Santa Cruz
Dude on the beach
I worked on the couple sitting on a log. I like the way they are painted loosely, sometimes I get hung up on details and everything gets really tight. I have no interest in photo realism (for me to paint that is, I appreciate other people’s work) and I have been thinking of ways to further abstract my paintings.
Here’s the whole beach scene. I worked on a bunch of stuff all over.
I passed Morning Paper onto my friend. She cried. It was an emotional subject for her because it’s of her mother when she was young and healthy and bright and read all the time. She loved to read the paper everyday. Now she has Alzheimer’s disease and can no longer read. I could see the mixed emotions in her reaction to the painting, of seeing the beauty in her mother brought to life in vibrant color and at the same time miss her mother lost to Alzheimer’s.
Girl on the Beach
Next paintings started. This is another painting from my trip to Natural Bridges beach in Santa Cruz. So many wonderful things there to paint.
This one is of people just doing their thing on the beach.
The walking girl is mostly done except for her face and some adjustments here and there. I love the looseness of the strokes and I especially love her lanky pre teen stride across the sand. I hate seeing kids in bikinis but I like the color and shadows on her skin so much that I decided to paint her she was dressed that day. I’d like to thank her for wearing those nice red shorts. I like her size relative to the size of the canvas.
That little girl in front is digging in the sand and eating a sandwich.
Morning Paper-Finished!
I finished and signed morning paper today. I glazed in a little color onto the floor, glazed the shirt which helped integrate the little floral print and brighten parts of the shirt, cleaned up the lines on the bookcase, and added a little color to the bright sunlight on her face. Oh, and I warmed up the light coming through the window that’s shining on her and the newspaper.
I love it and would like to keep it for myself but it’s a commission piece so I will have to let it go.
On to the next thing. I enjoyed doing this figure in an interior space, I have 2 paintings in mind, one outdoor scene and one indoor. I took a pic of my son at his piano lesson and will probably paint it.
Have a great one!!
Thanks for your nice comments, they are much appreciated. I enjoy having an audience, clearly.
jill
Flowery shirt!
I did it!
More progress on Morning Paper
I’ve spent some more time working on parts of Morning Paper. I worked on her hand and outstretched arm. I wanted her hand to look relaxed and feminine and I feel like I got it there. Sometimes I look at paintings of women’s hands and they look masculine, other times too dainty. Hands are a little tricky to paint, same as teeth. Teeth are also tricky and easy to overdo. Lots of little parts.
I also worked on bringing out and pushing back things on the bookcase.
I just spent about an hour or so working on her shirt and made almost zero progress. I’m trying to paint on a flower print and I don’t quite know how to do it without making it look silly. I give it another shot tomorrow.
Morning paper-progress
More progress on the stuff in the living room.
Next I’ll work on her skin/hand/face. I need to let all the white dry so I can bring up the light higher in value. And let the background dry so I can glaze it and push it back and bring in some color.
