Category Archives: Paintings

oil and acrylic

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Mel – on the home stretch

Many hours spent developing the portrait of Mel Rothenburger today. Now his glasses are defined and I worked a lot on the background, which unfortunately you cannot see – yet. He’s finally ‘arrived,’ and it took the background to do make this so, which is not always the case.
I find it quite a challenge to work only on weekends on a piece. The time inbetween causes me to loose the connection and the direction. As a woman, how I feel effects things too. 
He’s going to be ok now, I’ve got him where I want him – so to speak – ha ha.

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New – Untitled

As the days tick by when I can’t paint, subject matter and inspiration build up. I want to do so many pieces and find my self casting about the studio trying to settle on just one and not be distracted by the others in the queue.
This one has been waiting a very long time – years in fact. A title has not come to mind, so have left it untitled for now. This one is not for the exhibition so I have posted a full image.

The drawing is on paper and is not complete yet, sorry for the blue mottled tones, the drawing is quite light so I had to darken it in Photoshop so you could see it – thus the blue… more tomorrow….

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More Mel…

Having taken the portrait workshop and learned a lot of things, and then not painted at all for a week, my mind is scrambling to get back on the horse, so to speak. Flesh tones are much better understood now and I applied some of that understanding to Mel this morning. I say “some,” because there is a colour that was used in the workshop that I don’t have, it’s on order, but not here yet. I came very close to mixing this colour on my own and the lack of it’s exactitude (?) is not going to break this painting. I’m not a big fan of real flesh tones anyway, I like to make the face move by pushing colour and value.

So here is Mel after this morning’s session. I think it’s neat how the lens of his glasses show up even though I haven’t painted them yet

 

 

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Painting the Portrait from Life Workshop

I’ve just returned from the Lower Mainland having soaked up 5 glorious days of Portrait Painting from Life with Artist Martinho Correia, educated in the traditional European oil painting method. It was a very fine experience and I learned many useful practices that will be added to my tool box. There were 15 of us attending and new friendships were made, the days were sunny, and the spirit of the entire process was nothing short of upbeat. 

Below is the progression of the exercise I did using his methods and style (as much as possible)

Each day we painted from a live model. Here’s my drawing and model, Guy.

Above: the set-up where we worked for the 5 days

Above: the canvas has been toned and the dead painting stage is in progress.

Above: Deadpainting complete and ready to begin the First Stage, below.

Above: Here it is finished and photographed in my studio away from the yellow tungsten lights.
It’s still wet, of course, and causing the blotchy effect in the darkened background area. 

Here I am with Martinho, an artist and instructor I greatly admire. 
When is the next workshop?!!!

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The Boat – “Missed”

Earlier this month I posted the image below of a toned in boat, you might remember?

Last weekend I started messing around with it… adding another tonal colour in a method inspired by watching Brent Lynch’s demo at the FCA Passion for Painting last Saturday.

Then some substance…

Reminded me of hyacinths… but I kept on going…

above is where I left off last weekend.

Today’s work is below, adding to the water and the boat only.

What you see below might be close to done. It sure felt good to loosen up and play around in monochromatics. I stopped looking at the source photo for the last stage of painting and just let feeling take over.

 

I called it “Missed.”

 

 

 

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Mel Rothenburger – moving along

It’s been a few weeks since I worked on Mel’s portrait. A disconnect  between me and my original idea happens in these gaps of time and knowing this, I kept the painting in my mind as much as possible yesterday. Can’t say that really helped but it did cause some angst! You know the usual, how am I going to do ‘that’? ‘That’ being, the eyes, the cheeks, the hair etc. etc.!!! So in my fashion I just start squeezing out paint and make a mess on my palette and start with the eyes. When I can get the subject looking straight at me, that sets the stage for the play that follows. About 7 hours later there is a lot done, but it’s far from complete. His flesh areas are well developed but there’s clothing and the space around still in the toned stage.

Here’s how ‘he’ looks today and below, where I started from this morning.

More later…

 

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You think a painting is finished but…

This weekend is the start of the FCA Open Show and what a show it is!! Powerful work that has broad appeal. The size of the pieces even fit the room pleasantly!

Three judges came up from Vancouver, current president of FCA, Andrew McDermott SFCA,  Brent Lynch SFCA, and Rick McDiarmid, SFCA. In addition to judging award winners, they demo their painting methods, share some of the inner workings of how and why they paint the way they do, and provide us with critiques on work we choose to bring in. I find the latter especially valuable for my soul not only technically, but in the psychological and spiritual realm of my art-self. I hardly slept the night before the critique, not because it is a brutal experience but because a senior artist can really see where you are and that kind of scrutiny is like a knife cutting away self-delusion from reality. I’m sure I’m not alone when it comes to falling in love with my own work only to realize I was a fool, I fell too fast, the emotion blinded me of the flaws. Do I want to hear the truth in a few hours or do I want to stay in the reverie? I’ll only grow in truth.

I offered my latest pieces, the portraits of  Mark Recchi and Zofia Cisowski.

Although nothing was said about changing Mark’s eyes, they were caught in the dragnet of adjustment this morning. This is the third time I’ve ‘finished’ his eye and to make it easier for you to see the changes, they are posted top to bottom from most recent to older.

The critiques held much value and I agreed with what was offered. Not the painter nor the critic is right or wrong in this, it’s different visons and different viewpoints from different people. But in terms of a craft, there is so much I have to learn. Good, because I love a challenge!

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Jules – finished

I removed the earring, the lamp base, and the knob on the furniture because to me they were distractions. I left the pillow bright because I think it helps move the eye around the painting, and balances the light area in the top left corner.

Preparing this photo for you to view was a challenge because the contrasting blue and yellow fought for dominance it was either muddy blue or weirdly orange. It looks good here on my computer and I hope it does on yours too.

Julie, thank you for sharing your time and your home with me so that I could have this learning experience painting your portrait.

Jules, Oil on Canvas, Copyright M. Budreau 2012, 20″x 36″ SOLD