Friday at Kat's Studio

No class last Friday, so I took my still-full Thanksgiving belly over to Kat's studio for the afternoon session.  This was pretty wonky after the three hours, so I worked on it more today and am happier with it now.  (It's still not quite done.)  Shouldn't take long now to finish it. Boy it's weird to walk out of the studio, after a day of work, into.... darkness!  Days are way too short.

Week 7

I don't think I've ever started from a black-toned background before, but it worked for this one.  Good start, anyway.  There's a very Vermeer-ish window that I intend to add in, but I wish I'd left more room for that on the right instead of where it was... too late now, the light source is clearly from the left.

"After Manet"

This week's assignment:  "Paint a portrait head based on an artist of your choice."  I picked Manet's painting called "The Plum".  Was that really a plum in the glass?  Her dazed look suggests it might have been absinthe!  I'm debating whether I want to put the cigarette in her hand. (It's an awkward gesture without it.) This is in acrylic.

A more successful week

I wish I could figure out why--some days--I don't have access to my "right brain".  This week I fared better, and could tell I was in the right "mode" as I was painting.  Not that these are terrific--I may or may not tweak them.  (I'll probably just move FORWARD, to quote someone who just won a big election!)  But at least I feel better about the effort.  So it was a good week!

Another bad painting on the pile!

Today's class was so disheartening, I'm beginning to think I should just forget about this painting biz.  But Robert Genn's twice-weekly newsletter had some advice to cheer me up.... according to the latest edition, quantity beats quality in the long run.  So I'll just pat myself on the back for producing another crappy painting in class today... this one's especially poor, so maybe I get extra points!!!  At least I painted all day, and have one more to chalk up to a learning experience.  Crickey, it can be frustrating.  So Genn's newsletters are always welcome, and this one especially so.  If you'd like some good insights about painting delivered to your inbox regularly, you can subscribe by following this link The Painter's Keys, which is also in the list of fave's on the right.

In support of his premise--that more paintings get you further than trying to produce a few really good ones--he quotes from Art and Fear, siting an experiment in a ceramics class that proves the point:
" It seems that while the "quantity" group was busy turning out piles of work--and learning from their mistakes--the "quality" group had sat theorizing about perfection, and in the end had little more to show for their efforts than grandiose theories and a pile of dead clay."

Thanks, Robert, for the pep-talk. Perhaps I'll try another painting or two!