This morning was my last class with JJ ( so, so SAD!)  Very sad to not be there on Saturday mornings any more....I brought him a "thank you" cupcake, completely forgetting that our Chinese students don't eat sweets like we sugar-loving Americans do and JJ, very graciously, turned it down.  Silly me...

Anyhow, last class was "let's go outside and paint something in the parking lot!"  Yikes!  So many things there, how to narrow it down?  Trees, stores, cars, people, fences, fountains, flowers, landscaping, bushes, benches....it's a bit of a visual smorgasbord when you're trying to condense your artsy thoughts into a painting.  

Fortunately, JJ to the rescue....he showed us how to change the scene, choose our focal point, use warm and cool colors and even move items around to make our composition more pleasing to the eye.

Did I mention that he's a great teacher?  I totally recommend his classes.

Well, we are supposed to loosely paint this fountain that's there...being loose is not my strong suit ( in more ways than one), PLUS, with Chris being gone for SO long, I am mentally and physically exhausted.  Did I mention that our fire alarm has been beeping the last few nights?  No?  well.......it has and....zzzzzzzzzz  Oy.

I'm sure it has something to do with batteries and blah, blah, blah...it's much easier to shut the door and put a pillow over my head than to search for a battery at 3am.....plus, if I get up, then the cats think it's playtime and the dog wants to go out and one child might awaken b/c she's scared b/c I shouldn't have let her watch that dinosaur show that traumatized her and she'll probably need therapy soon b/c she cried when the dinosaur ate the person (I forgot about that part, I swear) and we'll have to pay for it b/c therapy isn't cheap and that's why I need to sell some art soon b/c kids are expensive!  Plus, I'm not sleeping.....and I'll probably have to buy stock in Unisom soon...

Focus!

We get all set up and JJ does his demo, confounding us by how simple he seems to make it.  His brush pauses and lightly dances on the page and suddenly, a burbling fountain appears and in the next stroke, a bench and some perfect trees and I suddenly feel a headache coming on while I glance around to make sure that TT hasn't gotten kidnapped by some Cary yuppie...Oh, she's taken off her coat, socks, hat and boots and is now leaping over them like a horse...Phew....Once we sit down, it's a bit more intimidating.....

Here's my attempt....

Then, I'm at a loss....what to do now?  JJ offers to help and I'm so lost that I give him permission to touch my painting....this permission was not given last week...ha ha....b/c I'm so picky, when he tried to help me, I yelped, "Don't touch it!  I need to ruin it by myself!"  Mainly, it was pride speaking last week, but this week, pride was out the window b/c, YES, I needed help!  (that's hard for me to admit)  

So, with a few deft strokes, he basically fixes everything.....oy..I hear the fire alarm chirping again....no sleep tonight....

And it looks SO much better after he dabs here and there that I go back in and dab here and there, trying to imitate him and I end up sitting there, soaking up the sun and admiring my toes....don't they look nice?  I should have worn my toe rings....if I knew that I was going to photograph my toes with my art.  

So, all in all, I have no wisdom to impart b/c I usually come away from class realizing that I am still at the bottom of the tall and intimidating artsy mountain and most times, I have no idea what I'm doing...just winging it, really.

I guess that's a big part of art, following those glorious instincts and having fun.  

Here's to plein air painting......now, where's my chiropractor, I need an adjustment....

Wow, it has been several months since I've posted anything here.....I can't believe how time flies.  

Well, many new thing have been happening since I've last written.  My art is downtown at cimos, Raleigh. I'm taking classes from the super talented JJ Chiang and learning a LOT.

I wanted to talk about my two styles of portraiture.  I'm leaning towards one style, but I'm addicted to my original style.  My original style has a very smooth, baby soft skin tone.  The ONLY way to accomplish this style is to layer very light layers, VERY slowly, babysitting each wash.  Here's an example of my latest portrait in this style.

I painted this little one from a facebook photo (not the best quality to paint from) for some friends who live in China. Sometimes you can't have the "perfect" photo to work from, so you have to do your best with what you have.  

So, this was the picture that I got off of facebook.  Super cute!  Great close up shot and the best one of the bunch, so it was what I went with.  

Since babies have such marvelously smooth skin, I wanted to paint the smooth style of skin tone on her. I started in the upper right hand corner, wet on dry, changing colors as I went.  I ever-so-gradually built up the skin washes.

Here's the finished product.

I wish that I'd had more time to work on it, but my husband needed it done in two days before he left!  Hopefully, it makes it through the TSA....lol

So, the other skin tone wash that I'm wanting to perfect is much more impressionistic in style.  I've only successfully done one painting in this style, so it's obviously something that I need to work on.  

This little one was a child that was at Fisherman's Cove in Jamaica when we were there.  I'm not quite sure if it's a boy or a girl.  I'm leaning towards girl.....it's funny b/c when we were in Vietnam and Jamaica, people have no regard for "girl" or "boy" clothing.  They just dress their kids in whatever is on hand at the time.  Methinks it's more necessity than anything. 

Here it is:

So, here I'm simply touching in colors here and there, softening some strokes and leaving others.  It's VERY difficult for me to leave the edges on my strokes.  Sometimes I have to grit my teeth and leave it....ha.

I also think that dark skin tones work better with this style of painting.  Anyhow, if you're interested in exactly what colors and blah, blah, blah, just email me.  I won't bore you.

Ciao for now.