Painting a Butler to the stars.

Richard Chesterfield
Butler to the stars, Housewives of Beverly Hills
by Johanna Spinks
Oil, 16x16

If you have watched Bravo TV's Housewives of Beverly Hills, you might recognize this dapper chap.  Richard Chesterfield is my Face of Malibu, appearing in this week's Malibu Times. To read more about his interesting life story click here

Each sitter is painted from life in a single sitting recording the current day face of Malibu in portrait paint. I completed the Face of Ventura, 58 sitters all recorded in the same way. That collection is now in the permanent collection of the Museum of Ventura County.

Ms. Millie Decker
The Face of Malibu appearing in The Malibu Times
Oil on Canvas, 16 x 15, gold leaf.

Why do I love painting portraits so much? Because of moments like these and people like Millie Decker, Malibu's legendary cowgirl stilling roping in the charm at 92 years old. Her family was among the very first to settle in Malibu before it became, well, Malibu.I painted Millie in a single life sitting for  my Face of Malibu, a project of mine that is appearing in The Malibu Times. Storytelling meeting the painted portrait.

Please read about Millie here

http://www.malibutimes.com/malibu_life/article_f3f0d496-8618-11e2-b317-0019bb2963f4.html?fb_action_ids=10200544208424895&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_source=aggregation&fb_aggregation_id=288381481237582

Paint in the beautiful Malibu Wine Country

NOW how fun is this? If you like top-notch painting instruction, good food, company and spectacular Malibu vineyards and  wine? Limited space. Filling up fast. Email with any questions, johanna@johannaspinks.com

Figure painting in Paris.

Dreams of Paris
8x10
oil on archival board
$500
Free shipping

Writing letter to get me to Paris

image http://www.freehdwall.com/2011/11/eiffel-tower-statue-and-inscription.html


If I am going to spend a year in Paris, I am going to need a good satin robe. For the models, not me, silly.

Plans are going well. Resumes/applications being hand-written for opportunities.  Yeah, right.

This  figure sketch was painted this week in my teaching class at The California Art Institute. Join me every Wednesday. Well, until I get to Paris.

365 Days To Live In Paris

"Gay Paris"
SOLD
Johanna Spinks
oil and silver leaf on archival board
]

365 Days to live in  Paris...I have decided I want to live in Paris for a year -with my art.

Day One

Intending It...and painting something with a red french beret.

View from the studio today.
My trusty  palette will be coming with me to Paris

LOVE IN ART

Love Letters Home
12x18
Mixed media on paper
$150

Happy Valentines Day Everyone.

This is one of the few remaining drawings from my year in drawing 2010. I can't quite believe most of the drawings sold but they did. 365 is a big number and that's a lot of drawings.

Maybe I need to draw again every day for a year. What say you? I am severely tempted.

Go out and hug someone today!

POST SHOW HAZE

"Feel The Love Reception"
Face of Ventura Sitter Mr. Howard Boroughs and I feel the love.

Thanks to everyone who came to my "Feel The Love" show in Ventura, CA. It was a fantastic turnout with some nice sales from the 100 or so paintings and sketches of mine on display. This is my favorite picture from the reception, myself with Mr. Howard Boroughs, a former biochemist and sweetheart of the first order.

Read his life story here:http://www.thefaceofventura.com/1.12.11.pdf

Mr. Boroughs turns 100 this year.  My portrait of him will be included in the Museum of Ventura County's 100 year Anniversary Birthday show, opening March 23,  which I am tickled Valentine pink about. Mr. Boroughs IS Ventura. He has done so much for the town. I just adore him.

So my feelings after this show? They are a lot of work. This is my second big show in five months. Working that mailing list, getting people in the reception room, mailing out invites, phoning, editing paintings to hang, delivering them,  framing them,  worrying that no-one will show up...ahhh, must be nice to be a big New York artist with none of these issues. And I do know a few who seem to  just breeze into their shows and out.

I am also so lucky my last two shows to have had the support of FOOD Share and The Ventura Breeze newspaper. I also had this current show hosted by Crowell, Weedon & Co., who did a lot of the work for me putting on a lovely reception and, yes, hanging the show. Thank you. But the pressure of a solo show is on the artist's solo shoulders at the end of the day.  A flat reception won't make you look good.

I also learned a lot about myself as an artist, over the last five months. What work I was proud to stand by. What work generated the most excitement from viewers and generated actual sales. How lovely it is to feel warmth from visitors toward your art. To hear them ooohhhing and ahhhing. That is music to my heart.

I won't be having a big show again for a while. I need to get on with a new collection of work inspired by the last two shows. That is the greatest Valentine gift I can give to myself.

Thank you everyone. I felt your love.

FEEL THE LOVE, RECEPTION TIME

I have finished this still life just in time!

The Valentine Letter
12x16, oil on board
By Johanna Spinks
SOLD

10 minute value/color block-in, 6x8, sold

End of demo at my January Monthly Workshop

It's now or never. Come "Feel The Love", my show reception, tomorrow, Thursday. 4 - 7 pm, Crowell, Weedon & Co., 5740 Ralston St., Ventura, CA. Wine, Food and Song. A  portrait sitting to be won by raffle draw, 10 per cent of sales donated to FOOD Share.

I have over 100 pieces in this solo show, including The Face of Ventura portrait collection.

Feel The Love, Show Time

I Might Wear This? What Say You?

Hi dear friends:

Yes, it is that pre-show, reception ahead time,  a solo show of over 100 pieces of art.

I could get nervous.

Instead, I intend to "Feel The Love"! Join me. Love is good. Feel it. Spread it like butter all over the place. Especially to those who need to "Feel The Love".

What Jurors Look For in Art Shows?

Hi friends....

I enter a lot of competitions like a lot of artists. My mentor has told me to do this. He is right. Competition success is vital for an artist who wants validation, perhaps, or  to earn a living.

Clients paying a lot of money for a painting or commission want to know some other group or art expert validates their choice of artist.

BUT competitions are expensive to enter on the national circuit, time-consuming and not always fair.  Oftentimes, it seems the same artists are getting in but not YOU. However, it is very FAIR when YOU get in. Let them eat art cake.

You are not always even sure when you send those jpegs off these days with your Paypal account depleted, that anyone is even looking at your entires. Slides sent in an envelop in the old days, with some spit to seal the deal,  had a more honest ring. Rediculous, I know.

I remember first starting out on the competition circuit locally in Malibu. I had success very fast. It was incredibly exciting - and incredibly misleading. It soon went flat as a day-old Crepe Suzette shortly after when I headed into deeper national competition water. 

So, I learned  to enjoy  competition success when it came, because it came far less often, and to be honest, when I least expected it.  

The bigger the competition playing field, the harder the score and the tougher the goal keeper. The coach also likes his favorites. 

I remember when I won the Daler Rowney Painting of Excellence Award at Oil Painters of America National Show. They even used my image to publicize  the gallery show online. This was heady stuff. Fortunately, by this point, I knew to do wild cartwheels around the living room and never expect anything like this ever again. That was wise. 

So this brings me to my point.

Over the last few years, I have been asked to judge shows, including today for The Studio Channel Islands Art Center portrait show called "Essence" http://www.studiochannelislands.org/gallery/current-exhibit/ I was told  the entires were among the highest number for a show there

Let me first say it is an honor to judge anyone's artwork, other than my own.  I never take this lightly.

I think of each entrant that has prepared their digital entry slide, put blood sweat and tears into their choice and work, and is, quite frankly, waiting to hear if they made the cut. I know if they don't, they won't feel good. Yuk. 

I KNOW. I am waiting on four competition results right now - I don't expect to get in  but I sure hope I do. I know I will feel that little sting if I don't. And I will be poorer - four good dinners, out on the town with expensive wine,  lost.

The STING is less now because I  have learned to cope better, to develop more of an elephant's hide. One has to. I allow myself 20 minutes of wallowing in the mud, snorting my trunk in the air. Then I move on. 

A super successful artist I know keeps a competition  'Gold Win' award on his mantelpiece. The year before it was rejected by everyone. Those slips are on there too. This keeps him, he says,  level-headed. Competitions don't judge you really. Random.

YOU CREATE because some force inside makes you. Period. 

So today, as I looked at each entrant's image, my thoughts were plain and simple.

Gratitude to be judging, as I am judged. Honored, as I am honored.

Then making my choice around work that caught my eye. Gave me a zing. Couldn't be denied. I find judging around the ZING concept, very easy.

But please, no poor photo'd image entries. Zing-less.

Garden Party
12 x 16, oil on canvas
$500
Available for purchase here
http://www.etsy.com/shop/JohannaSpinksFineArt?ref=search_shop_redirect



Happy Saturday.
I don't know about you but I love garden parties, sunshine and painting roses. Some students of mind find roses hard to paint and get impatient with them.  I love painting roses but they don't always co-operate with me. I kinda love this little painting and find it hard to part with. It makes me feel happy. How about you?

Doing color/value studies

Morning Friends:

I love to do color/value studies for my paintings...I try to be as loose as possible and get as much color in as I can of all different color temperatures.

Come study with me this Friday at my Atelier Day at my studio in the Malibu Highlands. The day includes a yummy lunch and a lot of fun...

Or you can join me tomorrow at The California Art Institute.

Email me for details johanna@johannaspinks.com

I will post more about color sketches later.

Color/Value Sketch

Would love to see you!

A Passion For Pink

Pink Passion
12 x 16
For sale through my online store. See link at top of page
$325 incl. free shipping

Class yesterday. Join me Wednesday mornings at The California Art Institute, Westlake village

Morning Friends

It was the first day of a new teaching semester at The California Art Institute yesterday under the new ownership of Kate Barnholz. I don't know about you, but I find change hard.

I was delighted to see a full house in my teaching class which is always fun.  Come join us Wednesday mornings. 

Here is my demo. I love painting vintage hats. Every hat tells a story of good times gone by and makes the perfect still life. You almost don't need the model

This pink hat has to be seen to be believed. Whoever wore it must have had a lot of confidence.

Now go take on the art day.

KICK START YOUR ART IN 2013

Come Study With Me in  2013. New class schedule

"Fiscal Cliff", Palette Knife Portraits

"Fiscal Cliff"
Palette Knife Portrait
12 x 16
Oil
Johanna Spinks

Happy New Year to each and every one of you. I wish you and your families the best of everything for 2013.

I am excited for the year ahead. Yesterday I decided to paint my last portrait of the year, using a palette knife from start to finish.

Not wishing to poke fun at the current economic climate, I named it "Fiscal Cliff".

A sense of humor is important in all things, don't you think?

Day Two of 12 Days of Christmas Giveaway

"Ahhh...Which One?"

16x16

Oil

Johanna Spinks

Here is Day Two of my 12 Days of Christmas/Holiday Gratitude Giveaway.

Tell me you favorite Holiday memory to enter the chance to win this 16 x 16 original oil. I will pick my favorite post. 

This post from yesterday won the Day One sketch:

This season I have chosen to be grateful for the things that money can't buy! The grin of four-year-olds,surprise kindnesses,and home town love expressed through thoughts and deeds.I'm grateful for my grandchildren,to be able to hug and kiss them-to see life through their eyes and share their plans and dreams.We won't remember the gifts,but we will remember the atsmosphere ,the support and the opportunity to give back to the one who were so careful with us.I know PEACE,and I feel cherished now, not always,but I am embracing it now.....

12 Days of Christmas Gratitude Giveaway

This Beaty Can be YOURS!!! Happy Holidays Everyone
"Seeing Red
8x10 on linen panel
By Johanna Spinks

Ba humbug. The Holiday Season leaving you less than jolly.

Then turn it around. Tell me what you are most grateful for this Holiday Season and my favorite comment, over the next 48 hours,  will win this 8x10 oil sketch absolutely free.

This 12 Days of Christmas Giveaway is also running on my public Facebook page, link to the right. You can also post there as see what others are saying.

Watch out for the next giveaway. There are 11 more coming. HO HO HO.

Go Kate!

Congrats to Princess Kate. I love her!

Princess Kate
18x22
pastel
Johanna Spinks

Pastel Portrait done at their engagement which was featured in American Artist Magazine, summer drawing issue 2011.

Beauty is is the eye of the beholder?

Repose
Johanna Spinks
Figure Oil Sketch

Happy Sunday afternoon from rainy California:

I posted this sketch I did from life on Tuesday on Facebook and it got quite a  few comments. Mostly because I took it down from Facebook after someone posted a very public mean comment on my timeline, I am sure, offended by my posting of this image. I apologized to all if I had caused offense.

I was heartily encouraged to re-post the nude, evidence of my art process, and the knowledge that artists have painted and sketched the unclothed human form for centuries. To be offended by it, my FB commentators, said was rediculous.

At least two other FB artists told me they were deliberately posting their nude sketches that day in support.

It is a funny world we live in out there. 'Sexy' sells all over the planet. The Kardashians rule. Young girls want to look like the latest Britanny Spears, whovever she is these days. But a simple nude sketch causes offense. Painting the human form well is one of the hardest art disciplines. That is my only goal.

To paint it well. Better each year of my journey.

To my eye, the nude figure in art, is beauty. And a challenge to paint.

That's all.

Now go take on the art day.
Johanna

"Sleepy Hipster", Palette Knife Portraits

"Sleepy Hipster"
12x16
Oil, Palette Knife Portrait
By Johanna Spinks
For Sale
Contact artist johanna@johannaspinks.com

Morning All:

All I can say is I had a blast with this palette knife portrait of a sleepy hipster done in one life sitting around three hours.

I don't know why she was so sleepy but you know how those hipsters are. Up all night doing creative things. 

I think I am going to be a hipster today.  For 24 hours. Better run out and grab some black-rimmed glasses and get a cropped hair cut.

What say you?