After a Long Summer

Can't believe that so many months have gone by without blogging. It's been a long and very HOT summer. Workshop vacation for 4 months and creativity has been low except for my daily doodles that I have posted on Instagram. I did do some PYHAS work and a few mono-prints which are also on my Instagram feed.

September and workshop has started on a low key. Not a full class because of the holidays and travel plans of some artists, but it was so good to get back. We will only have about 5 sessions in the first 2 months, the rest hopefully will be joining in November.

Reuven gave those that wanted a Cezanne project. To paint as "if" we were Cezanne. I love Cezanne so jumped in and chose one of his paintings of bathers,

Cezanne The Bathers

Cezanne The Bathers Cropped

 Decided to a monochromatic version.

First Layer

Cezanne Bathers Inspired

13.75 x 19.5"

Oils and Cold Wax

Cut Canvas

Started an abstract landscape. 

WIP First layer of thinned oils

28 x 20"

Cut Canvas

WIP Second layer of oils and cold wax

28 x 20"

Cut Canvas

Another Great PYHAS Lesson

I am beginning to pick and choose the lessons on PYHAS otherwise I am totally becoming overwhelmed. One of my painting goals is portraiture. Really loved this lesson and the process so much different from the way I use my oils. What I really loved with this demo was the calm soothing voice of Dominique Medici .  It really helped to keep my stress away.  This exercise was done with the Zorn palette. Black, my chromatic black of raw umber and ultramarine blue, yellow ochre, white, and cadmium red,  I dove straight in so my mixes aren't what I would like so I will go back to do a color study of the paints for my next portrait. Dominique builds the portrait in 4 majors stages each timed to about 20minutes. All done alla prima, wet on wet!  First, the proportions of the shapes and angles with thin black paint, next blocking in the darks. third blocking in the colors, and last, what she calls the edges, which include highlights and darks, soft and hard edges, textures and additional drawing with paint. When the buzzer buzzes... done! Now, how cool is that. You now know when you are finished. Dominique says that 1.5 to 2.5 hours is great for this practice. The demo was filled with lots of encouraging words. The key is to build your skills slowly. 

I think I got some of his essence. This is one process that I will practice again for sure.

Thinking of Times Gone By

Oils on Gessoed Cardboard

14 x 14.5 "

stage 3 & 4

Stage 1

Stage 2

Not complete I see

Reference

Now I see that I got his tilt wrong. Can't seem to shut up that inner critique!

Visiting Artist at Workshop

What a treat we had today at our weekly workshop. Because Reuven was traveling abroad he brought as a substitute teacher Marik Lechner an important young Israeli artist. We had a short lecture about his thoughts on art and slideshow of some of his works. After he made the rounds and gave his thoughts on our work. A real treat!

Some of his thoughts:
 Don't wait for the muse, it may not come
Take risks, don't fall in love with parts
Have fun!

Happy Summer in Buttonwoods

WIP

60 x 120 cm

Oils and Oils Sticks

Am trying to revise and painting from 2012. Did some sanding, see horizontal marks. Reuven says, happy accidents!