A study: Aunt Myrt at 88

I've been spending time getting some things framed, but today it is just too hot to work in the upstairs room I am using. So, a good day to paint. I decided to try an experimental study to prepare for a portrait I want to do of someone I don't know well. I can paint someone I know from a photo, because I have a visual sense of the whole head and how the face relates to it and to the neck and shoulders. So it is easy for my fingers to "feel" the dimensions. But with someone I don't know, that sense isn't there. In person, I'd be moving back and forth a little to develop a sense of that person, but in this case it won't be possible.

I decided to convert a photo to black and white, increase the contrast, and reduce the density. What is left are the dimensions and some of the "landmark" detail. Then print it directly onto the paper. For the experiment, I selected a photo of someone I do know, my beautiful Aunt Myrt, who is 90 years now. Because she lives on the other coast, I see her only rarely, which I consider deprivation, as I am extremely fond of her. This way, not only will I be able to see if the painting looks like the photo, but I will know if it looks like her, that essence that is more than just likeness. I hope that will inform the process when I do the other portrait.

This is a small study, done quickly, and is a bit rough. Actually, it is the second version-- I brushed out all but the face on the first and started over again. But I am pleased with the overall result, and now I think I'll also do a larger painting of my aunt!

Aunt Myrt at age 88
Soft pastel on paper, 12x12 cm (4.75x4.75 in)

White on white

In the tradition of painting what I eat. Today I peeled two hard-cooked eggs with the intent of making deviled eggs for lunch. I was intrigued by the shadows and highlights of the eggs laying in a white bowl that I decided to try to paint them first. Here they are, quickly done because I was hungry:

watercolor on sketch paper, 15x7cm (6x3.5 in)

I missed posting a couple of my little watercolors earlier, so here are those, too. Um, food, of course....

This one from August 10:

Okay, so I ate the end of the loaf first. Wouldn't you?

And another from just a couple of days ago: a few things from my garden arranged on a plate with a slice from a more recent loaf of bread. I did this one very quickly because my matting supplies had just come and I was eager to get set up!

The Windowsill: WIP

That's such an odd acronym. WIP. Work in progress. It sounds so industrial. Or office hysterical.

I'm still working out how to approach the work meant for the sanded indigo paper (the BIG piece of sanded indigo paper!). So I decided to do something in a more familiar zone to kind of loosen myself up. Ha. A nice piece of pearl (in this case, that means pale grey) Fabriano Tiziano, unsanded, about 9x12, horizontal. A photo of a simple scene: the windowsill in a kitchen I once had. I forgot that the simple ones are the hardest to do. (How did I forget something so fundamental?)

1: Basic layout of composition with first layer of color for wall under window. You can see a bit of my reference photo in the upper left.




Usually once I've worked out a painting, it takes me a day or so to do, and then I let myself live with it for a while so I can fine-tune it. Not this one.

2: Setting up the shadows on the old fashioned wide blinds, outlining the window ledge and frame, and building up the reflected light and shadows on the wall under the windowledge. I did not color correct this photo, which was taken in light that makes the painting seem just a bit more orangey than it actually was.

I worked on this one for 3 days. Not all the time, of course, but having to just walk away from it for long periods and not even look at it. Already I can feel something wrong, but I can't pin it down.

3. Finishing shading the shadows on the blind, giving the window sash some depth and a little shadow, and (finally) setting the tomato and peppers in place.

This is actually number 4. I didn't take a picture of number 3. For that, you have to imagine this with the orangey wall in number 2 above. I was too busy trying to capture the glowing highlights and shadows that so appealed to me to see the problem; I just knew something was off. This is always the worst part of doing a painting for me!

I normally go right to sleep, but last night, there the painting was, drifting across my mind. I kept meditating past it, and then there it would be again. I finally drifted off. When Mona the Magnificent woke me to crawl under the covers for her morning purr, what I needed to do was in my head.

I went straight to the easel in my nightgown, and got out one of my brand-new Terry Ludwig darks (chortle), in the same blue as the darkest in the blinds. I scumbled lightly over the orange, and run a dark band along the base of the window surround. I still have the warmth of the wall, but now the painting is unified by the shadow color.

Now the finetuning: I'll use some of those warm colors when I do the drawstrings, and a touch to warm up the cold looking outside shadows a bit too. Not so you'd notice, but enough so that the whole looks like it belongs together. Then I'll tape it the wall and live with it for a while until I am enough distant from it to know what else needs to be done.

Maybe then I'll be ready to work on that big piece of sanded indigo paper.

Anticipating Autumn

Pastel on indigo Tiziano, sanded ground added, 13.5x13.5 cm (5.3x5.3 in)

What was I thinking of? I have been planning a large pastel, and decided to use a dark paper with a sanded ground added. Because the ground will be heavier than I am used to, I decided to do a test piece using colors like those I probably will use in the larger piece, to feel the way the pastels handle on the surface and against the dark ground.

Rummaging through my photos, I came across one taken from my daughter's backyard of the hillside opposite, during a particularly colorful autumn. Perfect! Except that I wasn't thinking about the fact that I was using a 14x14 cm piece of paper. All those teeny, weeny strokes! But it worked well as a study, and I like the way all those bits of color express the New England fall. At least that one: it was one of our good ones, where the trees are like a tapestry.

Bedside table, monochromish

Yesterday and today were cleaning up and organizing days, cleaning out cat and dog hair from behind and under furniture. Sorting out my paper and deciding which to use for my next pastel, which is taking shape in my mind. Getting one of the rooms upstairs ready to become my framing room. This meant moving the cats out and moving their "paraphernalia" to the utility room downstairs. The cats aren't banished for good: just until I get things set up and the mats stored so cat feet can't walk on them. After all, that room has the best sunning windows in the house. It would be cruelty to deny them access!

Between episodes with broom, vacuum, and mop, I took breaks pulling up the latest crop of weeds in the sadly neglected vegie garden. I may have a crop of lettuce and beets and basil after all.

And piled into bed without having done my little painting. I picked up my notebook and did a quick and calming ink outline of some of the objects on my bedside table, from the peculiar angle afforded by drawing with my head on my pillow and my notebook on my knees. My position, not the angle, accounts for the wonky clock dial. This morning I did the painting, in a morning frame of mind.

Tonight I am simply going to bed.

Mortar and pestle in blue

Here is last evening's little ink and watercolor piece, again 15x9 cm:

I've never explained the "rules" I set out for myself in doing these simple sketches. The rules are simply a way to provide a simple structure within which to work, and have no particular significance:

I focus on something in my immediate surroundings, and keep it intimate: what I can take in at a glance. I allow myself to arrange things, as the main focus is always composition, both space and color, but not to fuss over it. I keep the time to under half an hour, and often find I spend less than that. But above all, I enjoy doing them. These are not a test, or an exercise so much as they are a way for me to bring my mind and my eye to the present moment. It is a peaceful way to end the day.