Sunday, July 26, 2009
Submissions Are Due Soon
Busy time. I’m still working through the problems in my Luna construction. That’s due mid-August, for Philadelphia’s Art in City Hall exhibition. But for a week in early August I’ll be in Seattle for a Peace Corps reunion and catching up with Ellen. Doesn't leave a whole lot of time.
Today I finished framing three paintings for another juried exhibition, MINIATURES. Submissions also due mid-August, for the Philadelphia Sketch Club. This one is open to any 2-dimensional medium, for images no larger than 5”x7”, framed to 8”x10” and with glass or plexiglass. Seems weird and undesirable to put oil paintings under glass, but if that’s what they want....
On top of that, Gamblin Paints has an interesting annual exhibition/competition going on that I would like to enter. But the deadline, again, is mid-August and I don’t think I can get it together for this time around.
I’ve learned that the quality of the frames is important, so put more care and effort in making the frames this time for the MINIATURES. There is a space of about 1/2” between the mats and the paintings, and this gives an enticing suggestion that there is more to the paintings than is being shown. (Of course that IS the case, in fact.)
The paintings, before and after framing:
Susan and Naomi, orig. 8"x10" - Alla Prima oil on board
Cropping the size helps this painting a great deal, for a change. Gets rid of all that gray background, and seems to heighten the relationship between the two girls. Does good things to the composition, too..
Meanwhile, I am also taking a short course on Color Field Painting from Kassem Amoudi at the Main Line Art Center. Amoudi teaches there and at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art. I didn’t think I wanted anything to do with abstract art, but the beauty of Elizabeth Osborne’s work changed that. Now this workshop is opening my eyes to how much of even realistic paintings are truly abstract, in ways I hadn’t realized before. This is giving me new ways to think about how to paint. Right now, if I could, I would like to meld the techniques of Matisse (his figurative work), Alice Neel, Elizabeth Osborne, and Tom Wasserman. Wow!
This week’s homework from Amoudi was to choose an abstract painting and copy it. I chose Clyfford Still’s 1957-D#1. I makes me realize the importance of scale. His painting is 9ft x 13ft, and just the power of the size gives it a whole different feel than my 17”x24” copy. And, like my copy of Tomas Eakin’s portrait of Walt Whitman, how impossible it is to meticulously copy something that was done loosely and quickly. The goal has to be to capture the feel of the painting - if you are lucky enough:
I haven’t posted anything from the Capturing Hands and Feet course I just finished, with Neil di Sabito. I did get a lot from it, and feel much more secure dealing with those appendages that most artists seem to prefer to neglect. Here a couple of drawings from late in the course:
All: Pencil on Drawing Paper, 18"x24"
Today I finished framing three paintings for another juried exhibition, MINIATURES. Submissions also due mid-August, for the Philadelphia Sketch Club. This one is open to any 2-dimensional medium, for images no larger than 5”x7”, framed to 8”x10” and with glass or plexiglass. Seems weird and undesirable to put oil paintings under glass, but if that’s what they want....
On top of that, Gamblin Paints has an interesting annual exhibition/competition going on that I would like to enter. But the deadline, again, is mid-August and I don’t think I can get it together for this time around.
I’ve learned that the quality of the frames is important, so put more care and effort in making the frames this time for the MINIATURES. There is a space of about 1/2” between the mats and the paintings, and this gives an enticing suggestion that there is more to the paintings than is being shown. (Of course that IS the case, in fact.)
The paintings, before and after framing:
Coffeehouse #1, orig. 5.5"x8" - Alla Prima oil on foamboard
This was my first painting on-site in a coffeehouse. I was really nervous, so painted someone who had her back to me. There is a nice feel to the painting, though. Unfortunately, cropping for the frame makes her look pinched and closed-in. And you lose the value of that cup beside her on the left. Oh well.
This was my first painting on-site in a coffeehouse. I was really nervous, so painted someone who had her back to me. There is a nice feel to the painting, though. Unfortunately, cropping for the frame makes her look pinched and closed-in. And you lose the value of that cup beside her on the left. Oh well.
Imagined, orig. 5.5"x8" - oil on foamboard
Cropping this picture hurt it. It loses some of that red scallop on the left, and the curve of her neckline is incomplete. Too bad! Note: The color change is caused by shooting the original in daylight and the framed version by tungsten light. You see that in all three framed paintings here.
Cropping this picture hurt it. It loses some of that red scallop on the left, and the curve of her neckline is incomplete. Too bad! Note: The color change is caused by shooting the original in daylight and the framed version by tungsten light. You see that in all three framed paintings here.
Susan and Naomi, orig. 8"x10" - Alla Prima oil on board
Cropping the size helps this painting a great deal, for a change. Gets rid of all that gray background, and seems to heighten the relationship between the two girls. Does good things to the composition, too..
Meanwhile, I am also taking a short course on Color Field Painting from Kassem Amoudi at the Main Line Art Center. Amoudi teaches there and at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art. I didn’t think I wanted anything to do with abstract art, but the beauty of Elizabeth Osborne’s work changed that. Now this workshop is opening my eyes to how much of even realistic paintings are truly abstract, in ways I hadn’t realized before. This is giving me new ways to think about how to paint. Right now, if I could, I would like to meld the techniques of Matisse (his figurative work), Alice Neel, Elizabeth Osborne, and Tom Wasserman. Wow!
This week’s homework from Amoudi was to choose an abstract painting and copy it. I chose Clyfford Still’s 1957-D#1. I makes me realize the importance of scale. His painting is 9ft x 13ft, and just the power of the size gives it a whole different feel than my 17”x24” copy. And, like my copy of Tomas Eakin’s portrait of Walt Whitman, how impossible it is to meticulously copy something that was done loosely and quickly. The goal has to be to capture the feel of the painting - if you are lucky enough:
1957-D#1 after Clyfford Still (original approx. 9'x13')
Acrylic on canvasboard, 17"x24"
Acrylic on canvasboard, 17"x24"
I haven’t posted anything from the Capturing Hands and Feet course I just finished, with Neil di Sabito. I did get a lot from it, and feel much more secure dealing with those appendages that most artists seem to prefer to neglect. Here a couple of drawings from late in the course:
All: Pencil on Drawing Paper, 18"x24"
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Elizabeth Osborne
I was SO lucky! Last week I dropped in on the PafA exhibition of Elizabeth Osborne: THE COLOR OF LIGHT. I have never understood/enjoyed/appreciated abstract art, but have become convinced that something more than straightforward realism is required to make satisfying art. So to find Osborne using Color Field techniques with included representational images and references... with all her startling color, transparency and vibrancy, I was absolutely blown away.
With that experience fresh in my mind, I signed up for a late summer course in Color Field Painting with Kassem Amoudi, who seems to be the leading - or at least one of the leading - exponents of CFP at PafA. Of course, that means I have to assemble all the supplies to work in acrylic. More stuff to crowd my small apartment and keep more or less organized. And, he wants us to work on large canvases, which is a whole additional storage problem.
With that background, I went back to PafA to see the concurrent exhibiton of Sidney Goodman. But just as I walked in, there was Elizabeth Osborne HERSELF, just starting a tour of the exhibition for several collectors of her work who had loaned paintings for this exhibition. So I got to hear her talking about her paintings, how she did them, why she did them, how she changed her style again and again, and her experiences working with oils, acrylic, and watercolors. Even asked her a few questions. A FABULOUS experience!
E.O. has always been closely associated with PafA and still teaches a course there, but it isn't open to Continuing Ed students like me. But I had a chance to tell her how much I loved her work and wanted to enroll/audit/sit-in/hide behind the door in her class. Turns out that she is on sabbatical this fall, but will be teaching again in January and maybe.... Just maybe....
With that experience fresh in my mind, I signed up for a late summer course in Color Field Painting with Kassem Amoudi, who seems to be the leading - or at least one of the leading - exponents of CFP at PafA. Of course, that means I have to assemble all the supplies to work in acrylic. More stuff to crowd my small apartment and keep more or less organized. And, he wants us to work on large canvases, which is a whole additional storage problem.
With that background, I went back to PafA to see the concurrent exhibiton of Sidney Goodman. But just as I walked in, there was Elizabeth Osborne HERSELF, just starting a tour of the exhibition for several collectors of her work who had loaned paintings for this exhibition. So I got to hear her talking about her paintings, how she did them, why she did them, how she changed her style again and again, and her experiences working with oils, acrylic, and watercolors. Even asked her a few questions. A FABULOUS experience!
E.O. has always been closely associated with PafA and still teaches a course there, but it isn't open to Continuing Ed students like me. But I had a chance to tell her how much I loved her work and wanted to enroll/audit/sit-in/hide behind the door in her class. Turns out that she is on sabbatical this fall, but will be teaching again in January and maybe.... Just maybe....
A New LUNA is Emerging
No, I haven't gone to sleep like Rip Van Winkle since my spring courses at PafA ended and we had an Open Studio Exhibition here in my apartment. I've been painting on my own - some stuff just for fun, some paintings in neighborhood coffeehouses, Rittenhouse Square, and of Independence Hall. I also took a course from Neil di Sabito, on drawing hands and feet, and will post some of those drawings as soon as I get them out of my camera. Ditto for some of those coffeehouse paintings.
But my biggest project at the moment is based on the Moon, of all things. I'm preparing to enter a juried exhibition on the theme PAPER WORKS, as in "works that utilize paper as a medium, including: art books, paper sculpture, paper-mache sculpture, assemblages, collages, constructions and installations; not just works on paper".
Ummmmm. So, what to do? I usually work - ie, paint - on canvas or board and that won't fly.
Gotta get inventive. So: It came to me while I was daydreaming on the train while going out to visit Patricia. I would paint the four phases of the Moon as Luna, picking up on the feminine aspect of this celestial body. The Woman in the Moon. For this, the paintings would be on paper plates with the shadow portion of the phases treated as black hair fashioned from paper mache made from cocktail napkins. Sound too macho? Consider the sexual demographics of the average buyer of paper plates/cocktail napkins, and I rest my case. Finally, the paintings will have to be mounted on a rotating box to emphasize Luna's ever-repeating cycles. Voila - I now have an CONSTRUCTION, and the materials/process provide lots of opportunity to engage in supporting Artspeak!
Meanwhile, it has gotten me thinking about - and painting - other ways to depict my Luna. They're fun, and I'll post some of those too. Again, when I get them out of the camera.
