When my youngest son was about two or so, he could not say “hamburger”, so he called them “hammaburgers”. The word just stuck, and to this day we call them that! One of my friends wanted a small painting for her kitchen, so I suggested a hamburger. I had always wanted to paint one. I don’t really eat beef, but love the idea of the American Hamburger.
This painting is only 5 x 7 inches, so it is just a little charmer. I had such fun painting it, I might have to paint more small food paintings. I do love to cook, so that is probably perfect for me.
Every day I receive many newsletters and blogs from food writers and artists. Although I love the idea of most of them, I think they are entirely too long. I love to share ideas, but I do not think I can hold your interest for a long time.
When my husband and I travel, I always have my camera ready. I love to take photos of beautiful places and fun people. I took a photo of this in Florence, in the main square. I had been shopping and was walking back to meet my husband when I spotted this family. Everywhere I travel I see this type of non-communication. This is the second painting I’ve done along this theme.
I took out the couple in the back to simply, and of course the dark shoulder on the right. I simplified the background, and had fun with the contrast of different colors.
It is 24 x 20 inches, so not too big and not too small.
I’ve been painting for about forty years. I first got a degree in art, doing acrylic abstracts. I was working in oil till a sorority sister sat on my palette right before one of our big dances, and I had to give her my dress, as hers was ruined, and mine was her replacement. Luckily we were the same size.
As I’ve had more time to spend painting and have tried many different types of art, it is interesting to watch reponses on social media of what people like and what they think I should do. If you follow my blog, then you know I did a few drawings of roosters when I was on a cruise. I gave them to one of the men that worked on the ship, as he had a farm at home with chickens. One of my friends thought that I should focus on only chickens. I like chickens, and had some of my own for a time. I do not want to draw them all the time. If you read one of my last blogs, you will see what happened to the chickens. It was really pretty wonderful.
Another friend of mine likes my mini-abstracts and tells me I should only do those! I did them as a prelude to a series of the same in a much larger format. That person told me that my larger pieces do not have the same impact as the smaller pieces? I actually like the larger ones better, and wonder how you can make that judgement from online photos?
Still another friend loves my impressionistic work, and thinks I should focus on that. So who do you listen to, or do you listen to anyone at all. Other friends have asked me to do portraits, and I have done many of those.
No one asks me what I enjoy the most. Maybe they should ask: “What sells the most?” I’ve had someone ask me “Why do I want to sell my art?” I wanted to say something not so nice, but just said that the art supplies were expensive. It was a complete lie! Artists want to be known for what they do and how they do it, and making a little money would not be bad either?
I guess the big question is: Why do people think they should tell you what to do? Or in other words, why do people want to control someone else’s life?
My conclusion is that you should draw or paint whatever you enjoy. If it sells, then great. But if it does not sell, then at least you have enjoyed doing it. I actually donate a lot of my art to local organizations.
I think one of the most challenging types of art is the portrait. It is difficult to capture the essence of a person in a painting. You can paint all the parts, and they can fit together nicely, but do they really look like that person. I have started taking a portraiture class and decided even if my painting does not look exactly like the model, I am going to enjoy the experience of drawing and painting. The first day of class we learned proportions and worked on value. We did not get to far, so I finished this at home.
The second day of the class we had a lovely model for four hours. Once again we started laying out the proportions with burnt umber on the canvas. We just started to add color and it was time for the class to be over. I do not feel I captured the beauty of our model, but do not feel bad about the painting as a piece of art. I think I am starting to get the idea of making it smoother, and add only detail that is necessary. My teacher felt I need to add more of a highlight on the right cheek.
The third week we had a new model that was a different type of beauty, but had almost perfect proportions. There were only two of the five students in this class, so it was almost like a private lesson.
Of the three so far, I am most happy with this one. I feel she looks softer and more lovely than the previous paintings. It is fun at this stage of life to constantly be learning something new. I think it helps to keep us alive.
This is the result of the final class, and though I have a lot yet to learn, I am enjoying the process. I hope to continue learning and practicing by doing portraits of family memb
I’ve been so busy painting and cooking and not writing, I decided it is time to get back to my blog. I just finished this 30 x 40 inch painting. I painted over one that is similar, but I did not really like the colors. This year, I would really like to work on having the right color in the right place.
I’ve started studying other artists to see how they paint some of the same things I like to paint. I believe you can always learn by looking at how anyone does something differently than you. I’ve always enjoyed taking classes for that reason too! One of the complications I find in painting, is how much detail to use to make it readable without taking away from the creativity.
I love painting abstracts, but do not seem to bring that into my impressionist painting. Where do you find the balance, or how do you find the balance? I like abstracted realism, but it is just not my style. Finding one’s style at any age is important. Hope you enjoy this new painting.
Life is about the experiences we have, not about what we have or often what we do. I’ve been painting for several years and never really entered a larger competition. I took a class in Mendocino and my teacher suggested I should join the upcoming Mendocino Paint Out; so I signed up. As the weeks went by, I collected frames and made sure I have enough canvases. I made an hotel reservation, and thought I was set to go.
About a week before I was set to leave, I thought I should check with the hotel about my reservation. I am glad I did, as I accidentally booked a room with twin beds and a bathroom down the hall. I upped it to another room with twin beds, but my own bathroom. In the interim, my husband decided to join me for the weekend festivities, so when I arrived I asked if I could upgrade a little more, so I would have one bed, not two. I ended up having a living room, bedroom and bath, which was large, but very old and very sad. The draperies in the rooms, had blackout shades in shreds. At one time they must have been beautiful, but today they were old and looked tired. Everything looked tired. It could have been spectacular with a little love and maybe a little money.
When I got back to my room after dinner, and discovered the TV did not work, I was glad for my IPad and was set to watch a movie on it. But as I pulled back the sheets I noticed a fairly small drop of blood on both the top sheet and the bottom sheet. That did not make me smile, but I was tired from the long windy drive in pouring down rain. I just crawled in, poured myself a glass of wine and watched my “Chick Flick”.
And then it began: The first day, we all (or those who started that day) lined up to have the back of our canvases stamped. We could enjoy viewing the one piece painted before the paint out, that everyone was to bring and hang. It was a wide of assortment of talent and style. The three main artists (the judges) had their work on display. The work was interesting and varied, consisting of two oil painters and a watercolorist. Although their work was artistic, it was not particularly to my personal liking. I would learn a lesson from this later in the week.
So we all took off to find out place to paint the first day. I headed to Little River Inn, where I has stayed before, and enjoyed the distant view. I finished my first painting in a couple of hours, and headed back to town to get a bite of lunch. Waiting in line, a nice young man informed me there was a spider on my backside, before he knocked it off. I had been sitting on a quite old and damp bench painting. As it turns out, I was lucky he saw it and ended its life, as it was a Black Widow. So that was how my week began?
View from River’s End Inn
My first painting was 20″ x 10″, and I painted it in an already framed canvas. I forgot to have this one stamped, so had to call to get permission for it to be allowed. They were very nice, and let me use this the first day. I had time after lunch and it was a beautiful day.
I had discovered when I set up my palette to paint, that my plein air paints had all dried out, so I decided to drive to Fort Bragg to a local and wonderful art store to refresh all my oil paints to the tune of $260. Fresh and new, but an expensive lesson. Since I was already in Fort Bragg, I ventured to MacKercher Park, hoping to paint the lagoon. As I was setting up, a creature crawled out of the lagoon with a direct line toward me. I did not know what it was, but it did not look “friendly”! I had never seen, what I found out a few moments later, was a Crawdad, alive. Luckily a young woman in the parking lot knew what it was, as her father was a commercial fisherman. But I decided I would go to the other side and paint the beach!
When I got to the beach, the fog was setting in and I could not decide what view to paint. It was busy with lots of people. I generally like to paint quietly in my studio or in a more deserted spot for Plein Air. I did spend a lot of time on this one, and I am afraid it shows. By the time I finished my first day of painting I was pretty tired and wind-burned. Nevertheless, I took it back and hung it on my wall. The Art Center provided free pizza that night, and they even had gluten free. That and glass of wine was perfect!
The next day, I decided I would paint one of the beautiful houses downtown. I worked on it most of the day, and wiped it clean at the end of the day, not liking it. The next day I tackled it again and upon finishing it called it “a day”.
By this time, I am beginning to think that I do not work as well under pressure. The next day I went to Fort Bragg with a very nice woman I met to paint at the harbor. I decided to paint something a little more simple. I painted the trees on the hill above the harbor. It was fun and relaxing and we painted in an area where there were not many people.
The last day was a quick draw contest. They give you a location and send you out. You have about a half hour to set up and two hours to paint. This year it was downtown Main Street. You could paint the beach or turn around and paint the town. There were 50-60 artists all painting downtown. I chose to go quite simple and painted the distant shore. I never knew so many small bugs could fly into a painting. Apparently they like the smell of the paint. I still need to finish the piece I did, as a gnat flew into it after I hung it up on the wall.
You can see the bug and the scratch marks, where someone tried to remove it.
That evening they had the rewards ceremony. My lesson with all this was: If you are not particularly fond of the work of the featured artists (judges), why would not be surprised that you would not have selected the same pieces to win the awards? Of all the talented artists in the contest, I did not agree with most of the winners. Many that were by far better, did not win any awards. Of the awards given, often another piece by the same artist was more beautifully executed. One of the awards went to the husband of one of the judges, and it was the one I really thought was color straight from the tube, poorly drawn and actually a little ugly.
I did not go expecting to win. I went for the experience and an experience it was! I met a lot of really nice people, and a few that were a little too overzealous about their art. I ate some great food, and some not so great food. I could not find a good latte anywhere in town, but the raw oysters in abundance made up for it, even if they were flown in from Washington State.
Many artists do ten to twelve of these a year. I found it exciting, exhausting and challenging. Would I do it again? Maybe for a shorter duration? I might try doing another medium, as no one was doing gouache, there were only a couple pastel artists and maybe one doing acrylic. That might up the odds of having a chance to win. Some paint outs provide a free place to stay, so that might make a huge difference expense wise. There are so many factors that go into deciding what to do with your art.
I took a life drawing class in Sacramento last weekend, and enjoyed the experience. I had not worked in charcoal in several years. It took a while to get back into it. There were two very experienced models. We started out with five minute poses, which we erased, then went on to twenty minute poses. These are all twenty minute poses.
So a friend of an acquaintance of mine, whom I met briefly once, called and wanted me to do a portrait of her granddaughter. I told her that I did commissions, but that I was not a “Portrait Artist” per se. She looked at my work and insisted I do it for her. When I told her my prices, there was a long pregnant pause. I told her it would be $50 less if she framed it, knowing all too well it would cost her considerably more if she were to have it framed at a frame shop. She sent me the photo, and asked that I take out the toy in the hand and add a beach with palm trees in the background. I personally thought it was overkill, and let her know in a subtle manner. I did as she asked, and spent about four days on the painting. I was charging $400 unframed and $450 unframed.
I am finally learning at this point in life, not to be as trusting as I have been all my life. I did not ask for a deposit. Shame on me! I trusted she would like the finished product.
Well, it did not turn out that way. She did not like it; never came to see it in person and was pretty rude in her interactions with me.
This is the photo that she emailed to me. She said she loved the hat, and wanted palm trees in the background on the beach. She wanted the green toy removed. This what I sent her, then I redid the lips, but did not send. I did not hear from here the first week, the second week she said she was ill, and this went on for about a month and a half. I sent a note and said she did not have to buy it if she did not like it. Well, she certainly did not! But rather than even stopping by to see it in person, she sent a “text” saying that: ” She did not like it all, and it looked nothing like her granddaughter, and her son did not think it looked her either. She NEVER saw the portrait itself.
I think I am a little upset, as I spent longer on it than I normally do on a painting, and basically wasted three days of my life. But did I really waste my time, or was this a message I needed.
I texted her back saying this was not a photograph, but was represented an image of her granddaughter. She stated she would pay me nothing, and that part is rude, but not unexpected. I added that I learned a good lesson: Don’t do commissions for someone you do not know, and get part of the money upfront. I wasted time and nice linen canvas. The thing I really cannot believe is that she could not bother to even stop by and take a look. I think she just decided she did not want to spend the money.
A family member in the interim asked me to do a portrait of her daughter, and she loved it. She did not ask for a background, which is usually nominal in a child’s portrait, but gave a photo that showed the whole head, without a huge hat.
I still do not call myself a portrait artist, and will not step out and take a chance with a total stranger. The woman who did not accept the portrait of her granddaughter did not say thank you for your time or even offer to pay for the canvas or my time.
It is one thing to accept negative comments, but something entirely different to be treated so rudely. How do I know, maybe she is just not a happy person or I did not make her grandbaby a beauty contest winner??
You can be the judge of that! I think I will just draw a mustache on the painting and deliver it to it’s proper home: The trash!
When we were staying in Newport and having dinner, this fishing boat passed by the window. I liked the composition, but not the colors. I thought about it for a while and decided I would try to add a sunset behind the bridge. I painted this about a year ago, and still thought it looked a little dull.
This is the original attempt and it seems lack-lustre. So I gave it a little more life today, and now I think it is dancing almost too much and I really am not wild about the colors. The fishing boat is too centered in the painting and I think it is “dump worthy”. this just goes to show that you are not always successful with your painting. But if you do not try new things, then you do not grow. As I look at the composition, it is not my best.
40 x 16 Abstract needs a name. 40 x 30 Abstract needs a name too!
The idea of painting something big and colorful without boundaries is exciting. It can look like whatever you want and/or how you feel that day! I must be feeling excited about life, as I think these two come out as vibrant and fun and happy!
Of course they are always for sale, as the creative process is what brings me joy!
