Pan

Drawing from a cast of Pan at Lafayette Atelier....Just about finished here...

I got the grant! Now off to class...

As an Individual Artist Program grant recipient, I am using my grant to study at Lafayette Atelier. Atelier is French for “Artist Studio” and also refers to a method of teaching representational art techniques taught in the 15-19th centuries. It’s a whole new approach to drawing for me. So far, I’ve had to do some adjusting, but it’s going well. At the end of the grant year (March 2011) I’ll display the work I’ve done and write about my experience. This is my first finished class drawing (above). Copied from the copy (below).

Phil Jr. and the Oranges

 

My second "Back to Life" painting. Now also the name of my imaginary band. Named for my Philodendron, Phil earned his name by sticking with me for 8yrs so far and sprawling about 10ft across and down my kitchen cabinets. I painted Phil a few years ago. It was more abstract--I was just having fun with shapes and glazes. Jr. is a clipping. I got a couple weeks into the painting before I remembered to do photos of my progress. And the oranges have been shrinking as fast as Jr. has been growing. Again I didn't work from photos at all. 

Just took the pic so you can see sort of what I was seeing. I made a charcoal mess of the contour drawing (to transfer to canvas) so I skipped photos of that. By the time I remembered to do the first photo the leaves at the top had changed a lot.
I'm pretty happy with this painting--just a little more nit picking to do. I think the next "Back to Life" painting will be real still life OBJECTS.

Last of the poinsettias

The poinsettia with the final glaze.

Poinsettia Continued

I got a little work done before I headed out for my Christmas trip. Brightened up some of the leaves. It didn't get a full second layer. Returned yesterday to find many leaves missing. Yikes! So I stayed up late working on it last night. And here it is. Not bad for my first "back to life" painting. I think I'll mess with it a little more...I want that leading red leaf to have more richness. It's gone now so I have to remember....I remember it was not so pink.  I think the big green leaf looks like its backwards.  I'm not sure how to change that...but that's life- right?