Fig Trio

Fig Trio

6x18"

Oil

$100

DPW $80

     I continue my work with the extreme rectangles. I find the compositions interesting, odd but simple. I am putting very little into the subject matter, freeing myself to invest my effort in the smallest and subtlest details. With these canvasses, I concentrate more on color theory and character of paint in a brief process. This is the idea behind the daily painters: paint small and often and learn.

Another Cherry

Another Cherry

18x6"

Oil

$100

DPW $80

Another cherry from the nearly empty summer box.

Is it as red as the wine-dark sea?

Or as red as the cheeks of my beamish boy?

Is it the cherry my mother gave me?

"Don't swallow the seed!" she warned.

It is the cherry I have right now,

As bright  and pretty as a cherry can be,

With its stem reaching over far for something desired

And upward for the thing unattained.

Three Cherries

Three Cherries

6x18"

Oil

$100

DPW $80

     Two neat things: cherries and extreme rectangles.

     When they speak of stepping outside the box, do they mean the traditional rectangle? We already did that with the square, the darling square. Now these extreme rectangles are capturing my heart. I am stocking up.

     Carol Marine paints cherries, cherries, cherries. I can see why. How varied they are in shape, size, color, attitude. I loved painting these and using the complementary green, a color I rarely use much of. See how the red cherries are so at home against the green. They are so strong, the open space on the canvas seems essential to the composition. (That is, if you are thinking outside the box.)

Strawberry

Strawberry

5x7"

Oil

$70

DPW $50

     The primary colors: red, yellow, blue. Complementary colors: red/green. Strawberry, a simple shape. Lots of fun to be had here. Now what do I do about those little seeds all over it?! 

     I considered leaving them out, but I knew I had to include them. If I painted them just as they really are, the painting would be a portrait of strawberry seeds, so I tried to simply suggest a few and ignore the rest. I just felt that you cannot have a picture of a strawberry without those seeds anymore than you can have a picture of a cat without whiskers.

A Cherry

A Cherry

8x8"

$128

DPW $96

     Cherries have been delicious this summer but will be out of season soon, so I thought I better get some paintings done right now.

     You think of them as deep, deep red, but they have many colors. Look closely and you will see. You can stay just on one end of your palette and have a lot of fun. Another part that I enjoy is the stem. It will surprise you too with all the colors in that little skinny stem.

     Nature provides delights great and small. A cherry can be as rich in expression as an expansive landscape or a big fat floral.

     

The Complementary Challenge

Tipsy Bartlett

8x24"

Oil

$100

DPW $90

     Complementary colors, an idea we learn in elementary school and a lesson well worth learning. This week we must paint with complementaries and I chose orange and blue. Be careful. If they mix, you get neutral, but sometimes that is exactly what you want.

     I liked this Challenge, but my big fun was not in the color. It was in the format. Not so long ago I thought the square canvas was a little oddball. Then I began to love it. Now I am using extreme rectangle. A little oddball. I think I might love it too although it will demand more of me than the square. Even so, I am eager to try again.

Small Scene of Nature

Orchard Bunch

18x24"

$775

DPW $545

     Many of my recent paintings have been small, as "Daily Paintings," so my collection has become out of balance. To even that out I decided to try for a size I used to like very much, 18x24.

     Now I do not know if it is the size, the subject, the color, or what, but I slaved over this. I was willing to wash it down, but since I worked so hard on it, I can no longer tell if it is really OK or not, and so I decided to let it live.

     This is probably a good decision because I had a specific idea for this painting and it would not cooperate with me. It kept taking over. If it is that way about it, it deserves a chance. Picasso said, "Begin with an idea, but it must be vague."

Some Shastas

Some Shastas

12x16"

Oil

$384

DPW $269

     Flowers. I am starting to feel more comfortable with them. But, as always, there is an issue to deal with. Here, it is white. How to paint white without it looking like a polar bear in a snow storm.

     I used viridian as my main color and just treated it as a value painting, adding the smaller percentage of warm for the daisy centers. I put a lot of viridian in the flowers and they still look white, but I believe I could have put even more for a richer effect and still ended up with white Shasta Daisies.

The Rose Challenge

Red Rose

5x7"

Oil

$70

DPW $50

     This week's Challenge is to paint a rose, any way at all. Flowers are not my strength so this Challenge is a good thing.  I could have chosen to paint just a petal or a leaf, but I decided to be very traditional and paint a rose, thorns and all.  How interesting that the thorns really were the color of the rose! I did not know that about thorns. Another bit of fun was painting on a turquoise canvas. Red has become my favorite imprimatura, but experimenting is a must. Generally this was a good time in the studio, but I am disappointed that the front leaf does not glow with sun against the red rose the way it did in real life.

Primary Challenge

Bright Apple

8x10"

Oil 

$160

DPW $112

     This week's Challenge: paint using the primaries--red, yellow, blue. I tried to keep the colors pure, but some yellow leaked into the blue giving me a green leaf. (Well, OK.) The way the sun fell on the yellow leaves really did make them look yellow, almost white. 

     Painting with three colors is a triad color scheme, which I usually enjoy. The thing to watch out for is not to make the three colors equal. I want the painting to be either one color or another. I worried about this one, but I think it turned out to be a blue painting. Blue with red and yellow. That is good.

     The Challenges time and again push me out of my comfort zone. Now I want to use this color scheme again soon.

Mamacita

Mamacita

9x12"

Oil

$216

DPW $150

     My sister's cat is so photogenic, but then all felines are "masterpieces." They strike poses and walk like ballerinas. I like cats and would have one of my own if I did not dread the "trophies" they might bring me after their trips into the woods. How fine it would be to have my own personal model to paint all the time. I don't think I would ever tire of it.

     I rarely paint with Cad Red, but this time I wanted pure red, red, red, and the Cad gave it to me. Cad Red Light is my favorite red, so I had to add just a stroke or two to break up the flatness of the background without losing that redness I wanted. It really is red.

The Phone Challenge

Delta

The Phone Challenge

8x8"

$128

DPW $85

     Here is another Challenge I was glad to see. My landscapes are my nemesis and I need to practice them more.

     This is from a photo taken on the run with a cell phone and given to us to paint anyway we want. This week's Challenger reminds us that a good photo does not always mean a good painting and vice versa. A good reminder, but how well I know that to be true. So many photos of landscapes with so few paintings to show for it.

     This is the first landscape I have done this year that I like and that I did not have to wash down several times before I arrived at a finished product. Thank you, Elaine.

Happy 4th of July!

Stars & Stripes Cowgirl Angel

Sierra Artisans Craft Pattern

20"

     This is my Independence Day greeting. Happy 4th of July!

     This is one of my craft patterns that I sell on Etsy under my Sierra Artisans label. She is one of ten western-themed figures that I have enjoyed designing over time. It all began with a Cowboy Santa. I thought he would be cute and never expected more from it, but when your imagination is triggered, you don't want to stop it. Now I have a variety of Cowgirl Angels and other seasonal and holiday characters. I like to think of them as a family. The Sheriff is already drawn and Sidekick in taking shape in my head.

     How to find time to finish these ideas and paint every day too! Time--that slippery element. It gets away from me so easily.

     Please visit my website or Etsy to see all the characters.

Insect Challenge

Little Green Moth

6x6"

$72

DPW $50

     This week's Challenge: paint an insect. Insects are everywhere when you don't want them. And if I found one, could I look at it long enough to paint it without creeping out. And then there this one was, a little green moth on my kitchen window screen. Really quite pretty.

     There were many more details in his design, but I had to leave them out. When I tried to paint them, they looked "painted on." Nature can be that way. If you paint what you see, it is just unbelievable.

California Gray Squirrel

Squirrel

8x10"

$160

DPW $112

     I saw a picture yesterday that was done in orange and green, that's all. I liked it, so when I began this painting, I gave myself the assignment of making it in that color scheme. Although the real squirrel is gray and the leaves he was sitting on are beige, he is now an orange and green "gray squirrel." The green is my new best friend, Prussian Blue, mixed with a little hansa yellow and cad orange. His nose and eyes are Prussian Blue, too, made even darker with burnt sienna, another orange.

     

Dogwood

Dogwood

6x8"

Oil

$96

DPW $65

     This spring the dogwoods of so many varieties were wonderful in Nevada County. This flower is in a tree on our hillside. It was surrounded by many others, so I cropped it out and only suggested faintly the others in the picture. It is easy to render white flowers uncomfortably cool so I used burnt sienna and yellows in the greenery and shadows to warm it a little. Paying attention to the shadow of a flower, treating it as a sort of geometric shape is very interesting. It seems to make all the difference.

Rosebud in Shadow

Rosebud in Shadow

6x6"

Oil

$72

DPW $50

     This little rosebud was found on the dim periphery of a photograph of several fully blown roses, but it was this small flower I chose to paint. I loved the way it seemed to emerge from the shadows with only a "baby spot" on its little bud casings (What are those called?). The dark, dark you see is pure Prussian Blue, not black. High contrast is always exciting, but must be careful with the edges.

Yellow Roses

Yellow Roses

8x10"

$160

DPW $112

Yellow Rosebuds

6x6"

$72

DPW $50

     These are supposed to be for the Challenge, Seeing Double. I think I might have not followed the directions to the letter, but it was important for me.  I wanted to paint yellow roses, one with analogous background and one with complementary background. I needed to see the effect of each approach. Here they are. I think the complementary color scheme is more striking (as would be expected), but I like the analogous treatment better. This is purely a matter of individual taste. And that is fine. There is room in the world for both.

The Yellow Challenge

Yellow Dahlias

5x7"

Oil

$70

DPW $50

     This week it is the Yellow Challenge. Yellow is like other colors in that there are warm and cool versions of it. In this painting it goes from green/yellow, a little cool, to orange/yellow, a little warm. Even though the painting is based on yellow, the warm end of the palette, the green makes it a cooler painting with a warm focal point. This is an example of the 25/75% rule. 

     Yellow is such a cheerful color. You can hardly make it sad. I have at least three times the number of yellows in my studio as any other color.

Tulips Shadow Challenge

Tulips Shadow

6x6"

Oil

$72

DPW $50

     This week's Challenge was to make the shadow a significant part of the composition. My problem was also to make the composition not look like I had cut the bouquet in half and just placed it carelessly on the edge of the canvas. This was a bit tricky because the composition might be working, but when you add the color, all the weight goes there, a little off balance. There are just so many considerations when making a painting. Actually, being a little off balance is not necessarily a bad thing.

Sutter Persimmon

Sutter Persimmon

5x7"

Oil

$70

DPW $50

     When I find a good tree of "small scenes of nature," I usually enjoy painting two or three in a row and then feel ready to move on until another day. These persimmons are from a tree in Sutter Creek, California, another historic town in the Sierra Foothills. This time, I enjoyed trying to make the dark edge of the fruit, red, as dark as the leaf, green, so that no distinction of color shows. Then with the warm bright orange against a cool neutral negative space, I am pleased.

Persimmons

Persimmons

5x7"

Oil

$70

DPW $50

     I love the genre I call "Small scenes of nature," so I go out into the orchards and climb trees or stop alongside the groves as I travel in order to photograph the beauty. So often nature provides just the color scheme you need as well as the composition. Here we have red and green. What could be better? Of course, there should also be some controlling idea for the painting, the "big idea." Sometimes the idea is not so "big." Here it simply is the light on the main persimmon and the smallest leaf casting a little shadow. Very little "big idea" but very necessary.

Flowers #7 Camellia Surprise

Camellia Surprise

5x7"

Oil

$70

DPW $50

     This poor little canvas has been washed down so many times it is getting threadbare. Everything lately has been a disappointment until now. Finally I have one I like and it was easy! After working hours and hours on lousy failed paintings, suddenly I am surprised by the simplicity and ease that produced a success. You just can't figure out some things.

     This flower is from my camellia bush. (Deer don't like them much.) Last year I gave it a good pruning, and this year it is so loaded with blooms that it gave me a pleasant surprise. I really love this flower. It showed up just when I needed it.

Flowers #6 Daisies in a Corner

Daisies in a Corner

6x6"

Oil

$72

DPW $50

     It seems I am under their spell. These little flower paintings are just so much fun. In this one, I used a dark blue canvas for a warm yellowish painting. I then used, very sparingly, a touch of red giving me a painting with red, yellow, and blue--the primaries. Limited palette, simple composition, shapes and values, not petals--done! Let me try that again.

Flowers #5 Daisies

Daisies

6x8"

$96

DPW $65

     These small florals are beginning to charm me. I can see why they are so popular with many artists. When I finished this one, I felt like saying, "Let me try that again!"
     I read Carol Marine's Art Byte on what daily painting means to her and found it inspiring and freeing. The artists on DPW teach me so much. Naturally, I have my favorites and really study them, examining the way they use art elements such as line, shape, color, composition, and also some odd little techniques. For example, lately I have been painting on red canvas. You can sometimes see it peeking through and I like that.

Flowers #4

Flowers #4

6x6"

$72

DPW $50

     The little flower paintings I see on DPW are delightful and inspiring. There are so many artists doing these, I was not sure I wanted to try, thinking I might not have anything fresh to offer. Of course, that is crazy thinking because we all know the creator did not worry that s/he was making pink flowers over and over again. I will just paint and try to remember that Emerson said, "These roses under my window make no reference to former roses or to better ones; they are for what they are; they exist with God to-day."

Animal Close Up Challenge

Young Deer

8x8"

Oil

$128

DPW $85

     Deer come through our property all the time. (They ate all landscaping long ago.) They are such pretty creatures, so naturally, I have scores and scores of photographs. This week's Challenge was to paint an animal close up and I chose this little one.

     I wanted the picture to be warm and analogous, featuring just the eyes and nose. I used only yellow ochre, burnt sienna, and prussian blue for the whole thing, along with a little red for the insides of her ears. The black eyes and nose are a mixture of prussian blue and burnt sienna. Limited palettes are sometimes not really very limiting at all.

     

Forest 5

Forest 5

7x5"

Oil

$70

DPW $50

     Persistent may be too mild a word. Stubborn probably. Anyway, I got an idea and wanted to try it, so I took the painting from a few days ago and reworked it and now I like it. To me, it is an entirely new painting, still very simple, but at least it does not put me in a bad mood to look at it like the first version did. The old colors were too somber. The emotion was not right. The forest can be "dark and deep" but it does not have to be depressing.

Toes & Tail

Toes & Tail

6x6"

Oil

$72

     I am a persistent person, but I am also literate. When the writing is on the wall, I can read it.

     I have learned why one does not see many forest interior paintings. It is because they are almost impossible to paint well!!

     I am not the one to do it. At least, not now. Maybe I will return to it one day, but for now I am looking for cute cats. Here is one of my favorites, Pablo, the fabulous.     

Forest Interior 4

Forest Interior 4

5x7"

Oil

$70

DPW Auction $50

     I think these forest scenes are coming down to a color issue. I am very glad I have embarked on this project because it will force me to address some matters that could otherwise be masked by subject matter. Paint a cute cat and I might overlook that it is a mediocre painting if the cat is cute enough.

     I have color theory education. I am just having a stumbling block in making my body believe and paint what I know. I think this is so important that I am willing to paint some bad paintings in order to learn it.

Forest Interior 3

Forest Interior 3

5x7"

Oil

$70

DPW Auction $50

     I am being diligent in my landscape work. I really believe in it because so much must be dealt with in each little 5x7: color theory, composition, line, shape, and even deeper meaning. If I use color to create the emotion and value to create the drama, in a way, I have a metaphor. With my beautiful forest all around me, I should never be hungry for material. (Those two little daffodils at the forest edge are for real.)

     That being said, tomorrow I am painting my sister's cat.

     

Flowers #3 Easter Challenge

Flowers #3

Easter Challenge

6x6"

$72

DPW Auction $50

     What a day I have had! Daily Painting is supposed to be every day, not all day every day. I was surprised to find these lilies in a spring bouquet I picked up at the market.  I thought, Ha! They will be just right for the Easter Challenge. They began to open and look beautiful and dramatic. But after painting them all morning, they just looked like Easter lilies, ho hum. Pretty, but ho hum. Finally I cropped to this and found something I liked. It was hiding behind a fully bloomed Easter lily.

     Happy Easter.

Forest Interior 2

Forest Interior 2

5x7"

Oil

$70

DPW Auction $50.

     I have so much to learn. Landscapes, hm. This got away from me. I was trying to limit the colors and still ended up outside my color scheme. Here is what I wanted: cool, blue-green key color, red-orange secondary color with accents of yellow and violet. It is cool, but the secondary and accent colors are a little confused. And how did cerulean blue get in there?! Incorrigible.

Flowers #2

Flowers #2

6x6"

Oil 

$72

DPW Auction $50. 

     When I saw these hot red Gerbers against the green drapery, I said, "Wow!" But when I began painting, I was in for a surprise. I thought I was seeing a dark object against a lighter background, but I was not. I put the red acetate sheet up and saw clearly that the red was a much lighter value than the green. My problem was to make the red still a "wow" without losing the value contrast and turning the red a washed-out pink. I stayed on the warm end of the palette and used yellows, not white, to lighten the red. I had to sacrifice some intensity, but the flowers still convince me that they are red.

     

Flowers #1

Flowers #1

6x6"

Oil

$72

DPW Auction $50. Click to bid.

     I want to be able to paint flowers and make them fun to look at, not boring. I have been studying and have picked up a few ideas from some of my favorite artists. I tried some here and when I began, I thought, this is not going to work, but it did! I like it fine. 

     Even though this is not really my very first painting of flowers, I am calling it #1 because I hope it will be the beginning of something.

Oak Tree

Oak Tree

6x8"

Oil

$96

(DPW Auction $65. Click to bid.)

     I live in a beautiful place, forest all around, and yet I find it difficult to find the painting in my lovely surroundings. "Can't see the forest for the trees."

     This scene is right outside my studio window and I love looking at it every day just as I do many other favorite scenes 360 degrees. (Lucky me.) I have struggled with landscapes for a long, long time, but I am stubborn. I know that if I can get the hang of it, I will have a mountain of fun. (Yes, I know, a pun.) The treasures are right in front of me. I am trying to open my eyes.

Apple Challenge

Apple

5x7"

Oil

$72

(DPW Auction $50. Click to bid.)

     This week's challenge is to paint one of my favorite things, an apple. How simple can that be? Apples, however, surprise you with their unround shape and subtlety of changing color and value. At first, I thought I would be finished with it in just a few minutes, but as time went by I found more and more to give my attention to. Such a simple object but possessing riches for a painter to put her hand to.

Daffs 2

Daffs 2

6x6"

Oil

$ 72

(DPW Auction beginning bid $50. Click to bid.)

     Here is another effort at flowers. The daffodils lasted just long enough. Maybe the key to painting flowers is to not paint the flowers; just paint a general shape and let them read as flowers. Some of my favorite flower artists do that. It is just that they do it so well.

     I will continue to work on my flowers, but another element I want to remain conscious of is the color harmony. I want there to be an overall color to the painting. This one is blue-green. Using analogous colors on the wheel will help me just as long as I do not allow the colors of the subjects to be too bossy. The actual color of the little vase here is red. It is probably best to paint what you see, but I had a different goal today.

Daffs

Daffs

7x5"

Oil

$70

(DPW Auction beginning bid $50. Click to bid.)

     I live in the Sierra Foothills where deer eat everything! But they do not eat daffodils. (I wonder why.) 

     I rarely paint flowers because I am a little inept at it, not because the deer have eaten them all. I simply decided I wanted to practice flower painting and there in my yard were those stalwart daffodils, perky as could be, so they became my subject. Now that I have cut them (killed them), I will have to buy flowers if I am going to practice further which I certainly intend to do.

     Flowers make a lovely picture, but they can turn out quite boring if not done well. I am of the school of thought that it does not matter what you paint if the elements of painting are handled in an exciting, expressive, and beautiful way in order to delight the eye. Here's hoping my flowers will cease to be flowers as such so much as a bunch of beautiful lines, colors, shapes, and values.

Figs 3

Figs 3

6x6"

Oil

$72

(DPW Auction beginning bid $50. Click to bid.)

     This is the third of my figs paintings. Each one has presented its own challenge. In this one I liked the fig hidden within the dark foliage, making the focal point dark against dark. How can that possibly work? I tried to use light values in front of the fig, making the fig recede. Again the dark was very important, but this time I did not use Chromatic Black. Instead, I mixed Viridian and Alizarin along with a little Ultramarine Blue. Now there is a black to be proud of!

     I think this is the last of my figs for a while. That tree was full of promise, but my eyes will not see it right now. Maybe another day I will again see the possibilities of those deep greens and reds.

Figs 2

Figs 2

6x6"

Oil

$72

(DPW Auction beginning bid $50. Click to bid.)

     This is the second of my figs paintings. I thought it would get easier but it was actually more difficult. I wanted to make this one warmer, and I think I did that, but the darks were very hard to keep. They kept lightening up as I worked. The beauty of the composition was in the darks, so I did not want them to fade into mid-tones. I had used Chromatic Black with greens and reds but finally had to use straight black to get it as dark as it really was.

     I never weary of nature, but I wonder if I am growing tired of figs. I will see because there is one more composition that interests me before I put this fig tree to rest.

Early Morning Horse

Early Morning Horse

Oil

7x5"

$70

(DPW Auction beginning bid $50. Click to bid.)

     I have not done a Challenge in a few weeks, and this is actually last week's Challenge, but I wanted to do it even if I am a little late. Love painting animals. I usually focus on their faces but this time I wanted to emphasize the sunlit side of the body and keep the face secondary. I also wanted to work on shapes within the picture rectangle. Here is the hard part: how to create a light shape across the horses back and distant background field and still highlight the sun on her side without using dark against light for the strong edge. Usually I try to do one thing at a time, but I am glad I tried for this "challenge" of doing the two things at once. It would have been easier (and maybe more successful) painting a light horse against a dark background, but in my efforts to improve I think it is OK to fail in order to succeed.

Figs

Figs

6x6"

Oil

$72

(DPW beginning bid $50.  Click to bid.)

     I often enjoy painting apples in the tree, so when I found a fig tree full of figs, I took its picture. Here is my first effort, and while I kind of like it, I think the reds and greens are much cooler than an apple tree and so not quite as welcoming. Still, the reds and greens go well together, made from alizarin crimson and viridian, real partners in a color scheme. The best fun was in trying to paint the light. I picked a spot and used my sharp edges and darks against lights to create the focal point in the dense, dark foliage, and I kept reminding my self to "paint the light." I think I will tack a sign on my easel: "Paint the light!"

Pablo Close Up

Pablo Close Up

6x6"

Oil 

$72

(Daily Paintworks Auction beginning bid $50)

     Pablo is a beautiful young cat with the whitest fur and orange markings. I did not exaggerate the orange color one bit.  In fact, it is even more fabulous than that. But it is the white fur that makes you stop and think. How to give it definition without losing the startling whiteness? I chose a little ultramarine blue mixed with raw umber. It made a nice gray and I thought the blue in it would go well with the orange since they are complementary colors.

     When I composed the image, at first I had much more cat in the frame, but I found that as I cropped more and more I liked it more and more. I have many more photos of Pablo and will get the rest of him in a painting probably more than once.

River Rocks

River Rocks

18x18"

Oil

$648

     Abstract art is a genre I have not yet deeply explored, but I am very interested in it and hope to do more. I recently received a message that might give me the encouragement I need. It said,

"Cheryl Wilson River Rocks to be featured in the NEW Best Of Abstract Artists Book!" (This is a series of various art books by Kennedy Publishing.)

Then it said, "The only fee is our $55 editorial/design fee payable upon entering."

You may wonder, did she pay it? I certainly did! Naturally, I wonder if I have thrown away my money,  but the appeal was too irresistible. "There is a sucker born every minute." I will let you know if I was the one that minute.

Cathy

Cathy

20x16"

Oil

     I gave my demonstration last Wednesday for my local art club.  I decided to paint the incoming president of the club. She is a lady with lots of youthful, loving spirit. While I wanted to get her likeness just right, I also wanted to show her warmth.  Most of the people in the club must paint portraits from photos, so I felt it was helpful to the majority to paint Cathy from a photo, but if I could have painted her in person, I think I would have captured her personality much better. There is a richness to painting from life you just cannot get from a photograph. I believe photographs are bossy!

     Even though I practiced, I can see I must do more. The values got away from me. When I corrected them, the color went wrong. Practice, practice, practice.

  

Bill

Bill

20x16"

Oil

     Here is Portrait Practice #3, that fine fellow Bill. I worked so hard to get the values right and now I see yet more corrections that should be made. I wanted to practice my value and color and still get the likeness just perfect. I could have worked on it forever. When I saw that I was heading in that direction, I quit and called it finished.

     The human face is fascinating. Most of us have the usual features, but we still look at faces as if we never saw anything like them, especially faces of people we love. There is always something to see, ponder, and cherish.

     Bill has a droopy right eye and when I painted it, he looked funny, but I left it that way.  It is, after all, those little irregularities that give faces their character and, very often, their beauty.

Kerrie

Kerrie

20x16"

Oil

     I am still practicing for the portraiture demonstration I must do for my art club next week. This is my niece. She is really beautiful and has gorgeous teeth. 

     Teeth!! Egad!! It is really best to choose a pose without teeth, but some people are natural only with a big smile and all their teeth showing, so learning a way to paint that is necessary. I chose to paint very carefully the outline of the teeth but not the individual teeth themselves. The outline expresses her identity without making a "portrait of teeth." I also tried to remember that the teeth are on a curve and I must model them just as if I were painting any round object such as an egg. At the last minute I remembered the little highlight along the upper lip. That removed the odd look that made it seem her lip was caught and sticking to her teeth.

     Really, it is best to chose a pose without teeth.