"Fruit Stripe" oil 10 x 8

My painting class was all about pattern today. I brought a variety of cloths and papers with me - stripes, floral, paisley, calico, along with a few solids for visual rest. We discussed:

- how to sublimate pattern so that it plays the role you intend.  Do you want it to dominate?  Do you want it to play a less significant role?
- how to use pattern to move the viewer's eye.
- how to use the pattern for reference while you design the shapes that work for the painting - much like trees in a landscape (or clouds, grass, structures, etc).  
- how to avoid tangents, and unintended geometry - the potential  of an undesired tangent increases  exponentially when dealing with pattern in the subject.

One of my students chose the striped cloth just below the green vase in the photo to the left.  I love that cloth!  Initially, he had the cloth arranged with the stripes parallel to the direction of his light, so the cast shadow ran along one of the stripes. He was missing the opportunity to express the light as it crossed the boundaries of the pattern, much less static. If you painted a cityscape, and the cast shadow from one building aligned exactly with the contour of an adjacent building, it might not be as dynamic as a light and shadow pattern on the second building.. same situation here.  I made a slight shift in the cloth and his subject came to life.   


 
 Another student chose the bright, sunny floral below the wine bottle.  She chose a vase which replicated some of the curves in the flowers, added a couple of plums and created a sensitive painting which lead the eye through repeated, subtle curves.  Lovely.

I painted next to my student who arranged this vibrant still life. I am blessed to work with a group of hard workers who listen and jump in each time we meet.  Very rewarding.  Thanks for looking.

Inspired by Matisse "Harmony in Red" 6 x 6 oil

The December challenge for Girls Just Wanna Paint was to paint with Matisse in mind. I am most familiar with his paper cutouts.  Some of you may be aware of my interest in cutting paper so it crossed my mind to do a Matisse-inspired paper piece.  However, when I spent some time researching Matisse paintings and images, the paper idea slipped away.   

I learned that Matisse studied law, and became interested in art during a year of convalescence in his very early twenties.  His artistic evolution is so interesting to explore.

Look at this still life from early in his career, Fruit and Coffee Pot, a long way from the pattern-laden, abstracted nature of his work I was familiar with.  Seeing "Fruit and Coffee-Pot" pulled  Gustave Caillebotte's painting "Fruits sur un Etalage" (see below) from some dusty corner of my brain.  Caillebotte was 20 years Matisse's senior, not sure if they knew one another.  

 Back to the GJWP challenge:
 
My painting is loosely based on Matisse's "Harmony in Red" below.  I set up a few red objects, and included a couple of Matisse bookmarks as backdrop.  I tried to flatten the perspective, relying only on placement of objects in front and behind to define the space, to keep the shades of red very close in value, and to explore an outline of many shapes, which I applied after, with mixed success.  I substituted the dominant black and white figure from the paper cut out for the high contrast woman in "Harmony in Red". 

By the way, look at the beautiful repetition of shape in "Harmony in Red" - blue designs on the table cloth to the undulating fruit/flower piece on the table to the back wall - almost like two raised hands cradling an object.   It was certainly an interesting exercise, and the research was fascinating. Thanks for looking and Happy New Year. 
  

"Building Space" a Generation at a Time and Theme Song

I love to teach.  My students range in age from single digits, to teens, to octogenarians.  I teach middle school math and painting, and sometimes they coincide as in the one art class I hold each week.  This term, the 7th/8th graders are making books from one large piece of paper.  They are designing 12 frames, including a title and ending page, and telling the story without words, only pictures.  We will eventually cut and fold the large paper to make the books. 

When I was a child, I sat riveted in front of the television humming the Star Trek theme song, and "whooshing" with the Enterprise as it "whooshed" past us in space.  Space... my students and I consider space:

During our last class before the winter break, my art students saw the first quick sketch above left on my whiteboard with a dog, ball, house, car and tree. I asked which of the objects was closest, and the students eventually realized that they didn't know (you can see we began by voting).  We talked about how to make depth, space, distance in their drawings by: 

- putting things behind other things   

- placing closer objects closest to the bottom of the surface

- adding less detail to the farthest objects

- making objects smaller as they recede  

The second drawing above aligns the 5 objects showing my students how to put some objects behind, the ball now being closest.  Everyone got the idea right away. In the third drawing, I showed how to pull and push to create a tangible space in the middle of their pictures.
Next is a painting by one of my adult painting students.  With color, we added the ideas of softer edges farther away, and atmospheric perspective along with the ideas listed above.
 
The last image is an Aldro Hibbard painting I saw in his retrospective at the Rockport Art Association in the fall... beautiful design, leading the eye around and into the space in front of the shaded men in the foreground.  The arrangement of light and shadow and the placement of the white figure looking slightly downward build a sense of curiosity and then hubbub about the street market.

Building distance, designing the picture space, pushing, pulling, shapes, shapes, shapes - across the generations.  So much thinking, so much fun. 

Here's to lots more in 2013.  Happy New Year, all.  Thank you for sharing some time here with me.
                           




Promised theme song, click here: Space, the Final Frontier                                                                                                                        

"Blue on Blue" 6 x 6 Class Demo

My painting class arrived today to a table filled with three collections of objects and matching cloths - red group, blue group, yellow group.  I asked the students to choose only objects from one collection so that they could explore warm and cool mixtures in the same color family.  (Interestingly, there were red and blue still life arrangements, but no one chose the yellow.)  

Then we reviewed the hierarchies I recommend they establish when beginning each painting. Look for, and establish the following notes:

  Darkest/lightest 

  Warmest/coolest 

    Hardest/softest edge 

    Saturated/neutralized color. 

By establishing the range for each of the hierarchies, you are setting the boundaries for the painting.  If considered thoughtfully, no other passage in the painting should be outside the established boundaries.  

"Blue on Blue" is my demo of today's lesson.  I began by putting notes of color for each of the eight hiercarchical boundaries.  

Every artist establishes their own repertoire of methods to draw on when beginning a painting.  This is a good way to start a painting, and good discipline for painting in an intentional, thoughtful way.  Each and every stroke is measured against the initial notes.  Intentionality doesn't suppress energy, rhythm, spontenaity, exuberance.  In fact, intentionality frees you.. it produces results, and avoids a lot of fixing, adjusting, reworking, and overworking. We had great results today.  As always, my students are such good thinkers, and hard workers.  Good day! 

Thankful for Onions

Blue Onion 6 x 10

Red and Yellow  8 x 10

 I just shared a satiating, satisfying, wonderful Thanksgiving holiday with family and friends.  It was filled with fabulous food, hugs, laughter, stories, play, walks, memories, a few mishaps which will become legend ("remember the year...?").   The holiday was replete with the hectic hubbub I relish.

This year, my  brother concocted a hearty turkey stew/soup from whatever he could find in the kitchen the morning after.  Turkey carcass and leftover
 meat were essentials, but in the process while chatting and chopping, I saw carrots, shallots, garlic, celery, pasta, spices and onions.  I noted that as he sauteed the onions, he poured some of the stock into the sautee pan just before adding the mixture to the stew pot, dredging up all the sweet carmelized yumminess and adding layers of flavor to the stew which was scrumptious.  So...

I started thinking of onions and how often I have chosen them as subject. Here are a few of my onion paintings from over the years.. some you've seen, some not. Onions in the sun, in the shadow, on Mom's favorite plates, with other ingredients, sprouting, peeling, always enticing, color glowing as it bounces onion to onion. Though I love to cook with onions, I am often tempted to let them sprout, and sprout some more.  Those sensuous, organic greens are wild and alluring.

Thanks for looking and Happy Thanksgiving. 
                     

Sunny Onions 8 x 10

Red on Red 12 x 9

Onions 6 x 10

Flavorful 10 x 8

Onions n Oil 10 x 10

"Dockside" 6 x 6 oil

My entry for the Girls Just Wanna Paint's October challenge, theme - hats. This couple was sitting on Monhegan Island's dock, waiting for the afternoon ferry. Or, maybe they were just sitting because it's a wonderful place to be... for hours.  Salty, sunny, breezy, and beautiful.

Truth is, the hats are a little crisp and new for Monhegan,  making the couple's energy  more about movement, than just being in place, but I loved their silhouettes, and their juxtaposition against Monhegan's lovely Manana.

Thanks for looking.

"Tide Pools" oil 12 x 9

Thinking about the surf along our coast today during Hurricane Sandy.  I love to stand above the waves, watching them move, roll, crash, recede, invade, but certainly not today.  Be safe. I'm painting in the studio while we have power.