Day 29 30 in 30 Challenge

Leslie's  30 in 30 Challenge

17.5 x 25 cm

Oils on gessoed cardboard

Little blue bottle... though I would do a simple subject... simple it wasn't   Photo reference from Wetcanvas Image Library...   Can't believe that its already 29 days.... one more on the burner....

This has been an exciting experience... very positive, has helped me in my self confidence...Got a lot of palette knife time which is important... learned to regulate my time better... and I hope improved my painting... I am off to the goal of 120!!!  I took a course with  Larry Seiler at wetcanvas about 120 paintings... had started but some it didn't stick   I hope this month proves that I CAN.. maybe not every day but almost....

Workshop Family Portrait

Family Portrait   My Brother's Bar Mitzva

50 x 36 cm

Oils on grey cardboard

I have decided that since this blog is all about my Journey... I will be posting work done in my weekly workshops, various challenges, daily paintings, photography, which I have sadly neglected.  In the title I will put which category it belongs to.  

This was done in my weekly workshop.  The reference photo has a lot of history to it... It seems to have been haunting me in some way.  Everyone was smiling and I had a very sad, almost crying, face.  Why my parents chose this photo is beyond me.  Maybe the others were far worse... Anyhow there I was, a scraggly,gaucky pre-teen and feeling very sorry for herself.  I don't know why!!! I do remember that I didn't like the skirt I wore... A taffeta skirt that my mother hand painted a huge rose in oils which was quite stiff.

I have been carrying the reference image in my bag to class for several months, had made several sketches in my sketchbook but didn't really have a clue as to how to how I want my feeling to come across. I did see a family portrait at local community center that caught my eye... A family group where only the child was done in color, sitting in a chair, and the other family members with no faces and indistinguishable... I also liked the limited palette she used.  Since I wanted to distinguish myself from the others decided on the distortion... I would be bigger than the rest.... maybe I could have made myself bigger still.... Kept the smiles in their faces .. mine left blank.  I also exaggerated their stance and dress,, Heleni suggested I keep within the palette bit added the yellow on the skirt and on my braids an blouse.

I will post the reference... haven't scanned it... hope I have a duplicate because its a mess.... 

A little about the material.  I have used heavy 1/8 grey cardboard painting directly with oils . I did not gesso the board as I have done with my daily paintings.  I used thinned and also not thinned oils... Tried to use the palette knife but just would work... the board absorbed very quickly .. it was almost like painting with pastels.... I rather enjoyed it... and will continue the series... family stuff using this method.

Day 28 30 in 30 Challenge

Leslie's  30 in 30 Challenge

 25 x 17.5 cm

Oils on gessoed cardboard

The reference photo that I chose was a group of plastic beach chairs near the water, Dead Sea, near a shading station... rather like the composition between the sea, distant hills... colorful chairs lit by the sun... after sketching it in started to sketch in the chairs and just didn't work in this small format... so it ended up just one chair......Oils on toned, orange, gessoed cardboard. Done with palette knife with limited palette of red, yellow, blue and white.