Mastery or not

On Friday I painted with the Portrait Group. Started with an oily wash, Burnt Sienna and Ultramarine, trusty mixture yielding dark greys and browns. Warm/cool polarity. All went well at first. Great model, Fabyenne, but I stood in imperfect light, accepted a too-frontal position. Standing, I was looking down on the model who was seated.  Not to mention, I'd prefer to be a bit closer in order to sight-size my composition. So be it.
I got stuck on the arm. Usually I paint them too short, then elongate. This time it was too long at first, so I shortened it. Then I fooled with the hand and wrist. I spent too much time and paint on the face. I painted through the breaks and during the last two twenty minute sessions desperately tried to salvage the painting, eventually painting myself into a corner.
After putting away my easel, I left the panel for another day. It had, if nothing else, been an exercise in focus.
Next day, I saw how yellow I'd made the face, how disconnected and clumsy the arm and hand, so scraped and wiped away paint on the upper torso and head along with some of the background.
So it goes, forward and backward. I'm left with an interesting abstraction. Maybe the start of a different painting.

Cherry' Art Gallery and Custom Framing

Cherry's Art Gallery Interior

Treasure hunters alert!
A Jewel of an Art Gallery is located on the downtown square in Carthage Missouri. Carthage is just up the road from Joplin, and well worth the visit.

Good News in the mailbox

This morning I found something in the mailbox from Cherry's Art Gallery in Carthage, MO:
News that Cherry sold 2 of my plein air paintings, one of which is shown below.

Crossing, 12x12 Plein Air 

Also last week a 6x6 sold at Fayetteville Underground:

Umbrellas, oil on wood

I really enjoy composing in the square formats.

On view this month

At the Fayetteville Underground:

 

The Dreaming Tree

Kind of cold at home this week. A good opportunity to work on my larger version of The Dreaming Tree.
The painting above is 18 x 24. The large one is 36 x 48 inches. It is around 80% finished. 

Smile

When Anne is working in the garden, I sometimes sneak up on her and take a picture. She caught me this time.

Smile

A 16 x 20 oil on panel on view one more week 

at Fayetteville Underground

Art and Wine

On Saturday I took paintings to Ft Smith where I had been invited to show paintings for the Art and Wine reception at Hardscrabble Country Club.
I'm pleased that a couple of paintings sold there.

The Crossing  12 x 12

A Girl and a Goblet II - 16 x 20

Wings and Roots Series

Another new show at Fayetteville Underground, and I've collected some figure paintings for my part of the October exhibit.

Freedom of Movement

In an effort to achieve movement in the artwork,

I asked my model to find a pose and an counter-pose,

since the sessions were long and the positions

too difficult to hold for a long time. 

Her counter-pose helped to relax and rest some

of the muscles used in the pose. Mostly, she stayed

in one position for only thirty seconds at a time.

During the process of painting, since it proved

to be a good solution, I began speculating that some

of my favorite artists may have used the same method

at times.

Sadly, the counterpose is lost. Had I been a more

accomplished painter with more stamina, I might have

done first one, then the other, and so on . . .

 

Detail - Choice of the Angel