Serendipity/R*A*I*N - day 3 - fin

Update: I have renamed this painting. Even though I love the word serendipity,
I believe this is a more accurate title.

R*A*I*N          24 x 18 inches       oil on panel

I looked up serendipity
and just LOVE the photo that Wikipedia used to help describe what it means.
Go to the link and see what I mean.

For me, the pleasant surprise was that my acrylic underpainting dripped so nicely that I couldn't have done it on purpose had I tried!

I like the discord between the abstract sky and the landscape
. . . and I really like the b and w.

Thanks for viewing my paintings!

 

Serendipity - day 2

I am so glad I went yesterday to see Herbert Siguenza in his production, "A Weekend with Pablo Picasso". He wrote the play and is the only actor.  He has been touring with the play and the next time he will be at the San Jose Rep Theatre. (The link does not list it yet, they haven't updated their season announcement for 2014-15.)

Siguenza is one of the actors (Big Daddy) in Perseverance Theatre's production of the Tennessee Williams play, "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" (ending today). I think it was a kind of last-minute decision and also a bit of a rehearsal. He sat onstage and chatted with us (audience) about the play.

Siguenza has thought about writing a play about Picasso since he was a little boy. It was fun to see him actually painting on-stage. He fit a multitude of facts about Picasso in a short vignette of little over an hour, all quite true to life from what I have read. 

And he kind of looks like him!

As Siguenza told us, it took him his whole life to be able to do this play...just as Picasso said, "It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child".

 As a painter, that little play energized me.

Serendipity - day 1

Eeeek! Looks scary now...

Really Slovenia - fin

ReallySlovenia   oil on paper   8 x 12 inches

detail

This little painting-within-a-painting is my favorite part! 

I may just take this and do a larger painting...

Today I submitted ReallySlovenia

 to the VPO site. 

Check out how many people posted! I didn't count, but there are lots.

Really Slovenia

Ok, confession time. 

I thought I had found a Google street view for Slovenia, but it was not ... it was Croatia! 

So I am re-doing the March VPO painting (good thing March is long). 

I found a nice Google street-scene in Slovenia and it has a cool house it in.

Here is the beginning. I decided to do it on Arches Oil paper. It is kind of hard to initially paint on because it sucks up the paint pretty fast - the first layer seems to dry like watercolor.

Done or nearly there - Croatia painting

There is one more thing in the streetview of this scene that I kind of want to add. It may just make the scene, or ruin it...

Croatia - Day 2

Croatia - Day 1

Virtual Paintout for the month of March 2014 is Slovenia.

This is my start:

I have some different textural acrylic stuff that I am trying out with this painting.

You can see it on the left and at the bottom middle.

Dad - Finished

Two Ages   oil on canvas    14 x 11 inches

My Dad. 

The little black and white photo was when he was about 4, I think. Right Dad?

I think this turned out pretty good. I have been wanting to paint this since taking the photo several years ago.

And here's the one of Mom (finished about two years ago):

xoxoxo

Dad - Day 3

Charcoal portrait class

Yesterday afternoon I was delighted to take a class from Juneau artist

 MK MacNaughton - held at our City Museum.

We were to bring a black and white photo of someone we wanted to draw.

I brought this guy. 

Of course there were no cameras back in Aristotle's time, 

so this is a photo of a marble statue.

Here is the progress.

The thing that I enjoyed learning was when doing the initial sketch, do so very quickly with straight lines to delineate your shape(s). It is also funny that in a sketch, even though there were no pupils nor irises to draw (because the photo was of a statue), the shadow makes it look as though they are there.

Here is a supposed quote by Aristotle:

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Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit. (found on BrainyQuotes)

Thank you for viewing my art blog!

Dad, Day 2

Painting Dad, progression Day 1

Ever since I did Mom's portrait, I wanted to make its mate, my Dad!

 ...and finally it is on the easel.

Ok, here is the beginning - the sketch with charcoal.

Set with an alcohol wash. 

I like how the charcoal sketch sets the values for me...which I hope to follow with the paint.

Small detail

Here is a small part of the actual painting in a couple of stages:

New painting

I started right back into painting after the big hullabaloo ... (The opening reception for my first solo painting exhibit!  SO FUN!)

I have been wanting to do this painting for quite a while.

These two sketches are when I was in the first stages of planning the painting. They are just in my little 9 x 6 inch sketchbook, one above the other.

 

This one was how I kind of imagined the painting to go initially.

And this is how I finally decided placement should be.

I think the person who I am painting will probably guess - but we will see...

Final Silverbow Gallery photos

Here are the rest of the photos we took yesterday. 

I can't believe Matt and I both forgot to take pictures! I guess that is good...we were busy!

 (from left, then from top down) Mt. Shasta,    North of Lusk - WY,    North Platte, 

I See By Your Outfit ... ,    Peekaboo VW,    Missouri House

We Are Persimmons,    Tart Sweet Snack,    Orange and Pink,    Down Channel I

There are a couple of red dots!

Abnormal Summer (Peterson Lake),    Mustard and Storm

 Zoom-Ins (9 paintings),    Moonscape (Wyoming Winter),    Fireweed Field

I set up an interactive piece for this exhibit! To test their art history knowledge, people tried to match the Zoom-In painting to the famous artist's work.
Actually most were pretty good and got most of them right.
(the answers were on the back of the slip of paper ... I didn't want anyone to stress)

 Sentinel Tree at Eagle Beach,    Ruby Pipeline Series (6)

Martha's Tulips    (biggest painting in the show, oops...still a little wet!)

This show, so varied, is a record of what my art has been like since I began painting again. It has old work and very new work. I will never have another show like this again because I want to begin working on my ideas for series works.

Another look at the exhibit walls.

We completely forgot to take photos of the Opening Reception ... dang-it!

So we went back today and got some fairly nice photos of the paintings on the walls.

(Many if not all of these paintings have been on this blog at some point.)

Beginning at the left wall of the Silverbow Inn Backroom.

(from left, clockwise) Bright October,    Reading at the Lake, 

Late Winter - Amalga,    The Yellow Raincoat

The Standout,    Laundrymat

(center) Nan,    "Faces" series (circling)

Some of you prob recognize, or ARE one of these!

Good Day for Tea,    Lunch Spot

Innocent,    Dialogues With Myself

There are several more so I will post them tomorrow.

Thank you to all Juneau readers who go take a look at the show and thank you to all of you who bought paintings! I am honored.