I was sick last week and didn’t post anything, even though I committed to myself to post weekly. Sorry about that! Here’s a quick peek into my studio to see the latest.
I had set a new goal to graduate from the Mastery Program by the end of the year. I’m still at about 7 paintings away from the required 25 paintings to have completed from my portfolio. Some of the paintings I did in Production Week my be suitable to include as well as two recent commissions.
THE DANCE OF LIFE
I’m starting in a slightly new direction. I’m still focusing on the beauty found in growing older but shifting to showing oldsters enjoying the art of dance. I enjoy dancing myself and want to show how movement connects us through the ages.
I also wanted to incorporate the energy of cities along with the energy of dancing.
I started as I usually do with a wash of acrylic paint to “kill the white” of the canvas. I applied some cardboard shapes to the canvas and spray painted around them to suggest the shapes of buildings. I also used a stencil to suggest a street with pavers.
I’ve sketched in the dancing figures and the suggestion of people in the background. Stay with me to see the results, hopefully next week.
COMMISSIONS
One of the pleasant outcomes resulting from the artist’s reception I had at Plumb Cellars was two commissions. I was able to work on them last week even though I was under the weather, that may explain why I was struggling a bit. One I had worked through and submitted the first version to the person who commissioned the portrait. Although they liked the direction it was going, he commented that it really didn’t look like his daughter. The comment stung at first, but I stepped back and realized he was right. Here’s the two different versions showing my first draft and where I am as of today:
I will finish with oil paint once I get the other commission to the point of using oil.
The second commission is larger and more complicated. The woman who commissioned the portrait wanted a painting of her that had her drinking a glass of wine and some wine barrels in the background, like this one I had showing at the artist’s reception.
I put together a reference photo to use where I took her picture she provided and put it with a scene from a vineyard with wine barrels lined up along a path. After struggling with painting the wine barrels in my first similar painting, I questioned my sanity by trying to do even more in this commission.
I am nearly to the point of adding oil. I hope she likes it.
Comments