Buffalo Girl

This week I traveled to Cleveland, Tennessee with fellow Chestnut Painter, Sandra Harris. We visited Gregg Vital's buffalo farm. Gregg placed his farm in the Land Trust so it will forever be as beautiful and untouched as it was this week. Gregg has six buffalo on his property. There is one bull named Bill, three cows named Peanut, Butter, and Jelly and two calves as yet unnamed. This photo is a painting of one of the cows. She has a beautiful head, so ancient and so magnificent. The second photo is a painting of early morning on the farm while the fog still covered the ground, a most beautiful time of day. Gregg's farm manager, Steve, was very helpful and informative as he introduced us to this beautiful property.

Completely restored heirloom plate

Heirloom Plate Rescue

You may remember a previous blog that displayed an image of a broken heirloom plate. Many weeks later and much sanding and painting have produced an image of the same plate as it must have looked prior to being broken. It is fully restored and ready to be displayed along with its' three matching plates. If you didn't know that the plate had been broken you would never know. After restoration, items may no longer be used to serve food but may still be displayed as the lovingly cared for heirlooms that they are.

Help for broken heirloom plate

You may remember an earlier photo of a badly broken Limoge plate, a highly valued heirloom. You see now the first stages in it's restoration. The photo on the left shows the plate after it was glued, cracks filled and sanded. It is now ready to paint. The photo on the right shows the back side of the plate. The cracks have been filled, but not yet sanded. There are some large missing pieces that must be replaced before sanding and painting can occur. You see the curved blue latex piece that is leaning against the plate. That is a mold of the plate rim. A product called "fast tray" will be used with the mold to fill those large empty spots. When dry it will be as hard as porcelain and may be sanded smooth to make a continuous unblemished rim after the back of the plate is painted. Be sure to watch this blog for photos of the finished plate.

Portrait of Brenda

Last week I led a portrait class for which Brenda was the model. Brenda is a well known and very talented wood turner. She is a lovely lady and was so much fun to paint.

Still Life Inspiration

These two still life images were painted last weekend in a workshop scheduled by the Tennessee Art League in conjuction with the Central South Art Exhibit with Instructor, Joseph Sulkowski. Joseph rarely teaches so I was very pleased to have the opportunity to watch him paint and to learn from him. His topic was the effect of light on a subject. He was truly inspiring and I was able to paint, with his help, the two paintings pictured here. I am trying to apply his methods and those of Lori Putnam to my portraits and landscapes as well as other still life paintings.

Children's portraits

Meet Richard and Alex, my grandsons. Both portraits were painted from photographs as neither boy is capable of sitting still long enough to be painted from life. They're both grown up now and active in all sports. The challenge of these portraits was to paint those young faces without "overmodeling". I learned that sometimes a "color shift" is all that is needed and not a "value shift". That seems to be especially true when painting by only north light.

What I learned from painting the boys was especially useful in painting "Grace" yesterday during Open Studio at Southgate Studio. I painted Grace in north light only which required tight values and high value key. I'm trying to "think more and paint less" which seems to be working.

Can This Heirloom Plate Be Saved?

This lovely Haviland plate was accidentally knocked off a wall where it had been displayed with three other companion plates. The owner inherited the plates from her husband’s mother and they are of great sentimental value. There is a process by which this plate may be restored to it’s original beauty. First the pieces must be washed in order to remove any dirt or oil from handling that might interfere with good contact when glued. Then it must be carefully glued. This can be tricky. When two pieces fit tightly together unglued, the glue will take up some very miniscule space between the two pieces when glued together. When multiple pieces are glued together it is easy to see that the total space taken up by the glue can be significant. This additional space sometimes makes it very difficult to achieve the original shape of the piece. After the plate has been glued the tiny visible crack made by the glue must be filled with porcelain filler. Then the fill has to be sanded smooth. This often takes several applications and lots of sanding. When I have completed the process of washing, gluing, filling and sanding, I will post a picture of the plate at that point in the process. An explanation of the next steps in the process will accompany the photograph. Check back in about three weeks for the rest of the story.

The Straw Hat

Last year the Open Studio group at Southgate Studio painted a very lovely lady in a marvelous straw hat and red scarf. She has always been one of my favorite portraits. Several weeks ago she appeared again as our model. She wore another lovely straw hat with a yellow and blue outfit. It was such fun to have another opportunity to paint Mary. She’s a lovely and gracious lady. Her photograph appears in the image on the right. The other two images are photos of my paintings of Mary

Snack Attack

I attended a Fat Tuesday party yesterday sponsored by the Tennessee Art League as a fundraiser. It was a great party hosted by Laura Turner and planned by Elizabeth Scolkin. Laura generously offered some of her "rescued and restored" old movie posters from the 1920's to be auctioned. Bidding was active and the TAL was the beneficiary. Many thanks are due to the partygoers and the hostesses. Upon leaving the party we were given a box of donuts. I ate them, of course, but not before I painted this picture of the donuts and Starbucks coffee. I call the painting "Snack Attack".

“EARLY SPRING”

I have just returned from Memphis where I attended Lori Putnam’s Still Life Workshop. The painting, “Early Spring” was painted with advice from Lori. She is an excellent teacher and I am anxious to continue painting in this impressionistic style.

This portrait of Phoebe was painted this morning in Open Studio at Southgate Studio and Fine Art. I tried something different this morning. Not having taken time to stretch a new canvas, I pulled out an old painting that I didn't like and painted over it. The previous painting was very dark so it was hard to get the skin tones bright enough. I was afraid that it would get too chaulky if I used much white to lighten the skin tones. I used yellow to lighten wherever I could and I think it turned out okay. That's what weekly Open Studio is for - to experiment and see what happens. It's like practicing the scales on the piano but lots more fun. I think I'll try painting over old portraits again. I have miles and miles of canvas that could be recycled this way.

FINAL PORTRAIT OF ANDREA

ANDREA

THE FIRST PORTRAIT

ANDREA

THE FINAL PORTRAIT

The first portrait of Andrea was painted three weeks ago. With a little help from a friend and a lot more adjusting, the final portrait was completed. With just a little more tweaking I softened the line between her right cheek and hairline. The dark hair color was lightened slightly and pulled into the neckline so those values would be a little closer. One little spot on her forehead at the hairline was lightened so it would indicate the forehead continuing on up to the hairline. All those changes were small ones but they made a big difference. No one said this would be easy. I remember a comment made by my first teacher, Michael Shane Neal. He said, "Talent is only 10% of a good portrait. The other 90% is desire and perserverance."

I am pleased to report that my painting entitled "Requiem" was selected for exhibit in the juried Central South Art Exhibition to be held at the Tennessee Art League from May 3 to June 24, 2011. A reception for the artists will be on Saturday, May 7, 2011 at the Art League, 808 Broadway, Nashville, TN.

The Central South Art Exhibition is in its 46th year and is one of the oldest and most prestigious art competitions in the South and in the nation. Joseph H. Sulkowski was the juror for this exhibit and is a graduate of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and is a Life Member of the Art Students League of New York. Mr. Sulkowski is a resident of Nashville.

"Requiem" was painted in memory of Charles G. Southall, my son-in-law, and is a scene on his farm in Primm Springs, TN.

Painting At Cummins Falls

This is the path down which I saw Kevin Menck and Kay Farrar walking toward what was supposed to be a mile long hike to the bottom of Cummins Falls. They reappeared in record time and were elated to have found a shortcut that no one else knew about. I was very interested in going down there myself until I learned that they practically had to rappel over the edge of the cliff. At my age and having never been very well coordinated, I decided that would not be a smart thing to do. Hence the painting of the path instead of the Falls.

The painting on the far left was done on site. The day was cloudy and overcast and I realized that the painting done on site looked as though it was a sunny day. The corrected painting on the right is more representative of the actual light conditions. I used a reference photo taken at the time of the original painting to correct some of the composition errors.

The day was very cold. There were about 15 painters from the Chestnut Group that braved the low temperatures. The Tennessee Parks and Greenways staff had already prepared a nice bonfire for us and supplied hot coffee. We were made to feel very welcome. Cummins Falls is indeed a wild and beautiful natural area. I will return later in the week to paint the falls. The next time I will bring my husband and his 4 wheel drive truck so I won't get stuck in the mud like I did today.