I Feel Like a Rock star

Today I was invited to go to my daughter's school and do a demo and little talk for the entire 5th grade class (100+ kids). I had no idea what to expect and I spent most of the morning going through photos and trying to decide what to paint. Did they want to see something from start to complete finish? In 45 minutes? Or did they just want to see a start of a more complicated scene? Did they want a lesson? Something that goes along with their curriculum? I decided to do a kid on the beach - something that allows me to paint big shapes and is a single object that I could almost finish. I demonstrated working large to small, dark to light, and thick over thin. And I talked about impressionism and my style and what inspires me.

The above is a little out of focus (phone camera), but I have to say I am pretty proud of what I managed to get done. The kids were so nice and asked really good questions. I've know many of these kids since Anna started school there as a kindergartner, so it was good to have a friendly audience! With the oohs and ahhs and the round of applause, I felt like a rock star!

I will finish this up soon. I hope! When I looked around my studio today for complete paintings to take in to show, I realized I have a lot of almost done work. Time to get things ready to go to my galleries.

Painting Demo

Last night I went to New Braunfels and did a painting demonstration for the New Braunfels Art League. I have never done one before. I am pretty proud of myself today! I think it went well and I was reasonably relaxed. They talked and asked questions and I described my working methods some while I painted for about an hour.
I had a harrowing drive down there through rush hour traffic in Austin. But once out of town, the highway cleared and I made it on time. (just)
I have to say, I think New Braunfels is one of the nicest small towns in Texas. They have a thriving downtown area, a large art community, nice landscape, and really warm, welcoming people.

As for my demo, I chose to paint something that I have done before. I actually took a large version of this which is finished and going to my show in July. I thought it might be nice to show the final product while I developed the new painting.


11x14 oil on mounted linen

I worked for about an hour so its still quite loose. I massed everything in and then just began to refine areas. I'll probably put another hour into this to complete it. I will post it again then.

Thank you to Gaye Sekula who so gently pressured me to trying this and to the NBAL for your interest and attention and a warm welcome!

River Oaks Wedding Video

Well I can't believe I figured this out! I must give a nod to Qiang Huang who told me he uses Windows Movie Maker. Once I downloaded that, and ditched the other Sony software, this was a breeze. Thanks Qiang!

So, let me explain the video. I set my camcorder up behind my easel and out of the way. Once it got knocked and you can see the view change for a few frames. I set it to capture every 10 minutes I think and it was too long a time lapse, but you can see the work develop - though it kind of goes in spurts.
I left the audio as it was too so you can share the whole feeling of the event. In the beginning, the lights are up and the band is warming up. Then the people begin to arrive and the noise level increases, voices almost drown out the music. You hear snatches of songs, see guests stop and visit with me, and see me tapping along with the music until the voices fade, the music stops and the lights come up.

These events are so fun for me. Its so special too to share these amazing events with the families and friends.

Eating Establishment - WIP

24x36 oil on linen

Stage two. I put about 3 hours into this today and worked mostly the darks, circulating around the painting and connecting them. I wanted to work all the darks and gradually move up to the lighter values rather than work one section at a time. I think this will help my motivation to finish. So if I was looking at the value scale, I might have come up to a 5, or 4. The whites are still the areas that I have not painted yet.
The part that I most enjoy in painting is the highlights. Those magical strokes that transform the flat planes to illusions of three dimensions. The right highlights will round out a form and give the illusion of light.
As Skip Whitcomb called them, "the money shots."
Those go in last. And in the end, you do a lot more looking than painting. The canvas before you will tell you where to put those special strokes, and I love that part.