Day 14 - Baring my Soul

Well, I've counted the days wrong. It won't make too much of a difference later, as it is a year long process.

Tues and Wed were spent out of town. I wanted to attend a fundraiser dinner that had an art auction of donated pieces. Some of the art was tremendous, some pieces were standard prints. The bidding was not related on art quality. Frustrating.

Today, I started a still life and realized that the flower would not last into tomorrow. So here is the rough piece.

I'm also realizing that this could get embarrassing, posting unfinished works. Hope the ego can stand it!

Day Twelve - The gallery side of art

Today, no painting. There is a business side to art that must be addressed. My artwork is showing at a cooperative gallery in Alpine and all of the participating artists must work 2 days a month. These are 8 hour days, but it is a peaceful environment. We get a number of customers and it is a pleasure talking to them. I am pretty good at talking about the work, even my own. But I find it very hard to say "my name is...., please come and see what I've done".
I do have brochures and business cards out, so they help. And the director of the gallery has made us some very professional name tags.

Part of the mentoring process is goal setting. And I think I'm going to have to set some real goals about promotion and networking. We are fairly well connected in this area, but with a population of about 6,000, there aren't a lot of portrait commission potentials. So the goal must entail reaching a larger area.

Day Eleven - Not a still life a day

Ok, I realize that this still life a day isn't going to work the way I'd planned. This one took 3 different painting sessions. But at least I'm trying to do some work each day. I am having a tough time finding the compromise between finely worked detail and/or sketchiness.

Day Nine - Worked on Portrait Background

Had the pleasure of my model back in the studio, so worked on forms in the face and eyes.

After the model left, I decided to take the plunge and change the background. It has been bothering me...too harsh and battleship gray. So I made a choice and have softened the color and the forms in the back. I like it better (at least today).

Day Seven - Some good strong coffee needed

I started an oil "sketch" of the Turkish coffee pot, torn between a simple poster study/color study and a full fledged painting. It is now in the early stages and I hope to get finer details and more true lighting tomorrow. Back to my old contact lens for the moment and that helps some.

For the mentoring process, I now need to come up with a couple of concrete goals for the next 9 months. Tough to limit them, but I need to focus.

Day Six - All about subtle changes

I've worked on yesterday's still life, changing the fabric and some shadows, reshaping the mouth of the vase and boosting the highlights.

Day Five - Got the paints out

Made some subtle changes to "Jan". Didn't get any model time, but there were some tonalities I needed to smooth out, etc.

So I decided to take some painting time for a still life today. I have the tremedous luck of having an antique store next door where I can "borrow" my still life objects. What fun! 5"x 8"

Day Four - Frustration

Still enthusiastic! But as we all know, there are days where drawing from life is more frustrating than others. This was one of those days. Set up the straw hat and thought the shape would be interesting and challenging. Sure was right about that. I'll have to try it again some other time. I'm also adjusting to a new prescription for my contact lens and it is totally throwing off my close vision. (sounds like a good excuse for a less than ideal drawing session...that and crummy pencils)

Day Three - weekend work

Following the thought that everything is interesting and worthy of being in a still life, I took some time to draw the mess on my kitchen counter. Living in an RV forces you to live simply and clutter is a no-no. But that doesn't mean it doesn't happen...it just can't stay there very long.

Different feel to the piece as it was done on a softer, more textured paper.

Day Two - Daily Tasks

One of the tasks proposed with the mentoring program is to paint a still life each day. I am going to take the term "paint" a bit loosely and try to at least do a drawing a day. This should help with my time management issues as well as keeping my skills up.

This is a fairly quick, and unfinished drawing. Just graphite on paper.

Jennifer sent some photos of her work in progress as well as a piece she finished recently. Beautiful and contextual. (that word just came out of the blue, but I'm using it to mean that the figure/portraits are set in real locations. Giving them a sense of time and space.)

I have a commission that I need to get started on in the next week or so. Although it is a watercolor piece, it will be a perfect opportunity to work on the "contextuality". Ha!

It is a portrait of a brother and sister and I am working from the customer's photos. More soon.

Photo of "Jan" Portrait

18"x18" oil on linen

Day One - Phone Meeting

Today, I spoke to Jennifer Welty on the phone for the first time. What a pleasure! She will be my mentor for the process. We will be working together for 9 months, setting goals and working towards them. Right now. the plan is to talk on the phone weekly, plus emails regularly throughout the week. Also, we hope to meet at least once during the time.

I have not yet received the packet from the Cecilia Beaux group who coordinated this process, so I imagine some of my expectations will evolve.

I'm setting up this blog as a bit of a journal, tho rather public, of the process and my progress.

Today, I'll post a photo of the portrait I have been working on for the last couple of months. I still see about 2 weeks of work left in it. The photo is not great, either. But I need to work on the edges, the shape of the eye on the right, the hair, add a gold chain, etc.

One of the projects I've been tasked with is to work on painting a still life a day. We'll see. I'm going to work on something this afternoon. I may work on drawing, or painting. But I will try to post daily (M-F) on the progress.

This is all very exciting and I have caught a bit of Jennifer's enthusiasm! It will be a wonderful journey.