ACEO Seascape

 

Here's a small ACEO to add to my vacation journal. It's a seascape done in oil pastel on a canvas textured paper from an assorted pack of artist trading cards by Strathmore. It's not from the same batch of vacation pictures as Beach Ballerina. It's from this September's trip to Florida. I think I'm going to have to combine photos for the journal from both trips since I didn't get very many photos this time. (I spent too much time and energy trying to keep up with my sons and their offspring at Disney World. If I stopped to take pictures, I'd get lost.) I really like the blending feel of oil pastels, but they are hard for me to control. I couldn't get the white very white if I tried to go over a darker area. I think, if I try this again in a larger size, I would leave areas where I want to put white, sort of like watercolor. I think acrylic paper would work too. The canvas and acrylic paper have a plastic type coating that lets the oil pastels blend without being absorbed into the paper. I haven't figured out how to put this in the journal since it can get smeared. I would have to find something that wouldn't stick either, like waxed paper.

Emma Again - Sketch

I've been planning to do another painting of my granddaughter but took a little time to re-organize my painting space. It was getting a little difficult to squeeze into the area where I paint. I had to move some stuff to the attic that my son left in that room almost ten years ago when he left for Florida in 2004. He had planned to leave the day hurricane Ivan flooded out Carnegie. Fortunately, I live on a hill, but alot of his stuff never got packed onto the truck under the circumstances. I now have more elbow room and it's less distracting when I want to paint. I also watched an art video on drawing faces and that seemed to get me started on the sketch. I hadn't enjoyed drawing as much the last few years because I couldn't wait to get to the color. But after watching the videos, I realized that I needed some practice on faces and proportions. I also don't like the way she is holding her hand in the photo and I went through dozens of photos to find her holding her hand in a more pleasant position. Here's the preliminary sketch (I'm still working on the hand.)   



Old Sketches

In keeping with my original objective of posting some of my old work and while I'm on the subject of portraits, here are a couple of old sketches I did many years ago while I was in my early twenties. One is a sketch of Richard Burton (obviously I copied a photo) and another was of an acquaintance (old boy friend whose name I can't remember). While I was at Point Park, I used to sketch classmates before the class started, usually in profile because that was easier. One of the professors wanted me to do his portrait (I think it was a Dr. Buncher), but I had a lot of trouble getting a likeness. There were several of my classmates watching while I drew. At one point, I mentioned that I was having trouble getting his chin right and one of my classmates said,"No wonder, that's because he has two." So there may be quite a few of my portrait sketches out there if people kept them and the paper didn't disintegrate. 

As Far As I Got - Sketch

My sister had some beautiful maroon roses in her yard that looked like velvet and I thought one would be nice in a still life painting. But I was trying to get some spring cleaning done at the same time and this sketch is as far as I got on this "painting." It's a good thing I took a photo because the rose wilted before I could get to the painting part.

I've also been trying to get caught up on my outside work (weeding) since we had so much rain in May. All I seem to have gotten done when we had a brief dry spell was to get the grass cut. Then it got too hot for a few days to work outside--inside, too, until we got the air conditioners in the windows. (No central air here--yet.)

I would also like to enter the latest DailyPaintworks Challenge, which is to paint something that you see out of your window. Yesterday I tried to rearrange furniture on my porch and put some flowers in pots so I have something interesting to look at and paint. Still not done with the porch and it's already June. Too much to do during the summer.

Where did the time go?

Photo at Phipps

Old Sketch at Phipps

I can't believe it's been over two months since I posted on this blog. I guess I've been busy with other things; cleaning up my yard before winter set in, trying to clean my house (losing battle), and getting ready for another trip to Florida for my daughter-in-law's baby shower. That was in the middle of November. It took me a while to recover from that trip--not as young as I used to be. Then there was Thanksgiving (I didn't have to cook much, thank goodness my sister-in-law Dottie has the dinner), and then a wedding at the end of November. After that, my niece from Chicago came to visit my sister and we spent a lot of time running around shopping and visiting. Another excuse for not painting was because I got a little discouraged after the Carnegie Painted show. I wasn't real happy with my painting in acrylic. However, the wedding we went to had the reception at Phipps Conservatory in Pittsburgh and we got to meander around the conservatory before the reception. I think I got some inspiration back. If you live near Pittsburgh or are going to be in town for a visit, I heartily recommend a trip there. It is really beautiful. The winter/Christmas show is there now. It would also be a great place to go for the day and sit and sketch or take pictures for later use. I had been there years ago, but hadn't gone recently. As a matter of fact, I had done a sketch there with a class when I was about seventeen (about f f f f f fifty years ago!). I remember sitting there sketching and a young professionally dressed woman passed by and looked at my sketch and commented that it was good. I wonder who she was. I thought I still had the sketch and went up in the attic to look for it and actually found it. I am attaching a photo of it. It was done on newsprint and is quite yellowed and the graphite is somewhat faded, but you can still see most of what I drew. I am also attaching a photo of one of the rooms at the Phipps. They have some cute things for kids to see and do. They have a room with model trains too--all sizes.