Two portraits from last Friday afternoon at Studio 30, both started from pre-painted backgrounds to add color and texture before the initial painted sketch. The closer portrait was on top of a previous Spring landscape with pink and green, which peeks through the multi-colored kimono.
On cold, gray days it helps to have photos taken on sunnier days to get a burst of color. This is from the Hulda Klager Lilac Garden in Woodland,Washington. Along with a Victorian farm house and lilac orchard, there are flower gardens. This sculpture is of a maiden carrying baskets, the water dripping out like liquid sunshine.
Cloud is a slim young man who posed for us at Studio 30 last Friday. My first painting of him was mostly a back view, where he reminded me of a younger version of my husband when he had longish brown hair.
I switched to a front view for the last hour and someone mentioned Fabbio (of the romance novels covers),
maybe a younger, slimmer Fabbio, and the romantic image stuck.
Two paintings, one on brown paper, the other on canvas, of Sara at Janet Amundson-Splidsboel's Candlelight Studio last Sunday. Sara has red hair, wore a red shirt and red boots, sat on a red chair, lots of red! I made several sketches on paper, later painted over the canvas started with another composition that included the red cowboy boots, (wish they were mine)!
Two portraits painted in acrylic from the same photo, both with added imagined flowers. The first one is small, on a 6" x 6" wood panel, the second is 11" x 14" on stretched canvas.
Girl in Red Satin was mostly done at Kat Sowa's Studio 30 three hour session last Friday, along with a second sketchier version still waiting completion. The lovely model is fittingly named Ange.
Spent all day Friday painting Kat Sowa's spacious and light-filled Studio 30 with an inspiring group of artists. My kind of fun! I started off with a monochromatic study of a still life, cluttered with many overlapping objects, some transparent or reflective. It was a process of careful observation and selection, what to include or leave out. It is challenging for me to paint architectural or other man-made objects without being too precise on edges and details, after years of architectural drafting and design. It seems more interesting to suggest details without being too literal. The arched Gothic window frame reminded me of nearby St. John's Bridge. After that, I was ready to get loose and get wild with color, more later.
