As I said to my mom tonight, for me, finishing a painting is less about actually being done and more about running out of time.

As you may remember, I started a few paintings a little more than a month at the Ruth Ellen Hoag workshop I attended. The annual Equine Art show is coming up, and after some consideration about my pitiful lack of work this year, I decided to put on the afterburners and try to finish one for my entry.

[image removed]

I took this one to critique group and they encouraged me to go darker and loose a few of the “background” shapes to bring more focus to the front.

[image removed]

Here’s the result. And it doesn’t matter what anyone thinks right now, because it’s being shipped up to Emerald Downs tomorrow!

If you’ve got a hankering to see the show, I’ll drive up on July 10 to bring back my painting and I still have a couple seats left in my car! I’d love the company.

Today was the final day of the Ruth Ellen Hoag workshop.

Ruth started the day with a challenge. She showed us some very contemporary work by artist Brenda Goodman and asked us to think about the pure use of shape, She told us that Ms. Goodman, in an interview, said she started her paintings with “automatic writing/drawing” (writing or drawing on a piece of paper without looking at what you were creating, thus, in theory, coming up with interesting shapes.)

Coupled with our exercises from days 1 and 2, she asked us now to use our reference photo and do a true blind contour drawing and then… work it. Either “outside-in/big shape to little” or “inside-out/big shape to little.”

And so… I did!

Blind contour drawing with some writing. Image quality bad due to only pencil lines on the paper.

Unfortunately, I forgot to take more photos. This is quite far into the day. Yellows are very washed out.

A few more steps down the road, right before I (daringly!) add black fluid acrylic in a “oiler boiler” to create more line.

While not finished, I like the addition of the acrylic line. Overall, though the color still needs to be pushed.

This was a good workshop, for me in particular, but I think everyone saw progress in their work. It was a small class (I think 7) in a very lovely setting, both of which are bonuses. Beyond that, however, Ruth has a lovely teaching manner that encourages as well as educates. She seems genuinely interested in helping students discover their artistic identity; this particular class had everything from a VERY new student to a very advanced student frequently seen in shows. Ruth had something encouraging and educational to say to everyone.

I’m going to look for another class if she comes back to this area. It might be a few years before I can afford another class, but this was worth it.

Right up front I’m gonna apologize for the poor quality images today; I forgot my camera and took these with my Kindle. They are blown out, skewed, and cut off weirdly.

At any rate, today was day two of the Ruth Ellen Hoag workshop. The “focus” of the day was working inside-to-outside and small-to-big.

I got a little ahead of the game in the morning and decided to start a “redo” of “Night Racing” while waiting for directions.

[image removed]

This still needs some work, but I see a lot of progress in the cleaner colors, “more-me” shapes, and better placement/resolution of issues.

Once instructions were given, I began work on this painting.

[image removed]

This still needs A LOT of work. And I got distracted with a variety of issues (the blue shadows, the white paper to name a few). There is at least one major composition error to fix. And I tried the new technique of working inside-to-outside and small-to-big.

We’ll see what tomorrow brings.

I am running amok yet again. In a brave move to escape my normal life (and try to get painting again) I signed up for a workshop entitled “Simplicity and Complexity” by Ruth Ellen Hoag held at Ruth Armitage‘s studio in my old stomping grounds of Oregon City.

What attracted me to the workshop was an emphasis on design, which is something I’ve been struggling with. I want to move beyond purely representational work and get more “design-y” or “abstract-y”… or something.

The day started off well. Ruth H. gave a lecture on the basic composition types (according to her):

• Radial
• S-Shape
• Canitlever
• Iconic
• Meander
• Cruciform (x-shaped)

I feel like I forgot one, but you get the idea.

Then we went upstairs and got to work. Ruth H. encouraged us to try “blind contour” drawing as well as simple “contour” drawing to start a work; the difference is that in blind contour drawing you never look at the paper.

Then she demoed a painting start, encouraging us to work from the outside of the paper, finding big shapes. Progressively we worked inward, working the smaller shapes. This is where I, predictably, had a brain cramp. This is a great suggestion that’s along the lines of “go write a novel.”  Ruth H. worked to explain the concept, showing layering of color and shape to bring interest. But it’s a complex subject.

I worked and came close to finishing two pieces today, and will work more tomorrow essentially from the same drawing. My apologies, but my camera work on these was very poor.

untitled

Night Racing

Before I begin, let me start with a complete off course.

1. Thank goodness for 911 and ambulances. In general, but also specifically as today my mom had cause to use both. She’s okay, but it makes you appreciate things.
2. Mom gets total kudos because she took care of herself. And…
3. When she told me, she did NOT dance around the subject but just told me. Massive improvement over past attempts.

Okay, back to painting.

I finished a painting!

Lately it feel like I am keeping up this blog in hopes that a painting will somehow materialize. Because my actual production has been woeful.

But tonight, painting night (so long since that thing actually happened,) I actually FINISHED A PAINTING!

Ensata

I’m pretty happy with it. I’m not sure the values are just right, but I’ll take it to critique and see what they say.

I also worked on…

Confidence

I have decided her little skirt will be pink with white polka dots. I adjusted her shadows. I have made no other decisions.

Learning the Ropes

Another one I have not forgotten about. On the advice of my critique group I softened the top line of the squirrels and adjusted the darks. I decided the “rope” was too interesting and I’m trying to dial that back a bit. I am considering adding another “rope” to prevent such a straight viewing line (in-and-out was how my critique group put it.)

Finally, I took the masking off yesterday’s start and adjusted a few lines.

Let the thinking commence.