Some Still Lifes and Exhibit News

Hello:

I will have paintings at two venues this week. The first is "I Art Congress" this Thursday evening from 6 to 9 pm at 912 E Congress and the second is the opening for the AVAA's Members Show this Saturday at Austin ArtSpace. Please come by, if you can, and say hello.

Now for the Fun Stuff! Two recently done still life paintings.

The first is a small painting of some stacked bowls that I painted at my friend, Nancy Kirk's home. We both painted the same setup and it's so interesting to see how our individual styles come through.

Bowled Over 6 x 6" Oil (Sold)

Her husband has put together a set up for lighting still lifes such as this. It was perfect and made setting up this little still life very easy.










A small study of some flowers I found on one of my walks with our dog, Priss.
Still Life 1 8 x 6 Oil (Sold)

I love doing small works like this. There's such a looseness of how the paint was laid on -- a lot of fun.

It's Wednesday already!

Good Morning:

I thought that today I'd post some studio and plein air studies I've done over the past several weeks. Since my mission for the summer is to paint en plein air as much as possible and trees, I thought I post a study I did of a Levitan painting. If you're not familar with Levitan, he was a Russian Post Impressionist and a wonderful painter. Please look him up. This is a section of one of his paintings:

A Bit of Levitan
Oil 10 x 8


Here's a study I did at Barton Springs Pool when I was painting with a few of the Wildcats Painters. Barton Springs is a lovely, spring fed pool located in Zilker Park here in Austin. I'm very pleased with the way I captured the transparency of the water and the shadows of the life guard station. Two other things I'm working on this summer...

Lifeguard at Barton Springs Pool
Oil 10x8


This last plein air study is from last week, when some of the Wildcats, the Brights and I met at the Park at Central Market North and painted. The Park is really very lovely with a walking trail, lovely trees and a pond. This whole complex used to be part of the State Mental Hospital (sorry, I don't know it's official name) and you can see some buildings in the background that still remain. (BTW, it's still in use.)

The Pond at Central Market North
Oil 6x8

Two Views of the Hillcountry

Yikes, it's mid-April and I haven't posted the finished painting of "Twight on N. Lamar." I think I have this problem of photographing work just about solved and, once it is, I won't have this excuse for not posting anymore. Of course, I have others to use but soon, not this one :-D.

Instead, I'll post two paintings I did two weeks ago at my friend and fellow painter, Suzanne Stewart's ranch out near Hamilton Pool (outside of Austin). Her beautiful home sits on a big hill and so one gets a bird's eye view of the surrounding country side--just beautiful. Here are the two small studies I did that morning:

View from Suzanne's House 6 x 8 Oil











Alamo Village at the Reimer's Ranch 6 x 8 Oil

Sunset on N. Lamar

I'm in the process of finishing this painting for the next I Art Congress show at Real Gallery. Since it's been such a long time since I've posted (the usual excuse: paint or blog and then I had a bit of bad luck - broken finger on right hand and then a few weeks later, I tripped over a parking curb in the dark and broke my right collarbone), it's embarrassing. I'm fine now and am back at the easel.

Sunset on North Lamar was painted from a photo I took on my way to paint with Noel Robbins. The sunset that evening was so beautiful I had to paint it.


"Sunset on North Lamar" 8 x 10 Oil

Paris Cafe

I did painted this Parisian street scene over the summer. I love Paris and if I can't be there, I'll create paintings of that wonderful city. This cafe is actually the one featured in the movie "Amelie," the one she worked at.

Rainlily Farm/Nocturne

Last Spring, my family and a friend went to a Cuban Pig Roast at Rainlily Farm that was sponsored by Slow Food Austin. Rainlily Farm is an urban organic farm within the city of Austin. The owners, not only farm organically, but have a landscaping design business and also run Farmhouse Delivery which sells their produce and produce from other Community Sponsored Agriculture or CSAs here in the Austin area to it's members. The food and atmosphere that night were wonderful--a lovely Spring moonlit evening to remember. I painted this from a photo I took of my son while we were waiting for our car at the end of the evening.

Rainlily Farm/Nocturne
Oil

Buda Fine Arts Festival

From Elizabeth's Garden

Oil

11 x 14

Hola Everyone:

Today's is post shows two recent paintngs. I apologize for not posting lately but I've been getting ready for the Buda Fine Arts Festival in Buda, TX which will take place from Oct 3-4, 2009. My friend and follow artist, Nancy Kirk and I will have a booth there at the Festival. This Still-Life will go into the auction which will take place Friday night on Oct. 2nd. Wish me luck on a big sale!

Last Rays
Pastel

5 x 7

I did this pastel while visting my friend, Regina Burchett. Nancy Kirk and I went to Regina's a couple of weekends ago to see her fabulous studio. We both came away with an extreme case of studio envy ;-). This, too, will go into our booth at the Festival.

Please do plan to drop by. It should be a fun event and you'll get to see lots of good art...

Buda Fine Arts Festival in Buda, TX

We will be in Booth 12

Oct. 3-4, 2009, Sat. & Sun. 10am-6pm

Festival Admission is free

Thanks for looking at my paintings.

Ann

Hello:
This is the last painting I did in Jennifer's Figurative Painting class. The model, Erin, held four 30 minute poses (same position) for us. I feel like I really learned a lot about painting from a live model. Really enjoyed the class.

Hello

Well the exhibit at the Austin Museum of Art went really well. Lots of people showed up and there was a lot of very good feedback on everyone's entries. As well, five pieces were sold but, not mine this time.

Today's posting are the figurative oil sketches I did in Jennifer Balkan's figurative workshop that went for five Mondays. The first two Mondays, we did 5, 10 and 15 minute gestures with a live model in a light, dark and mid-tone value.
Two of the 5 minute poses using a light and dark--using capturing shapes and values here.
Two of the 10 minute gesture poses, this time adding a third mid-tone value to suggest the curve of the body.
Color! Adding yellow and purples to the skin tones here to get the shadows (previously just used red/green/yellow) to these 15 minute gesture poses
Again, using the same palette as above but longer poses--30 minutes this time.

The last night of the workshop, we did one painting from a model. This will be the next post. All in all, I really learned a lot about painting skin. Doing these quick gesture oil sketches from a model were fun and energizing. Now comes the really fun part of taking all this information and translating it into my work.

Two Figurative Paintings

Waiting
6 x 8
Oil

This is a very bad photograph of this painting and brought to light some changes I need to make. The blue in her coat should not be there. It doesn't show in normal daylight but under photographic lights -- well, it must go. I'll glaze over it in a dulled down purple. On the whole, I'm very satisfied with the way it came out. (I will re-shoot this once it's fixed!)


Here's Looking at You
8 x 10
Oil

I painted this several weeks ago. I loved the backlighting on this and how this person engages the viewer. I've been working small as I tend to put in too much detail and get very tight in my painting style when working in a larger format. I wanted to get the expression (in loose brushstrokes) not a likeness.

These two paintings will be entered into a one night, group show at AMOA downtown on April 2, 6:00-8:00. There will be a reception so please come if you can.