Air, Fire and Led Zeppelins

Got the front of the fan well underway. It still makes my eyes cross, but I can get there from here.


Made changes to shape and location and transparency of the flames at the top of the book edges in Fire. Moving right along




From time to time I get an email inquiring about a movie I was in back in the seventies, The Song Remains The Same, a documentary/fantasy about the band Led Zeppelin. The other day I got one of those inquiring emails, and I clicked on a link that took me to the fan forum on Led Zepplin.com. There was a thread from June 2011 speculating on her identity - was she English, was she a friend of the band, etc. On pure impulse, I posted this.

An American girl from the south played the part of the princess in the tower. I was working in London as a model and was booked for the job by my agency, Models One. I don't really know why I was cast, but I suspect it was my hair - I did a lot of cosmetics and hair product ads back in the day. I wasn't an actress. Doing editorial pages for English Vogue, Queen and Honey meant more to me in terms of my career.
At the time the shoot was not a big deal to me - just another day of work. Who knew the age of the Internet would extend the movie's shelf life from a couple of years to eternity? My on screen time only lasts a few minutes. It took longer for the hair people to get my straight hair curled with tongs than it did to do the take. I was told to 'look at the camera and don't smile.' Mostly I stood around and tried not to wrinkle the costume.
Post-modeling career, I was a journalist for 20 plus years and have been a fine art painter since 2001. Every now and again someone does a Google search, and emails me from my website, asking if I did the movie.
My kids get a kick out of it. Two of them work in the film business and often the director of photography is familiar with it.
The Song really does Remain the Same in the age of Google and Youtube. Glad you have fond memories of the film.

Turns out these people could not have been nicer.  It's not the kind of topic that comes up in daily life, so it was fun to have somewhere to talk about it. For those who are so inclined, here's a link to the section I'm in, albeit briefly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKsx5bEWnOk

Led Zeppelin - The Song Remains The Same/ Part 6

3:21-3:26, I appear. 3:33-3:36, I look away.  3:39, I look back.  4:21-4:33, I appear behind flames and vanish.

Total: 21 seconds on screen.

Atlanta Burns

Worked on Fire, mostly on the cover of the Atlanta book. It will get smoke and ash scumbled over it on the next round, and more work on the flames licking the corners.

I worked on Air yesterday - a little on the base but mostly the back half of the wire basket that covers the blades. Very slow going - again, mostly abstract dashes and dots. It's the first of many layers. The wire will get sharpened up a good deal.


Ridiculously happy painting shiny objects.

Burning Down the House

Daughter Emily is going to Burning Man this year - her first trip. I've only seen the documentaries, but it looks like a gathering of her tribe.  I'm psyched for her.

Speaking of burning, here's the start of Fire. The first attempt is a composite of three photographs. (Note to self: books are fuel. You don't need to build a fire to burn them. For a while, it looked more like bonfire than what I envisioned.)

Started by blocking in the bounced light, a lick of flame, and two books.


This is where I left it Friday. Something didn't feel right, and I wanted a chance to think about it.


Today I added an opened, charred book from a fourth photo, placing it behind the black cover textbook. and went with a different flame source. Blocked in the iron grill and started indicating coals and embers.


The coffee table book in the background is one I co-wrote for the Chamber of Commerce, Atlanta; Making of a World Class City. The dark book in the foreground is a text book from the seventies, Interpretive Journalism. Planing to put the title of an unpublished novel I wrote, Grace and Favor, on the open paperback on the right. Thinking up titles for the top of the page of the open book with burnt page edges - Dante's Inferno or maybe Gone with the Wind? Nah, too obvious. Lives of the Saints appeals to me.

Saving the Atlanta skyline photo on the cover of the big background book for last - that will be a treat. Having a ridiculous amount of fun with this.

Chrome-alicious

Today's effort; working on Air.

Got a layer of paint on the fan base and the beginning of the wire cover over the blades. Love the wobbly reflected light on the base, which reminds me of the stand mixer my Mama used.

Took my jumpdrive to Wolf photo to see if they can do better color prints from the jpgs for Fire. I'm going to draw from my glued together source and mix color from the - hopefully - better prints.

Nebulas, white doves, and books aflame.

Worked on the Fire and have a final source image cobbled together from four photos. Background from one, open book from another, orange glow on wall from a third and an interesting grate surface from a fourth.
My friend Gin calls it 'patch-and-piece'. I am so stealing that for my artist's statement.

I tried to put the pieces together using a couple of apps on my iPad but after three hours of failure I gave up and did it the old fashioned way - cut the bits out with scissors and taped them together. Done a dusted in under five minute.

Toned and gridded the canvas, and working on the drawing today.

Still thinking about the fifth element; spirit, soul. 'Being itself' as Thomas Merton put it. The landing of the Mars Rover Curiosity reminded me of NASA's nebula photographs which I am thinking of superimposing over/under a white dove. Catholic iconography may be stamped in my DNA.

Rocking right along

Busy days in the studio.
1. Packing up paintings to send to the delightful Gail Pierson Gallery in Cape May, NJ. Eight small works, none larger than 10x10". If you are in the area, stop in and say hey.
2. Painting back-lit leaves on LightGrid. Wonder if that's where the inspiration for stained glass began.
3. Galloping along on the four elements. Know I am bound to hit a fence too high to jump at some point, but holding on tight for the ride right now.

After a couple of false starts (a kiln and a forge), my Muse showed up with the idea and image tied up together with a ribbon of fiery inspiration. DId photogrpahy this morning and it worked out. Check back for the start of the Fire painting next week.

On a side note I went out for a loaf of bread yesterday and came home with a wheeled, rocking wooden office chair that fits me like it was carved for me, and a oriental rug. Easily distracted.

Shadows on curtains

Bocked in the curtain, fan shadow and corner of the mantle. The saturated color is delicious to me.

Working on the branches of the trees reflected in water. A breeze after doing the limbs of trees in Boomlift. Again, the saturated color is like a cup of strong, milky tea and toast with butter dripping from it - such a pleasure.

Air, Implied

Started Air yesterday. Painted mostly negative shapes and the leather table top.



Although I took many photos of the kiln firing, none of them are beseeching me to paint them. I am thinking I should wait until October, when the days are shorter and they might run the kiln at dusk. Also thinking of tracking down a wood-fired pizza oven. Or a crematory.

Meanwhile, more progress on LightGrid. Added sky behind the tree canopy, more texture in the pasture and on the dirt road.

Wet

Worked on the Washtub again.  Best part, there's not much thinking. Mixing color, loading the brush, placing the paint - it seems to bypass my cerebral cortex. Instinct hooks into intuition and muscles respond. It feels great.

Dirt roads, light grids, raku firing

Today I blocked in leaves on the upper left, and did another layer of paint on the sky and the shadows. Placed most of the fence posts, added texture to the dirt road. In such a good mood, I was dancing around the easel (to the soundtrack of Guys & Dolls, if you must know) and painting away. I have been schooled by my son, the rigging grip, that the equipment in front of the tree is a Light Grid.



Tomorrow there's a Raku pottery firing at the art center at 3pm. I'm nipping over to see what I can get on my iPhone camera app. Hoping for a intense red glow. The kiln is made of dry stack brick, so there plenty of texture.

Light Grid / White SIlk

Starting a new painting for the Location series. It's a light grid, stretched on a frame and attached to c-stands, used to keep the light even on the actors' faces. Here it's tied to the tree in the crew parking lot until needed. It's from a photo taken on The Walking Dead show last year, on location in Senoia, Ga.

Having bought, toned and gridded the canvas, and done the under-drawing yesterday, I spent an hour this morning mixing color and then jumped in. I blocked in the sky, the pasture and the grid cloth, and began the country road. Worked until lunch on the line of trees in the far background and the dappled shadows cast by the tree.


After lunch until 3pm I kept going on the patterns of light and shadow cast by the tree and the dirt road. 

Haven't blocked in the tree canopy or placed the fence posts which run between the road and the pasture, but feel a lovely sense of momentum. The darks in the deepest part of the shadows wll need multiple layers, as will the sky, but the pasture and trees look very close even on this first pass. Feels so good, like flying.

 

Why did this particular image grab me by the collar and holler 'paint me'?  It has to do with the visual anomaly of this isolated bit of movie equipment in a rural scene.  The shadow of the tree trunk reminds me of Indonesian shadow puppets. The peaceful, pastoral stillness of the background contrasts with the twisty reach of the shadows spreading out toward the viewer. It fits its zombie series origin.

Wet, Barn, and Bluescreen

Moving along on Wet. Added center water/sky and most of the submerged leaves. Blended edges and set it aside to dry.


Started the barn set.


Did a ton of work on Bluescreen - the forest, leaves, weeds and the glare around the umbrella- but doubt it will show in a photo. The deepest darks have dulled out but will reappear after varnishing.

A few more leaves to break up the forest floor, and a little more glow around the umbrella and I'm done. Added some of the distinct leaves that fall in front of the screen. They went shockingly fast and easy. I'll add their shadows tomorrow.Right this minute I am pretty happy with it, but that could change.

H2O

Had a great morning adding leaves and the edges of the water. Ah, saturated color, how I've missed you. It reminds me of painting the glasses on any of the Table for One series. Just shapes - form and volume. A friend said perhaps I am an abstract painter at heart. Snort.


Working title: Wet

planning ahead

All the figures are finally placed in Boomlift, I'll be doing fine squiggly marks for the tree limbs for the next week, and more lines and ropes on the Boomlift mechanism itself.

I drew the washtub full of water and leaves yesterday. Today I painted the elliptical edges of the tub, and the branches of the tree the water reflects - then when I paint the water/sky colors over it and the chalk grid vanishes, I'll still have an accurate guide.
Mixed the colors for water, which means sky and autumn leaves. Felt like I was on holiday. Big brushes, free brush strokes.

Go figure

Another round on the crew of Boomlift. Painted over two figures that didn't work and blocked in three more. Did some refinement of existing figures. Three to go, then it's back to the tree limbs against the sky.

  

Here's the big picture for scale.