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!!!!!