Direct Painting, Sessions 6, 7 & 8

Each painting took approximately 2.5 hours. I'll probably re-visit a couple in the future. What a great class. I recommend anyone who wants to improve their painting (or drawing) to take Barbara Fugate's classes, either at Gage Academy (www.gageacademy.org) in Seattle or in West Seattle. (www.fromlife.blogs.com)

Emotive Color - 24"x24" Oil on canvas

Bright Color - 24"x24" Oil on Canvas

Neutral Color - 24"x 30", Oil on Canvas

Direct Painting - Sessions 4 & 5

Session 4 - Oil on Stretched Canvas - 22"x22"
2 hours

Our goal in Session 4 was the concept of deep space - foreground, middle ground, background. Manipulating paint - thinly in the background, thicker in the foreground. We were encouraged to use a toned canvas in a bright color - I chose an intense, hot pink, allowing it to show through in spots.

Session 4 - Detail

Session 5 - Oil on Stretched Canvas -21"x30"
2 hours

Our Challenge in Session 5 was shallow or flat space. Looking at various artists, we used a toned ground (this time, blue) and tried to maintain similar value throughout the painting. A way to think about it would be - If I took a black and white picture, there would be little to no contrast, mostly greys in a similar range. Another way to flatten space is the use of a consistent pattern.

Session 5 - Detail

Direct Painting #3 - The Gestural Line Painting

Session 3 - Oil on Canvas, 24"x18"
Approx 2 hours

This weeks' challenge was to build up our painting using gestural line/markmaking -"The Painted Gesture" - Gesture is about HOW things are, about movement, energy, life!" Could pick a monochromatic, analogous or complementary palette. I chose a Complementary Palette of Orange/Blue. Artists we looked at: Oskar Kokoshka, Susan Rothenberg, Toulouse Lautrec, Berthe Morisot, Zacher and Auerbach.

Painting Detail

My palette - 18"x 24"piece of 1/4" plexi with a piece of cardboard taped underneath. I also use a dry erase marker to mark the name of the hues. It helps me remember the color mixes.

Direct Painting Class with Barbara Fugate, Session 1 & 2

Session 2 - Oil on Canvas 28"x20"
Approx 2.5 hours

The Challenge in this painting was to work with line/contour line. We initially stained the canvas using paint, dipping our rags in mineral spirits. The focus was to get the big shapes of light & dark, positive and negative down first. We each chose a color scheme - I picked a Secondary Triadic of Green/Orange/Violet. The next step was to use line, of varying weight, color (intensity, value) to emphasize and activate the forms. Barbara showed us artwork by Matisse, Max Beckmann, Gauguin, Oskar Kokoshka, Alice Neel and others.

Session 2, Detail 1

Session 2, Detail 2

Session 1 - Oil on Canvas, 24"x24"
Approx 2h

In our first Direct Painting class we were challenged to simplify the forms we saw into simple, big shapes of light and shadow. We each picked a complementary color scheme - mine was Red/Green. We also had to try to find a Figure-Ground relationship - by adding greens into the figure I incorporated colors from the background into the main figure. We looked at the San Francisco Bay Area Painters (Joan Brown, Terry St. John, Paul Wonner), Leland Bell & Elmer Bishoff.

Session 1, Detail

Single Fare 2: Please Swipe Again. And Again.

My three entries to the Single Fare 2 show. I am so out of my league. Wonderful, wonderful works in this show - great artists like my friends, Debra Goertz, Suzanne Lago Arthur, Charis Carmichael Braun and Christian Johnson, as well as big names like Alyssa Monks (ridiculously amazing), Jacob Jacobsmeyer.. .
I had fun, and I know that counts somewhat. But some days, you just feel mediocre in the presence of such greatness. Which makes me more determined to keep learning.

10 Minute Espresso (Cups)

hehe. Wonky little cups.
This is my entry for the 10 Minute Challenge hosted by Carol Marine, of Daily Paintworks -
http://www.dailypaintworks.com/Challenge

It was definitely an eye-opening experience. Great warm up exercise to get your painting juices flowing. I highly recommend giving it a try. And please check out all the different entries! Wow!

(2) 4"x12" oil on (3/4") stretched canvas

Sunday Morning Sun Art 2011

My Submission to the Artist Challenge #43, the CBS Sun Challenge. Check out all the cool pieces and maybe, just maybe, see the work on CBS.

Original painting, oil paints on stretched canvas. 19"x25"

Prints (8x10 or larger) are available. Please email me.

http://www.theartistchallenge.com/2011-01-08/art-challenge-43-sunday-morning-sun-art-2011/