Keeping it Simple

The teapot with no lid

SOLD

A simple object, one source of light, and a limited palette

I recently discovered the website dailypaintworks.com and although there is a closed membership there I found the daily challenges which I think are fun.  It fits in really well for me since I often do several paintings (small ones) a day.
  
I set this up in my studio with one light source and lovingly sculpted it with paint.  Once again I discover the longer I work the more feeling I seem to illicit in the piece.  It's a dear little teapot thrown and glazed by Bernard Leach's son, David in England.  My sister brought it back to me years ago and I have always cherished the beautiful little celadon teapot.  Unfortunately in 2001 there was an earthquake in Napa and it rocked the entire house and threw all the cabinet doors open in the kitchen and heaved everything to the ground.  I lost the lid of this one as well as all of my Waterford crystal that I seldom used......O well....no structural damage so I'm happy for that!
I will always keep the teapot even though the lid is long gone.  I even have shards from other "dear" bowls I lost that day which I still keep.  I'm funny that way.

Promotions with a book Sally Rosenbaum

Sally Rosenbaum Paintings by Sally Rosenbaum | Make Your Own Book

While compiling and burning images to dvd for my publishers I noticed that I was out of ink on my printer.  I always like to print up thumbnails to accompany the dvds so I can have some authority on the final results.  Not all images come out like you want on someone else's computer.  SO being out of ink I decided to make up a small colorful booklet of some of my favorite paintings on blurb.com where I've been cataloging and documenting all of my kids' travels and favorite snapshots for fun.  Here is the end result.  What a fabulous way to send a compilation of your paintings and very economical too.  I would have spent a lot more doing it on the computer with good paper and archival inks! 

Summer Notes

Summer Notes

$1800

Sometimes I wonder what to talk about but I'm so excited to post a visual that I go ahead and post and leave it in "draft" stage before publishing.  I posted a version of this last night and came back this morning to check my masterpiece and couldn't live with it, so out in the studio with my pjs on (and before coffee) working again on little areas where my eyes stuttered and were "bugged" by shapes and colors.  I spent more time working on the face getting more bone structure going on in the lit side of the face.  I added a blue purple component to balance out the orange and the green and tried to create more "shoulder."  I find it difficult sometimes to get the roll of the shoulder especially when the figure is backlit.  My first inclination is to go straight for the light on the turn of the shoulder and what appears dark behind it is simply too stark. This morning I blurred out those edges and brought more of the golden greens into the shoulder and more of the dress into the back ground and then redefined the shoulder.  I may still work more on bringing the front of her chest forward with more saturated color.

My first inclination when approaching a painting is to ram pure color into it.  Later , when I view it after having had some "time off," it ends up looking too garish..  Then the marvelous nifty neutrals come to my rescue.  I started installing them in and around all the foliage in the background and it helped a great deal to give air and relief to the background.  I guess the long and short of it is that it takes a few go rounds to come to the place in time when it is pronounced done. There's something about living with a painting for a time period.  I might even go so far as to say that as long as they are in my line of sight they are never done.  I have painted more than 4000 paintings in my life and I can only think of perhaps, 4, that I was really satisfied were done, as in DONE, wouldn't touch them again. Pierre Bonnard, I read, had a certain painting hanging in his room.  He used to paint directly on canvas stapled or affixed in some way to the wall but not stretched.  It was the day of his death and there was a certain leaf on a peach tree in the painting that was agitating his enjoyment of viewing it.  He struggled, got up, went over and touched it with some color, went back to bed, and later that day died, met his maker, and passed away. Discontent is a by product or side effect of painting and has to be tolerated, respected, and given accommodation, I suspect.

Post script:  I should remember the nifty neutrals and value and treasure the monotony of routine in the midst of dramatic times.

Last summer

Last Summer SOLD

16 x 20 from the series, Girlfriend

Two colors, two roses

Indian Yellow Rose 8 x 10  SOLD

The wonderful thing about painting is that I am  continually reviewing all the lessons I've ever had and getting hit on the head over and over again  in a way that feels new.  It's hard to get bored with painting if you're willing to change it up a bit now and then.  I don't think an outside observer would even notice the changes but I carry in my head a mission with each new painting whether it's a new color palette or revisiting old subject material with a new hand.

Tea in the Orchard SOLD 8 x 10

As my blog attests, I have been experimenting with color harmonies and trying to keep a somewhat limited palette while studying the color wheel and integrating my knowledge of the wheel and the manufacturers of the pigments, colors, and incorporating a memory of the transparency and the opaqueness of colors.  I really feel that the more I limit myself the more satisfied I am with the outcome. On the roses I used primarily indian yellow, ultramarine blue and indian red......and white, of course.  I don't know if anyone relates to this, but I feel more painterly, or more like an "artist" when I am mixing from a smaller palette. The one below, "Tea in the Orchard," is also the same palette but with prussian blue instead of ultramarine and including magenta.
I adore the power of Indian Yellow and its transparency.  

split complementary revisited

Summer of Innocence 16 x 20

   SOLD

 I decided to start with a composition from last summer that I had photographed and have painted in small quick sketches a few times.  I drew in the figure and then painted with burnt umber most of the linear aspects of the girl and the still life so that I could hold the drawing when I started painting.  On this one in particular, I decided to paint all the values in a mixture of black white and thalo green.

     I set it aside for a few days to dry and then decided to use a color harmony that I used last week with a rose still life.....split complementary of viridian green, grumbacher red, and orange............the first day I stuck only to those colors.  After drying I worked again on it adding some brights, dulls, richness and darks and felt compelled to add in a violet shade....it really helped in many ways to make the painting sit down on the canvas.

The final day of painting is the most exciting.
$1800.00

Thoughts from July painted in January

When you paint from photographs you can always revisit the summer!  I have painted this pose in a 30 x 40 but handled it completely differently.  First it was a full body pose and I had a very dark prussian blue, indian yellow and alizarin background. 
This one is lighter.  I am loving the 24 24 format and the symmetry that it provides. I feel like it makes the eye travel more quickly covering all corners of the canvas.  I painted it first in raw umber with a line in drawing, then completely painted it with ivory black and white and a touch of green.  After drying I added the color.  I think I will revisit the flesh after this drying.


SOLD

prints and nature

I am mesmerized by the patterns of nature and especially loved doing this dress against the background of the garden with all of its radiance.  Nature gives to us the perfect backdrop for our figures and our intense colors of costume.  The background nature serves up is always low key with lots of neutrals and warms and cools.  No color in nature is ever  pure yet the ornamentation of our clothing, hair and table always suggests purity and intensity...it's kind of a

choices of frame

unframed $3,200.00 framed in gold $3,600.00 framed in black $3,600.00

slam dunk...light vs. dark, dull vs. bright, soft vs, hard, etc...you know the drill

Precious Imagination

I have a painting right now sitting in my studio against the wall completely dry that I laboriously and lovingly and meditatively underpainted with a verdaccio palette last week that is ready to be finished. It's 30 x 40, my favorite size. It has so much life in my imagination because the possibilities are limitless. It thrills me to think of getting to it and yet each day I choose to start or finish another because once I begin the first step I eliminate the boundless possibilities and a part of my imagination has to close the door to the others... It's like watching the price is right and choosing door number 2 which is wonderful but means that door number 1 and 3 never get opened.. I have to admit that it's a wonderfully buoyant feeling to carry that richness of bounty around in my imagination all day long. I have many many doors waiting to be opened and all are eager to take a form. I walk through my tasks and errands of the day consciously aware of the treasure I hold...It's a wall of fortitude around the assailing problems of real life and it gives me courage and promise.

The process of painting is full of choices. A choice is made during every second of the painting process whether it's the color you choose to dip your brush into or how you choose to drag or lay or smooth in the paint. The brush I reach for each time is a factor in the mix as well. If I start on the background first the harmonies in the face will be effected. If I deal with the flesh or figure first it changes the power and impact the figure will have. Using a lot of medium or using a little will set a mood or alter a mood. I like comparing the process of painting to dancing with a partner....or playing chess. I'm only a part of the process. After I lay something down I have to follow the lead or base my next move on what just happened. Unlike many descriptions of the creative process I do not always know where I will end up. I respect the fact that "my vision" doesn't always become the finished product...It's a wedding of myself and the constraints of the physical organic world. Some call it the muse. I like that and it's real. There is a muse and I always hope and pray she's in the room with me because it takes two to make a painting. I'm alert and present all the while but I have to make decisions all the time that affect the next fork in the road. It requires a fortitude of energy much like getting ready to run a race. Do I have the ingredients with me today to run the course? Sometimes I encounter people who work a "job" and tell me they always dream of painting...the first thing out of my mouth is that you have to give it your best energy, not your left over, end of the day tired and whipped energy. It has to be top of morning...thrilled to be allowed the opportunity to work with color, form and line energy...........grateful thankful energy.
Like most choices in our life once we've committed to a direction the possibilities still continue and we begin the process anew....there's a dream stage, a cultivation period, a foundation, and a finished product and the finished product is often the stepping stone to the NEXT WORK...

You gotta love this art life!

Mixing it up

16 x 20 Purple

Always looking for new inspiration.  This is from a painting (photograph) I took years ago. Technology allows me to see in the shadows where I could not see before and I feel that 10 years later I have some new skills I can throw in the mix.  I used to reach for color and bat it around and always be in a conundrum of trying something...if it didn't work, fixing it. 

I'm loving approaching life (painting) with a plan.  It's the whole thing about not having to invent the wheel every time....that really really gets old after a few decades.

Turns out there are some great tried and true methods to approach things, mix it up with a little personality and still have a unique work of art.

still thinking

YES, Still thinking

I wanted to post this painting but wasn't in the mood to write yet so when I came to the title of the blog piece I simply wrote still thinking.....and it stuck for me....(which I am thrilled to report is all that matters) so I am officially naming this piece "Still Thinking" which then starts to remind me that the big celestial cosmic clock is ticking away and I'm yelling back at it YES I am still thinking........and painting, and lots of other things.   HOWEVER I do think about the sand in the hour glass running out...a little more than anyone wants to hear about ....but I daresay we all think about it.  I know I've been thinking about it since I was five... I remember looking at my parents and feeling sorry for them because they were further down the timeline than I was....and remember the wonderful feeling of having all of my life ahead of me instead of being in the middle or as it's becoming more and more, behind me. 

Andrew Marvell wrote TO HIS COY MISTRESS which I read in probably 1969......thinking hmm...that's interesting.......but now I reread it and yes, it resonates.

I want to paint every painting I've painted again .........and do it better.  I want to try different color schemes.........different backgrounds, .....different treatments of the flesh, lose the edges, find the edges, hi contrast, low contrast, figure in shadow, figure in the light, large, small, colorful, somber, and on and on....Painting is so very wonderful.  Let all the days of the rest of my life include color, design and drama!  Time's winged chariot is coming so it's time to make manifest!

Here is Andrew Marvel's (no not a super hero) poem

Hope I don't get in trouble for posting it....ah but he's dead and it's over 50 years so it's public domain I think.  

To his Coy Mistressby Andrew Marvell Had we but world enough, and time, This coyness, lady, were no crime. We would sit down and think which way To walk, and pass our long love's day; Thou by the Indian Ganges' side Shouldst rubies find; I by the tide Of Humber would complain. I would Love you ten years before the Flood; And you should, if you please, refuse Till the conversion of the Jews. My vegetable love should grow Vaster than empires, and more slow. An hundred years should go to praise Thine eyes, and on thy forehead gaze; Two hundred to adore each breast, But thirty thousand to the rest; An age at least to every part, And the last age should show your heart. For, lady, you deserve this state, Nor would I love at lower rate.         But at my back I always hear Time's winged chariot hurrying near; And yonder all before us lie Deserts of vast eternity. Thy beauty shall no more be found, Nor, in thy marble vault, shall sound My echoing song; then worms shall try That long preserv'd virginity, And your quaint honour turn to dust, And into ashes all my lust. The grave's a fine and private place, But none I think do there embrace.         Now therefore, while the youthful hue Sits on thy skin like morning dew, And while thy willing soul transpires At every pore with instant fires, Now let us sport us while we may; And now, like am'rous birds of prey, Rather at once our time devour, Than languish in his slow-chapp'd power. Let us roll all our strength, and all Our sweetness, up into one ball; And tear our pleasures with rough strife Thorough the iron gates of life. Thus, though we cannot make our sun Stand still, yet we will make him run.

Working Large

This is the first stage of this painting..........now that it's dry I'm going to scumble some glazing over it to unify and lighten it up and better control the triad color harmony.  I'll post it at the bottom of this post.

I really like working large....speaking of large...O my god...I went to the de Young museum last week to see the Musee D'orsay exhibit on loan to the De Young in California.  The size of many of them took my breath away, especially the breath taking  lovely Bouguereaus.. They were at the beginning of the exhibition to introduce the historical context for the beginnings of impressionism.   Looking at the Bouguereaus and the figures of Fantin Latour makes me commit more and more to the really developed more fleshy approach which is time consuming and full of technique and procedure....IT'S HARD TO KNOW WHEN TO STOP AND WHEN TO KEEP GOING!  I am constantly reminded that every painting has so many possibilities......Now that it's so easy to photograph them as you go it's really enlightening to reflect upon the various stages that you pass through and yet choose to go on....