Dec 2013, portrait comparaison

 As some of you know, I was asked to paint the same picture twice. The first one was for Justin (yellow background), the second one for his little sister (pink background). I did not look at what I had painted the first time and started from scratch for the second portrait never comparing with the first one till, at the very end, Justin pointed out a problem and showed me photographs of the painting he had at home. My goal in not comparing them was to make two very different paintings. If I ever find myself in this situation again, I will probably start comparing earlier. Yes, Phyllis, I find (like you do) that I can see errors better in a photograph of the painting than the painting itself.
I find it interesting to compare the faces. Enjoy!

Plein air

Here are two of the watercolors I did this month. One from Mohegan's reservation on the East Coast, where the leaves were splendid!

Perdenal from Ghost Ranch, New Mexico, were it was so cold that my hands were numb and stiff and I couldn't work outside anymore.

I am doing only one art show this fall. I will be in Dripping Springs this coming Saturday with my friend, Phyllis.

Waking up in Albuquerque was painted early in the morning from the hotel.

New Mexico

We had a very nice trip (just too short) and I got to paint 3 watercolors on location. We spent a day in Albuquerque where I explored a few galleries, including Purple Sage with beautiful "plein air" (= on location) pastels and oils, and we visited old town. We spent a whole day at Ghost Ranch. I got to paint my 2 watercolors there. It was the coldest day of our trip and, coming from the heat in Texas, my hands got numb and I froze while painting when the seat I had chosen moved from sun and shadow to just shadow. I painted the second painting in the car, because I was just too cold.
We had 2 days in Santa Fe, where we met dear friends and saw the cathedral and the miraculous staircase and a little of Old Town and explored as many galleries as we could on Canyon Road. The last day we went back to Old Town Albuquerque after I painted the view from the hotel early in the morning. On the road we saw the fairyland of Sonora Caverns and stopped at the wonderful museum in Pecos.

September 2013

Busy times as usual.
We, the TAG group artists, have a reception at the Emily Morgan on Wednesday, September 18th, from 6 to 7:30 p.m. in the library. The Emily Morgan is downtown San Antonio next to the Alamo. Our new show will be up for 3 months. All my local friends, you are cordially invited!

Tess' World, oil

I finally got a picture of Tess' world that satisfies me.

Yesterday I finished a watercolor of an interesting house near San Antonio College. It has a lot of decorations and several of them are dragons. (You can see two of them on each side of the front door.) The weather vane on the roof of the tower is a golden dragon. I liked this view of the house best because of all the trees. I was experimenting with using more contrast, more tonal value in this particular one. Can you tell?



Captain's House, watercolor

A few new icons that will be for sale in Art on Main (www.artonmaingallery.net) in Pleasanton. They are painted on wood. The photographs are a little yellow, I still need to learn what to do to remedy that.

 

Have a great month!

 

August 2013

With James' instructions and my sons' Gabriel and Gerald's help, we succeeded in taking a photograph of the family portrait. Here it is. Tess' World still had too much glare in it and we will keep trying till we get a satisfactory picture of it.

July 2013

I have been busy painting the family portrait of Justin's family growing up. It has been a good experience. I learned a whole lot about how to paint clothes and shoes and how to blend colors in oil. The faces were small and very challenging, I repainted them several times. I used everything I learned from Edward Povey including to work on a painting like it is your last chance to tell a loved one how much you care, your last chance to leave one great painting. In that context, how many hours you spend becomes utterly unimportant and it did for me. Quite an experience! Of course, Edward encourages us to approach all our paintings and drawings that way. I confess I have quite a way to go...
This attitude does several things though; it frees you and enables you to try and try your very best and keeps you going till you reach a new level. I experienced a kind of intoxication when I finally got a good likeness and I never showed one of my paintings to more people than this one. (My juice fast may have played a role.) I believe it was all good and necessary. I listened to a great book on cd while painting. It was just what I needed: the Song of the Lark by Willa Cather.
My problem is that I still don't have the pictures I want to show you. I have been told how to take photographs of art. Thank you, James! I still have not gotten the tripod and lights required. So, I will send you a blog with a photograph of the family portrait and Tess' World as soon as I can.
For now, here is the photograph I felt honored to work from.

Justin's family growing up

June news and volunteering

 

Margaret and Justin, photograph

Margaret and Justin oil painting on canvas 16x20"

Ghost Ranch, New Mexico - watercolor

This is the portrait commission I was busy with. Margaret and Justin were very happy with the portrait and that meant a lot to me. You are looking at the picture just before my last day of work, when I put the glaze on and touched up little details here and there. The portrait's final photographs did not turn out good. I suspect because of the glaze I used. I had the same problem with Tess' Landscape which I finished and was unable to take a satisfactory picture of. I really need to learn how to photograph art from Edward Povey.
  Ghost Ranch - New Mexico was started at Ghost Ranch in August 2012 and finished at night in the hotel room in Albuquerque, NM.  It was after visiting the O’Keeffe museum in Santa Fe that we saw Ghost Ranch. While the collection of O’Keeffe’s landscapes at the museum inspired me, the actual landscapes in the area were so fascinating to me that I have been wanting to go back to do more work on location ever since.  If you are local and want to see Ghost Ranch, it is on display in Dr. Robert Rodriguez' new dental office, 

7434 Blanco Rd.
San Antonio, TX 78216
P: 210-341-6824

 The following piece I wrote after volunteering at the Universal City Library this month. I only volunteer organizing the summer art program at the library, I usually teach a class or two and assist other artists when they teach. We usually get elementary school students and a few middle school ones.

  The afternoon of June 10th, 2013 was special at the Universal City Library. Liza Stein was volunteering to teach a collage class. The children enjoyed cutting pictures of animals, food, flowers, landscapes, and Easter eggs out of the stack of magazines provided by Liza. They glued the images onto paperboard that Liza had saved and added colored tissue (sometimes made into flowers) and construction paper. One girl made a picture of a bone out of 30 or 40 dog pictures; a grandma helped her grand-daughter compose a beautiful garden landscape; one of the boys chose to create a colorful display of sweets; and a mother and her daughter made an interesting person out of apples and flowers adding a drink, legs and a hat. All the creations were sealed and protected by a layer of glue. What made the afternoon special was one of the girls was making a picture for her father. He had been absent for Father's Day and they had planned a celebration after his return. (At the summer art program at the Universal City Library we often hear about absent or deployed parents.) And there were the parents and grand-parents spending quality time with their (grand-)children absorbed in a common adventure. There was the boy who had a hard time sitting when his collages were done and who helped to sweep up the small pieces of paper that had fallen on the floor. Then there was the Universal City council member, Adam Salyer, who happened to be at the library, looked in on the class and sent two of his neighbor's children (also at the library) over to join. I remember the two siblings who were carefully rolling their pencils down a table to a teen library volunteer, so that their sister and mom could finish working on the heart of dog and cat pictures that took a lot of time and patience. There was the single mom who started out helping her sons and ended up making a beautiful collage of her dream vacation.
 Certainly volunteering at the library is not creating art ourselves - there usually is too much to do for that. It is, however, deeply satisfying to witness and assist the creative adventures of children, teens and parents and some art classes have an extra dimension and remind us of our common humanity and the struggles and delights of being a family.