Posts Tagged ‘portraits’

memories

February 26, 2013

I spent the evening reading old journal entries.  I couldn’t keep a journal until I decided I would write it for one special person, my future (maybe?) great grandchild.  That made it easy to think of what to write.  I wrote things that I wish I knew about my great grandparents.  My aunt recently told me that she wrote her memories of her children and grandchildren and gave them as birthday gifts this past year.  How clever of her to think of such a wonderful gift!  I am always surprised that my kids don’t remember things from their early days, or when their memory is flavored with the telling and retelling of stories.  But isn’t that the way it is for all of us.

My mother talked a lot of memories during her last months.  She didn’t share memories (she shared plenty over the years), rather she talked of  what memories were, of how our perspective of an event so totally affects a memory.   My memory of an event from childhood may be very different than my sister’s memory of the same event.  But both of them are true, who is to say your memory is wrong?

The other writing I do is note taking while listening to sermons in church.  Those notes include lots of doodling.  Sometimes a sermon inspires very visual notes, other times not so much.  I am not sure what inspired this fish!  Can’t remember from the notes!

sermon-notes---Jan

Here is another watercolor portrait I worked on last weekend.  Added some finishing touches tonight, mainly to keep me up past 9 pm!

woman-with-feather-in-hat

This is on aquabord, 8″x8″.

To New Beginnings…

January 1, 2013

I am not doing resolutions this year.  I never keep them anyway.  But… if  I were to make a resolution, I would want it to be to create a drawing (or comparable creative endeavor) a day.  And… if I had made that resolution, this would be drawing #1.  I bought a pad of grey scaled papers so I could add light and dark to the mid range of grey to create drawings like this, but the texture of the paper is too rough and I have a lot of “pits” showing.  They are rather detracting in the light areas.

woman-#1-2013

Happy New Year!  May this be the year that we make better.

better nate than lever…

December 29, 2012

I am a bit behind, but…  Merry Christmas!  I hope your holidays have been lovely.  My month has been busy, and I am sorry I have removed myself from this blog for so long.  I have not even checked it since my last post!  But I have done some art and since Christmas is past, I think I am free to show you some commissioned work.

a pencil drawing -

ellen 2

another pencil drawing -

Olivia and Veronica for Mary Ann Clayton 2

and a watercolor of the same cute girls  (not a very good photo, though) -

Olivia and Veronica watercolor

And a watercolor portrait done a few months ago that I never shared with you.  Was holding off until the big reveal and then just didn’t…  until now.  I am pleased with this, actually I am pleased with them all.   I force myself to look critically at my work and when I  see my errors and able to fix them (based on learned knowledge), I am a happy camper.

For Elizabeth Harper 2

My daughter introduced me to QI, a British TV show with Stephen Fry.  It is very funny although extremely crude (by American ‘Southern States’ standards anyway) and one episode shows what is called “the Thatcher Effect.”   I think this is the same idea of turning your portraits upside down and viewing them for errors.  (There is a post somewhere in this blog that talks about that.)  Watch QI on youtube for a good laugh when you have time but if you are offended easily, be forewarned!

My title was taken from an old joke.  Do you know it?

Eva with a flower in her hair

October 24, 2012

This latest pencil drawing was done from a photo my friend had taken of his granddaughter.  It (the photo) was inspiring and she (the granddaughter) is adorable.

Cutting Silhouettes

October 20, 2012

I haven’t cut silhouettes in some time but I spent some time looking on eBay at silhouettes, thinking I want to hang some on my stairway wall with other black and white stuff.  I want vintage but true-cut silhouettes of individuals, not the fake 18th century ones mass produced.  I really know nothing of them, but I figured if they come in pairs of male and female with big powdered wigs, they probably aren’t done by a silhouette artist sitting on the street or at a department store cutting profiles for Mother’s Day gifts.  (My own love of silhouettes began when I happened to be in the children’s department of Rich’s when my kids were little and there was a woman cutting silhouettes.  I had her cut ones of  my kids and they are one of my favorite possessions.)

I pulled out black and white paper (you cut looking at the white paper, it is really hard to see what you are doing on the black paper).  Just using the scissors (no drawing allowed!), cut the profile of the person you are looking at.  Even though I long ago lost my silhouette scissors, I was pleased to see that I am not so out of practice considering how long it has been since I have done this and I had to use a crafting pair of scissors.

One of these is Ken, can you tell which?

 

For fun, I cut a bride and groom silhouettes of my lovely young friends, Joseph and Adrianne who recently got married.  These don’t really do them justice, but I thought they were so fun.

 

Here is a bird I did a while back.  I put it on an old photograph mount, wish I had more of those.

And here is a vintage silhouette I paid a dollar or so for.  It is so small and very finely cut.

 

Lily

October 9, 2012

A companion piece (although they are so totally different) to Ethan.  His beautiful little sister, Lily.

Her father, my nephew Daniel, sent me this photo with scarf around her head.  She looks like a tiny Jewish mother in the photo, not sure I captured that look!

What do you think, Daniel?

Friday Drawing

September 28, 2012

In between doing stuff I had to do today, I managed to do something I wanted to do.  Here is the result.

Josephine

September 3, 2012

Happy Labor Day, the most ill-named holiday in America.  Labor HoliDay is alright.  Labor-less Day makes sense.  Labor Day Not!  And I am not laboring, I am watercoloring.  Here is today’s work  piece, done from a thru-the-fire cabinet card.  I had to improvise a lot on this piece due to the condition of the photograph.  I wonder if she would recognize herself.   I don’t doubt she was beautiful, even from this damaged photo, I can tell that.

I do not know who this woman is, hers is among the damaged photos surviving the fire that claimed the life of my Great Aunt Josephine.  I went through this box of photos with my mother a couple of years ago.  She told me the names of those she knew and I wrote them down on sticky notes and placed them on the back of the photographs.  This photo’s sticky note has “Josephine” written on it.  But this isn’t Josephine, the woman looks circa 1900, Josephine wasn’t born until the 1920′s.    I wish I had written more than just one word…maybe this is who Josephine was named for.

my day just got better

August 28, 2012

My husband paid me the best compliment tonight.  He told me the watercolor below looks like a Sargent.  Of course, I realize he is trying to make me feel better, I have been struggling lately with life in general  and painting specifically (and then I woke with a cold this morning!).  And he was standing a good distance from the screen.  BUT, if you ever want to get on my good side, compare my work to Sargent’s!!!

This one is also 8″x8″.   The contrast is perhaps a little stronger than it is on the original, at least on my screen.  Wondering how you are seeing it…

Working my way up to 100 faces… maybe.  I do get bored easily.

Irene and Katherine

August 17, 2012

At the risk of being maudlin, I am showing you a pencil drawing of my mother (as a young child) and her sister two years (to the day) older.  I realize I am immersed in Mama and her family at the moment, I did the same thing after my father died 26 years ago.  I don’t know if it is healthy or unhealthy, but it is what I need to do right now and the book on grieving told me to do what feels right!  So…

Irene and Katherine, pencil, 8″ x 10″, done from an old photograph

I don’t normally look at a painting and start thinking,  this makes me feel (insert emotion), or doesn’t she/he/it look (insert adjective), but looking at this drawing, I am doing just that.  Irene died at such a young age (six) and when I look at her photograph, I see such innocence.  I don’t see that in Katherine even though she is two years younger.  I see intelligence in her.  And I know I am projecting my feelings into my subjects but… I see it in the photograph, also.

I think my pencil phase is over (after only two drawings!).  Looking at the above, I want to put color on these girls… just a touch somewhere.  I am not as pleased with my technique as I was in the last drawing…

You may see this again!


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