BENTLEY PORTRAIT

JOE RETREAT DAY FOUR

Today will be our last day of all day sewing.  Joe gave us a pep talk, reminding us to just "Cut, Sew, Repeat."  He gave us all stillettos that his friend had made for us with the instructions to focus our attention where the pointy end is pointing.  Patricia was videoing the talk, which Joe has since turned into his Quilt Report #40.

It was a day to try to finish up our projects.

I'm way behind and somewhat frustrated.

I'm not really happy with the way it's looking.  Joe says this is normal at this stage and to push through.  I realize that if I was at home doing this, I'd probably give up.  Being here, with nothing else to do, I feel like I might as well keep working on it.

All week, while all of us are working away, Joe entertained us with his guitar.  It's one of the great things about being at a Joe Retreat.

My new friend Patti loved picking through the garbage looking for usable chunks of fabrics that others have cast away.  I'll admit to grabbing a few of these myself.

Another participant, David, was really good at taking portraits.  He wanted to take advantage of the natural light coming through the window, next to my sewing station, to take a portrait of Joe and Patricia.

Here are some closeups of things I've been working on.

Here's what my project looked like at the end of the day.

29 FACES - NUMBER 21

I saw the photo of this interestingly round face in the newspaper.  I couldn't resist cutting it out and filed it.  I found it today and used it as one of my faces for the month.

He looked like he deserved a real painting - acrylics on canvas.  I decided to use a limited palette of some new colors I picked up because they were on sale - Quinacridone Violet and Yellow Ochre.  To that I added my faithful Prussian Blue and of course some Zinc White.

Let me just say, it was not easy.  They headed towards the greys really fast.  But, all in all, I think it worked out okay.  After all, it's all about the value.

This is 5" by 7" acrylics on canvas.  His name is Frank.

PORTRAIT OF CHLOE

A friend at work asked if I would paint a portrait of his Great Dane, Chloe, who had just recently passed.  I don't do much of dogs (I find it very difficult for some reason) so I was hesitant, but he kept asking, so I relented.

I've been fiddling with it off and on for over a month now.  I really didn't like it at first, so that makes it difficult for me to work on it.  But the guilt outweighed the dislike, so I persevered. I'm not hating it.

Here it is, acrylic on canvas 9" x 12".

Chloe, Good Dog.

EAVESDROPPING AT LUNCH

While at lunch at Eats Cafe, I was fascinated by this guy's looks and mannerisms.  I had to sketch him.  This is more of a portrait, very little blind-contour.  I loved his cowboy-plaid shirt with the pearl snaps.  But, I couldn't really capture that with this little drawing.  He was talking about selling real estate - condos on Beach Drive.  So I titled this "Realtor".

ON THE ROCKY ROAD

I've been inspired...

First I did this pencil drawing above with plans to do something in fabric eventually.  This drawing was really just to help me figure out the darks and lights placement.

Then I put the outlines of the dark areas on a piece of white cotton.  I thought I was going to use the sewing machine to make the portrait with thread.  But, I began to doubt I was talented enough to do that.

So, maybe if I painted the lights and darks in, then when I put the thread lines in their placement wouldn't be as important if it was just a white and thread picture.

I soaked the fabric in water and spread it out on my formica board and started painting with my acrylic paints with GAC 900 added.  I was having so much fun, and it was going very well.  I got carried away.  It ended up being more than just a suggestion of a portrait!

After I was done, I started dropping paint drips and splatters on it.  I don't know...

When I hung it up to dry, there was a ghost image left on the board from the paint that had soaked through.  I quickly grabbed a piece of paper and placed it on the paint and used a brayer to transfer the paint.  There are two images because I added more paint to the fabric portrait and took a second transfer image after that session.  I don't have a plan for this, but it's interesting:

Then, more fun.  I took some photocopies of the same image and randomly cut them up then arranged the pieces.  Here are two of the fractured portraits:

 I don't know what I'll do with these, but they were very fun to make.

LINEAR PARK & OTHER

Here's the painting I've been working on this week. I changed it quite a few times, in fact, now that I've looked at it here I see something that I must fix! One of the things was the sky, I wanted a little more drama than I had originally planned.

I remember the day I took the reference photo for this. It was several years ago when we lived in Renton. I was coming home on a beautiful autumn day when I noticed all the vivid orange maple leaves that were covering the park, Linear Park, and the street that runs parallel with to it. The leaves were probably six inches deep in the street. The sun was shining, the wind was blowing. It was spectacular! And I didn't have my camera.

We lived just a few blocks away so I hurried home and found my camera and headed back. I couldn't believe my eyes, the street sweepers were there cleaning the leaves from the street. What poor luck. I hurriedly took some photos, but the light had changed and the leaves were gone. But, the image has remained with me for quite a while. I love autumn.

I painted the image that was the gloomier, more emotional image. Someday, I'll do the one that's only in my head, with the brighter colors and the bright sun.

This is Linear Park, acrylic on panel, 12.5" by 20".

This next image is just at the first stage, I've got a lot of work to go on it. But, I was tempted to leave it as is, but as I looked at it, after a while, I noticed some things that need fixing.

This is Leslie, acrylic on canvas 11" by 14".

BOXED SELF

Sifting through my photo files again, I came across a photo I took of myself. Using it as a starting point, I painted this today.
It's an acrylic painting on canvas 8"x 10".

INTO PORTRAITS

I saw a photo in the Seattle Times the other day, and thought it was a very interesting face. Turns out it's Geitner, the photo is by Applewhite of Associated Press.

I've been thinking about painting faces for a while now. So, when I saw the photo I had to cut it out. This might be a copyright infringement, so .....shhh.

I've got an inquiry into AP for permission (I didn't tell them it was after-the-fact).

I never did hear how the Obama 'HOPE' poster controversy turned out.

This is acrylic on canvas 12"x 9".

Since I don't want to get all tangled up in copyright infringments, I took a look through my own photo files. For years, I've been taking pictures of people and squirrelling them away with the idea I could use them for portraits.

When I look at family and friends pictures I have a hard time seeing just a face. I see memories and how they looked years ago and I find it very difficult to actually paint them. I've tried, and it just doesn't work! So, I need photos of people I'm not close to....

Here's Jenna. This is a photo I took in September of 2005.

This is an acrylic painting 8"x 10".

I like the Geitner painting better because it's a little more abstract. I started out wanting to make a very abstract painting. But, next thing I knew, it was this!

But, I think Jenna turned out really nice, too. I started it thinking I would get very defined with her 'edges and planes', but again, it turned out more realistic than I had intended. The under painting was very plane-like. I think that is what ultimately makes it a good painting.

Should I fight this tendency to go realistic? or go with the flow?

MOE PORTRAITS

Here's a little portrait on panel. I started out thinking I wanted to do 'little dabs of color'. I seem to start out that way, then as I get into it, I revert back to my 'natural' way of painting.

I like the way this turned out.

Acrylic on panel 8" by 10"

Here's another:

This one is from a contour sketch I did in my sketchbook. I took a photocopy, blew it up and used the acrylic gel medium transfer method to get the sketch onto a panel.
This goofy painting captures more of the personality of Moe.

I guess I should explain the bottle cap. Moe loved chewing on metal objects (?!!). It started when she was just a pup. I think it eventually morfed into an obsession with Snapple bottle caps. She was perfectly content to hold a bottle cap in her mouth for hours. Every once in a while she'dcome over and say, "Go ahead, try to take it away from me....go ahead, try. Try. TRY."
If I ever had a need to get whatever it was out of her mouth, the only way was to turn her upside down over the sink. Ptooey, out it would pop.

Love you, Moe!

SPEAKING OF PORTRAITS

Here's my first attempt at acrylic gel medium transfer. I took a 'blind-contour' sketch from my sketchbook and blew it up on the copy machine. Next, layered it with 3-5 coats of acrylic glossy gel medium and then rubbed the paper off the back and glued it, with more acrylic gel medium to a canvas. Then I painted color on top of that. Afterwards, most of the original black line drawing was covered up, so I re-stated them with a Sharpie (will that hold up over time?)

Oh, this is my poor suffering husband, Darrell.

Here's another one on panel:

Darrell's grand-daughter, Victoria says upon seeing these for the first time, "Grandpa's eyes are not like that."

I love this and had great fun doing it.

ALLEY THINKER

Here's a departure from the Freeway series.

I've always been fascinated with alleys. I know....dirty, yucky, smelly and even dangerous. But, there's something...it's the industrial, city scene peek at the underbelly. It's also the composition. I tend toward the 'leading off into the distance' kind of composition.

This painting is from a photo I took in Seattle. I've edited it and removed or enhanced stuff.