Challenge 8 progress photos

 white pastel pencil to mark my light areas

This post is for those of you who are interested in
 my progression through a painting.

Our challenge was to paint with a limited palette,
no brushes, 20 x 20 or larger canvas/panel format, 
use thick impasto style, and paint a portrait of an elderly person.

Here are my progress photos.

Limited palette of red, blue and yellow + white - and I used Liquin Impasto

Dark gessoed canvas with gridlines

the drawing

When I sprayed fixative to set the charcoal and pastel,
I forgot to test the spay nozzle, so
it blobbed out a bit. No worries, though.

First paint - Yellow!

Heyyy!!!   oil on canvas   20 x 20 inches

Thank you for your interest! 

Next post will be about our show,
now at the JAHC Gallery. 

The turn out was fantastic! 
We were very pleased with all the questions and interest in our project.
(And I wasn't sick!!!)

♡

Salon Challenge #8 Reveal

Hi guys, there will be several posts to try to catch up a little. 
I was away from home
for almost a month in August, 
so I've missed a bunch of blogging ... well, maybe not a bunch.

 I will post the challenge reveal here 
then my own progress photos for that challenge in the next post.

Our 8th challenge was Patrick's choice
(his idea was to use the true primary colors) 
and he allowed us choose other parameters:

- Portrait of a senior citizen (Timi)

- Square format; = or > 20 x 20 inches (Teri)

- No brushes, just palette knives, fingers, etc. (Barbara)

- Limited palette of the true primary colors:
Quinacridone Rose/Magenta - Red
Lemon/Hansa - Yellow
Phthalo Blue 
Titanium White


Here you go:

Of Things Past   oil on canvas, 20 x 20 inches by Barbara Shepherd

Nola  acrylic on canvas, 36 x 36 inches by Patrick Ripp

There Were Days  oil and cold wax on panel,  24 x 24 inches by Timi Johnson

Heyyy!!!   oil on canvas, 20 x 20 inches by Teri Gardner Robus

Our reveals are always exciting, nerve wracking (at least for me), and fun.
We pitch in for a fabulous dinner, dessert, etc.
and I think I can speak for the other three artists
when I say that this final challenge was (duh ...) challenging, 
and we learned so much about our own techniques, 
about color and about non-brush tools!

I love these portraits by my cohorts.  

Barbara's "Lost in Reflection" captures the mood of this lady who waits ... 
and i particularly love the red splashes, and of course - the reflection!

Patrick's portrait of his friend "Nola" 
is the epitome of pointillism, writ large! 
When you stand right up close to this piece, 
you see just big gobs of colors ... 
stand back about 20 feet ...
and pow! 
right in the kisser! ... Nola is laughing.

Timi's "There Were Days" portrait title is spot on 
and her colors 
from our limited palette, SO gorgeous. 
Wish you could all see them in person!

Please feel free to comment
and add your thoughts.

Thanks so very much for checking in!


OH!
 - spoiler alert - 

Our show is up at 
the Juneau Arts and Humanities Council Gallery 
for the month of September 2019. 

The opening was gonzo good - 
we had so many interested people ask questions about our challenges. 
It was a bit different than people had seen before in that space.

Stay tuned for more art!

🎨🎨🎨

Juried Art Show in Juneau, AK and other good stuff

Rainforest     10 x 8 inches
             oil, CWM, copper pigment, pastel dust on Raymar Arches oil prepared panel                                          

The following was a Press Release about the recent art show 

when I was very honored to be a participant. 

                                                2019 JAHC Juried Art Show

 

The JAHC is proud to present the 2019 Juried Art Show! The JAHC Juried Art Show runs every other year for one month in the JACC gallery. Our 2019 Juror is Alaskan Artist, Dan DeRoux, who is well known for his sculpture, painting, public art, and writing. Dan selected artwork from artists all over Southeast Alaska. 

Featured artists include Rick Clair, Suzanne Clover, Robin Hiersche, Teri Gardner Robus, Gordon Harrison, Jane Lindsey, Susan McDonough, Kristen Marie Reed, Lisa Ritter, John E. Svenson, Cameron Vance, Naona “Peaches” Wallin, and Crystal Worl. 

My painting at the top of the page was chosen by our juror

Dan DeRoux (a Juneau-born artist)

as "Juror's choice". I was so surprised by that and so very honored. 

This was the statement he wrote about his choice:

I thought there were so many beautiful paintings at the show, 

and if you read the statement - 

DeRoux says;

 "I am not saying it's the best in the show, it's just my personal choice."

Isn't that really what liking/disliking art is about? 

It is a personal connection with a piece of art, or actually, 

with an artist ... 

if I know the person who made the art,

I am more inclined, because of that, to appreciate 

that art a bit more ... what do you think?

! ... also ... did you find the "little face" that Dan saw

in the painting?! 

(please let me know if you do, in the comments below)

The painting below was also admitted to the juried show. I had submitted 3.

Morning Walk on Eagle Beach         oil on wood    12 x 24 inches

My third submission was this:

Wind
It could be, and I think it is, not finished yet!
It doesn't have the layers it needs.
Which will produce more texture ... it needs more texture.

On the subject of texture in paintings, I am very interested in artist 

Sheila Vaughn's comments

 (and her work ... although we have never met)

about the textures in her paintings.

Recently, she made a statement in her blog 

about her blog, and her paintings.

I loved the quote because I feel similarly about my blog, (and textures)

and wrote to ask her if I could put it in my post and she said yes. So the following quote is her response about the painting she posted.

“A return to my textures. Perhaps I'm more comfortable in this country.  Blogs are not websites. They record a movement of thought and desire.  They are not ashamed to show the various stopping off points along the way to understanding paint and other media and understanding ourselves as expressionists (I mean that in a very general way - all artists are expressionists…).”   

from British artist Sheila Vaughan’s blog 

So, anyway ... happily ... Rainforest sold at the show! ! !

I know the person who bought it,

and I asked her if she could please send a photo of the painting in-situ.

She was able to have the Juror's statement to go with the painting. 

Very cool! Thank you Julie!

Gunałchéesh/thank you also to Dan DeRoux!

Thank you to all who power through my blogposts. 

I say 

Gunałchéesh/thank you

to you as well.

Happy summer and happy painting!

Salon Challenge #7 - thinking of Pierre Bonnard

Teri's b&w value test - scroll to the end view larger unedited photo

Note: This is a longer post, guys. 

Make a cup of tea, grab a lemonade or a beer and have a read.

-->

Salon Challenge #7

(Barbara's turn)

A painting from memory; referencing sketches made from life, 

but not painting from those sketches ... must be from memory of them,

and must contain these elements:

1 - A woman wearing a hat

2 - A night café

3 - A floral still-life painting in the scene

4 - The conveyance of music

5 - Canvas size, at least 10 x 8, no squares

6 - Unlimited palette

(add a cat if it works out for you - extra credit!)

Barbara also suggested that we might look

at  Pierre Bonnard's work -

 try to use pattern and flatten the picture plane a bit, 

and maybe even warp the perspective like he did.

I began by observing women in hats while on a trip visiting family

and I made lots of sketches.

My final sketch to try to paint was this:

Have you painted after you had been sketching? 
One thing about Bonnard was that he was a mad sketcher 
and sketched wherever and whenever he could.
Apparently he pretty much did not paint from life. 
He mostly used his sketch ideas.

This is the first time I have painted a figure in a made-up scene, 

I think ...

For my first painting, to be honest, 

I forgot that the scene 

was to be in a night cafe! AND

I forgot the music element (totally forgot it

for this painting ... I will have it in for a bigger one! ... see update below).

So I had to go back to sketching 

to make it so ...

and I grabbed a new (small) canvas and began again.

These are my progress shots:

I decided to make the table at the bottom right a "bar" or counter
but wasn't sure about it,
so I put a clear acetate sheet over the painting
and tried it out (also added the light shimmers).

As you can see in the photo above, I did do it but not sure it was a good idea.

The following photos are from our reveal.

The paintings are possibly still WIP's, so

be aware they might be worked on further.

Timi wasn't sure about her first iteration 

so she picked up another canvas 

and went at it again.

Closing Time       22 x 28 inches      oil on canvas
by Timi Johnson

 The following photos are of Timi's progress

as she worked on her challenge. (I am forgetting which one she finished first,
the big or the little one ...)

Timi's sketch

Set Break   12 x 15 inches   oil on panel
by Timi Johnson

Timi's style is here in its glory - her cats, the figure, 
the colors and paint work - so nice!
In both paintings!
And there is mystery in both, maybe a bit more in the dark one.

Patrick has made some recent changes; here are his progressions.

Patrick's initial drawing

Patrick's first version

Chaos at the Lapin Agile        24 x 36 inches      acrylic on canvas
by Patrick Ripp

I think this version is great. Love the title! 
We all liked the glow on the cats, 
and the mischievous one hanging from (and completely disrupting!) 
the still life painting that was nicely hanging on the wall!
Why did the cats have a wild party?

Waiting for Bonnard         30 x 24 inches       oil on canvas
by Barbara Shepherd

We all agreed that Barbara's painting hit many of Bonnard's approaches; 
 the half view of a still-life painting,
the (spoiler-alert!) hard to see cat, 
the moody figure,
the unbalanced windows ... what is going on here?
That is what I like in a painting too.
When there is a mystery the painting is just that much more intriguing.

All paintings together

As you can see, my little 12 x 9 inch painting really is kind of asking to be bigger! 

So I am embarking on the project 
to make a bigger painting of the same scene ... 
that should be interesting ... 
I'm concerned but also excited by the prospect. 

Before fixes 

Update of this post. 
I worked on this painting, originally planned to make a large painting of this, 
but have changed my mind and will leave as is. 

The changes were:
1 - Add a music inference (which I forgot to do originally) of the guitar
2 - "Fix" the hat to have her actually wearing it, instead of it floating

(and I retitled it)

Until the Wee Hours     oil on canvas board    12 x 9 inches
by TGRobus

Beauty of a frame by MHRobus :)

We have learned quite a bit with this challenge; painting out of 
your head is quite different than plein air, or still life, or portrait painting. I think all of our paintings held a mystery, or a story. Love that!

Thanks so much for following our progress with these challenges.

One more to go and then we have been granted

a group show at Juneau's Art & Humanities Council Gallery 

this September! ! ! (opening is First Friday - Sept 6th)

Save the date! ... we will be sending notices

to family and friends soon.

🎨