Irene, For Julia Kay's Portrait Party

8x 10 inches, colored pencil on toned paper

I have been under motivated to work on art lately.  I'm not sure why, except in a vague way.  I started an acrylic painting of fall trees before our Iceland trip, but have managed to ignore it nicely.  My attitude lately is that a new painting is just something more to have to haul out to  show (then remember to pick up again), or something to store in the closet.  Bad attitude, eh?  If I actually started working on it, I'd most likely get involved and everything would be fine.  

But I also have been relatively low energy lately, the result of anemia which is a side effect of chemotherapy.  Anyway, I decided that I'd just do another portrait for an online group I've been a member of for several years.  I probably should have pushed the values more, but part of me likes the softness of this portrait.  Her blouse is actually dark, but I decided to make it light so the area of highest contrast is near her face.  I also went back to a technique I used before, using a rubbing plate to add texture to the background.  At least I did some art, a welcome break from too much reding or watching recorded movies on television.

Melinda for JKPP

Melinda, colored pencil on toned paper

I keep thinking about painting, and then going back to the trusty sketchbook and working with colored pencil.  This is Melinda, and I did the portrait for Julia Kay's Portrait Party.  I took way too long with this, going back and adding darker and darker values to make her face stand out.  I probably could have pushed the dark values more, but I wanted to be done with it.  I usually choose reference photos that have dramatic shadows, and that was true here.  But mostly I think I liked her direct gaze.

Susanne for JKPP

I haven't done any art since my June surgery, but I did manage to finish up this colored pencil portrait for the online group Julia Kay's Portrait Party.  For a while I was just to tired and shaky, but lately I just have been procrastinating.  So yesterday I just told myself I'd sit down for an hour and whateer happened, happened.

Why is it so hard to return to something you enjoy, after a long break?

Portrait Revolution

Spring is, well, springing in southern Wisconsin, and I have not been in the studio very much at all.  In fact, most of my time has been spent working outside, especially at the local cemetery where I photograph for Find a Grave, and also planning my upcoming May walking tour of the historic parts of the cemetery. I enjoy both doing research and getting outside to stretch my legs.

I have been working in sketchbooks a bit, and on a self-portrait. But today I'm tooting my personal horn about being included in a new art book called Portrait Revolution: Inspiration From Around the World For Creating Art in Multiple Mediums and Styles, by Julia L. Kay. Julia Kay started an online group on Flickr devoted to drawing a painting portraits.  People join the group, post photographs of themselves, and then are free to interpret the photos in any way.  Some people draw, some paint, some use digital media, one even did portraits on an Etch-A-Sketch. Some portraits are realistic, while others veer into abstraction or caricature.  All are interesting.

Anyway, months ago I was asked to submit a couple portraits for the book.  I was flattered to be asked, but had no idea what the final product would be like.  This past week I ordered and received my copy, and was thrilled to see what a beautiful book it is.

When I was first contacted about including two of the portraits I did, I was a little disappointed that the ones they chose were not favorites of mine.  But looking at the book now I can see what an effort was made to include a wide variety of artists, and a wide variety of media and artistic approaches.  I tend to experiment a lot, and both of my portraits included here reflect that. One is rather abstract and brightly colored, the other is a monoprint, enhanced with colored pencil.  I love seeing the way the folks who compiled these portraits show the original photo, plus several different approaches JKPP folks used to create art.

So thank you, Julia Kay for bringing together so many diverse folks from around the world to create art, and to find artistic kindred spirits.

Colored Pencil Portrait - Nadya

8x10 inches, colored pencil on tan notebook paper

I completed this portrait of Nadya, a woman I have never met, but is a fellow member of Julia Kay's Portrait Party, before Christmas. I like it well enough, though I wish I had done a better job of differentiating the dark tones of her shirt from the dark background.  I kept layering, and I may have gone one step too far.  Still, I think it captures her graceful appearance.

I turn sixty-six today, and am grateful to be relatively healthy and able to pursue my interests, such a local history and my art.  I look my age, which is startling every morning when I stand in front of the bathroom mirror to brush my teeth.  I have unruly salt and pepper hair, smile and frown lines galore, and a rounder figure than I care to think about very deeply.  Still, in my mind, I am more like, say, forty-five.  There is a disconnect between how I think of myself, and how I see myself in the mirror, and indeed how younger people treat me.  This sort of thing hit home at the annual family get-together at Christmas time.  I now am the oldest person in the room, except for my husband and brother-in-law, who only are older by three months.  I occupy the position my grandmother once held, a little more dressed up than the younger relatives, a little overwhelmed by overly excited little ones, a little tired and ready to head back home to rest. 

I have never liked the timing of my birthday, falling as it does between Christmas and New Year.  I always resented it a little when birthday presents came in Christmas wrapping paper, and always had to do with winter clothing.  This time of year everyone is busy, and a little over-fed, so a birthday like mine gets little notice. Of course these days people think it's silly for a retired gray haired woman to even pay much attention to birthdays.  Nevertheless, I took myself out for an Egg McMuffin this morning, and tonight we're planning to get a nice meal out, possibly featuring a martini.  My dear aunt sent me a pretty birthday card (such a rare thing these days), some long time friends and left a happy birthday song on voicemail, and my Facebook friends have been checking in with greetings, so the day has not gone unnoticed.

It's good to find the sunshine wherever you can.

Pepe For Julia Kay Portrait Party

8x10 inches colored pencil on toned paper

I love working on toned paper.  I have a spiral bound tan paper notebook that I used for practice pieces, and portraits for an online group in which I occasionally participate.  This drawing was completed in colored pencil for that group. It was an excellent reference photo, with dramatic shadows and a full range of values.  Apart from that I have felt a little high strung lately, and I enjoyed his peaceful look. 

Meredith, New Portrait

My art making lately has been quite solitary.  I occasionally enter pieces in shows, sometimes get together with other art-minded people at an area senior center, rarely take a workshop, but more and more I spend time alone in my little studio, trying out things that interest me.  For several years I have been part of an online group (on Flickr and Facebook) called Julia Kay's Portrait Party. In that group people submit photographs of themselves, and others draw or paint or otherwise interpret from the photos. Then they share the results with the group. 

Sometimes I draw portraits with colored pencil or graphite, occasionally I do an acrylic painting, and other times, like this time, I trot out my watercolors.  I hadn't done a watercolor portrait in over a year, and it felt good trying to create a believable flesh tone, and hair that seems curly. I like the results here, though the portrait is somewhat idealized.  Meredith has some character lines on her face, but I did not emphasize them.  What spoke to me in her photo was her warm smile and kind eyes, so that's what I concentrated on. 

Pretty often artists in this group over emphasize lines and creases, making the person in the portrait look more severe than necessary. I'm not sure why that bothers me so much - perhaps a reflection of how ambivalent I am about my own lines and wrinkles. 

Anyway, here is Meredith.

First Post of 2016

When I first started this blog, back when I first retired, I tried to post every day - and I put up everything. I had photos of sunrises, recipes, pictures of food, poetry, family history.  And back then, people read each other's blogs, commented, and made friends over the ether.  But over the years I've narrowed my focus here to pretty much just art. 

I'm not sure that's such a good thing.

Of course the nature of internet posting has changed since I left teaching.  Social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest and so on have superseded personal blogs, most of which seem to be filled with advertising that freezes up the screen of my aging computer.  Pretty much nobody makes comments any more, and probably pretty much nobody visits personal blogs any more.

This might be OK.  With few visitors and fewer comments, I can post about whatever interest grabs my brain today. 

So, first off, I have only one resolution for 2016, the same one I had in 2015 and 2014, which is to find a reason to celebrate something each and every month, and to share a bottle of champagne with my dear husband.  This has been a fine resolution, and has led to some very enjoyable times. 

On the topic of art, I have mostly been doing informal sketches in my many sketchbook/journals.  I keep thinking that at some point I might offer an informal group to teens in town on this topic, but I never seem to be at a place where I think I have my act enough together to do it.

I did sit down last night to paint an 8x10 inch acrylic for Julia Kay's Portrait Party, an online group in which I occasionally participate.  This is Valerie, whom I have never actually met, but whose dramatically lit photo called out to me.  I had the feeling I wanted to try some portraits using very bright colors, and in a stylized way.  My first try (not posted) was only marginally successful, but I rather like this one.

A Month of Orange: Olivia, for JKPP

Olivia, for Julia Kay's Portrait Party

8x10 inches, colored pencil on tan sketchbook paper

Volunteer Halloween activities and activities outdoors have taken up much of October, and I have spent precious little time in the studio.  I did make a series of note cards, using a Gelli plate and fallen leaves, and I experimented with painting over photo copies of vintage found photos using shaving cream and acrylic paint, but I hadn't really worked on any portraits for Julia Kay's Portrait Party (an online group in which I find lots of inspiration) - until last night.  It has turned chilly and the rain is making all the fallen oak and maple leaves into a sodden mess, so the only sensible thing for me to do was sit down to play with colored pencils.

I took a photo that Olivia provided to the group, altered it in Photoshop, then worked from the cropped and altered image.  I simplified the large shapes as much as I could and still maintain a recognizable image, then worked in a very limited palette, with texture plate under much of the paper to add visual interest.  I rather like it, though I need to do more to decide if this style is one I really like.

Anyway, Happy Halloween to anyone who ventures here.  It's raining in southern Wisconsin, so I doubt we'll get many - if any - trick or treat children.  More Reese's peanut butter cups for me.

Paula, for Julia Kay's Portrait Party

8x10 inches, oil on paper

For the past few years I have been a sometimes participant in an online painting group called Julia Kay's Portrait Party.  I painted this small oil for that group.

It's a large group of people, although a fairly small number of participants are active at any one time. I tend to paint about one portrait a month, although there are people who create one each and every day.  Some paint, some draw, some use collage or mosaics, some use digital media.  All are interesting because it is clear that there are endless ways to approach a portrait, and almost always the result says as much about the artist as it does the subject.

I stay with the group, even though I am often put to shame by other people's skill and unique vision, because I believe that it is good practice to paint lots.  I believe that quantity eventually leads to quality, and in my case I think my portraits have improved since I joined. I know for sure that I enjoy rubbing shoulders with this large and diverse group.

Back in the Studio

Luce, for Julia Kay's Portrait Party

9x11 inches, colored pencil on toned sketchbook paper

Spring is going wild outside here in southern Wisconsin, and I have been having a devil of a time making time to do any art.  I think I can chalk it up to a basic need to get outside after that very long and brutal winter.  My body needs sunshine and fresh air!  That said, I think doing my art, as much as I love it, is a little like exercising in that once I let it slide it is hard to get back into the habit.  

So, earlier this week I put aside planting flowers, pulling weeds, and photographing headstones for a few hours of drawing.  It started when I went digging for my materials for the summer figure drawing program I like to attend at UW Whitewater.  I have a "go" bag of drawing materials, a couple large pads of paper, and other miscellaneous necessaries, but all of it had disappeared into the morass of my art attic and needed locating.  Looking at the various pens, chalks, and pencils got me considering my small stash of Derwent Coloursoft pencils, and I suddenly had to use them.

This is the small portrait I did from a photograph for the Flickr group Julia Kay's Portrait Party.  Luce must have taken a shot of herself sitting at the computer, hence the lighting.  But I liked her expression and the way her hands framed her face, so I chose her to draw.  I have done a series of these portraits using very few pencils, and adding a textured background by rubbing over an embossing plate.  It's quick and easy, and makes an interesting but not overwhelming background.  

Clearly I need to replenish my stock of these buttery soft pencils, because I like the effect here very much.

New Self Portrait

8x10 inches, graphite and colored pencil

I get into obsessive little grooves once in a while, and I seem to be cranking out these drawings in graphite and colored pencil, with texture added in the background and sometimes in clothing or hair.  I realized that I had not done a self-portrait for the Flickr group, Julia Kay's Portrait Party.  There's is nothing like being stuck inside because of ice and snow to get some artwork done - and some reading.  All indoor things, you know.

I worked on a different portrait this past weekend, similar technique, at an art retreat.  I knew some of the participants, and some of the ladies were new to me.  Why are these events almost always all women? Virtually all of them worked in watercolor, and when they weren't painting they were knitting.  I gave up knitting in college - not my forte.  Anyway, last weekend I was working on a largish acrylic painting that may or may not be finished off in oil, and on the drawing.  More than one person asked me if it is easier to work on a portrait of someone I do not know than a familiar person, and I was stumped as to what to say.  I used to feel more comfortable drawing strangers, since the portraits I made at first seldom looked like the actual person.  If I struggle over a painting or drawing of a person I know, and it doesn't look like her,  that is a blow.  How much better to basically fail on portraying somebody you are not invested in emotionally!  

But in the past couple years or so my drawings have begun actually looking like the subjects, and I have discovered it does not matter to me if I know the person or not, if all I am trying to do is get a likeness.  It's easier to put something of a person's personality in if I know him or her, but just a likeness, it doesn't matter.  Of course it's  harder working from life, where fatigue sets in for both the artist and the subject.  This drawing is from a photo a friend took of me, and many of the others I have done in this series are from online photos people provided.  I get to take as long as I want or need.  I'm not saying it's easy, but for me it's just a matter of paying attention to shapes, and patterns of light and dark. 

So - this is pretty much what I look like these days.  I'm heavier than I like, have more "character" lines on my face, but I can live with myself fairly happily.  Unless I consider that my 45th high school class reunion is coming up - then all I want is a dose of Geritol, and a blanket tucked around me in my rocking chair.

Two More: Portraits with Texture

8x10 inches, graphite and colored pencil on toned sketchbook paper

Barbara, for Julia Kay's Portrait Party

8x10 inches, graphite and colored pencil on toned sketchbook paper

Wally, for Julia Kay's Portrait Party

I decided to play around some more with portraits in graphite, white pencil and a bit of warm terracotta colored pencil, combined with textures created by using rubbing plates (like quilters use) for texture.  The patterns are much more visible in the portrait of Barbara than in Wally's picture.  There is some texture in the top right corner, bottom left corner and in his curly hair. though most of it was obscured as I added layers of pencil.

I have mixed feelings about working this way.  One one hand I like the modeling this technique achieves, and the glow the added warm colored pencil gives.  On the other hand the drawings seem very tight, and take quite a long time.  

I may just have felt like that about Wally's drawing since I sat on my eyeglasses and had quite distorted vision while I was working.  I had to soldier on though, since it was Sunday, and I was working at an art retreat away from home.  Today my eyeglass fixed them without a word of approbation.  He told me three other people did the very same thing last week, so now I feel less dorky and I can once again see reasonably clearly.

Cross Pollination

8x10 inches

graphite and colored pencil 

Mariah, for Julia Kay's Portrait Party

It has been cold, crazy cold in our neck of the woods, and we ended up not going out for my birthday, or New Year's Eve, though we did venture out for dinner last night.  All this inside time has inspired me to clean and organize upstairs in the studio, and try to motivate myself to get back into painting. Lately all I seem to be inclined to do is cut and paste and think about making new papers to use for more cutting and pasting, which is all well and good. It's just that I hate to get too far away from drawing and painting.  Anyway, today I was supposed to help out at a local gallery, and I knew I needed to bring along something small and portable, so I decided to do another portrait for Julia Kay's Portrait Party, a Flickr group that has recently started an auxiliary group on Facebook.  

I've been creating textured papers for my collage work, and got the brainstorm that I might be able to use rubbing plates, the sort quilters use for designing fabrics, as background texture in drawing.  If you enlarge the drawing, you'll see different textures in the dark passages, as well as in the peach and white area to the right of her head.  If I had used heavier paper I might have actually collaged on some textured areas.  This drawing is on thin sketchbook paper, so I didn't push my luck.  I like the effect well enough that I may do a little series and see what I can do with this technique.

Laura, for JKPP

6x9 inches, watercolor

Last night was the final figure drawing session for the summer.  I left a half hour early, hoping to have a little daylight left so I could see the turn off for the little side roads I use to drive home.  I take the back roads because they are quiet, usually no pick up trucks in a big hurry, and I like to roll down the windows and listen to the crickets and cicadas. I probably will not go many more times now; after Labor Day the sessions run from 6:30 until 9:30, and I get tired by the time it's time to leave.

This week is very hot, really too hot in my studio to work very long, so I went downtown to the gallery where I show some of my work.  On Tuesday mornings some people get together to paint, and the place is blessedly cool. So I finally go around to doing a portrait for one of my Flickr groups, Julia Kay's Portrait Party.  

This is from a photo submitted by Laura Starrett.  I was happy to see her picture, since I've followed her watercolors online for several years, and even exchanged paintings with her.  I was sorry that her face ended up being rather overworked, but I could not resist playing around with the shadows and highlights on her face.

If you would like to see Laura's blog, click n the link.

Simone - For Julia Kay's Portrait Party

9x12 inches, colored pencil on toned paper

About a week has passed since I get back from my workshop week at Dillmans, and my art materials are back in the studio.  The summer session of figure drawing at UW Whitewater is underway, and I finally did another sketch for Julia Kay's Portrait Party on Flickr.  Flicker has been where I have a record of most of my artwork, but recently they altered their format, throwing many users into a distracted sense that they no longer were in Kansas.  But I resist the urge to throw up my arms and wail.  Everything changes.  It's good to adapt.

I like the portrait party people - they are many and fearless.  This is a tight sketch, remarkable for me only in that it is larger than usual.  My week with Robert Burridge at Dillman's may have convinced me that bigger is not only better, but easier as well.  This portrait is a reasonable likeness of a woman named Simone, done with only a white and black colored pencil in a Canson tan toned notebook.  It's literal rendering is nothing like the bigger gesture drawings I did of an undraped model at my recent workshop, and then tried again at UW Whitewater Monday evening.  But there is something satisfying at the simplicity of the materials in this sketch. 

Simple is good.

Dalton, for Julia Kay's Portrait Party

Here's my most recent portrait for the Flickr group Julia Kay's Portrait Party.  This is small, six by nine inches, all in watercolor.  I liked his gaping reference photo, with the single staring eye and stunned expression.  I made me think of the deranged narrator of Edgar Allan Poe's story, The Tell-Tale Heart, though I imagine he is a perfectly normal, nice person.

I like the results well enough, especially the eye.  The original reference photo showed a neutral background, which I darkened here to highlight the contrast with his light whiskers, and a plaid shirt that I simply ignored. The darkened side of his face is overworked, but I am choosing not to let it worry me.

Maybe I'm slightly obsessed by eyes.  Mine are on a decline.  I recently had them checked, since my ability to read comfortably and see clearly at a distance has been getting more and more difficult.  I have new bifocal lenses ordered.  One eye has a cataract, and I'm wondering how long it will be before the doc thinks it's crummy enough for surgery.  Apparently my eyes are changing, and not together.  He says the new lenses, complete with pricey coatings to filter out UV and glare, will distort objects in the distance.  I guess I'll have to wait to see if that's right.  When I commented that I am an artist and having objects in the distance distorted might cause problems, the doc got huffy and said he was doing the best he could for me.  I believe he is, but I have some anxiety about the direction my vision is headed.

Back to painting.

On Thursdays I often paint, or just drink coffee and pretend to draw, with a group of friends.  Nobody much liked this effort, mostly because of the expression, I think.  People want pretty, and that's the truth.  It's just that for me, pretty isn't always what I am interested in.

I did have one nice art related moment this week. A gallery owner "up north" called me to say she received my small paintings for this year, and said how much she admired them.  Made my day.

Face Book

I belong to a small group of artists who meet once a week to work together, chat, critique and generally keep each other company. Sometimes we meet at a senior center, and when that place is booked with big events we meet at a local gallery to paint, sketch, or even just drink coffee.

Today I was not ready to do any painting, and in fact all week I've been doing other things, mostly electronic in nature - working on a family tree, getting an old laptop ready to recycle, updating my iPod and figuring out how to take advantage of the new features.

Anyway, I wanted to spend my art time doing something, so I grabbed this reference book and decided to just do some modified contour drawings. Some of these are downright scary.

Facial Expressions: A Visual Reference for Artists is filled with well lit photographs of men and women of various ages demonstrating a variety of emotions, from several angles.  There are special galleries as well of people wearing all sorts of hats, ethnic headgear, safety headgear, and helmets.  There are galleries of people kissing, and one of people pronouncing phonemes.  There is a section on skulls, both men's a women's, from various angles.  When I have a little time I like to dig out the book and just draw.  I think anyone who like to draw and paint could benefit from these black and white photographs - illustrators, cartoonists, anyone interested in studying faces and expressions.

The past couple months I've been painting small (6x9 inch) watercolor portraits almost exclusively, and I'm not sure why, since I have no interest in doing commissions.

 I painted both of these for the Flickr group, Julia Kay's Portrait Party.  I enjoy the challenge of creating interesting representations of people's faces.  It's something that is very engaging for me, and is not meant for sale.

Tomorrow is the annual fund raiser for UW Rock County, and event held at Rotary Botanical Gardens here in Janesville, Taste Of Culture.  I'm taking four framed watercolors for sale.  There will be art, tasty snacks and things to drink, and music.  Should be fun, and maybe I'll sell something.  Or not.

New JKPP Portrait and a Poem

 "Kline, Brushing His Teeth"

6x9 inches, watercolor, for Julia Kay's Portrait Party

Every Thursday morning I drive to Milton and join a group of artists at the Gathering Place.  I always bring something I've painted during the week to show, and something small to work on, since I dislike hauling big projects out of the house.  I worked on drawing from my community figure drawing group a once or twice, but discovered that it made a couple of the Milton folks distinctly uncomfortable, so no more un-draped models there.  I've taken to preparing a drawing of a portrait for Julia Kay's Portrait Party, then painting it with the Gathering Place group; this was the one I finished yesterday. 

It has been a while since I posted a poem, so I went searching for one that had a toothbrush in it.  I found several, and oddly enough each one had something about a love affair in it.  Here's what I eventually decided to include here:

Vandergast and the Girl
By Louis Simpson

Vandergast to his neighbors—
the grinding of a garage door
and hiss of gravel in the driveway.

He worked for the insurance company  
whose talisman is a phoenix
rising in flames ... non omnis moriar.
From his desk he had a view of the street—

translucent raincoats, and umbrellas,  
fluorescent plate-glass windows.  
A girl knelt down, arranging
underwear on a female dummy—

sea waves and, on the gale,  
Venus, these busy days,
poised in her garter belt and stockings.

         *

The next day he saw her eating
in the restaurant where he usually ate.

Soon they were having lunch together  
elsewhere.
                She came from Dallas.
This was only a start, she was ambitious,  
twenty-five and still unmarried.
Green eyes with silver spiricles ...
red hair ...
                  When he held the car door open  
her legs were smooth and slender.

“I was wondering,”
she said, “when you'd get round to it,”  
and laughed.

         *

Vandergast says he never intended  
having an affair.
                           And was that what this was?  
The names that people give to things ...
What do definitions and divorce-court proceedings  
have to do with the breathless reality?

O little lamp at the bedside
with views of Venice and the Bay of Naples,  
you understood! Lactona toothbrush
and suitcase bought in a hurry,
you were the witnesses of the love
we made in bed together.

Schrafft's Chocolate Cherries, surely you remember  
when she said she'd be true forever,

and, watching “Dark Storm,” we decided  
there is something to be said, after all,
for soap opera, “if it makes people happy.”

         *

The Vandergasts are having some trouble  
finding a buyer for their house.

When I go for a walk with Tippy  
I pass the unweeded tennis court,
the empty garage, windows heavily shuttered.

Mrs. Vandergast took the children  
and went back to her family.

And Vandergast moved to New Jersey,  
where he works for an insurance company  
whose emblem is the Rock of Gibraltar—
the rest of his life laid out
with the child-support and alimony payments.

As for the girl, she vanished.

Was it worth it? Ask Vandergast.
You'd have to be Vandergast, looking through his eyes  
at the house across the street, in Orange, New Jersey.  
Maybe on wet days umbrellas and raincoats
set his heart thudding.
                                  Maybe
he talks to his pillow, and it whispers,  
moving red hair.

In any case, he will soon be forty.

Emily for JKPP

It has been a few weeks since I've painted or drawn anything for Julia Kay's Portrait Party on Flickr's photo sharing site. I indulged in a new small watercolor sketchbook from Strathmore Windpower, with nice 140 lb. cold press watercolor paper today, and wanted to try it out.  This young woman provided several photos, and I chose this sort of Sleeping Beauty pose because I liked the way her hair spread out horizontally; I thought it would fit the format of the sketchbook nicely. It looks a bit washed out in this scan, but is richer in person.