Jessica Week 2

This week Jessica posed for my life painting class again. The picture is taken with very poor lighting but here is my 2 hour pose.

Chipped Edges

For some reason my children have decided that getting a chipped plate to eat from is lucky. They cheer at dinner when they get one of our slightly broken dishes. They actually would bicker over who gets the broken plate if I allowed plate swapping. I asked my son why he liked to get a broken plate and he told me that it was special because he broke it.
As parents so many things are not perfect. Clothes get spit up on, floors get nail polish stains when a little one discovers that the polish is unsupervised. Movies skip because they have been scratched and handled by little hands. So many time I look at all these imperfections and wish they could be fixed or avoided.
I need to remember that they are special because my kids caused them. They are proof that my life is fun of love and hugs and laughs. They show that I am surrounded by children who love me unconditionally and who need me completely. 
What a great gift from God to help me look at the chips around me and recognize the blessings that come with them. There are chips in my own life that I know God looks at and loves anyway because they were caused by one of his children. All I can do with those chips is accept the mistakes that caused them and celebrate the lessons that were learned.

Background

Laying on some color and background. 

Somedays it all comes together.

This portrait has been daunting to work on. I am not sure if it seems so hard because it is a commissioned piece and I have a deadline to meet or if it is because I did not take the pictures for it. I have not spent a huge amount of time on it but I have spent a lot of time putting off working on it.
I think it is done now, I hope that the client is happy with the outcome, because I am now loving this little moment.

Debby Bird Art Website

Jessica

 

2 Hour Life Painting pose.

Small Changes

Busy Days have not allowed much time for long painting sessions but I have been able to fit in an hour or two each of the last few nights. Progress on the paintings is slow but continuing.

 

 

Today the kids and I went around to 7 stops on the Great Falls Open Studio tour. It was lots of in and out of the cars with three kids and many times buckling and unbuckling seat belts. The kids managed to behave considering how tired they were and the amount of sweets that they consumed since every stop seemed to have a sweet treat handy to the kids. I loved seeing the artwork at all of the studios and seeing some artists that I knew but in their studios and some joining me in touring.

Blocking in

Today I spent tiling my bathroom floor. Cutting tile can be a very messy job. I had to fashion my own poncho from the ever handy garbage bag. I am getting closer to finishing what has been a very long remodeling project. Lots more tiling to go on the walls, but soon we can install the toilet.

 

 

I spent the evening blocking in the beginning of a new painting.

 

I also took some better pictures of "Girl in a Green Hoodie"

 

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Live Portrait Session

Todays live portrait session featured a thirteen year old girl. She had a hard time sitting completely still. Shadows were constantly shifting slightly as well as contours. Her eyes were darting all over, but it was so much fun to work with all of these things to capture her likeness.
My teacher is always commenting about how I should work slower and get the shapes tied down before I move on. I do not think I am a good student. I seldom listen to my teachers advice. At one point he was wiping paint off of my canvas where he thought something looked wrong and I had to gently pull his arm away before he did more damage.
I may not be a good student but I have always been a good learner so maybe I will still turn out all right although sometimes it seems like he has no hope for me. I think he and I see things very differently because if I were the teacher I might have been telling him the same things.

Post 100! A trip to the zoo and a little painting

A pictures is supposed to say a thousand words so let this be my novel.

 

Paintings on their way home

 

Tonight I worked a little more on the painting I started from life yesterday. I few tiny angle changes on the head have it looking much more like the model.

 

Today I prepared two paintings for mailing and got them out the door and on the way to their new homes. I bought mirror boxes from U-haul and wrapped each picture in brown paper, bubble wrap and then a smaller box before placing them in the final bow with extra padding around the edges. I cut down each U-haul box so that it was not quite so large. I also turned them inside out so that all of the U-haul logos were not showing. I mailed them through USPS which was much less expensive than the last set of paintings I mailed through UPS.

I had lots of help getting the packages ready to go out the door. Goose helped me unroll bubble tape, and regular tape, crumple the brown paper, and performed crush tests on all boxes. These boxes are tested to withstand baby weight.

 

The beginning of a new commission. This is a small canvas so the image is very cropped. The painting is not yet flowing for me. I hope it starts to come together better on the next session.

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From Life

I am taking a portrait painting class on Monday nights and tonight was the first time I have ever been able to paint from life. I have drawn from life before but never painted. It is really great to get the chance, and I am wishing that I could paint this way all of the time. This was done in two hours with about an hour and a half of actual paint time.

I have some things to improve on for next time. I need to be more patient about tying down the image before I move on to more detail and I need to think about my over all composition.

 

 

I worked more on this before the class was over this may have been after about an hour.

 

 

The Gap

Things I have done this week:

Submitted a painting for "Around Town" Vienna Art Society show
Won an Honorable Mention
Gone to two Art Receptions in one day
Taken kids to two swim lessons and one ballet lesson
Painted a skull at a painting class
Picked up countless toys, dishes, trash
Watched a movie with my husband
Folded about 10 loads of laundry
Dealt with three sick kids
Been Sick Myself
Raked leaves into a pile for kids to jump in.
Felt like a jungle gym.
Worked on finishing up drywall for the bathroom remodel.
Baked 10 dozen cookies.

 

Things I haven't done this week:

Cleaned my bathrooms.
Put away the kids clothes.
Had the house clean.
Kept the baby from climbing on the table, and the hutch and the coffee table.
Gotten in all of the homeschool I need to get done.
Kept a calm tone at all times with the kids.
Worked on any of my own paintings.

Why I Paint

I paint because there is something about capturing certain moments in paint that holds those moments and shows everyone their importance. So many important moments happen every day that are forgotten or over looked. I love the way that a painting can capture those overlooked moments and overlooked people and emphasise them. Suddenly because something has been painted I will never forget it. I have three young children who are changing and growing so fast, I often paint them to hold on to moments a little longer.

I do not form clear mental pictures in my head but the images that I have painted I can recall most clearly. I remember making those brush strokes and through remembering the process of painting I am better able to remember the moments I was trying to capture.

I love to paint the simple moments of interaction between family members. I also try to capture the personality and essence of an individual. When I paint and start to see the personality emerge from the painting I feel connected to the creative nature of God.


On a side note I found out today that Antiquing won an Honorable Mention in the "Around Town" show at the Vienna Art Society

Around the town of Vienna

Sorry for not posting for a week or so. My computer decided to stop working completely. It would not turn on at all, and I was very concerned for the fate of all my un-backed up pictures.  Thankfully when I took it to the geek squad at best buy today, the lady was able to fix it in about 5 minutes and did not charge me anything.

 

Last week I participated in the Vienna "Around Town" painting competition. It was primarily a plein air competition which means that you paint on location but studio paintings were also allowed to be entered but not eligible for the top prizes. I am not sure how I would paint on location with three children running amuck so my paintings were done in my studio after bedtime.

 

 

 

The "Around Town" Plein Air show will be showing until
October 28. The Reception and Awards will be held on Saturday, October 5 [the same day as Oktoberfest in Vienna] from 3 – 5. Stop by for refreshments and to see the paintings of the town of Vienna.

 

I was able to see the show when I went for my painting class on Monday night and there is some very beautiful work on display.