Moses Botkin Monthly Challenge

Self portraits. I'd rather be tied to a fire ant hill, I've decided. There couldn't be a less interesting subject for me. I started with the best of ideas and enthusiasm. But after 3 false starts, missing a massage appointment and sweltering in my hot studio space (need to move downstairs), I finally made one that was tolerable. But I still didn't do what I wanted to do. Maybe I will keep working on it. But I doubt it. I was hoping to paint myself doing what I do - sketching in a cafe. Then I would have had the cafe scenes that I love to paint, and me as the near subject... but the size of the panels I tried made the other elements much too small. I am at a weird angle too, owing to it being a photograph I set up with the camera balanced on my yogurt cup. And my red color is my heat rash that I've been enjoying for a week or so. I'm guessing on that... could be that I did lay in fire ants.

Anyway - this was a challenge in every respect. When you paint a face that you are so used to seeing, I think it is almost impossible to see it just as shapes of color/value... I couldn't see the forest for the trees so to speak. I think the others did beautifully creative paintings. I'm most impressed.

Today I'm going to work on a scene from Lake Michigan where I could barely dip my toes into the frigid water. But how yummy that would feel today in Texas.


Yours Truly
10x10 oil on linen board
(to be set in a corner and forgotten)



"Vicki - 2011"
14x11 oil on panel
©2011 Vicki Ross




"Morning Light"
10x8 oil on canvas
©2011 Ruth Andre




"Lady In Red - aka Me at 60”
8x8 oil on hardboard
©2011 Sharman Owings




"Suzanne"
10x10 oil on linen
©2011 Suzanne Berry

"Mirror"
7x8 Oil on canvas board

©2011 Diana Moses Botkin

Moses Botkin Monthly Challenge

Self Portraits! Whose idea was this? Ugh! I started well enough, but soon grew to hate the sight of myself! I seriously dislike looking at myself this long. I painted one, screwed it up, wiped it off and started again. I always look mean in self portraits. I think that happens though to most artists because we are concentrating hard! I also realized it was very hard to squint and paint yourself. Squinting, we all know, helps painters mass in things and not get belabored by details.

At any rate, I did it. And here it is along with the images the rest of the challenge group created this month! I like theirs MUCH better!


Self-Portrait Loathing
12x12 - oil on panel (for the time-being)
c 2009 Robin Cheers


Me ala Schmid
10x8 - oil on canvas
c 2009 Vicki Ross



Making Up My Own Story
24x20 - oil on canvas
c 2009 Marie Fox



Self Portrait
6x6 - 0il on board
c 2009 Michael Naples

Make Me Beautiful, Rembrandt!

6x8 - oil on panel

c 2009 Diana Moses Botkin

Self Portrait with Steve's Shirt
11x14 - oil on canvas
c 2009 Silvina Day



Self Portrait
8x10 - pastel
c 2009 Mike Beeman

Self Portraits

The Daily Painter's Gallery wanted to do a self-portrait showcase on Wednesday, so I am posting to have my work placed with the others in the gallery. A self portrait is something I've contemplated doing lately. But I've been very lazy. I've been so relieved to have my normal routine back that I can't figure out what to do first. So I've been sketching, reading, relaxing and thinking a lot. I think that counts as gearing up for my next paintings. I did these very quick sketches tonight while my daughter was in her bath. My reflection was in the window next to me. Not very clear. I contemplated going further and getting a little Picasso action with the double shapes I was seeing. As it is, I did a contour type drawing and a pencil sketch. I think I like the contour best.



Thinking about self portraits, I look up on the wall in my studio and see this self-portrait I did 8 years ago. It was so labored. I remember hating the work. I did a complete grayscale charcoal sketch, transferred it to canvas, did an underpainting in burnt umber (or sienna, who knows) and then worked into the opaques - and worked and worked and worked. And never got to color.


(detail view)

I wonder if that style of painting eventually helped me to hone the loose, alla prima style I am achieving now, or if it was just a way to work for awhile. I think when I got into plein air painting I realized that the underpainting was not going to work. I've since abandoned it completely. Sometimes not even toning or shading areas of light and dark. Just going straight into color, opaque and/or transparent.

I find the alla prima style so much more suited to my tastes - its energizing to paint and to look at I think. I am amazed by the work that some artists are able to put into a piece and I admire their superior craftsmanship, but I find that the work that really turns my head is that which was created with minimal description, with passion and - well - that conveys the artist's impression. Something in which a piece of the artist's heart or soul is in the work and which has been interpreted through their hands, and comes out something new. I read somewhere that some great contemporary (i.e. living) artist was quoted that to be able to make the mundane beautiful was the mark of a real master.

I'm waxing poetic this evening. I usually have a very hard time expressing "arty" thoughts ( I did not say artsy fartsy.) Though people tell me I am a good writer, this particular subject is hard for me to express. Speaking of, if anyone wants to volunteer to jot down a blurb or two for a bio for me, step on up!! :-)