Growth

20x16 oil on panel - unfinished study

14x11 oil on linen - head study

I continue to host the biweekly figure sessions on Saturday mornings at Joel's coffee shop. This has been a great endeavor. I can see a vast improvement in my color and brushwork since starting to regularly paint from life in March (see below).

I frequently just paint the figure and ignore background and am having trouble in other paintings reconciling backgrounds now too. Its always something, right? So I need to work on that. This session, I posed our model in front of one of V....Vaughan's paintings at Joels to give the illusion of a landscape behind her. Its my "Mona Lisa."

early March figure study

I aim to paint a medium size during these sessions -- too small and the head is the size of a quarter if you want the whole gesture. I paint fast. So I tend to paint a longer pose for over an hour and try to capture the "scene". And then I move or the model moves and I try a portrait.

Since most of these works are for practice, I often paint them on old canvases or paper. The panels or paper store nicely too if I do decide they are worth keeping.

Sometimes the set up in the coffee shop isn't ideal. I have a light on a stand and try to mix it up with side, top or back lighting even. The light on my palette and canvas isn't great. But its still awesome to paint from life, to interact with other artists and the model. And enlighten patrons who come in for their coffee. I'd love to have a beautiful studio with space for all and a perfect set up for a model, but that isn't my life right now. And we can't let studio space or want of ideal situations limit our creativity!