The Art Critic?

Honored: invited to judge Simi Valley Art Assoc. Annual Open Show again in California. 

Cash prizes. Open to all artists. 


This ptg. a favorite of mine by Norman Rockwell "The Art Critic" painted in 1955. Oh boy, to paint like this master. It's just impossible. And he is still not in The Met in New York's collection.

www.simivalleyart.org

Paint With A BoldBrush?

My palette knife painting of my daughter is selected part of the FAV15% (jury's favorite 15% of the entries) in the February 2018 BoldBrush Painting competition. TY to my daughter and BoldBrush.

You may view the FAV15% paintings, including this one here : http://faso.com/boldbrush/fav15/207 

"The Clearing"
Close-up
By Johanna Spinks
Via Palette Knife

Advice From Bowie...

It's taken me awhile to get this one to the finish gate. I am glad I stuck with it. Sometimes our brain just gets in the way. Right?

I wasn't quite sure if I would continue into a second year of painting large format portraits, mostly form life. But the path has become clear. It is obvious now that there is no turning back.  I am on a journey with them and good things are happening, slowly but surely.

As David Bowie said once, as an artist  if your feet aren't dangling off the edge of the diving board in fear, creatively, then you are not really creating. You are missing the point by staying in a zone that is familiar and safe. He of all people knew this changing his look and vision  so many times although there was always a consistent revisit to some older "Major Tom" themes until the day he died.

 I have been sitting on the edge of that diving board since picking up the palette knife in my portrait work about four years ago but especially last year with 16 large portraits painted mostly in two life sittings of people I met who interested me and some favorite models. It spun my head around.

Here's to more spinnng. Onward.

Johanna

Through The Eyes of a Child
by Johanna Spinks
36 x 36"
Via Palette Knife.

Close-up
Image copyrighted

Are you a VIP? - In The Green Room

So far this year I have painted 15 large format palette knives, from life sitters,  in two 3 hour sittings. They have challenged me, turned my art brain inside-out as I am so used to painting in the way I paint, sight-size usually. I have felt some art fear, some art embarrassment but something kept me going. Explore, explore. 

I thank Julia for this latest sitting and LuksMarbella for this wall. 

I chose a harmony of cool greens for this one going from an olive-yellow green to a phalo green with a verona green mixed in too. Oh, yes and Gamblin's radiant green.

I gave myself a year to explore in my Wednesday Saddlerock Painters' Group that I host at my studio. Now I have to decide if I shall continue the experimentation thru next year?

In The Green Room - VIP
By Johanna Spinks
36 x 36"
Via Palette Knife

Green eyes?

Smooch

Thank you Malibu!

Thank you Malibu. 

What a night!

I felt the hometown love. 

Read about the opening of my "Face of Malibu" show reception here:

http://www.malibutimes.com/news/article_

Thank you to all the sitters, The Malibu Times and The Malibu Cultural Arts Commission for sponsoring this show running until Jan. 12th 2018 at Malibu City Hall.

Thank you also to  Richard Chesterfield of Monrose Catering for the incredible food.

And of course everyone who attended. A night I will never forget.

Thank you to MT photographer Julie Ellerton and Malibu Surfside news photographer Dave Teel for the pictures here. 

A Night to Remember
The Face of Malibu Opens
67 portraits of mine on display. 

Ventura Artist Mark Tovar Stands Near His Portrait

A Full House

With Show Curator Alan Roderick-Jones. Thank you Alan.

With Cantor Marcelo Gindlin

The Faces!

Speech tine.

Standing Room Only.

Lovely Marie Stapel with her son Kurt. We miss you Marie.

Talking the Talk.

Richard Chesterfield, one of the sitters, and the owner of Monrose Catering who did a spectacular job catering the event.

New Year Resolutions?

The end of the year is a good time to reflect especially after such a crazy one this year with a lot of incredible creatives lost to this living world - along with a hostile USA election year and Brexit.

My New Year's resolution is to paint my heart and art soul via my palette knife. To dig a little deeper.

It's never too late to start anything. Here me talk more about this as a recent guest on the LA TALK Live "Del and Debi Mind Body and Soul"  Radio Show. Thanks ladies for inviting me along with one of my muses ArtModelShannon.

"Every production of an artist should be the expression of an adventure of his soul", W. Somerset Maugham.

What will your expressive resolution be for the upcoming year?



clickhere to listen to the interview

On the radio talking about my portrait world and a lot of other things in between. Thank thank you to show hosts Del Adey-Jones and Debi Carlin Boyle.

Corset Love...

By now, everyone knows I love painting and drawing corsets. I did a ton of them in 2010 and they flew out of the studio like hot cakes into many homes.

I have built up quite a corset collection over the years after developing an interest in them as a very young woman, long before I thought of painting them.

Anyho,  I decided to revisit one of my corsets,  painting it with a palette knife. The corset is a lavish stunner.

Hope you enjoy...

"Roses and Pearls"
8x8" Oil on Board
with Gold Leaf
For sale via Daily Paintwork auction...very affordable daily painted gems for all art budgets.

clickhere

Lights, Camera, Action -Paint!

Thanks to The San Fernando Valley Art Club
for inviting me to do a portrait demo for the third time. Thanks also to my lovely artist pal Theresa for sitting for me. Thanks also to a new collector who purchased the sketch hot off the easel. I post the stages. Hope you enjoy.

Heads UP! Tonight's The Night...

Heads Up! My Portrait Demo tonight at The San Fernando Valley Art Club Featuring My Palette Knife/Brush Approach
Details at Link Below

"Ahead"
By Johanna Spinks
Oil on Masonite  Board
Gold/Copper  Leaf
8x8"
One of DailyPaintWorks" Auction Choice  of The Day

Bid here:
dailypaintworks.com/artists/johanna-spinks

http://www.sfvartclub.org

I Love Paisley- Thanks Laura Ashley!

I have always had a thing for paisley fabric probably thanks to Laura Ashley and being put in those kind of frocks as a kid.

Lovely Katy arrived at my studio for a life-sitting wearing a simple paisley shirt. I didn't really do the shirt justice but I certainly was enamored with it - and Katy.

It was a three hour sitting with The Saddlerock Painters at my studio in the Malibu Highlands, yes, near Saddlerock Mountain.

This painting has already found a home but if you are interested in some of my smaller daily paintworks which are very reasonably priced, please go to this gallery link

www.dailypaintworks.com/artists/johanna-spinks

"The Paisley Shirt"
By Johanna Spinks
10"x10"
Via Palette Knife

"Counsel woven into the fabric of real life is wisdom".

Walter Benjamin

In progress...so much to get done in just under three hours via my palette knife which moves slower than a brush for me.

I'm Going "Under The Knife" - Museum Show

I'm going "Under The Knife"! Super excited to be invited by the Museum of Ventura County to showcase my palette knife portrait work at the Tool Room Gallery thru April, opening reception April 1st. Thank you to my friends at the Museum.

http://venturamuseum.org

 I am thrilled to show this journey I have been on over the last couple of years after randomly picking up the palette knife late one night to see how I could use it in my portrait work.

It was really hard at first being so used to the brush, especially painting sitters from life. I didn't want the work to look slap-dash with that knife, but kind of refined. I stuck with it.  I have got faster and more accurate painting from life with that knife.  I chose to paint people who told a life story in some way, about not only theirs but mine. Close acquaintances and also people whose story had moved me. 

Most of all I feel I am 'home" with that palette knife. I will never now put it down.

Mark your calendars for the opening night April 1st!  Would love to see you there to share in this special and very personal art moment for me.

Under The Knife
By Johanna Spinks
The Museum of Ventura County
Tool Room Gallery thru April 2016

Joan Benedict Steiger's Brooklyn Baby

Honored that Hollywood grande dame Joan Benedict Steiger is including this life sketch I did of her in her new memoirs "Brooklyn Baby".

"General Hospital" star Joan, (also actor Rod Steriger's wife) is my latest Face of Malibu sitter and boy, does she have some stories to tell. Such a lovely talented lady. Read more about her incredible life story in the link below.

Joan Benedict Steiger
Sitter number 41, The Face of Malibu Portrait Project
Kindly appearing in The Malibu Times

storyhere

Little Black Dress? Nah, Red.

It's been a super busy month in the studio working on painting deadlines as you can tell from my lack of posts since January 1st.

I feel like I have been tied to my easel and I don't mind one bit.

I decided to have a little fun today in a life sitting with the lovely Jasmin  thinking about Valentines Day and red dresses. I love red dresses more than just about anything else. Here is my newest one, top, and a few others I have done over the years, maybe some with some white thrown in.

I use a mixed media approach to these drawings combining oil, watercolor, pen and ink. Yes, oil and water do mix after all, all around 18 x 24".

Hope you enjoy.

Happy Valentines if I don't see you before.

Johanna

"Campari"
By Johanna Spinks
Mixed Media, 18 x 24"
Available for purchase here
http://www.johannaspinks.com/#!illustrations/

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A New Town Gets Painted...

Completing seven days of life sittings today for my new public portrait project east coast with a newspaper there. Mystery town soon to be revealed. 

This week: coffee count 100, oyster bake count 1, glamour ball count 1, wine count TBA, drawing count priceless. Thanks to Katherine Falls Mengedoht, this project's co-creator.

Here's a sneak peek behind the scenes. 

This new portrait project follows on from The Face of Ventura with The Ventura Breeze and The Face of Malibu with The Malibu Times, ongoing.

The Face of ...?
By Johanna Spinks
Stay tuned.

Palette Knife Tantrums

Sometimes my palette knife has a mind of its' own but I guess that's half the fun of a life sitting wielding a knife however frustrating at times.

TY beautiful ArtModelShannon!

The Joys of the Palette Knife Life Sitting
By Johanna Spinks
Oil on Linen
www.johannaspinks.com

Floral Delivery For You!

There is always something to paint as an artist, often right in front of your nose.
A rain soaked landscape painting trip to the east coast left me painting indoor flowers I had just given to my lovely hostess.
www.johannaspinks.com

The Long And Winding Palette Knife Road

My journey with the palette knife continues, some days good, some days not...but I know I am pushing myself which I suppose is the point.

At this point I know what I can do with a brush.

The long and winding palette knife road? Leads you to your path? We'll see.

This is my quickie demo (90 minutes) from my life painting teaching class yesterday of the lovely artist/muse Mather Louth, painted on day two of a migraine. The model and pose gorgeous but a lot to take on in just 90 minutes.

http://www.matherlouth.com

I went for a color harmony of red and green trying to get as much color into Mather's skin as I could while still greying it down, working with that knife much like icing a cake. Fast.

I hope I am making some progress. What do you think?

Today I start another one, with a little more finish of a wonderful lady that I am excited about.

"Mather Louth"
Palette Knife Life Sketch
10x12"
Oil on linen board
Johanna Spinks

My weekly studio class is always great fun. Great models and great poses.
Wednesdays 10 to 2pm
Join us?

Painting The Brocante

Painting the french Brocante flea market in Cannes red, white and blue. Happy July Fourth Weekend everyone.

Painting The Brocante, Cannes