Flores from Molly

Molly brought me over flowers for having her for dinner last night. She also suggested that I use inexpensive platforms for my quick studies instead of expensive canvases. I bought some slate for $1.19 at Home Depot yesterday, and primed it with a clear acrylic varnish. I decided to do a quick study of Molly's flowers using only a few colors and a palette knife. I am terrible at photographing my work, so I took two pictures.  One has some shine from the flash even though I tried to bounce it with some white paper. (Come to think of it, the shine might be from the light above.) The second image is without a flash, so it is a little blurry.

More Circles

I felt the need to loosen up, so I painted this abstraction:

I saw something similar once in a decorators' magazine, but with less color and movement, and much rounder circles.  I like how I was able to manipulate the movement of the paint, but I still may work on it some more.....  Also, the flash on my camera highlighted some of the black in the middle.  In reality, it is darker...

Another Drawing from QAA

Quick sketch.  I need to get painting.....

Magistra Lanzi

First oil portrait:

I love working on faces, but had never tried an actual portrait of a person (at least spent some time trying to capture the person with any real accuracy).  My former student, colleague, friend was kind enough to sit for me back in August at Edwina's studio. I didn't achieve much that first day, so I took a few pictures of my model.  Since my photography skills are lacking, the photo image of Alexis was in a different position than the painted image.  I had to rework the painting entirely to get the image of her correct from the photograph.  I worked on this portrait for a long, long time, and Edwina's advice was extremely helpful, especially for the background and hair.

I may need to experiment with some alternatives for flesh tone, as Alexis came out a little red in hue.  I used rose madder too much, I think.

Michelle, ma belle

QAA da Vinci -esque model...

I need to get painting!!