Sadie J Valeri's Blog has Moved

New Blog Location

2011-01-06T11:02:00.000-08:00

My Blog has moved -

Please find my new blog at my main website, www.sadievaleri.com/blog

All 4 years of content and comments is still intact on the new blog!

Please update your bookmarks, thanks :)

-Sadie

FAQ: Winged Victory Cast and Studio Wall Color

2010-12-22T10:00:00.000-08:00

I often gets questions as to how I got my Winged Victory cast and where to get a good-quality version.

I bought mine after spotting it at a sidewalk sale in 2003. The owner had inherited it from his grandmother, and had had it in storage for many years. He wanted to sell it to someone who knew and loved the sculpture, and I was only to happy to tell him my story of falling in love with the statue when I first saw and drew her at the Louvre in Paris when I was 16. We struck a deal, and the statue was mine, to this day it is my prized possession. The original owner has visited the studio and was happy to see his grandmother's statue in a place of honor.

It's not easy to find good quality replicas, which are casts from the original. If you Google "Winged Victory" you will find a lot of cheap statues, but if you look closely the quality is very low and crude. The form of the figure and the folds of drapery look grotesque and amateurish. They are usually inferior copies by modern sculptors, not true casts from the original.

My understanding is that most museums no longer allow cast molds to be made from their works, so the only molds that exist are historic.

The only place online I know to order high-quality casts made directly from original historic molds is the Giust Gallery: www.giustgallery.com

They have several sizes of the Winged Victory here

Studio Wall Color

Sadie Valeri Atelier

I am also often asked about the color of my studio walls. We often think of modern art studios as having white walls, which is great for throwing light around the room and getting lots of light onto the easel. However, white walls make it very difficult to control shadows, and when working from life you want a good balance of light and shadow.

I noticed Grand Central Academy and a lot of the contemporary ateliers have dark grey walls. Also, when I Google-image-searched "atelier" I found some beautiful images of restored historic studios with dark walls.

The color I chose for my own studio walls is Benjamin Moore "Sparrow AF-720." Human fleshtones look lovely and glowing next to it, shadows look deep and rich, and it's easy to control the light bouncing around the room.

I used to think it had a touch of green in it, but after mixing the color for my paintings many times now, I find it can be matched accurately from mixing just from Cobalt Blue, Raw Umber, and a little white. Perhaps a tiny bit of the yellow cast of Raw Umber is reacting with the blue to make a tiny touch of green, but essentially it is just a neutral.

Click the slideshow below to see more photos of the studio:

Studio News: More Weekly Figure Sessions and Demos

2010-12-15T09:00:00.000-08:00

I am excited to share with you that beginning in February I will be offering additional Figure Model Sessions and also weekly Lecture/Demonstrations at my San Francisco studio:

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Weekly Figure Model Sessions

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Tuesday Evenings Starting February 1, 2011
6:30 - 9:30 pm, ongoing
$70 for 4-session pose, 12 hours

Thursday Evenings Starting February 10, 2011
6:30 - 9:30 pm, ongoing
$70 for 4-session pose, 12 hours

Monday Afternoons Starting February 7, 2011
11:30am - 4:30pm, ongoing
$110 for 4-session pose, 20 hours

For more details and to register, please click here to visit my Teaching Page

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Live Lecture/Demonstrations
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During the lecture demos I will be sharing my philosophy and techniques for figure drawing and painting:

Mondays, 10am-11am, ongoing

Starting February 7, 2011

Thursdays, 5pm-6pm, ongoing

Starting February 10, 2011

$20 per 1-hour lecture

The Lecture/Demo is offered one hour before the Monday and Thursday Figure Model Sessions.

Reserve your space by payment in advance with check or credit card.

For more details and to register, please click here to visit my Teaching Page

Motivation and Discipline Don't Help

2010-12-10T09:46:00.000-08:00

My art studio, 2004

This was one half of my small kitchen in the 1-bedroom apartment I lived in. I did not have stable north light, so I hung a sheer white curtain to filter the direct sunlight.

In 2004 I took a class that taught me the basic historic technique for creating a layered oil painting. To practice I set up this little studio in my kitchen and a did a painting using the method I was learning in the class.

Study for Vase and Creamer

9 x 9 inches, pencil on paper

2004

The still life was the first drawing and the first oil painting I had done on my own in about 10 years. I was exhilarated and thrilled, and mostly just so relieved when I made this little painting.

Vase and Creamer

9 x 9 inches, oil on panel

2004

It had taken me years of "thawing out" a severe, crippling artists' block to get to the point where I could even attempt to make a painting.

...

For many years after I graduated from art school at RISD I was very discouraged as an artist. I did not ever make any art on my own, outside the occasional life-drawing class. I felt like I was an artist. But a real artist paints, and I was not painting. I felt like I "should" be painting.

I think I was stymied by my idea of what art and painting should be, by my idea of what was "Important Art."

Important Art was what was showing in the New York gallery scene of the 1990's, or in the New York MOMA. Important Art was what my art school friends who went on to do Masters of Fine Arts degrees were doing: very large, abstract or semi-abstract paintings.

I had never had an inclination to paint abstractly, and the semi-abstract figure-ish work I was introduced to in art school looked to me like what an insane person might paint.

All that was interesting to me intellectually, and I liked to look at it and talk about it with my friends, and I admired many of them for their skill with painting abstractly, but I never felt a shred of desire to paint that way.

But the only other option for a painter, other than Abstract or Figurative (semi-abstract figure-ish), was to be a Bad Artist. A bad artist was a "sellout" who sold pictures of flowers or children or seascapes at tourist galleries. I was very afraid that if I made that kind of art I would be a Bad Artist.

I left art school believing that Important Art came entirely or mostly from your head, and that art done while looking at something in real life was just a "study". Landscape, Figure, Portrait, and Still Life were all ok to do as studies, but if you were to do that for your real Work, you would fall into the category of Bad Artist.

I had been accepted into the most prestigious art school in the country based on my high school portfolio of highly realistic drawings and paintings done from life. And then I was taught that that was not art.

So, feeling like I was never going to be a Real Artist much less an Important Artist, I just stopped making art. I described myself to acquaintances as a designer, never as an artist.

For years I let people people assume I'd majored in design at the Rhode Island School of Design, and did not reveal that I'd spent all of my 4 years there doing figure drawing and oil painting.

But over the years after art school I got very depressed. I put in hours at my graphic design job, and mostly just killed time between my working and sleeping hours.

But I always knew what my problem was, I always knew that I would feel better if I could start painting. So I tried very hard for a lot of years to start painting. In fact, in my head, I was trying very hard to get back to painting pretty much all of the time.These were the things I tried:

Trying to be "disciplined"
Trying to be "motivated"
Making plans to do x just 10 minutes a day
Being angry and disappointed at myself
Putting enormous pressure on myself

I did a LOT of that, all the time, for many years, and none of it was successful for helping me get back to making art. It just made me feel worse.

I began to realize that my idea that I might be a Bad Artist was stopping me from doing ANYTHING creative. So I decided to do the smallest, tiniest project that felt creative but that was NOT ART. As soon as I called it art, I could not make myself do it.

So the smallest, easiest thing I could find to do, that was a tiny bit creative, was going to a fabric store and buying buttons. I spent a long time picking out the buttons. I did not make anything with them, I just bought them.

It sounds so silly, and it's completely embarrassing to me that that was my creative project. It was embarrassing to me even then, when I did it. But I had gotten to such a low point of despair, that doing something so small and insignificant as buying buttons felt better than the way I felt most the time.

After I bought the buttons, and did some more equally small "creative projects", and after a while I felt inspired to play with collage. I had experimented with collage in art school, and so I started collecting materials again and making collages again. I did this on my living room floor, with the TV on. I made about 20 of these:

"The Stage", 2003
9 x 12, mixed media on paper

Then, in 2003 I saw the movie "The Girl with the Pearl Earring", which is about Vermeer. The movie imagines that the subject of his famous painting is his young maid, whom he trains to mix his paints. The movie is beautifully shot, with gorgeous sequences showing Scarlet Johansson sifting pigments and mixing oils by soft Dutch light filtered through small windowpanes.

I started wondering if anyone taught how to do Old Masters' painting techniques any more, and if I could learn any of that. A few months later I found Kirstine Reiner's ad for art classes on Craigslist, offering lessons on mixing paint pigments and Old Master oil techniques. In early 2004 I signed up for 10 lessons.... and for the first time in many years, I picked up a paintbrush.

...

So many of my students struggle with how to set up a consistent practice outside of class hours. I can see the pressure they are putting on themselves, and their frustration.

I tell them to remember learning to drive a car as a teenager: There is no way you could learn to drive if you only practiced an hour or two a week in Driver's Ed for a couple months. You had to put in dozens, maybe hundreds of hours behind the wheel for a few years before driving a car started to feel completely comfortable and natural. Learning to paint is exactly like that. As the instructor, I can give you some help and ideas and guidelines, but to get a feel for painting, you just have to do it on your own for a few hundred hours.

But I know it's hard to find a way to put in those hours.

If you want to paint and you are not painting, then whatever you are currently doing to try to paint is not working, so try something completely different.

Instead, just do the smallest thing you can call "creative." Go for a walk and take some snapshots. But if you plan to do that and you find the weekend goes by and you didn't get around to it, do something smaller: just go browse in a flower shop or bicycle shop. And if that does not happen, just notice a crack in the pavement with some moss growing in it. Just stop and look at something that interests you for 5 seconds.

That's it, you are being creative.

We are all creative all the time, we just don't realize it. If you want to paint, you probably already notice things around you all the time you wish you could paint or draw. Our ideas about what is Art, or what is Real Art, or what is Good Art versus Bad Art , don't help us to actually be artists. Don't focus on being a good artist. Don't try to be motivated or disciplined, don't even try to be an Artist.

Just focus your attention on what interests you in your normal, day-to-day life, starting with just a few seconds or minutes at a time. The rest takes care of itself.

Friends of a Feather

2010-12-01T10:19:00.000-08:00

Friends of a Feather

12 x 16 inches, oil on panel

I am pleased to announce that my recently completed painting "Friends of a Feather" will be showing at the Susan Powell Fine Arts holiday show:

679 Boston Post Road
Madison, Connecticut 06443 USA
Tel: 203 - 318 - 0616

Below are the in-process shots of the stages of the drawing, the under painting, and the final painting.

Plein Air Setup

2010-11-17T08:49:00.000-08:00

Painting outdoors is inspiring, beautiful, centering, and so adrenaline-rushing as to be addictive!

However, it is also uncomfortable, frustrating, full of distractions, and when your umbrella topples your easel over in a breeze, exceptionally maddening.

I have finally assembled a setup I find to be ideal - a good balance of lightweight, sturdy, and flexible:

Open Box M pochade box 10x12
Julienne painter's umbrella
Manfrotto tripod with joystick head
Manfrotto jointed arm that clamps directly to the tripod and holds the umbrella securely at any angle, with clamps at either end for grasping the easel and the umbrella handle. NOTE: Amazon sells the arm, but not the clamps, so call Open Box M to order through them.
I also have a lightweight walking cane that folds open into a small stool, which I got here at Bed Bath and Beyond
I also find these small things essential:
Seal-able solvent can
Viewfinder
This accessory I have not bought yet, but I see how it could come in handy

This is how I pack it:
Instead of carrying around tubes of oil paint, I load up my Open M pallete with fresh nuggets of paint before I leave for the day. Sometimes I pack a small tube of white, if it's going to be a long day out.

I can fit my Open M pochade box, brushes, and solvent can in a backpack or shoulder bag, along with paper towels, lunch, etc.

The tripod, cane, Manfrotto arm, and umbrella I lash together with 2 short bungee cords. All those things combined are not very heavy, and I can carry it by the cane handle, or under my arm easily. For a long hike I might get a strap for it so I can carry it on my back.

Travelling with oil paints
I have traveled now many times with oil paint, and despite the horror stories we have all heard about having oil paints confiscated, I have never had a problem with this procedure:

Here is what I do:

Download and print a couple "material safety data sheets" (MSDS) which describe the contents of the paint - there's a different sheet for every color, but I just choose 2 or 3 and print those. Each manfacturer writes up and makes data sheets available online as PDF for all their colors, just google search one your paint brands and a color name with the phrase "material safety data sheets" and you'll find it.
Here is a list of links to of many of the of MSDS paint brands
Print out a sign with big font that says:
These are vegetable oil based artists materials.
They are not flammable.
Data sheets enclosed.
DO NOT USE THE WORD "PAINT". The word paint is a big problem.
Fold the MSDS sheets and the sign together so the big message shows up on top.
Put all the tubes of oil paint in a gallon-sized heavy duty ziplock, and put in the folded packet of sheets so the sign is visible through the plastic bag. Make sure every tube is tightly-capped and there are not any holes in any of the tubes, the pressure changes during the flight will make a mess of any leaky tubes.
Place the bag near the top of your suitcase with the sign-side up so it's immediately accessible if security searches my bag. (I always get that little note saying they searched my bag, but my paint has never been confiscated.)
Check the bag. I wouldn't try to bring paints on board.
I also packed a tiny tin of the "natural turpenoid" (in the GREEN can) along with my painting supplies in my checked bag, to use as my medium. It says non-flammable very clearly right on the tin. I wouldn't use it as a medium in major paintings, but for sketches and all prima work while travelling it's probably fine.
I wouldn't bring any solvents, oils, mediums, or any kind of mysterious liquids in bottles. I usually buy those or borrow them when I arrive
Finally: Don't forget your palette knife! :)

Hope that helps! It would be terrible if the paints got confiscated and that's always a risk, so I can't guarantee it will be fine, but it's worked for me.

WPW on Expedition: Final Recap

2010-11-13T23:14:00.000-08:00

Sitting at the airport gate, I realize that out of our group of 12 artists, I am the last to leave Charleston, SC, if only by a mere 30 minutes. Starting on Thursday, members of our little group started to reluctantly peel away, each of us returning to our studios, family, and the demands of daily life. Enormous duffels of painting equipment were trundled down the porch steps and loaded into cars, the furniture was returned to its original positions, and as the last of us closed the door on the beach-front house, there was no sign of the easels, tripods, drop cloths and rows of drying paintings that had made their temporary invasion.

The impact of the week on each of the 12 artists, however, will be more permanent.

In the beginning, we were all a bit apprehensive. A dozen women in a house for a week? But after the first couple days, a sense of relief seemed to fall over the group as we realized it was actually working: We were painting for most the hours of every day, talking art every minute we were not painting, and quickly becoming attached to one another.

Many of us were sleeping 2 to a bed, the rest on inflatable mattresses and couches, all 12 of us negotiating just 3 1/2 bathrooms. But despite the tight quarters, the trip was nothing if not organized, mainly through the efforts of Alia, and with help from Diane, who between the two of them had anticipated every conceivable need over the months leading up to the trip. Cooking and cleaning duties had been assigned in advance, massive grocery runs were organized the first days, an improvised but elegant method for reimbursing shared expenses was soon devised by tacking envelopes to the bulletin board. Locations for plein air painting had been scouted, models had been scheduled. Everything was set up for us to work!

Before the trip, most of us only knew 1 or 2 of the others. The idea had started among the three of us who founded the WPW blog, Alia, Diane and myself, and the two artist bloggers Cindy and Lisa of ArtStudioSecrets.com. The five of us then each nominated other artists we knew and admired, and the group quickly took shape. However at the last minute we were all disappointed when life events conspired to prevent Lisa’s attendance. (In the end, we were an even dozen, and next year we are determined that Lisa will make us a baker’s dozen!)

Despite the daunting prospects of travelling with plein air gear, navigating a high-profile opening at Robert Lange, and then embarking on a “Real World” -style living situation, we set a single goal: To make painting the number one priority of the week, putting aside all distractions. And as soon as we started working with a model at 9am our first morning at the house, the collective energy began to carry us all.

Mia was the first one out painting on the beach, and banged out an oil sketch that set the bar high for the rest of us. For the rest of the week, day trips to surrounding marshes, parks, historic cemeteries, botanical gardens, Charleston’s French Quarter, and the lovely home of artist Shannon Runquist, kept us more than busy during the day. We then hired models in most the evenings, so we were often painting until 10pm. Several of us tried our hand at cooking for 12, and we did a good job of feasting in addition to painting.

But the most amazing part of all was how our conversations penetrated to deeper issues during the week. Discussions that began with the best way to prepare a plein air canvas, or about what colors to use in a sky, began to evolve into interviewing each other about how we each address our personal struggles with studio life: Managing time, finances, commissions, galleries, and family; combating isolation and depression; sacrificing other goals and interests for the undivided pursuit of painting. Over and over were heard exclamations of “me too!” when these struggles were confessed. I know for myself, and I am sure for each of us, issues I thought were only my problem turned out to be shared by every artist in the house.

As artists, we work alone most the day, and our solitude is necessary and closely guarded. But peaceful, fortifying solitude can easily slip into lonely isolation. As women, there are both evolutionary and spiritual reasons it is necessary to our survival to connect with other women, to find common ground and form deep bonds of understanding, to navigate conflicts and find abundance where we thought there was only scarcity. To cheer for our competition and feel true joy in their successes.

I do know that this week for me was so deeply satisfying, so soul-nourishing, that I am sure in my bones that this kind of connection with sister artists is essential.

To Alia, Diane, Cindy, Mia, Alex, Cathy, Linda, Kate, Stephanie, Terry, and Rachel (and to Lisa who could not come but whom we thought of often):

Thank you!!!

Thank you all, for catching the spirit of the trip and bringing your energy and enthusiasm, for being flexible with your needs and generous with your help and advice, and most of all for being so willing to trust us and to reveal yourselves.

UPDATE:
Several of the WPW Expedition group have now blogged about the trip, you can read their posts here

WPW on Expedition: Wed and Thurs

2010-11-11T21:04:00.000-08:00

Philadelphia Alley, Queen Street entrance, Charleston, SC
9 x 12 inches, oil on panel

Wednesday I painted in downtown Charleston. This city is so beautiful that I saw a half-dozen scenes I'd like to paint within just a couple blocks! I finally set up in a cobble stoned alley

Color study of Lauren

10 x 14, oil on panel

After painting outside for the afternoon, we hired a model for the evening and set up in the living room. I am completely unfamiliar with single-session figure painting, so I was scrambling for the 3 hours, but I was happy to at least have managed a reasonably proportioned figure with basic color blocked in.

Today (Thursday) I returned to Magnolia Gardens and decided to do pencil sketches of an amazing tableau of 3 live oaks which I'd spotted on our previous trip to the gardens.

WPW on Expedition: Tuesday

2010-11-09T14:39:00.000-08:00

Tree study at the Isle of Hope, SC

Today Shannon Runquist invited us to paint at her home, which backs up to to marshland where I set up. We also hired a model, and some painters worked with her on Shannon's veranda.

Raw umber underpainting, leaving edges soft

Blocked in the sky to help define edges

Blocked in marsh grasses

Smaller brushes to define details and edges of leaves.

I'm hoping to get another session on this painting when we return Thursday.

This was my lovely painting location, on a dock over the marsh

I am loving my plein air setup with the umbrella and a new double-jointed elbow clamp to attach it to the tripod. I am also really happy with my Open Box M easel. I'll be writing a full description of my setup soon!

A friend kept me company at the end of the dock.

WPW on Expedition: Monday

2010-11-08T20:47:00.000-08:00

Pond Study, Magnolia Plantation and Gardens
5 x 7, oil on panel

Today we visited a beautiful botanical garden, it has 500 square acres but we were all ready to set up our easels after walking just a few feet into the grounds. There were so many amazing scenes to paint I wish I could spend a month there!

The photo of the painting was taken with my phone, better quality coming soon!

WPW on Expedition: Charleston, SC

2010-11-07T21:45:00.000-08:00

Sullivan's Island Marsh Study, 5 x 7, oil on panel

Shoreline Study from Sullivan's Island, 5 x 7, oil on panel

3 hour Study of Lucy

Brown pencil on paper, 9x12

A quick recap of the art taking place!

In addition to the exciting show opening events, we have actually been getting real work done! The first day we worked from a live model. I was not ready to paint yet and did the above line drawing of the 3-hour pose.

The next morning some people painted in downtown Charleston, but Catherine Prescott and I stayed behind to work at the marsh:

Every morning we wake to an amazing sunrise

over the incoming tide just outside our windows.

Mia Bergeron painting at low tide just outside our house.

Our house.

Alia El-Bermani painting on the deck of the house

Catherine Prescott painting with me at the marsh Saturday.

I was on cooking duty Saturday evening and made 6 roasted garlic, lemon and basil chickens.

Me posing with my oil sketch of a tree

Diane Fiessel braving the chilly breezes on a small bridge.

Study of fallen Live Oak, in water

5 x 7, oil on panel

Sunday afternoon we went to Magnolia Cemetery, a beautiful 19th century park-like setting with spanish moss-draped oaks and ornate statuary overlooking ponds and marshes.

Photo of statuary at Magnolia Cemetery

Catherine Prescott

Oil sketch, Magnolia Cemetery, 9 x 12, oil on panel

Mountains of steamed oysters!!

Tonight we were treated to a dose of true Southern hospitality by artist Shannon Runquist and her husband Lars when they invited us to her home for an amazing oyster roast. She stuffed us with oysters, grits-and-shrimp, and banana merengue pie, what a fabulous evening!

Women Painting Women On Expedition

2010-11-05T07:21:00.000-07:00

Twelve of the brightest rising female painters from across the country will be convening November 4-12 2010 for a week of painting the figure, the city and the beautiful marshes and beaches surrounding Charleston, South Carolina.

We have arrived in Charleston! Amazingly I woke up at 7am here this morning just in time to see the dawn, despite still being on West Coast time after a day of flying yesterday. I arrived into a small cyclone of artists, it feels like a reunion even though many of us had never met in person before last night.

9am the first day and we are already all set up and painting and drawing a live model Alia hired for us:

The living room of the Sullivan's Island house

This morning we are already set up to paint and draw with a live model in the living room of our beach house.

The following are the On Expedition 2010 participating artists (click the name for links):

Alexandra Tyng – Narberth, PA

Alia El-Bermani – Cary, NC

Catherine Prescott – Harrisburg, PA

Cindy Procious – Chattanooga, TN

Diane Feissel – Philadelphia, PA

Katherine Stone – Toronto, ON, Canada

Linda Tracey Brandon – Phoenix, AZ

Mia Bergeron – Chattanooga, TN

Rachel Constantine – Philadelphia, PA

Sadie Valeri – San Francisco, CA

Terry Strickland – Pelham, Alabama

Stefani Tewes –Laguna Beach, CA

This inaugural painting retreat and exhibition represents the first effort by Women Painting Women to encourage women artists, advance art education, and showcase some of the best painting happening today. Women Painting Women founder Sadie Valeri states the following:

“The quality, professionalism, and high level of training and vision being expressed by women artists have the potential to alter all of our ideas about who is making art and what they are saying. The paintings we have displayed on the Women Painting Women website express the wide-ranging and constantly shifting issues of identity and self-expression women face as they navigate their lives – including choices about how, whether and when to raise families. We have noticed that many women feel they are struggling with these issues alone, but seeing all the artwork together is developing a sense of community among us.”

Follow Women Painting Women on Facebook

Tuesday Model Session: Study of Bilge, Session 4

2010-10-28T22:44:00.000-07:00

Figure Study: Bilge Standing
Red/brown pencil and white chalk on buff toned paper

18 x 24 inches

Our lovely model Bilge gave us a standing pose to study for 4 sessions, and we greatly appreciate her for it!

An update on the current painting and drawing classes I am offering - classes are filling very quickly so please email me ASAP if you want to be on the list for a future class:

10-Day Drawing and Painting Workshop
Jan 17-28, 2011
ONE spot left

Figure Drawing
6 Sundays beginning January 16, 2011
ONE spot left

Oil Painting I (Beginners)
6 Sundays beginning March 27, 2011

Oil Painting II (Advanced)
6 Saturdays beginning March 26, 2011

Only 3 spots left

For more information about these classes and to register, please visit my Classes page

Also, I have updated my gallery page on my website so it is easier to see currently available paintings

Drawing Lecture Video

2010-10-07T14:27:00.000-07:00

This is a recent clip of me teaching a drawing class in my studio.

I have just posted new drawing and painting classes to be held at my San Francisco Mission District Studio:

Figure Drawing
Oil Painting I
Oil Painting II

Click here for information about my upcoming classes

Arcadia Small Works Show

2010-09-30T22:28:00.000-07:00

Last week I flew to NYC to attend the Arcadia Small Works show. It was a whirlwind 2 days, wedged between my teaching and studio commitments here in SF, and even though New York managed to be sweltering and steamy even in late September this year, I'm so glad I went!

I can't find a list of all the artists represented on the show, but here are several of them: Daniel Sprick, Brad Kunkle, Jeremy Lipking, Nancy Depew, Malcom Liepke, Daniel Adel, Michael Kline, Julio Reyes, Natalie Featherston, Robert Liberace, Joseph Todorovich, Kerry Brooks, Cesar Santader, and many more I'm missing I am sure....

I am lucky enough that one of my best and oldest friends, Kyra, has a fabulous studio flat in Brooklyn and she graciously lets me crash on her pull-out whenever I need a NYC fix, which is a couple times a year. I am also lucky that many old friends have ended up in Brooklyn, so I had a wonderful group of friendly faces to meet me at the door of the show.

My fabulous co-founders of Women Painting Women, Diane and Alia

12 of us have rented a house and are painting for a week in Charleston, SC,

and 4 of the 12 of us were at the show:

Alia El-Bermani, Alexandra Tyng, me, and Diane Feissel

I feel so amazed and blessed that my impulse last year to create the WPW blog has connected me to such an amazing network of women artists. I look forward to meeting even more of them in person next month in Charleston, SC at Robert Lange's Women Painting Women show!

And thank you Garth Herrick for taking so many great photos and documenting the evening.

Hispanic Society Sarollas, NYC

2010-09-30T21:38:00.000-07:00

Last week I flew to New York for a very fast trip to attend the opening of the Small Works show at Arcadia Gallery. My dear friends Diane Feissel and Alia El-Bermani made a daytrip of it by trekking all the way from Philadelphia and Raleigh, NC, respectively, to enjoy the day with me in Manhattan. We decided to take a quick subway trip up to the Hispanic Society to see the Sarolla murals, and what a treat!

The museum is a gem, built expressly to showcase the collection, and best of all it's completely free! Walking into the enormous room of Sarolla murals was jaw-dropping: A panorama of luscious brush strokes expertly capturing the blazing sunlight and dappled shade of the Spanish countryside and traditional festivals. Sarolla was commissioned by the Society to create these murals expressly for this location.

Diane and Alia have both written wonderful blog posts about our day together, they both have more photos of the paintings, check them out here:
Diane's Blog
Alia's Blog

"Black Jug" Sessions 7-11

2010-09-30T21:11:00.000-07:00

"Black Jug"

oil on panel

8 x 10 inches

Click here to see the previous post

This is the final stage of the painting I have been documenting step-by step.

Saturday October 9: 3-6pm

Sunday October 10: 4-6pm

Location:
3265 17th St, cross street Mission
San Francisco

Map to my studio address is here

"Message in a Bottle" Sessions 8-12

2010-09-30T21:07:00.000-07:00

"Message in a Bottle"

oil on panel

8 x 10 inches

See the previous post here

A tiny bottle wrapped in cream-colored tissue, a larger bottle carrying a message but with no cork to protect it, and finally a fragile shell, so thin a breeze could lift it... water, air, travel, mystery, and adventure are all woven into this simple design of three objects lined up on a shelf.

They seem to tell a story together, of secrets and memories, but we are not sure what it is. These objects seemed to arrange themselves on my shelf, and demand their story be told.

But what I did not realize when I set out to paint this, was what a challenge the glass bottle would turn out to be! What our mind tells us is a solid glass vessel with weight and symmetry, is actually only an arrangement of reflections superimposed on the background. One small mis-step of the brush or the eye, and the reflection wavers and the integrity of the bottle is lost.

Making this ephemeral illusion stand straight and symmetrical was a challenge, it only wanted to lean and warp! But I finally managed to nudge it into a position of solid grandeur, bravely holding its fragment of a note.

Tuesday Model Session: Study of Bilge, Session 1

2010-09-30T20:56:00.000-07:00

This is the first 3-hour session of my drawing of Bilge. The lower drawing is my initial block-in stage, and the top drawing is the more refined stage of the same drawing. This will be a 4-session drawing. The original is about 18x24 inches.

Tuesday Model Session: Study of Terry

2010-09-30T20:53:00.000-07:00

This is the final drawing and also the earlier block-in stage of my 4-session drawing of Terry. The drawing is done in General's charcoal pencil and General's "white charcoal" on toned paper. The original is about 16 x 20 inches.

Women Painting Women SHOW at Robert Lang

2010-09-14T11:07:00.000-07:00

Women Painting Women
Robert Lange Studios
http://www.robertlangestudios.com/
November 2010
2 Queen Street
Charleston, SC 29401
Opening Nov 5, 5:30-8:30 pm

Last year I started a blog called WomenPaintingWomen.com where I highlight the work of living, realist women painters who use the female subject in their paintings.

Amazingly the blog became much more than I had ever imagined, and I soon invited my artist friends Diane Feissel and Alia El-Bermani to help me manage the flood of incredible artists who were being nominated for the site.

We now have almost 300 artists represented, we have started a FaceBook page for fans of WPW, and we are planning ways to expand the concept to find new ways to support and highlight the work of contemporary women artists.

Earlier this year I was contacted by the Robert Lange Gallery in Charleston, SC, who decided to organize a juried exhibition inspired by the theme of my blog. As you can imagine I was thrilled, and even more so when my piece "Mary with Silver Dish" was accepted into the show.

The exhibition will showcase the work of almost 50 women artists. I will be at the November 5th opening at Robert Lange, I hope you can join us, 5:30-8:30pm.

The list of all participants is on the gallery's blog.

There is also a writeup on the show in the Charleston City Paper

In addition, Alia, Diane and I have organized with several artist friends to rent a beach house together on Sullivan's Island, just off of Charleston, to coincide with the show. A dozen of us will be painting together in the beautiful landscape for the week of November 5-12. I'll be blogging the trip near-daily I am sure, so you can follow along with our adventures. These are the 12 women who will be painting at Sullivan's Island:

Alexandra Tyng - Narberth, PA

Catherine Prescott - Harrisburg, PA

Cindy Procious - Chattanooga, TN

Diane Feissel - Philadelphia, PA

Linda Tracey Brandon - Phoenix, AZ

Lisa Gloria - Aurora, IL

Mia Bergeron - Chattanooga, TN

Rachel Constantine - Philadelphia, PA

Sadie Valeri - San Francisco, CA

Stefani Tewes - Laguna Beach, CA

Katherine Stone - Toronto, Ontario

Alia El-Bermani - Cary, NC

It's an incredible group of artists and I am sure we will all be inspired by one another!

I am amazed and touched by how my initial idea has sparked a growing movement, and I'm looking forward to seeing how Women Painting Women will continue to evolve.

Finally, in a serendipitous twist, M Gallery where I show my work in Florida has recently moved to Charleston, and my ARC award-winning painting "Bottle Collection" will be on display, including others soon. I'm excited I'll be able to visit M Gallery's new location in person when I visit Charleston in November!

M Gallery
http://www.mgalleryoffineart.com/
11 Broad Street
Charleston, SC

Women Painting Women

Robert Lange Studios

http://www.robertlangestudios.com/

November 2010

2 Queen Street

Charleston, SC 29401

Opening Nov 5, 5:30-8:30 pm

"Message in a Bottle" Session 7

2010-09-14T10:19:00.000-07:00

8 x 10 inches

oil on panel

work in progress

see the previous post here

You'll have to compare this very closely to the previous version to see the changes, but this step represents several more hours of work.

From here on out, the steps between stages will be incremental, hardly even noticeable in the photos posted here. But I'll try to post close-ups and describe what I am doing as much as possible.

"Message in a Bottle" Session 6: Beginning Color

2010-09-14T10:13:00.000-07:00

8 x 10 inches

oil on panel

work in progress

See the previous post here

Even though I have begun color at this stage, I am still thinking of it as under-painting. In fact, the more I develop as a painter, the more I find that most of my time spent on a painting is "underpainting" - preparing the bed of values and hues the final painting will lay over.

So here I am mixing my values with colored pigment instead of just grey. I'm also just starting to warm up the colors of the shell, message paper and tissue.

Finally, I am adding a new level of refinement and detail as I make my first pass of color.

"Black Jug" Session 6: Beginning Color

2010-09-14T10:06:00.000-07:00

8 x 10 inches

oil on panel

work in progress

see previous post

You might not be able to see much "color" in this stage of the painting versus the previous monochromatic underpainting stage. But now I am mixing my neutrals values with a palette of color, instead of just grays.

The main difference between painting with monochromatic values and painting is color is in the transitions between light and shadow. In monochrome, you can just mix a bit of the 'light" puddle with a bit of the "shadow" puddle to make the halftone between.

When painting in color, the "halftones" is where all the most saturated color is. So each step between the light and shadow must be analyzed and mixed to match a hue/color, in addition to the value. This is very subtle when painting a monochromatic subject in color, because all the hues are relatively desaturated. But it's what makes even a monochromatic subject look like it is "in color".

Also, even in sharp edges, like where the edges of the white seashell touch the black background of the pot, the paint will look chalky and clunky. The tiny seam where the white meets the black must be knit together with a deeply saturated, dark orange or red. Otherwise the white seashell will look like a cookie-cutter shape pasted over the background, instead of a believable object sharing the same reality as the jug.

To do this, I use a small brush to push rich, saturated mixtures into the edges of the shell, and then back-fill the seashell with white, leaving a tiny thread of color between the light edge and the black background.

Since this technique is subtle and microscopic, it's impossible to see the effect in this photo. But careful attention to the reality of the edges will make the painting look believable in person.

"Message in a Bottle" Session 5: Monochromatic Underpainting

2010-09-01T11:46:00.000-07:00

8 x 10 inches

oil on panel

work in progress

see the previous post here

"Black Jug" Session 5: Monochromatic Underpainting

2010-09-01T11:44:00.001-07:00

8 x 10 inches

oil on panel

work in progress

see previous post

"Message in a Bottle" Session 4: Umber Underpainting

2010-09-01T11:43:00.000-07:00

8 x 10 inches

oil on panel

work in progress

see previous post

"Black Jug" Session 4: Umber Underpainting

2010-09-01T11:41:00.000-07:00

8 x 10 inches

oil on panel

work in progress

see previous post here

"Message in a Bottle" Session 2 & 3: Drawing & Transfer

2010-09-01T11:39:00.000-07:00

8x10 inches

graphite on gessoed panel

work in progress

see previous post here

After I transfer the drawing to the panel I spend more time-drawing every line from life and refining it to the highest degree possible. The more details I work out here, the less problems I will have to solve in paint. The traced image always deadens, so I never just go from traced transfer directly to paint.

"Black Jug" Session 2 & 3: Drawing & Transfer to Panel

2010-09-01T11:36:00.000-07:00

8 x 10 inches

graphite on gessoed panel

work in progress

see previous post here

I completed my drawing on trace paper/mylar. I ended up drawing the spiney seashell on another piece of trace overlaying the drawing of the pot. Then I scribbled with a soft 4B pencil on the back of the paper, and transferred the drawing to panel by tracing over it with a hard pencil. I spent a lot of time lining up everything so the horizon line of the shelf is straight and the vertical access of the jug is truly plumb. Any error in this image is due to photo warping.

"Black Jug" Session 1: Drawing

2010-08-26T21:27:00.000-07:00

Study for "Black Jug" - work in progress

8 x 10 inches, graphite on mylar

The drawing for this painting is not complete, there is a second object in this composition I have not even begun to draw. But I wanted to post this because it's a good example of how I construct a symmetrical object. You can see I have drawn a center line, and how I have measured each significant point on the contour so I can plot each side symmetrically.

As I am working I often stand back to judge the progress of the drawing by asking myself 2 questions to check my proportions:

Is my drawing wider or taller than my subject?
Does my drawing have the same feeling and character as my subject?

I try to be as scrupulously honest as possible with my answers. I try to remain willing to change anything and everything to capture my subject more accurately. I never let "good enough" be a satisfactory answer. This is how I try to approach all my drawing and painting.

I found this gorgeous black jug in an antique/collectibles shop recently, and of course it reminded me instantly of a very famous painter of still lifes. So I will make no attempt to hide the fact that this piece is an homage to an artists who has inspired me a lot. Even though our approach and methods for painting are just about as far apart as is possible, the sense of calm, light, solidity, familiarity, and reverence he shows in his work has been a big influence on me.

I am also attempting something I rarely do, and that is to start two paintings at the same time - this one and the previous post, "Message in a Bottle". When I have tried this before, one painting gets neglected and languishes while I finish the other. I'm going to try to keep these going at the same pace and complete them at the same time. And I'll be documenting the whole process, so stay tuned.

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FIGURE DRAWING CLASS
I still have two more spots in my upcoming figure drawing class starting September 12.

Learn 19th century atelier methods for depicting accurate proportions, convincing light, and organic form through the careful study of a long pose.

6 Sundays, $480

Click here for more information and to register.

"Message in a Bottle" Session 1: Drawing

2010-08-26T21:00:00.000-07:00

"Message in a Bottle" - work in progress

8 x 10 inches, graphite on mylar

It's always hard to start a new painting, and my FaceBook friends saw a few status updates from me this week about how hard it is to set up a still life. But I'm always relieved and excited when a still life finally comes together, even though it is rarely the vision I had when I started moving objects around on the shelf.

I still have a lot of antique scraps of paper from an era when I did a lot of collage, and a little piece of envelope, slightly yellowed, with a foreign stamp and a "por avion" printed on it seemed a perfect fit with the uniquely proportioned glass bottle. Another glass bottle wrapped in cream-colored tissue paper (not wax paper this time!) and a buttery-transparent little shell made friends, creating a harmony of creams.

In my last still life "The Wave" I really liked how the blue-white of the wax paper highlights made the shelf edge look slightly yellow in contrast. In this arrangement the cream colored papers and seashell make the shelf seem more white.

I think all my paintings are simply studies of all the different subtle hue variations within whites and grays.

Open Studio: October 9/10

2010-08-26T12:17:00.000-07:00

I'll be participating in this year's Artspan Open Studios for the weekend of October 9/10, so please come check out the studio, see some artwork, and learn more about my classes!

I'll actually be teaching classes that weekend, so my studio will only be open to the public for these limited hours:

Saturday October 9: 3pm-6pm
Sunday October 10: 4pm-6pm

Mission and 17th Streets

For a map to the studio building, see my profile on ArtSpan here

Webcast Recap

2010-08-22T16:47:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I did my first Webcast studio tour and demo, this is me standing in front of the camera, ready for my close-up!

The webcast went great and I really enjoyed myself. We had visitors from around the world, including as far away as Finland and Australia. The audience asked really good questions and kept me talking. I felt like I just skimmed over so many great topics, so I'm hoping to do a whole day-long workshop webcast in the future.

Watch the Webcast again!

The webcast was recorded, so you can still click here to register and watch the whole thing, including a drawing demo, a color-mixing demo, and lots of great questions and answers.

Here is my handsome camera guy, my husband Nowell, who turned a corner of my studio into a professional broadcasting suite for the day, complete with mixing board and a backup boom mic mounted on the camera, just in case my fancy rented wireless lapel mic didn't work (it worked great, though!).

A closer look at the sound and video setup. We had a brief moment of freeze-screen, but other than that we sailed through without any major technical hiccups. Phew!

My studio looked so spiffy I had to take some photos.

Above is my little still life painting corner where I spend most my time.

Webcast viewers got a look at my most recent painting which will be shipped to Arcadia Gallery in New York for the Sept 23 Small Works show.

We talked about what paints, panels, and brushes I use, and I did a little demo showing how I mix up cool and warm strings of neutral colors on my palette.

For more info you can click here to see all my blog posts about Materials

My still life shelf is at the left, my model stand is in the middle. To the right I have screens arranged as a changing room for my models.

Lady Victoire is looking happy.

The studio doors and a couple recent paintings on easels.

Thanks everyone who was able to register and attend, it was a huge success and I look forward to doing it again!

Watch the Webcast again:

The webcast was recorded, so you can still click here to register and watch the whole thing, including drawing demo, color-mixing demo, and lots of questions and answers.

Long Pose, Day 5 - "Danae"

2010-08-22T15:55:00.000-07:00

"Danae"

oil on panel

12 x 16 inches

See the previous post about this painting

I was not able to blog about the 4th day (and I neglected to take a photo), but here is my study of Danae after the 5th and final day of our long pose. We all had a great time drawing and painting as a small focused group, and our lovely model did a fantastic job with her first ultra-long pose.

I'm hoping to plan another week-long pose in the future, so, if you are interested in joining us let me know with an email, and also click here to join my mailing list to be notified when it is scheduled.

There is still room for a couple more people in my Figure Drawing class beginning September 12, click here for more info and to register.

Long Pose, Day 3 - "Danae"

2010-08-18T22:54:00.000-07:00

"Danae"

oil on panel, 16 x 20
color underpainting, work in progress
12 x 16 inches

See previous post here

I wrote a long blog post about my week-long model session, but the post somehow just got erased! I am about to keel over from exhaustion so I won't re-type it, but suffice to say the 5 of us are having a great time, all very very focused and enjoying the luxury of 5 straight days of figure drawing and painting with our wonderful model Danae.

I have been racing every day this week to paint as fast as possible, today I did the whole color underpainting from start to finsih, tomorrow I start on opaque painting and the real fun begins.

Friday evening I'll be quickly tidying up the studio and setting up for my live video web debut the next morning! If you have not yet, sign up here:

Live Webcast Studio Tour and Demo
Saturday August 21
9am -11am Pacific Standard Time
12noon- 2pm Eastern Standard Time
$10 - Click here to sign up

Long Pose, Day 2 - "Danae"

2010-08-18T22:23:00.000-07:00

"Danae"

Underpainting value wash
oil on panel,
12 x 16 inches

See Day 1 here

Long Pose, Day 1 - "Danae"

2010-08-16T22:11:00.000-07:00

"Danae"

pencil on panel

12 x 16 inches

Today was the first of a 5-day pose I have arranged in my studio this week. We have 5 artists participating (including me) and we work each day from 10am-5pm. For artists this is the ultimate working-stay-cation! Today we spent the first hour or so setting up a pose we all liked from many angles (no small feat!), and then chose our spots by lottery (I drew a #5, dead last, but I like my spot). The we all mounted our paper and got to work.

I'm attempting to do a very fast (fast for me!) painting of the our model Danae this week, so today I blocked in this line drawing on mylar paper and then during a model break I transferred the drawing to my 16x20 hand-primed panel. I spent the last part of the day refining the pencil drawing directly on the panel. Then I erased the extra graphite, brushed down the surface with a wide, flat brush to get rid of eraser crumbs, and coated it with thinned Damar varnish (thinned with about 1/5th mineral spirits) to preserve the drawing and seal the porous surface.

Tomorrow I start painting - record speed for me!

ALSO:

Live Webcast Studio Tour and Demo
Saturday August 21
9am -11am Pacific Standard Time
12noon- 2pm Eastern Standard Time
$10 - Click here to sign up

I'll be giving a video tour of my studio, a behind-the-scenes look at my latest Wax Paper painting "The Wave", and also doing a drawing demo. You can even submit your own questions, in advance or in real time.

Hope to see you there!

"The Wave"

2010-08-14T22:14:00.000-07:00

"The Wave"
9 x 12 inches, oil on panel

The objects I arrange in a still life often seem to imply relationships, and the "wave" shape of the overarching waxed paper in this piece suggests to me a peaceful embrace of the two companions below.

The handle of the silver creamer is sculpted like a stylized curl of wave as well, so its obvious partner was one of my favorite seashells. I also always look for a new challenge when I set up a still life, and in this one I was excited to try to capture the various whites in the composition: the creamy white of the shell, the sharper blue white of the waxed paper, and the slightly yellowed chipped white paint of the shelf below.

It is these differences, and the small instances of color in the reflections, which make a monochromatic painting feel "in color" instead of just flat grays. I mix all of my neutral tones from a full-spectrum palette, and I never use any black paint, which dulls the colors. So what at first glance may look like grey, always has a subtle tilt towards a color.

In this way, these two companions beneath their arch of paper, capture a small moment in time.

Figure Drawing, Back Study

2010-08-12T11:26:00.000-07:00

Back Study
14 x 16 inches
Graphite pencil, charcoal and chalk on toned paper

I did this drawing over two sessions at the Tuesday evening figure model sessions I host at my San Francisco Mission District studio. My recent Anatomy/Ecorche studies came into play as I tried to identify all the anatomical landmarks revealed by the raking light across her back.

I still have a few spaces left in my upcoming Figure Drawing Class, 6 Sundays starting September 12. For more details and to register visit my Teaching Page.

http://www.sadievaleri.com/teaching.html

Live Webcast with Art Studio Secrets

2010-08-06T11:21:00.000-07:00

I'll be giving a tour of my studio and doing a drawing demonstration LIVE via webcast hosted by the inspiring blog Art Studio Secrets!

Saturday August 21, 2010
12:00 pm Eastern Standard Time, 9am PST

I'll be answering questions about my background and my technique, showing current studio work, and demonstrating the process I use for drawing crumpled wax paper.

In their amazing new Webcast Series, Art Studio Secrets have already hosted David Kassan, Gordon Wetmore, Mia Bergeron, and Dorian Vallejo, so I am thrilled to be joining their prestigious roster!

Registration is $10 for the 2-hour live webcast, you can sign up at Art Studio Secrets.

Show: Susan Powell Fine Art

2010-07-28T05:51:00.000-07:00

My painting "Seashell's Dream" is showing at Susan Powell Fine Art's "Summer in Connecticut" show, July 29 - August 22, 2010

Susan Powell Fine Art
203.318.0616 | Cell: 203.434.2925
679 Boston Post Road, Madison, CT
susanpowellfineart@gmail.com

I'll also have paintings included in these two upcoming shows:

Arcadia Fine Art, "Small Works"
September 23 - October 13, 2010
51 Greene Street, New York, NY

Robert Lang Gallery, "Women Painting Women"
November 2010
2 Queen Street, Charleston, SC

Plein air in Maine III

2010-07-22T16:30:00.000-07:00

On the Shores of Sebago Lake
9 x 12 oil on panel

Today was the very first day I have ever actually enjoyed painting outdoors. I have only done a small amount of plein air painting, only a couple weeks in addition to last year's month-long Hudson Fellowship. And most the time I am outside, I am wondering why I simply can't paint with the ease and enjoyment I feel in the studio.

Well, like anything, it's just a matter of practice. Today was a big step forward for me. It might have something to with the fact I was set up in the shade of huge pines, with a carpet of red needles beneath my feet, and the sounds of birds and distant motorboats around me... which is how I spent the happiest days of my childhood.

Road to the Summer Cottage
9x12 oil on panel

High on this morning's fun, I set up the easel again this afternoon and put in a 3rd session on the composition I started earlier this week, adding more color and light. I loved the challenge of the sandy dirt road with streaks of sunlight across it. I ended up painting the wheel tracks with a pale blue/lavender, and the streaks of sunlight with a warm salmon pink. My experiment was to show the sunlight with an emphasis on the hue shift, and less of a value shift. Since I mostly feel comfortable thinking in in value instead of hue/color, I've been trying to exercise my color skills. Outside there is even more range of value than indoors, so color is really the only way to approximate what the paint values can't accomplish.

My husband and I leave Maine tomorrow, so my painting vacation is done. Next week we visit our family in Pennsylvania and our days will be full with enjoying our young nephews and niece. I also have the pleasure of meeting up with my favorite Women Painting Women, Diane and Alia who are my amazing partners in managing the WPW blog and WPW Facebook page. Last New Year's we met up at the Met, this time it's the Philly Museum of Fine Art to check out some Eakins. Will keep you posted!!

Plein air in Maine II

2010-07-21T13:34:00.000-07:00

Morning at Songo Lock, Sebago Lake, Maine
9x12 oil on panel

I worked on this painting for 3 morning sessions. Next time I'll try a lighter underpainting, as the overall cast looks very dark. But I really enjoyed painting the lichen on the trees, and the lilypads on the water surface. Whenever I start a painting outside I have grand plans, but then realize the level of study I'd like to explore would require several sessions per square inch on the canvas!

Study of Trees at Songo Lock
9x12, oil on panel

This one was a quick alla prima study, done in a couple hours. I just started from a point of interest and worked outwards. I realized I should have started with at least a light color wash to knock back the white ground, as I ended up trying to figure out how to fill in background around brushstrokes I liked. A great learning experience.

I am painting on New Traditions Painting Panels
http://www.newtraditionsartpanels.com/index.html
I like the portrait grade linen, oil primed, mounted on gator foam.

I am also loving my Open Box M, it's a fantastic, lightweight, and flexible plein air easel and palette for use with a tripod. This is the one I have:
http://www.openboxm.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=OBMIPAPS&Product_Code=480&Category_Code=PPHp

Plein air painting in Maine

2010-07-18T08:57:00.001-07:00

I think the landscape of your earliest memories makes an indelible impression, so I am thrilled to be painting on the shores of a lake in Maine!

Yesterday I did a pencil drawing in the morning just to get comfortable working outside again. Then I found a spot in the afternoon for a multiple-session painting and started a monochromatic under painting.

This morning I found a new spot and started a morning painting. My plan is to work on each of them for the rest of the week.

It's been hot, but since I am usually freezing when I paint outside, sitting still in the shade for a couple hours and feeling warm is perfect painting weather. Mosquitos have not even been that bad, only 3 bites so far!

We are staying at my friend Kyra's summer house for the week, and she and Nowell also have projects they are working on a few hours a day, so it's a productive vacation for all of us!

The Hudson Fellowship is going on right now, you can see what they are up to on their blog:
http://grandcentralacademy.blogspot.com/

Also you can see all my posts from last year's Hudson Fellowship here:
http://sadievaleri.blogspot.com/search/label/Hudson%20River%20Fellowship

Ecorche: Upper arm and some deep leg muscles

2010-07-05T21:41:00.000-07:00

Bones and muscles, anterior view
Graphite and colored pencil on vellum, 8.5 x 11 inches
Ecorche/Anatomy class with Andrew Ameral

Ecorche drawing homework: Andy gave us a photo of a living model, front and back views, and we had to draw an overlay of the skeleton, and then another overlay of the muscles we have studied so far. Oh, and label them.

Bones and muscles, anterior view
Graphite and colored pencil on vellum, 8.5 x 11 inches
Ecorche/Anatomy class with Andrew Ameral

I did the drawings copying from Richer's anatomy book and handouts Andy has designed for the class.

Below is the current state of Sid. The class has been going nearly every Saturday for 5 months now, and tragically I am going to miss the last three classes due to a previously scheduled vacation. I'll get more muscles done on the upper legs in class next week, but that's it. Luckily Andy has given me the opportunity to finish up later.

I have learned so much from this class and I'm so glad I got the opportunity to take it!

Seashell's Dream

2010-06-27T20:14:00.000-07:00

Seashell's Dream

8x8 inches, oil on panel

Just finished this little painting today after working on it on and off over the last month or 2 between other projects. I painted it over about 7 sessions. It developed a bit differently from my usual process for still life, because instead of doing a drawing first I just jumped in with a color oil sketch the first day, and just kept adding refinement and detail each session.

Oil Sketch of Ward

2010-06-23T08:32:00.000-07:00

Oil Sketch of Ward

9 x 12 inches, oil on canvas mounted on panel

I had fun with this fast oil sketch. Very different from my usual methods, but satisfying!

Whatever the method or technique, the success of the piece relies on only one thing: Looking. Even though this was a fast sketch (fast for me - done over two sessions) I tried to discipline myself to make each stroke slowly, and look at my subject before making another stroke.

I did this sketch at my Tuesday evening model share at my studio. The next set of 4 sessions begins August 3rd, I hope you can join us! More information about my classes and model shares sessions here

Mary with Silver Dish

2010-06-17T19:49:00.000-07:00

Mary with Silver Dish
16 x 20 inches, oil on panel

Detail

Detail of shoulder

I've posted a slideshow of all the stages, from drawing and under paintings to the final.

(click slideshow to view larger in a new window)

Ecorche - Shoulder/Torso muscles

2010-06-13T21:33:00.000-07:00

Ecorche / Anatomy class with Andrew Ameral

I'm still working on my ecorche, yesterday I added the muscles of the scapula and also finally some major surface muscles - the pectoralis and the latissimus dorsi. Next is the deltoid - it's fun to see "Sid" start to flesh out a bit!

Tuesday Model Session: Study of Melissa

2010-06-10T09:50:00.000-07:00

Study of Melissa

16 x 20, graphite on paper

Tuesday evenings I open my studio to long pose model sessions. I did this drawing of one long pose over 4 sessions.

The open model sessions are $80 for a series of 4 consecutive Tuesdays, $22 if you'd like to drop in and try one session before committing to a series of 4. The next series begins next Tuesday, June 15th. For more information and to sign up for upcoming sessions, visit my Class Schedule.

Winged Victory Drawing Demo Recap

2010-05-20T22:42:00.000-07:00

"Victory in Chalk"

Charcoal and white chalk on toned Ingres paper
16 x 20 inches

This is the sketch I did for my drawing demo at my San Francisco studio earlier this month. The evening was so much fun - I was very nervous the days leading up to it, and I wondered why I had planned such a high-stress event for myself right in the middle of my teaching semester... but once I got started talking and drawing it was a breeze!

We had about 28 guests in my studio, lots of snacks and wine, and during the breaks there was lots of mingling and a warm buzz of conversation.

I gave my condensed lecture on "Observing The Nature of Organic Form: Tapered, Spiraling, Interlocking, and Convex", which is my humble abbreviation of the amazing principles I learned from my master teacher Ted Seth Jacobs and also from his students Tim Stotz and Michelle Tully.

Thanks to everyone who came out, and extra special thanks to my mom, dad, sister and husband who all helped me set up the studio and greet guests - I am so lucky to have a supportive family!

To be notified when I host a drawing demo again join my email list, or follow me on Facebook!

Ecorche: Neck and face muscles

2010-05-20T22:25:00.000-07:00

I have begun to add face and neck muscles to my ecorche skeleton. I've also added the shoulder girdle bones - the clavicle and scapulae - since I last posted photos.

The bones are difficult because the forms are so intricate and precise. And beyond all that... the muscles are just impossible!! All those layers of overlapping and interlocking forms, all squishy and stretchy..... Andy makes it look easy!

Odalisque Drawing

2010-05-18T12:52:00.000-07:00

Mary as Odalisque

16 x 20 inches, charcoal and chalk on Ingres toned paper

I realized all the figure drawing I have done in the last year has been as demonstrations for my students, so it's been wonderful to get back to figure drawing just for myself! This was done at my weekly Tuesday evening model session at my studio. We have a great little group started, and there is still room for a couple more, hope you can join us! (see my teaching page for more info)

I am also offering these upcoming workshops:

Figure Drawing Workshop, June 21-25

early bird special: $600

Still Life Oil Painting Workshop, June 28-July 2

early bird special: $600

Artist Daily Interview

2010-05-07T13:55:00.000-07:00

Courtney Jordan, editor of Artist Daily, the website of American Artist Magazine, interviewed me recently for the website newsletter and blog.

Courtney studied art history and loves still life painting, so we had a fun and wide-ranging discussion. I don't know how but she managed to beautifully organize all my rambling tangents into a lovely cohesive narrative about my process for choosing my subjects. Read the article at the link below:

Artist Daily: Meeting your Artistic Match

Ecorche Skeleton

2010-04-27T23:19:00.000-07:00

An update on my ecorche done in Andrew Ameral's Anatomy/Ecorche class.

Most the skeleton is at least roughed-in and now we have started adding the major muscles of the face - and even an eyeball!

The right half of the skeleton will be refined and stay exposed. The left half will have all the muscles.

Therefore, I have only carved the ribs on the right side where they will be seen!

The whole skeleton! The legs and arms are still very rough but it's mostly there. The whole dude is about 30 inches high.

He needs a name. Yes, he is a he. Any suggestions?

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Now offering Summer Specials on my Figure Drawing and Still Life Painting June workshops at Bay Area Classical Artist Atelier. Visit my Teaching Page for more info.

Ecorche Drawings:Master Copies

2010-04-23T09:16:00.000-07:00

Ecorche after Prud'hon, 8.5 x 11 inches

graphite pencil on mylar

One of the reasons I decided to take Andrew Ameral's anatomy/ecorche class is I hoped it would help me learn to draw from my imagination. The drawings here are my pencil copies from Prud'hon academies, but I drew the bones on trace paper overlay completely without reference.

Ecorche after Prud'hon, 8.5 x 11 inches

graphite pencil on mylar

Not that these bones are perfectly correct, but I could never do anything like that before.

I am almost done with my clay skeleton and this week as a class we will be moving on to the muscles. I'll be posting photos of my skeleton soon.

First Place Award for Still Life at the Art Renewal Center Salon

2010-04-21T07:41:00.000-07:00

My painting Bottle Collection has been awarded First Prize in the Still Life category at this year's International ARC Salon.

I have been poring over the annual catalog of this competition for years. Last year to have my work included in the Top 100 was a dream come true. This year's recognition is beyond my wildest expectations.

See my First Prize Still Life listing on the Art Renewal Center website

See all blog posts about the making of this painting

"Bottle Collection"
18 x 24 inches
oil on panel

"The Cabinet" Prep Drawing and Open Grisaille Underpainting

2010-04-15T22:45:00.000-07:00

"The Cabinet"
12 x 16 inches, oil on panel, work in progress

See previous post about this painting here

It feels so good to be working on one of my still lifes again! This is the "Open Grisaille" underpainting - essentially just Raw Umber and turp, an initial pass at roughing in the basic values. I tell my students that at this stage you just have to accept some ugliness, it's impossible to make this thin, brushy layer look pristine.

Some artists do this stage as a "wipe-out", where they tone the whole panel and then wipe away the highlights. I don't do this because I find it wipes away my drawing too much, and lacks a certain level of precision. This layer is painted very thin, and I tell my students to think of "kissing" the contours with the tip of the brush, to avoid a hard, unthinking swipe along those carefully-drawn contours.

12 x 16 inches, graphite on panel, preparatory drawing

I started the drawing on Mylar drawing vellum (I like a brand called "Dura-Lar" - be careful not to buy the clear acetate in the similar packaging though). Then I transferred the blocked-in drawing to the panel before refining it. I always do the last few hours of refining the drawing directly on the panel, to avoid that dead "traced" look. That way every contour has been drawn from life right on the panel. I use the Mylar stage of the drawing for blocking in proportions and finalizing the composition.

The contour drawing is hard to photograph because the final lines are so thin and light, so I had to tweak the photo quite a bit in Photoshop, which is why it looks somewhat "dirty".

Once the drawing is finished I seal the panel with a coat of Dammar with some turp mixed in. This protects the drawing from being wiped away, and also makes the panel less "thirsty". Now it's a perfect surface to paint on.

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Teaching schedule:
I'm always adding new classes, open model sessions, workshops and demos to my Teaching Page!

"From the Cabinet"

2010-04-13T22:00:00.000-07:00

Here's a sneak peek at my new still-life setup - I am so excited to be starting a new painting again! Sometimes I agonize over setting up a composition but this one fell together easily, probably because I have fun new props to play with, courtesy of Susan Foster who generously let me take my pick from her fabulous collection of still life items. And I finally got to incorporate my treasured quail feather, which I have been meaning to paint for a while now. I am almost already regretting it already - those stripes are going to be a challenge!!

This is a new look for me - rich deep reds and soft greens, an antique aqua-colored ink bottle and some twisty dried twigs and fiddleheads... I think of it as a sampling from a 19th century "Cabinet of Curiosities".

The familiar item is my lovely little golden seashell. While blocking in the composition and then all the natural forms I am reminded that EVERYTHING is based on the most ancient of symbols, the mysterious spiral!

EVENT: Live Drawing Demo May 7

2010-04-04T22:20:00.000-07:00

Join me at my San Francisco studio for a live drawing demonstration May 7!

I'll be lecturing on classical drawing methods and demonstrating techniques for capturing accurate proportion and glowing light.

An enlightening evening for both artists and art-lovers!

For more information about the Demonstration please visit my new Events page.

Also, I have added a new Figure Drawing class to my Teaching page: Six Sundays starting May 16th. For more information about upcoming classes visit my Teaching page

Still Life Painting Workshop Recap

2010-03-29T17:53:00.000-07:00

I had a wonderful time teaching my still life painting workshop, graciously organized and hosted by M Gallery in Florida. We painted at Susan Foster's incredibly idyllic and perfectly appointed studio.

After blogging about all of my workshops over the years, it was an amusing switch to teach the workshop myself, and have my students do the blogging! Two of my students, Loriann Signori and Deborah Elmquist, both accomplished painters themselves, wrote several beautiful posts describing the process and philosophy I teach. Check out their links and enjoy their paintings!

The challenge of running a workshop based on the way I work is to condense what is usually at least a 60-hour process, down to 15 hours of demo time for me and 15 hours of painting time for my students. Therefore, I had each artist paint a teeny tiny painting, 5 x 7 inches. Even given the Florida humidity, which unexpectedly slowed the drying time for each layer, every single artist did a formidable little painting!

I had a truly enjoyable time, and I feel incredibly lucky that "work" for me is hanging out in a beautiful studio with a highly skilled group of artist students, all eager to learn.

During the week I also had the supreme pleasure of meeting two artists I have long admired, David Kassan and Susan Lyon, both of whom were also invited to Sarasota, Florida for demos, teaching and exhibition.

Below is the demonstration panel I painted during the workshop, it's 6x8 inches:

Pencil drawing blocked-in on trace paper or mylar

Pencil drawing transferred to the panel and refined.

"Open grisaille" or sometimes called a "wipe-out": raw umber and turp

"Closed grisaille", or "dead layer" painted with grays mixed with:
flake white, raw umber, ultramarine blue.

Full color, work-in-process. Would need another week to finalize!

Ecorche - Skull Refined

2010-03-19T22:38:00.001-07:00

Ecorche class with Andrew Ameral

As Andy says: "Really nerd out on all the little details"! It was fun to spend the day doing all the tiny refinements that make the structure of the bones feel both delicate and strong. I was thinking, just like with painting, it's so important to notice the difference in edges - sharp versus rounded, and everything in between.

Home-Cooked Gesso Part II

2010-03-19T22:00:00.000-07:00

My materials for making home-made gesso

I previously wrote a post about making my own gesso. This new post shares my notes based on my most recent batch: This week I prepped over 30 very small panels for my students.

The instructions below are based on the recipe and steps outlined on the Sinopia website, but I added all the tips and tricks I discovered along the way (my notes are in italics):

Ingredients:

Double Boiler, or 2 nested pots on a portable electric burner
Metal mixing bowl and wooden spoon
Rabbit Skin Glue (dry crystals)
Sinopia brand Titanium White pigment
Small power sander
Bag of marble dust.
ArtBoard brand panels
housepainting brush
large tupperware container with lid

I bought everything at a hardware store and art supply store; the pots and bowls I stole from my own kitchen - not to be used for food again.

Preparing Glue Size (Rabbit Skin Glue) DAY ONE AND TWO

Soak one measure (by volume) of glue to 12 measures of cold water
I used 1/4 cup RSG to 3 cups water in a big tupperware container I do not plan to use for food again
Allow glue to soak preferably overnight
The next day it is a gelatenous substance.
Heat glue mixture in a double boiler bath - I don't have a double boiler, so I just nested two pots together which worked fine: I boiled a half-pot of water on a portable electric burner in my studio, and nested a smaller pot inside. The smaller pot is non-stick. The glue melts and becomes liquid very easily.
Apply glue while warm with a flat brush - I used a housepainting brush, but a softer art brush is probably better.
Be warned: this is makes sticky mess, since you need to cover the panel on all sides and there is nowhere to hold onto it. I discovered this method works best:
Hold the panel from underneath on your fingertips, like a waiter holding a tray, and then brush the glue onto the (top) painting surface and edges.
Lean the panel against a wall, so just the top edge or corner is touching, and them gently brush glue on the back side. (I scored and folded foamcore to protect my wall and floor)
Usually two layers are enough to seal the wood effectively. It dries fast, in about an hour or less I could do the second coat. Then I let the panels dry overnight.
At this point it is advisable to adhere a piece of fabric (thin muslin sheeting) to the panel to help stabilize the ground and to protect it from joints in the panel that might show in the gesso. (I did not do this - I like my painting surface to be very smooth and I didn't want the cloth texture.)
The left over glue-size then gets used for the chalk ground.
NOTE: The RSG turns to jelly again if you let it cool, it firms up quite a bit of you leave it to cool overnight, but you can re-heat the next day, it works fine.

Chalk Grounds: Ingredients DAY THREE, FOUR, FIVE....

3 parts of glue size (by volume) (I made extra RSG and used 3 cups)
1 part chalk (I used 1 cup)
1 part pigment (white, english red, umber, etc.)
I found it needs more pigment, otherwise the gesso is too watery and transparent. I ended up using more than 1.5 parts.
I used Titanium because I did not want to deal with the health hazards of sanding the lead-based "Flake" white

Chalk Grounds: Directions

Measure out the glue size solution into a metal container (I did not understand this at first - but it is to help measure correctly, since it is hard to know how much is left over in the double boiler once you have used it to coat the panels. I used a large metal mixing bowl.)
Add the dry ingredients
Stir well but do not whisk to prevent air-bubbles (I used a wooden spoon, worked great)
Place container in a double-boiler bath (see my nested pot solution above)
Apply warm mixture with a broad brush (I found it's better if the gesso is only slightly warms - when the water in the bottom pot is not full boiling, just simmering. The gesso is a bit thicker and covers more when it is only slightly warm, not hot.)
Allow layer to dry to the touch and recoat. (I found it did not dry fast enough to re-coat within a few hours. I ended up letting it dry overnight between each layer. I also sanded between before each subsequent coat with a small handheld power sander I bought for less than $40 - so worth it!!)
Note: When applying layers of ground, brushstrokes should be applied in one direction for every coat. Reapply subsequent layers in a perpendicular direction to the previous application. Yes this is true - otherwise deep grooves can develop which are hard to sand away.
I ended up doing 3 coats of gesso on most panels, and 4 on a few of them. It ended up being a week-long project, spending about an hour per day.
The gesso cools in the pot and gets quite firm overnight. I just left it in the double-boiler and re-heated the next day, it turned back into brushable paint very quickly and the texture was fine. Sometimes I added more pigment or RSG as it warmed, depending on whether it seemed too thick or too watery.

A note about my sander: I used a handheld Black and Decker sander, bought for less than $40. It had a micro-filter feature for reducing dust which worked quite well. I'm not a power-tool kind of person, but it was amazingly easy to use. Highly recommend!

Hope you find this useful! I know I'll be referring to these notes when I prep my next batch of panels, hopefully not for a good long time :)

Ecorche: Ribs

2010-03-16T22:23:00.001-07:00

After refining the basic "flattened egg" shape of the ribcage, I was finally able to etch the ribs and carve them out a bit. The hardest part was getting the distribution and spacing correct: 10 attached ribs, 2 floating ribs, each spaced equally apart! A hint: The 8th rib at the back lines up with the 5th rib at the front.

The skull has been refined a bit - I look forward to "nerding out" on the details!

More info about my ecorche/anatomy class with Andrew Ameral:

www.ameralart.com

Ecorche: Spine and 2 more Skulls

2010-03-12T22:42:00.001-08:00

Skull Proportion Studies
8 1/2 x 11 inches, graphite on mylar

I drew these skulls from life but first I constructed them based on rules of proportion. Now I have a bunch of questions for my anatomy teacher Andy (www.andrewameralart.com), because they still don't look quite right. I think in the upper left study I somehow inadvertently moved the top of the zygomatic arch up too high. And the lower one has some unidentifiable problems!

It's strange working with skulls... playing with proportions, both the drawings and the clay model of the skull just look warped and non-human, but as I adjust them they suddenly they start to approach a look I call "skullish", meaning suddenly they start to look like skulls.

I think we all have a template for what a skull looks like. I have noticed that at a certain point, the skull "locks in" (or at least gets closer) to the idea of a skull.

Spine Studies
8 1/2 x 11 inches, graphite on mylar

These spine studies are after Richer. His anatomy diagrams at first looked cold and a bit boring to me, but the more I copy them, the more I am impressed by the enormous amount of very precise information he packs in: gracefully at that, and with highly economical linework.

I spent a couple hours just blocking in these spines, but I got overwhelmed to think of drawing every little spinous process. I think I'll just draw ONE vertebrae from several angles!

Ecorche Drawings: Pelvis, Shoulder Girdle, Skull/Rib/Pel combo

2010-03-11T18:57:00.001-08:00

Two views of the Pelvis
graphite on mylar, 8 1/2 x 11 inches

More studies for my Ecorche Anatomy class with Andrew Ameral. Two solid studio days of just drawing bones, what fun!

Side view of the Pelvis
graphite on mylar, 8 1/2 x 11 inches

I'm also continuing to refine my clay figure, but it's coming along very slowly! I have massed in my ribcage, pelvis and spine, but I won't bother to post photos till they are more developed. Will hopefully post some photos of a prettier skull this weekend.

Shoulder girdle studies
graphite on mylar, 8 1/2 x 11 inches

Studies of Skull, Ribcage, Pelvis relationships
graphite on mylar, 8 1/2 x 11 inches

Most these drawings are copies from anatomy books (sometimes composites from several), only the pelvis drawings are from life.

M Gallery Show Opening

2010-03-07T16:08:00.000-08:00

I just got home from Florida, where I attended my show opening Friday night at M Gallery in Sarasota. This is me and Nowell outside the gallery on opening night.

These are my 6 paintings hung for the show, all together representing nine months of full-time painting. It was a treat for me to see them framed and hung as a group.

For more information about the collection visit my page on the M Gallery website.

The evening was truly enjoyable and the turnout was high for this sunny First Friday (after several unusually rainy months in Florida). The gallery estimated they had 500-600 visitors!

UPDATE: My fellow exhibitor Michael Lynn Adams has written up a nice post about our opening on his blog, click here to visit it.

I'll be back in Sarasota to teach my Still Life Painting workshop March 22-26. The workshop is filling up but there are still a few spaces available! For more information about the workshop please visit my Teaching Page.

Study of Ward

2010-03-03T06:56:00.001-08:00

Study of Ward
16 x 20 inches, graphite pencil on paper

This is the demonstration drawing I did during my most recent "6 Sundays" figure drawing class with 6 private students at my studio. The "moon" in the upper right corner is the remnants of my lecture on how light and shadow behave on a sphere.

We all had a wonderful time studying the figure in a long, multi-week pose under cool north light.

I am offering my next Classical Long Pose Figure Drawing class at my studio in San Francisco beginning May 16th, 2010. Please visit my Classes and Workshops page for more information.

I am also planning to set up a long pose model share, full time for 2 weeks, probably in July. If you would be interested please email me to let me know: sadiej@gmail.com. This will be an uninstructed workshop, limited to a small group, with the option to draw or paint. More information coming soon!

Also, I leave tomorrow to fly to Florida for my opening at M Gallery in Sarasota, where I will be showing 6 paintings.

Ecorche - Pelvis Drawings

2010-02-26T14:58:00.000-08:00

Posterior and Anterior views of the pelvis, graphite on mylar, 8.5x11 inches, done for Andrew Ameral's Ecorche class

I have to do 5 by tomorrow, I'm still working on the other 3.... this Friday night will be spend at the studio!

The real human pelvis I bought at the Bone Room is great to have, much easier to see the forms than when looking at the anatomy books. But it's a bit tilted/twisted (the poor old lady must have had a hard time walking at the end of her life!) so I draw from a combination of the books and the real specimen.

My studio setup at the moment:

Ecorche: Skull

2010-02-26T14:44:00.000-08:00

Continuing on with Andrew Ameral's Ecorche class I'm taking through June.

Andy showed me where my proportions were off in my previous version, and after fixing it up, the skull is looking a bit more skull-ish. This version has not had Andy's critique yet, I'm sure there are still lots of things to fix.

Ecorche - Skull and ribcage drawings

2010-02-18T21:32:00.001-08:00

Here are this week's anatomy drawings to prepare for my ecorche class on Saturday.

All of these are on 8.5 x 11 inch, graphite pencil on mylar. Oh, since I was asked in an email, this is the mylar I use. Be careful and read the label before you buy it at the store, though - it's really easy to buy the wrong stuff, the clear acetate pad looks almost exactly the same. (And it does not come in 8.5x11, Andy requested we do our assignments in this format so I cut down sheets from a larger pad).

Figuring out how to do the correct spacing on the ribs was the challenge. I did not realize how hard it was going to be. I can;t imagine sculpting this.... I guess I'm about to find out!

I really like the stage of drawing where I get to play around with tiny subforms and see all the crazy shapes nature can perform. But with the ribcage, it was all just blocking-in and measuring, no time to explore the fun details of the morphology.

I have a feeling there will be more ribcage drawings assigned next week though, so maybe I'll get my chance.

Sooo tired, but having a lot of fun!

Ecorche - The skull is refined a bit

2010-02-17T22:17:00.000-08:00

Today I worked on my ecorche skull for about 4 more hours and did not get close to finished.... I never knew I could spend so much time on 3 inches of clay! I think I over-emphasized the "worried" look.

As difficult as it is getting all the proportions and forms correct... then it has to be symmetrical.

Andy has shown us key landmarks for keeping the whole thing in proportion, but while I whittle away at the details with tiny dental tools I back up and realize the main proportions have been distorted - then it's back to hacking away with the bigger tools.

Anyway, it was a lot of fun, and I started to get a feel for how the clay works and what the different tools do. I began to get a real appreciation for plastelene (non-hardening) clay. It's amazingly structural, takes deep carving easily but also holds up when you want to just take a tiny shaving off.

Neat-o stuff!

Above is my current setup in my studio for the anatomy drawing homework. I open every anatomy book I have and pick the best images and prop open the pages for easy reference while I am working.

This week I'm drawing the ribcage. I didn't realize how difficult it would be, it's not the sheer number of ribs that's the hard part, it's getting the correct angles, width and spacing.

I have more appreciation every day for the efficiency and complexity of organic engineering: Twelve ribs and not one is parallel to another, yet together they form the most perfect, graceful cage.

If you bend your fingers slightly, with a bit of space between them, into a soft, almost-fist, you'll see at no point are any of them parallel... the ribs are the same way, every facet converging or splayed, but all together they look evenly spaced.

It's a feat of engineering!

Ecorche - Skull

2010-02-13T18:31:00.000-08:00

I started sculpting the tiny skull today in my ecorche class with Andrew Ameral, beginning with building a proportional shape showing the major planes, then roughing in the features.

Écorché - Skull drawings

2010-02-12T23:25:00.001-08:00

Last week was the first day of my ecorche class with Andrew Ameral.

Ecorche is studying anatomy by sculpting a "flayed" figure - as if it has no skin, so you can see the bones and muscles. We sculpt the bones first and then build all the muscles over the skeleton.

Every week we will have drawing homework. This week we were assigned to draw a skull from 5 different views. It took me exactly 10 hours to draw these 5 skulls - very, very difficult to get the proportions correct.

These two sheets of drawings are each are 8x10 inches, drawn with graphite on mylar paper. Mylar is a translucent vellum that is my new favorite paper for pencil drawing. It grabs the graphite with a silky/dusty feeling and is capable of getting a huge range of value from graphite. These drawings were all done with 2H (very hard) pencils.

I also need to label these with all the names of the bones of the skull - did you know the skull is made up of 22 different bones?

I bought my skulls at The Bone Room. The store is near me in Berkeley, CA, but you can also buy from them online. The cast skulls with the brand name "Bone Clone" are amazingly high quality for a very reasonable price!! I bought the two skulls (one real, one cast), a whole pelvis, and also a fibula (which nicely illustrates the tapered, spiraling nature of organic form!). I contemplated lots of other things to buy, but had to hold off for now. Next I am going to save up for a whole skeleton....

Andrew's class runs through June, and I'll be blogging it as much as possible, so stay tuned!

American Art Collector Feature

2010-02-12T10:09:00.001-08:00

I'm thrilled to be included in the March 2010 issue of American Art Collector Magazine, to hit the stands in about 10 days (the PDF for subscribers is available now).

The article promotes my March show with Michael Lynn Adams at M Gallery in Florida. I will be showing several of my Wax Paper series, as well as the new Conch Shell and Pewter Pitcher paintings.

Conch Shell - FINISHED!

2010-02-10T19:53:00.000-08:00

oil on panel, 9 x 12 inches
See previous post about this painting

(detail)

Over the last month blogging has taken a backseat to finishing the final paintings for my upcoming show at M Gallery in Florida, also setting up my new studio, starting private classes and workshops at the new studio, and teaching MFA candidates one day a week at the Academy of Fine Art.

Phew!

Oh, and I also started an amazing, inspiring ecorche class (sculpting all the bones and muscles of the human body in clay) with Andrew Ameral, master anatomy teacher from the Florence Academy.

So yes, I have been very busy, but really never happier!!

Pewter Pitcher

2010-02-10T19:45:00.000-08:00

oil on panel, 8 x 8 inches

My favorite little pitcher, it was such a joy to do a study devoted to it alone! So many lovely oranges and lavenders peeking through its patina....

This painting and 5 others will be at my show at M Gallery in Sarasota, Florida for the month of March, opening March 5.

Be sure to check out the workshop I am offering in Sarasota to coincide with the show, and my other upcoming classes and workshops!

First drawing class in the new studio

2010-01-12T18:47:00.000-08:00

I just held my first class in my new studio, a weekend figure drawing workshop. The class was a wonderful group, and we all had so much fun!

There is still space for ONE more student in my 5-week figure drawing class beginning this Sunday, an opportunity to study a long pose in my new north-light studio.

Also, I just posted registration information for my upcoming classes: "Still Life Painting" and "Drawing for Absolute Beginners".

More information at:
www.sadievaleri.com/teaching.html

Conch Shell

2009-12-23T22:10:00.000-08:00

I grew up visiting Cape Cod in Massachusetts, wandering the beaches with my back tanned dark from all my hours hunting seashells. So I was delighted when I saw this familiar shape sitting on the windowsill at the home of my friend Lisa. She told me a friend of hers found it intact on a Cape Cod beach, which I happen to know is a real find because they are usually broken. Lisa agreed to let me borrow it, and now that the new studio is set up I am finally able to begin studying the shell.

Drawing a seashell is like solving a puzzle - every piece fits logically with every other piece, there can be only one way it all fits together, and it is completely wrong until it is completely right. The same way some people enjoy doing crossword puzzles, I'm going to enjoy my next few hours at the easel finding how all those pieces fit together.

Studio Photos

2009-12-22T22:40:00.001-08:00

Click to see a slide show of photos of the new studio

The new studio is finally all set up! Thanks to everyone who made it to my studio warming party, if you missed it and you'd like a tour, just email me to arrange a visit.

I have been designing this studio in my mind for years, it's wonderful to get the chance to create the ideal environment for my work and for teaching students.

If you are interested in studying painting or drawing with me, please visit my Teaching Page to see the schedule for classes beginning in January. Also, sign up for my mailing list to be notified when new classes are posted.

Sterling Boat: FINAL

2009-12-09T13:51:00.001-08:00

Sterling Boat
oil on panel, 9 x 12 inches

See the previous post about this painting here

Finally finished! It ended up taking about 16 sessions over the course of a month, for a total of 68 hours, including the initial contour drawing. Thanks to everyone who has followed along the last few weeks as I posted all the stages of this painting, it been an interesting experiment to document the process so closely.

Here's a slideshow of all the stages of this painting:

Click slideshow to see it larger in Picasa

This painting will be in my March show at M Gallery in Sarasota, Florida. The show will coincide with my painting workshop, March 22-26, also hosted by M Gallery.

I've just added Still Life Painting classes to my San Francisco teaching schedule. I'm thinking about offering a drawing course for absolute beginners later in 2010, if this is something you'd be interested in please email me.

Finally, my new studio is coming together and I'm looking forward to posting photos soon, stay tuned!

Sign up for my mailing list to be notified when I post photos of the new studio, new artwork, and upcoming art classes.

Perez Fine Art Gallery Online Exhibition

2009-12-03T21:32:00.001-08:00

My painting Wrapped Silver Goblet is now showing in an online exhibit at Perez Gallery for the month of December. It's beautuful collection of work and I'm proud to be shown in this group!

Click here to see the Perez Gallery Winter Exhibit

You can even vote for your favorite painting ;)

Sterling Boat: Session 12

2009-12-02T18:57:00.000-08:00

Sterling Boat - DETAIL - work in progress
oil on panel
See the previous post about this painting here

Sterling Boat - PREVIOUS DETAIL

Tiny, tiny differences between the two, I just made this section more crisp, maybe you can tell if you compare the two shots closely. I won't even say how many hours I spent today on this one segment of wax paper, except to say it was my longest single session on this painting so far.

Wax paper in the light - the whitest, brightest parts, is always the hardest this for me to paint. I think it's because white oil paint has a different texture than the transparent paints in the shadows. White pigment is thicker and more grainy, so it looks like crusty paint even when other parts melt into a convincing illusion. And I'm always wishing it could be brighter to match the dazzling highlights I see. I always despair over these bright white sections in all my wax paper paintings.

In contrast, the strip of painted wood shelf is super easy, it flows out in a flash - I can spend hours to create the illusion of a square inch of wax paper, and only minutes for a square inch of painted wood.

What I like best about this section is the filtered cool light that shines through the paper and onto the edge of the shelf, illuminating it with a little pale glow within the cast shadow.

I listened to an audio book while I worked today, I usually listen to NPR podcasts - Fresh Air etc. But something about listening to one long narrative all day really enhanced my focus and I barely stopped painting for even a minute all day. It was great! I think I'll keep doing that. Maybe the podcasts changing subject so often is messing with my concentration.

Sometimes I listen to music while I paint, but usually the verbal narrative in my own head starts to get distracting. I have a bad habit of ruminating on unpleasant thoughts while I paint, so I need something innocuous to occupy my verbal brain while I work.

Are all artists like this? Can you work with focus for hours in silence, or with music? Can the music have lyrics or do you need it to be instrumental?

Making art while surrounded by chatter reminds me of art class as a young kid. Art class in elementary school was the one class where the teachers usually let kids talk while working, and I would always work silently but enjoy the chatter of schoolkid gossip all around me.

New Studio Preview

2009-12-01T21:33:00.000-08:00

My husband Nowell took this photo of me in front of my new studio building this evening. And here's a sneak preview of the inside by day...

It's pretty bare now but at least you can see the cool double doors and beautiful north light! I'm dying to show you more but I'm going to wait till it's all set up.

Sterling Boat: Session 11

2009-12-01T17:48:00.000-08:00

Sterling Boat - DETAIL - work in progress
oil on panel
See the previous post about this painting here

Sterling Boat - PREVIOUS DETAIL

I spent most the 4-hour session today on the seashell, but I think you can see the most difference in the before/after shots if you look at the edge of the painted wooden shelf.

The seashell is challenging because it is reflective, translucent, AND colorful. I'm trying to show a shiny surface that also has depth, because the light both bounces off and penetrates the surface. So there's a lot of fiddling, pushing the values and hues around bit by bit. Slow, slow painting.

This is where glazing makes a big difference because I can layer transparent films of color into a couch of slow-drying oil medium, and make tiny adjustments.

Also, thinning the paint with oil makes a cleaner edge, because the texture and goopiness of the paint is reduced. Just like how melted butter can spread in a thinner layer than cold butter simply spread thin.

------UPCOMING CLASSES AND WORKSHOPS-----------
I teach Classical Realism drawing and painting classes and workshops in my north light San Francisco studio. I also offer workshops at other locations in the US. Please visit my Teaching page for more information and to register!

Sterling Boat: Session 10

2009-11-30T16:30:00.000-08:00

Sterling Boat - DETAIL - work in progress
oil on panel

See the previous post about this painting here

Sterling Boat - PREVIOUS DETAIL

The painting is coming down to the final stages, I'm hoping to be done in just a few more sessions. This is the stage of the painting when it gets hard to record the difference with a camera. I'm sorry to say the differences between the two above shots represents a solid 6 hours of work! The refinement is subtle but significant in real life, but almost impossible to see by the time the camera has degraded the images.

I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts today called "On the Media", and they were talking about the evolution of the book (OTM Episode: Book 2.0) now that we are crossing over into a digital era for reading. They interviewed writers and book publishers and future-thinkers who all had opinions, ranging from "it's not a book unless it has paper and glue and survives being dipped in the bathtub" to "the age of paper is dead and everyone will be reading in an entirely different way in 5 years."

One of the future-embracers was positing that the way writers WRITE will change in the new era, and floated his vision of a writer writing a novel live, online, with a real-time audience who will be intimately involved in the writing process, and that the whole process of creating a book with be collaborative and public. To which I though AAACK!!!

The interviewer suggested that many writers feel that solitude while working is integral to the process, and that some writers would not WANT to write if it had to be a public, collaborative process. The book-futurist (sorry I don't have his name, I don't take notes on my audio sources, unlike my husband who wisely documents everything he hears) said something to the point of "well, writers will just have to change they way they think about writing".

Writers will just have to change they way they think about writing. Wha????

As a an artist, I am probably on the leading edge of those who feel comfortable being public with my process - between my blog posts, my videos, and my teaching I try to make my process as transparent as possible, mostly for my own benefit of processing what I am learning, but also because some of you out there seem to enjoy seeing the thoughts behind the work. And yet, if I were forced to both share my process and allowed my visitors to comment on my decisions in real-time as I made them, and also modify my painting as the comments poured in, I would probably put down the brush and find something else to do!

I might be the extreme though, in that I shy away from collaboration, but some artists are more open to it. Personally, I need to be handled very carefully when I am in "work mode", as anyone who worked with me as a graphic designer can attest, I am not at all a "team player" when I am trying to be creative!

What do other artists think? Could you work with an audience? Even performing artists - could the musician practice with an interactive audience, could the actor rehearse with an interactive audience? Does it sound like a nightmare to you, or does it sound like a revolutionary frontier for artmaking?

Sterling Boat: Session 9

2009-11-29T18:12:00.001-08:00

Sterling Boat - DETAIL - work in progress
oil on panel

See the previous post about this painting here

Today was another 4-hour session and I worked mainly on the spout, handle, and top edge of the pitcher. I managed to take a better photo and so I replaced the photo in yesterday's post too so the color is easier to see. (I didn't send out notifications about yesterday's post because the photo was so bad, so if you are just seeing it today that's why).

In yesterday's post I mentioned "value bracketing" and got a lot of questions about that.

What I mean by value bracketing is taking the time in the first stages of a drawing or painting to block in the value range of each particular area, and then as the drawing progresses, to stay within that initial value range without fail. Some artists assign numbers to values and codes to color, to identify a range and remember to paint or draw within a particular bracket.

For an example of two different areas I mentally bracketed in my current painting, you can see these two areas of wax paper in my current painting are in completely different value ranges:

Top left corner - DARK value range

Low middle area - LIGHT value range

As the painting develops there will be days when I am working on one of these small areas for a whole session, without ever comparing it to another area, so it is tempting to exaggerate the value range in a given area. If I am not disciplined to stay within the value range I've already determined is appropriate, I will make the lights too light in the dark areas, and the shadows too dark in the dark areas.

In the light area of my wax paper in the cropped detail above, the shadows in the creases of the wax paper are bare whispers. In real life it looks like there are huge differences between the shadows in the creases and the bright highlights of white light reflecting off neighboring areas. If I attempt to "copy" that value jump I see, I will make the shadows far too dark and I will destroy the illusion of light in the whole piece.

Our eyes can perceive a much wider range of color and value than paint can ever depict. For example, pure white paint directly from the tube is nowhere near as bright at the lightest highlights on my subject. That's why even the most hyper-realistic painting is still just an illusion, a mere hint of what our eyes can experience in real life.

To capture the sensation of seeing a subject, the artist must preserve the feeling of the whole - how every part relates to every other part. This is so easy to destroy as we zoom in and work closely, because we lose context and we forget that the individual parts, no matter how detailed or realistic, are merely supporting roles to the whole effect.

So I try to depict each edge of each shape with only the smallest value and hue shift I can manage. If I copy the big "jump" I see between two neighboring patches, I will destroy the unity of the painting.

Sterling Boat: Session 8

2009-11-28T16:21:00.000-08:00

Sterling Boat - DETAIL

Sterling Boat - DETAIL - previous stage
See previous post about this painting here

Today I worked on the wax paper - another 4-hour session. It shows how the wax paper slowly starts to look like transparent crumpled material, instead of only gradations of paint.

Painting is 99% drawing by the way. I never believed it more than I believe it now. If you want to be a better painter, study more drawing. I am amazed by how the same principles I teach the most beginning drawing student are the principles I must hold as my mantra all day every day: Look for the large shapes, bracket the values, work large to small and from shadow up to light...

It even applies to color, because you can't build a believable range of hue without understanding value bracketing.

Drawing is learning when it is appropriate to focus your decision-making on a particular scale: solve large problems first and smaller problems later. Use the problems that appear at a small scale to find solutions to the larger-scale problems.

Learning to draw is the discipline of ONLY tackling the problems you can solve at THIS stage of the artwork, without getting distracted or confused.

I've come to believe that drawing (and artmaking in general) is about organizing your thought process, and nothing else at all.

Sterling Boat: Session 7

2009-11-25T17:14:00.000-08:00

Sterling Boat - DETAIL - work in progress
9 x 12, oil on panel

See the previous stage of this painting here

I finally got in a nice long 6-hour painting session today, and it was so exciting to finally be working in color.

It took me a while to get used to painting in color over the more fully realized grisaille (monochrome) underpainting, and after the first hour of working in color today I wiped my work away and had to begin again. But then I started getting a feel for how opaque/transparent to work and everything started to flow.

The photos actually reduces the color a bit (and darkens everything). I repainted the pedistal base of the silver pitcher in color, but in the photo it still looks monochromatic.

Once I get everything to this level of detail, Ill make a final pass with the super tiny brushes, which gives a painting the extra snap of realism. I'll probably spend another 8 sessions or so on this painting.

Now I'm off to cook the dishes I'm bringing to my mom's Thanksgiving spread tomorrow: ratatouille side dish, traditional stuffing, and cranberry sauce...

Happy Thanksgiving!

New Studio, New Classes and Workshops

2009-11-24T20:36:00.000-08:00

As many of you know, I currently work in a very tiny studio, which I affectionately call my "art pod". While it's an ideal workspace for still life, it's a bit tight for students or models, so I have known that eventually I would need to upgrade.

Well, I am excited to finally announce that after months of searching, I have found my new space: a gorgeous 500 square foot studio with north light in the heart of the Mission neighborhood of San Francisco.

It's in a wonderful old warehouse with hardwood floors, enormous windows, and one of those fabulous old-fashioned radiators. I am currently setting it up for ideal classical study, with a dark neutral wall color and thick draperies to control the light.

Beginning in January I will be offering Classical Realism drawing and painting classes and workshops in the new studio. Please visit my updated Teaching page for more information and to register!

Surface Preparation

2009-11-22T21:38:00.000-08:00

I spend the first 15-30 minutes per painting session preparing the surface of my painting-in-progress.

Like so many other aspects of this lifelong process of learning to paint, previously I could not imagine focusing on something so mundane and technical, but I find it saves me so much time and headache later that it's worth the investment. And now I actually enjoy the sort of easy, meditative process of cleaning and preparing my surface.

First, I only paint on a dry surface that has had at least 20 hours to set for underpainting medium, and 40 hours to set for slower-drying painting medium. Painting on a gummy or tacky surface just makes a mess. (The recipes I use for painting medium and underpainting medium are in my Materials post)

Next, I use a tiny folded piece of 12oo grit sandpaper to lightly rub the surface of the completely dry layer from the previous painting session. This loosens any lint or grit that dried into the previous layer, which can then be lifted off by lightly dabbing with a small piece of masking tape.

The abrasion also gives the dry layer more "tooth" so the wet paint sticks - otherwise the oil tends to bead up.

(Abrading makes the surface a bit cloudy, and the previous rich oily areas look chalky and ugly. It's ok though, the luster comes back easily.)

Once I have a lint-free, abraded surface I use a soft filbert brush to apply a thin layer of painting medium - but only to the area I plan to work on in this session. Even a thin layer can sometimes drip or run, so I use a clean, microfiber cloth to wipe away most the oil.

This oiled surface is called a "couch" - I'm not sure why except that painting on it feels like sinking into a comfortable couch, the paint flows off the brush so easily.

To start painting, I pre-mix my puddles of values and colors on my palette with my palette knife, and then re-wash my clean brushes in Natural Turpenoid, to get rid of any dust that may have settled overnight, and also to re-wet the bristles. Then I dry the brush on a clean cloth and dip it into my painting medium.

After all that, I'm ready to start painting!

Sterling Boat: Underpainting stage 6

2009-11-22T20:20:00.000-08:00

Sterling Boat - work in progress

9 x 12, oil on panel

See the previous stage of this painting here

Today I worked on the wax paper, and although I refined every bit of it, from this photo you can barely see a difference from the last stage. But this level of refinement will really help when I move to the color stage. This session was a little over 4 hours.

Sterling Boat: Underpainting stage 5

2009-11-21T17:07:00.001-08:00

Sterling Boat - work in progress - DETAIL

Sterling Boat - work in progress - PREVIOUS DETAIL

Sterling Boat - work in progress - DETAIL

Sterling Boat - work in progress - PREVIOUS DETAIL

See the previous stage of this painting here

I worked today on the reflection of the seashell, and also the handle and the spout of the gravy boat.

I ended up redrawing the shape of the handle significantly. I sort of knew the drawing wasn't right when I was working in pencil, but I had wrestled with it a long time and I finally gave up. But when I started refining the paint today, it I realized I couldn't live with the errors and and ended up rethinking all the contours -- which is far more frustrating to do in paint than in pencil. But I'm glad I took the time to do it because the handle now feels more structured and believable.

The spout was much easier, because I worked and worked to get it correct in the previous pencil drawing stage, so it only took about 30 minutes to refine the painting. Which is a good thing, because with the early winter nightfall these days I am always racing to finish the day's work in last few seconds of workable light every evening.

Studio Hours

In the comments of my previous post Rahina asked how long I spend per session. I realized that's a great idea to note, so I'll start mentioning that when I post. Today I spent 4 hours painting. I rarely paint less than 4 hours in a session and I generally aim for 6.

Once I am working I don't look at email or answer the phone and barely take a break at all. But it's almost like being under water, to ignore absolutely all distractions for several hours, and so part of me resists the initial plunge. Once I'm in the studio though, I always wonder what took me so long to get there.

When I am not in the studio I am preparing lessons for my students, looking at blogs of fellow artists, planning my dream studio, writing up course descriptions, shopping for art supplies, preparing submissions to galleries or contests, shipping artwork, and, of course, blogging. I am amazed how much work there is to do for this art life, and it turns out I am the strictest boss I've ever had. But I love it all, so it doesn't feel like work.

Coming soon.....

I have some exciting studio news I'll be announcing in the next few days, so stay tuned!

Sterling Boat: Underpainting stage 4

2009-11-20T17:07:00.001-08:00

Sterling Boat - work in progress - DETAIL

See the previous stage of this painting here

Painting in grayscale at this level of detail feels more to me like drawing than painting... maybe that's why I enjoy it so much.

Sterling Boat: Underpainting stage 3

2009-11-18T17:53:00.000-08:00

Sterling Boat - work in progress

9 x 12 inches, oil on panel

See the previous stage of this painting here

I've continued to develop my underpainting. I'm always anxious to jump ahead into the color stage from here, but I am disciplining myself to stay with values for a while longer. It just makes the rest of the painting so much easier if I develop the underpainting as much as possible before moving ahead.

I'm thinking about adjusting my underpainting medium - it dries too fast, and now that I am working on my underpainting longer, I'm realizing I begin to race just to paint faster as the medium dries. It's got more thinner in it than the oily painting medium, and it pretty much sets up in a day. So after 6 hours of painting, my paint begins to get sticky - ugh.

Ecroche in Oakland, California:

There's an amazing ecroche class being offered in February 2010 by Andrew Ameral. The SF Bay Area is so lucky to have Andy, he's returned from teaching at Florence Academy for 7 years. Anyway, ecroche is building a model in clay of a flayed human figure, starting from the bones and layering up through the layers of muscle. I am so hoping to be able to take the class!

--------TEACHING-----------
I am planning my teaching schedule for 2010 so take a look at my teaching page and sign up for my mailing list to be notified when I post new classes and workshops.

Montreal from a Musical Perspective

2009-11-17T19:10:00.001-08:00

My Brooklyn-based friend Kyra kindly accompanied me on my jaunt to Montreal to see Waterhouse last week, and on her blog she has written up our trip from a musical perspective.

I think you'll find it amusing to compare her writeup to mine - you'll read she bought black pointy-toed boots, whereas at the same store I bought round-toe eyelet-patterned pale pumps, which may sum up our complimentary contrasts (as well the different shoe requirements of our respective cities). But we agree on issues such as good wine at dinner, raw oysters at brunch, and speaking bad French to cab drivers - not to mention the need to consume croissants and coffee immediately upon waking - so we're fantastic travel partners.

Check out her fabulous music blog SWICK: Smartest Women I Know to read about our Montreal trip from an audiophile's perspective.

How To Save a Drowning Drawing or Painting

2009-11-15T17:35:00.001-08:00

Every artist knows the feeling: As we work on a piece we slowly become aware that our painting or drawing is not progressing, but instead it is moving further and further away from what we want it to look like. We work faster and faster, desperately fixing and adjusting, but the piece just gets worse and worse and we get more and more confused about what to do.

I call this "circling the drain" because we watch as our painting or drawing spirals right down into the sewer.

From observing my own process and also how my students sometimes get lost, I have found that this is the result of one single, simple problem, and there is one single, simple thing we can do to halt the downward spiral and salvage the work:

LOOK.

Easy enough, but it's amazing how often we all forget to look at our subject. Our tendency is to just stare at our own artwork and fiddle, which just makes the problem worse.

This is what I have posted in my studio to remind myself what to do when I get lost:

Look LARGE

Look OFTEN

Look LONG

This is what I mean by each of these:

Look LARGE

We naturally tend to zoom in our vision, narrow our focus, and look at tiny areas. Then we inch our way around the subject as if we are drawing by looking through a drinking straw. This makes mountains of molehills; literally, small variations on a contour are magnified when we zoom in. It also tends to make us exaggerate differences in value, so we make a dark patch too dark and a light patch too light.

The key is to back up and look at your artwork and your subject with large vision, comparing every part to every other part instead of focusing on small areas. Scan for the largest shapes, move your vision around often: if you are drawing a figure's head, move down and draw the feet for a while. Compare values deeps in the shadows to values far away in the light areas. Draw the whole, not the parts. Think big.

Look OFTEN

We all have a tendency to hunker behind our easels with our nose to our own artwork. After a while, we forget to ever peek around the easel at all and we end up drawing or painting essentially from our imagination. But if you discipline yourself to make a mark and LOOK before you make another mark you will suddenly find the painting or drawing flying along easily, growing magically from under your brush or pencil. Mark, look, mark, look, mark, look.....

Look LONG

When we are really, really lost, sheer panic sets in. That's when we have the urge to keep working faster and faster, and the artwork falls out of control at an alarming rate. When I get really, really lost I put down my brush and just stop and look at my subject. Then I bounce my vision between my subject and my artwork, back and forth, without ever making a mark. The longer I can discipline myself to look without making a mark at all, the clearer it becomes what needs to be adjusted. I tell my students to put down their charcoal and make a mental list of THREE things to change before they pick up their charcoal again.

A note on self deception:

Sometimes a piece of artwork is falling out of control but we can't admit it. We are too attached to the work we have already put in, and we want the artwork to be better than it is. This is where integrity comes in: the artist must hold themselves to the highest standard, otherwise no learning or exploration is happening. If we tell ourselves our art is "good enough" it isn't. That is self-deception.

To be art, it must be better than "good enough".

Do what it takes to learn and get better with every mark of every piece. Otherwise, we may as well go find a less demanding endeavor. Why be an artist, if not to get better?

--------TEACHING-----------

I am planning my teaching schedule for 2010 so take a look at my teaching page and sign up for my mailing list to be notified when I post new classes and workshops.

Sterling Boat: Underpainting stage 2

2009-11-15T16:57:00.000-08:00

Sterling Boat - work in progress

9 x 12 inches, oil on panel

See the previous stage of this painting here

Today I worked on the grisaille stage of the underpainting, which is a value-only underpainting. The previous stage uses raw umber and ultramarine to make a neutral color grey, and uses the white of the panel for the lights. This is called an open grisaille, because the white of the panel shows through.

This second stage is a closed grisaille. I use the same raw umber and ultramarine blue for the neutral dark gray, but I also use flake white (cremnitz white) for the lights. When it is done the white of the canvas will not show at all, the surface will be covered by paint.

I used to only paint an open grisaille layer, and then go right to color. But I have found it saves me a lot of time (and anguish) in the later stages of color if I take the time to make a complete value painting in closed grisaille first. The open grisaille is just too transparent and textured to behave well as an underpainting for my needs.

I also spent some time wet sanding this layer with my underpainting medium before I began painting. This removes dust that may have embedded in the previous layer as it dried, and makes it easier to paint on the dry surface. Putting down a layer of medium to paint into is called a "couch".

--------TEACHING-----------

I am planning my teaching schedule for 2010 so take a look at my teaching page and sign up for my mailing list to be notified when I post new classes and workshops.

Sterling Boat: Underpainting Stage 1

2009-11-13T17:51:00.000-08:00

Sterling Boat - work in progress

9 x 12 inches, oil on panel

I worked up the preparatory drawing for this painting a few days before I left for my trip to New York, and varnished it before I left, so when I came back to the studio today it was all dry and ready to start the under painting. Might be hard to see yet what it is - it's an antique silver gravy boat and a seashell perched beneath a 'wave' of wax paper.

I'm not videotaping this painting like I have previously, but I took photos while painting today. The first layer of under painting is just quickly roughing in all the values, I spent about 3 and a half hours today. Today is probably the only day I'll cover the entire surface in one painting session.

stage 1

The initial contour drawing took about 8 hours over 2 days. I started the basic block-in drawing on trace paper but completed the final refined linework directly on the gessoed panel. Then I varnished it with a mixture of damar, turp, and a tint of titanium white to seal the drawing and the porous gesso surface. This makes a nice surface to paint on - not too thirsty, not too slick - and also prevents the graphite pencil from mixing with my first layers of paint.

stage 2

I start the underpainting in the darkest black areas and work in steps up to the lightest lights.

stage 3

stage 4

stage 5

The painting is still rough and brushy at this stage. The paint texture is hard to control at this point, and I'm just massing in values, so I try not to spend too much time worrying about unwanted textures.

--------TEACHING-----------

I am planning my teaching schedule for 2010 so take a look at my teaching page and sign up for my mailing list to be notified when I post new classes and workshops.