July 2011 - Novita!

Again I’m recharging this blog. Since the two years that I painted “L’Aragosta”, I’m happy to report that it saw many faces and is now comfortably installed in a new home. I hope to visit it again someday.
For now though, I’m working towards another show, the Portland Sidewalk Art Festival. Last year was an adventure, I met so many interesting people. The most awesome thing about my experience was seeing how much people do like art, and how some of those people like my art. When it’s such a struggle to make something that’s just bearable enough for me to look at, it’s a relief to see someone take even some small joy in it.
Anyways I have much MUCH work to do before we start setting up for the show, paintings to start and finish, frames to be pondered over and put on, and I’m most excited for the return of Dad’s doors as the display for the work! I’ve posted a few pictures of last year’s show. You can see these doors- unique and antique!





As for what I’m working on now, I feel like there is a lot going on at once.
I’ve been working on two full-figure paintings, which is fun and something I haven’t done in a long time. Major influences have been, well, pretty much everyone. The thing about being mostly self-taught is the luxury of being able to choose your teacher. Simply find art that you love, find out why you love it – which in my opinion is finding out how they did it- stare and stare until you figure it out, experiment with that, rinse and repeat. Here are some studies of the model’s portraits.
Still lifes are both challenging and interesting, but only when you get them just right. I’ve been looking at a lot of different still life painters, Latour for the florals, Hensche for the color, and most recently Melendez. Examples here:

Luis Meléndez Still Life With Bream, Oranges, Garlic, Condiments, and Kitchen Utensils

Henry Hensche The Yellow Bowl

Henri Fantin-Latour Flowers

And further work has been looking to the sea. I got to get out and do some plein air with a painter friend Joshua Langstaff, who is a pro at it. We took a trip to Two Lights State Park, which has a view that reminds me of Winslow Homer's ocean work. I was mostly just getting over how overwhelmingly awesome the ocean view is, and tried to figure out the coloring more than anything, as it was one of those cloudy, balmy days where it looks threatening of rain. Luckily for us it didn’t. I’ve posted a picture of my view, and a picture of Winslow’s painting that I was just studying nose-to-nose with at the Portland Museum of Art recently.

Winslow Homer Weatherbeaten

I’m hoping to use the sea view in two current paintings, so most likely I will hit Two Lights again soon. I promise to post some more of my own work, for now here’s a picture of one of my many sporadic methods of starting a still life, and the 'finished' product!