50/50

I applied for a spot in a gallery show in Pacifica, California and I will hear back on May 31st if I made the cut.  They have room for only 75 artists and so far over 100 applications.  The idea is to create 50 paintings in 50 days following a theme which you presented to the gallery.  Everyone's theme is unique to them but all 50 paintings have to relate to the theme you selected.  You will receive from the gallery 50   6" x 6" composition board pieces on which to create your masterpieces.  They will be displayed 7 across and 7 down (49) with an inch between each painting.  The 50th painting can be framed and will be to the side of the grid of 49 paintings.  I love the look of small paintings displayed this way.  They will be on display and for sale.  The artist sets the price...suggested between $50 and $150.  While I am waiting to hear if I was accepted, I decided to do some drawings 6" x 6" to get a feel for what I am.  I plan to create collage backgrounds and then do ink drawings of wrinkled faces and hands on top.  

CARNEGIE HALL!

2 PAGE SPREAD

THEM, TOO

WE THREE

Well, you know, practice, practice, practice.  I particularly like continuous line drawing.  These aren't totally made with one line but I try to keep the pen to the paper as long as possible.  I am continually creating a collection of different styles of drawing on my Pinterest board, but I keep going back to this style when I want to sketch, so I think I have found what feels right for me.  My goal is to do lots of drawings and then make some paintings working strictly from the drawings and not the original reference.  I think this last composition of the two heads peering over the shoulder of the central figure has interesting potential.  

I have found I can get amazing distortion taking photos with my iPad.  Plus, my husband gave me a new camera for Mother's Day that has a 20X zoom, yet it is even smaller and lighter weight than my last camera.  Fortunately, not too much of a learning curve to use the new camera.

PINUP GIRL!

THE PALM READER #1

THE PALM READER #2

THE PALM READER #3

THE PALM READER #4

Some of you may be aware that I have become addicted to the Pinterest site.  I happily spend lots of time looking at lots and lots of images.  The ones I want to save, I pin on my Pinterest Boards, which I have categorized according to how I may want to use them.  It is a wonderful way to have everything in one place.  For one thing,  I know where to find my recipes instead of pieces of paper all over the place.  But the best Pinterest finds are many wonderful images that inspire ideas for paintings.  Today I decided I need to start drawing from these images.  This is the Pinup Girl I wanted to start with.  Ah, wrinkles.....how I love them on other people!  This image had it all for me...interesting angle of the head, distortion from angle of the camera lens, lots and lots of wrinkles in the face and hands plus multiple triangles in the composition.  I am very attracted to triangulated compositions.

This is my favorite approach to drawing....modified contour line.  I purposely kept the pencil on the paper and kept the line continuous as long as possible, weaving my way down the page.  This helps produce a more interesting drawing and a more assured line.  I rarely erase but prefer to draw the image again, making changes and corrections in each succeeding drawing.  I become more familiar with the image, how the parts work together as a whole and eventually, I produce a drawing that satisfies me.  My goal is to do lots of drawings from my Pinterest collection and then working from my drawings, alone, combine the images in someway to create some new paintings.  While I am drawing, different painting possibilities surface in my mind.

I'M BACK!

RHONDA AND ME!

I finally am on a productive track and created a slide show of some of the work we did at Kanuga.  This is a photo of Rhonda Carpenter and me.  What a wonderful experience to get to meet internet friends in person.  Her husband, Jerry, was also at Kanuga taking some of his fabulous photographs.  It really is a photographers heaven there in North Carolina.  It took me over a week to get my painting supplies back but I have done very little since then in the way of art work.  I have started two foil paintings.  As soon as they are finished, I will post the results.  In the meantime enjoy the slide show from Kanuga!

KANUGA STUDENT WORK - free slideshow maker