April Showers

 The first day of the Clarksville residency, Denise and I were forced to stay indoors because of the freezing cold rain. And by "forced to," I mean "got to." It was a wonderful day of music and laughter, hard work and joy. 
There are only two windows in the studio; she painted a scene out of hers (left) and I painted some flowers on mine (right) that I cut from the garden and taped to the sill.
The flowering quince, or japonica, was in full bloom, so I thought that a painting of them would mark the exact time on the calendar that we were there. I liked that they harmonized with the bricks and that they seemed to be trying to peek out the window at the other buds, just like Denise was doing.

This is my donation painting for the Red River Historical Society. It is 9x12 inches and called Japonica on the Windowsill. 
They are going to restore the old jail in town and convert it into a museum, the last we heard, and eventually have all the residents' contributions on display there. For the immediate term though, they will hang in the Lennox house, along with Martha Lennox's own paintings. I am honored to have my work hang alongside the work of such a woman as Martha.

The Color Wheel

The Color Wheel. Different from the charts in that it is not a value study at all, but a look at the spectral sequence that results from the three primary colors. At left, some of the OP-101 members are seeing how math and color collide as they measure out secondary and tertiary colors from the primaries. Isaac Newton was the first one to note the spectrum within a beam of light, and that the end of the sequence resembled the beginning; and voila! the color wheel was born. In addition to laying out neighboring colors, the artists are adding the complements in the inner ring, to see how quickly a color can be desaturated, and to learn the vast color potential of just three colors.
I'm off now, to paint the Spring! Thanks for stopping by.    

4 Color Charts

We are more than half-way into our adventure in the Oil Painting Foundations at the Woodlands Art League. We've gone from a concentration on the study of values, with only one color + white, into a full but limited primary palette. We are using brown, blue, red and yellow +white.
At left is our last assignment: Color Charts.
Each set of color squares represents one of our colors and how it relates to every other color (rows) and how those mixtures look in a 5-point value scale (columns).
I brought this chart with me on my residency trip and could see why Richard Schmid is so enthusiastic about having these done and with you in the field. It's useful in note-taking in your sketchbook and my resident partner used it on the first full-moon night for her sketches, noting that she would have remembered a much higher key had she not had the actual color-values in her hand to refer to. And as just an exercise, every single square requires skill, discipline and much consideration. The OP-101 members made me so happy with their excitement and efforts. I have a completely different plan for our color safari tomorrow.

The Residence

The Lennox House is "the residence" of the Artists in Residence program, sponsored by the Red River Historical Society in Clarksville, TX. It is still filled with the furnishings and effects of the family, and you feel very much the visitor while there. There is an artist's bedroom and studio, but even in those rooms there is the feeling of being in someone else's place. The last Lennox to live here was Martha Washington Lennox, an artist herself, who studied at the Art Students League in New York City and the Corcoran School of Art in Washington DC. That was pretty cool for a woman in the 30's. Many of her paintings hang in the home and I have grown very fond of her. I started painting her house the last time I was there and have been working very hard on it between then and now.

Chimney of the Charles DeMorse Home

 Colonel Charles DeMorse is known as the Father of Texas Journalism, having established and run The Northern Standard (later called The Standard) from 1842 until his death in 1887. His home is the oldest building in Clarksville, built in 1833, three years before Texas independence. It was a 2-room log cabin and the logs can still be seen in cut-outs on either side.
The thing that is most beautiful and intriguing to me is the odd chimney. It is unique and fairly beaten up. It appears to be made of pieces of ceramic tile, eight around, stacked four high with a metal cap on top. Like Texas, it stands proud atop its rough and tumble history: a survivor. The Historical Society is planning to restore this home, which bears national and state historic markers and is well worth preserving.

North Texas Residency

We had a wonderful eight days in North Texas but it was very, very cold. Still, we managed to get in about one painting a day; I'll post pics of the week as well as paintings from the residency in the coming days.
For today, I have a short video filmed by Steve Whalen who, with his wife Deborah Paris, conceived the Artist in Residence program. The video was taken on the day that this painting was done. I will leave both the video link and the residency link at the end of this post for you.
The sun was high when we set up, but as the barn faced west, the key shadows stayed relatively constant. I've learned that when you're cold, you paint smarter because you want to hurry up and get warm. We were promised a bonfire that evening and the thought of it gave us anticipatory warmth, but then, about midway through the afternoon, Steve came out with a box of piping hot tea! The box had lidded china tea cups, choices of tea, mason jars full of cream and sugar, and a thermos of hot water. Not at all uncivilized! 
Here are your links and I hope you enjoy them:
http://animoto.com/play/mk91tWZ8dbT70J4bhcYWlw#.UVOHBn46sco.blogger
http://artistinresidenceredrivercounty.blogspot.com/p/about-clarksville-red-river-county.html
 

Karlee as Victorian Woman

I'm almost ready to leave on another trip: my second stay as one of the Artists in Residence, sponsored by the Clarksville Historical Society. My partner in residence is the wonderful pastel landscape artist, D.LaRue Mahlke: www.dlaruemahlke.com, who is prominently featured in the current issue of Southwest Art magazine: http://www.southwestart.com/featured/mahlke-d-mar2013
The last time we were there, we did a public demonstration on the veranda of the historic Lennox House. Our model was a local girl, posing in a lace dress that belonged to the original owner of the house.
It was a wonderful thing to be inserted into the timeline of Clarksville, known as the Gateway to Texas. To meet the people who descended from the original settlers and hear their stories, to stay in the home of a family who has been so influential in the history of the area, and to become part of its legacy is a wonderful thing to me. The last time there, we witnessed the changing of the seasons, from summer to fall. Now it's time to catch the first blossoms of spring! 

Showgirl Backstage

 Here is a double post with a double meaning-title. 
The first picture is a backstage glimpse of a painting in progress of a showgirl, which is the second picture: a painting of a showgirl backstage.
The artwork taped behind the model is from a children's art class that took place earlier in the week. I never did put those into my painting, choosing to work exclusively on the girl while I had her in front of me. This is a lesson I learned from a master painter, who humiliated a couple of painters in his class that were working on the background first, while the model was fresh. More important for me, on these painting days when a group of us hires a model, is the awareness that we only have 3 hours with the model, including breaks. PAINT FAST.
Once I got back to my own studio, I made up posters to go behind her from my imagination. Then I set up a mirror to counterbalance the composition, which was heavy on the left. The model and the mask are looking toward the right; the mirror is sitting in the sweet spot, looking toward the left. The unicorn is also facing the left and that helps. Overall, I think it works.
This week I'm finishing paintings started on my trip last week to the Gulf Coast of Alabama. I'm also doing color charts for my class, and I'm finishing paintings that will be part of my upcoming Artist in Residency in north Texas. In short, I'm busier than a one-armed paper-hanger, to quote my dad. Thanks a lot for visiting and come back soon! 

Oil Painting 101~The Foundations

Some of the OP-101 students are seen here working to capture the likeness of Skully, my skull model. Half the class chose to work on Plane Jane, who models the planes of the head. The students are studying drawing, paint-handling, edges and especially value, with only one color on their palette, plus white. We are learning that there is wonderful freedom in boundaries, and there is great beauty to be found in values. If an artist can control the value, the color will control itself.

The Conservatory

A few of my painter peeps went to the Conservatory here in our town, to paint small portrait sketches of its residents about a week ago. I had only gotten a couple hours of sleep the night before and from 8:30 till noon this day, we had been painting a hired model. We went from that to the Conservatory where we painted till 3. I have to tell you, I was pretty tromped by the time I got home, but the afternoon was such a delight, I would have been sorry to miss out. The residents were so entertaining and engaged in what we were doing, regaling us with tales of yesteryear that would make your socks roll up and down :-) I am reminded: You can NOT judge a book by its cover. (photo by Lewis B)

Little Liza

M2P2=Monday Morning Portrait Painters
There are a million people in the room on Mondays and if you are late getting there, you get what you get. And by "late," I mean "not early." The early bird gets to sit, and gets to see the model without binoculars (although one early-bird sitter often uses binoculars anyway, no kidding). This Monday, there wasn't even room against the far wall, so I took the extreme oblique position. My grandmother used to play semi-pro basketball and she was famous for her ability to sink swishers from such an angle: the corner of the court, under duress. I try to tap that same spirit of courage and determination, attempting the shot in spite of the silly position and no backboard.
If there were a ref and a scoreboard, I would know for sure how I did. I would like that. But it's probably better this way.

Miriam the Tamborine Girl. 14x11

I have been very busy painting and teaching this year. It promises to be a very good year in the world of Art. It is certainly off to an excellent start at any rate!
Thank you for stopping by and I wish you the best this new year.
I dedicate this post to the Art Collectors.
Thank you.

Red River Rats

If you've visited in the last few weeks, you know that I was recently an Artist in Residence with my friend, Denise, in northern Texas. Her professional name is D. LaRue Mahlke and she is not only a great friend, her pastel landscapes are fantastic, award-winning in fact! Check out her website and see for yourself here: www.dlaruemahlke.com 
We explored all around the wide Gateway to Texas, finding the Red River itself and lots of wildlife, including a coyote that was loping around the edges of this spot. But don't worry; we had two intrepid bodyguards watching out for us. They were also our chauffeur/tour guides, sherpas and photographers. Thank you, Jim Clark and Val Varley! They are immortalized in my little painting: Jim's in blue and Val's in red.
Jim and Val are key players in the AIR program in Clarksville. Val is the president of the Red River County Historical Society, which sponsored us. Jim's family founded the town back in the 1800's and owned a lot of the land that people in our history books walked over on their way into Texas! Also very interesting was learning that the last person to live in the Lennox House, where we stayed, was a woman named Martha who, like us, was an artist! She attended art school in the early part of the 1900's at the Corcoran in DC and the Art Student's League in NYC!!! This is a serious artist! Her paintings hung throughout the house and were very strong and bold; quite inspirational. We will continue to create works from our stay there for a while, and plan to go back very soon. 
 

 

I'm back from the Artist in Residence trip that I told you about, plus trips to the west coast and the east coast!
The picture shows our time of mentoring the students of Clarksville, TX (http://artistinresidenceredrivercounty.blogspot.com/p/about-clarksville-red-river-county.html ) More pics and stories to come, I promise.

The most important lesson I'm learning right now in my painting and my studies is that there is no short-cut to genius. Greatness requires work and more work!
Coincidentally, that is the subject of the current Twice Weekly Letter from Robert Genn and the Painter's Keys! Take a look:

There's a great story in David Bayles and Ted Orland's Art and Fear. Here it is:

 "The ceramics teacher announced on opening day that he was dividing the class into two groups. All those on the left side of the studio, he said, would be graded solely on the quantity of the work they produced, all those on the right solely on its quality. His procedure was simple: On the final day of class he would bring in his bathroom scales and weigh the work in the "quantity" group: fifty pounds of pots rated an "A", forty pounds a "B" and so on. Those being graded on "quality," however, needed to produce only one pot--albeit a perfect one--to get an "A". Well, came grading time and a curious fact emerged: the works of the highest quality were all produced by the group being graded for quantity. 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."

 

So, perfectionists take heed! Inspiration comes to the one who is already at the drawing board, not the poor sap who is just waiting for inspiration. 

I would encourage you to sign up for Mr. Genn's newsletter. It's a never-ending source of knowledge and insight: http://painterskeys.com/

 

I'll be back soon for more pics and stories, as I said~ Thanks for stopping by!

The Yellow Scale Kelsey

There are several groups I love to paint with; one of my favorites is the Market Street Painters who meet on Fridays. I've been absent from most of my groups for awhile, as I've been working on some ideas and need to be uninfluenced. This summer though I rejoined MSP and have thoroughly enjoyed the company.
Kelsey came to model for us in a yellow gown and together with her yellow hair and her pose, immediately put me in the mind of Frantisek Kupka's captivating self-portrait, "The Yellow Scale." Its permanent home is in the Museum of Fine Arts Houston. The week after I painted Kelsey, I got to go see "The Yellow Scale" in person on the very day of my birthday. I found that, while I did have a reminiscence, my background was darker and heavier, and Kupka pushed the scale much harder than I did.
We will have a different model in the same dress this coming Friday; perhaps I will revisit my inspiration and have another go!