Blue Cloud Landscape

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Pastel on Black Canson Pastel Paper, (9"' x 6")

I did this drawing as an example for the students in my

"Painterly Pastel" class at the Art League School in Alexandria,

Virginia, where I teach. This is a really fun way of working.

When people first hear black paper, their ususal reaction is

"yech", black velvet!! Elvis, tacky horses, farm scenes!!  But, it

is actually a very beautiful medium, because it makes the colors

glow.  This is a very loose interpretation of a landscape, but I do

love the blue cloud.

Oil Sketch of Liz

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Oil on canvas, 5.5" x 5.5"

I really enjoyed doing this quick oil sketch of Liz, a young woman who used to

model for me in my classes. It was done from a photograph, as is most of my work,

except my work done in class. This is mostly because my studio is about as big

as a small walk-in closet. But, my husband is about to build me a new studio in

the backyard, which will be 10' x 15'. I know that's not large, but after what I've

been working in for the past 17 years, it will seem like an ice skating rink - and,

there will actually be room for a LIVE model - at last!!. Also I'll have more room

to teach workshops at my home, which is something I really enjoy doing.

Thanks for visiting today.

Isla Morada Hybiscus

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Oil on Canvas laid down on board, 7.5" x 9 3/4"

I did this from a photograph outside of the Casa Thorn, 

a  wonderful B&B we stayed at in Isla Morada in the Florida Keys. 

 The whole

place seemed enchanted, from the wonderful woman

after whom it was named, to the myriad of fascinating

objects with which she had decorated it - all things she

had collected during her incredible 91 years. Everywhere

you turned there was something beautiful to see: Moroccan

screens, carved ivory netsukes of sensitive nudes, unique

paintings from the 1940's,  photographs of her friends - who 

just happened to be Frank Sinatra and his ilk - and plants

everywhere inside and out.  Giant palm trees, flowering

plants, with Cambodian granite heads peeking out from

behind.

 I've been thinking of painting this since last

August, and I finally did. I'm really happy this evening.

Lesli Pensive

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Oil over Grisaille on board

This is a portrait of a young woman who has modelled often

for my classes. She is incredibly talented in her own right,

being an actress with an incredible voice, and also, obviously

very beautiful. The color of her hair is what inspired me to do

thi s painting.

Figure in a Blue Light

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Oil paint over black and white grisaille.

This is a painting of my favorite all-time model,

Sharon. She never fails to inspire. I love this image

so much, I actually did another version of it in another

color scheme. That may seems strange - until you look

at Degas. Not that I am comparing myself  to that

19th C. Master, who is one of my idols.  But, he did

literally recycle poses and positions of models from

one painting or drawing to another. It's fascinating.

He was the most modern painter of his group, no doubt.

History will show this to be true as time goes on.

Thanks for visiting today.

Sophie at Fifteen

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Oil Pastel and Mechanical Pencil on Gray gesso-primed canvas, 4" square

This is a picture of my daughter when she was about 15, I think. I have

done a lot of paintings and drawings of her, and she always looked very

sophisticated beyond her years. I like this image because she looks more

her age, and also displays her "lost-in-thought" character.

I have a large set of Sennelier oil pastels - well two really. One, I put

together little by little over the years as I could afford them, and it also

includes Holbein and Caran d'Ache oil pastels. Except for the Holbeins,

which are square, I keep them sharpened to a point with a large-hole

pencil sharpener. The other set I finally bought on sale. It is so

I can hardly stand to use it. It includes ten or twelve iridescents that

breathtaking. They look white, but iridesce to yellow/purple, pink/green,

orange/blue, and so on. Those are also all sharpened to a point.

They are fun to work with, because you can just draw with them, or, you

can manipulate them with palette knives or brushes, and also with

painting mediums. For this piece I used Winsor & Newton's Liquin Detail

Painting Medium, as I was working so small. I don't generally care

for working on canvas, because of the texture, but this was OK. I have to say

in this case, the photograph truly does not do the piece justice.

Two Golden Pears

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Soft pastels on Sennelier Carte Pastel Board, approx. 7" x 5"

These two Bosc pears weren't in very good shape anymore, but they still had

some beautiful colors in them, and in the right light they were worthy subject

matter. I had a piece of Carte Pastel left, in one of their colors - which are very

strage, by the way - this one is sort of a cross between tan, curried chicken, and

moss. I scanned the image. Whether a photograph or a scan, it's terribly difficult

to give a color image its due. The "golden" quality doesn't really come through, for

some reason. Oh well, I guess you'll just have to imagine it.

Thanks for visiting.

Angel from Another World

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Pastel on Wallis sanded pastel board washed with blue watercolor, 10" x 6 6/8".

This is an interpretation of a photograph of a cemetary angel. I really like the

colors, and I love working in pastel. I never get tired of it! It is a wonderful break

from painting. I don't have to wash and brushes, and I love to draw!

15-Minute Color Sketch of Standing Nude Female Model

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6 1/2" x 11 1/2" on Canson Mi Tientes paper

This was done as a demonstration for some

students in class a couple of Saturdays ago.

I teach a figure drawing class every Saturday

morning, and have for about 17 years - has it

really been that long? I can't believe it.

The problem here was to work with a very

limited selection of Carb-Othello pastel

pencils (wonderful!!), on grey paper, or any

mid-tone colored paper of their choice.

The colors they had to work with were: White,

Naples Yellow (Conte), Sanguine, Light Blue,

Cadmium Red Light, Brown, and a Black

charcoal pencil.

This demo really was only 15 minutes. My

class is 3 hours long, but I don't like to take

up too much time with demonstrations, because

we spend quite a while warming up, and also

I am very against the idea of having my students

all trying to draw like I do. I've been drawing for

54 years. Most of them have just started.

I like to encourage my students to find their

own voice, and although most do realism, I don't

demand that either.

Thanks for stopping by.

Oil Sketch of Posing Male Nude's Back

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Oil on Gessoed and Oil-Primed Archival Paper, 7" x 10"

This is a quickly-done limited palette oil sketch done in class

as a demo for students. I was quite happy with the results here,

and am only selling it because, like everyone else, I haveto make

a living. This model, unfortunately, moved to Floridathis year,

much to everyone's chagrin. He was a fine person,and a fabulous

model.

Peppers and Turquoise

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This is a very small painting. It is only 6" x 3". Therefore, I was able to do it in just
one afternoon. I like the colors. I deliberately made the background and foreground
turquoise. So often paintings of this type have brown backgrounds, or the reverse.
That can undoubtedly be beautiful - but it's done all the time. I wanted to try some-
thing that I don't see all the time. Whether or not it's successful, I'll leave up to
you. It sure is fun to be painting again though.

Thanks for visiting.

Margie's Angel

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This oil over brown under-painting was done on a gessoed 6" x 6"
masonite panel. The main part of the features that you can see
are the underpainting. There are many glazes as well: transparent
Gold Ochre, Indian Yellow, Transparent Red Earth, Transparent
Yellow, and then also a great deal of opaque paint.

This is a fun way to paint. Solve the drawing part first, and then
you are relatively free to fool around with color.

Thanks for visiting today.

P.S. You may have noticed that I've added Google Ad Sense to my
blog. I hope you don't think that mercenary of me.....times are
hard......for everyone.

Sgraffito Drawing/Demo of the Charioteer of Delphi

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This is actually the first sgraffito drawing that I ever did, and
I have used it for years as a demo piece when I am teaching this
unusual but ancient technique to my students. That is why it is
covered with squiggles, pieces of perfectly matched curved-cross-
hatching (done with a tool that has six pieces of wire all the same
length sticking out of a metal holder), and other various messy
marks. There is even some gold Sennelier oil pastel on his hair
ornament - unfortunately, the luminosity of it has faded over the
years.

I have described elsewhere in my blog how to do this technique, so
I won't repeat myself here.

Tomorrow I will present a painting I've been working on for a little
bit every day for a few days. It is the same composition as one
presented on this blog, but with a new interpretation coloristically.
It certainly was fun painting it! And I spent this day, mapping out the coming
week. I have so many paintings I want to do - and this is just the small
ones that can be done in a day or two - that I don't know how I'll ever finish
them!! It's so exciting.

I did a silly thing the other day though - and if anyone who is reading this
happens to have an "in" with Google, or is just more "internet savvy" than I am,
please let me know if you can help me out!

I was looking at my account here, and they suggested that I change my Google-given
URL for my blog to a domain name (at a price, of course...), so like a perfect
consumer, I bought one. Alas, AFTER I purchased it I realized there was a
serious typo in it. It was supposed to read: priscillatreacyfineart.com, BUT,
it reads priscilltreacyfineart.com.

I haven't been able to get in touch with them
through their byzantine "help" pages, I even contacted Enon, the company they
work together with in producing these domain name. Any query has lead
me to absolutely nowhere. And of course, there is never a phone number mentioned
ANYWHERE. There is nothing in Google's FAQ that even touches on this problem.
I offered to cancel, and start all over, but they didn't like that at all. No, no.

So, now I am stuck with a domain name with a misspelled name, and no one will
be able to find my blog, and I have NO idea how to fix it. Does anyone out there
know how! HELP!!

I would most grateful for any ideas - and thank you for visiting today.

Oil Color Monotype: Italian Geometrics I

NFS

I explained the procedure for this type of monotype in my blog
on Monday. This one was used as a book cover by the David R. Godine
Publishing Co. in Boston, in 1984, for a memoir by Iris Origo, titled
War in Val d'Orcia. I was very happy when they decided to use it,
of course. Also, I didn't have to deal with any art directors telling me
what to do! It was a free ride!

Thanks for visiting today.

Tomorrow is "P" day - I begin to paint in earnest. I am so excited!!

Pastel and Charcoal Head of Roman Warrior

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I have to admit that I love this drawing. It is done
in a method that I call "veils of color". It is done on
white bond sketch-weight paper. You do a drawing
with 1/8" round vine charcoal, and then go over that
with Nupastel in whatever color you want. This can
correct and mistakes if you are not done with the drawing,
or if you are, it can begin to suggest a color plan or direction,

Then I further develop the drawing with the vine, and add
more pastel, spraying between layers. I know that is contrary
to what most people think as pastel technique, but this is
just something I developed on my own, and I really like to
draw this way. It is very freeing, and fun. You never really
know what you are going to get. If you use regular fixative,
the paper remains smooth, and you can apply hard and soft
pastels, and charcoal pencils also - actually I prefer carbon
pencils, because they don't smear as much.

If you use Matte medium spray it leave little tiny globules
of spray on the paper, giving it a tiny tooth that is just great
for grabbing onto very soft pastel, in rich saturated colors.

Monotype of a Terracotta Pot at Nero's Villa on Capri

NFS
This is an example of how accidents sometime work
to our advantage in art. This is an oil paint monotype,
which I painted on a small zinc plate (4" x 5"). Actually,
I used this same plate over and over again.

This is the view from the patio of Nero's Villa which is
on the very top of the island of Capri off the coast of Naples.
It is said that he used to throw hapless people off just to amuse
himself.

Anyway, the procedure for this consists of drawing an
image onto the plate with a 6B pencil, and then painting
the image with oil paint diluted with turpentine. For some
reason turpentine works the best, which is a shame, as I
have developed a tendency to develop migraines if I get
anywhere near it. The paint isn't as thin as watercolor,
just "thinned", and it can be manipulated with dry brushes,
and also with brushes that are wet with solvent and then mostly
dried off. Apparently, during this process a bit of turpentine
got away and dribbled down the front of the terracotta pot.
But, what a happy accident! It's really doing a marvelous
imitation of the characteristic surface of these aged pots.

This was from a series called "Italian Geometrics". They were
all 4"' x 5", and they were all oil monotypes. I have two others.
One was used as a book cover once. I felt so lucky.

Essence Sketch of Reclining Model

NFS
Well, I am happy to say that my hand is finally healed,
and I no longer have to wear my hand support (excepting
when I am typing on the computer for long stretches). I
have been gathering ideas for things that I want to paint,
and I am looking forward to the coming week when I will
begin in earnest to become involved in my work again.

I know that after such a long time away from my regular
routine it will be touch and go at first. I have always
thought ( and I tell my students this) of "artistic ability",
whatever it is, as something that we don't really "own" per
se, it comes and hangs around for a while, and graces our
lives with happiness when we have it - but it can just as
easily leave for awhile. I console myself knowing that
Edward Hopper, whose work I truly admire, didn't paint
for five years at one point. Hard to imagine, but true.
Just think how unhappy he must have been!

Well, today I have an essence (check back in former posts
for a definition) drawing on Canson pastel paper. I am very
fond of this one. It is not for sale, because it was already sold.
I'm so glad I have a picture of it. I wish I had the real thing.

Thanks for visiting today.

Gouache Wash Drawing of Male Model in Class

NFS

This was a demo drawing I did in the figure
class that I teach at the Art League School in
Alexandria, Virginia.

I love working in gouache! It is opaque water-
color and can be used either opaquely or trans-
parently. Either way, it is fun to work with,
especially with the figure. It is easy to be loose
and free with gouache. If you love drawing the
figure you should try it!

Thanks for visiting today.

Rocks and Ocean

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This small painting is an example of using a monochromatic
under painting, in this case a brown one - as a base for adding
color. It is fairly easy to harmonize a painting if you use a tight,
limited palette of colors and such an under painting. The under
painting, or grisaille, from the French for "gray", has to be in a
discernible color, not in black and white. A gray could be used,
but it would work best if it were a gray influenced noticeably by
a color, such as blue, or lavender.

Monotype of the View from Rte.460, Blacksburg, VA

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This monotype was painted in watersoluble oils on Yupo watercolor paper, which
is really just a piece of white plastic rolled out very thin. It is fun to use this as
a support , because you can really see what your image will look like when printed -
except that it will be backwards of course, if you are using an etching press, which
I always do. -- This image is mostly done from memory. I rode up and down this
highway so many times that I can still see it clearly now, even though I was there
almost thirty years ago.

Thanks for visiting today.