If you have not seen the October Studio Update, I recommend going there as I had worked on completing Artemis throughout October.

I took a short break from Artemis to draw the pastel below. I love the saturation of the red. And I am contemplating painting the image.

Here is a 3x4' painting I have worked on for 2 days. It's based on the charcoal drawing, Himalayan Flight (below). The theme is strong enough for making a large work from it. It's a symbolic work, about scaling the peaks and being among the planets. Below you can see four ellipses of the three bowls and the plate. Those, for me, represent planets. The white silk prayer scarf is from the Himalayas, and I am using that to represent the peaks. I am looking forward to developing it more.

Himalayan Flight, 2006, charcoal on Rives BFK, 19x26"

Having finished Artemis frees me up a little. I now have two principal works in progress, Venus and Lovers Jumping. Actually, that is one too many--it's a lot easier to just have one major work to work on at a time.

This is not a great pic. The wet, newly painted area of the mountains picked up glare from the studio. My game plan for Venus is to darken and detail the rocks in the foreground, which consequently will leave Venus as the lightest object. I plan to intensify the turquoise of the water as it comes closer to her, which will give the painting an almost stained glass feel to it. And then I need to spend a few hundred dollars to make a detailed pastel of her face; she still has the underpainting's black outlines, which is too harsh for her light skin. The pastel will help me see nuanced color in the shadows and still maintain the form of her face.

Lovers Jumping is ripe to continue in my monochromatic colors. I want to fully develop all the light, detail, and composition--much like with the charcoal of Himalayan Flight. That could be several months of full time work. When that is done, I will get models to pose for pastel color studies and possibly work directly with them as well.

Before I can devote all my energies to these two paintings, however, I need to raise the funds to buy my own time-- it's a little like commissioning myself. A friend as commented that it is like building a home, which involves considerable expense and time. Until then, I like the idea of developing a series of charcoal still-lifes and larger still-life paintings.

Michael Newberry
New York, November 2nd, 2006

ARC APPROVED ATELIERS