Hot Pants At The Museum

Today's quick sketch:

"Hot Pants at Van Gogh"
By Johanna Spinks
8"x 8"
Watercolor and ink
To purchase
http://www.dailypaintworks.com/fineart/johanna-spinks/hot-pants-at-van-gogh/244458

This lady in the short purple hot pants and high shoes  was causing quite a stir today  at The Los Angeles County Museum of Art's new show, "Expressionism", Van Gogh to Kadinsky.

Few could take their eyes of her including me so I quickly got out my sketch book. Sorry Van Gogh but your place in art history is still secure.

http://www.lacma.org/expressionism#about

Going Dutch...

I remain inspired by the old Dutch still life painters, so much so that my mouth is often left gaping when I look at their skill level in books. It really has remained unsurpassed to this day in my humble big-mouthed opinion.

I decided I might rather like to try painting a lobster. Don't ask me why. They are funny looking things. If you saw one crawling across your kitchen floor, you wouldn't want to eat it at all. Jump on the nearest chair and call the fire brigade.

They remind me of big cockroaches uncooked. But when hit by boiling water, that marvelous shade of red they turn is a sight to behold. All those angles too. And those beady eyes staring at the murderess. Red is always a challenge to paint I find, especially things in nature that are FIRE ENGINE red like lobsters and Christmas ties.

I bought this lobster for my still life teaching class at LAAFA last semester where I started the painting, 16" x 20", for demo purposes using a color harmony of red and green, but also doing a fast grisaille under painting in black and white which I then glazed over. I really like glazing mixed with scumbling over a grey and white sketch which is of course how the old Dutch guys did it. Vermeer for sure used a mixed method approach in his work.

I put the painting -and the lobster- aside for many weeks during my trip to France but KNEW I would finish it as it looked good already, good enough to continue at least, and the lobster cost me too much to waste.

Thank goodness for freezers. I had frozen the lobster which was high as a kite already after five hour sittings under hot lights, two sessions a week apart, at LAAFA.

It really didn't take me that much time at all to whip things into shape to a finish that was not too 'done' as I like a fresh look. Not too blendy-blendy. It reminds me that a good start is always key around value pattern and shapes. Besides you have to work fast painting decaying shellfish - or wear a hat with old wine-corks stringed around the brim to zwat the flies like the Aussies do.

It was also rewarding after France where I was doing quick studies (a total of 22 panels in a month to be exact) to spend time bringing a painting to the finish I like in terms of light effect.

Since my return from France I have not only stopped eating copious croissants, but also gone back to my favorite art books for a refresher course. Books I have not had access to for about three months due to France and a home move.

I have dusted off my camera obscura, said a prayer to Vermeer...I have gone Dutch at least for a few days.

For those of you still-lifers out there in LA area, be sure not to miss the Spanish Master of still life, Luis Melendez, at Los Angeles County Museum of Art, currently running.

Also, I am just redoing my website and putting up many new still life paintings, including this one, all available for purchase and shipping.

Watch this space...

FACE TO FACE With the past.

Recently I had the delight of going to The Vanity Fair Portrait Exhibit at LACMA in Los Angeles featuring 100 years of VF photo portraits. Great show.

It reminded me of the old days before my portrait career when I was a Hollywood makeup gal fixing the faces of stars.  See first image upper left from Vanity Fair. That's me shooting the breeze with Shelley Winters and Carroll Baker in curlers, hers not mine. I was part of a Vanity Fair 1995 mega shoot with Herb Ritts and Annie Leibovitz in 1995. And when I say mega, consider this; 210 people to shoot and one dog, 1,276 dresses, 295 bras (!!!), and 662 pairs of high heels. It was a HUGE crew in hangar with a helluva crowd to feed for lunch. I really miss craft services still. Someone swanning around offering you a custom-made eggwhite omlette and frappa-whappa coffee at 11 a.m.! 

 I know I earned way more money then than I do now. Hey, like Naomi Campbell I didn't get out of bed for less that $10,000 a day. 

 But my art was washed off at the end of the day and rarely stood the test of portfolio time, let alone a careless cup of coffee or  ciggie (models ALL smoke) smearing my perfectly applied lips. Happened ALL the time and used to really tick me off. Drink through a straw please! Forget someone crying through my perfectly curled fake lashes. That would send me DUO Glue  frickin' nuts. I don't care what caused the tears.  Makeup people aren't always treated that well. I used to HATE being called "THE MAKEUP GIRL", that I can tell you.

You are the first to arrive and the last to leave  and LOW on the roll of credits. Just look at movie credits.  Makeup people are way down the list. But if you mess up what is in your makeup chair at 4 a.m., the WHOLE day's shoot can go to pieces. 

I haven't looked at my old portfolio and magazine covers/clippings for YEARS. Kind  of turned my back on the whole darn thing after an illness made me leave my agency and eventually devote myself to "painting" art. 

But I suddenly and unexpectedly had this huge sudden sense of pride at the VF show at LACMA that I had once done this. Been part of this crazy world.

It has been so rewarding going back through the old clippings. My old life. Face to face with my past comparing notes on how my art is today compared to then. How much I know now that I didn't know then.

Can I say, (I hardly dare) that I really didn't realize how good I was as a makeup artist? That I really was artistic with all this goop. I hardly dared call myself an 'artist' in those days.

Ahhhh....sweet reunion of sorts. Certainly got me thinking...

Makeup by Johanna Spinks (bottom two images). All images Copyrighted.