Venice Portrait Studio

Beauty

10" x 8"

oil

  Sometimes, a model will walk into the studio while we're setting up our paints and easels and there's a collective sigh of exasperation.  How will we be able to look at this person for three hours?  Some people are just not inspiring enough to paint.  Tiny beady eyes, artificial hair color or make-up, unpleasant rolls of fatty tissue.  Today, the opposite happened.  This young woman walked into the studio and blinded everyone by her beauty.  The problem was how to paint fast enough to capture it.  Three hours or three years wouldn't be enough time.

Local Cruiser

Yellow Boat

4" x 6"

oil

This boat zipped by while we were painting on the shore.  Snapped a few photos as it buzzed south on the Intercoastal.  And today, the UPS truck delivered a few tubes of Williamsburg paint to my front door.  Oh, happy day... I love getting art supplies.   Had to try them out right away.  Perfect yellow.   This quick study will be useful as a bright spot in a larger painting.

History Park

Trabue House

10" x 8"

oil

Painted with the Punta Gorda plein air group early on a chilly morning.  A bald eagle was flying in and out of its nest in a pine tree behind this cabin.  Lucky photo I shot below!

Portrait Sketch

Gary

8" x 10"

oil

An instructor and talented artist posed for us at the Venice Portrait Studio.  Red acrylic underpainting with oil over. 

One Little Tourist

Venice Pier

8" x 10"

oil

Cloudy but pleasant painting near Sharkey's with two other artists.  We really entertained the tourists!  "How much is that painting?" a little girl asked my friend.  "Well, I usually sell them for a hundred," she answered.  "I only have fifty dollars," the girl said.  "Could we make a deal?"  My friend said she could have it for twenty, so the girl ran off to ask her grandmother.  When I was packing to leave, my friend was waiting for the girl to return.  She planned on giving her the painting and saying she could mail the money someday.  Smart bargaining sense for a six year old! 

Cloudy Day

ICW Englewood

8" x 10"

oil

Painted today with another artist at the edge of the Intercoastal waterway, Englewood.   Great sigh of relief all around town... police have arrested a man for the murder of our friend.

Sad Drawing

Christmas Cactus

6" x 6"

pastel

It's difficult drawing when you're not in the mood.  A horrific and senseless tragedy happened to a friend this week.  He died last night.  It will take time to sort things out.

Merry Christmas

Beach Santa

11" x 8"

pastel

Santa stopped by the Punta Gorda portrait studio a few weeks ago while on vacation down here in sunny, SW Florida.  Had a good rest before heading back North for his busy night.

Merry Christmas to all!

The Southern Atelier, Sarasota, Florida

Atelier Model

10" x 8"

oil

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of painting at the Southern Atelier, Sarasota.   A few artists were comparing notes about the Steven Assael workshop which was held there last week and I was all ears and eyes observing his influence on their work. 

Artists were using black, so I cranked open my rarely used tube and painted it into the background.  There's a lot of glare on this photo because of the wet paint, but you can get the idea of how it makes the figure pop by contrast of dark and light.  The light from an overhead skylight on a cloudy day was cool so the shadows needed to be warm.  I may have overdone the cad orange a bit in my painting frenzy.  Artists influenced by the workshop were welding fan brushes and mixing colors right on the canvas.   Not the way I usually work and because I left my fan brushes at home, I didn't do too much blending.  They also said, Assael stressed the "bones" of good drawing and structure.  Learn how to draw with a paintbrush.

The artists glowed with inspiration and praised Steven Assael's workshop.  Some traveled great distances, even from Canada and London, to repeat this workshop.  I'm saving up for next year.

Steven Assael's show, Illusions of Reality is at the Naples Museum of Art until January 9, 2011.

Sarasota Harbor

Old Sailor

4" x 6"

oil

This old dinghy must have been a pretty sight sailing around the harbor with the sun and wind in its sail.  Like an outcast, it was anchored well outside a flock of spanking new fiberglass dinghies.  Even though it had been patched and repainted, its classic lines were still elegant and graceful.  By contrast the new dinghies looked like bloated plastic shoes.

These small, postcard size paintings are a good way to practice paint application techniques.  I'm working on putting stokes down and leaving them.  Also using thicker paint, straight from the tube with no thinners.

Sarasota Plein Air

Towles Court Morning

8" x 10"

oil

Thanks to my Facebook artist friend, Lawrence Chrapliwy for suggesting this:  Set a timer for 20 minutes for composition, then 40 minutes for getting the rest down.  Below is what I was able to do in an hour and above is the finish which took another hour.  The technique really works to set a timer and work faster on location!  The stained glass window, and the light on the door, first captured my attention.  Took photos of this scene and can see why it's impossible to really "see" the true colors from a snapshot!  I know my drawing is a little quirky, but it's a true impression of the moment.  Below... the results of the timed first hour and a snapshot of the location setup. 

Painting after one hour

My painting set up

Cadmium Scarlet

Bill

8" x 6"

oil

A friend suggested I try cadmium scarlet, shown here in the highlights.  Really sings!  This was painted on top of an old landscape but not much shows through.  Kept my colors to cadmium yellow light, ultramarine blue, cadmium scarlet and white.  Also trying to use thicker strokes and less blending.   Painted at the Venice Portrait Studio in about two hours.

Teaching Project

Demo

6" x 8"

oil

Painted this while teaching a class.  Students were given small, horrible, black and white copies of a sandy path that I shot at Venice Beach.  The challenge was to create their own version, changing composition, elements, and design.  Color had to be imagined... and painted using only red, yellow, blue and white.   My demo was first sketched with red, then painted rapidly, leaving bits of red showing throughout the painting.   The exercise also demonstrated the three main tonal areas of a landscape.  Darkest tones, brightest colors in foreground, middle values and colors in mid-ground, and coolest colors, lightest tones in background.  The sky tones reflect the lights on the ground and highlights on leaves.  The sky also moves from dark to light towards the horizon, and cool to warm as it leans towards the sun.   It was interesting to see how each student created a completely different painting from the same snapshot.  Good practice for when they finally go outside and paint on location.  

Rachael Again

Rachael in the Banyon Tree

pastel

24" x 18"

Just finished this portrait of my favorite model.  While Rachael posed in this huge banyon tree in Punta Gorda, a flock of wild parrots chattered in the branches above her head.  Hard and soft pastels and pastel pencils on Arches watercolor paper coated with raw sienna Colourfix Primer.

Pastel Scribble

 

Studio Model

14" x 11"

pastel

Sketch of woman posing at the Venice Portrait studio.  Every sketch is good for practice.  Have been doing a lot of little paintings that I haven't finished.  They will be posted later.  Finding teaching forces me to try different approaches and experiment a lot.  Think I'm learning more than my students.  If you think you know everything already... how boring would that be?  Right now I'd rather be outside painting or tinkering in my studio, but instead, have to get things ready for Thanksgiving.  Darn holidays just get in the way.  But  I'm thankful for my obsession with painting and teaching. 

Hitting a Wall

Third on First Street

8" x 10"

oil

Sometimes, I feel like I've hit a wall with my paintings.  I visualize what I want in my head but it's another thing to bring that vision to canvas.  This painting was done to get myself to paint outside the box and push my technique.  I wasn't interested in painting another pretty picture.  This painting was done to explore technique, push style and skill level and practice for future paintings.  I wanted to capture color values, use bigger brushes and not get bogged down in details.  And work faster because light changes quickly when painting outside.  I was attracted to the pinkish-orange color of the building and the dark shadow thrown by the wall.  The soft shadow of a palm tree on the wall was actually just outside this paintings window.  Moved it over to add interest to the wall...  I can do that because I'm an artist!   A plein air painting doesn't have to be a photographic snapshot of a place.  It can be an impression, a collection of light patterns, colors, bits of architecture, wind blown wisps of trees, and moving shadows.  A feeling of time well spent splashing paint on canvas.  Something learned from this painting will enhance the next.

Pastel and Chalk

Snook Nook

6" x 8"

pastel

Sometimes, it's a pleasure to sit on a bench in the shade with a sketchbook and a tiny box of Nupastels and scribble.   I like to feel inconspicuous when I'm working outside.  If I were writing in a notebook, no one would come over and look over my shoulder.  But start drawing and it attracts people like flies.  One man commented, "Oh, you're just using chalk."  I had to explain that pastel and chalk are not the same thing.  Pastels are pigment with binder and chalk is well, chalk with dyes that fade.  Next time, I need to find a better place to hide.

Less Blurry

House On Dolly Street

(sharper image)

9" x 12"

oil

Here's a sharper, less blurry image of my winning painting from the Charlotte Harbor Art Sensations, Punta Gorda plein air paintout .  Photo tip: After winning a prize... never photograph your work while dancing a jig!  Hope this one looks better.  Also removed it from the frame so more of the edges show. 

A Winner!

House on Dolly Street

9" x 12"

oil

My painting, House on Dolly Street,  won First Prize AND the People's Choice award at the Punta Gorda, FL, Art Sensation Plein Air Paintout!  

Portrait Study

Champion

11" x 8"

pastel

Twenty minute pose, sketched quickly and completed in the studio from a snapshot.  Soft pastels, Nupastels, and pastel pencils on Canson Mi-Teintes, smooth side.  It's amazing how a few tiny dots of white can make eyes sparkle.