Authentic Flesh showing in October

Drum roll, please!

For all of you who have been wondering when you're ever going to get a chance to see these beautiful women I've been painting in real life, your wait will soon be over!  I don't know if you'll get to see the women themselves, but you can definitely come see the paintings!

Here's the press release we'll be sending out this week - you're the first to know!

Susan Singer – painting all the naked women in Richmond, one at a time…

Richmond, VA – Visual Art Studio is pleased to announce the Opening Reception First Friday, October 1, 2010 of Authentic Flesh, the newest series of paintings to come from the brush of the talented Susan Singer. Coming several years after her provocative and very successful life size pastel series, 12 Naked Men, Authentic Flesh is meant to awaken the viewer to the beauty of the female form in all of its variations. Singer has exquisitely painted women from age 23 to age 89, from the excruciatingly thin to the quite portly, all of them emanating the power of their individual form and being.

In today’s society, the media seems to be in charge of creating the image people have of the “perfect” woman’s body. Singer hopes to crash through the belief that a woman must be tall and rail thin to be beautiful. She presents women who are beautiful because they feel gorgeous. They live authentically within their own skin and feel great about themselves – perhaps not always - but that is the overall feeling that one gets from looking at these luminescent paintings. The women radiate in their own beauty and show us what it can be like to be a person who knows her own worth.

Authentic Flesh, sure to be a blockbuster show, will premier at Visual Art Studio at 208 W. Broad Street, on First Friday, October 1, 2010. It will be on display, with many new works added, on First Friday, November 5th as well, and will close Wednesday, November 24th.

For more information, please contact Anne Hart Chay at Visual Art Studio, 804-644-1368 or the artist at www.SusanSinger.com .

Today I'm finally able to take some time to work in the studio again.  The new semester has begun with a bang - that's a good thing!  I have lots of students, plus I'm teaching two evening classes - one in SAT, and one in pastels.  It's fun to be able to use the studio for both purposes.  It's such an awesome space.  I love it that it's so versatile. 

I've begun working on two different canvases.  One of the pictures is of the model for Curves.  It has a lovely dynamism to it that attracts me to it.  When I photographed her, the focus was on her experience of loving her body, feeling empowered and full of positive feelings about her beautiful self.  I think this image evokes that powerfully.  I'm looking forward to painting it.  Its drawn on the canvas already  - I hope to have time to begin painting it soon.

The other canvas is the largest one I've done to date.  It's 6'x4' and is of two full figures with faces.  A couple of months ago I wrote about the experience of photographing a friend of mine with her sister and her sister's daughter.  It was incredibly fun because they were so joyful and fun to be around.  I still smile whenever I think about the session!  I've since learned that some of the laughter may have come from tension - anxiety about posing naked in front of someone they didn't know, not to mention in front of each other! - but I couldn't tell.  They were playful and seemed fully at ease with themselves and each other.  I got some fantastic shots I'm excited about painting.  This first one is of the mother and daughter posing with athletic equipment!  Sounds goofy, right?  The daughter has a raquetball raquet which she is holding like a piece of merchandise on Price is Right, showing it to the audience to entice them to buy it.  Her mom is holding a volleyball and is standing much more solidly on her two feet.  Both are grinning at the camera and are intensely beautiful.  I love the difference in their bodies - it gives a sense of what happens with age - and I love the difference in their stances.  It is such a completely weird picture, I'm very excited about painting it.  I'm working on transferring it to the canvas today.  It's a long process because it's so large.  I have a feeling that this picture will take a long time to paint because there are so many details - 4 hands, 4 feet, 2 wonderfully smiling faces with teeth (very challenging to paint!), not to mention the strings of the racquetball racquet!  What was I thinking??!!  Oh yeah - that this is a fabulous picture and I can't wait to paint it!

So here I go...
Check back for progress!

Curves

At the excellent suggestion of my  model, I've re-named the piece I was calling Diagonal "Curves".  I think it's a much better name - more suggestive and accurate and lovely.  Thanks, lovely lady, for the great idea!  I really appreciate your input!

Susan

Presence, Diagonal, and the book

It was a bit frustrating trying to get into the studio this morning!  I had a dentist's appointment at 8:50 then went to the office supply store, getting home a bit after 11.  I went to visit with Chris and ended up working with him to design a table for the miter saw and frame joiner which will fit into the garage with the table saw.  The man has been buying some tools!  I used to think our basement was huge, but now with the table saw and joiner and miter saw and 2 router tables and the room with the framing table in it, it's starting to get quite crowded!  Crazy!  We're very blessed to have so much space!

After all that talking and after lunch, I finally made it out to the studio where I began working on Diagonal somemore.  I refined the scar and belly sections which I don't think are showing up too well on the larger photo.  I need to take a picture in daylight rather than artificial light.  I think the piece might be finished, but, again, I'll need to see it in daylight to be sure. 

Chris came out and took a look at Presence and had some suggestions for how to improve it, so I did a little bit of work on it after feeling finished with Diagonal.  (I need a better name for that one!  Any ideas?)  I think Presence is looking better now. One thing he wanted me to add were some blemishes that are on her leg in the photo.  He thought it would help the expanse of thigh look more realistic.  They are there now!  I'll see how the piece looks tomorrow, again, in daylight, to see how finished it looks.  I worked on the foot some more because the shadow on it was bugging me.  I am more pleased with it now.

I've been doing a lot of thinking about the book I'd like to write about this series of paintings.  I think what I'll do is tell stories about each of the paintings - about photographing the women, about conversations we had about the process or the photographs, about the painting, about responses to the paintings - whatever makes sense about each painting.  I had been thinking about talking about the media and society and how each perceives women, etc.  I think that is all important, but I am not moved to do the type of research that would give me scientific accuracy.  I'm more interested in telling stories, anecdotes about these wonderful women and experience of photographing and painting them.  Some of the models have been kind enough to write about their experiences so I'll incorporate those writings in what I write.  I'm looking forward to getting more of a start on that now that I know better what I want to do.

I'm in the process of applying for a Fellowship to live in Italy for a month so I could take some super concentrated time to work on the book as well as more paintings.  That would be next Fall.  Wish me luck!

fun day in the studio

I worked on refining this piece today, making the transitions smoother, the darks darker, the shadows better.  I think it ended up at an inbetween stage that doesn't look as good as it did before I started, but it's on its way where it needs to be.

Now off to fix dinner for Chris and me - grilled marinated salmon, spoon bread, brussel sprouts - then we'll have a lovely evening talking about our intentions for the coming year and enjoying each others' company.  We're not the wild and crazy party animal types!  We'll probably be asleep before midnight!

Happy New Year to you all!  May you be blessed with creativity and joy and harmony and peace.

New Piece!

I had a lot of fun yesterday starting a new canvas!  I was planning to do a different pose for this model, but Chris hasn't had time to make a canvas for me with all the hurry and flurry of Christmas, so I decided to paint a pose I could put on a ready made canvas I already had.  I'm glad it worked out that way.  I'm really enjoying doing this piece.

I gridded it in the morning then mixed my paints then decided to put the first layer on with my hands.  I'll do that sometimes when I'm wanting to be loose and free with the paint application.  Sometimes I continue using my hands throughout, but this time after a while I used a brush so I could get some of the areas more accurate.  The first photo is of the canvas after I'd only used my hands.  The second is after about an hour or so with a brush.  I'm itching to get back out to the studio right this minute so I'm not going to write much more!

I do want to wish you all a very Happy New Year!  May this be a wonderfully creative, satisfying, joyful year full of cherished times with loved ones.  May all your creative dreams come true!

Susan