other colours and values, attempting to find it's perfect partnership. I reject many more colours than I use. What is that rejection or acceptance about? I don't know the reasons but I know it when I see it.

I love pattern and textiles. Part of doing this piece is an excuse to indulge that. Already I can see many possible directions for this to go in but I think I will try to keep with the initial image I had decided upon. Sometimes I think I should do one painting over and over in all the possible ways I envision. I think I would tire of it, but perhaps not. How will I know if I don't try it? I think it would need to be with something a bit smaller and less ambitious.

Today I received an unexpected invitation to show with a few very wonderful, well known pastel artists at the Old School House Gallery in Qualicum Beach this coming summer. This includes Russian born artist Nicolas de Grandmaison, who died in 1978; Joseph Plaskett, "considered to be one of Canada's most talented and established painters," & who set up the Joe Plaskett Foundation which allows a selected Canadian artist to travel and study in Europe; Harley Brown, who wrote "Eternal Truths for Every Artist" (available from Amazon); Veronica Milner, subject of the biography by Margaret Cadwaladr "In Veronica's Garden" (also available at Amazon); and Dorothy Oxbourough, well known BC artist specializing in Native American Children portraits. Invitations to show with such established and esteemed artists are very encouraging and so much less stressful than entering a juried show and hoping to be included. I wasn't planning to exhibit much this year but I think this is an opportunity not to be passed up! This is a real surprise. Maybe my hope to end up exhibiting in a gallery like Bau-Xi in Vancouver or Toronto is realistic (that is one of Mr. Plaskett's galleries).