Monthly Studio Update - December, 2003

STUDIO UPDATE: DECEMBER 2003

 

Studio Update:

 

Last month I began a series of pastel drawings and paintings and I will continue to upload the images that I finish here and in November Studio Update. They are available for purchase at www.RomanticRealism.net.

 

Unfinished, Glass Jar, acrylic

 

I love painting this. Every time I take a step back the movement causes a vibration in floor, which sets the water in the glass jar to wiggle, which sets the light's reflections on the surface of the water to change dramatically. It reminds me of drawing dramatic shadows on a live model; every intake of their breath changes the shadows! But even if I hardly move just the slightest tilt of my head radically changes the reflections. As I keep working it will get easier to find the "landmarks" of the shifting reflections and I will nail down exactly what I want.

In all the Glass Jar drawings and painting I am doing and interesting technical thing. Notice in the shadows the flower motif of the fabric, the color of the light motif is identical to the color of the background wall. Optically, several things happen: I am using the dark color of the background to be a "light" color in the shadow in the foreground; this effect also creates an easy harmony of color, there are two identical colors serving different purposes, that ties the harmony together.

Vermeer, Girl with Red Hat

I picked the above technique from studying Vermeer and Picasso. Notice the orangy green highlights of the background tapestry and notice how those colors are identical to the shadows of her face. This technique and observation, if you can see it in reality (!), creates harmony, transparency, and adds to illuminosity.

 

Unfinished, Glass Jar, pastel

 

Unfinished, Venus, oil on linen, life-size

There is still a lot for me to do on Venus and I am not sure exactly how to do it. I originally had the foreground shadows of the rocks much lighter and a few days ago I decided to make them much darker and bring more blue into them. I am still not happy with the mountains in the background but I know I want them to look sharp, dreamy, detailed, and distant. That is how I recall the coast of Turkey but "sharp" and "detailed" don't go easily with "dreamy" and "distant".

 

Little Goddess

Last year I took the price off Little Goddess and for a year she has been in a closet facing the wall. Last month I brought her out and with a clear vision of what I wanted to do and started to repaint her and the background. I feel a bit ashamed, annoyed, and embarrassed that I would sign off a painting, offer it, and then take it back and keep working on it. I have thought that this painting was finished about five different times! Something like this has happened to me once before with the painting Sculptress.

Sculptress, 1982, oil on linen, location unknown.

With Sculptress she had a different sculpture in the foreground and three different backgrounds. In the background there is an image of an early still-life. One thing strange is that I don't know where the still-life is located nor do I know where Sculptress is. Of course, I wouldn't mind being notified.

Again check back here and November's Studio Update because I will be uploading developments and finished works. And which will be available at www.RomanticRealism.net.