I've Moved My Blog

Hey All -

I've moved my blog to my FASO Blog site. It gives me less grief and much better connections with other wonderful artist people.

So sorry for the inconvenience here - should be an easy switch over though with the attached links. Please come see us / join us on FASO. Fine Art Studios Online - it's a really wonderful, professional, easy to use web site service for artists. Can't say enough good things about them -

Thanks so much -
Joanne : 0 )

Unfinished...

This plein air sketch was painted from Juniper Island in Lake George, NY looking up at a portion of Roger's Rock. It's unfinished.... I got about an hour into it and was invaded by a family of kayakers! Now - usually people are super polite and I have just wonderful experiences chatting etc..., but they didn't address me at all and the children were going to knock right into my easel..... very weird. So for the sake of my easel's safety I packed it in - I was pretty disappointed - but oh well - that's the way it goes sometimes.

I did take a photo and may try to finish from that but then it won't be plein air any more and I pretty much detest working from pics..... Will see..... It was such a great spot too - the waves were washing over my feet as I was painting : 0 )

Thoughts and Sketches

I've been spending a great deal of time lately writing - doing what we artists are supposed to do, create an "artist's statement". Phew.... man.... torture, but definitely a productive exercise. I've written pages to eek out a couple of paragraphs and am going to post stuff that just won't fit in my statement here on my blog because I do think I figured out some interesting stuff.

The above sketch was done plein air on what we call Ant Island on Stewart's Pond, NY. I did start a painting, but the ants were chewing on my feet so badly that I had to give it up. Very disappointing - live and learn ......

FAA Tony Merit Award...

A true testament to the marketing guru that I'm Not!!! I was awarded this little gem over a month ago and it didn't occur to me to post it until today.... ugh.... Anyway - the incredibly talented Tate Hamilton passed it to me and I've passed it on to Ken Powers - also amazingly talented - who has made terrific strides in his watercolors over the last six months or so....

Thank you Tate and congratulations Ken!!!

Gage Hill Farm

This little oil is 6.5 x 8 inches. I painted it one steamy evening last week. I worked for two hours and it literally felt like about 15 minutes. Home sweet home! The window next to the trunk of the maple on the ground floor is my studio window... : 0 )

Edit: I scanned this painting once it was dry and was able to get much more accurate color and values - seen above. It's funny - depending on the image, sometimes my camera sees the color much more accurately and sometimes my scanner does - occasionally both bomb out, but happily that's not too often.

Juniper in Sun, Roger's Rock, New York

This 4 x 6 oil on linen was painted on Juniper Island in front of Roger's Rock on Lake George, New York. I'm kind of fond of it - somewhat abstract - it is more about the experience of being there for me, in the sun in the evening, than a description of a tree. A step forward for me in plein air painting I think - albeit a small one -

New Blog Discovery

No pic today - I have quite a few new paintings and plein air sketches to post but have been too busy to photograph them - crazy.........

But did want to take a minute to mention Stapleton Kearn's blog - it's just wonderful... I'm really enjoying going back and reading everything from the beginning in 2007. They're terrifically well written, sooooo funny in places, informative etc.... He brings real "quality in art" into this dumbed down, anything-goes, cheap-thrills, instant-gratification era that we're slogging through -

More Plein Air

I painted this a couple of weekends ago but have been too busy with the scenic stuff to post it. It's oil on linen on panel, 8 x 10 inches. It was brutally hot - again - can see why people get those enormous umbrellas!!! And - again - the upside was jumping in the water to cool off.

I'm feeling better in general about painting in plein air - there are things that I like about this and things that I don't - it's too busy I think, but I'm getting better at seeing patterns and sorting out the value shapes I think - from life. Will keep at it of course - hopefully will be able to get out again this weekend - two days off - yeehaa.....

Schroon Lake Haze

Been doing a Ton of scenic work lately so I haven't been in my studio much. I found time last weekend to do this little plein air oil, 6 x 8, up in Schroon Lake, NY. Insanely- I was painting in the full sun with a heat index of over 100 degrees. The total upside was jumping in the water every 15 minutes to cool off. Even with the water relief, I painted very quickly!

A Saratoga Spring

There was a "paint out" in Saratoga Springs last weekend. I found out about it a day too late to officially sign up, but went and met up with a good painter friend and had a great day anyway...
It was pouring rain most of the day, so I set up under one of the portico roofs over a sulpher spring in Congress Park to paint - it was a little chilly, but sooooo incredibly peaceful painting to the sound of the rain...
Then in out of the rain for a Fantastic dinner in the Parting Glass...!

Austin's Pick

It's been rainy and cold this past week and the scenic scene has been really busy, so I've been back in my studio working on still life paintings, color studies etc. My son Austin has been wanting to try yellow peppers for some time. Not a problem, they're wonderful veggies, but Mommy had to paint it first : 0 )

Sweltering & Hazy

I did this little oil plein air sketch last week with a palette knife. The landscape is a view from our front yard. It was, as the title suggests, incredibly hot and humid and there was a lot of smoke in the air too from a fire in Canada - so between the three, heat, humidity, and smoke, it was amazingly hazy. I Love the heat - thought it was just beautiful! Certainly could have lived without the smoke though.

I was standing in the sun - less buggy that way and had my "sun visor" on my Bitterroot easel - so very useful. Different painting on the easel than the one above, but you get the idea -

Boy - this is a bit of a pain in the patootie to get things to publish in the order I want them in the post - oh well....

"Old Dogs"

Oil plein air sketch of a couple of our old outboard motors - Johnson, 25 horse in the foreground.

Windy Day

After a really frustrating day with the wind and accidentally dumping my brush cleaning fluid - orange oil - into my paint bag - the whole container full - I made this little oil sketch. I did it with a palette knife - as I had no brush cleaner left - 3.5 x 5 inches.

Buck Mountain, Lake George, NY

I painted this little 8 x 10 inch oil yesterday from one of the islands in Lake George. The mountain to the right is Buck Mountain which I've climbed with my family many times. I only had little more than half an hour before I lost the light, so it was pretty quick, but I still like it.

I did this in my studio last week during a very windy stormy dark day - such a contrast to all this bright cheeriness! The red of the mug leans to the blue and the red of the tomato leans to the orange - this did not reproduce - they look so similar here. I've ordered some larger panels - I soooooo need to paint bigger!!! This was fun, but I felt quite claustrophobic doing it so small -

Fourteenth "Cup 'O' Jo" : 0 )

My fourteenth cup here - though it's actually been more than that, not all are fit for public consumption.... Lesson learned here - at least one of them - don't set your coffee cup on your palette unless you're finished with the painting you're working on - I was stuck till I finished my coffee cup painting - though it didin't take too long.

Thirty Minute Pose

I had a half hour left after I finished the reclining pose from my last post and didn't want to waste the time, so I did this little 6 x 6 inch sketch -

Sketch and a Night in Boston -

I was called suddenly away to see LA GRANDE-DUCHESSE DE GÉROLSTEIN in Boston at the Cutler Majestic Theater, Emerson College. I painted part of the set for the production and it was such a thrill to be able to see it in person. It was absolutely fantastic! The music, orchestra, voices - all superb - and so incredibly funny!!! A great night out!

I had breakfast in Quincy market the next morning - gorgeous day! A bit of sight seeing and then back to Home-Sweet-Home!

The sketch above is from last Mon night. I used the ground that I'd wiped twice a few Wednesdays before. I put some English red down and a few other colors and then - really it seems to me that I'm carving/drawing. Pushing, pulling, looking for darks, lights, edges and where edges disappear. I carve a lot before beginning to apply flesh tones - fun and good practice!

Baby Bellas

I've been very inspired by some of the super nutritious foods we've been eating lately -

Thirteenth Cup 'O' Jo

I'm trying a new template and a new order of adding things to eliminate the blue text and lines - so far so good.....

This is cup 13 - obviously - - - My coffee cup was snuggling up to my Boston pencil sharpener. I've been drinking more herbal tea lately too - Love Lemon Zinger, so I'll be painting cups 'o' tea too ; 0 )

Cup 12 Makes a Dozen

Man - this is really frustrating me! If anyone knows how to change this Please! let me know... I've been surfing around here clicking away, trying to get this underlining off... Ugh...

Anyway - my little red cup finally makes its debut - I made the mistake of using a red that I didn't care for - a small tube of geranium lake that I thought I'd put to some use and use up - I didn't like it for a reason! Live and learn - again....

Sometimes I have a yen to drink my coffee black with just some stevia in it -

Cup 11 and Ruminations

Firstly - I apologize for the underlining if you're seeing it on your monitor - it wants to type the whole thing as a link - probably because I put the link in the post first - the text was blue too, but I was able to fix that. Will do things in a different order next time -

Cup Number 11 - one of my more favorite ones...

Was doing some thinking again last night and a bit of writing which I'll convey:

In painting, what am I passionate about?? - Light, the color - simultaneously as they can only be seen - thirdly the objects themselves. The objects are only supports - chairs to drape the light, color, drawing and design on....

How do I paint color?

The exception - PEOPLE - every face different, perfect, beautiful beyond words.....

Skin Tones

I've been working from the model a lot recently. We have a couple of great places to go near here - great professional models, wonderful spaces to work and other terrific artists to be inspired by.

I'm pretty rusty here and was very unhappy with my skin tone palette, so I did a bit of R&D for myself and some of my results are above.

I'm not going to write a great deal here - please contact me for questions or discussions - I welcome it! However, I'll say that the Old Holland Cadmium reds were hands down the most satisfactory for me in color and paint handling. The Winsor & Newton Cadmium Red was muddy by comparison - and I can always mix mud.... The Winosr & Newton Burnt Sienna and Tera Rosa were fantastic though. Winsor Red wasn't too bad, but I still much prefer the Old Holland Cadmiums - Red Lt, and Scarlet! The worst was Holbein's Tera Rosa - muddy and bluish.

Cup 'O' Jo number 10

Last night's open model drawing session was just abysmal. It was a wipe - Twice! That's fine though - I prefer to think that no experience is wasted.

So - here's coffee number 10. I decided it might be more interesting to see where my cups live, their surroundings - so there'll be more of where I am in future Cups 'O' Jo.... This particular one is currently on display and for sale at Art on the Avenue, Macon, Georgia!

Monday Night's Sketch

This is my sketch from Monday night, Saratoga Sketch Club...

Teal Still Life

I finished this painting this morning. The picture of it is a bit contrasty - will try to scan it and see if that comes out better, once it's dry -

Open Model Sketch

Wednesday night's model in the Troy Shirt Factory Bldg here in Glens Falls. A great, bright space, terrific model - really wonderful, met some other great artists and reacquainted myself with a few. I'm really enjoying using this extra time off to further my people painting skills. Back to my easel and still life here ---

Number 9 Cup 'O' Coffee

Cup No. 9 Ladies and Gents.... After one busy day of scenic work yesterday, I'm back in my studio - Yes! - Sanctuary - for more of what I love best.

Complimentary Snack

The orange was absolutely delicious!!! If you were ever put on the spot to come up with something that rhymes with orange - here you go.... "Four engineers in orange braziers" Not original, but as close as I've heard anything... : 0 )

The color in the orange is off - it's too dark and too orange - in the painting it's yellow-er.

Cup 'O' Jo 8

I had quite a response to my "Weight Lost" post from a couple of days ago. So I'll post updates periodically and add things to that post in khaki green - things I forgot to include. I want to keep all the pertinent info in once easy to access place.
Meanwhile - I had one fun day of scenic work yesterday and am back to studio painting today - Yea! God is sooooo good!!!!!

Weight Lost!

I've had many people ask me for this information lately, so I'm posting it here. I've recently lost 90+ (99 lbs as of June 11, 2010) pounds, since last June actually. I'm going to post how I did this as concisely as possible:

About a year ago I came across a book by Gary Taubes called "Good Calories, Bad Calories". It was 468 pages of amazing information and here is what I gleaned from it. Please do read it yourself, it is well worth the time and effort.

People are not fat because they eat fat, they're fat because they eat carbohydrates. Carbohydrates cause your body to produce insulin and insulin is what is responsible for putting the fat that you eat, and converted sugars, into fat tissues making a body fat. So, no insulin production, no deposition of fat into cells! The body doesn't need glucose to run on and neither does the brain. The liver can convert fats and proteins just fine and make ketones which is a more efficient way for the body to work And the brain to function. I've been living this way since last June and have never been healthier.

Here is a list-synopsis of my story:

Before:

• I weighted more than 250 pounds.
• Heart palpitations
  
• Terrible swelling in my hands, feet and ankles.
• Such high blood pressure the Dr. wanted to medicate me immediately
• Always totally exhausted
• My diet - Low fat, Low calorie!
• I was Always hungry!
  
• Bowel issues
• Poor eyesight
• Bumpy terribly dry itchy skin prone to blackheads
• Arthritis-like troubles - couldn't even bend over without a great deal of pain in my lower back, achy joints, had to use a railing to go down stairs
  
• Easily out of breath
• Intolerable PMS and periods
• My brain was always foggy
• Very negative for my job and not great for my marriage
• Size 2x - and my clothes were tight.
  

After:

• I now weigh 155 pounds and am continuing to loose weight
• My blood pressure is below normal (this dropped immediately upon elimination of carbs and has continued to improve)
• No Swelling whatsoever - this also improved greatly within the first two weeks of eliminating carbs and continued fairly rapidly and was completely gone withing two months
• No heart palpitations
• More energy than I know what to do with (I also take vitamin D - 20,000 units per day ( not all at once) which helps this immensely as well.
• I'm Never hungry
• Improved eyesight - went for new glasses yesterday in fact and needed a weaker prescription.
• PMS has all but disappeared
  
• No joint aches at all - I'm amazingly flexible - I Never would have believed it if someone had told me this would be a result
• I look forward to exercise and am training myself to run - breathing's easy!
• My skin is much smoother, blackheads don't reoccur, and much less dry and not itchy at all
• Much happier bowels
• I can think clearly and focus for long periods of time
• Diet - high fat, medium protein and between 5 - 15 grams of carbs per day - 20 max on a bad day
• Far more efficient and effective on my job as a scenic artist and of course wonderful for my marriage : 0 )
• I only focus on low carbs, I don't ever count calories, don't portion my food, eat when I need to or want to and feel satisfied
• Size medium and my clothes are very loose! Wearing some size "small clothes" : 0 )
  

In short - all of the bad stuff in the first list has completely disappeared! Not just improved or somewhat gotten better, - GONE!

So if you're interested in this here are two more lists -

DO NOT EAT:

• No sugar of any kind!
• NO High Fructose Corn Syrup!
  
• No bread
• No corn products at all
• No potatoes
• No low fat milk, yogurt, cheeses etc
• No low fat salad dressings
• No chips, candy, popcorn or whatever other carbohydrate finds its way into your diet
• No juice of any kind
• No bananas, apples (at least at first for the apples, until goal weight is reached)
• No pasta
  

DO EAT:

• Cheeses - sharp, medium, mild, cream cheese, brie - No cottage cheese
  
• Use only real butter and high quality olive oil for cooking and eating
• Meats - chicken, beef, pork, bacon, turkey, eggs, sardines packed in olive oil etc
• Low carb fruits and veggies like broccoli, cauliflower, squashes, avocado, strawberries, pears, blueberries, raspberries. Veggies should be fresh and raw or steamed al dente to retain nutrients. Avoid micro-waving. Also raw garlic, onions. Nothing canned.
  
• Use Half and Half for milk - yes I drink small cups of Half and Half for milk - it's very rich obviously and I use it in my coffee etc
• Eat whole milk organic yogurt (Stoneyfield Farm) sweetened with Stevia (a plant derivative sweetener with no brain altering chemicals and no glycemic index - btw blue agave is very high fructose the way it is processed and should not be used), then flavored with the berries mentioned above, cinnamon, a few drops of a high quality extract like lemon etc.
• Nuts - all of them except cashews and I even eat them in my mixed nuts. Peanuts may be avoided as many people are allergic to them and the ratio of good oils to bad oils in them is about 50/50.
  
• Chocolate - Green & Black makes a dark bar that is 86 percent cocoa that is incredible, also Lindt 90% Cocoa Chocolate, very good - we have this sometimes on movie night
• Olives, onions, garlic, various hot peppers
• Water - drink pure, fluoride-free water all day long
  

So - compared with what I'd been through before trying to get fit and loose weight, yea, this was easy! Again - I'm never hungry! Sacrifices - yes - you must make a choice! No Panera pastries, Dunkin's doughnuts, popcorn, biscuits (my personal favorite and what I miss the most), mashed potatoes, catsup (though you can make your own easily enough and season it how you like) etc. All that sweet tasty stuff is just delicious poison....

Also - Exercise! - again - you must make a choice to be healthy and feel great and change a few things and I'm finding exercise a total pleasure on this "diet"! Moderate and regular - put your mp3 player on and dance or walk - your body will respond! Enjoy it - it is Not an option - think of it like breathing!

A few more things to keep in mind - the food pyramid is upside down! Turn it over and you'll have a much better idea of how you should eat. Carbs/sugars are addicting - literally. Salt content is not as much of a big deal if you're not eating carbs.

Forget about calories, only count carbs and keep it under 20 grams per day

Avoid eating right before bed, an hour or so before...

Lastly - One of the things Mr. Taubes discuses in his book is that even for people who are not overweight, eating carbs is not good. Though a continuously elevated - rising and lowering of insulin levels does Not in itself cause cancer or Alzheimer's, he states there is evidence that running off of glucose does prevent or block your brain's natural ability to regulate mechanisms that help your body to naturally prevent these things.

Finally - I leave you with my new pizza recipe because I could not live without pizza! Instead of bread crust I use the huge portabella mushroom caps brushed with olive oil and turned upside down. Then drain your store-bought pizza sauce (be sure and check for high fructose corn syrup and sugars in the sauce) well through cheese cloth laid in a colander so the sauce is very stiff because the mushroom caps have liquid in them too. Put the sauce into the caps and bake them for a bit - I always make mine on my Weber grill, so not sure what the oven time/temp would be. Then after the mushroom cap has softened up a bit add your toppings (including pepperoni - we're very fortunate to have a local smoke house, Oscar's that makes pepperoni with minimal nitrites) and cheeses, spices etc - then bake/broil again until the cheeses are melted. Delicious - my three children love it!

A note about children - we all do eat the same way (my wonderful husband has lost 40+ pounds), but I provide really whole grains for them. They have old fashioned oatmeal with cream and butter on it for breakfast to be sure they're getting enough fat into their cells to stay at an ideal body weight. They also have more yogurt and higher carb fruits than I do like oranges and apples and occasionally a very hearty whole grain brown rice or mix of brown rices with butter on it, chick peas warm with butter and spices or in a salad with olive oil.

Your Dr. will probably not agree with what I've written here. Mr. Taubes addresses this in his book as well. But I am conveying here to you my own experience. Please email me with any questions or for references at joannehop@gmail.com.

Very lastly -really - I don't believe for a minute it was a coincidence that I was reading "Good Calories, Bad Calories" at the same time that I was diagnosed with such high blood pressure. God has his hand in all of my life as I belong to him and I thank and praise Him for giving me the answers before I knew I needed them!

Cup 'O' Jo no. 7

I'm starting to include more of where my coffee cups live in my little paintings. Thought it would be nice to see their surroundings.

Next Cup - Number 6

The little red cup arrived yesterday - just sweet - great color, so that will be making it's debut one of these days.

Fifth Cup -

Like a faithful dog - my coffee hangin' there with me as I paint on the floor.

Cup No. 4

I painted this one very quickly using left over paints from another effort. Lots of painting ahead today. I've set up a new still life - no coffee cup in it. Also picked up several jars of canned foods at the grocery yesterday - gorgeous hot peppers in yellows and reds and greens, pickles, and huge olives.
I also stopped at the local thrift store and found a set of peachy colored napkins to use as grounds in still lifes - a quarter a piece - I love thrift stores! : 0 )

Third Cup 'O' Jo

Here's my third painted cup of coffee.

Since I spent the last couple posts discussing color, I'll add this little note. Inconsequential really, but - now I generally Love Sennelier paints, both oils and watercolors. Just out of curiosity I tried their Burnt Sienna and the color is just fine, vibrant, creamy - lovely - However..... it smells like motor oil. It smells so bad I won't use it in my studio, I'm saving it for plein aire work - outside....

I Love their Ultramarine Blue which I mentioned in the list - it's just a hair redder than most other brands - gorgeous! The Cobalt Turquoise is also gorgeous - it has no white pigment in it and is super versatile. The Titanium White is also super thick and rich and I sometimes use their Cad. Yellow Pale - intense and glorious.... And all the rest of those colors smell like oil paint - the way they should....

Anyway - just a note on paint....

Lemon Yellow Still Life

Another way that I like to use color is to pick, for example, one red and one blue and then use a range of tube colors for the third in the triad - yellow in the painting above. The palette for this one is Burnt Sienna for red, Sennelier Cobalt Turquoise blue, and then a range of yellows - Cad. Lemon, Cad. Yellow, Winsor Yellow mostly with a bit of Naples Yellow, Yellow Ochre, and Cad. Yellow Deep. I also love to use one blue, one yellow and then a bunch of reds as in "Snuggle Buddies" from four posts ago.

Working this way allows the color I'm using so much of from different tubes, yellow in this example, to intimate and suggest many other colors in the spectrum that aren't blatantly there. I call this particular color - whichever one it is, red, yellow, or blue, my "spectral" color.

My Color Palette

A while back I mentioned that some artist friends had asked me about my choice of colors and I'm finally getting to it...... It's a rainy, very gray morning here so I have a great cup of coffee - which I may paint when I'm finished with my post, Pandora playing Baroque - and so I proceed....

So - firstly - when choosing colors I consider:

• Permanence
• Brilliance
• Transparency

Usually in the better manufacturers the above go hand in hand to some degree. Winsor & Newton even makes a transparent white which I employ periodically.

The manufacturers I prefer are - about 50/50 Old Holland and Winsor & Newton, then Sennelier and lastly Holbein. A note about Old Holland in their defense - I've heard and read some negative about being over priced etc. Well, they are expensive, no doubt, but I also find the intense concentration usually causes them to last 2 - 3 times as long as a comparable color of anything else and some of their colors just can't be matched in brilliance like Cad. Red Scarlet and Cobalt Turquoise Light. So in the list below of specific pigments I name the manufacturer because for my tastes and uses it's the most brilliant, useful color in that pigment range.
I will add that my own testing, while extensive, is not exhaustive, so it continues and I welcome comments about other colors in other manufacturers etc....

• Permanent Rose - W&N
• Quinacridone Magenta - W&N
• Permanent Alizarin Crimson - W&N
• Cadmium Red Light - OH
• Cadmium Scarlet - OH
• Scheveningen Orange - OH
• Indian Yellow - W&N
• Cadmium Yellow - W&N
• Cadmium Yellow Lemon - Holbein
• Cobalt Turquoise Lt. - OH
• Viridian - W&N
  
• Phthalo Blue - OH
• French Ultramarine - Sennelier - slightly more red than other brands.
  
• Bright Violet - OH
• Burnt Sienna - W&N
• Burnt Umber - OH
• Transparent Maroon - W&N
• OH Yellow Brown - OH
• Red Oxide - OH
• Titanium White - OH usually and Sennelier
• Transparent White - W&N
  

You can see those colors and some comparisons on the chart above. I make and remake these charts based on new information and sometimes a new color I'm interested in trying.

I Never use all of these colors on a palette at once. I usually use a limited palette, a red, yellow, and blue and like to mix even my browns ahead instead of just squeezing out some Burnt Sienna (though I do love W&N Bt Sienna), or Umber. You also see quite a few greens, earth reds, and browns that are not listed - I rarely use them for my own work, but keep them on hand for illustration/work/ faux finish purposes and some of them I try and then reject. I much prefer to mix my secondaries. I do use black sometimes - OH Mars black or I find Gamblin Chromatic Black useful, but again, like to mix my blacks too.

When testing your own colors, be sure to view the mass tone comparisons up close, and from about 10 feet away and look at how they compare when painted thinly - not with extra medium, just pulled out very very thinly on your canvas and then what happens when white is added...

I have three containers, one with the names of my reds on small scraps of paper, one with the blues and then of course the yellows. Once in a while I just reach in and pick one from each and see what comes from them as a limited palette - fun and interesting.

My watercolor palette is pretty much the same with the same colors from the same manufacturers with a few exceptions. I love Sennelier Cerulean Blue in watercolor, the W&N Cobalt Turquoise Lt, W&N Gold Ochre and Daniel Smith Quinacridone Burnt Orange etc.

Hopefully this is helpful - I'm more than happy to answer questions if I can or start a dialogue on color so fee free to email me.

Happy painting....

Next Cup...

Here's the next in my series.... I'm so excited, I found a screaming red antique enameled coffee cup, white on the inside, on Etsy - quite reasonable too. Very much looking forward to painting it! Should be here by the end of the week : 0 )

Cups 'O' Jo

I've begun a new series of small paintings that I'm calling "Cups 'O' Jo". These are sort of self portraits through Java. They're my cups of coffee that I'm drinking while I'm working or reading or whatever. I don't set them up as still lifes, they're just "found" and painted as is.

If it isn't obvious, I Love coffee - usually light with Stevia in it. Stevia is wonderful stuff for anyone interested. It is a sweetener derived from a plant - no sugar in it and no terrible brain-altering chemicals and it has no glycemic index - but it is very sweet. One packet is the equivalent of two teaspoons of sugar. We find it at Wal-Mart - "Nature Made" I think makes it.

Anyway I do love coffee - light, sometimes sweet, always strong, sometimes with a shot of espresso when available, occasionally flavored - lightly with cinnamon or chocolate or hazelnut..... My husband will come in to my studio with a cup or ask me to come join him for one and it always lifts my heart - the effect never wears off. We chat and enjoy the coffee..... So it's a small but big part of my life I share here and I'm thoroughly enjoying painting them as well as drinking them. : 0 )

This series can also be found on my web site under the title of this post, "Cups 'O' Joe"

Snuggle Buddies

After my whole discussion about whites, there's almost none in this little painting - only in the highlights. The rest of the lights are a combination of using the paint transparently on a white oil ground and the use of Cadmium Lemon Yellow.

Old Holland Paint

This post actually has nothing to do with the above painting from Rockewell Falls, under the bridge in Hadley, NY.

A couple of posts ago I was lamenting the yellowing of the Zinc white in the Old Holland brand of oil paint.
Well - I went to the OH web site and contacted the people who speak English there and sent them a scan, describing my disappointment. I've loved OH paint forever! I was heartbroken.

They took my issues directly to their master paint fellow in their factory and he had the answer immediately. Within 24 hours my questions had been answered, my problems solved - and I'm so very relieved!

It turns out that the pigments in linseed binder -paint- they make are meant to be in light. The first question he asked me was, "Was I by any chance storing them in the dark?" And - yes - I had been. The samples in question had been stored in complete darkness for years.

So I put tape over half of the yellowed sample that I'd sent to them and then taped the whole page in a south facing window for maximum light exposure. It's been there now for a month and the swatch has indeed begun to get back to where it was when I made it - a beautiful pure white. The titanium which had also yellowed is almost pure white again, the zinc I think is about half way there. The paintings I had stored are also returning to their original state. Yea!!!

My complete faith in Old Holland paints has been more than completely restored and I'd recommend them to anyone serious about color. At first they may take some getting used to because the color is so saturated and so pure that it needs to be applied more thinly than some other brands. But it is so gorgeous it is more than worth the trouble!

Speaking of paint, I've had a couple of artist friends of mine ask me recently about my pigments and choice of paints. So in my next post I'm going to write about brands, pigments, colors I use and don't use and why and how I came to those decisions. So - stay tuned..... : 0 )

Model Sketch

This sketch was from a couple of weeks ago. Not a true likeness of the model, but still recognizable as a female of the human race.... lol. Just keep painting, just keep painting.....

Red Tin

I'm so loving red - I get this way in the middle of February - half starved for bright colors. This little painting, 3 x 3 inches is in my Etsy shop.

Darn, Eggs...

Ahhhhhhhhhh - working from life is feeling so wonderful - like scratching an itch... More to come : 0 )

Life Drawing, Painting - Resisting -

My internal commitment to working from life has been refreshingly liberating for me. Funny - nothing's really changed, just had to come to that realization, though the choice has always been there.

I did this sketch last Monday night. Great to be working from the model again too and to work along side some super talented artists!

I also continue with drawing, my color studies, reading..... Another awesome John Berger book - "From A to X, A Story in Letters". A truly incredible book, story - it's art, poetry, resistance, beauty - can't recommend it enough!

Brrrrrr...... and Digging Deep -

Yesterday morning it was 15 degrees Below Zero here - uhhhhhhh - teeeeth chattttttering!!!! This morning, only 5 below - finally some global warming.....

Anyway - Been in a bit of a funk here - Haiti and some deaths of acquaintances etc... So very much sadness and heaviness of heart!

I've been taking this time to dig deep, doing lots of reading. One of the books I'm reading through for the second time in two weeks actually is "The Shape of a Pocket" by John Berger. I found it in the National Gallery bookstore; I've read some of his other works and this one practically jumped off the shelf at me.

It is truly a remarkable book; a collection of essays speaking to painting as an act of resistance. The second essay, "Steps Towards a Small Theory of the Visible" is one of the best pieces on art and painting I've ever come across. I highly recommend it to anyone asking questions of themselves and the world and paint and the visual!

I've been doing a lot of writing as well lately, trying to figure things out.... about painting .... why I must paint, what I want to paint and I've been feeling a certain meaninglessness about the whole thing - not a depression exactly, but a grasping, a remembering..... And I've come to many conclusions, but one of particular significance is that the state of the world and the state of the world as portrayed by the media, the economy etc... is supposed to effect a state of hollow, shallow, confused meaninglessness.

Now - I don't have a TV, so I have to make a very concerted effort to view one generally. While I was in MD, there was a TV in my room and I was appalled at the degradation that's taken place in the 12 or so years since I've had one. I turned on the tube twice, to try to find something interesting to watch (beside the weather channel or Fox News - Ugh!) Both times the scenes opened with a dead body; the first of a little black girl and the second of a pretty red-head who'd been bludgeoned to death in a bathtub. Wow - what I've been missing! Man! Between that and the news............... what can even be said -

Anyway - the point is, and one of the many poignant points of Berger's book is that the prostitution, (my word, not his) of images, cheap, in your face, over the top, and consumerism driven, -billions of them relentlessly barraging people, contributes immensely to the meaninglessness of them and a seemingly cheapening and devaluing of life. I see this in much of the contemporary paintings I've perused of late. Many of them I even love, they're beautiful, but what do they mean??? All these gazillions of images make paintings harder to see.

This has brought me to a necessary and impassioned conclusion for my own work here. For the time being, I'm only going to work from life! For thousands of years this has been the way artists functioned. I feel a bit of a death in a way these days, trying to make a painting from a digital image. Painting for me is about reciprocity, action - reaction, energy, and the precious use of my binocular vision that becomes neutered by both the flatness and limited color of a photograph.

So I am resisting - painting from life, insisting that painting and the richness of family and friends, relationships, walks in the woods, striving, changing, improvings, giving a damn and looking for God's will all do have exquisite and indelible meaning!!!