My Most Valuable Paintings

A few months ago I was looking for a photo on my computer and I came across a series of snapshots that I had taken of my two kids about 5 years ago.  The room they are sitting in was towards the front of our little house, bathed in morning light that was creating a striped pattern on the wall.

Both kids were engrossed in their personal activities.  Ari was writing in her notebook, a habit that continues to require a NEW NOTEBOOK EVERY TIME WE GO TO THE DOLLAR STORE.  I keep thinking that there is NO WAY the child could use another notebook, but occasionally I attempt to find the floor of her room, and as I organize her numerous notes, I see that she, indeed, uses every single one...dozens of to-do lists and planning and yarn types and shopping lists and weekend activity plans.  It's not exactly snooping...but it does give me a delightful peek into her motivated 11 year old mind!

(detail of the new painting...forgive the wet paint glare!)

Jack was at his usual spot, the head of the table, Master of The Coffee Table Domain.  Various creatures of all shapes, colors, sizes (and expressions!) were at his every command.  Sound effects poured effortlessly from his cheeks, and warriors changed outfits and weapons and tactics moment by moment.

To me...pure heaven.  Not an electronic in sight.  Colors everywhere.  Chaotic bliss.  Relaxed...everyone getting to Be Themselves.

I started the painting, my heart beating with excitement over the patterns and colors that I couldn't wait to translate into paint on canvas!  I also thoroughly enjoy painting my children, as I have many many times before.  Not having them 24/7 is tough.  So.. sitting in my studio, painting their faces, I constantly send them love and good thoughts.  In that way I am always with them.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I really enjoyed Alain de Botton's lecture "Art as Therapy".  Listening to it as I painted this most recent portrait of my children, it really impressed upon me WHY I was so motivated to paint this picture at this time.

Alain de Botton stated (forgive my paraphrasing)

 "If we had a better memory, we wouldn't need art.  We forget stuff.  Particularly, valuable stuff.  A work of Art becomes valuable the more that it captures something significant.  The more fragile the moment is, the more valuable the art is because it's touching on something that otherwise we can't put a finger on"

I LOVED HEARING THIS as I was painting this particular moment!!! It is difficult to put into words the warmth, pride, joy, love, delight that was flowing through me 5 years ago.  And unfortunately the last two years have just been a constant war on me as a mother, so much so that there were times that I questioned if I had done ANYTHING right!  But this moment reminded me that I did A LOT right.  I am a good mom.  I look back at all their pictures now, not with a sense of sadness or  regret, but SO much pride and joy!  I nurtured their individuality, their reading skills, their creativity, their sense of adventure, their HUMOR...I really could not be prouder of my two awesome kids.

THIS is why Art can be so important!  Time heals a lot of things, but can also distance you from some of the good stuff from long ago as well.  Difficult times, hard feelings, can cloud our perspectives... and memories - especially good ones - can get lost in the shuffle.

So, according to de Botton, what DOES Art do for us?

There are three key things...

1.  Art compensates for the fact that we have really bad memories.  (99% of my commission work has been created to commemorate good times and good people...so vital to immortalize!)

(Portrait of Ari about aged 5, holding a baby bird)

2.  Art Gives Us Hope.  (For me, this means that you honor good moments to inspire even more! I don't paint something beautiful thinking it's going to be the LAST good moment...I paint out of the delight for every beautiful moment that's going to inspire me next!  What's more hopeful than appreciating beauty all around?)

(Jack, aged 11, at a festival in Downtown Atlanta)

3.  Art re-balances us.  Art connects us with the missing bit of us.  Art opens our eyes to the neglected value of the every-day.  (oh my goodness those three points hit me hard!!! Painting re-balances me in ways that I'll need 11 blog posts to explain.  It's my therapy!  This particular painting really reminded me of GOOD times I spent with my kids.  It balanced my perspective at a time I needed it most.  And this painting was connecting me with my son..we have very little time together, and just sending the good vibes and love to him during the process has helped me fill the hole in my heart.  And this precious moment was VALUED by me so much!  I've never been a really big "pose perfectly with your hair brushed and clothes perfect" kind of mom.  I thrive on capturing my kids as They Are...and this every-day moment has more value than any perfectly crafted pose)

(Ari reading, around age 2)

It has always been my greatest pleasure to paint portraits and commissioned work that captures so much of the points above.   I am so appreciative of Alain de Botton's lecture which helped me put those feelings into words!

July Portrait Painting Workshops and Fall Art Classes in Woodstock, GA

Thursday and Friday - Mini Portrait Workshop
July 16th and 17th
9:30 - 1:00

Artists' Choice!  Kristina will be on hand as you enjoy two full days from the live model (African American Female)  Monochromatic, painterly, inspired by another artist - you decide!

***ALMOST FULL!***

Email Kristina right away to hold your spot!

$80.00 per artist

-If you can only attend Thursday or Friday - contact Kristina to see if a daily spot is open.


Thursday and Friday - Mini Portrait Workshop
July 30th and 31st
9:30 - 1:00

Artists' Choice!  Kristina will be on hand as you enjoy two full days from the live model. Monochromatic, painterly, inspired by another artist - you decide!

SPECIAL PRICE - for any student who has attended a workshop this summer - $50 for the two day class!

New Students $80.00

ENROLL NOW to save your spot!

Fall Classes Begin August 4th!

This fall I will be offering Tuesday and Wednesday morning painting classes.  These classes are for all levels.

New students will be required to complete two still-life paintings before venturing on to other subject matter.

Continuing students are encouraged to alternate between photo reference and live subjects (still life, sculpture, live model, etc)

Tuesday and/or Wednesday Mornings
9:30 - 12:30 (Doors will open at 9:15)

8 week session August 4th - September 30th (no class 9/22 and 9/30)
$200.00 for 8 weeks.

Drop in rates of $30 per class available if space permits.

SPACE IS LIMITED - contact Kristina to reserve a spot or ask questions!  

Tuesday Night Live Model Group 

I miss drawing and painting from the live model - don't you?!? I'm looking for a core group of artists dedicated to bringing back a weekly figure model session.  

Tuesday nights August 4th - Sept 29th (no class 9/22)

I'm looking for 6 fellow artists who want to pre-register for only $10 a week - must commit to all eight weeks!  That's only $80!

After the first 6 artists- drop-in artists can attend any week for $15.00.

I will ONLY hold these sessions if the minimum artist count is met - let me know ASAP if you want to join!

Full nude, artists can work on portrait or figure.  We will make timing of poses artists' choice week to week - either a variety of long and short poses or one long pose.

Portrait Painting of Lord Tywin Lannister, Actor Charles Dance - Game of Thrones Fan Art

As explained in my previous post about my portrait of Maester Luwin, I am obsessed with the Game of Thrones series, not just because of the amazing actors, but the brilliant cinematography.  I pretty much want to paint every scene!

So here is Charles Dance, who plays Lord Tywin Lannister, as he stares down his son Tyrion.  Spoiler alert!!!  OK this has already aired, so you probably know...this is the scene where Tyrion is looking at his father over a crossbow, as his father perches in a most humiliating spot, on the privy in the middle of the night.  Never flinching, his stoic gaze remains fixed, firm, and confident. And while all this brilliant acting is going on, I am saying to myself "look at that pretty light on the side of his face!" and I have to paint it.

Of course, poor guy, many people still look at this portrait and say "Hey!  It's that guy from "The Golden Child!"

Inspired By Game of Thrones - Portrait Practice - Master Luwin played by Donald Sumpter

Someone who shall remain nameless got me sucked into Game of Thrones.  So for the last three months I chain watched episodes and caught up to season 4.  I was one of - apparently - 8 million people who turned in on Sunday night to start Season 5.

From the very first scene in the series, I was enamored of the lighting and the costumes.  I am horrible with names, my attention span isn't what it used to be, and darn it!  I have to stay caught up in my Words with Friends Games!  But all the world stops when I watch GoT.

So far I have done three portraits, and I'll share this one first - Maester Luwin from Winterfell, played by Donald Sumpter.

One of the aspects I am working on in my paintings is my tendency to paint very "hot" - too much red and orange in my skin tones (we can debate if that's a good or bad thing later...I just want to try and paint in a cooler palette, experiment with the color)  So I loved the color of Maester Lewin, especially in this scene where he is teaching Bran about Westeros in the episode "The Wolf and the Lion".

I started with very cool, dark, transparent colors to block in the face.

I then started to block in some of the flesh on the face.  I realized - when taking photos - that my camera (ok iphone) tends to make everything look warmer - more red - than in "real life".  So that could be one of my problems - when painting from photographs the reds are too strong.

Anyway, I purposefully only used cool colors on my palette - the "warmest" color was transparent red oxide.  

Because the scene was filmed in an outdoor cool light, the flesh had a cool feeling, very icy blue, everywhere except his ear.  That is the only spot I used any cadmium orange and red.  It was a nice contrast to the predominantly cool painting.

I took great care to try and capture what Mr. Sumpter brought to the role of Maester Luwin - the incredible warmth partnered with deep wisdom.  I have incredible respect for these marvelous actors, and everyone on the Game of Thrones team...they are all artists.

The painting is done on an oil primed linen, that had a previous life as another painting, and was then recovered with oil based primer.  I intentionally leave some texture along the edges, a little peak of the history of the surface.  This portrait is 11" x 14".

2015 Juried Art Exhibitions

Two portraits were selected by esteemed juror Michael Shane Neal  for the 2015 Portrait Society of Atlanta Winter Exhibition.  The show will take place at the LONA gallery in Lawrenceville December 31st - January 29th.

"The Agronomist", painted for the DaVinci Wine Storyteller Experience

and "My Heart, Away"

I also have two portraits selected for the Women Painters of the Southeast 4th Annual Juried Exhibition at the Blue Ridge Arts Center April 3rd to May 1st 2015.

"Portrait of a Florentine Tourist"

"Dauntless"

Portrait Society of Atlanta - Spring 2014 Juried Exhibition of Members

I am very honored and excited that two of my portrait painting were juried by Rose Frantzen into the Spring 2014 Portrait Society of Atlanta Juried Exhibition of Members.   The exhibition opens Friday, August 22nd at Roswell Visual Arts Center.

Current and Upcoming Shows and Exhibitions

Hello dear friends and followers...I am so sorry to have neglected my blog for so long!

But I am back with lots of good news to share so let's get to it!

Back in December I was lucky enough to paint a young man I met through my yoga studio.  Not only did I get a great portrait out of the experience, but I made a new friend, as we chatted and laughed and bonded during the painting session.

My original plan was to paint a simple head shot, 16" x 20" portrait.  But my model had other ideas in mind!  he wandered around my studio looking for props, and settled on a skull...but removed the jaw.

So we set up a pose and I pulled out a 18" x 36" inch canvas to accommodate his portrait, his hand and the skull

I got quite far in our three hours together, but further refined the piece using reference photos

I was very honored that this piece was selected for the 2014 LaGrange National Exhibition.  It was beyond thrilling to find out that the museum decided to purchase this painting, which I titled "Cessation of the Mind", for their permanent collection.

I'm also honored to be a newly juried member of the Women Painters of the Southeast, and to have two pieces in their 2014 member's Show

"A Step Back"

"Mona in Turquoise Scarf"

The show will be held at the Magnolia Art Gallery in Greensboro GA March 28th through April 15th.

For the fourth consecutive year I am proud to be part of one of the biggest and fastest growing Art Exhibitions in the area - the Cumming First United Methodist Church Festival of the Arts.  This year three pieces were juried into the show

"A Gentle Soul"

"Anna"

"A Deceptive Calm"

I am consistently impressed with the size and scope of this show, and the entire program throughout the two week run celebrates Art and Music.  Be sure to check the schedule and attend one of the wonderful concerts when you visit the show.

The show runs from march 22nd though April 6th.

A Portrait of an Italian Gentleman

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Two Portraits in Two Juried Exhibitions

I'm very pleased to be part of two wonderful juried exhibitions this fall.  The first is the Fall Exhibition of the Atlanta Portrait Society.   Juried by award winning portrait artist Jamie Lee McMahan, the portraits will be on display at the Marietta Cobb Museum of Art through December 16th.  One of my favorite portraits, my daughter Arianna holding a baby bird, was selected.

This was based on a photo just taken this past summer.   A baby bird was on the grass, and my neighbor's little girl picked up up while playing at our house.  Ari took a turn as well.  They were fascinated by this sweet creature, new baby feathers, but not yet able to fly.  After a short while, I encouraged the girls to put the bird back in the grass, so mama bird could come back.

Well - mama bird came back, and she was angry!  Hopping up and down in front of baby bird, she squawked and chirped, obviously angry at the baby for taking a break from flying lessons.  The baby bobbed up and down a bit - trying to take flight - but no luck.

Gently, I lifted the baby bird up again and placed it on a low tree branch  A few moments later mamma bird returned, and more hopping and chirping and high pitched conversation ensued between the two birds.  I didn't stay to see the final scene, but I'm guessing the baby never left another flying lesson before he was properly dismissed.

Click for another great Ari-bird story....

I also shipped the portrait of Mona in the Turquoise Scarf to the Cumberland Society of Painters National Juried Exhibition, being held at Richland Fine Art in Nashville Tennessee.  I am honored to be among 100 beautiful paintings selected by juror Peggy Kroll Roberts. 

I will miss both openings and award ceremonies while I am in Italy, but I am hoping they are well attended and I wish all of the artists the best of luck!

Painting with Casey Baugh

Last week was the third week that I got to watch and learn from modern master Casey Baugh.  And I am still learning from this man!  He did some awesome demos, showing off some new techniques, and even using different brushes than the last time we worked together.  I posted some of the highlights on my Studio 81 Facebook Page.

So here are a few of the paintings I did in between adjusting spotlights, fetching fabric, filling jars of thinner, changing radio stations, stocking water bottles, and helping out in any way I could :)

I'm most pleased with the top two - I actually really enjoyed the back view on top.  She held the pose beautifully, including the draped hands, and the light on her shoulder was very subtle. The palette in the second one was minimal, and therefor the focus was easily kept on her face.  The bottom two are a little too saturated, and forced.  I don't think I was relaxed!!! But good practice none the less :)  I'm already looking forward to Casey's next class in June 2014.

Aaron Westerberg Workshop Atlanta 2013

I am very excited to announce that Aaron Westerberg will be holding a portrait and figure painting workshop at my place, Studio 81, in Woodstock this October.  Aaron is a highly accomplished painter and has been published in numerous Art magazines.  He was on the esteemed staff at this years' Portrait Society of America Conference in Atlanta, where I had the pleasure of speaking with him in person, watching him paint an alla prima portrait, and I got a very helpful critique of my portfolio.

Aaron is a direct and engaging artist, and this will be a very full week of painting.  On Monday, Aaron will paint a portrait demo.  On Tuesday, the class will paint a portrait.  Wednesday, Aaron will demonstrate a full figure painting.  Thursday and Friday, the class will paint from the full figure.  The model fee is included in the class fee.

Class will meet every day from 10-5  Lunch will be one hour a day, and the studio is in walking distance of a dozen fabulous restaurants

 To register visit Aaron's website.  If you have any questions, please contact me.

Class is already filling up so register today! 

Portrait of a Redhead

I'm not going to lie to you.  This painting was painful.  I started pretty enthusiastically - I mean what's not to get excited about?  A beautiful picture with great lighting of a pretty girl wearing my FAVORITE color (purple BTW) and I get to PAINT it.  Nothing wrong with that!

So I started out by working from the photo in black and white - there was so much fun color to play with I felt I needed to just look at the light and get all the proportions and composition right.

I am working on oil primed cotton (for those of you keeping track!) First wash has blues and blacks with thinner.

I had a break in between painting sessions so the black was nice and dry when I went back and blocked in some local color.  

I blocked in the darkest darks - not really trying to get the right chroma, but the correct value.  

As I worked, the areas I addressed became smaller - face, shoulder, etc.

Continued to work into the details, such as the hands and the jewelry.  While I was happy with it overall, I never really thought the length of the neck was right, and I kept going back and forth with her jawline.  

At this point I almost called it "finished" - but the look on her face wasn't quite right.  She was more pensive in the source photo, and here she looked angry.

I was very happy with the hands and the purple shirt.

But the face was just not quite right yet.

So I scraped off the face and started working on it again.  For about 12 hours.  Paint was completely scraped off several times.  I was hitting a wall, I couldn't "see" the issues anymore, there was no progress being made (this is where you feel sorry for me...go on!)

Finally, I was getting closer.  The nose is actually now where the eye on the right used to be.  The jaw is slightly turned up, tilting her head a little.  I softened the eye on the left.

I adjusted the edge of her cheekbone too many times to think about.  Finally, it was much much better.

The adjustments to her head ended up pushing the composition a little closer to the top of the page than I had originally intended, but I think it still works.  

I am grateful to have the opportunity to work on so many portraits in a row lately.  Although I never feel like I have enough time in the studio, as I look at a group of paintings I can really see where my strengths and weaknesses lie.  I'm enjoying one amazing journey in front of my easel!