Leap

Building up simple washes

Well, it was time to take the plunge and dive into painting the season plate I've titled "Summer." I couldn't put it off any longer. It became more stressful to sit here and look at it and think about what colors I'd use and how I would paint the piece than to paint it, so I just took a leap of faith and dove in. My drawing is already getting marred by the washes, but that's ok. I'm seeing a vision beyond just a pencil drawing now and I can't wait to see it come to fruition. I'm going to try and snag more particle boards. I'd like to start applying wash to the other two season pieces while my mind is focused on blocking out light and form.


Individual shot of washes
being built up slowly

Oliver resin in leopard appaloosa

I'm also working on another little "Oliver" resin. The hairing pattern on this resin was fun to work with and quite possibly my favorite part. I've found that working on resins in general have kept my hand very steady and has helped my illustrating. I'm not sure how this is so, but the color palette I'm using these days is very different than it used to be as is my drawing. Taking a break from illustration turned out to be rather helpful.

Speaking of breaks I'm very excited to have been invited to take a break and see the play "War Horse" at the Lincoln Center Theater today. As I type this I'm bursting with anticipation. I've watched the trailer on the website several times now and am looking forward to the onslaught of inspiration this production will no doubt give me. (Thank you Donna!!!!)

Quick shot of work desk

Season Plates

Four plates together

This weekend I worked on laying out the last three illustrations for The Four Season plates. I love the way they all came out. I'm letting my eyes rest a bit before I start adding paint. Once I start adding paint things really start to change. I should scan each one properly in case I mess up something in the painting stage (like I did with Clytie's hands a few weeks ago). Once I paint over the drawing I'm lost for a spell.

Winter

Summer

Spring

"Fall"

Pencil drawing of "Fall"

A quick technical sketch has turned into a 4 part project. I've decided to name this piece "Fall" and am going ahead with three more pieces that will illustrate the three other seasons. I didn't expect this sketch to inspire three more but sometimes that does happen. The recent portrait sketches I did have now found a home. Spring will be a woman and child and winter and summer will be represented by male figures. I'll probably start "Winter" tonight while "Fall" is drying. The bottom left portion is very mangled with the corn stalks and color but it will make sense once everything dries and things are allowed to pop.

Watercolor and acrylic layering

Adding oil paints for details

Sketches and notes for the
other three seasons.

Fun In The Sun

The Fun
(even though it cracked)

Raku while you swim in the pool with family. Life couldn't be more perfect. Oh...wait....

The Sun

Having a good laugh at the ratties trying to snuggle after tearing their hammock to shreds makes it truly perfect. Sun. Fun. Family and Laughs....Life is good this summer!

What the....?

Summer Moved On

A sculpture by Becky Turner
painted in mixed media by me.

The very last days of this incredible summer are still with us, but only for a week or two more. Today we watched as weather reports predicted a hurricane tomorrow. Although hurricanes are never as bad here as they are in the southern states, a hurricane-like storm would really mean the official end to summer and swimming.

The water today had a chill to it. The chill of autumn slowly setting in. Francesco and I swam anyway. By next week the pool will probably be closed for good. Summer is by far my most favorite time of the year and I approach its ending with much sadness. I'm savoring the last days.

I tried to pull some pottery this week, but my mind is wandering terribly on other things like the last days of summer and two models I have been concentrating very hard on. One model capturing my interest is a Newsworthy model in bay tobiano and the other is a Rayne resin in chestnut. I had anticipated selling both, but the Newsworthy has become a guinea pig of sorts as I try to find a new matte spray that rivals the Citadel formula. Sadly nothing (so far) comes close.

The Rayne was scheduled for sale this week too, but the more I work on him the more I and am struck with thoughts of a warmblood horse I used to ride down at the barn and I think he may be staying in my own personal collection. Rayne in chestnut looks strikingly similar to that horse. His name slips me at the moment. I honestly didn't have a love affair with the beast. He was unmanageable once we went out of eye sight of the barn. I hated when they would bring him down the isle for me to ride. He was cranky. He was slow and tripped even at a walk, but he had the most beautiful chestnut coat I had ever seen. I've been trying to recreate that beautiful chestnut coat on Rayne as I experiment with some water soluble oils. They have been fun to work with and they are helping to ease the end of a good summer. I'm trying to look forward to cooler days spent at the third floor studio desk playing with rich, enticing color but memories of summer linger.

Love his voice.

Storytime

A quick snapshot of me and my brother JJ

When I was younger I couldn't stand my little brother. He seemed so fragile and whiny to me. I always thought my parents liked him best. Overhearing how my father was excited to finally get his boy really put the mischievous wheels in motion for me. Rotten apples, aluminum cans and even smooshy caterpillars were all used as ammo for one little blond moving target. My arm then was dead on.

As the years went by we became closer and a true friendship started to evolve. One annual ritual we both adored was our family trip to Dorney Park. With picnic baskets galore and the hibachi we always made our way through a welcoming Alfundo past the big turn on the Journey To The Center of The Earth ride where we plopped all our food and belongings on colorful picnic tables near the last dip of the "big yellow" roller coaster. Every few minutes we delighted in watching the passengers scream as the coaster cars came zooming past us. Once in a while we'd find some lost change from coaster patron pockets which was quickly used on skeet ball in the arcade.

Detail of one of the beautiful rides
at Knobles Park

Over the years this park lost its charm. It's very commercial now and is no longer the Dorney of my childhood. It was a loss for us and my heart sinks every time I think of my son not being able to enjoy the amusement park my brother and I once loved as children.

Recently, my parents found a new park to visit and for two years now we have enjoyed the sounds, sights and yummy delights of Knobles Park. It is a family run park that has captured the days of old. This past weekend my brother and I got to relive our childhood together while watching my son enjoy his first amusement park rides. We both agreed that although the memories of Dorney linger with sadness, new memories are a treasure too and I'm so very glad we had this past Labor Day Weekend to share with one another. I walk away with amazing new memories and can't wait till next summer when we can enjoy all the fun stuff Knobles has to offer again. Love you J.

Chalk and More Chalk

Newest piece from the studio

Wasn't it just Wednesday? I really haven't been able to keep up here on the blog as I'd like to. I'm totally blaming it on the weather. It's been so gorgeous out here in NYC. I just can't stay away from the outdoors which makes all my housework and studio work suffer. Thankfully, I am nearing completion on the last two commissions in the studio and have just finished this big boy, a Tennessee Walker by Sarah Rose.

I am loving this piece and the color. This horse honestly should have been done about 5 months ago, but I couldn't pull myself to the table on this one and kept putting him off. I just felt I needed more time to think about color application. I find the lighter colors to be so difficult to produce and when those lighter colors are placed on a really great resin the pressure to produce is even greater. I hate feeling pressure like that, most espeically when I'm being creative. So, I gave the horse some time to sit on my shelf and in my mind. There wasn't a day that went by that I didn't think about him or how I was going to tackle this color. In the end, I believe waiting was the best decision.

Here are some more shots of him:

Full shot of the TWH

Head shot

Pretty blue braids on his right side

I mentioned in my last blog post that I wanted to show off his neck repair after that bug spattered itself into that area. It's all clean now. I also want to show off how smooth pastel application can be when it's done properly. I get rather down to see artists rushing this medium and many have rushed so badly that they have started creating a bit of a bad name for the medium. You must go slow! That is the first rule. The second rule is to never skip steps. Too many skip using the gloss fixatives and just go straight to using mattes in order to finish quicker. Time and again I have found that the glossy fixatives do something special to the pastels when they are sprayed. In my experience, just using the mattes have never rendered the same results.

My personal theory behind pastels is that they are "the poor man's airbrush" and when viewed should look like lightly sprayed layers of acrylic. They should never be rushed. Rushing any part of the process can create pieces that look grainy and that is always disheartening to see. But enough of me yappin' about the process. Here is the TWH after his neck repair:

Pastels SHOULD be smooth



Other Inspirations
I've enjoyed watching my good friend Heather explore her new found love of photography. Every day she sends the most inspiring emails filled with beautiful photos of horses or people. I have to say it has been fantastic getting her emails and today when our family went to a cousin's party the first thing I packed was my camera. Not my new slim Casio, but the Olympus big boy. My goal? To get a week's worth of being inspired out and into my own camera. Most of the photos were duds, but this one...

Two Fishes & A Boy

.....of my son enjoying the dark pavement and chalk all by himself was by far the very best photo of the day. He just couldn't resist that chalk and when he popped his arm down and the muscles in his back stretched I just couldn't resist taking the photo. I was so happy I had brought the good camera and had been so inspired this past week.