Tuesday, January 5, 2016

Portrait of the Young Lady


This is not the young lady; It's a painting selfie:)  The proportions are a little off, but honestly my proportions change pretty regularly so it doesn't matter.  I am not a portrait artist, I do however want to capture the essence of the moment, or memories, etc.  All I really cared about on these two was getting the eyes the way I wanted them, and mine look old.  I love the texture and of course there's a lot of symbolism.  I'm not quite sure yet how to finish these two off; I want to keep them matte I think, so I'll apply a few coats of matte polyurethane and we'll call it good.



 This, of course, is the young lady.

 She'll be turning 14 next month and the texture was an important element as I tried to describe the peaks and valleys of adolescence.


This is what she looks like when she thinks no one is watching, which is just what I wanted.  She says she's ok with the painting but hates her nose, and hates that the painting captured the way her nose actually looks.  Cue adolescent valley.  But really, how can you hide the light in her eyes?








The photo doesn't look nearly as pleasant as the actual piece here.  It's actually very vibrant (there are even some metallic paints in there) and it has a pleasing texture.  It's been varnished so it's shiny and bright.  I didn't think that I could deal with the dark space in the bottom right, but in the end I felt like it would be ok to leave it.  This is my first spontaneous, without a photograph, flower painting.




This is called "Winter Reflections".  For the past several years I have really not looked forward to winter.  I painted this on a dreary day and actually found myself reflecting on the the things that I used to love about this time of year.  I grew up in an area where we received a lot of snow and ice and I remember playing well into the night outside.  I love the purples and blues that come out with winter lighting; the shadows are gorgeous and everything gets so quiet at night.  Quiet and crisp.  I'm actually enjoying things a bit more since exploring my thoughts, and this is one of my favorite pieces.





I'm not sure if I'll continue to post pieces that I'm not quite sure about yet; this might be the last.  It's HEAVY because it's painted over something that was painted over that was painted over..and on and on back through the ages.  I do like the texture, I wish the colors were more bold and that it didn't look so "crayon-y" to me.


Again, the picture doesn't do the flourescent colors justice here.  But I shined it up and painted the edges and it's a done deal.




Last but not least: the aspens.  This is a huge piece (for me anyway).  It's 40x70in and is going to be taking a trip to MT as soon as I can figure out how to ship it.  I should have started this post by saying that my wonderful husband got me a a laptop for Christmas!!, which is w am able to sit in my sunny kitchen/ studio and type this post.  I should also mention that we have some wonderful friends who came to visit and played with the kids, cooked, sewed, and cleaned so that I could put some manic energy into this piece.  Also, the husband was VERY patient as he taught me how to use the new laptop. Thank you:)  So, this piece: at first it was looking a little 1990's winter Olympic ski uniform, but as I lost myself in the work some beautiful things happened.  I love love the metallics! This piece was the perfect example of tension that a friend talked with me about.  The doubt that one can complete the task and the knowledge in the back of the mind that it will turn out.  I have done several pieces for this particular client and I love that she knows what she wants and also gives me freedom when I work.


I've found that one of the keys to surviving winter for me, is to have work to do, so it's back to the grind for me:)