Crocker Museum Auction

Andante, 24 x 48 inches, oil on linen

For the past several years, I've participated in Crocker Art Museum's annual auction. This painting is my entry this year. I've always done pretty well at this event, and I'm curious to know how the economy will affect this year's auction. The preview party last week was crowded but I'm not sure it's because of the smaller venue or there were actually more people.

The silent auction wasn't getting much action, but I think the bids are open till the big gala so there's a lot of time yet.

The museum is going through a major expansion project and its grand re-opening is set for October of this year. I'm pretty excited about this. The Crocker has a very good collection, and with the new, big, beautiful space it is sure to bring in some top notch shows to Sacramento. It's about time, too. I think Sacramento has a lot of potential in the visual art field but it's still provincial and it needs a serious, active epicenter to put us on the map. I think the new Crocker will be a giant leap in that direction. I hope so. With all the political theatre going on both at the state and the city level, nothing ever gets done in Sacramento. It's a miracle that the Crocker was able get this project flying!

Anyway, whether the public is ready for a serious art scene remains to be seen, but I do hope we are making progress. Now if only the economy picks up...

Sonoma Plein Air 2010 – Day 6

Saturday was the show and sale day. I don't have any pics from the day, so I offer this detail shot of my favorite painting from the week.

We all arrived at the town plaza in the morning and hung our paintings on designated panels. There were some really good work there and if I had the money, I'd like to have taken home a dozen or so myself!

The serious collectors who know what they're looking for arrive first to get their picks. It did get very lively and crowded all through the morning, despite the cold wind. We had steady flow of people pretty much all day, thanks not only to this festival's drawing power, but also concurrent events happening in and around town (a jazz festival, Crosby Stills & Nash concert, etc).

I sold some paintings, which was nice. Wish I could have sold more, but when yours is among 400 paintings, there's a lot of competition. And mine are kind of quiet paintings so it takes a certain type of collector to notice and appreciate what I have to offer. Or so goes the consensus among my peers. I'm not disappointed or worried, really, because these paintings will find homes sooner or later.

Some artists did really well, while others didn't do so well. You never know at these kinds of events.

I did end up selling my diner painting. I kind of miss it now, but what could I do? The diner's owner had to have it. Couldn't say no to that, now could I?

I have a few different composition ideas for the same diner motif, so I will be working on those in the next few months. They'll have to be done from photos so they'll likely have a different feel to them. But with any luck, I'll be able to smell the grill if I get the mood just right.

So wraps up another Sonoma Plein Air Festival. I'm happy to say that this was probably my best plein air event ever. Not in terms of sales, but in terms of work and having a good time. I did my best plein air painting ever, and more than that; I think I became a better painter this week. That's pretty huge.

Sonoma Plein Air 2010 – Day 5

Aria Sonoma, 12 x 16 inches, oil on linen

Friday. This is the last day of painting. We were to bring our best painting to the gala by 4 pm, which meant that the early part of the afternoon would have to be spent touching up, signing, photographing and framing all the paintings we'd done that week. The exhibition went up the next morning, so there would be no time to do all that on Saturday.

I still had all morning to paint, so back out on the open road I went. I'm not sure which road this was, but It was somewhere West of town, toward Petaluma.

At 12 x 16, it was considerably larger than the little road paintings I did earlier in the week. It's a nice, comfortable size for a plein air painting, especially if I didn't have to do any lettering or draw cars. This one was smooth sailing from start to finish, as a result.

Getting the paintings presentable for Saturday's show took a few hours and by the time I was done, I had just enough time to rush back to the house, get changed, and rush out to Cline Cellars, where the gala was to be held.

Cline's barrel room is a really nice event venue, and is perfect for this kind of thing. The artists arrived with their best paintings of the week, and I must say, I was pretty impressed with the work that everyone did.

I brought my Sebastiani Theatre painting. I decided against bringing the diner painting partly because I figured there'd be other truck paintings there, and also because I suffered so much for my theatre painting. The real reason, though, is that in the back of my mind I was secretly hoping to keep the diner painting for myself, and not sell it. I loved it that much.

But never mind. The gala went on, and the artists voted for the Artist's Choice award, which went to the old timer Dick Cole's beautiful watercolor painting. My Sebastiani Theatre piece got second place, just edged out by one vote. I shoulda voted for my own painting! haha~

Anyhow, the party was a lot of fun, and the foundation raised a lot of money this night for the arts programs in public schools of Sonoma County. Big kudos to the organizers for putting on such a successful gala event!

Sonoma Plein Air 2010 – Day 4

The Oldest Customer, 12 x 16 inches, oil on linen sold

There is this roadside burger joint on Hwy 12 just south of town that I've had my eye on every time I drove by. It's got a beat up old truck parked out front, just begging to be made into a painting. On Thursday morning, I finally decided to tackle the subject.

The light was perfect in the morning, and I got started before the restaurant opened. This place used to be called Babe's, and many locals still call it that even though it has changed hands and is now called the Fremont Diner. The food is great, as far as diner fare goes. A lot people stopped by to see what I was doing and talked to me, giving me history lessons on the place.

I worked on this thing for about three hours. As the lunch hour approached, the smell of sausages grilling in the kitchen wafted over and tortured my empty stomach. I pressed on, and when I finally finished, I had one of the best plein air paintings I'd ever done! At the very least, it was my favorite plein air piece in recent memory. In any case, I was really pleased with the painting.

Here's the photo of the place. The vantage point is slightly different from where my easel was. In my composition, I kept almost everything exactly as it actually was. I moved the house and the tree in the background and simplified it, and moved the "open" sign from the front of the diner to the side. Other than that, I didn't change anything. Oh, and I warmed up the colors a little bit.

After another fabulous lunch by Terri Wicks, it was time to tackle my theatre painting. I went back to the town square, set up my easel exactly at the spot I was on the previous day, and got to work. The lettering had been worked out already so it went pretty smoothly. Still it was very tedious and my shoulder started to hurt after a while. Soon the pain became such that every time I lifted my brush, it was as if someone jabbed a needle into the top of my scapula. I took some Advil and was able to press on,(would that be considered taking performance enhancing drugs?) I didn't have any fun doing it.

A Brief Encounter, 12 x 21 inches, oil on linen sold

When I was finished, I had spent a total of five and a half hours on this thing. If it didn't have the lettering problem, it would have been a two hour painting, but whaddayagonnado?.

I was pretty happy with the painting though, and I was glad to have done it. There were still a few hours of daylight left – enough time for one more painting – but I could barely lift my arm so I called it quits. It's a good thing I could lift a beer glass with my left hand!

Sonoma Plein Air 2010 – Day 3

Distant Shadows, 6 x 8 inches, oil on linen

Wednesday. I planned to start a bigger canvas of the Sebastiani Theatre this afternoon. As I knew that was going to be quite a challenge, I decided to spend the morning painting some things a little less difficult.

Wanderlust, 6 x 8 inches, oil on linen

So I drove out to Ramal Road, perched myself on the side of the road and did a few of these small canvases. The open road, as you have seen in my recent post, is a favorite motif of mine, so this was a relaxed, enjoyable painting session. ...Or so it should have been. In order to get some elevation so that I can see more of the road and the landscape, I needed to be on a top of a small hill. The view was just fine, but oh the wind! It was howling and whipping and it only got worse as the paintings progressed.

I managed to park my SUV facing the wind, sat on the tailgate – well actually, more like sat in the back facing out. My Soltek was just beyond the tailgate, and I sat cross-legged, grabbing onto the easel with my left hand so that it wouldn't shake so much. Not the most comfortable position but hey, you do what you can.

Backroads, 6 x 8 inches, oil on linen

After the first two, I decided I had enough of the wind and went looking for a more sheltered spot. This meant that I wouldn't have the elevation, but that was OK. But now I had the high sun glaring down at my canvas and the palette. No matter how I tried to orient the car and the easel, I couldn't avoid the sun. I had to resort to using the umbrella, which I really don't like doing.

It worked out fine for a while, but the wind must have changed and I started to get gusts again. And sure enough, it caught my umbrella and sent it sailing across the field. I had to hop the fence to chase after it. Comical!

A Familiar Corner, 9 x 12 inches, oil on linen

I went back into town for lunch and decided to stay there for the afternoon. The sun was gone by now, but it would come back later in the afternoon, I'd guessed.

This corner building must have been painted a thousand times before, and probably from the same vantage point, too. I figured I'd give it a go, if only to kill some time before the sun came out so I can get the cast shadows on my big yet-to-be-painted Theatre painting.

I forgot to take a shot of the building, but I found one that I took a few years ago. Obviously the weather wasn't so unfriendly when I took this photo, but you can see the structure.

At around 3pm, I set up and started my theatre painting. I had about an hour and a half before the rain forced me to quit, and I spent all that time drawing with my brush. I will show you the painting on the next post, and I think you'll be able to see why the drawing took so long. About half an hour into it, I started to have second thoughts about it. It became apparent that while the painting didn't have anything particularly difficult, it was just unbelievably tedious, and you know I'm not particularly a tight painter, especially out in the field. So yeah...

Anyway, the rain forced me to quit early for the day, and I spent the rest of the evening hanging out with my buddies. It seemed everyone had a tough time with the wind and the rain. When plein air painters get together, there's no shortage of amusing stories about dealing with the elements.

Sonoma Plein Air 2010 – Day 2

Stepping Out, 9 x 12 inches, oil on linen

On Tuesday, I woke up early as usual (when I'm at home I usually get up at 5:30am because I have to take my son to school at 6:30am).

I didn't intend to get up early. When I first did one of these plein air events, I was very nervous about whether I could do decent pieces to show and sell ("what if I stood out as the one really crappy artist among these great ones? How humiliating would that be!?) I think it was the Carmel event. On the first day, I got started before dawn and did six paintings. I remember skipping breakfast and lunch, and working until the daylight was gone. Crazy! Did I end up with great pieces? Well no, I had six mediocre ones.

I think my experience is probably not so different from that of many an artist's first big event. These days, I'm not a plein air virgin anymore and although I may churn out an occasional dog, I don't panic. I don't get out at dawn and I certainly don't do six paintings a day!

I did want to sleep in. But unlike home, it was really quiet throughout the night, and moreover, I didn't have my daughter kicking me all night long. It was too peaceful, I guess.

When I woke, I saw that the sky was clear, and I was happy about the prospect of not painting in the rain. I finally got out of the house around 7:30 and headed out. Not to paint, but to get my morning coffee at this great bakery on the Square, Basque Cafe Boulangerie. Ohmygawd do they have the world's best custard!? I saw that they had a custard danish thing, and I had to have one with my coffee. Bill Cone showed up, and we enjoyed our morning coffee for a while longer. Bill is an old pro too, so he was in no hurry either. A good cup of coffee and the world's best custard. It's almost as good as painting, you know?

But painting needed to be done, so I finally got off my butt and got to work. The truth is, while I was sitting at the sidewalk table at the Cafe, I was surveying the shadow angles and patterns cast by the rising sun. You see, one of my goals at this event this year was to not drive so much. The last time I did the Sonoma event, I drove about a thousand miles, all over the county, rubbernecking the whole time. You know how it is when you think there's a better view around the next bend and you just keep driving. Well not this year. I was going to drive very little, and a part of that strategy was to stay in the town square area and paint town things. So that's what I did.

I could have picked any of the East facing storefronts, really. I picked this one because it looked rather nondescript and it wasn't a hip boutique or anything. It looked ordinary and old. That sense of faded memory stirred an emotional response in me. (Just a stir. I didn't start crying or anything...)

If you compare the photo of the storefront with the painting, you can see that I made some changes. The hard cast shadows came and went as the sun moved, so I just painted them when they appeared. There are some color changes and drawing alterations, most notably the lamp post which was out of the picture in actuality. I painted it in. I liked the note of green that it provides in an otherwise very red/orange picture.

The figure provides another saturated note. No, she didn't stand there posing for me. People were just walking by in various dress, and a few went in the building, and few came out. So the figure I painted is a composite of many. That's pretty typical of how I work.

Afternoon Rehearsal, 12 x 9 inches, oil on linen sold

After a fantastic lunch provided by Keith Wicks' wife Terri at the Botanical Gardens (See what I mean by the Sonoma event being the best?) I went back to the town and painted this partial view of the Sebastiani Theatre, an iconic presence in town. I had in mind to do a bigger painting later on in the week, but I wanted to make sure I could pull off the lettering, so I did this smaller painting first. It turns out, the lettering was doable, but a major pain in the right shoulder was the price I would have to pay for it. It has to do with the ergonomics of holding my hand steady for an extended period of time. I would decide wheather to do the bigger piece later.

A bunch of my friends stopped by to say hello ("what're you dooin? paintin?") and Greg LaRock suggested that my figure, who was empty handed, be carrying an accordion. I'd have done it had I been familiar with the instrument, but no, Greg had to settle for a guitar case.

Coffee Date, 9 x 12 inches, oil on linen

Later that afternoon, the quickdraw event took place around the town square. The artists all start a painting at around 5:30, and be done by 7:00. And they must stay within the Town Square area. Needless to say, the time constraint and the abundant spectators put some pressure on us. Some artists really hate it but I don't mind it so much, I think because I'm used to giving demos. I moved my easel about 30 ft from where I was painting the theatre, and painted people enjoying their coffee at my new favorite custard shop.

I really enjoyed my painting day, and was very happy with my efforts. The burger and beer at the end of the day with my tribesmen were the perfect punctuation to a very good day.

Sonoma Plein Air 2010 – Day 1

Just got home from a week of painting in the beautiful Sonoma County! Boy am I wiped out. I want to do a recap of the entire Sonoma Plein Air Festival if only to keep a record of this wonderful event, but I'm not sure if I can remember everything. I painted my butt off for an entire week, and it's kind of a blur as to when I did what. I didn't take notes of the days' happenings as I typically do, because it's been a while since I did one of these events and I was out of sorts.

But let me start at the beginning and I will retell the week's goings on as best I can.

So Day 1. I didn't even start packing till Monday morning. I had been busy all weekend taking care of this and that, and I got to bed really late, too. By the time I arrived in Sonoma, it was late morning. Good thing I only live an hour and a half away! The skies were heavy and it looked like it was going to start raining any minute, and sure enough, as I was getting my panels stamped, it started coming down. I wasn't planning on busting my tail on the first day - it takes a while for me to get into the plein air groove – so it may as well rain. I saw some old friends at check-in, got myself a hot cup o' joe, and chit chatted, while waiting for the rain to let up.

It didn't look like it was going to clear up anytime soon, so I went and had lunch with Paul Kratter, heckled Rob Sandidge (who was braving the rain and painting across the street from where Paul and I were eating lunch) and then went to meet my host for the week. Hostess, actually. Jane welcomed me into her home, and made me feel absolutely comfortable. The better plein air events really take care of the artists, and providing housing for the duration of the event is one of the things that really makes a difference for the participating artists. Sonoma is, in the opinion of many, one of the best events of its kind.

Anyway, due to a profound lack of sleep, and the fact that I didn't want to go out in the rain to paint meant that there was only one thing to do that afternoon; nap. What a luxury that is for me!

The Five Minute Show, 9 x 12 inches, oil on linen sold

I woke up a few hours later, and it looked like the sky was a bit brighter toward the South, so I sallied forth toward Carneros. I knew there were marshes over there, and I've done a fair number of marsh paintings since last fall, so it was well within my comfort zone. No point in rushing into something really challenging and setting myself up for failure on the very first day!

I found a good spot, though it was a bit windy and the rain hadn't completely stopped. My SUV's hatch provided some cover and I was able to do this painting. I placed my bets on the sun showing its face toward the evening and lighting up the clouds. It did happen, for about five minutes (hence the title). I had to push the color a bit to make it work for my painting.

Not a bad start to a week of nothing but painting en plein air~

The evening was spent socializing with other artists at the reception, catching up with old friends and meeting new ones. Some of us then went to this taco joint and had ourselves a good time. Things were looking promising, indeed.

The Big Dipper

The Big Dipper, 18 x 54 inches, oil on linen

(Click on image to see it larger)

Here's a painting that I've been working on for a while. I thought it was finished months ago, but something was bugging me and I couldn't figure out why at the time so I just set it aside till the answer came to me.

Last week I realized what the problem was; it was too pretty. Too much color for my taste. So I knocked it back with a dark glaze, and repainted most of it – more tonally this time. I like it a lot better. It's moodier, but it's not dark overall, and the saturated color is limited to yellow. There are reds and greens working here too, but they've been pushed toward yellow.

Now about how I arrived at this composition. In the last few years, I did a number of paintings on this theme. I was trying to update my website one day, and I had to find an image for a banner at the top of a page, see. The dimensions of this banner box were fixed, and I dragged different images (none of which were the same long skinny format) into it to see how they looked. When I pulled one of my roller coaster paintings (which was a 12 x 24 or something like that) into this box, I had this composition.

I find compositions and new variations on a theme this way quite often. Many a time I get excited when an unexpected composition presents itself, just begging to be made into a painting. The problem is that while the new composition may be pictorially interesting, even superior, sometimes it loses the original intent of the image. To me, a composition is all about arranging and orchestrating visual elements in order to effectively communicate an idea. Without an idea to communicate, a composition is not a composition. It would be like talking without saying anything. Just pointless chatter.

A found composition will sometimes tell a different story that I hadn't noticed in the original picture. Sometimes I'll go with it and develop it further, but other times, I know in my heart that I'm just rationalizing an accidental find. When it comes to painting, I like everything I do to be intentional. I do occasionally have "happy accidents" in my studies and I use them as learning tools, but when I'm composing and building an image, there's no room for accidents.

This roller coaster painting, incidentally, did not lose any of the original idea. It works for me because it effectively communicates my original idea, just in a different format.

Head Study

Emily, 12 x 9 inches, oil on linen

This study was painted on Claessens Belgian Linen, No.15. It's oil primed, and has medium fine tooth, which is a great all around surface. I have tried all kinds of supports and it seems I have a new favorite every few months. I guess it's only to be expected that, as my style develops (or regresses, as the case may be) and what I look for in my brushstroke changes, so too, does the optimal surface for my particular way of wielding the brush at that point in my development.

Lately, I've been liking Claessens No.66 a lot, which is a bit more coarse (fewer threads/inch) than the No.15. I like the drybrush look I get from dragging paint across just the tops of the canvas texture. But at the same time, if I wanted a more fluid stroke, I can easily achieve that too because the texture is not overly toothy. It's not that great for really tight details, but that's ok because I don't paint that way.

No. 15 is just a bit smoother so it takes more care and deliberation to get that dragged stroke. If I put too much pressure on the surface, the visible texture is gone, and you can't bring it back because the paint is on the valleys as well as the tops of the canvas texture.

Oh, I know there are ways to to get all the paint out using rags or turp or finger or Q-tip or that nifty rubber brush thingy, but resorting to such techniques breaks the flow of the moment and to me, it's not worth it. I've only got a few hours. I don't want to spend more time correcting than necessary, youknowhatimean?

So while I like No.15, it does take more finesse and focus to maintain the dry, dragged brushwork. I've noticed that it forces me to be more mindful with each stroke, so I think it's a good thing.

But oh, that No.66 is schweet! Well right now, anyway. Two months from now I'll be praising something different, probably. Oil primed linen isn't cheap though, so I do use other surfaces for studies where I'm not overly concerned about the stroke quality - say, if I just want to explore value or color juxtapositions or design possibilities, I may just use gesso primed cotton or board.

If I am doing a big painting with lots of juicy, thick strokes, it seems less relevant whether I use linen or cotton, oil or gesso primed. It doesn't make that big a difference to me. The wash and the thin stages feel much nicer on a oil surface than on gesso, (just my preference. I know lots of artists who prefer the gesso surface) but after a while, I'm painting on top of oil anyway, right?

Anyway, I have to make some panels this weekend because next week, I'm headed out to Sonoma to participate in the Sonoma Plein Air Festival. I'll be using No. 66.

Roadtrippin'

The open road is one of my recurring themes. I'm returning to it again, and it never gets old. I think that the theme of road trip is loaded with possibilities. Many of us have special memories of road trips taken as a child - perhaps piling into dad's old station wagon to drive to Grandma's place three states away. Or may be your first real adventure during college years. Just you, your best buddy, $100, and a beat up Honda.

You can just hear Janis Joplin blasting from the AM radio and you don't even care that you don't have a reservation at a motel that night. In fact you don't know where you're going. You don't even know where you are at any given point. There's a real sense of freedom when you're behind the wheel on such a trip, isn't there? It's a mixture of uncertainty, hope, adventure... These are the emotions that I like to explore, and try to trigger in my paintings.

A lot of the times, I just end up with a pretty landscape painting that doesn't do much else. But sometimes it causes a stir in myself, and I know I've got something. The emotional response is an elusive thing for a "mere" landscape painting, but well worth pursuing. When people connect with a painting in a really personal way, even though the picture shows nothing but a road, trees and the open landscape, it's a powerful thing.

I can't say what it is that differentiates a simple landscape painting that triggers an emotional response and one that doesn't, but there's definitely something there. The quality of light has a lot to do with it, but what about it? If I can pinpoint that factor and paint it on purpose, that would certainly be an achievement.

These are all small paintings; 6 x 8 inches. I have a bunch more and I will share them here as I photograph them. Once I go through all my current 6 x 8 panels, I'll go to 9 x 12's and then larger. I intend to eventually get to bigger paintings for my show this fall.

Stay tuned~

American River Workshop

Old Rainbow Bridge, 9 x 12 inches, oil

I led a group of thirteen students and taught a workshop along our beloved American River this past weekend. What a hoot! I live just a short walk from the river so I know the areas pretty well. It's a beautiful stretch of nature preserved amidst urban and suburban sprawl, which is pretty remarkable when you think about it.

There are a lot of places along the river to paint, but when you start listing the criteria for what makes a good workshop location, it quickly becomes apparent that our choices are very limited. We need an interesting view that inspires us to paint, open shade areas under which to set up and still get that view, safe parking, restrooms, easy access, lunch spots nearby, lodging options, plan B for increment weather... You hardly ever find spots that satisfy all these requirements perfectly so there's always a compromise. But I really do try hard to find good workshop spots and spend a good amount of time researching and scouting, and if I can't do it alone, I get help. I'm really fortunate to have good friends who help me with this stuff.

Blocking in with washes. An earlier stage of the painting at the top.

Anyway, the historic Folsom Powerhouse is one of the few locations around here that meet many of the requirements. It's a little bit of a walk from the cars, but not too bad, unless you're strictly a roadside painter. The location has a lot of options as far as paintable views go.

There's the water with dappled light and transparencies which makes for an interesting challenge.

The boulders are always fun to paint, what with it's solid mass and clearly defined planes. Makes teaching of certain principles... may be not easier, but more effective.

Reflections to play with.

Students hard at work.

Wooded areas, dense or sparse. I'd like to go back and tackle this view sometime.

The painting at the top is very similar to the demo I did on Saturday. The bridge and the boulders all could have been potential focal points, so this demo had a lot of emphasis on making choices in creating a hierarchy of importance, to orchestrate the visual elements to force a subjective point of view onto the design.

Second day. Before the wind picked up. We painted several miles down the river.

Nice trees with a lot of design possibilities. I like doing simple tree compositions too. A painting doesn't have to be complex to be interesting.

It got a little warm, but not too bad. Still, a hat is a good idea.

If not, find a shady spot! Not only is it more comfortable, it's easier on your eyes and your ability to judge value and color if the sun isn't on your canvas and palette. It's not always an option, but sometimes you get lucky and find a perfect spot.

This pic doesn't show it well, but the yellow flowers (irises?) on the water's edge were just beautiful. Too bad I'm not a flower painter~

So by the end of the second day, everyone was wiped out. I think the wind did a number on us too. I set up on the second day and did a few sketches, but ended up wiping both of them when I got home. I had a good time nonetheless, and it was great to meet new people and paint with them. What a nice bunch of people! I find that the plein air workshop-goers are, all in all a pretty nice bunch. I like my job.

Panel Discussion

Red Cushion, 12 x 9 inches, oil on linen

Last Thursday, I was a part of a wonderful panel discussion on the traditions of California landscape painting. (so no, this post is not a discussion on painting panels~)

This event was hosted by Holton Studio where Kevin Courter and I currently have a showing of –you guessed it– California landscapes. So Kevin, Alfred Harrison ( a noted scholar and author of books and articles on Early California art, and owner of the Northpoint Gallery in San Francisco) and I were scheduled to talk about our views on the subject. Unfortunately, Kevin couldn't make the event so Paul Kratter, another great landscape painter, stepped in.

With Tim Holton shooting questions at us and making sure we didn't go off on completely irrelevant tangents, ( I don't know about the other two, but I have a tendency to go off track) we had a very interesting and informative hour or two of talking about Bierstadt, Keith, Hill, Payne, Matthews, et al.

Alfred provided the historical context which I found to be extremely helpful, and Paul and I offered our views on landscape painting in general, and also our perspective on how our own work is influenced (or not) by certain artists and art movements.

We had some questions from the audience both during and after the discussion, which provided more insightful interaction. I must say, I had a good time even though public speaking really isn't one of my strengths.

Afterward, Paul and I went down the street with our friends Christin and Richard and had a nice little dinner at the Townhouse restaurant. Gotta love hanging out with people of your tribe!

Thanks to Tim Holton for putting together this event - great job Tim! - and I'm sorry Kevin couldn't make it, but Paul did great in his seat. Since Tim, Alfred and Paul kept things moving, my job was pretty easy.

The images I'm posting today obviously have nothing to do with the panel discussion. I just don't have any photos from the event. So I'm just tagging on a bunch of pics of studies I've done recently.

The above is what my board looked like during Friday figure session. I just taped on a couple of pieces of linen onto a board, and did all three during the three hour session, so they're just quick sketches - I prefer doing these quickies at an open session than trying to do a more involved, finished piece of work. I just have more fun doing these probably because I don't feel pressured to do something worthy of a signature and a frame.

Brooke was a great model. I'd never worked with her before, but she has a very good sense of natural positioning, and plus she has a really nice look about her, too. I'm going to try and hire her for my class.

This is Molly, K's dog who has become the Friday mascot. She can strike and hold poses better than some human models! She is one smart and mellow dog~

Alexis, from another day. Actually, I think this was a demo during class, so about 30 minutes. That blue on her neck is a bit too much, I know. Remember in the last post I mentioned the rule of thumb "you can have a big value contrast or a big color contrast between your light and shadow (of a shared surface), but not both"? Well this is a pretty good example of what not to do. The lit side and the shadow side of the skin, in this case, has a fairly good amount of value contrast. So where I have warmer browns for shadow works much better than that blue neck. If I wanted the blue to work – to make it look more convincing and natural – I would have had to raise its value.

The violet shadow on her left arm doesn't look as bad, even though that too is a big hue shift from the lit side of the skin, because it's higher in value. There is more white in it, which acts as a common denominator between the color of the light side and that of the shadow. (The light side has a lot of white in it). The light side and and the blue neck doesn't have enough in common, so that's why they look like they don't belong to one another.

It also doesn't help that I don't have anything else blue in the periphery, so I haven't provided a reason for her skin to be that blue. So yes, lots of ways to make a color work, but there are always reasons why they don't work. Don't try to fix something if you don't know why it's not working, or you may just be digging deeper.