Cherry Blossom Promenade

Cherry Blossom Promenade, 36x36, oil on linen

To be a harbinger of Spring, here is one of the latest to come off my easel. I have been working on this large for me painting since last spring. It was a struggle to get it to 'read' correctly. Originally, I was trying to imitate Tom Thompson and the way he could make the woods of Canada have such wonderful patterns within them. I managed to do that with the cherry blossoms but I could never get that to work with the cast shadows so in essence the painting looked like two separate ideas. I finally had to paint over that which I liked and was attached to doing to get the painting to have a cohesive and connected feel, which ultimately is what I was going for in the first place. Sometimes we artists can be stubborn in holding on to something which is holding us back from achieving where we want to go. What can I say? I finally saw what I needed to and got the ship righted and on course

One of the things I like about this scene is not only the promenade of blooming trees but the figures. It shows a cross section of people and one would think I had placed them there to add to the composition the placement is so perfect. You can't see the last grouping in this image as they blend in with the trees but there is a 6th  grouping in between the trees that are to the upper right of the rabbi's hat.

This scene is at the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens. It was quite by chance I was in NY in April for the Cherry Blossoms. I had come to see the Sargent watercolor show at the Brooklyn Art Museum and my cousin had gone with me. When we left the museum she wanted to go to the Botanic Gardens which was right next door to the Museum. So glad we did. A lovely oasis in the city and what a welcome to be outside in it.

Books to recommend

Today being a snow day for me from work and a perfect reading day, I want to share with you two books I recently read. Both by the same author, B.A.Shapiro. I read "the Art Forger" first. I remember trying to read this book a few years ago but could not get into it. Then one day recently I was walking my dog in the neighborhood and stopped to check out a neighbor's "Little Free Library" box and there it was again, so I decided to give it another chance. This time the book grabbed me. It is fiction based on real events used as a spring board to create this interesting story of a young artist trying to make her way but to support herself, paints reproductions of famous Degas paintings for a commercial enterprise. The real event that this story uses is the 1990 heist of 13 paintings from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. None of the paintings have yet to be recovered. In the story, the young woman is brought a painting to copy. It is supposed to be a Degas that she recognizes as being one of the paintings stolen in this heist. I don't want to give the story away but she obviously has a moral dilemma on her hands. This author goes into some detail on the tools used and how someone, a forger perhaps?, goes about replicating old paintings. I found this part particularly fascinating. The story is well told, well documented, and I highly recommend it to those who like art, history and just a plan good contemporary story.

The second book just came out and is called "The Muralist." Again, based on true events with a fictitious main character. This time the story takes place in and around 1940 in NYC with world famous artists part of the fictionalized story. The fictional main character is a Jewish French woman born and mostly raised in the USA. She is working for the WPA painting murals with Lee Krasner (before she became well known as an abstract expressionist) and included among their friends are Willem deKoenig, Marc Rothko, and Jackson Pollock. Being Jewish and having family in France the main character of course is very concerned about what is going on in Europe. In this story she becomes the missing link from the art that went on before, to the leap to the purely American art form, abstract expressionism. She and Lee Krasner are both studying with Hans Hoffmann and the author goes into what impact he had on both women. I had never heard of Hans Hoffmann before but I must admit I was quite inspired by the authors description of his 'push-pull' theory. Again there are myriad threads in this story which made it for me a fascinating read. Number one, I will read just about anything on WWII and this book delves into the politics of the time and focuses on those politicians who would keep the refugees out. I learned that one particular man, Samuel Breckenridge Long, who single-handedly kept 100's of thousands of Jewish refugees from entering the US and most certainly sent the majority to their death. A timely moral dilemma with what is currently going on with the Middle East. Again, B.A. Shapiro weaves history, art, and a love story together to make an enchanting tale that weeks later I am still cogitating on.

As an encore, I decided to add a third book that I read years ago but is one of those stories that just sticks with you. A little secret about me is that I apprenticed in a bookbinder/book restoration studio for almost two years so I also like stories about books. "People of the Book-a Novel" by Geraldine Brooks is one of the more intriguing stories about a book I have read. I am including the book review from Amazon on this one as I am a bit foggy on the details. I just remember that it follows the book through all its owners over the centuries by the clues left behind in the book. Again, it shows my love of history, art and the human soul.

"Inspired by a true story, People of the Book is a novel of sweeping historical grandeur and intimate emotional intensity by an acclaimed and beloved author. Called "a tour de force"by the San Francisco Chronicle, this ambitious, electrifying work traces the harrowing journey of the famed Sarajevo Haggadah, a beautifully illuminated Hebrew manuscript created in fifteenth-century Spain. When it falls to Hanna Heath, an Australian rare-book expert, to conserve this priceless work, the series of tiny artifacts she discovers in its ancient binding-an insect wing fragment, wine stains, salt crystals, a white hair-only begin to unlock its deep mysteries and unexpectedly plunges Hanna into the intrigues of fine art forgers and ultra-nationalist fanatics."

Marsh Wren

Marsh Wren, 8x10, oil on panel, available

Last month I thought I might participate in the 30 paintings in 30 days again this January. With that in mind I went online to morguefile to look for some interesting but not too involved royalty free photos. I had heard about this website but this was my first visit. I pulled a bunch off to be ready but then decided against doing the 30 day challenge. BUT that doesn't mean I won't play around with what I found or go back to visit again when I get tired of my own morgue file.

I liked this image for the little birds intensity and to play with keeping the background loose and somewhat abstracted. The block in was fast and fun and then I would add detail to the bird from time to time over the past few weeks. I did this painting with the thought of donating to a raffle for the Governor's show. They asked participating artists to consider donating a painting but that doesn't mean what you offer will be accepted for the raffle.

I am enjoying doing these smaller pieces while working on the bigger paintings; it helps break up the monotony and keeps things fresh. And then there is that feeling of accomplishment, too.

Another repurposed painting-Wynetka Farm

Block in for Wynetka Farm, 12x9 oil

I saw a friend of mine was painting this image. I was taken by the simple shapes and the obvious light and shadow on the white house with red roofs so I asked her if she would mind sharing it with mes as I would like to paint it too. She was willing. Wasn't that nice of her? She is painting it in a much larger format. I just wanted to do a small sketch. I did this initial quick sketch in an hour or so, using the Douglas County plein air painting below as the substrate. That is what I consider a failed attempt at abstracting the landscape. My husband came in after I put this up to look at it and said how much he liked it! Then I didn't want to touch it again for awhile. Don't mess with success right?

Wynekta Farm, oil

But this weekend I decided to finish it and not be distracted by a positive comment. I did try to leave some of the original painting coming through but not so much that it was overly distracting. You can see some of the rhythms still showing through. I quite like the finished product for a small diversion from the bigger pieces I have been doing recently. Feels good to feel finished without spending months on it.

Underpainting, Douglas County Plein air from 2009

The cliffs along Half Moon Bay

A few years ago I was in Half Moon Bay, California to spend Easter with Richard's niece. Richard and his brother and I spent the morning walking along the cliffs and then back via the beach. My brother-in-law is still on the cliffs as he did not join us on the beach walk. That would be him scanning the horizon.

Cliffs-Half Moon Bay, 24x24, oil

I know this is somewhat of a 'gutsy' composition. Not only does it slash the square into almost two identical shapes, but the cliffs fade off the canvas! I have the bird soaring to act like a period to stop the viewer as well as the hills in the distance to go back into rather than off to the left.  The figures in the foreground also help to anchor the viewer in the composition. So the thought was the viewer would start with the figure (my brother-in-law) go off towards the left, see the bird, drop down to the figure and come back across the beach.

My aim was to keep each large shape in one value group yet keep those shapes interesting. So, sky, cliffs and beach. As a graphic designer I want to make each shape a flat color so this is my continuing struggle to add interest with texture (paint quality), subtle value shifts and layering of paint. Layering paint sounds so easy but for me it is not. I want to cover the previous layer, every speck of it! Sand is a particular favorite of mine to practice using texture and value shifts. There is so much blue (reflected sky after all) in that sand with some rose and ocher too.

Highway 101

I found out recently that my father-in-law, Bob Ekelund, had been refusing food and drink. I had already been thinking of doing this painting in remembrance of all the times we drove to the ranch in Hopland, California from either the airport or from my brother-in-laws home

Fall Colors in Northern California vineyards. 20x16, oil on panel

I found out yesterday afternoon (Tuesday) that he had passed away peacefully. It is only fitting that I post this painting now in remembrance for Bob and all the wonderful memories shared in his home.

This image is from the last trip we took for Thanksgiving 2006 on the ranch. We were driving up Hwy 101 somewhere between Geyserville and Cloverdale. It is such a beautiful drive.

This painting practically painted itself. It doesn't happen as often as I would like, this phenomenon of a painting painting itself but when it does, it is a joy. Fast and easy and no struggles! It is what is called a 'Z' composition, where the viewer zig-zags thru the picture.

A new painting emerges

A bit of a story to this post. I have a painting I did a year or two ago where I played with abstraction. I had it hanging at the office for fall as it is a scene where the dawn light was casting its long fingers across a street in the river town of Migennes, France. I was out looking for a patisserie to bring back breakfast. I am an early riser, even on vacation. One of my co-workers asked me if he could make a comment on the painting and of course I replied yes. I am always thrilled when someone looks at my work long enough to want to comment. He told me that the foreground of the road bothered him because there wasn't enough interest at the entry point into the painting. GREAT observation. So I took the painting home that weekend and fixed the road. Unfortunately, that little fix was leading me into wanting to repaint the whole thing as I am not in the same place I was when I painted it. On this particular painting I wanted to leave it alone. I was and am happy with it 'as is.' Here is the original painting with the road repaired:

Migenne at Dawn, 18x24, oil on panel over old painting. Available

Not on my agenda that weekend was to start a new painting, same subject, but that is what I ended up doing. I was jazzed! I found another old painting, same size at 18x24, on which to paint. I found out through this process that it is a different result depending on if the original painting ever had varnish on it or not. The painting above had varnish. Even with removing the varnish, the paint is still tacky so the brush glides over it and sticks. Which is the effect I like in the above painting. The new rendition over another old painting did not ever have varnish on it so it was like painting on a fresh canvas.
I took photos along the way so you could see how it works. I had intended to make a slideshow out of the progression so it would not involve so much scrolling but the latest versions make it so much harder than the easy Picasa I used for all my slideshows in the past! Maybe I will figure it out but today, it is not happening and I have been messing with this for weeks and I am over it.

1. I don't have the original painting but in this first image it is mostly there. I have drawn in the basic structure of the new painting and blocked in the outline of the new sky.

2. Here I have added the road and some guiding lines of the gutters. The roof color is already as a wall and the chimney looks like a door.

3. Here I have added walls in two different values. One color for the walls in the light and another for the same color walls in shadow.

4. Finishing up more houses. I do like how the trees work with the composition of the new scene.

5. Roofs are coming into play and the side of the orange building with its basic structure and the sidewalk on the left is no longer tree colored. The chimney pots are taking shape as well. The growth is tied to big blocks of color.

6. More roof's and finishing up another house to the left.

7. this photo was taken after dark so it is studio lit. I did not want to stop yet so that is why the colors look a bit yellow. The houses at the end of the street are coming in. Oh how I struggled to want to cover up the trees but it had to happen. Windows are being shuttered as the town is still asleep. The car shape is added.

8. Day 2: more details. Windows, roofs and car. The sidewalk is finally put in on the right as is detail on the wall. I changed the color of the beige walls that are shadow. They were too warm in color. I am starting to shape the green bushes.

9. working on color shifts. I thought the roof was too green on the tall house. Added more detail that is particular to France.

 10. Minor changes here. Starting to work on the greenery on both sides of the street.

 11. This is where I stopped. I am not finished. I don't normally paint in such a methodical way. In this case it had to be or I would have been lost in the trees, no pun intended. Now that I have the structure in the next step will be to force some areas and tone down others. I don't yet get the feeling in this version that it is dawn. The road needs more visual interest and the bushes on the right need better definition of being bushes in the dawn light. They are a bit indistinguishable for my taste. In other words, not reading right. I will post the finished piece when I get there but this is where it ends for now. It is the way of the artist. I need a break from this piece as I work on others. That way I can let these ideas simmer until they are ready to be manifested.