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!

"Lirio", oil on canvas, 16x20

This was painted from life at Mainstreet studio last month, for approximately a 5-hour sitting in 2 days. Lirio was a delight to paint.