Two paintings

 

These area couple painting done in class- the portrait in figure, 2 hours, the second done in painting class in downtown Sarasota from the 3rd floor of a parking garage, also 2 hours. I'm not happy at all with the landscape- I had grand visions of painting a scene akin to Lopez Garcia's Madrid cityscapes....haha. Maybe in a couple lifetimes.

I was also being inspired by the work of Ben Aronson. His landscapes have an awesome sense of space, and his compositions are always unique and inventive. A few of his scenes from rooftops are obviously influenced by Diebenkorn- at once they are landscapes with awesome atmospheric perspective, and at the same time they are obviously flat designs. Great textures as well, check him out!

The Memory Project

"Dariosh", 8"x10", acrylic

 This is a portrait of a young boy named Dariosh- it was done for http://www.memoryproject.org/ - Many thanks to Livy Long, http://livylongart.blogspot.com/, for giving me the heads up on this great opportunity to practice portraiture for a good cause!

At some point in the future we get pictures back of the children holding their very own one-of-a-kind portraits- it's really great. Had a lot of fun doing this one- I'm going to post up some meager process shots for anyone interested in how it came to be.

playing with shapes

Margaret's Misgivings, oil on canvas, 11"x14"

This piece was super fun; I usually start with a fairly accurate 'drawing' with paint, but this time I started putting down paint before I knew what my subject would be. Finding a head and shoulders in this mess was a challenge, but a rewarding one. Despite this, the drawing must always happen- whether its on a pre-toned canvas with a bit of burnt umber or squishing through a quagmire, if the drawing doesn't happen, defining structure- its honesty, its sincerity- is impossible.

My teacher, Vilas Tonape, once told me that in an objects structure is its soul. I wasn't sure at first what he meant- but it becomes clearer each time I paint.

Christmas Eve

I happen to know that I am receiving a hefty pile of incredible art books for Christmas this year, along with some great art supplies I've been wanting for a while...Should be great! Can't wait to crack em open and see how full I can pack my bookshelf once I return to my dorm at Ringling. Merry Christmas to you all!

In the meantime, here's an illustration I'm working on and a few drawings I hadn't uploaded due to a lack of a good camera. The portraits were 10 minutes each; and the last is of my Drawing teacher, Richard Tuschman. Check out his work by clicking on his name in the list to your right ----->