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.