Pink Torso Fragment Pastel/Charcoal Drawing

Pastel and Charcoal on Archival White
Drawing Paper, 18" x 24"

I have to admit it, I did not do this
drawing today. I did it a few months
ago. But I had to teach today, and I did
not have a chance to paint.

This was done from a black and white
photograph of a Greek fragment. It
was probably a Venus. But it certainly
was beautiful - and it was SO inspiring.
I love painting....but I have to say, this.
to me, is another form of painting.

I guess everyone acknowledges that pastel
is a form of painting. I teach this technique
at the Art League School in Alexandria, VA.
We use veils of color, starting out by drawing
into a layer of pastel color with the skinniest vine
charcoal until we get an image we like. Then,
we spray every layer except the last one, using
veils and veils of color. It is really fun, and can
produce ethereal or powerful results, depending
on the values and colors you use, and also depending
on what you do with your fixative.

I love this drawing.

Demo Pear over Charcoal Drawing on Rag Paper

Oil on Gessoed 100% Rag Paper, 6" x 8"
$90.00

This is just a little sketch I did in class for
my students today. We were discussing
grisaille (black and white underpaintings)
only today, we were really just using a charcoal
drawing as our grisaille.

It's fun, because if you spray the drawing with
Krylon Crystal Clear Spray, and then with Damar
Retouch Varnish, you can paint over the charcoal
drawing, and it's almost like an underpainting. It is
fun to start out by glazing with a yellow, and then
painting into that with opaque colors. Of course, I
did this so fast, my students were more successful
on the whole. That is what I love about teaching.
Seeing people succeed, and helping them to do it.

Sunset and Tree

Oil on gessoed masonite, 4" x 4" $100.00 SOLD

This was the view out the window yesterday - that
blue was so deep - and I had to paint so fast to catch
the firey pinks and oranges before they were gone.
I have learned that it is best to glaze the sky over
a white background when you have a situation
like this, so it was so nice that I could just grab
this little gessoed Gessoboard panel. I like the con-
trast of the asphaltum-colored treetop just barely
catching the light - and I love ANY color that
has anything to do with Naples yellow, like the
bright pink on the right that seems to be shooting
out of the side of the picture. I was happy with this.
It's just a little sketch, but I find it peaceful.

Sunset over a Russet Field

Oil on Gessoed 100% Rag Board, 4" x 5" $100.00

Blue Stripes Pear

Gouache on 100% Rag watercolor paper, 6" x 8"
$100.00

This pear was sitting in some extremely bright
sunlight. These strange diagonal stripes were being
cast by something nearby, and it was casting an interesting,
varied shadow itself. The shadows really were blue,
but in the interest of color harmony and fun I decided
to make the most out of the blue, because I just loved
the combination of the red and blue together.

Gouache is such a fun medium to work in. It is so
forgiving. You can work transparently or opaquely,
and there is no such thing as making a mistake! You
can just cover up whatever you don't like. I find making
gouache paintings particularly relaxing.

Head of Apollo - Oil Pastel Sgrafitto Drawing

Oil Pastel Sgrafitto Drawing on Rag Board
4" x 5"
This is an example of a wonderful technique
that is very ancient, very fun, and easy to learn.
It can also produce beautiful results. As a matter
of fact, you may have even done it in elementary
school when you took a piece of tag board and
covered it with lots of different colors of crayons,
covered all that with black crayon, and then scraped
through to reveal the colors underneath.

The first sgrafitto was done on simple pottery long ago -
scraping through one colored glaze to get to another
one. It was used beautifully on Greek vases. Breughel
used it in certain passages in his paintings to create
patterns in fabric. He would glaze a dark pink, for
instance, over a lighter color, and then use the end
of the handle of his brush to create a floral or other type
of pattern to mimic fabric.

I have experimented with every type of Crayola crayon
that has been made. My favorite were "Silver Swirls", because
they had colors that were like the patina on bronze statues:
lustrous bluish greens, teals, bronzes, russets reds and oranges.
I would lay these down thickly massed together in random
patterns and cover that thickly with a smooth layer of Caran d'Ache
Neo-Color Oil Pastels in Olive Green or Brown or Black. Then,
using any scraping tools (scraperboard tools are good for this)
you can draw and create the most beautiful pictures. My favorite
subject matter is ancient sculpture. My favorite tool is a cylinder
that has six equal-length wires coming out of it that enable me to
draw with curved cross-hatching easily and elaborately. It is really
fun!

Silver and Flower

Oil on Gessoed Masonite Panel, 4" x 4" $50.00 SOLD

I have had this silver cup for awhile, as you can see,

for it is quite tarnished. But I found that interesting

to paint. The camellia is another fake from my still

life cabinet at school. I just liked the way they looked together

on this silk shawl with a cut velvet edging. It's unusual,

but I love the color combinations. I was experimenting

with thick and thin paint in this piece. It is thinnest in

the cup, as I am sure you can see.

Field with a Stream in Rappahannock Valley

Oil on Gessoed Archival Rag board laid down on same,
5 11/2" x 4 1/4" $40.00 SOLD

This is a scene in Rappahannock County, on the way
to the Blue Ridge. From a photo again. But, I don't
feel bad about it. Sometimes I find I can be more
imaginative when working from a photo than when
working from life. The memory comes into play,
and also there is a freedom to work with color that
the overwhelming presence of Nature sometimes
stifles in me.

I know Degas rarely worked outside,
and he is one of my idols. So, I guess if it was good
enough for him, it's good enough for me. I know that
when he died his family found boxes of photos in
his apartment - some of a nature they were not
so happy with, so they threw them out. Many were
photos he had taken himself.

I was quite happy with this small picture. It gives me the
same feeling that I have when I am out in the country, so
I must have caught something about the lanscape.
It makes me happy, and that is good.

Memento of Florence

Oil on 100% Rag Board laid down on same, 6"x 6"
SOLD

When my parents first visited Italy back in the 1960's
they brought my sister and I each one of these small
guilded cherubs. I have had mine ever since. It came
from Florence. At the time I never suspected that I would
one day go there and study. Now that was so many years
ago I can hardly believe I was ever there. But, being there had
a profound influence on how I think about and make art.
I'll always be grateful that I was able to go there. It is an
amazing city, and for an art student, an impossibly stimulating
classroom.

Blue Ridge Mountain View

Oil on Gessoed Wood Panel, 3" x 5" $90.00

I felt like doing a landscape today, but I didn't have time
to drive out to the Shenandoah, so I dug through my box of
photographs and found one I found inspiring. I never tire of
making up pictures of that place, and never tire of going there.

Brass and Carnation

Oil on Gessoed 100% Rag Board laid down on same, 6" x 6"
$75.00 SOLD

I really enjoyed doing this painting. I loved how the colors of the flower were subtly reflected into the surface of the brass container, and how the leaves had all sorts of variations of green in them. I felt the brass was quite shiny and successful, so I was happy with that, and I liked the contrast between the solidity of it and the wispiness of the flower.

Are you familiar with Caravaggio's masterpiece of a still-life? The one in which he just has a basket filled with fruit and leaves silhouetted against a plain, but vibrant yellow background? He was such a master of composition, that just the negative spaces (background shapes) in the picture are positively hypnotic. Each time I just happen upon that painting in a book I am once again completely in awe of it.

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NFS

This is another spring offering. It is an oil color monotype that I did many years ago down in Blacksburg, Virginia. I picked the morning glories, then sat in front of them for about four hours with a zinc plate, a tiny paintbrush, some oil paint and turpentine. When I was done, I printed the image on to a piece of dampened Italian printmaking paper using my etching press. --Monotypes are like roulette. But this was a winner, and it is something I will never part with. I love morning glories. Their beauty is so ephemeral and ethereal.

Blue and Purple Irises on a Pink Background

Oil on 100% Rag board supported by board, 7" x 11"
95.00 go to eBay
In honor of spring I just had to paint some flowers, but I really wanted to paint some irises, and it's not iris season yet! So, I raided my still-life cabinet at The Art League School where I teach, and found these lovely, though undoubtedly unusual, artificial ones. I have to admit too, this painting took more than one day..... it took two. -- Just painting the background took several hours, and I wasn't satisfied until I covered the original white background with some pink and "tonked" it with some phone book paper to get the texture. NOW, I liked it!

For anyone interested in learning to draw or paint out there, even those learning to draw the figure (I've been teaching that for about thirty-two years) you can learn a tremendous amount by observing flowers. Their endless curving, interrelated parts, delicate relationships, and constantly changing perspective - depending upon your point of view - are all issues that one deals with in drawing the figure, or anything for that matter. So if you are interested in improving your drawing, get yourself a sketchbook, get a stem of freesia, and do a drawing of the spaces in between the flowers. You'll be amazed at how much you'll learn, and, what a relaxing and satisfying experience it is. God is in the details.

NOTE - "Tonking" just means blotting your wet oil painting with telephone book paper (must be only that paper), and was named after Henry Tonks, who was the President of the Slade School in London in the early part of the 20th C.. A very useful practice.

Red and Yellow Pear

Oil on Canvas on Wood Panel, 5" x 7" SOLD

This pear didn't seem to know if it was red
or yellow, but it was just so beautiful that I
had to paint it. It was hard not to eat it, because
it was perfectly ripe. Capturing that type of skin
in paint is a challenge, but I was pretty happy
with this painting. - It was interesting how the
highlights on the belly were a cold pink! You
wouldn't expect that....

Painting fruit and vegetables is such a challenge, and
it is so satisfying. It is a great teaching tool, also. In one
class I teach that is all we paint the entire quarter. I am always
so impressed with what my students come up with, and always
surprised at how much I learn from them. Painting is color,
and Nature offers infinite variety to challenge an artist.

Artichoke on a Pink Plate

Oil on Gessoed Rag Board laid down on board, 6" x 6"
SOLD

I was amazed at how colorful the inside of this artichoke was!
I'm planning on doing several paintings of this same subject,
because the colors seemed to change with the light.
I was pretty happy with this one. But there are so many
possibilities...

The New River, McCoy, Virginia

Gessoed Wood Panel, 3" x 5 $40.00

I found an old photograph I had taken down at the New River and I just couldn't resist painting a picture of it. I love the mountains so much. I don't live too far from the Blue Ridge, but never seem get out there. They are never far from my mind or my heart though. They are aesthetically and spirtually inspiring.

Pink Rose and Antique Pitcher

Oil on Gessoed Archival Rag Board Laid Down on Board, 8" x 8"

$100.00 go to eBay

I've always been intrigued by this pitcher that belonged to my

husband's Scottish grandmother. I think it's the unusual blue color of

the handle and the stars. So beautiful. I was very happy with

the combination of that color with the hue of the rose, and with

the contrast between the solidity of the dark green leaves with

the delicacy of the hues in the flower.

Stormy Sky over the Caribbean

SOLD
Oil on Yupo Paper laid down on Board,
6' x 6'

I love the Caribbean. This basically came
out of my mind, but I think it expresses
something of the mercurial quality of
the sky there. It always amazes me how
quickly it changes. You look one moment
and it is one way, and it seems as though
when you look back a few minutes later it is
entirely different. A dream of mine is to go there
some day and rent a room for five or six days
and just paint the same scene over and over with
the different skies. Kind of like Monet painting
the varied versions of the cathedral at Rouen at
diffferent times of day. -- It would never be
boring, and what a challenge! I think I'd probably
have to do more than a painting a day however.

Early Spring Window View

Oil on Gessoed Masonite, 4" x 4"
SOLD

This was the view out my studio window at the beginnig
of March when I first started doing a painting a day.
I just love the colors in the sky, and how they seem to be
reflected into the bark of the tree. The little branches also
seem to be dancing, and seem to be awfully happy.
This is a great time of year. So much to look forward to!

Peach and Chinese Plate

Oil on Gessoed Masonite, 4" x 4"
SOLD

This was my first daily painting, and
I must admit it is one of my all-time
favorites. Perhaps it was the excitement
of starting a new project, but I love
the color, the composition, the texture
of the peach skin, and just everything
about it. I find it a very peaceful painting
to look at, and get great enjoyment from
it. I wish every painting day could go
this smoothly!