You know that procrastination you do about that thing that scares you? I joined a Meet Up group online that lists local live model figure drawing classes weekly. Week after week I received the notices. After week. After week. Then I made it a New Year’s resolution to go. Today I did. It was easy, perfect, relaxed, serious. Yay!
Category artwork
blue tape philosophy
A post on Facebook declared that Picasso created about 50,000 art works, of which 100 today are known/valued. The point of the post was that art is a numbers game – and not every thing you make is going to be quality, revolutionary, evanescent.
But you/I will have made it.
I regularly put stuff up that I’ve made – but not framed – I put it up with blue painter’s tape. I’m looking at it, I’m thinking about it, but I see it all as practice and learning. It’s rarely a finished product.
That being said, I can also still get moody – up-moody or down-moody about the process, my stuff. Helps to notice that, and remember that the critical mind cannot make a damn thing.
chairs, oil, 9×12 inches
painting cards
Painting a variety of Christmas cards this year.
Figure class
Spent from 10-5 pm today in a class called “Expressive Figure Drawing” at the Miller School of Art. We had a wonderful model and lots of interesting challenges.
Here we were looking for the mass/gravity center of the model:
Here we were drawing then painting her face on top of a random collection of negative spaces
space v. flat
I’ve been told I naturally see “space” and it’s harder for me to see a flat painting. And I’m working hard to understand what that even means. Alberto Giacometti was a painter, sketcher and sculptor. He was good with space. My assignment: do it like Giacometti.
Giacometti:
me
one year!
It’s just about one year since I began drawing and painting with a teacher.
Some things I’ve done:
– color mixing
– color theory
– started using oil paint
– painted self portraits and portraits
– stretched and primed canvasses
– worked with six fantastic volunteer models
– finished two online classes with MoMA (one included painting)
– did five (plus) figure paintings
– put up artwork in a group show
– continued to show up and learn stuff for 12 months, whether or not I was comfortable.
– wow! what a year! thank you to everyone who says encouraging things to me! I appreciate it ❤️
and now for something completely different
flexibility
Here is an early version of this piece (October 2019).
And here is the same canvas today.
evolution
learning is where it’s at. This is a detail of a larger painting I’m working on.
two versions
