My first forgery!

Last week, my husband suggested that I "google" my own name to see what information about me and my work was available on the internet. The idea had sparked my curiosity but I was a little apprehensive about the possible results. Not that I am leading a secret double life or that my life as an artist in a rural area is filled with dubious activities, but you never know if you are sharing your name with an ex-convict or a female go-go dancer. After typing in my name, I first come across my own website and a few other websites of art organizations and events that I have participated in in the past. After a few listings, I stumble upon a link to an artist's blog featuring a very familiar picture. I had to look twice, but it was definitely a copy of one of my earliest small still life paintings, entitled "Forbidden Fruit"! Someone had copied one of my paintings....!!! "Wow, a real forgery" I am thinking! What an incredible discovery!! But after the first shock, I realized, the artist had actually given me credit for painting the original and mentioned my name in full on her blog. (I guess I just lost the forgery case) Now, I felt a little pride swell in my chest...someone took the time and effort to copy and study one of my pieces. For a long time I've known of artists copying famous master pieces at the National Gallery and the Louvre, but I guess it never crossed my mind that my work would be copied for educational purposes one day...what an honor! Even though the artist herself was not completely happy with the brilliance of the colors in her painting, I give her an "A" for effort...way to go girl!! It's not always the final result that counts...it's the trial & error part that teaches us the most valuable lessons in life!

Mice love yellow & blue!

Personally, I really love living in a rural area......seeing the turtles and deer in your own backyard, the sounds of crickets when it's quiet, seeing the seasons change and the stars at night! There's nothing like it and I feel we live in paradise. However, there is one thing I just can't get used to: mice. I'm not afraid of these little creatures and I even think they look cute. (I used to have Guinea pigs and Gerbils as a kid) But I do NOT like sharing my art supplies with them! Somehow, they must have gotten really hungry and started eating right through the closed tubes, to get to the oil paint. There's even little teeth marks in the paint to prove my story! They only seemed to go for the blues and the yellows.....and did not bother with any other color. Now, I had always thought mice were color-blind so I assume there must be something in the yellow and blue oil paints that attracted them to these specific colors. I wish I could have told them: don't eat the cadmium yellows!!! These are highly toxic colors, even for humans, but I was not around when they had their food fest in my studio. So I'm sure they must have had pretty bad indigestion afterwards and all I found were the leftovers: yellow and blue mouse turds.....honestly!!!

Artistic License

As a lot of artists do, I have been using photographs as reference materials for a long time. In 1997/1998, to create my first oil painting, I religiously copied a photograph. I had never painted in oils before and with a little book "What & How in Oils", I decided to give it a shot. It was an underwater photo of a sea turtle that I had not taken myself (unfortunately). I fell in love with the medium and the result was not too bad. My parents felt the same, since it has been hanging on their walls ever since. After I copied a few more photographs, I started taking lessons in 2001 with Adamo, a respected painter who also lived on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. When he told me about copyright, I realized I had been using other artist's work (in this case the work of wonderful photographers) to duplicate them in oil and call them my own. It had not even occurred to me that I had been infringing on their work, but even worse: I had not really been creating as a true artist, but merely reproducing. After this realization, I decided to only use my own photos as reference material, no matter how blurry or overexposed my snapshots were. Over the past few years, I have been painting a lot and the more I painted, the better I could see. My vision technically did not improve, but my view of things did. I started to see more color variations (how many greens in nature!!) and the importance of temperature and value in a picture. In general, the better my photo, the better my painting. I found myself scrambling for beautiful photos a few times, trying to meet the deadline of another show! But the last few weeks, or months (not exactly sure when this process started), I have come to find myself altering the photos to make the paintings better and more interesting. I had left things out before, such as distracting telephone poles, and even flipped pictures to create a better composition. But now, I was taking liberties with the colors and even exaggerating the values to improve the mood! It just dawned on me that I was actually having fun experimenting...not knowing exactly what the final result would be like. I also started to soften edges or leave things less detailed in order to put emphasis on other areas. What an eye-opening revelation, you can actually create your own mood or world on a canvas with a limited palette or choose your own daring color combination instead of slavishly sticking to the colors in the photo! It not only gives me a lot more joy to see what I can come up with each time, I can also go back to old photographs and see how I can use them again in a completely different way. After acquiring technical freedom, I believe it's crucial to start taking artistic license, but it will be a while before I can let go of my entire archive of pictures...!

Out & About Plein Air Painting Event Norfolk

Two weeks ago, I participated in the "Out & About" plein-air painting event in Norfolk. This 3rd annual show and sale at the Monticello Arcade (across from McArthur Mall) was organized by artist and gallery owner Karen Kinser. She does a fenomenal job getting a group of about 60 artists together who paint in Norfolk for 2 days and show & sell their wet paintings on the third day. Thank you Karen! We've been extremely lucky with the weather this year, it was beautiful, which makes being an outdoor painter a whole lot more fun! Here are the two pieces I painted, the beautiful door of a sunroom in the Freemason area and the pagoda next to Nauticus. I will definitely participate again next year....a great 'change-of-scenery' from the Eastern Shore marshes I'm used to seeing & painting and meeting new talented artist friends....life doesn't get any better!

Portrait & Figure Workshop with Scott Tallman Powers

Last week, I was lucky enough to be able to take a workshop with well-known artist Scott Tallman Powers in Easton, Maryland. Scott is a signature member and boardmember of the Oil Painters of America and founded The Plein Air Painters of Chicago. He also teaches at The Palette & Chisel Academy of Fine Art in Chicago. His paintings are like pure poetry to me, beautiful scenes and portraits with a certain mood or atmosphere that touch your heart.

This 5-day Portrait & Figure worskhop was organized by South Street Art Gallery in Easton, MD so it promised to be a good one! After the gallery owner (and artist) Nancy Tankersley had asked Scott what our schedule for the week would be, he answered: "Schedule? We're going to paint, paint, paint!" He kept his promise....we painted from 9am till 4pm every day and afterwards, we were welcome to look over his shoulder during his own outdoor painting sessions.

The week was divided into two subjects: the first two days we would paint a portrait and the last three days we're going to focus on the nude figure. Scott would start with an extensive demo of half a day. He would be talking about the importance of measuring accurately, rather than trying to capture a likeness! Measuring by using 'plumb lines' and comparing distances to eachother, rather than using inaccurate 'rules' (such as the eyes are always in the middle of the face). These rules don't work, since people are all different! He also emphasized the importance of putting down the darkest dark, the lightest light and the brightest color right away. This will give you the opportunity to measure all other values and colors against these 'guidelines'. The first layer of oil paint is put on rather thin (almost 'scumbled'), but in the correct value & local color, subsequent layers of subtle color nuances are added with more paint. He also stressed the importance of edges. Sharp edges are created by big value-changes (f.e. difference between foreground value and background value) and bigger plane changes (f.e. sharp edge of the nose instead of the soft curve of a cheek). Both a portrait ,as well as a figure, requires you to work from large shapes to smaller shapes and from the large value and temperature changes to more subtle changes. The trick is also not to stare at one value or color too long...this will make you see all kinds of different colors! Scott told us to look at an area by squinting and using your peripheral vision, rather than to stare at it directly. This will make you compare the value and color to another area closeby and relate every area correctly.

The models had a 5 minute break every 25 minutes, but we probably needed the breaks more than they did! It took all our energy to stay focused, keep measuring, comparing, squinting and mixing. Scott was extremely encouraging and very generous with his information and experience. He gave us so much to think about that it will take us quite a long time and lots of practice to digest the information for it to become 'second nature'....but if we can get any closer to painting like Scott in the future, it will be definitely worth it! Check out his work by going to: http://www.scottpowersfineart.com/.

Out of the Comfort Zone

I want to share a wonderful experience with you on what it was like for me as an artist to be completely taken out of my 'comfort zone' and loving every minute of it! Last weekend, I took a workshop on still life composition with well-known artist Maggie Siner. The workshop was organized by Brazier Gallery & Studio in Richmond where I had taken a workshop before and both the gallery, as well as the workshops, are of high quality. The reason I had signed up with Maggie's workshop was because her paintings look very loose and spontaneous. They show bold brushstrokes, yet are very harmonious and colorful. I would like to 'loosen up' a bit in my own paintings, which means painting less photographic and leaving more to the viewers' imagination. This would be the perfect opportunity I figured. And how right I was... On the list of suggested materials, there were a few items to bring to the class. Items of 1 solid color, no pattern, not shiny, but interesting shapes. OK, I can handle that....it took me about a week to put together a nice collection of objects that had those characteristics and when combined, would tell an entire story. A red wooden box, an old tankard, some big red onions, a few scallions and a garlic would be the perfect little still life I would render beautifully on the one large empty canvas that was also on the list of materials. Friday evening, after my 2,5 hour trip and a visit to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, we all gathered at the studio for a slide show and demo. Maggie explained her approach to painting. First, you do some sketching without confining yourself to a certain canvas size or dimensions yet! Look for the big shapes of light & dark, not just objects versus background. The light hitting the object will be part of the light area(s), as well as the light hitting the fore- and background, they will be part of the same light areas. The shadow side of the object will be part of the dark areas, as well as the shadows hitting the fore- and background. These light shapes and dark shapes have to be designed in a solid and balanced pattern. If there are too many small light spots in a dark painting or too many dark areas in a light painting, the composition will fall apart. It made sense to take a few minutes to establish a good light-dark design, but it definitely takes practice to divide your entire picture into either black or white. You have to decide which of the halftones (grey-values) belong to the dark shapes and which ones to the light shapes in order to achieve a solid design.
The next day we would put the brush to canvas ourselves. On Saturday morning, I had my first shock when I walked in the room. All my carefully chosen items had been placed onto several different tables to be incorporated in several different still life set-ups! There goes my carefully planned ‘story’ of a still life, I had to pick an easel and choose any of the still lifes that were put together with completely random objects! After a deep breath, I picked an easel, put my art supplies down, and then I noticed how Maggie had strategically placed the taboret (table for your palette) in front of the easel, which meant I could not get close to the canvas at all. I had to stretch my arm and use a long-handle brush to reach the painting surface, which does not allow for any detailing or ‘nitpicking’! The easels were also very tall, so there was no sitting down during this painting session….it forced us to walk back and forth and look at our work from a distance one would ‘normally’ observe a painting (hanging on a wall). After many different sketches and more demonstrations, on Sunday we finally got to paint on our large canvas (16”x20”). I had picked a still life with a wooden hand, two apples and two yellow paper bags. Maggie pointed out the diagonal from the curtain in the background, running down the fold in the paper bag along the finger and down to the table top. Stuck in my old habit, I focused solely on the objects and the background, and had not noticed the diagonal! After my initial sketch in raw umber to establish the light & dark pattern, I was allowed to put colors down. I felt I was painting an abstract, using big brushes, lots of paint and only ‘filling in’ the big shapes of light and dark. At the end of the day, Maggie came by again and I asked her what the painting needed. She told me it was a pretty nice piece, but it was too bad I had over-worked the hand and the apples. I stared at the painting in disbelief….over-worked? I felt like I was still painting an abstract, right? But…..isn’t the hand that ‘picked’ the apples the most important part of the painting, I asked? I thought it was OK to put a few details in the most important area of the ‘story’? Maggie shook her head and said: “no, your ‘story’ is not the apples, nor the hand, your subject or story of the painting is the play of light & darks hitting the objects and the background!’. Oops…..I guess it takes more than just one weekend to overcome old habits and learn to see things in a whole new light! Besides the workshop literally being an eye-opener, connecting with other wonderful artists who are struggling with the same issues is a great way to bond. Trying to put Maggie’s advice into practice on my own now, I’m already looking forward to the next experience to shake things up a bit…!
PS If you'd like to see some of Maggie Siner's work, visit: www.maggiesiner.com

Fabulous Fall Colors

Perhaps I had to become a 'plein-air' painter to notice the spectacular Fall colors...because I don't think I've ever seen hues this bright in my entire life! Anything from bright greens, deep reds, glowing oranges and yellows... nature sure wore it's Sunday outfit last weekend, when I visited my mother-in-law in the Blue Ridge Mountains between Lynchburg and Charlottesville, VA. She was kind enough to put me up for a few days, so I could endulge myself in trying to record these fabulous colors while at their peek! I had to keep myself from using all my tube colors without any mixing. I was aware of the fact that if you paint these colors the way you think you 'know' them, the painting might become a bit garish. So restraint was my motto. Keeping a close eye on the correct values, I tried to bring out the bright colors by muting or greying the colors around it. It is so tempting to squeeze out cadmium reds and oranges, but I think they work better if they are reserved for the accents and highlights. Of course I did not believe my husband when he told me I would have all the scenery I needed right from his mom's doorstep, but he was absolutely right! I painted all these studies almost from the exact same spot by just turning a few degrees. How inspiring to travel and capture a different landscape for a change! Not that the lucious colors of the Eastern Shore marshes couldn't compete, but an occasional road trip to keep a 'fresh' eye and quality time with your in-laws is priceless.