Painting on Vacation Trips

Bob and I recently took a four day trip to Las Vegas to take in a couple of shows. Las Vegas is about a four hour drive through some beautiful desert and a crossing of the Hoover Dam. Since moving to Scottsdale we have made occasional trips to Vegas for a get-away. Although we had tickets to see both Jersey Boys and Ka, it was also our intent to drive out of Vegas proper and check out Red Rock Canyon and other sights in the area. As such, I took my camera, sketchbook and a few pastels. Well....we did drive out to Red Rock Canyon.....and I did take some great photos....but I did not stop, set up my easel and paint. Why? Well, we ended up with much less time for exploring than we had hoped. This happens often when we travel. It is not that Bob isn't willing to pull out a lawn chair and enjoy a book or newspaper while I paint, but rather that we plan too many activities in the time we have available.

Well, I am going to look at changing the planning process...since I am the one that does all the planning and making of reservations. We have a driving trip planned the end of July into August. We are meeting our kids at Bass Lake, CA just outside of Yosemite National Park. Bob and I are planning to be gone about three weeks. Our drive to CA will include scenic roads through Sequoia National Park. We will be outside of Yosemite for a week with our kids. Our drive home will be through St. George, Utah and Zion National Park. Just think of the painting scenes just waiting for me!! As I build the schedule and make the reservations I am going to build in dedicated painting time. Hopefully my strategy will be successful! I will let you know!

Polly Revised

At the Arizona Pastel Art Association meeting last weekend we invited Judith, Spitz, a local pastel instructor and show judge to come to the meeting for a critique session. Members bring a painting they would like to have feedback on to the meeting. I decided to take the painting of Polly I shared in the last blog. As a result of the critique I made changes to the painting. Judith gave me the following constructive criticism:

1. The green pillow was dominating the original version of the painting. It was suggested that the painting be revised to take the emphasis off of the pillow. I decided to address the issue by having Polly's leg over the pillow as opposed to behind the pillow.

2. There needed to be green in other areas of the painting to provide more harmony of color. I made the green in the sheet pattern more apparent where before they were very low key. I also added a little green to Polly in her ears. Finally I added some green to the crease in the back pillow that is predominantly burgundy.

The result is a much stronger painting. Sometimes another set of eyes....especially more knowledgeable eyes....can see things that the painter just does not recognize. It provides great opportunity for growth!

Polly

With some time over the holidays I have gotten to some projects that have been waiting for my attention....some for awhile. One of those is a painting of our Springer Spaniel, Polly. We had two Springer Spaniels, Polly and Alex, when we lived in Michigan that were wonderful pets. We lost Alex at a young age in the mid 90's when he twisted a gut and died of a heart attack before we could get the surgery done to hopefully save him. We weren't sure how Polly would deal with his loss as they were inseparable. Besides that fact.....Polly was blind and used Alex as a guide dog. Polly suffered from a condition that is being bred out of the Springer Spaniels.....however....it is a formidable task as it doesn't show up until about age 2 and many females have already been bred at that age. The retina separates from the back of the eye and there is nothing that can be done. However, Polly did fine and adjusted to being without Alex. We had her for many more years. She was a faithful trooper and a loving companion. She lost her hearing and began to suffer from displasia of the hips. She finally started having neurological problems and we would find her turning in circles. With the vet, we decided her quality of life had deteriorated to the point that we needed to put her to sleep. We still think of both Polly and Alex often. I had done a painting of Alex prior to his death (see website under Animals), but had never gotten to Polly although I had a photo that I thought perfectly showed her sweet personality. She was our couch potato and the photo showed her lounging among the bed pillows. I greatly enjoyed doing the painting. It brought back many happy memories as well as the sadness of losing her.

Brodie and McGee Continued

One of the trials and tribulations of creating art is knowing when you have "finished" a painting. I am often guilty of "overworking" a piece.....continuing to work on a piece when I should have stopped. Even being aware of this tendency...I did not have that feeling of being finished with the painting of Brodie and McGee...but wasn't quite sure where to go with it. When this happens I have a number of strategies that often help. A good practice is to leave it and come back later...at least a day later. Sometimes I just put the piece where I can see it as I am going about my business. I will also look at a piece in a mirror. All of these are very useful and often result in my figuring out what the piece needs. But I also like to take a piece to friends and get their perspective and advice. That was what I decided to do with Brodie and McGee. My friend Toni is a retired art teacher and a wonderful artist who always has great insights and advice. As usual it was a great help. I knew I wasn't happy with the blanket the boys were laying on and she helped me to see how I could make the folds more realistic using stronger value changes. As we discussed the hard edges of the toplines of the boys that were bothering me I realized I needed to change the color so that the boys would merge with softer edges into the background. Toni had some suggestions about value changes for the background as well. Toni also pointed something out that I had totally missed. McGee's back needed to be repositioned to emerge from above his nose...not his ear. Bingo....a much improved piece!!! Now I feel finished! Here is the final piece, "The Jones Boys".

Brodie and McGee

My sister Gail and her husband, Steve, have two delightful Shih Shu dogs, Brodie and McGee. I offered to paint them some time ago (quite some time ago actually). Gail and Steve sent me pictures and I gave it a try. That first try was pretty sad and never got too far. Well.....I decided to give it another try. I figured I had grown as an artist and had new skills and insights to apply to the painting in the months since my first try. This is the picture of the boys that Gail and Steve originally sent me:

My first try was partially a failure because I tried to duplicate this photo minus my sister's leg.....didn't work. After a few months of thinking and many new insights about composition and design, I knew that I wanted to change this photo to have the boys next to each other and resized due to their change in position. This decision called for learning how to move sections of photos in Photoshop. Success!!! Here is the result:

So now I have a composition that makes much more sense. I also knew that I needed to come up with a different blanket and background so as not to compete with the focus...the boys!! I started out with a background that was similar to the blue couch in the photo with indications of the texture weave. I also had a blanket with the beginning of a texture weave. Once I achieved that stage...I realized two textures would also compete with the boys. Here is that stage:

As a result I decided to eliminate the majority of the texture in the background and only have texture in the blanket. I also began putting in more color in the boys. At this point I worked on their eyes which always brings a portrait to life.

As I looked at the portrait at this point I decided there was too much blanket and background. I decided that a crop would bring the focus fully on the boys. I taped off the new borders and continued to build the color and texture in the boys.

After adding more detail and adjusting color I decided it was time to get my sister's opinion.....was I close? Did I catch their expressions? Did it look like the boys? What would she want changed? Here is the cropped photo. I took this while the painting was still on my easel and not outside in natural light so some of the colors are not as brilliant as in the painting.

Gail and Steve felt that I had nailed the personalities and expressions of the boys. Yeah!! The only request was to darken the right ear of McGee (on the right). I will make this change and some finishing touches and "The Boys" will be ready to be shipped to Michigan!

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Paint Around

At the recent Arizona Art Alliance Show it was determined to have a Paint Around Event as part of the kickoff for the Meet the Artists Reception on Saturday evening. I was tapped to organize the event. Basically the event lasted for one hour. I recruited a total of 3 teams of 3 artists each. I and two fellow pastelists who had all been to Italy in the last year formed a team called the "Tuscan Trio". We painted from photos we each had taken in Italy. A second team was three watercolorists who called themselves the "Grey Scale Goddesses". They did flowers from life and photos. The third team were also watercolorists with the team name of "Two Hippie Chicks and a Redhead". They were doing fuzzy things and each had brought a dog photo to work from. The three teams set up their easels in a circle in the area of the reception. After I introduced the teams and the process that would be witnessed the event began. Each artist in the three teams had the first 15 minutes to work on their own piece. They were alllowed to have their sketch completed...but no paint could have been added prior to the event. After 15 minutes each artist moved to their right to the easel of their team mate and worked the next 15 minutes on their teammate's art using their teammate's materials. After 15 minutes each artist again moved to their right and spent the next 15 minutes working on the art of their third member using that person's materials. The last 15 minutes each artist rotated again ending up back at their own easel to put on finishing touches and sign the piece with the team name. Here are the pieces from my team:

Liz Kenyon's piece:

Barb Lang's piece:

My piece:

All the artwork from all three teams is being donated to the Paradise Valley Hospital. It was a fun time and plans are already in the works to have this event at each show.

Arizona Art Guild Show

As an emerging artist I continually evaluate ways to get my work out in the eyes of the public. I am also cognizant of building up my resume. One of the avenues I have been pursuing is to selectively choose organizations to pursue juried member status. I am currently one show away from juried status in the Arizona Pastel Artist Association. I have achieved juried status in the Arizona Art League. Another organization that I have chosen to pursue is the Artizona Art League. Juried status is granted to members who are juried into three AAG shows. I entered three pieces into the jurying process for the fall show.......and all three were juried in!! I was pleased as there were a number of artists, some very successful in their careers, that did not get pieces juried in. I now have step one towards jury status in AAG under my belt! Here are the three pieces that were juried into the show.

Left to Right - "Cortona Window", "Glorious Outhouse", "Golden Barrel Cactus"