Carlo Russo's Floral Painting Workshop at ARA

Two day painting, after attempting to paint some roses during the first two days of Carlo's workshop:

The photo of this painting is terrible. Oil on linen.

I need to paint over the summer, and the only option I had at ARA on account of my own schedule was Carlo Russo's Floral Painting Workshop. I did not think that I would enjoy painting flowers. I didn't, but I also didn't know that floral painting could be so complicated. I suppose I created a greater challenge for myself by trying to bring a rose to life for my first ever flower painting. Carlo said that roses are second in difficulty to peonies.

First day:

Second day:

Carlo is an excellent painter. I learned much, but I still do not like painting flowers. I will continue to do it though for practice.

Learning to Paint en Plein Air

When the sun is shining and the air is warm, I need to be outside. So, once again, this summer I tried to paint a landscape, but this time I had instruction from the fabulous Damon Lehrer. I have attempted en plein air before, but without much luck, skill, or natural ability. I have never been inspired by landscape paintings, except perhaps by those of the impressionists. The vibrancy of colors, the thick paint, and the atmospheres in Renoir and Van Gogh give me delight. Also, Turner's insane skies make my head spin and my heart leap. Otherwise, pastoral scenes are not my thing. I prefer to investigate interesting faces and figures.

With suggestions, assistance, and instruction from Damon, I think I have improved. During the last two weekends, we worked at the Wright-Locke Farm in Winchester. The top two paintings are from Damon's workshop.

The following shows my progression from starting from the most recent to my first, which was 5 years ago.

2017

2015

2010

Some things for me to remember:

distance 

sharp, straight lines in focus area

consistent palette (relatable)

I used oil primed linen toned with cadmium red, cadmium yellow medium, and ultramarine blue.

And I went back to QAA for figure drawing. One hour pose, charcoal on paper. 

Slow Going...

My occupation, again, has interfered with my desire to improve my drawing and painting ability. At present, I am determining a new schedule, which I hope will suit my passion for developing my drawing and painting skills.


Below is a charcoal figure drawing worked on at ARA during Emmy's Saturday long pose. I missed one session, because I was stuck in Amsterdam, and did not render as much as I would have liked. Three fewer hours, however, wasn't my downfall; I came across more obstacles with this drawing than I had should have with my experience. Below that, is an hour and half at QAA drop in figure session.

Summer Workshop at ARA - 2016

Red chalk on stretched, walnut oil toned paper.

Last week I was fortunate to be enrolled in a figure drawing workshop with Iliya Mirochnik http://www.iliyamirochnik.com. This it the third workshop I have attended with Iliya as the instructor, and it never ceases to amaze me that such a young man could possess so much talent, skill, and knowledge! The drawing above took me about 21 hours. The model was a former body builder. It was great to see her muscles, but she could not hold her pose. Her head was not still for more than 30 seconds. Students have her head in all different positions - some facing left, some right. It is amusing to see. Since I could not determine how to draw her head, Iliya had me do a sketch below, and then copy it on my figure drawing. This helped. Since it was a figure drawing, I was told not to concentrate on achieving a likeness, but to focus on structure and form.

In order to experience anatomy close up (I mean really up close and personal), Iliya brought us to Tufts Medical School to study a cadaver with an Iraqi doctor, who went to elementary school with Saddam Hussein. A fantastic experience!

Other than focusing on the form and anatomy as you can see in the above long pose, we also attempted quick sketches on newsprint at the beginning of the week. We did line line drawings, contour drawings, and light and dark tonal impressions. This approach is very different from the usual ARA procedure. I find both techniques beneficial, and when I am ready to go out on my own, I will certainly work in both manners depending on my purpose.

I explained to Iliya that I want to practice my hatching, and he suggested I fill in 5 pieces of lined paper with hatches. I did 5 with straight lines, and 2 with curved. He said at the end of the exercise I would be able to hatch like Michelangelo. He had more faith in me than he should have. I will continue to practice this.

Angela: 60 Hour Pose

Angela:

This year we had a model for one 30 hour term, where I competed a decent construct. This model, however, quit modeling at the end of the term.

Angela stepped in and was able to model for approximately 60 hours during the course of two terms. I missed one session and she missed one or two. I felt the time was sufficient to create a cartoon and to begin to render a portion of the figure. What my drawing lacks is subtle transitions. This seems to be the struggle as there is only a certain amount of time in front of the model. I find it much too challenging to work on anything other than filling in values when the model is not in front of me. Even stretching out a value to achieve a transition is useless for me when I am not looking at something. I have attempted this, but I am always wrong! I found Angela to be a great model. She stayed in position well, though her tilt was off by the last few pose sessions. No one complained, and I was able to work around it. I found her head to be very difficult, because, first, it is small, and secondly, her head was almost completely in the dark. My binoculars were not helpful. I have been searching for a decent set, but to no avail. Thanks to Emmy for another great year!

Value Study #2

Here is my second attempt at a value study in Emmy's Color Study Class at the Academy of Realist Art-Boston. I do not think I achieved the fall of light as well as I did on my first value study in the class. Emmy helped much with the plane changes on the pectoral muscles.
The most successful part, I believe, is the light reflecting from the floor back onto the model's legs.

This was a two class study. Ivory black, raw umber, lead white on oil primed linen. Neutral imprimatura (ivory black, raw umber, turpentine).

A Commission & A Value Study

Sometime ago, a colleague of mine asked me to paint a picture of her kids. She wanted it Sorolla-style, and, also similar to much of Sorolla's work, the setting was to be on the beach. She is a Spanish teacher, so no surprises here. She provided me with a dark 4x6 glossy photograph. I experienced some trials as I attempted this: a.) I am not accustomed to working from photographs, never mind small ones with dark figures, b.) I haven't painted in over a year, and c.) I have been painting indirectly the majority of the times I have painted over the last 4 years. Sorolla obviously requires more of a direct style. So here is what I came up with:

I also began a value/color study course at ARA with Emmy. We have had three classes thus far. The first was dedicated to a lecture and a demo, and the second two classes were for a value study of the figure with the same model, same pose both classes. We used raw umber, ivory black, and lead white; the goal was to achieve the fall of light. We worked small segments at a time, considering value relationships. We did not worry about the drawing, which was such a strange feeling while working at ARA, where the entire time I've been a student there, we have been pushed to render a likeness. I believe this first attempt was quite successful. My fear now is that I won't be able to do it again.