"Black Jug" Session 1: Drawing

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

"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

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

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"

"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"

"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"

"Danae"

Underpainting value wash

oil on panel, 

12 x 16 inches

See Day 1 here

Long Pose, Day 1 - "Danae"

"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"

"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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"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

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

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

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