working on Joyful, Joyful

This week I've had the pleasure of working on Joyful, Joyful, the second painting I've done of this beautiful 90-year-old woman.  This piece is particularly inspiring to paint because of the expression on her face.  May I feel so wonderful when I'm going on 90-years of age!

I've used a different technique in painting this piece.  In the past I haven't paid attention to the type of paint I've used - transparent or opaque.  I've just mixed them according to hue (color), not paying attention to whether they are transparent or not.  This time I categorized my paints specifically according to their transparency and chose to paint only with transparent paints with the exception of white.  I used Flake White rather than my normal Titanium White.  Flake White contains lead and is the white the Old Masters used because it was available.  It has different characteristics than the newer whites.  The most distinctive one I find is that it dries in the jar really quickly so it's hard as heck to get out.  I don't particularly like it, but I'm giving it a try to see what I can learn from using it. 

What I'm liking about this process is that I'm building up the paint in many layers, and no layers is having a huge impact, but each is contributing to the whole in subtle ways.  For example, in this close up of her left side, you can see that she has long lovely wrinkles in her skin as well as some moles.  The light strikes her skin luminously.  It's been a real pleasure to build up the light and incorporate the lines and makes bit by bit.  It takes a light deft touch rather than heavy-handedness and allows me to treat her skin like parchment.  I'm using heavy brushes sometimes and grinding the paint in - not the light touch I just wrote about - but it's good for getting uneven patches of light and dark.  They look natural.  Her legs are a good example of this.  They have a lot of color in them, many variations and modulations.  Using a natural bristle brush I have been able to apply paint strongly, but because it's transparent, no single layer has dominated the passage.  Rather each has built upon the previous one.

I'm going to let the paint that is on the canvas dry for a few days now.  I noticed last night that I was simply smearing off the paint that was already on there when I went to add more.  Not a good thing!  So I'm going to begin on a new canvas today and get back to this one in a week or so once it dries.

FYI, this is the other painting I did of the same woman.  It is 6'x3' approximately.  The new piece is 48"x30" or something like that.  Just about life size where the other one is larger than life size.

Something has shifted, and it's really good

Something has shifted, and it's really good.

This last week has been my best art week ever. So many affirmations!  It began with my selling one of my small color studies on my online gallery, ArtQuiver.com.  I love how I get an email with the title, "Congratulations on your sale!"  A very perky way to start the day!  So the week has been full of getting that piece ready to go then mailing it.

The next day I received another email from one of my local galleries, Serendipity, saying I had sold a piece and might be able to sell another one if I could get it ready for them.  That was a green pear in pastel, unframed.

Then my most recent sale was of The Dancer at 89, one of my large oil paintings.  I sold it to a friend of my neighbor's who saw it and loved it and had been playing with the idea of purchasing it for some time but had to figure out where to put it.  They figured it out and decided to get it!  I'm thrilled!  They're great folks, and I'm really glad the piece will go to their wonderful home.  Selling my pieces is interesting for me - in some ways it's like putting my children out into the world- I want to make sure they're going to a place where they will be loved and appreciated.  Of course it makes sense that they will - otherwise why would someone buy them?!  But a part of me goes with each piece.  It makes me so happy when they find new homes.

In addition to those sales, I also heard from four galleries who would like to have me show/sell my work there.  Red Door Gallery here in Richmond will be doing a show of nudes sometime next year and would like to include my pieces in that.  Crossroads Art Gallery would like me to have a solo show there in 2011.  Visual Art Studio is interested in having me do a solor show there in October or November.  And The Pea Island Art Gallery would like me to sell my nudes there.  After so many people telling me that they couldn't/didn't want to show nudes, it's very, very refreshing to get so much affirmation all in one day - yes, all those calls took place in one day!  The Universe seems to be strongly affirming my intention to paint these beautiful women and to make a difference in the world with my work.

Thank you, dear reader, for your part in my journey.  I feel you with me and appreciate it that you take the time to join me for these moments several times each week.

May you have success in finding and pursuing your heart's treasure.

Susan

Rembrandt

I'm currently reading a book about Rembrandt called, illuminatingly, Rembrandt!  It's by D.M. Field.  It's a huge, thick book with wonderful illustrations and a good biography of the painter.  I love Rembrandt's work because of his honest portrayals of people.  He didn't try to make them pretty.  He just tried to paint them how they were.  (Or at least that's how it looks to me.)

Here are some quotes about him which resonate for me as I do my paintings:

"The background of a Rembrandt painting may appear as a solid, dark brown.  In fact... it is made up of a mixture of closely associated browns, greens and greys, which acquire life and atmosphere from reflected light.  ....The background is never just packaging, it is an integral, functioning part of the design."

My backgrounds are generally very plain.  They have several colors in them, but that isn't evident unless one looks closely.  I prefer to keep the backgrounds clean and simple so that the empasis is on the figure, not the surroundings.  I use intuition to guide me as I decide where to crop a painting/photograph and leave much space around the figure if I like how the composition looks.  In Sleek Back, Saucy Shadow the negative space and the shadow play as big a part in the composition as the body itself does, though the empasis is on the figure.

"But the basis of Rembrandt's art is not so much color as tone - the effects of light and shadow known by the term chiaroscuro.  It is this that decides the scheme or composition of the picture."

When I choose my subjects to paint, I always think about the light and shadows.  I find that the form is described well by them, and having strong darks and lights makes the picture more dramatic.  Woman in a Chair is the piece I've done which exemplifies this idea best. 

About Rembrandt's composition, Field writes:

"...his paintings have a 'center', and they hardly ever contain different, self-contained areas of interest.  His compositions are quite simple, but strong and unerring....there is little movement.  Rembrandt's figures, seen against them, have an impact that does not spring exclusively from his intellect or his unique psychological insight.  Design and technique are also responsible."

Rembrandt's paintings are amazing for that.  Out of the dismal dark, there shines a face with so much humanity in it.  This image is a great example both of chiaroscuro and of the compositional elements Field wrote about above.  It's a self-portrait of Rembrandt when he was a young man.

I am trying to have the same sort of affect in The Dancer at 89 - simple composition, no movement - giving the viewer a chance to experience the interior life of the subject.

"Although he seldom paints a real room or a real landscape background, his art does not aspire to rise above nature, but shows us the essence, the true reality, of it.  As a modern biographer says, 'He was driven by a passion to set down every shape, area, tone and colour exactly as he saw it.' ...  Rembrandt does not paint the ideal, he paints the reality."

"Once Rembrandt's naturalistic style and sympathy for the poor, the old and the ugly, were deplored.  ...But our feelings on this score are precisely the contrary....  According to early biographies, Rembrandt is supposed to have said that an artist ought to be guided by nature and not by any other rules."

I am trying for that sense of reality as well.  I paint my models as realistically as I possibly can.  I find them so beautiful already that I have no need to enhance that beauty or to modify it in any way.  It may not be beauty in the conventional sense, but is it exquisite in its authenticity.

And a stimulating quote from Picasso to end this blog entry...

"Art is never pure, we should keep it far away from the innocent ignorant. We should never let people approach. Yes, art is dangerous. If it is pure it is not art."

(Pablo Picasso)

Getting out there...

One week, three rejections!


As I've mentioned before, I've been sending out many, many, many applications for shows, contests, galleries, etc.  After the first round, I received 3 immediate acceptances and was thrilled!  They were for radius 250 at Artspace here in Richmond and 2 national shows in Fredericksburg, VA.  I won 2nd prize at one of the F'burg shows.  Those were thrilling!


I got more ambitious and sent work in to Artist's Magazine and Utrecht's, both of which have national competitions for all the readers of their magazines/customers of their art supplies.  No word back = no thanks.  Darn!


I also applied to a couple of shows nationally, one in Charleston, REDUX.  They got 364 applications for 2 shows.  I wasn't one of the ones they chose.  The other was Second Street Gallery in Charlottesville.  They also had a huge number of applications for very few shows.  I put myself out there.  It'll pay off - I won't get any shows if I don't try - but it is a bit discouraging to get these letters!


I have applied to several galleries here in town lately as well.  One gallery owner liked my work a lot but said she doesn't show nudes.  She likes them a lot but feels that they are somewhat invasive so doesn't show them in her gallery, though she owns some herself.  Another owner liked my work very much, loved my energy, loves my message but doesn't want to show my work at his gallery.  He said the work is a bit too challenging.  I asked what he meant by that - it's so helpful for me to hear what gallery owners think.  He wrote back: "The challenge to your work is that it commands the viewer to get past their first impression and art buyers seldom do that. Art connoisseurs will get it and love what you do but there's a smaller segment of our market buyers that we feel will get it. Does that make sense?"  


I'm intrigued by the distinction between art buyers and art connoisseurs.  I've been thinking about it a lot since I got his note.  I can see that Richmond might be a challenging market for my work since the buyers here generally go for landscapes or mild abstracts or still lifes - pieces that match the decor and are lovely to look at.  I get that my work is harder to be with, more "invasive".  I find it beautiful, but then I'm the one making it!


On the positive side, I've gotten several emails out of the blue lately from people who stumbled upon either my blog or website.  They felt moved enough by my work to email me to tell me how much they liked it.  One woman was kind enough to write, "I just got so excited when I saw your work this morning I couldn't help myself. Your colors! the light, the bodies, the beaches ... it's all so ... well, I just connected with it. Somehow, I was just supposed to see it this morning ~ and it made my day."   Thanks, new friend!  You made my day!

Last night I sent out an application for the Extraordinary Women's Luncheon here in Richmond.  4 times/year they choose a woman from the community to honor.  At the luncheon to honor the woman, they give away a poster which has art by a local artist on it.  The artist has the opportunity to talk about her work at the luncheon.  The art is supposed to honor women in some way.  Well, heck!  My work definitely does that!  I sent two pictures for them to consider: The Dancer at 89 and Bling Lady.  I don't know if they want naked women on their poster, but I hope they will!  I think it would be VERY cool!


I'm going to take the next couple of weeks to journal and meditate and try to discern the next steps I should be taking.  I am unclear as to the next right step.  I have asked for guidance and figure it'll be forthcoming since it always is when I ask!  I'll keep you informed when the good news starts flowing in!