A New Beginning (Not the New Year)

12" x 9" oil on panel

After a few days of playing and socializing, I got back to work last night. I started this new painting and also have another one from the beginning of the month in progress. I look forward to painting tonight as well as on New Year's Eve! (Nope, no partying that night for me...)

The Offering

"The Offering"

14" x 11"

This painting is off the easel until it is dry enough to sign. Some areas will look a bit more saturated and clear once I get a varnish on it, and then I will take a new picture.

I hope everyone has a great holiday!

Headdress

Here's the headdress in progress. More to come hopefully sooner than later!

Just for Fun: Ice Pictures

As you may have heard, we've been coated with ice here in the Midwest. Thankfully, KC did not get the worst of this storm. I lost power for a little while a couple nights ago, but nothing dramatic. It all started melting today, and I decided to head out before my run and try to get a few artsy pictures before it was all gone. I am not a great photographer, not even an amateur, but it's still fun to try.




This last one doesn't look very icy, yet ice was falling all around me as I took the photo. I have always wanted to get a picture from this angle that would really emphasize the ice so that it would look like the Crystalline Entity. (Yes, I grew up a Star Trek nerd.) Maybe next time.

After taking these pictures, I went for a 3 mile run at the park. Looking across the park towards the sun, everything looked platinum and glittery. I thought about returning to the park to try and capture it, but by the end of the run most of the ice was gone.

Opening Report - More Painting Progress

The opening at Hilliard last Friday was great. I hadn't planned on staying all the way until 10 p.m., figuring that 4 hours would be a bit much for me, but so may friends came that we wound up closing the place down at 10:30! Thank you to all the friends that showed up last week. You made my evening!

Now that the opening is over, it's back to painting. I am hoping that a few more sessions with this one will do it. As of right now, I haven't touched the feathers or the apple for a second go, and there's still more to do on the hands, face, and background, but for the most part the figure is done.

Holiday Open House Tonight

"Eve, Ashamed"
30" x 20"

Art opening at Hilliard beginning in two hours! At least at the moment, the weather looks clear, and what better way to spend a cold evening than gallery hopping and grabbing a warm bite to eat? Hope to see you there.

• Hilliard Gallery - 18th and Oak - Kansas City, MO

Painting Progress

In the picture above, I have added another layer to the chest and upper arm area. You can tell the paint is thicker now, and there is more variety in the hues and values.

I decided that I wasn't pushing the values enough. The figure is lighted almost from the front and above, so the light areas don't necessarily have the variety of values that I like. I want the upper arms especially to recede more than they appear to in this first picture. (See how they appear a little flat and perpendicular to the picture plane?)

To accomplish this, I lowered the relative values there, and used the background color (lamp black) as I darkened the flesh tones. Adding the background color is a great way to get something to recede, as it connects more visually with the background space, and gives a certain feeling of more air being in front of the object... if that makes sense.

You might also notice that I highlighted the chest area, which further increased the contrast. Certainly there is still much more work to be done, but it is coming closer to my vision.

This side-by-side black and white comparison shows the value differences more clearly. You may have noticed that I stopped painting at the hands. As I progress to that area, I will return to the higher values because this is an important area in the painting, and good contrast will draw the eye there.

Art Opening This Friday - Preparations

This First Friday, from 6 - 10 pm, is the opening of Hilliard's Holiday Open House, where a selection of my new nude paintings and drawings will be featured. Stop by if you are local!

Of course, I had to prepare some work to go out the door, including four drawings. Thus my absence from blogging. Matting works on paper is one of my least favorite things to do, but now that I finally have a *real* mat cutter it causes much less agony.

Above are three of the pieces matted, and there they are below, framed. I know it's not very interesting, but it is certainly part of the territory.

Facade - 1st Layer

Except for the background, which will be all black, this now has one layer on it. I'll come back to fill in the background, but otherwise I will have to wait a while to get back to work on this one since it will take a long time to dry on the ABS.

Just a Bit of Color

The flesh areas all have one layer, but I have yet to attack the headdress or the background. I need some patience!

Quick Charcoal-Paint Drawing and Website Updates

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! I started the day by running a 5K in 22 degree weather (it was fun!) and finished by having a BBQ sandwich, pie, and good company.

Above is a really basic outline painted in, with some charcoal lines still visible. This was originally going to be on a 30" x 24" canvas, but unfortunately when I pulled said canvas out I noticed it was significantly warped. I will have to see if there is a way to fix that or get a replacement. However, I didn't want to wait to start a new painting, so this is on a 20" x 16" piece of ABS mounted on a maple board. I love ABS, but it does take the first layer a long while to dry. Hopefully I will have a full base layer done by tonight, and then I can work on the painting below while I am waiting.

Also, I made some small design changes to my website. Please take a look and let me know what you think! I am always considering getting rid of the red background theme, but I have had it for a while now, and it's my favorite color. In the near future I need to add another demo or two and update a lot of information.

Easy as 1 - 2 - 3

OK, maybe not that easy, but I do try and keep it simple in the beginning. The following is what has occupied my last two evenings.

Here you can still see some of my sketchy charcoal lines in the headdress. I started off by enveloping the figure with the almost black background, the mask, and painting in the totally black thin feathers. For some reason I decided not to dilute with OMS as I usually do, (OK, I have a reason, I want the final product to have thicker paint) so this all took about 50 times longer than it usually does. My hand was a bit cramped after that, so I decided to dilute a little bit when I got to the figure, saving the places with more detail like the face, hands, and headdress for the next session.

The first thing I did last night was model the arms a bit more and break up the warm tone of the chest a bit. Then I moved on to the face and hands, trying not to create a forced expression. It was all done with my smallest brushes as these areas on the painting are only a few inches wide. The painting is on a 16" x 12" panel.

For the apple and headdress, I got a completely different palette because there is so much variety in the colors in those areas and I had no more room on the flesh-tone palette. This will help me keep my colors clean as I progress, too. The headdress will get a lot more detail as time goes on; there are a few speckled feathers and lots of wisps from the peacock feathers that were impossible to add at this stage.

So there you have it; two evenings at the Lewis Studio!

Inward - Finished

"Inward"

14" x 11" Oil on Panel

All done and ready to move on to something new. Please stay tuned.

Slowly Inward

I know there may not appear to be much difference between this image and the last, but trust me that the paint is thicker and much of the painting has been slightly adjusted. I'm pretty much done with the flesh now, and just need to finish the foreground and hair clips.



For the heck of it, I thought I'd throw in another desaturated version of the painting. Much of the time, when something looks wrong in a color painting or drawing, the problem is in the values and not the hues.

Inward and Race Pics

First of all, thank you for all the congrats and well wishes with the new gallery! I really love the encouragement.

Pushing forward on the painting; more details to come in the foreground blanked, which is just a base layer at this point. Some of the flesh needs another layer, where it moves from light to shadow, but most of it is looking good to my eyes.


In completely not related to art news, I ran a 10K (6.2 mile) race last Saturday morning. I finished in 1 hour, 9 minutes, 47 seconds, with an average pace of 11 min 15 seconds per mile. There I am coming through the finish line.


It was a bit chilly out that morning, so my dear husband headed out to buy a new coat while I ran. He was back with plenty of time to see me through the finish line, and there he is in his warm new coat. After a couple miles I had warmed up fairly well, thus the discrepancy in clothing choices between us.

News, Updates, and More Inward Progress

First, please let me announce that my work is now represented by Hilliard Gallery in Kansas City, MO! This should prove to be an exciting partnership. Look for show dates and openings in the near future.

Also, I finally updated my website with my newest painting and recent drawings. Sometime soon I feel I should add a new demo or two as well, so stay tuned for that.

Finally, here's a little more progress on the painting. I have done a second layer over the light area of the back as well as starting in with the shadows. The lights may require even a third layer so that it appears thick enough in real life. Often the density of the paint does not come through on the screen.

Inward Progress

That's an interesting title for this post. Anyway, I am sure you can see where progress has been made in comparison to the earlier version. This is a pleasant painting to work on; it just seems to come from the brush(es) slowly but smoothly.

Inward - New Beginning

I started a new painting last night! This is a smallish one, 14" x 11". I seem to do really well with small paintings, so it may be a good idea for me to have a small one going at the same time I have large ones in progress.

Wednesday night I started work on reference for another painting, and Sunday a friend has agreed to come and model for me. Soaking up all this inspiration should help me renew my painting vigor! I plan to begin a new drawing and/or a new painting over the next couple days. Stay tuned.

In other less artsy news, running is going well. Last weekend I ran the KC Marathon 5K right through the Crossroads Arts District and set a new personal record for that distance. Next month I am running my first 10K, wish me luck.

Reflection

I'm saying this is done, though I would not be surprised if I continue to tinker with it for a while. It seems to be that sort of painting.

Now it's time to look for new inspiration. I have a sketchbook with ideas that I have jotted down over the past couple of months; just have to find a way to make them happen.

A Couple More Days

Another couple days, and I should have this one finished. The lower half of the painting looks better in real life; I photographed it with a flash, and so there is a lot of glare towards the bottom especially.

So close!