Today I worked on revising some pastel pieces I'd thought were finished.  Last night Chris and I started the fairly arduous process of framing 7 pieces for the show I have coming up in October.  I cut the mats while he cut the wood for the frames.  I'm so blessed to have such a talented, supportive husband to make beautiful frames for me.

Because I had good luck using spray fixative on my self portrait, I decided I was going to fix the pieces I was getting ready to frame because I am tired of having pastel dust fall onto pristine white mats, causing me to have to re-mat the pieces.  It's a pain in the butt!  So today I got out my wonderful Schminke fixative and went at it.  3 of the pieces weren't too bad - they seem to have taken off a layer of pastel, but it was manageable - but the 4th one was horrible!  It went from glowing to dark and dull.  I was so disappointed.  there was no way I could frame it like that, so I brought it into the studio and started working on it again.  The picture on the left is how it looked pre-fixative.  The one on the right is after I repaired/re-did the fixed piece.  The good news is that I think it's a stronger piece now.  The bad news is that I can't fix it for fear of messing it up again!  Oh well - what's a bit of pastel dust on a mat?

After I finished repairing Valley's Folds, I decided to re-do another piece, American Beauty.  I had been pleased with it when I finished it, but the more it hung around the studio, the less I liked it.  The colors were too yellow and fake.    I decided to try to make the colors more realistic, or at least more muted.  I began by changing the background.  That made a huge different right away.  Then I put more pink into the flesh, and green and blue into the shadows.  That made is look richer and more realistic immediately.  I love how powerfully complementary colors create shadows and make the form have the illusion of going back.

The third piece I did some work on today was Just Thinkin'.  That one has an interesting history - the model at first was almost defiant in wanting me to paint her whole body, including her face.  After our session, though, and after thinking about it for a while, she realized she wasn't comfortable with it after all.  I think she was concerned that people she knew might see the pictures and use them against her. 

She's not the only model who has had that concern.  Another woman was worried her employer might see her picture and fire her simply because "that's not the kind of woman they want working for them, and they don't need an excuse to fire someone."  I hate it that women need to have those concerns.  I understand them, and I honor them completely.  I just hate that it could be the case. 

Anyway, the model for Just Thinkin' saw the piece I had done of her and asked me to remove the tattoo on her shoulder so she wouldn't be recognizable even by that in case someone should see it.  So the other revision I did today was to "erase" the tattoo - much easier done in pastels than in real flesh!

I think it's really interesting all the feelings we women go through when deciding whether to model, how much to show, whether to show our faces or not, who can see the pictures, etc., etc.  I've had those feelings myself when thinking about my self-portrait, so I completely understand. 

This evening I had the pleasure of teaching intermediate pastels in the studio.  I love teaching!  It's so exciting to see people come into their own as artists and to see them develop the awareness that they, too, can draw well!  It's exhilarating!

A shift in Valley

A few days ago I had the joy of re-photographing a model, Valley Haggard.  I worked with her first in February of this year when we began the collaboration which will peak with our exhibit at Randolph Macon College in Ashland, VA in Feb 2011.  We had a great session then.  She was open, vulnerable, and perhaps a bit shy.  She brought a book with her and wore her glasses and used the book as a prop for much of the session.  We got some terrific shots, and I've already painted her twice.  We've had some great conversations about the process of being photographed and painted and how that's all been for her.  She is writing about the process as am I, and that writing will be part of the exhibit along with the paintings, drawings and photographs.  We're hoping to put together a book about our collaboration as well.

Recently I ran into her at a social event and we started talking.   I told her I'd loved doing the two paintings so far but would love some new input.  I asked her if she'd like me to photograph her again.  She delightedly agreed.  She came over Thursday evening.  She said that her life has changed since our previous session.  Some of it has to do with her personal life which has shifted tremendously since then, but she said much of it has to do with how she's feeling about her body - much of which is a direct result of the work we've done together.  I could see the difference right away when I began taking pictures.  The first two pictures here are from our first session.  The last two are from the more recent session.  I think the difference is quite evident.

This time she had no props and didn't even think about wearing her glasses.  She came out and started posing with joy and verve.  She pranced around full of herself in the most wonderful way!  She was joy-filled.  It was evident that she is really happy with herself and her body.  She said she's lost some weight this year, but I don't think that has anything to do with it.  She was simply holding herself completely differently.  Her level of comfort in her body was palpable.  It was thrilling to see.  She made me feel really happy.  Ever since our session, I, too, have felt more comfortable in my own body.  I think back to how she was and feel inspired to walk around strutting my stuff, feeling like a million bucks.  It's so beautiful, so completely fantastic, to be in the presence of someone who is so delighted to be inside her own skin.

It makes me know that the work I'm doing is important, really important.  Just imagine if every one of us felt so supremely happy with ourselves.  That is an image I'll cherish!

Valley's Folds

Yesterday was one of the most focused days I've had in the studio in a while.  I don't have any canvases prepared (Chris has been VERY busy lately with work and hasn't had time to make them, plus I finished two canvases all of a sudden at once) so I decided to do some pieces in pastel.  I hadn't worked in pastel in quite a while, since doing Scar and Scarf which I did last year sometime.  I remember at the time being very excited to be working in pastels again, but I didn't do more than that.  What I liked about it was how skilled I feel in it and how well I was able to evoke the texture of not only her skin, but also her felted scarf.  It's an almost abstract piece, difficult to read, but beautiful despite/because of that.

A couple of days ago when I realized I was out of canvases, I decided to begin a piece for my collaboration show coming up at Randolph Macon College in February 2011.  I've already photographed the model and am beginning to work on the pieces.  I'm very excited about this show.  I think I've written about it before, so I won't explain it again, but Valley Haggard, a wonderful woman and just as wonderful writer is my collaborator in the project.  She'll be writing about her process as my model - what it's like for her to think about being photographed and painted, how the photography process is, how it is to see the work as it happens - what it's like to immortalized on canvas and/or paper.  I'm loving working with her because she's so aware of her feelings and open about sharing them.  We seem to be on the same wavelength, so our collaboration is turning out to be richer than my individual efforts would be without it.  It's a great experience!

So...  the first piece I did in pastel is called Valley's Folds, a play on her name as well as the landscape/abstract feeling of the piece.  I'm delighted by the broad range of colors and textures as well as the composition.  There are perhaps 15 layers of color which all interact with each other at the subconscious level to give a vast richness of skin and shadow tones.  It's not possible to reproduce it on the computer screen because it and the camera reproduce only a few of the layers. 

Valley has a wonderful scar on her side and back which is one of the subjects of this piece.  I believe she will be writing about it as part of her response to the process.  I look forward to seeing how it corresponds to my response to it.

Collaboration is very cool!