The color of courage

Portrait class this week seemed to be a lot about color. The subject maybe be basic, but not simple, even when we break it down into Hue, Value, Temperature and Saturation. For the beginning artist, the technical "how" of achieving a desired color is imperative. The use of it, though, that's where expression  the fun begins!

Art keeps changing over time and culture with differing emphasis on symbol, or line, or form, or color or "reality" or "abstract"...there's no permanence or perfection or even progress, necessarily. As Tom says, we just keep trading our problems in for more interesting ones. Mastery begets new questions and on we go. And as Casey Baugh reminded us last spring at the Portrait Society of America meeting, Art is truly a universal language, at least to humans. What a grand adventure!

This is the final week of the How Do You Paint Courage exhibit which is finishing its tour at the Center for Creative Leadership.  [link How Do You Paint Courage]
In the photo on the left you can see Tom Edgerton's painting which I finally got to see in "person". I know the colors in the painting were chosen very deliberately and the result is quietly powerful. As courage often is.

And here is the beginning of a portrait with a new model who brought some nice colors into the sitting. It's going to be a lot of fun. Aloha!

Simply Jean

The day started gray, but now the colors outside are shining and glowing...even in the studio I think they are echoing within us. Hope you are feeling it, too. Aloha!

Value Relationships

Sounds like something to put on a Tshirt...along with Love One Another. We were speaking primarily of value relationships today in portrait class. Looking not just at the question of what value is this particular spot, but what's the relationship between these two areas of light and dark. Value shifts, even when subtle, do so much to express form in painting.

Still, Value Relationships is not a bad thing to keep in mind on  Election Day...it's easy to feel "unloved" when we allow issues to divide us. Sometimes it's easy to equate "issue" with "value", but we might find perfect agreement on values and yet find ourselves on opposite sides of any particular issue. Where some say that the end justifies the means, Gandhi said the end is the means. So, every day,  I'll  try to keep patience and respect close at hand. After all, we're neighbors. Aloha!

Beautiful Fall

Jean's Jamaican background is showing...the perfect hat for this unusually cold autumn. My daughter came up with the today's title: Beautiful Fall and she's absolutely right. It is beautiful...from inside the warm house especially! Time for roasted marshmallows and lots of candy tomorrow! Aloha!

Here and Now

Here and Now  is a pastel painting which I just completed for the already sold out 21st Annual March of Dimes Chefs Auction.  Many talented Greensboro chefs celebrate local foods and we are fortunate in the Triad to have some wonderful restaurants and food sources (a shout-out to Maxie B's too, with their dedication to local ingredients...just a personal favorite). With that inspiration, I rounded up some Restless Soul Red Table Wine from Old North State Winery and My Three Sons gourmet Pimento Cheese from right here in Greensboro and displayed them in another local favorite of mine (my Sweetheart's back yard). By the way, quite a delicious set-up!

The tradition of "nature mort" (or still life) is often a reminder of the transitory nature of things. Picture my little table full of goodies precariously balanced on the grass. Then picture me picking it all up and moving it between photos as I chased the setting sun across the yard. Yes, we really are moving over 1,000 miles/hour as our planet spins...and that's not counting the orbit around the sun. So, all the more reason to enjoy our fleeting, flying moments. Here and Now is an elusive concept. Aloha!

Karen today

This go-round produced a much better likeness and a more satisfactory painting for me. I think Karen liked the previous painting I did of her (May, 2012), which had a green background and showed blonder hair, but I wasn't pleased with the lack of finish at the time, after only two sessions. She's a great and very generous model, so I hope we'll be painting her again.

Aloha!

Karen Take 2

So great to be back in the studio today! This painting is really requiring me to look and study, then look and study some more. It's moving in the right direction, but really can't wait to work on it some more!

Also in progress on a larger still life...just in the drawing stage yet. But I need a 28 hour day or two. Aloha!