Thin and Thick of It ... and TJ Maxx has great props!

A couple of additional figurative works.  I enjoyed playing with the texture of the paint, with thick areas and thin scraped off areas. 

This one is Red, in keeping with my latest figurative series.
And Indigo, with a bit more of an abstracted view:

I found a lovely copper pot at TJ Maxx and painted some lemons:

I donated this painting for the High Museum Arts Day fund raiser.  I always think of the great painter, Chardin when I think of paintings of copper pots.  Here is an example of Chardin's work:

Burton Silverman portrait ... Almost

Feeling somewhat nostalgic, and missing photos after a computer catastrophe, I came across some CD's from a workshop that I modeled at some years ago.
Here is Burton Silverman painting me in a collaborative piece: 

The painting was actually Marc Chatov's, but Burton Silverman spent quite a bit of time painting on the canvas.   It was a wonderful experience for me.

And also a good experience over the weekend.  My painting exhibited at DeFoor Center sold and won a prize.  It was displayed along with the Taos Horse.

Saturday Sketch Session and What's New

A new (for me) model at a new location :
the model didn't feel well, perhaps influencing the mood of the painting.

It was a fun experience, nevertheless.

I have some new smaller canvases, 9 x 12 and will try some dailyish still lifes, at least until the tangerines hold up!
Here are two:

Bring Me the Sunset in a Cup

Bring me the sunset in a cup

by Emily Dickinson

128

Bring me the sunset in a cup,
Reckon the morning’s flagons up
And say how many Dew,
Tell me how far the morning leaps—
Tell me what time the weaver sleeps
Who spun the breadth of blue!

Write me how many notes there be
In the new Robin’s ecstasy
Among astonished boughs—
How many trips the Tortoise makes—
How many cups the Bee partakes,
The Debauchee of Dews!

Also, who laid the Rainbow’s piers,
Also, who leads the docile spheres
By withes of supple blue?
Whose fingers string the stalactite—
Who counts the wampum of the night
To see that none is due?

Who built this little Alban House
And shut the windows down so close
My spirit cannot see?
Who’ll let me out some gala day
With implements to fly away,
Passing Pomposity?


I found this wonderful poem and thought it fit well for this painting.  The painting underwent a bit of alterations as I thought it was too structured with divisions across.

Yellow by Nancy Blum

 If you share a love of Emily Dickinson, check out   https://www.facebook.com/SecretLifeOfEmilyDickinson   

Orange by Nancy Blum

Some more redos lately, as I felt these 2 paintings needed a bit more!  (so much for my Less is More post!)

Poised

30 x 20 oil   Poised

Vessel Series

Another Cup painting from the vessel series:  "Life's enchanted cup sparkles near the brim."
Byron                      This is 20 x 30 oil

Faces I Know

I've always loved to make up faces.  It's something I've done since I was little.  I watched by mother doodling faces while she talked on the phone.  So here are some in oil, and one from last post on the Atlanta Artists Center home page.  Very happy to get first prize in the April Dogwood show there!

Happy Easter and Passover

Here's my bunny from the High Museum Garden tour last spring.  The painting is now living at the beautiful home (and garden) of the bunny in Buckhead. 

A face:  (A Closer Look, Oil)

 And some more cups!
"My Cup Runneth Over", oil

and, "I Promise You a Rose Garden"

Uglow and The Diagonal

                                                      The Diagonal Homage to Uglow by Nancy Blum
I recently have found (online see Painting Perceptions) the art of Euan Uglow.  He's probably well know to many artists -- especially British, and has influenced the work of figurative and still life artists.   He used devices to measure and order the canvas and felt it was important to leave those lines and angles in the painting.  Models posed for long periods of time, and even the fruit or vegetables had to stay in place to accurately be painted.  The changes in the fruit would be painted right over the original painting.

My small painting, on the other hand, was painted just over a period of a couple of days.  This was long enough for my beautiful carrots to undergo quite an aging process.  Not having a model on hand, I had to make do with the carrots and a toy chair I came across.  The carrots looked quite like legs to me...

So here is Uglow's Diagonal:

March Still Life

Latest Still Life

Less is More

From Arcadia Gallery (NY)'s blog Less is More
two wonderful artists,

Malcolm T. Liepke  

and

Aron Wiesenfeld

                    Here are two recent paintings inspired by a model session:

Once Upon an Evening

Here's another figurative painting that I began at a recent model session:

Palette Knife Painting

I've enjoyed painting with some new palette knives.  In this painting I painted first with brushes and then combined brushes and palette knife work in the final (?) stages.   One of the nice features of palette knife painting is their ease of cleaning.

Children's Watercolor Portraits and Oil revision

I'm working on a new portrait:  the family has the wonderful tradition of having the children painted when they are ten years old.  It's a lovely thing to pass on to generations and to cherish the family connection.   Probably ten is a perfect time for a portrait, before children are too grown up.   This beautiful young lady was a pleasure to get to know