Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Fall arriving with a vengence!


It has been overwhelming two months since i have relocated to the southwest. Currently I have one huge project with students that consist of a mosiacs mural which will still need another three weeks to complete.


Some photos are posted here to show the design. This photograph was taken with an iPhone on the 5th day of the mural. Lots happening as you can see.
Will post more photos as we progress with the tiling.

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

New Beginnings in vivid Santa Fe

Hello All:

You may have noticed that I have been somewhat lax in posting for the last several months. There has been some BIG changes in my life since then. I have relocated to Santa Fe, New Mexico for a new job. This is the best possible change for myself for several reasons.

The Art Community is tremenous here and there are so many opporunities for growth as an artist.
The Climate is much dryer here which will help improve my overall wellness.
The Culture in New Mexico is vivid and rich and empowers me to get out and experience things.

With the three main reasons for becoming more productive to assist me in my own growth as an artist, I will be posting some new works in the coming months. I welcome comments!

See you again soon,

Judy

Saturday, February 16, 2008

New Beginnings

Greetings!

It has been close to two weeks since my last painting. The 40/40 challenge for my students has gartered no interest for the duration of 40 paintings in 40 days. I will be bringing this challenge up with my new students for spring semester, which just started last week. Hence, wrong timing!


As for me, I am going to start experimenting with oils for the next month. Hopefully will produce a painting each day with one day off a week. Part of the reason for my little break from painting, was a little viral infection which laid me low for close to two weeks.

Size will remain 5 by 7 inches on multimedia art board. I have done some research into small paintings by reading several painting books which focused on OILS... I'll photograph them instead of scanning due to the properties of oil. I'll continue to work with acrylics to develop my techniques and style with the medium.

Hope to read some feedback from anyone who cares to offer any!

Bon Appetite.

Judy

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Rolleiflex


Wow... Finally got back into it today! This is a Rolleiflex camera, one of many cameras that I own since I am a camera hound since college days. Tonight, I just kept staring, staring and staring at the Rolleiflex for over two hours while watching television and eating dinner. Finally I just told myself to get on with it since obviously it had my focus 110%. Can you believe I painted and missed the "BIGGEST LOSER" while it was on in front of me? Yeah.. i couldn't believe myself. But finally something that had my complete focus and the internal motivation to actually paint something that made me forget how tired I was.

My narrative is mostly for myself as a journal. So I am basically talking to myself as i post my work up! Some things very clear to me yet I can miss it! Painting with Acrylic so different than working with my favorite medium, Soft Pastels. I wish to work in soft pastels but they would be difficult to display in a hallway of a high school without a glass barrier between the viewer and the artwork.

Sunday, January 27, 2008

Wine glass


I took the last two days off, but plan to paint another painting in the morning to catch up for my lapse over the weekend. This latest one I did around 6 p.m. Sunday and used only one light from a floor lamp.

I did this painting in the dark so my values appear to be all over the place... hence some confusion in the reflections found in the glass. Getting decent light for being able to see properly is my next homework before the next painting done at home! I just forgot and decided not to take care of the light for the artist to see their work in progress. It was something i have overlooked in the set up of my studio location.

Have patience and take the time to set up for painting! Have patience receive reward!

Thursday, January 24, 2008

cactus still life


Wow... i actually made it through my fourth night! I almost didn't paint tonight since i was feeling like of blah and tired. But found my subject and a green silky fabric on which to place my cactus. I liked the greens that show up and the pot was glossy white, which gave me the opportunity to try my hand at painting smooth reflections. Let me know what your impressions are!

I started out making it really smooth and close to the end, I ran out of the acrylic retarder and went with water to thin down the paint... so not too bad. The lights so far have been the living room ceiling lights for the last three paintings. It helps with being able to see. I'll need to paint during the daylight hours on the weekends to see how that goes. I am sure it'll be a different experience and my energy is sure to be higher.

Thanks for visiting!

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Pear

This is day 3, I started out strong with this painting but ended up overdoing it. The black fabric appears gray under the reflected light and turned out to be my undoing. The shadow half of the pear also give me some problems with blending the colors with acrylic retarder. This is a new medium for me and I am learning how to work with it. I always want my painting to be smooth not rough and yet this happened when I overdid the layering of glazes in the fabric and the shadow area of the pear.

Could be I was already tired when i started this painting and that happened to affect my focus! still there are areas i like, such as the background and the top half of the pear. So good job half way.

Tip: try to find ways to work in any situation, tired or alert!

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Still Life with Pear

Here is my second painting tentatively titled "still life with Pear". I finally got my new fridge today and went shopping for fresh fruits and veggies at Safeway. Once I saw the pear in the aisle, I just knew that I had my subject for the night's painting. This took me close to 2 hours to paint. The size of work is 5 X 7 inches on Multimedia Art board. Media is Acrylic with selection of only 5 colors... sepia, yellow, greenish-blue hue, and black & white. This was a challenge and the calligraphy of the scroll work was a challenge that I'll need to continue to work on. I enjoyed painting the pear and my favorite vase.

Meeting the challenge


This Blog is a way for me to make and keep a commitment to myself to produce a painting everyday for a year! I have started a 40/40 Challenge with my students. 40/40 Challenge is to produce 40 paintings in 40 days. This is a way for us to develop work discipline by producing a painting each night regardless. By making the time to paint, our growth as artists will unfold as we learn to observe the shapes, color relationships with highlights and shadows and arrangement of our subjects.

On January 21st, I did my first small scale painting of a still life in my living room. The lighting was soft and produced interesting textures on the background wall. Since I normally paint on a larger scale, painting on a smaller scale is a challenge for me. As I continue to paint on the small scale, I hope to adapt to the challenges inherit in small paintings.

Feel free to give me some feedback as one of my goals is to develop a more personal style that reflects my inner spirit. I am applying to Graduate studies at a Fine Arts College on the east coast and need to develop my painting techniques but also to find my Voice as an artist.

Hope you enjoy the paintings!