Studio Update: 

Not yet.

Close but no cigar. Uninterrupted, I worked 3, 31/2 months on Venus. Beauty is a funny thing in art, it seems so obvious and simple, yet, it is a nasty can of worms for an artist to create. For this work in progress, there always seems to be a blemish, a curled lip, or something lacking in the big picture that forces me to go back to the drawing board.

For example, to finish her I need just a few finishing details, such as the detailed curve of her eyelid, or the line of light running down her throat. So far, every time I push the details to the finishing touch, something goes off on another part of the figure. After ruthlessly triple checking proportions I have found I have been off a scant 1/8" in several areas: an eyebrow needed to be lifted or moved over, a ligament of the throat needed to be shifted slightly to line up with her cleavage and her ear.

I could solve this problem without doing the work if I left the details vague, impressionistic-like. But, I want her to look awesome close up as well as far away.

Another interesting problem is that the bright warm/hot light hitting her is at my limit of brilliant reds and oranges. I pretty much doing every variation on warm colors possible. Technically, in the color spectrum, red/scarlet/orange don't have much flexibility for play. If you highlight them with white they can turn towards mousey pinks. If you darken them they can become chocolate browns. When you combine the color problems with detail problems you can get a weird pink and brown combo more suited to a pink pig in a filthy sty--and I can't very well have that for Venus.

But, I am a good editor of works, and I will give my self lots of mental space and time to finish her. I am fairly certain she will be done this month.

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I am working on a simple drawing project. The drawing below is about 8 hours of working with the model. We have about 2 sessions left to finish the drawing. I will detail his head and hands, and strengthen the cast shadow.

Something I picked up from Picasso, is giving the suggestion of form by simply using line. His calves and feet are outside of the light, and I decided to accent the line qualities of objects out of the light, rather than to fully develop their details.

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After realizing I simply couldn't force the completion of Venus, I resumed editing a few of my landscapes. Click on the images to see them larger, to read a brief commentary on each one, and their price.

Flung $800

I found an editing process to give them finishing details that pleased me.  I discuss the process here:

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On the criticism front, I am writing a review on the art of Peter Schipperheyn, an Australian sculptor of monumental works.

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Michael Newberry
New York--November 2nd, 2007