Thursday, December 27, 2007
ArtPact #45
(Also published on "Unchain My Art")
While the wounds from the periprastically-given harsh critique of Knox on my art are not even close to forming a scar - - - I am still painting!!
Santa Claus was very nice to me this Christmas, did his research on my beloved Daniel Smith site, and got me this glorious 3 Hematite Color Set. Great choice, The JohnnyB! (Uhm, I mean, Santa).
Having said that - a couple of days before Christmas I felt the urge to add some color to my art. I mean, everyone around me is painting with cheery colors and vibrant intense hues, and I keep blending all those gorgeous colors and toning them down to create varying shades of neutrals.
Am I chromophobic?
As a first step towards salvation, I decided to detach a bit from the Sikh man (who kinda calls for muted colors) and go on a new departure.
About 1.5 years ago, I took Mike's superlative Beyond The Obvious class for the second time. (It's the class in which you paint 2 full-sheets a week, creating 20 versions of the same subject). In that second class, my subject was the kneeling figure of Christina, a lovely model very well known among artists in this area for her repertoire of poetic poses. While some of the paintings from that class turned out nice (Global Warming being one of them), some were real bad. Took me a long time to get the courage, but last spring, I cropped one of those full-sheet paintings to create a quarter-sheet for a show.
It's always fun to get into a failed painting and alter it, as if you succeed - the results are always surprising, while if you fail - hey, it started off as a failure anyway, right?
Since that painting had some very nice colors and gorgeous textures (courtesy of Kleenex which I glued onto the watercolor paper), I kept the part that was not included in the new painting on my studio wall. I would glance at it from time to time, knowing that one day I'll know what to do with it.
While the wounds from the periprastically-given harsh critique of Knox on my art are not even close to forming a scar - - - I am still painting!!
Santa Claus was very nice to me this Christmas, did his research on my beloved Daniel Smith site, and got me this glorious 3 Hematite Color Set. Great choice, The JohnnyB! (Uhm, I mean, Santa).
Having said that - a couple of days before Christmas I felt the urge to add some color to my art. I mean, everyone around me is painting with cheery colors and vibrant intense hues, and I keep blending all those gorgeous colors and toning them down to create varying shades of neutrals.
Am I chromophobic?
As a first step towards salvation, I decided to detach a bit from the Sikh man (who kinda calls for muted colors) and go on a new departure.
About 1.5 years ago, I took Mike's superlative Beyond The Obvious class for the second time. (It's the class in which you paint 2 full-sheets a week, creating 20 versions of the same subject). In that second class, my subject was the kneeling figure of Christina, a lovely model very well known among artists in this area for her repertoire of poetic poses. While some of the paintings from that class turned out nice (Global Warming being one of them), some were real bad. Took me a long time to get the courage, but last spring, I cropped one of those full-sheet paintings to create a quarter-sheet for a show.
It's always fun to get into a failed painting and alter it, as if you succeed - the results are always surprising, while if you fail - hey, it started off as a failure anyway, right?
Since that painting had some very nice colors and gorgeous textures (courtesy of Kleenex which I glued onto the watercolor paper), I kept the part that was not included in the new painting on my studio wall. I would glance at it from time to time, knowing that one day I'll know what to do with it. That day finally arrived on Christmas! I looked at that piece of paper, and suddenly saw the image of a tall slim woman in a flowing dress, dancing around (no, we did NOT have funny mushrooms for dinner!). Since the original painting was done with Manganese Blue Hue, Permanent Orange and Winsor Violet, it even meets WackieM's 3-color challenge (no lottery, though). Working with the same colors, I tried to bring out the image that I saw in my mind's eye.
- - - easy to say!
After 30 minutes of frustrating labor, I decided to take a break to document the stages, and get away from the painting that started to annoy me.
- - - easy to say!
After 30 minutes of frustrating labor, I decided to take a break to document the stages, and get away from the painting that started to annoy me.
The resulting photo on the screen of LumiB was turned 90 degrees clockwise - and looking at it, I saw a head in profile...
Now we're talking!
Cheerfully retreating to my comfort zone, I decided to give up on the dancing lass, and go for a portrait. I painted along, blocking the shapes, sculpting the features, but I was having a lot of trouble with the hair. The JohnnyB who came in to see what keeps his lovely wife busy and gives him some peace and quiet, commented "something is weird with her hair - looks like she's wearing a hat or somethin'".
Ahhh - what a revelation - looks like she's wearing a hat? OK then, a hat it is!!
I worked on this one for quite a while, stopping to photo the evolution of it. It was fun to go on such a journey of revealing what was hiding in that beautiful bluish chaos, epsecially when the paint was very liftable thanks to the acrylic medium I used to glue down the tissue paper 18 months ago.
Since it's the new cool thing to do in art blogs, I created a slideshow of the stages:Now we're talking!
Cheerfully retreating to my comfort zone, I decided to give up on the dancing lass, and go for a portrait. I painted along, blocking the shapes, sculpting the features, but I was having a lot of trouble with the hair. The JohnnyB who came in to see what keeps his lovely wife busy and gives him some peace and quiet, commented "something is weird with her hair - looks like she's wearing a hat or somethin'".
Ahhh - what a revelation - looks like she's wearing a hat? OK then, a hat it is!!
I worked on this one for quite a while, stopping to photo the evolution of it. It was fun to go on such a journey of revealing what was hiding in that beautiful bluish chaos, epsecially when the paint was very liftable thanks to the acrylic medium I used to glue down the tissue paper 18 months ago.
The resulted painting is mostly done from my imagination, but since I am not yet experienced enough with the face to just make one up, I kept glancing at the Cactus Flower painting for reference. So, I guess this one counts as the fourth version of MistyN, with a hat and sans the hands.
"Out of the Blue", Watercolor and tissue paper on W/N CP Paper, 13" x 9"
And I even managed to not gray all the colors! Well, not completely...
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# posted by Nava @ 5:25 PM 
Comments:
just beautiful.. Hi Nava... How have you been my computer has been on the fritz.. so glad I can now come back and visit your page.
You have been productive lately! I like the slide show and seeing the process of your work. The painting turned out great.
I saw some Tyvek wallets today in a trendy shop and wanted to tell the other customers, "You know, this material can be used as an artist canvas as well. It's quite the thing in the fine arts world. I know of an artist who works with it. Perhaps you've heard of Nava?"
Welcome back, Capucine and SBW!!
Tyvek wallets? Hmmmm - that opens a lot of opportunities for the Tyvek artists. I wish you had told that to the other customers - and then took photos of their faces :-)
Very nice result for an interesting process. I like your idea of taking something you're not happy with because you can't make it bad either way. Takes the pressure off. I should try that with my drawing because I'm completely unable to pick up a pencil or pen. Just terrified.
The coolest artpact ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I swear, I didn't see it at first. I thought maybe there was the shape of a windmill or a rooster, but not a face. nava, this post blew me away.
Smiler, it's a bit like taking lemons to begin with, and try making lemonade from them. Takes off the pressure, big time.
Daniel, welcome back from the cold! What an overwhelming response -
Thank You! I must have done something right :-)
She is Phenomenal.
One day, I do SO hope I'm wealthy. I would so love to have art like yours to calm my silly self down at the ends of days.
HNY to you and JB!
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I saw some Tyvek wallets today in a trendy shop and wanted to tell the other customers, "You know, this material can be used as an artist canvas as well. It's quite the thing in the fine arts world. I know of an artist who works with it. Perhaps you've heard of Nava?"
Tyvek wallets? Hmmmm - that opens a lot of opportunities for the Tyvek artists. I wish you had told that to the other customers - and then took photos of their faces :-)
Daniel, welcome back from the cold! What an overwhelming response -
Thank You! I must have done something right :-)
One day, I do SO hope I'm wealthy. I would so love to have art like yours to calm my silly self down at the ends of days.
HNY to you and JB!
