Daydreaming

Top:  Is the final.  I don't think I'll paint with a theme in mind again--not terribly successful.  And it wasn't accepted, which is probably a good thing.  Oh well... another learning experience.
Below:  I'm working from a photo of me which Linda shot several years ago.  Left is 20 min.; Right is 1 hr.  Working toward an actual painting on this one, to submit to a themed gallery show (Dreaming).  Fingers crossed I don't blow it, I think this is a good start.

Note 1:  I continue to work on this; will post completion here later... no point in posting a bunch of intermediate passages.
- 6/30/12
Note 2:  Completed by deadline, 7/5/12.

Cherry Blossoms

This is 20 min. I thought it needed more contrast, so I painted over it and it didn't really help. Oh well.  It didn't interest me that much. Seems that if there's no person in the frame, it doesn't engage me.

HPSO and OSA Paintout

Hardy Plant Society of Oregon was gracious in allowing us painters to set up at two of the extraordinary gardens on their annual tour.  At the back of the small garden where I worked was a shed which one of the volunteers said had been used for the ponies when the kids were little.  The rustic collection of antiquities on its little porch gave an air of folk art, and that is the vein in which I attempted to paint the scene.  Lower left is at approx. the 20 min. mark (so there's my "daily" exercise); lower right is the point at which I left to go over to the larger garden (painting time: approx. 1 hr.).  The top image is where the painting currently stands while I debate whether I want to do what I see it needs... or move on.

My paintings are always more interesting when there isn't much there yet.  Why do I feel the need to "complete" them... to make things recognizable?  What's wrong with some white space?  Absolutely nothing!  I wish I'd left off with the 20-min. stage and started over again on another sheet.  A bit of time looking at the initial impulse, and then a little bit of tweaking, and I could have called it good.

Sunshine and Wine

Yesterday, sunglasses were appropriate.  Today it's just wishful thinking--the more so, because this source photo was taken a few years ago in Southern France.  Sigh.  I spent an extra few minutes with timer buzzing--minor tweaks tho', I didn't cheat too much today.

Fist bump!

Awwww... my buddies from the plein air breakfast group. I think Marty was tickling Hugh, but my photo looks like they were fist-bumping.  heh heh  This is the second 20-min. for today, since I was not happy with the first one.  Yes, I feel better now.

My friend better not visit the blog anytime soon!

She would hate this!  I hate this.  Well, maybe I don't need to worry, it doesn't even look like her.  All I can say for it is this:  it is 20-min. and the page is covered with paint!!

Ferris Wheel Riders

I forgot to take a pic at the 20-min. mark.  Drat.  This one was started on Luan (board), and looked dreadful, and of course I had all the extra paint leftover and wanted to keep going... so I did. This is about one hr. after the buzzer went off.  I may take it up again another day.  (Am behind with posting, this was yesterday's.)

In the Funhouse

Ooo-boy, I am slooooow today.  Top pic is my 20-min. effort. Wow--how did I get so little of it down?  So I have to revise my game plan on these things and get really sloppy and work like a house-a-fire.

My dad took the source photo--a slide--it's from about 30 or 40 years ago.  An old family friend.  The image is so fun, and elicits such fond memories of the man, and I wanted to keep working with it, so I started on a fresh bit of paper (heavier grade; less warping).  This second image clocked in at a little over two hours.  Umm.  Oh I dunno.

Just one of those days, I guess.  I'm thinking I might take one more run at it... abstract it a whole bunch.  Wreak havoc with it.  Hm.  Pondering.....

Slice-n-dice Salesman (Iles sur la Sorgue)

This was perhaps a bit too ambitious for 20 minutes... SO much going on in the photo.  It's from an open-air market in Southern France, I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw this guy.  The perimeter of the town was lined with vendors selling beautiful crafts, clothes, jewelry, local cheeses and wine, fabulous antiques, etc.  And then there was the slice-n-dice machine vendor.  The image is near the top of the list to become a "real" painting.  I think this is a good study for it, tho'.

Two today

Not feeling like diving in to a larger effort, I decided to do a second 20-min. pic today.  These are just on cheap bond paper and get seriously warped while wet--but they flatten out fine.  If this was a real painting--lol--I would work with the window reflections more (maybe more blue-ish, that mauve is kind of unpleasant)... and make the plum bigger... etc.  But the buzzer went off.  I do like the random bits that result though.

Aerial perspective biker

Went to the California Impressionists show at PAM Friday, then over to the new wing to catch the seven Richters and five Monets.  Took a picture from about the 3rd floor and just when I snapped, the biker zoomed into the frame.  Thank you cosmic art director!  This looked like it would be so simple to paint. NOT!  I ran overtime by about 1 min. 30 sec.  ...the pedestrian only had a face, so the rest of her got slapped on super fast while the buzzer blared at me.  Ha!  She came out better than the biker.  It sure is hard to do thin little racing tires with a big fat brush!!

Man of La Ruche ("The Beehive")

Today's 20-min. effort is from a photo of a man whom my high school friend, Jan, knows.  (I was visiting her at her studio in the famous rabbit-warren of artist studios known as La Ruche--it's in Paris.)  He had popped his head out the window to talk her, but they were speaking French so quickly I didn't understand a word. But it was picturesque!  I found out after my visit that Soutine had a cell in that honeycomb of artist's studios, back in the day (1917-ish).  Modigliani too, I believe.  What a "colorful" place it was (and is)!!

The Belle of the (Beaux Arts) Ball

Here is sweet little Madeline, who was the life of the party at the Falcon last night.  She is my second "20-minute painting".  I certainly would have done the same as yesterday--spent an hour+ making a more complete second work from the same image (which her daddy kindly e'd to me)--but no time to do so today.  Too bad the buzzer went off; another 30 seconds and she could have had a nose!  Oh well, this captures some of her beauty, but my representation looks a bit too Les Mis here.  I will have another go at this most excellent model... sometime... but perhaps from one of the pics I took.

The 20-minute-painting-a-day challenge

My painting class is over--so sad--but my teacher, Mark Andres, has thrown down the gauntlet, challenging me to do a 20-minute painting a day--all summer--focusing on "gesture, rhythm, movement and design".  I have to set a timer... when it goes off, the brush stops.  20 minutes; c'est tout.

So I started today.  The challenge landed whilst I was reading a bit of commentary on Fragonard's work, about how he was dissed for "...his ability to change handling from one moment to the next"... one critic thought it "...was an undesirable talent that rendered his manner 'uneven'."   WHAT?!  Never mind that every sort of paint handling Fragonard ever did was brilliant (imho!).  The narrative goes on to describe the term achevé:

However, a painting made with fire, with enthusiasm, and without too much refinement in the execution [le faire], often has more right to be called a finished [achevé] work than one that cost the artist much time and effort.

This second critic is much more favorably disposed to Fragonard's style, it would seem, although he is not referencing him directly in this passage:  "It is this appearance of facility, of certainty, and of enthusiasm in the execution that renders even the most delicate and the most masterful details without effort, and as if by chance.  It is this skillful handling of the brush or the chisel which lets one know that the artist, having a well-formed idea of what he wanted to make, has hit his mark with assurance and precision." [quote: Charles-Nicolas Cochin, fils]

That's the kind of facility I've admired in not only Fragonard but Sargent and Joaquim Mir and many other of "my new favorite painters" I've discovered over the past few years.  And that's how I think this most excellent assignment will influence me.  At any rate, I'm happy to take it on, and the top pic is my 20-min. version of Fragonard's The Bathers.

Well that was fun!!!  And of course, having all the leftover paint--which I pathologically can. not. waste.--I couldn't just stop painting so I grabbed a sheet of paper and taped it to a board and did a second version (pic #2).  That one took about 1-1/4 hr.  I may tweak it a little tomorrow.   Or not.  For sure, I'll be doing another 20-minuter tomorrow!

I think Fragonard is a good choice to initiate this new journey I've embarked on.  Doncha just love synchronicity?!

Note:  Quotes are from Fragonard Art and Eroticism, by Mary D. Sheriff.

Little Kay 'n the Folks

This was done in about 20 minutes with the extra gesso/paint/gorp leftover from color mixing gone wrong on another painting, but what the hey! I hate to waste paint, so it landed on a fresh board as an underpainting. haha!  Wouldn't you know, it's my favorite thing I've ever done!!

Landscape - out in back of PCC Rock Creek

Half done, but this is the state at Final Review.

Projected Girl in Profile

This is after an entirely new background is in place, the sketchy charcoal part indicates where the shadows cast from stained glass window and flowers will go... in a maroon-ish shadowy color... later.