Rabbi

Oil on Canvas

6x6"

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     This is a little surprise I made for my friend Rabbi Greenbaum, who retired this year. We are going to his retirement party today and we are not supposed to bring gifts, but this is not actually a gift, is it? I hope they won't be mad.

 

Loy

Oil on Canvas

6x6" 

$100

     Each face I do becomes my favorite face. I am enjoying this so much I have forgotten my original goal which was to try for abstract expression and value-color choice over local-color choice. By saying that I remind myself to pay attention to my intention. We will see if I can do it. Abstraction! It is so difficult.

     Loy. What kind of name is that? Nora Charles I understand. Is it Irish?

Claire

Oil on Canvas

7x5"

$100

     Claire Trevor was always interesting to watch. The photograph for this painting must have been taken when she was seventeen. She was as flawless as an angel. She looks a little mad here, but she really was very pretty. I loved her in Key Largo.

Miranda

Oil on Canvas

6x6"

$100

     Carmen Miranda, the girl in the "Tutti Frutti Hat."  She is very adorable. I dreaded painting her teeth, but I could not avoid it. So many of the glamorous ladies of the period had the sense to keep their mouths closed, but Carmen could not contain her personality. She was great fun to paint, teeth and all.

Baby

Oil on Canvas

6x6"

$100

     We all know that daily painting is good for us. I wish I could paint daily. Even though my recent work is not daily, it is more frequent than it sometimes has been, and I feel the difference! I can hardly express how important I believe it is to paint, paint, paint. You gain more confidence with your brush and paint when you paint all the time, but what happens with yours eyes is the main thing. How much more you begin to see when you are looking, looking, looking. I guess this is old news, but it is still exciting.

Hopkins

Oil on Canvas

6x6"

$100

     Miriam Hopkins has a lovely face and I enjoy her in the old movies. She aged beautifully. Bette Davis gave her a good shaking one time. They sure knew how to take photographs in those days.

Young

Oil on Canvas

6x6"

$100

     I have been working on the value, regardless of the color. Now I need to try to get color right too.

Dee

Oil on Canvas

7x5"

$100

     This was very difficult. Sometimes a painting just seems to paint itself. Not this time. In fact, I washed down the first effort and started over from scratch. It is OK. I believe in practice.

Garbo

Oil on Canvas

6x6"

$100

     Last week's Challenge enlivened an old love of mine--people! For me, there is nothing so interesting as the face. With the inspiration of the Challenge, I am lining up some of my favorite faces and wishing I had nothing but time on my hands!

Value over Color Challenge

Harlow 1

Oil on Canvas

6x6"

$75

     I love this Challenge. Use value, not local color. I will definitely try for this again. It makes for some very interesting paint. My goal for a long time has been to become more abstract. I find that to be the biggest challenge of all because I lose myself in what I am painting and the details begin to fascinate me and I forget what I am doing. In this one I tried very, very hard to concentrate on the planes of the face, not the details. And the Challenge to use value, not color, helped. (I should have made her lips blue.)

Michel

Oil on Canvas

10x10"

     This cat is so beautiful with his white, white fur, black tips on his ears, and golden eyes. When something is this beautiful, I do not know if I should try to paint it or just look at it. And, of course, I am rarely satisfied with the work because the subject surpasses my ability to paint its beauty.

White Heels

Oil on Canvas

9x12"

$216

     I believe that dancing in heels makes you a better dancer. These shoes are made of the same fabric as grosgrain ribbon. You just have to feel better and dance better in them. 

     I posed them in many different angles and each pose was interesting. There is so much going on visually even though the subject is quite simple. 

Sliced Orange

Oil on Canvas

6x6"

$75

     Sliced fruit is such fun, a departure from my usual fruit still life. Getting the shadows the right value can take a lot of looking. The shadows in this one started out much darker and I did not enjoy looking at it until I lightened them up. And then I had to remember to make the reflection duller than the subject. Much to consider for such a small painting.

Three Cherry Glaze

Oil on Canvas

6x6"

$75

     I realize this might be considered a great UN-favorite by many, but I like it. Sometimes when I am working on an underpainting, I think it looks so exciting as it is that I feel reluctant to begin with the application of thicker paint.  So this time I decided to allow it to be without the richer layers that I usually enjoy so much. Even without the heavier paint, I find this interesting to look at, almost like the cherries are transparent. This might be more of a drawing than a painting. That is OK with me. I love to draw. And where is painting without drawing at its foundation?

Three Rainiers

Three Rainiers

Oil on Linen

8x10"

$160

     Three cherries this time. They are fun to paint and to look at. Such bright cheery fruit. Taste good too.

Two Rainiers

Two Rainiers

Oil on Canvas

18x6"

$100

     I thought painting a couple of cherries was going to be pretty easy. Just add the reflection in the glass they are sitting on and their shadows. Take away the double light source casting yet another set of shadows. The reflection should not be so hard. Simply paint the thing again upside down, but the glass does not reflect what you see straight on. It reflects from the bottom up, sort of. And the reflection is a duller color than the actual cherries which were very bright. That makes four cherries, each with its own special set of painting decisions. It all would have been easier if I had practiced what I read once: paint what you see, the shapes, not the cherries. 

Sliced Pear

Oil on Canvas

24 x 8"

$200

     Love to paint pears. Never seem to tire of it, but sometimes I want something new in the process, so I tried the horizontal-slice approach and found it interesting. I saw that the slices themselves were very pretty and will consider painting the lovely white circles with their starlike seed centers next time.

Red Pear Stem

Red Pear Stem

Oil on Canvas

6x6"

$75

     One might think I tried to paint a pear, but I consider it a painting of a pear stem. It was fun.

Persimmons on Gray

Persimmons on Gray

Oil on Canvas

6x18"

$100

     Extreme rectangles--too long to be truly pleasing to the eye, but interesting anyway, I think. Maybe it is because of that little discomfort that comes from being the wrong size.

     And gray--for a long time I stayed away from gray, thinking it was a dull, boring color. Now I love it. Now I think it is beautiful. Besides, orange persimmons are so very, very orange against a gray background.

Pale Pear Solo

Oil on Canvas

8x6"

$96

     I wanted to paint something very high key, lots of white. I like the way this turned out although it is not as pale as I had envisioned. How often my plans end up so soon forgotten. I might as well say, "Let's see what painting I will get today." 

     I still like the idea of a very pale piece so I will give it another try another day.

Big Yellow Dahlia

Big Yellow Dahlia

Oil on Canvas

11x14"

$308

     I do much better with flowers when I leave them loose. Otherwise they always look amateurish and corny. This way I can see that I was at least having a little fun.

Citrus Challenge

Citrus Bowl

Oil on Canvas

5x7"

$75

     When I saw that the Challenge was to paint fruit, I was glad. Painting fruit is one of my favorite things, but I found creating an interesting set-up difficult. Finally, I chose the green bowl and the painting became a painting of the bowl, not the fruit. That is OK. A Challenge should be challenging after all.

Stroke Challenge, Second Try

Red Poppy #2

Oil on Canvas

6 x 6"

$75

     I have pondered Carol's instructions and studied her example and decided to give it another try. Maybe each stroke should be a different color, but I still did not manage it. I know I must study and practice some more. I just hope I am practicing the right thing.

The Stroke Challenge

Red Poppy

Oil on Canvas

7 x 5"

$75

     I tried to do the Challenge this week. Having been away for a while, I thought it would be a good warm up. I don't think I got it right. I did not understand the directions, which were to mix one color, make a stroke, mix another color, make a stroke, and on like that. If all the strokes were a different color, I don't think that would be a very good painting, so I obviously did not understand exactly, and Carol was not here for me to ask her. I just tried to make good strokes with the colors I mixed and not blend them much at all, each stroke standing on its own feet.