Portrait in Progress

"Daria", oil on canvas, 31 x 43 inches

This is a portrait I have been working on recently. This is one of my more formal images, however I still included my signature flowers. In addition I think that the sitter has a certain friendly warmth as well a contemplative, questioning air. On another note I also like the frame on this picture. Gold gives a very warm and glowing vibe to a painting.

The woman in this painting is also one of my good friends. We had a lot of great conversations over the weeks on in which the portrait sittings took place. This painting was originally going to be just a head and shoulders, which I did end up painting as well as a study (occasionally I make these, here is an example). In the end though I decided to make the final image go to the chair so that it turned into a half length portrait. I feel like this gave the painting more movement, and also more depth because this allowed for a darker fall of light.

I mention these things because I want to elucidate my thought process and painting process a little more. It is quite like the manner in which I come up with compositions; I have an idea that is more or less specific, however when it comes time to pose the model I will see something else and completely deviate from my original course. I guess what I am trying to say is that I need to work with what I have in front of me. The colors, shapes, and lines that I see up on the model stand often generate new poses for me.

New Piece Preview, "Doll Maker"

This is a new piece I am working on. "Doll Maker" (oil on canvas) continues on a recent theme that I've been developing. The art and craft of doll making is quite fascinating, and not too removed from painting either. It combines the disciplines of sculpture, painting, sewing, and fantasy. It is like a painting come to life that you can hold, or a sculpture that you can dress and pose. The hair can be combed, and the glass eyes can be any color you like them to be.

On another note, one of the other things that draws me to this discipline is that it allows me to break out of the normal disciplines of portraiture or still life to reach something in between. I can paint these dolls as they are, still and lifeless (or half formed, as in the case of the fellow in the box) or I can imbue them with life as in the case of "Lillith". In other words I can pose and work with my own supernatural creatures, while still achieving all the realism and observation of form and light with which I am accustomed to paint.

Ordering Art Materials

Studio View

Yesterday I took a nice long breakfast at the tea table, and ordered some much needed art supplies. This can be a fun activity if approached with the right mindset, or it can be stressful if you don't know what to get. Sometimes I get questions from people about how I go about this, so I will answer them now for the benefit of those interested.

First of all I like to do all of my shopping over the Internet. This is not only because one can save a lot of money, but because these days it is hard to find art stores that have everything you need in one place and in stock at the same time. Dick Blick is my online store of choice, they ship fast and cheap and have just about everything I need. Mister Art or Jerry's Artorama come to mind too.

When I buy paint I get the 250 ml tubes of oil colors from Windsor & Newton, Gamblin, Old Holland, and Rembrandt. This is because I do big paintings and always want to have colors on hand when I need them. I buy refined linseed oil, damar varnish, and turpentine from Windsor and Newton.

For canvas I order from the same website (except when I want something special like herringbone weave then you have to go somewhere else).
Some canvases I like are Claessens oil primed linen and Artifix oil primed linen. Both of these come in various weaves, so I stock my studio with very smooth ones for small works and rougher heavier weaves for large pieces. I order canvas in rolls by the yard and stretch it myself. You can buy stretcher pliers and a staple gun for this. I buy the Blick heavy duty stretcher bars and the quality is very consistent (they are never warped). Sometimes when I buy an unprimed canvas roll, I will size it with Gamblin's PVA size glue and follow with two coats of Gamblin oil ground.

So far all this can be obtained from Blick! I have not mentioned brushes yet. I actually do recommend visiting a store to feel them in person, or observe what your friends or teachers use. My favorites are long flats (mongoose), long flat bristles, small rounds in synthetic, hog bristle, and sable. Some brands I have bought are Silver Brush Renaissance series, Isabey, Windsor & Newton, Da Vinci... Lately a just ordered long flat mongooses from Rosemary, an English company that specializes in brushes. You can never have too many, and you need all types for what works on one surface or stage of a painting may not work in another. I tend not to buy nice brushes over a certain size because you can get the same effects with house painting brushes.

Anyway I hope this helps! One last word of advice is to stick with a familiar set of tools for a while and make additions (like new pigments, mediums, etc.) only every so often. This way you can stay in control and observe the effects that these changes make to the way you work. You want good quality materials that serve you well and make your work shine and live up to your highest standards, but ultimately you should not get carried away with too many of them at once.

Lillith the Putto

"Lillith, the Putto" Oil on Canvas, 24 x 24 inches

I have just finished a new painting! This is Lillith, one of the "studio Putti" which you may or may not be familiar with by now. If you aren't you are welcome to familiarize yourself with this charming Renaissance/Baroque convention here. Speaking of which, I've come across another good definition of the Putto in art:

Art historian Juan Carlos Martinez writes:

"Originally, Cherubs and Putti had distinctly different roles, with the former being sacred, and the latter, profane. That is, Cherubs and Seraphs (Cherubim, Seraphim) are Angels, occupying the highest angelic orders in Heaven and are thus the closest to God. On the other hand, Putti, arise from Greco-Roman classical mythos (i.e., non-Christian). They are associated with Eros/Cupid as well as with the Muse, Erato; the muse of lyric and love poetry...
"Putti – which comes from the Latin, putus, meaning 'little man' – are...not so much babies as they are 'not human'. They are spiritual beings and thus depicted in their typically odd fashion; as winged little people of indeterminate gender. Using babies as models for Putti (or for Cherubs, either) doesn't quite get across the true concept of 'Putti-ness' as they (babies) are too guileless, for one thing, whereas Putti are clever and purposeful. They are there to help Cupid/Eros facilitate the onset of profane love – or secular, non-religious love, as between two people, rather than the love as between a human and God. Probably, it was artists' attempts to avoid simply painting babies that has led to so many rather odd and, often, ugly, Putti. Sometimes they nailed it, sometimes not.
"By the time the Baroque Era came about, which might arguably have been the high point for Cherubim and Putti, both of these little beings were usually being depicted in the same way. Which one they were, simply depended upon the theme of the painting or sculpture: If religious (sacred) – they were Cherubs. If secular or mythic (profane) – they were Putti.
"In either case, they'd be hard to pull off successfully today because most people are unaware of their roles in semiotics, or in philosophy/mythology/history, or in religion."[4] - from Wikipedia

Returning to the subject of this painting, Lillith was my first Putto. She came to the studio in April and has been wearing pink ever since. There are about a dozen Putti now, each with his or her own peculiar look. I like to think of them as "little personalities", almost a natural progression from depicting characterful Venetian Masks (the comedy, the tragedy, the plague doctor, the jolly, etc..). Every so often they make their way into one of my paintings and play a kind of supporting role if you will. In this case however I felt like making a small painting focusing on a Putto.


There are several things I really like about this painting. The first is Lillith's subtle gesture in reaching for the cake. Her ponderous and overlarge foot sticks out in a comic way, typical of her kind. She is dressed in Victorian finery but there is the wild, untamed spirit inherent in her species. Caravaggio did a few paintings like this in his early 20's (see "Boy with a Basket of Fruit, and "Boy Bitten by a Lizard"). In both these paintings we see a youth placed before opulence, sporting a dreamy face, often with a hint of danger lurking in the dark.

I deliberately painted a floral tapestry in background to contrast with the live peonies that bloom in the glass vase; the 2D contrasting the 3D. I wanted it to look almost as if the peonies were emerging from the tapestry itself. Pink is definitely the dominating color of this painting as seen in the pink the dress, flowers, and cake icing. This sounds obvious, but is notable because this painting is fraught with detail. It is practically a frothy explosion of pink and white! All these folds of drapery, twists and turns of embroidery, layers of petals, these are all things which could completely override a painting and yet it sits reasonably well together.

This painting (24x 24) is also a perfect square. I have been toying with this unusual format lately. It really lends solidity to a work and gives off a sense of calm and matter of fact neatness. Lillith's compact stature undoubtedly lends itself well to this cropping.

Detail of the foot and cake.

Self Portrait

This is a very recent work, it is oil on canvas and painted approximately life size. This is the third in a series of dressed up, courtly self portraits. This one has more of the flair of the jester to it. It is also kind of a blend of the carnival and vanitas themes.

Detail of Self Portrait

"Girl in Blue"

This was one of the first paintings that I did in the blue theme. I think a lot of it had to do with my change of studio and location in 2010. With the new studio I had to choose a new wall color, so I went for a blue/gray. Consequently a lot of my paintings ended up having blue backgrounds. With the change of location I also began the exciting task of finding all new studio props, which was a lot of fun. I gravitated to Baroque, Victorian, and just a lot of old world things. Part of this was idealistic on my part, I just like the way those things looked. More of it was due to the fact that many of the painters I admire came from those periods, and through my travels and 5 years of studying in Europe I came to accumulate a lot of ideas about this in my mind. All this time in the studio I feel like I have been revisiting them and trying to incorporate them into my work.

"Girl in Blue"

First painting with the powdered Rococco wig.

Portrait of Three Children

This is the portrait of the three children, it is the finished version. Previously I showed the "study" version that was painting a bit more fluidly and did mainly in brown with some limited color. In this version I have incorporated many extra elements. There are pink, blue, and purple hydrangeas from the garden of the family. These I paired with matching drapery ( I actually went to the fabric store with some samples of the plant in my hand in order to get the right match!). By doing this I achieved a more cohesive painting and was able to tie the foreground and background together.

In addition the children are posed in different attitudes (such as the reclining boy), giving the painting more of a dynamic sweep. This helps to balance their relatively passive and more withdrawn poses and keeps the composition from looking too still.

In the background you can see some very old blocks. These were also belonging to the family. I am not sure where they came from, but the scenes on the blocks reminded me a lot of Aesop's Fables and other children's rhymes and morality tales which were popular in the 19th century and would have been illustrated by an artist like Gustave Dore.

A closeup of the blocks! I was very happy while working on this painting. The three children made great subjects, and in addition this is one of the rare paintings where I used objects almost entirely from the sitters' household. In other words they owned things that matched my vision very closely, and I did not feel that I needed to supplement the portrait in any way with my own wardrobe or still life collection. Another example of this happening would be the portrait of Kazumi, in which she provided the kimono and music score. When things like this happen I consider myself fortunate because I have a chance to expand my vision and the content of my portfolio a bit more. I get to paint things I would not necessarily have thought of looking for myself.

Some Fun

These are two paintings that I have been working on recently, the one of the left being the most recent. In this photo I have just stood them up next to each other; it is the end of the day and I am just looking and studying how the work is going so far. It just so happens that I chose the paintings of Lucifer, Unrepentant (bottom left) and God visiting the Garden of Eden, (bottom right). These reflect my recent interest in drawing from long established lore, myths, and religion for subject matter. I had been reading Milton's "Paradise Lost".

Aside from the coincidence of putting the only two rivals in the studio together, I was also trying to compare the two distinct painting styles. In Lucifer I was trying to go for more motion, and used the same rough herringbone weave canvas as I did for the three children painting. I felt that painting had been somewhat successful and had also recieved positive feedback on it. I was also in the mood to go back to my Florence Academy/Odd Nerdrum roots, and use a muted palette. So in this new painting you can probably tell that I did not match the hue or chromas of those flowers, for example.


Closeup of "Unrepentant". I was trying to capture the fallen angel look; the resentment, malice, and wind! There is a small whirlwind beginning to take shape here.

So there they are. I just want to say that one of the most important things in painting is standing back away from you work and really considering it. There are a lot of decisions to be made about handling of paint, the editing and adding of details, and above all the consulting of relevant old master paintings. For each project I usually have someone in mind. Next week I will follow up on the finished three children painting, and later to get back to the fallen angel (with progress shots of each stage!)

Preview of one of next week's subjects, the much respected and admired Brown Teddy. He has returned home at last after the putti and I gave him a fond farewell.

Completed and framed oil sketch

This is a painting I recently finished. I chose a rough brown frame for it because I felt it reflected the free manner in which the painting was done. This was actually a study for a final and larger work, which was done in full color and detail with the same group of children. When you see it next week you will also notice the more ornate, "finished" look of its the frame.

I like to think of this painting as more of a character study, in which I was more concerned with capturing the movement and essentials of the subjects, and less interested in the clothing, setting, or any other anecdotal props. All of these things however are very charming, and I look forward to showing you them in the final piece.

Detail of the hands. You can see the broad way in which they were treated. I like to let things fade off. What you are seeing here is the early stage of the painting process. I did not rework it because I wanted to keep it in line with the idea of a sketch. To finish it would have lost spontaneity.

Close-up of the faces. If you want to see the process from start to finish, you can look at this related post.

This painting is oil on linen (Herring-bone weave), 33 x 24 in.

Open Studio Party

Over the weekend we had an informal studio show! You can view more of the pictures here. Basically I gathered as many people who had played a role in the making of my paintings, served some wine, and arranged all variety of tea and party food along a flower strewn banquet table. Both finished paintings and works in progress were on view,as well as some of my studio props. It was a lot of fun to do.

New addition to the Sleepwalker frame

After two days of painting I finished another decoration for the "Sleepwalker" painting's frame (which you can read more about here). This brings the total of "margin putti" up to three, with about 5 more to go plus some random objects. After working on a still life and a few portraits for the past few weeks I found it quite refreshing to work on another putto.

This one, named Viola, is painted in a very graphic, trompe l'oeil manner; which is a bit of a deviation from my usual technique where I try to achieve a lot of atmosphere with lost and found edges. In this quick painting most of the edges pop out, and the lack of a background makes one feel as if the doll could be removed entirely from the frame.

This putto rests at about eye level at the moment because the frame is resting on the floor. When it is mounted on a wall Viola will be well above average eye level, and so I have tried to figure this in by incorporating perspective into the drawing. Her head should appear slightly as though we were looking up at her. In addition I have taken care to make all of the shadows on the putti match each other, imitating a ceiling or high window lighting source.

Detail. Brown Teddy also features for the first time on this blog! You will be seeing a lot more of him... Basically he is a very cherished family heirloom, belonging to the father of three children I am painting somewhere else. He is a very nice, classic, English teddy with a lot of character so I love painting him. Viola adores him too.

All of my putti have bare feet.

Book Recommendations

I thought that I would share with you a couple of my favorite books. These are three new acquisitions, and if you like them you can also look at my first and second book posts. I picked these three I am about to show you out of the bookstore in the National Gallery of Art (Washington D.C.). They really grabbed me as "must haves"; very inspirational and unusual you will find that they are somewhat dark too). In addition I am using them as travel guides and points of interest to visit on my next trip to Europe.

(Detail from the book, an illustration of the staircase of the ages of man)
The first book is called "The Print in Early Modern England, An Historical Oversight" by Malcolm Jones. It features beautiful and intricate prints from 16th and 17th century England. They deal with topics such as religion, morality, prophecy, English civil war, political and religious satire, social criticism and gender roles, punishments, deformities, and jokes.

Another book detail.

This second book is called "The Triumph of Death, a Cultural History of Ossuaries and Charnel Houses" by Paul Koudounaris. I have only been to one of these in my life, the Cappuchin Crypt in Rome, and I think that one visit in this life is enough. However the book just looked fascinating!

These ossuaries could be very elaborate sometimes with the more famous ones (shown in this book) containing some several hundred skeletons, all used to build domed interiors, chandeliers, and walls and other sorts of baroque decorations. Charnel houses are very out of fashion these days and misunderstood (they were a 1600-1800's thing), and this book seeks to explain them to the modern reader. It includes a very good introduction which goes into the history and usage of these interesting and antiquated religious places.

The book also contains a handy map of Europe, Mexico, and South America with dots labeling the location of each Ossuary. And these are only the larger, more famous ones. There are more, and many which were destroyed and exist only in photograph and memory.

One of the more elaborate ones from the Czech Republic. I love how from far away these look like typical Baroque decorations, but up close they are really clavicles, pelvic bones, and femurs, etc. I also like how in some places the bones are incorporated with fresco and sculpture.

Alan dosing on the tea table. He hasn't quite woken up yet.

Page featuring an Italian ossuary.

Alan and Lillith page turning.

Lastly this is another huge book, "Carved Splendor, Late Gothic Altarpieces in Southern Germany, Austria, and South Tirol". It is by Rainer Kahsnitz, with photographs by Achim Bunz.

I am already very fond of the woodcarvings of Grinling Gibbons so when I saw this my eyes really lit up. There are incredible photos in here of immense, carved wooden altarpieces containing sculpted figures of saints and paintings of the bible. The craftsmanship in here in incredible, intricate, and all of it done with small figures linked together into large scale masterpieces. These are definitely cathedrals that I will be seeking out and studying up close.

We Apologize

The Putti are zonked out. They have been working hard in the studio to meet deadlines and have thus ran out of energy. Blog writing will resume tomorrow.

Sleepwalker

This is the new painting Sleepwalker, which I mentioned in my latest post. It is fairly large at 42 by 7o inches(canvas size only), and is also one of my first multiple figure compositions. I have been working my way slowly to first larger paintings (which actually feel more natural) and to more complex works as well. Another thing about this painting is that it heralds a new series of work in which I will focus on the motif of dolls, and the making of them. You may have already noticed my interest in creating small ones.

This is a more dreamlike, surreal painting than what I have done before. I wanted to give the feeling that the figures were dancing, and yet somehow not quite there at the same time. The one in the foreground has gone inert, like a marionette, while the one in the back directs their motions.

In keeping with the theme of dreams and sleep, I have arranged and drawn studies of side figures to go all around the frame. You can see one of the arrangements above, featuring sleeping putti, pastries, and a teddy bear.

In the image above the frame has been primed, and I am deciding what imagery I want in the frame and where. After several of these preparatory drawing are made, I transfer them section by section onto tracing paper, and tape them in the place in an organized manner. Charcoal has been applied to the back of the tracing paper so that all one need do is re-trace the drawing with a fine point to transfer the design to the frame. This is a technique I learned while studying in the Florence Academies; we used to transfer our drawings to canvas this way.

Here you can see that two of the drawings have been transferred and painted in with oil paint. The effect I am going for is a Tromp L'oeil, or eye popping effect. It is a lot more decorative, exaggerated, and moreover on the ornamental side so as not to compete with the main image. I made the frame wide, simple, and white to further emphasize the space of the painting within. While Sleepwalker is dark and gloomy, the white of the frame brings out some of the lights such as those found on the girl's dress and hat. The ornamental putti also act as supportive elements in that they mimic the poses of the dancers. They are candy colored as well and serve to lighten the overall effect of the piece. Their dress style mimics that of the girl, and the frilly child's Victorian wardrobe adds charm and more of the "sleepy Alice in Wonderland surreal character" to the whole vision.

Anyway this is a good start. There are many more putti and ornamental figures to paint in around the frame. Not to mention the painting itself, which needs a lot of work. I just wanted to show you this at different stages so as to give you a better understanding of how I work.


Detail of Orlando Furioso


Detail from left- This guy is floating upside down. My inspiration for this may have been Alice when she goes down the rabbit hole. In every version of the story you have a wonderful assortment of falling objects, twisting and turning in the air. These are going in slow motion.