My Top Ten Tips for Painting From Life! And then some..

Here is my demo from my painting class at The Los Academy of Figurative Art last week. Painting time about one hour and a half hours. And yes, that is my hat!

1. Paint a model that interests you. Ask yourself  'what is your point of view'? before you start to paint. Talk to the model. Bored sitter, boring painting. Engage!

2. Work on a dry mid-toned canvas and a mid-value wooden palette. Think value first, color second. Most of the story happens in the mid-value.

3. Work dark to light, general to specific, thin to thick paint, broom to needle, brush.

4. Simplify what you see. Three values for the light, two for the dark.  Keep the value pattern of light and dark separate. These two families hate each other and don't like to mix.

5. Think sphere. The head is an egg. Paint it round. Look for the highlight plane,  large mass of light, transition, turning edge, reflection, cast shadow.

6. Stick with a limited palette of colors. Learn what they can do.  They are your keyboard so practise how to play them. Look at the color wheel once in a while. It is useful. Play with color temperature around the light source, warm versus cool etc.

7. Make two soups on your palette. One for the light, one for the dark side. Alter the soup a little this way or that by adding slightly different colors into it.

8. Repeat color wherever you can. A dab of purple here, well, why not a dab of purple there. Leads to color harmony even if it doesn't make sense at the time.

9.Think of your three best friends: time, distance and a mirror. Judge your canvas from a distance rather than pressed nose; look at your work in a mirror to see its' flaws; and take some time away from your painting, ESPECIALLY when the model takes a break. Art school coffee is there for a reason. 

10. Imagine yourself a sculptor...carve out those planes. Know the structure of features so you can rely on that knowledge. Learn the anatomy of the head AND from the neck down. Draw, draw, draw in between painting from life.

Portrait Painting A-Plenty

What a privilege it was to teach so many talented people at my recent one-day portrait workshop timed around my show "Something Wrong About The Mouth"! I was impressed with the talent in the room.

The day started with a talk about my five-value system, followed by a show-and-tell of the old Masters and how they used values. Color harmony and skin tones thrown into the mix. Students then did a quick one hour study in black and white copying an old master painting using five values. I was a little worried how this would turn out but everyone did a great job...see the picture of all those great little heads.

I then did a one hour features demo from my favorite model Cassie followed by a one hour demo of her head. Yes folks, the head was painted in just one hour so don't bug me about the flaws.

Then the class got to work doing their own three-hour study of the model. BRAVO to all. The different styles were impressive but that is what makes painting so much fun.

For those of you that didn't make the show, that didn't make the artist talk, that didn't make the workshop, I could say shame on YOU! Instead I will post next my TOP TEN list for successful painting from life.

American Artist Magazine features Hall Of Fame Series.

Check out the September issue of American Artist Magazine. I am thrilled that they have just published a great feature on the previously mentioned Hall of Fame Series painted for The Players's Club permanent collection in New York.

Mr Everett Raymond Kinstler, N.A., painter of six American presidents now!, and a who's who of just about everything, asked 18 artists around the country to paint specific members of this prestigious great old theatre club. Mine was Norman Rockwell, and I couldn't have been more delighted to paint him and be asked. This was my second portrait for the club, the first being Rex Harrison, (My Fair Lady). Treasured memories and great to see it all recorded in such a wonderful way. Thanks to Mr. K. and AA! 

Take The Time...

I haven't posted in a while, not because I didn't want to, I just have so darn busy meeting the demands of deadlines necessary in my painting work life. My life whizzing by in a crazy way. Which leads me to my painful point.

Suddenly, in the middle of all this art/professional mayhem, a lot of it amazing, governing your time and then some, heck, your priority, shows, great commissions,  new teaching posts, etc...your breath is taken away by life making you catch your breath. And making you stand drop dead still. And think. And cry. And deeply regret.

In the space of a month, two people, both husbands of  good friends who were so much part of our earlier lives with young/teenage families, Halloween, birthday, holiday parties, trips away, carpool etc..., quite frankly all the things we did at the that time to raise our kids the best way we knew how, suddenly died in very difficult tragic circumstances.  I found myself painting very sad and shaken. 

Most of all sad that I had let painting overtake that phone call I should have made so many times. Sad that suddenly good old friend times had given way to just working, achieving. Painting in the obsessive compulsive way that I do it. I regret this. 

I feel disappointed in myself that I let friends go...and then they are gone forever. You can never pick up the phone again. You are left at their memorials. Feeling dreadful. As an artist, we work, work, work. In a solitary way.  I have at times felt myself becoming reclusive and thinking, accepting, this was OK., too tired at the end of the day to reach out to my immediate family yet alone anyone else. My art life more important than keeping ties. 

Sadly not OK.

So, in the midst of this, I found myself taking the time to finally paint something I had always wanted to paint but somehow never found the time to do it. My eldest daughter, now 22, and a delight in every way.

This photo of her had stared at me EVERY morning when I woke up. I had thought for years, I needed to paint that. Yes, it is cutesy. But that I should really do it. Not for gain. Just because...

Well, I woke up in the middle of all this yuk stuff, in the middle of intense deadlines, and just did it in five hours. Because I kinda had to.

I like it. My agency hates it. 

But that's fine. If I keel over tomorrow which is highly possible, at least I did something that I knew needed to be painted. It will be in our family forever as a moment in time that mom bothered to paint finally.

Most of all my daughter likes it....and that is the best. 

I will be taking the time from now on to make that phone call. 

My Top Ten Tips for Successful Life Painting -TONIGHT!

Come hear my Top Ten tips for successful painting from life. Hey, what do I know? Enough to persuade you to make the drive! That's what. 

I will also give you the best treat of all..no, not chocolate goodies, but a rare showing of my first ever portrait from life.

It will make you feel really good! That is a promise.

6pm tonight, SCIART WEST Gallery, Oxnard. Address listed on invite below.

Sunny Side Up!

Last time I had a show I dreamt I had egg on my face the week before in nightmares. Almost put me off doing another one. Well, let me tell you, I had a blast on this one. Yes, a LOT of work around a busy painting schedule, but some really great people helped me put on a show which left me feeling sunny side up. A souffle really. All warmed like melted cheese.

Bob Privitt, an incredible artist himself, and with a wit to warmth, directed hanging the show. He knows his stuff having run Pepperdine's Weissman Gallery in previous years. He made me look good!  He also helped me edit along with Karen Brooks, (she knows how to paint dogs far better than me). As an artist we want to hang it all. But sometimes less is more. I learned this big time on this show. The viewing eye needs a rest. I also learned my future path as all these head studies came together as a group. What wowed the crowd and what didn't. Fascinating stuff. Clarity. It is good to show your privates! Head studies, that is...

Then we get to the reception...I was thrilled so many showed up and thrilled I was actually enjoying it!

Flowers arrived, champagne was popped and people actually seemed curious about the art. And I also felt those sitters radiated through the room, a collective energy, painted from life, even if something was wrong about the mouth.

So many thanks to all of you for the support especially to Michelle Dupuy Leavitt, SCIART Gallery Director,  who helped conceptualize the show from the get-go, encouraging me all the way, and then some,  through some tough personal health times. Everyones' support meant the world to me. And in case you missed it, I am doing an Artist's Talk this Friday at 6pm. And the show runs forever until August 16th. Watch out for my interview on Arts Scene (Ventura) and a plug in 805 Magazine.

Two Buck Chuck

Well, here it is. The invite to my show. No excuses not to attend now! At least for a glass of Two Buck Chuck at the reception. You can see how I paint mouths on a good day,,, and on a bad.