DO YOU KNOW OF THE ARTIST ALICE NEEL?

No, this is not an image by Alice Neel. The website dedicated to her work was extremely specific about not publishing any of her images without written permission. I didn't want to risk it.

One of my favorite images by Alice is her nude self portrait at 80 years old. It is perhaps her most famous painting. This woman was independent, outspoken, driven, unorthodox in almost every way and a most interesting personality, not to mention a fantastic artist. She was born in 1900 and died in 1984. I am reading a book about her by Patricia Hills which was compiled from interviews by the author with Alice. The two things we have in common is she loved to paint interesting people and Alice didn't gain recognition until her 60's. (It's never too late!) Other than that, not so much. Her recognition was much more significant but until that time she was working pretty much in obscurity.

There is lots of information on her on the internet. Her grandson has made a documentary of her life which is just now being slowly shown around the country in a few places. Her life was hard and it was difficult for her children, as well. Here is a quote from the film:
“If somebody would say, was it worth it?” he concluded, “I would say, sure. Unless we write or we paint or we take photographs, who the hell’s going to know how we existed, except our family?”
Hartley Neel, Alice Neel's son.

It is interesting to contemplate that, as artists, we are creating our own legacy which will live on.

Alice is well represented in major museums around the country now and everyone should know of her existence.

Speaking of museums, the above image is one I did in colored pencil of an incredible marble statue in the Musee d'Orsay in Paris. The headress was a separate piece of marble that fit like a glove on the head. We marveled at the ability to fit so perfectly two pieces of marble seamlessly together.

FIRST TRY AS AN ACTUAL PAINTING!

Yesterday was my turn to sit at Gallery Concord, so I took some Tyvek and my liquid watercolors and spent the time doing a painting of my image. This was not intended to be a serious painting. I wanted to see positioning on the page and use some color and figure out a few things. The paper was damaged in that it had some creases that don't come out. This paper is so inexpensive that it is very freeing. I don't need to worry about wasting materials.

I drew directly with a watercolor crayon. These things never photograph well. If you click on the image, you can probably see it better. I started with the nose shape, positioning it on the page where I thought I could get the lower part of the head and some of the garment on before running out of paper. I also wanted room at the top for the lettering. I had to laugh when I realized I had positioned the head with the eyes in the absolute center of the page! I was able to correct the drawing by wetting a tissue and rubbing out the incorrect line and redrawing.

The second image is fairly far along in the process. I used the oiler boiler from Cheap Joe's loaded with diluted blue watercolor to write the words. I had the paper upright so that everything would run. I rather like the effect and I like how the color runs through the hair on the right side. I also like how the image and the background trade places in areas....become somewhat ambiguous. It creates an air of mystery. I also like how the writing is mostly lost except in a few areas. What I don't like is the pose. I have decided I am through working with this image. I am going to use the one on the Strokes of Genius 2 drawing. Hopefully I can get that started tomorrow.

The last image is how I finished it up. I started drawing lines with my Dragon's Tongue brush. I might have gotten a little carried away but I didn't really care. I learned some interesting things from this experiment so my objectives were accomplished. It was a lot of fun to play with and the time passed quickly.

On the way home I stopped at this incredible stamp store in Danville. The place is huge and filled with too many tempting things. I was looking for an alphabet that had large letters so I could try it out on the next version of this painting. I not only found an alphabet, but 3 or 4 other stamps as well. It only took me about 5 minutes to do all this financial damage. Tomorrow I shall put it all to good use.

"WHO THE #$&% IS JACKSON POLLOCK?"

I was at the library today and found this gem of a documentary movie in the art book section. After a little research on the internet I discovered it was filmed in 2006 and came out, I think, in 2007. If you haven't seen it, find a copy to view. This is a wonderful true story of a woman (Teri Horton) who finds a painting in a thrift store, pays $5 for it and then is told it might be by Jackson Pollock...who, of course, she has never heard of...hence the title of the movie. I don't want to give too much away but Teri is a 72 year old ex trucker. She is tiny but tough out spoken. The story is about painting, painting "experts", authentification processes, class distinctions and assumptions, snobbery of the first order, yada, yada, yada. There are so many issues dealing with art and the the art world that it boggles the mind. I rooting for Teri!

CLOSING IN ON THE IMAGE!

This is the 4th drawing I did tonight and I think I am finally closing in on a fairly accurate image. I could draw it with measuring and guide lines for placement but I lose the spontaneous quality I like by drawing modified contour style. I don't mind redrawing the image multiple times. Each time I try a different starting point to move from shape to shape. I get better and better at gauging distances, angles, relationships, etc. I think if I draw this image a few more times, I will have it nailed. This one, the mouth is not right but the eye placement is better and the size of the nose is more accurate. This is a very odd vantage point for a head and has turned out to be much more difficult to draw than most. After all this drawing, I am not sure I really like the image and will probably do the other view.

In the meantime, I am waiting for another 40% off coupon for Michael's Art Supply so I can buy an alphabet stamp set that has bigger letters than any I have now. Once I have that, I can continue my background experiments.

Some of you have commented on how much preparation I put into my paintings. I don't go to all this work for many of them but when I plan to draw directly on the paper with no chance for correction, I do like to make a number of practice drawings before hand.

NEW PAINTING: THE PLANNING STAGES

I dislike this drawing so much I almost decided not to post it. However, it serves it purpose so I put vanity aside. I have an idea I am excited about for my next painting but I have lots of choices so I am doing studies and experiments to narrow them down.

The first decision is which facial image I want to use. I have two I took with me looking up. I like the unusual angle of the head and the shapes of the features. One of the photos I really played around with in Photoshop Elements and distorted it a bit and rotated the head. This is the one I was drawing today. I think I may have gone overboard changing the angle of the head. I did about 4 drawings yesterday of this image in it's original orientation. Pencil drawings are hard to photograph, so I didn't bother this time. I will draw the image 5 or 6 more times at least until I feel confident I can draw it with pen onto a good sheet of paper. The size and placement will be important so I will probably draw onto tracing paper first and then transfer it. The other option is to put the drawing in my projector and then scale it up and down until I like the placement and size. It is easier to draw small and project larger. I have the projector on a rolling cart and the paper on my easel. Works like a charm. I only believe in tracing your own drawings, not photographs.

The second decision is the format of the painting. Right now I am thinking I want it long and thin with the head at the bottom looking up. I will be making lots of thumbnails to get a feel for the composition.

Third decision is how to put the writing on the wall in the background. Lots of options here, also. Today I tried gesso on watercolor paper using a variety of instruments to write with. Diluted gesso works better than straight because it flows. I was writing with the gesso on the untreated paper and letting it dry. Then, put a wash over the whole thing and the words show up lighter. Turns out the best lettering was done with a bird feather I picked up in Yellowstone National Park. I was going to make my own quill pens. I just used the feather in it's natural state on the end. The ones I tried to sharpen into a quill pen weren't good. Probably the wrong kind of feather for that. I want to try a bunch of other ideas before I decide on the background. The words are "stream of consciousness" all run together but can be read with a little patience.

I will try stamping tomorrow.

EVALUATING THE EXPERIMENTS

I'm working on these small paintings a few minutes here and there around all the minutia of my day. I am getting anxious to spend considerably more serious time on a major painting. I am excited because I thought of what I want to do. The dark side of producing a painting that turns out to be a major piece and receives a lot of attention is the pressure to do it again! I feel like I've peaked! I was contemplating how to photograph the drawing that will be in the next Strokes of Genius 2 book and I realized I never did a painting of this image, only the drawing. I think it should make an interesting painting. That will be my next project. I am going to change the format a bit. I will post as I work on it.

In the meantime, I need to evaluate my little experiments. Today I worked on 3 more bozzettos, only completing this one. The others aren't worth wasting more paint on. It's not always a virtue to keep going. I once heard a wonderful expression: "When the horse dies, get off." I learned what I needed to with the unfinished last two. The texture was too overwhelming and unattractive for a portrait head. The one I completed (above) is too textural in the face as well. The stamps seem to have less contrast than the plastic squares. I think the acrylic gel gets down in the grooves of the pattern of the squares and deposits too much texture. It does make an interesting background, however. Scale plays a part. This size pattern on a much larger head will look somewhat different.

I changed the set of primaries on this last head to see what colors I could produce. New Gamboge, Ultramarine and Primary Red. Don't ask what Primary red is. It's a hue but not a pigment. I just go by the labels on the bottles. The red mixed with Ultramarine creates a purple that is close to brown, very rich and beautiful. Excellent skin tone for darker complexions.

FURTHER EXPERIMENTATION!

Today was a lot of fun playing around with texture ideas. I wanted to stamp into thick gesso. Unfortunately, the only gesso that comes really thick is by Utrecht and I was out. I decided to use heavy gloss gel and then cover with a thin coat of gesso so it would accept watercolor. I found a sheet of smooth press watercolor paper that I had divided into bozzettos of 5 x 7. This paper was a failed start that I had lost interest in. Perfect for today's experiments. I slathered on some heavy gloss gel onto one of the 5 x 7's, smoothed it out with a plastic credit card ( I save all those card offers that come in the mail ) and then stamped into gel with a rubber stamp. I then took the stamp and put the residue on another 5 x 7. I actually like the second one best. It leaves behind a more defined texture and uses less product. The stamp I used was a variation on a checkerboard. I also have these plastic squares with different overall patterns on them. I used two of those on different 5 x 7 's. I found these pattern sheets in the scrapbook and stamping isles of Michael's Craft Store. They come in sets with 4 different plastic sheets each with a different pattern on each side.

After the gel dried, I brushed on a coat of regular gesso and let that dry. Notice on the second image how there are streaks on the right side of the face. I must have been careless when applying the textural surface. These things show up after it is too late to fix them. I used the Vis-a-Vis pen and quickly drew on the head. I am gauging the placement mentally but with a pen you get what you get. I would have liked a little more of the head and shoulders in the frame, but c'est la vie! These are just studies so it didn't really matter that much. I have posted an image illustrating the process to this point. I then used my Caran d'Ache watercolor crayons and colored in everything. Next I wet a brush and dissolved the crayon and followed with Hydrus liquid watercolor. I did a second one holding off adding Caran d'Ache until the end. It makes a difference how the Hydrus flows onto the painting depending on the order of application. I like this look. I am very pleased with the rich saturation of color, the liftability of the paint, the edges etc. The first pattern reminds me of the textured glass on shower stall doors. I am going to try this on a large sheet of watercolor paper.