Week 6

Building, Inverness, acrylic on board, 12"x 12"

Everyone knows this building because it has a huge sign on the side saying: Launch for Hire. 

If you google that phrase along with 'Inverness', all kinds of interesting things come up.

 I have been driving past this building my entire life, but couldn't have told you what the walkway or the windows looked like, but now I do, and I'll probably never forget. 

One of the great things about painting.

Scale, acrylic on board, 8"x 10"

I learned so much doing this painting, or really, had what I already knew reinforced. 

This is the second painting of a scale I did. The first one took a long time and did not turn out... I was going to put it up next to this one, but it was so bad, I just couldn't. 

I have been looking at a lot of John Singer Sargent's work recently, the master of portraiture. I came across some notes on his teaching and a few items stood out.... first he said if you do not get the painting in the first try, you must scrape it off and begin again, you will never be able to fix it. It will go much faster the second time, because of what you learned working on the first. There was a story recounted of a woman who sat for two hours while Sargent worked on painting her hands. In the end he gave up and told her to come back, when she did, he finished in a few moments. (Look at his hands the next time you see one of his paintings, they are amazing). The second item he mentioned that resonated was you have to use a lot of paint and overlap your brushstrokes. On reading that, I sheepishly headed to the studio, cleaned my palette, loaded it with paint and did this painting.

Break from the party, acrylic on board, 12"x 12"

This painting is from an old photograph from a personal album I bought in an antique store. It looks as if it is from the fifties. I love these ladies whoever they are, and hope they had a wonderful night.