Falcon, revisited

The peregrine falcon was driving me crazy. I had grown to hate it. I thought about sanding it off, painting it over, cutting it off and re-stretching the canvas. Last night I had decided to paint another painting entirely and retire this to a closet. Thus I had nothing to lose. That is a dangerous and exhilerating place to be, artist-wise.
First, I had to give up on the source photo - it looked just like it, and it failed dismally. I started by deepening some of the shading around the wings and tail, then started trying to re-pattern the center of the breast. I made three or four attempts that didn't work. I decided to blank it out and try for another layer of pattern tomorrow. I ended up with a curve of light I may leave as it is, with a few changes at the edges to blend, a touch more shadow on the left side.



I am light years happier with it. Looking at the whole image, there's a blaze of light bounced off the top of the magazines, the crystal ball and the newspapers. I think the falcon is better integrated into the image with a blaze of light of her own. Or that's my theory.

Hot & Cold

More on B&K Cold.

Everything has one layer of paint except the eponymous plate. I worked on the music plate, the letter balanced on top of it, the two letters balanced beside it, the silver tray, the 8, Y, and two letter As.

Then I worked on B&K Hot.

Did the candle, the books and all of the letters, plus the business end of the hammer.
They work best together, like a pair of fraternal twins.

Blood & Knavery, Cold

I've started a new painting. I have two version of these same elements, one very warm in tone, the other - this one - very cool. It's another in the Metamorphosis series.
I worked on the top book, roughed in one of the metal printing plates, did the wooden corners of two other plates and part of the pages of the bottom book. Worked on two wooden printing blocks, the number eight and the letter p.
This painting, named for one of the plates, is relatively subtle in color. It will go slowly because the detail is exacting. The background - one of my favorite parts on this one - is going to get a lot more texture and detail. The shifts of color and pattern on the piece of sheet metal that's the background are the result of it being tempered and colored by frequent exposure to heat.

taking care of art business

Last Friday I painted like a woman possessed. I took photographs that failed from weird light glares, until I hung the painting upside down. So wet I risked a smear or smudge every time I came near it. Photoshopped the jpgs to each shows' specifications, filled out the forms, wrote the entry fee checks, burned the CDs, included the SASEs and there they were, two tidy bubblewrap mailers addressed to two more juried shows. I was fretting over what to send where, and whether the tarot was done enough to submit. It's a big relief to just make the decision and be done.
Sunday was the last day of the Decatur show and I picked up that painting at the show closing soiree. It's always interesting to meet the other artists and see the wide range of age, sensibility and temperament represented.
Yesterday I mailed the two show applications, picked up two paintings from Huff Harrington and drove to Gainesville, about an hour away, to deliver them to the Quinlan Art Center. A very fine building - those Quinlan folks must have bequeathed the city a busload of money to build it. Art was well lit and thoughtfully hung in large, spacious rooms. As I was leaving, they gave me a packet of invitations to mail or give away. Heavy card, glossy high end stock, and behold, my painting (Vermeer, Recyled) was one of five on the front.

I roughed in the oriental rug this week. It was my Aunt Ouida's and has been in the family a long time, as they say. Threadbare in many places, but dear to me. I used to play on this rug and make up stories. The design was a kind of map. When I grew up and learned that many patterns were meant to evoke the gardens of paradise, it made perfect sense to me. I let the thin paint be rough, and scrubbed edges together with a palette knife instead of a brush to keep the coarse, warp/woof & thread feel.
Yesterday was all about the red drape. Astute viewers will see there is more specificity to the cards and the plaid backs are in place. Today I'm working on the stack of books.

More Tarot

Worked on fine details of the cards.


Here's a detail. They aren't finished, but they are heading in the right direction.


Cleaning the brushes, getting ready for a relaxing, quiet evening.

Tarot

Good painting day today. Blocked in four of the tarot cards. The first layer of paint is a kind of couch to lay color onto in the next round. They are more cartoon-y than I realized - the images are mostly outlined - there will be a lot of going back and mimicking the drawing effect.
I do love have little paintings in my paintings. Don't know why, just love to do them and to see them. These Tarot cards add a pop of color and of complexity, and they are flat in a 3-D setting. The top card is the Wheel of Fortune, upside down. The Fool is in the center - it wasn't in the original photo, but I added it in. It's so appropriate for publishing - the well-dressed fellow on a precipice, unawares. The Star is on the bottom center and The World is to the left. The falling card is The Sun. I was thinking of the Baltimore Sun at the time.
Here's the end of the day pic.

Playing the Artistic License card

Evidence for why I am having too much fun.
Exhibit A
Here's the "Prediction: Endangered" painting with the headlines and copy. The headlines are accurate; 'Major Markets Hit Lowest Since 1997', and 'Ex-officers apologize for deadly raid' on the left, 'Obama Turns to Budget' on the right.


Exhibit B
Here's a detail of a a subhead that I made up.


Exhibit C
The real cover story lead was 'Neal Street Shooting'. My cover story lead refers to the headline, 'Obama turns to budget'

Publishing's Bleak House

That's the working title of this new painting.
Week before last, I started by blocking in the background (wallpaper in my den) then the drape. I love the drapery, but I have to be patient. Alizarin crimson is transparent and it will be many layers before the darks begin to properly deepen. The background pattern will get hazier and closer in value.


It went in the drying room while I concentrated on Didus and Omen so they'd be done in time for the "Points of View" show at Huff Harrington Fine Art this Friday.

Today I blocked in the books, key, hourglass and the beginning of the oriental rug pattern. Those blank rectangles are falling cards. Working on the tarot cards that make up the house will be like painting little portraits. No doubt it will be painstaking work, and one of my favorite things.
This is the companion - in size and theme - of Prediction: Endangered. I hope to have them both done by June so I can enter them in a juried show.

Drawing

Three paintings are still wet, so today I drew the next in the Metamorphoses series, a still life of metal printing plates, movable type, wooden printing blocks, two old leather books and a candle. One of the metal plates is an illustration of a medieval butcher in his shop and is titled 'Blood and Knavery.'
I did a fairly detailed drawing on a toned canvas, gridded with chalk. There is something so calming about drawing.

Swept away by the process. Again.

I had all kinds of errands and gardening planned for the morning, or at least on a list, but the studio won. I am still dressed in my running clothes (that I never ran in). How did it happen? Well, here's where I started; around 8 am I was just going to clean up my palette and paint a couple of the magazines - the darkest and lightest.
That led to -
reworking all the wood of the chest - top and front
added highlights to the lock and handles
all of the twine and added some bristles
top plastic of the bags on the center newspapers
the stack of newspapers - darks and light
a couple of the magazines - the darkest and lightest
a few diagonals on the letters the magazine name
the lightest streaks on the crystal ball
the yellow haze on the curtain behind and to the left of the crystal
every feather from the neck down
widened the neck and left wing

Here's a detail:

The next thing I knew, it was 4pm. Now I am drinking a pot of tea and thinking about doing a little bit on Didus Ineptus.

feather and domino spots

Feathers and domino spots and some more detail in the folded newspaper.



I'm feeling the momentum. Sometimes painting is like stepping into the edge of the ocean and being smacked down by a wave. Other times, it's like being pulled out to sea by a riptide. The thing is, you go willingly. At the end of the day, you paddle wearily back to the shore of your other life. The one with dinner to cook and laundry to fold. It's a good life.

Omens and Prediction

Worked on the newspapers. When it's really really really dry, I'll take on the lettering.


Blocked in the bird. Resisted the strong temptation to delineate each feather's rows of brown bands. It would just turn the under painting into murk. Who knew you needed as much patience as skill or ability?


I wonder if I can make the April 30 (dry, signed and wired) deadline for the May 8th show?

Great day at the easel

Some days I paint. Some days I kick painting butt and take names. This was the latter.
After a sweet morning working in the yard (adding a new arbor and skating shrubs around to better places) I came inside and set to work, hoping to get the upright newspapers started.

I have just set down my brush and have the newspapers, the twirls of plastic bags, the dominoes, the crystal ball on its silver stand, the lock, the handles and the twine all laid in. They will all need more layers and much refining, especially the top of the plastic bags, but I rejoice. It was a great day at the easel.

Selected for the Decatur Arts Festival Fine Art Show

Trastevere, Espresso Finito was accepted for the Decatur Art Festival's Fine Art juried show.

It will hang in the Dalton Gallery, May 19-31.
I need to get busy writing my artist's statement for them. It will be a heartfelt one. This particular painting from my Table For One series commemorates a last meal at Trattoria da Lucia, across the Tiber in Trastevere, after I had knelt before a St. Francis in the church of Santa Maria and prayed for my daughter who was lost to be found.
And she was.