Portrait Sketch

Happy Sunday!

 

I did this portrait sketch yesterday afternoon. I used limited palette of burnt umber, ivory black, cadmium red medium, alizarin crimson, yellow ochre & titanium white. When it's getting colder like yesterday (I think for the next several months to be honest) then it's time to paint more for me (I always paint inside where it is more comfortable).

 

Untitled, oil on canvas, 11x14

 

Thank you for visiting my blog ~ have a great week!

Paintings at Gemeentemuseum, Den Haag, Holland

Happy Veteran's Day!

 

The month of October was quite a busy one for me, I was very lucky to have the time to travel to Washington, DC and Europe. In Den Haag, Holland, I visited the Gemeentemuseum where currently some of the Mauritshuis' collection are also on display. (My friend & I went to Mauritshuis because we wanted to see (well, OK, it was mostly me) the classical paintings of Dutch painters (Vermeer, Rembrandt, Van Eyck etc) but we didn't check their website first. So we got there and it was closed until 2014! Luckily some of their collections are being exhibited at the Gemeentemuseum).

FYI, I couldn't photograph the Mauritshuis' collection but I could use my old iPhone to photograph the rest.

 

The 2 paintings below are from the Gemeentemuseum's collection, they're my favorite. (I'm sure if I had more time to spend there I would find more than 2 favorites).

 

 

 

"Portrait of Edith" by Egon Schiele (oil)

 

I first saw Egon Schiele's works in Cesky Krumlov (the Czech Republic) back in the 90s. I was still a student and taking summer semester in drawing & print making in Prague. I thought his portrait paintings were so interesting, they're so different. He had outlines and filled the interior space with colors (almost like drawing & painting at the same time). His lines were so scraggly, the shapes were twisted, and the expressions were so subdued.

 

"Portrait of Edith" was very interesting to me for some reasons. The model was Edith, Schiele's wife. She was wearing her wedding dress, made of curtain fabric, she looked straight to the viewers. I think it is wonderful for a bride to wear color, white is very boring!

Around the subject the space is so cool (even the face, only the lips are warm) but the dress really warms the work, the burst of colors and lots of vertical lines. To me Edith seemed unsure whether she should smile or be serious therefore her expression was "in between".

 

Sadly, both Schiele & Edith died not long after this painting was done. They succumbed to Spanish flu. She was 6 month pregnant and he was only 28.

If you're interested reading more about Schiele, you can check this website:

www.egon-schiele.net

 

 

"Fishing Boat" by Jacob Maris (oil)

 

This painting by Maris really gave me calm feeling. The color palette is almost monochromatic blue-grayish. You can feel the expansive space around the boat is actually very dynamic, look at the movement of the ocean waves, the flying birds, the gathering clouds....the only static thing is the boat. The boat was anchored directly toward the viewers with that slim rope. It's a wonderful composition!

 

I haven't painted in a long time, I miss it very much of course. I think it's very important to see other people's works to get inspired. The last few months I saw lots of wonderful works in different museums, I am very grateful for the opportunity so hopefully I will find time and start to paint again soon.-:)

 

Thank you for visiting my blog.

The Red Coat

Happy Saturday!

 

This is one of my paintings inspired by past travel to England. I really enjoyed watching & taking pictures of those impeccably dressed guards.

 

"The Red Coat", oil on linen, 12x16

 

Below are my original photos of the guards:

 

Thank you for visiting my blog and have a great weekend!

Yellow Ballet Costume

Happy Labor Day! I hope you're all enjoying your day off.....

 

These two paintings are of the same subject (pretty obvious, isn't it?-:)) but done two years apart.

 

I like the 2012 version better because I think it is more pleasing overall. I like the vibrancy of the colors & brushstrokes. I also applied thicker paint so in real life it is more of a 3-D surface. In the 2010 version I think I over worked everything.

 

 

"Yellow Ballet Costume", oil on panel, 8x10 (2012)

"I'm Waiting for My Turn to Dance", oil on linen, 12x16 (2010)

 

Thank you for visiting my blog and have a great day!

Guard in Grey Coat

Last year we went to England for spring break, that was Alice's first trip there. We all love England for lots of reasons (I like old buildings, museums and ceremonial stuff that tourists love to watch. We don't have guards wearing red capes, shiny black boots with spiky helmets riding beautiful horses parading in front of the White House. Alice likes Madame Tussaud's because Justin Bieber wax was there, alas, after this trip she no longer liked him). I took lots of pictures and some of them are really fun as inspiration for my painting. 

 

Here's one of them:

 

 

"Guard in Grey Coat", oil on panel, 12x16

 

Alice & the guard in Windsor Castle

 

 

Thank you for visiting my blog. Have a great one!

Garrett

 

This is a portrait study that I did a while ago. The model, Garrett, is a very smart & photogenic little boy and I really liked taking his pictures because he posed & followed direction very nicely, he also seemed to be so happy being photographed. A perfect model!

I did the study in burnt & raw umber (Rembrandt oil).

 

"Garrett", oil on canvas, 12x16

The original photo

 

Thank you for visiting my blog. Have a great weekend!

Arlington Heights Memorial Library Exhibit - July 2012

Arlington Heights Memorial Library is kind enough to let me show some of my paintings for the whole month of July. I chose 22 paintings that I think are good enough to represent my current works.-:)

They are all oil on linen, canvas or panel and the size vary from 8x10 to 20x24. So, if you are in the area, please stop by and take a look.

The main lobby of AHML (entrance at 500 N. Dunton Avenue, Arlington Heights, IL 60005; www.ahml.info)

My husband & daughter were really great helpers in putting those paintings up there.

"Alice", oil on panel, 8x10

I've drawn & painted her in this pose before, but this is my latest & favorite one. She was about 3.5 years old when I took this picture & she was playing under my kitchen table.

Some more paintings.....

Carolyn Anderson's Workshop

Last April I was lucky enough to be able to go to Carolyn Anderson's workshop in New Harmony, Indiana. I wasn't crazy about the long drive from Arlington Heights to this place, but, in the end it was worth it. I'd do it again next year if I can secure a spot. I probably listened to the same songs from different CD (within my reach while driving) about 10 times each, I listened to various kind of radio stations along the way which made me thankful that I had access to NPR, I listened to nothing but my own breathing (which was pretty boring, unless your breathing can play a Chopin's composition), I made phone calls when my GPS took me through back roads that didn't want to end (I've seen enough cornfield now) and I still felt that the 7 hour drive was too long.

The workshop was wonderful. Carolyn was a good teacher although at times I couldn't really understand what she meant (I probably day dreamed a lot, too).

Here are some of the pictures from the first day demo:

Setting up the light, which was very important. Carolyn used professional photographer's lighting Camlight/Socanland which has 3200K-5600K color temperature with dimmer etc (all the bells & whistles which comes with the high price). The background was a simple black fabric.

The first half hour of the demo Carolyn made lots of markings for the features' placement on canvas. She used linen mounted on foam board (about 12x16).

Voila! after almost 3 hours of demo.

I will post more about this workshop when I have time.

Thank you for reading my blog & have a good day.

Einstein Series

"Albert Einstein 1", oil on panel, 11x14

(Van Gogh-Ivory Black)

"Albert Einstein 2", oil on panel, 11x14

(Van Gogh - Ivory Black)

"Albert Einstein 3", oil on panel

(Gamblin - Chromatic Black)

"Albert Einstein 4", oil on panel, 11x14

(Rembrandt - Ivory Black)

"Albert Einstein 5", oil on panel, 11x14

(M. Graham - Ivory Black)

The Einstein series is an on going project, I love working on this. So far I only have 5; I'm sure as I find more intriguing photos of him in public domain (and find time to do it!) I will work on it some more.

This project started after I finished reading Walter Isaacson's book about Einstein. I thought he was such a unique & wonderful human being, he certainly had interesting point of views about things. I started to google him to find more information that the book didn't have (or had too little of it) and I was so happy to find so many black & white photos of him in the net. He had interesting facial expressions, too (or lack of it). I just loved it. I wanted to paint him in black and white. So I used different black from different manufacturers on linen panel from RayMar (the name of the manufacturer & color are between brackets). Now I have proved it that even though the name is the same (Ivory Black) they're not the same when different people make it. I kind of knew this before I started this project but had no idea how different they really were. I love all of them, I like black passionately.

I highly recommend Isaacson's book although for some parts of it it was so hard to understand, I guess physics and Roselly don't go together that well (now you know why I went to design school and become an artist).

I hope you enjoy my Einstein painting project. Thank you for visiting my blog & have a wonderful weekend!

"Susie"

"Susie", oil on canvas, 9x12.

Susie was painted from life at Mainstreet Art Center yesterday, she posed for about 3 hours and I was trying to put down as much information as I could in that time frame. I wished I could have more time, but maybe not, sitting on the wooden bench for 3 hours were not that exciting - in fact it was borderline painful even though I thought I had enough natural padding there (the reason I chose that place was I wanted to paint her face slightly below her chin so I could paint her nostrils and the shadows of her eyes' pockets). But, in the end I was quite happy with it.

Thanks for visiting my blog....have a great day!

Painting Inspired by Past Trip

"Alice in Dutch Costume", oil on linen panel, 11x14

In the Spring 2004 (not long after the Madrid train bombing) I took my daughter to Europe to visit some friends in the Netherlands & France. Alice was only 3.5 years old so she didn't protest when we went to a photo studio and dressed her up in traditional Dutch costume (complete with the wooden shoes!). I looked at those "old photographs" again a few weeks ago and started to paint her....I love the colorful clothes and white hat she had on. I couldn't tell whether she was happy or just got along with her Mom's agenda, but, I thought she was so cute!

Here's another shot of Alice in the same costume:

Thanks for visiting my blog and have a great weekend!