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

I'm A Political Winner!

Here's my latest take on the topic of Brexit.  A palette knife portrait of Britain's new Prime Minister Theresa May using her famous slogan as the title for my portrait.

The first portrait I painted around Brexit of David Cameron, see below,  was just announced a winner in the 2016 America Art Awards Political Commentary Category.

That sure was nice! Thanks to AAA judges. And special thanks to Prime Ministers David Cameron and Theresa May.

"Brexit Means Brexit - First Day- Theresa May"
By Johanna Spinks
Oil on Linen via Palette Knife

"Brexit - Last Day - David Camerion"
By Johanna Spinks
Oil on Linen Via Palette Knife
Voted a winner by America Art Awards 2016 Political Commentary Category.

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

David Bowie...

I was in a retro nostalgia Bowie mood and invited the incredible @vnixie to sit for me today, via palette knife,  to capture that feeling. She is perfection, as was he. 

I was lucky to meet Bowie once, a long time ago. You could feel his presence in the room. Such a genius creator and innovator. 

Life is sadder with this legend gone but of course he is just with Major Tom. Back shortly. 

V-Nixie
By Johanna Spinks
Via Palette Knife
16 x 20"
www.johannaspinks.com

Unsung Hero Portrait Series

Honored to have been commissioned to paint a series of "Unsung Heroes" for The Ventura Breeze Newspaper  by gracious Jordan and  Sandra Laby. Here is our fourth recipient Elizabeth Cornejo at her presentation lunch with the Labys. Single life sitting. Thanks also to ace publisher Sheldon Brown

Read Elizabeth's courageous life story:
here

Elizabeth Cornejo
24x18"
By Johanna Spinks
Single life sitting
www.johannaspinks.com

Presentation lunch with Elizabeth and series' gracious sponsors Sandra and Jordan Laby. Kindly appearing in The Ventura Breeze. 

Think Pink.

Pink on blonde hair? Yes, I'm most certainly in! A life sitting this week of the lovely Susanna via my palette knife. A hit or a miss? Time will tell, but she sure was a pretty miss. I love getting as much color as I can into places that you wouldn't expect it. Like blonde hair.

www.johannaspinks.com

Single Life Sitting
Via Palette knife
By Johanna Spinks
www.johannaspinks.com

The Best Kind of Day?

The Best Kind of Day
Johanna Spinks
oil on linen via palette knife

What's the best kind of day for me? A brand new model who is excited to be painted. And then painting alongside a good artist friend chatting while we go christening her lovely new studio. Via palette knife. Three hour sitting - ish.

Bliss...

J.W.Waterhouse Sketchbooks

"The Victoria and Albert Tearoom"
24x18" via palette knife
By Johanna Spinks
For purchase
here

The block-in painted from life with that knife

Slowing working through

The background begins

Visiting the sketchbooks of J.W.Waterhouse within the vaults of The Victoria and Albert Museum. Wow!

I have long enjoyed a good scone, thick clotted cream and a nice cuppa especially in lovely British tearooms. I found myself once again in the tearoom of The Victoria and Albert Museum with its' beautiful Pre-Raphaelite windows that leave you breathless with wonder and so enjoying the moment.

I was also lucky enough to visit four of J.W. Waterhouse sketchbooks in this Musuem's collection which was a remarkable experience. Yes, I actually got to leaf through them with my bare hands. What an incredible artist J.W. Waterhouse was. I don't think anyone has yet come close to what he did with his brush and imagination.

So, all of this came together in my painting inspired by the tearoom and those sketchbooks. It was started from life painting the lovely model Amina in my teaching class and taken further during the days that followed. The windows are downplayed which I apologize for but sometimes you have to edit.

I hope you like.

"Girl Crush", My New Palette Knife Portrait

"Girl Crush In India"
Oil On Linen Board
Via Palette Knife, 16"X12"
By Johanna Spinks
NFS

Come back tomorrow to see the stages of this palette knife portrait....I was charmed by this lady I met in India, a fellow traveler. She had poise, grace, intelligence and insight. I tried to capture some of that in the palette knife portrait. Hope you like.

Art On Caffeine...

Caffeine rush?... or maybe the cranberry scone combo.

I did two "block-in's" today in my teaching class, life model portrait/figure and a still life set-up.

This was the first week of my new semester,  a four hour teaching class at my studio, the very best models in town. Packed house. I love my students and they are very talented..so honored to share their art journey.

Next week no coffee or cranberry scones. Sorry. But do come back to see how these block-ins progressed.

A GOOD START... 18 x 24

10 MINUTE QUICKIE BLOCK IN

Child's Play - Kids Painting A Life Portrait

A fabulous unforgettable day at Malibu's Juan Cabrillo Elementary School with students helping me do a portrait demo from life!  Thanks to wonderful artist/teacher Nicole Fisher for inviting me into her "Featured Artist Series" at Cabrillo and Dave Teel  Photography for these warm photos.

http://teelphotography.com

There are some very talented young artists out there and wonderful dedicated teachers like Nicole expanding their art minds which the world so needs.

To be honest, I was a bit apprehensive how it would go doing a portrait demo with such young artist but it was a blast and the kids were amazing.  Later in the day the children painted their own self portraits which was rewarding to watch - and help out just a bit. 

A day to remember.

 Concentration- Kids get in on the action at Juan Cabrillo

All quiet in the room as the demo starts with all those young artists ready to help out with the demo

He's got the portrait painter's stance down already!

Birds of a Feather, Painting Birds.

Birds of a feather stick together at my studio this week. Beautiful sitter Jennifer Fabos brought her pet parrot Rocky along to be painted from life and it was very cute to watch how much Rocky loved her mistress during the sitting, cooing at her loudly, preferring to sit cozily right by her neck.

I didn't know birds had such attachment to humans. On the breaks from being painted Rocky took her water and food causing a few not so happy accidents on the beautiful satin drape I had just spent a fortune on!

Yes, Rocky is a female parrot but this was not known until she started laying eggs, said Jen,  hence the male name. I have painted Jen before with a previous pet bird, Peep. She has a way with birds for sure.

Some say painting from life is for the birds and I must confess, Rocky was a bit fidgety during the painting session but I sure hope she visits again soon with Jen.

To find out more about Jennifer Fabos and her work with Gallery Girls go here:
http://gallerygirls.org/contact-us/  

I post the stages of the sitting  here and am indebted once again to my hero master portraitist  Philip de Laszlo.
https://www.delaszloarchivetrust.com

"Birds of a Feather"
By Johanna Spinks
18"x24"
Oil on Board

FOR PURCHASE
johannaspinksonlinestore

Rocky gets her close-up. I moved her position off the shoulder  to aid the composition. I kept her coloring the same as the dress for color harmony, repeating some of those colors in the background too 

The block-in. I liked the tilt.

The light side of the face is massed in quickly going for a clean statement mixing just two colors at one time.

After about two hours of painting, I start to think about Rocky going in to the frame and just how on earth am I going to do that!

The Perfect Plein Air Painting Box

Here I am painting former Malibu mayor Laura Rosenthal for my Face of Malibu portrait series  featured now in the The Malibu Times for over two years.

I am honored to hear today my work is featured on the Judson Art Outfitters' Plein Air Journal, a blog to inspire plein air painters.

http://www.judsonsart.com/blog/

I have been using products, designed by artist Carl Judson,  from this fabulous family-run company for years. Check our  Guerilla Pochade painting boxes.  Highly recommended. Great products, great friendly service, plus the products really do last for years.

I have traveled all over the world with my Guerrilla pochade painting boxes, my very favorite being the 6" x 8" thumb nail box. It's the perfect size for international travel. I just returned from a very lightweight packing trip to India and that was the box I took. It worked out really well.

Thank you Carl and Sarah

My 6" x 8" Guerilla pochade thumbnail box that I took to India, plus France, plus the U.K., plus....you get the idea! I love it.

Veuve Cliquot - Figure Drawing

Here's another drawing I worked on this week using a technique I first saw in Barcelona done by the amazing street portrait painters there.

It is actually oil rubbed on paper, not charcoal. The second time I went back to Barcelona I specifically looked for a street artist who could spoke english and explain the technique to me. I was lucky enough to find someone. I remember boring my two young children in tow and the very gracious female artist who shared freely with me.

So on return to the U.S.  I started to work with this technique really fine-tuning it in 2010 when I drew every day for a year.

I am still really grateful I did that year in drawing. It changed me as an artist and is very much part of who I am and how I think today.

Enjoy.

"Veuve Cliquot"
By Johanna Spinks
12"x 18"
Oil on Paper
$395.00
For purchase at my online store
here

Cosmopolitan - Figure Drawing

It's been a busy week in the studio so far starting two new large portrait commissions but I have also taken some time to do some drawing in the evening. This is a technique you maybe remember seeing a lot of in my 365 Days of Drawing Challenge, successfully completed, and featured in American Artist Magazine in 2011.

I feel in tip top shape after some time spent at my drawing board away from actual easel time.  There is a saying: "If you  don't practice your drawing it will soon disappear", and I think never a truer word has been spoken. Drawing is a separate discipline from painting although the two go hand in hand at the easel.

Drawing the full figure often flexes the drawing muscle.

I'll post another tomorrow.

"Cosmopolitan"
12" x 18"
Mixed media on paper
For sale at my online store
$395.00
here

Face of Malibu Portrait Project Hits Two Years

My Face of Malibu portrait project hits two years with twice mayor Sharon Barovsky. She has some interesting things to say about this town currently in The Malibu Times.

The Face of Malibu appears monthly in The Malibu Times. Each sitter is painted directly from life in a single sitter. Sharon is sitter number 26.

Read more about her life here: http://www.malibutimes.com

Sharon Barovsky
Face of Malibu By Johanna Spinks

A Special Bishop Gets Unveiled

The Rev. Canon Michael Wright, Rector of Grace Church, gives the dedication of  Bishop William Alexander Guerry into The Guerry Chapel
Portrait by Johanna Spinks

The dedication morning starts with a talk in front of the three portraits I have been delighted to paint for Grace Church

A wonderful welcome by Grace Church

Bishop William Alexander Guerry
Reformed Martyr
Grace Episcopal Church
Charleston, South Carolina.

It is always special when you attend unveilings as a portrait artist. We often work quietly in our studios shipping out portraits, hoping they get there safely, but not getting to see the final "reception" at the destination.

This weekend I had the pleasure to see my portrait of reformed martyr Bishop William Alexander Guerry unveiled and dedicated into Grace Episcopal Church in Charleston by the Rev. Michael Wright , rector of Grace Church, in front of hundreds of people in the beautiful 'cathedral-like' stained glass window setting.

I was also hosted by a lovely Charleston couple, Katherine and Dan, staying in their beautiful historic picture-perfect Victorian yellow and white home that was full of Southern charm and Christmas festive, like something out of a magazine. Thank you!

Bishop Guerry was an incredible, passionate and brave man in his beliefs. He was shot dead in 1928 for his mission for inclusion in the church of all folk, including African Americans. Read more here:http://www.gracechurchcharleston.org/bishop-guerry-chapel

I was quite moved to be honest and felt his presence coming through when I painted him. It is my third portrait for Grace Church and I was thrilled to revisit two of the older portraits and see them situated in their rightful place, plus give a talk to the visitors about my portrait work for the church.

It will always be a special weekend memory for me, including of course the day before starting my new portrait The Bishop  of South Carolina Charles vonRosenberg. I am excited to paint this great man.

While all this weekend's greatness was going on, there was a personal moment for me to reflect on the very sad loss of dear friend, Dick, Friday night.  I said a prayer for him in Grace Church during the lovely service and it felt just perfect.

Life is short.

Live it large.

Dick did.

Honored to Paint a New Bishop

A wonderful morning in Charleston starting a portrait of Bishop Charles vonRosenberg, pictured here with his gracious wife Annie, while the choir sang, for The Episcopal Church of South Carolina. Thanks to lovely Katherine Falls Mengedoht for all her help, graciously hosting me in her beautiful home.

Getting a close-up of hands

The portrait sketch from life to aid with the final portrait