A Painting A Day

Spent the morning out at Shelby Farms in the good company of Denise Rose for the March Plein Air Memphis outing.  Wonderful location! I was pretty happy with my colors today especially the reflection of the trees in the water but not so happy with the trees. I imagine it's just going to take a while and perhaps the right kind of brushes to get the trees right, especially the big thicket of trees in the foreground. I didn't have any brushes for thin lines - must work on that! I do think I got closer to a focal point. My eyes are drawn to the trees beyond the lake, but my intention was for the thicket of trees to be the focal point - so I accidentally succeeded! Haha

 Happy to get back in the studio tonight. Painted this at Anne's tonight and am planning on painting again on Friday. It's been too long!

So much has been going on that I'm having to put painting on the back burner for now. But I did get to go to a live model session last Friday - this was the result. I absolutely loved the lighting and the working from her profile - it made it seem very dramatic to me.

I am thinking I won't have much time to paint until the Christmas Holidays, so I'm looking forward to that!

Today we spent a relaxing day on the beach on the Sea of Cortez side of Cabo. I painted this while drinking a Mango smoothie - what a vacation!

Painting in Cabo! Painted this at Cerritos beach the other day - then today I found this rock formation on the beach that looks just like a cat monster so had to paint it! Rumor has it the house behind this rock belongs to Bill Gates!

I was able to find some time today to paint the mountain here at Pedregal at Cabo San Lucas. It has these wonderful big sandstone rocks and all sorts of little caves and holes in them. They were a challenge!!!  

If you're coming from Facebook - made ya look!! Haha!! The truth is I planned it this way so there is a suggestion of nudity. It really shouldn't be offensive to anyone.

I've been traveling and working a lot so I haven't had time to paint, and I miss it so very much! This morning I was able to go to the Friday paint group and get this done. So happy to be painting. This was the first time I've painted a male nude - I was pretty happy with what I was able to get done in 3 hours. I will be traveling a lot more over the next three weeks so I'm not sure if I will find time to paint, but I hope so!  

 Always love painting from life group on Wednesday nights! This was our model. She is getting married in two weeks so I don't know how she fit this in!

 I had a difficult time painting her but I was really proud of the pillow! Haha!

I was needing some serious redemption after my latest "attempts" at painting, so tonight I thought I would try to paint something nice at our life painting group. My friend's daughter was the model, so I guess I just stacked up too much pressure to perform on myself!

 The group was packed so I ended up in the corner, so didn't have a good angle. I think I captured her likeness somewhat, but I also think I was a bit tired of painting after painting the two roses earlier. So I'm hoping she will model for the group again, because I would like another shot at painting that beautiful red hair!

Our live painting group has nudes occasionally. This was my painting from last night. Especially where I live, people don't seem to have very much of an open mind about nudes - they think they are obscene. It seems like every art exhibit I've applied to be in, I'm told "no nudes."

I think the human body is a work of art, and is beautiful - no matter the shape, or age, or size. I also have observed that every true art gallery has nude statues and paintings. But here in Memphis, even the gallery owners admit they have to consign the nudes to a back room. So it appears that people in the Renaissance were much more open minded than we are today! It's a shame, and I guess I will continue to be a "rebel."

So happy to be juried into the Memphis Germantown Art League's 2015 Spring Exhibit!! This is my very first juried exhibit! These paintings will be on display at the Germantown Center for the Performing Arts through May 27th. There is a reception next Saturday, May 9th from 4pm - 6pm

Did this last night in painting from life class. Again, I didn't measure. I don't know why I refuse to do that. I was also too lazy to refresh my paints so they were kind of sticky. I ended up making the head a little larger than life size, so was unhappy with that. But I was happy with achieving a semi semblance of curly hair - and thought I got the likeness pretty close. ;)

  A good friend of mine was the model for our painting from life group last night. Again, I did not measure well enough. I did not get her nose in the right position! On the flip side, I thought I got her eyes right and was semi-happy with the skin tones.

Ann Enoch (who hosts our life painting group in her studio) gave me the absolute coolest thing tonight! A red acetate frame! She was sitting next to me, and I commented on how nice and glassy she made the models eyes and Anne looked at my painting and she immediately recognized the problem - my highlights weren't bright enough! She gave me the red acetate frame to look through to help judge my values. I was blown away by how much it helped. Before using it, my painting looked so flat - there was no life in it. Using the acetate I saw that I wasn't making my highlights light enough!
Love this group! I learn so much from them!
As for the painting - I really liked it while I was there but I think subconsciously I knew I needed to work on her mouth more. In particular the right side that is in shadow is too bright red - I should have toned it down with some green or made it more purple. Also her mouth was not as crooked as I made it in the painting. To be honest with myself, I was thinking that the crook in her mouth gave her character - when in actuality her mouth was much straighter. I need to quit adding things that aren't there and stick to painting what really IS there. But on the other hand ... hmmm... there IS no other hand!