Beginnings are always fun.

I stared a new Sebbie painting today. It's alway so exciting starting a new painting: so many possibilities. I'm dithering whether to call this one "Sebbie and the friendly octopus" or "Sebbie and the friendly kraken"--both have lots of fun reasons to go with them.

 

In other news, if you're wondering why I haven't posted in a while, I was in France for a bit of a holiday. See below for a totally random sampling of pictures from the trip (Toulouse, Carcassonne, Albi, Lourdes, Alet les Bains--I'd do proper captions, but my computer illiteracy is kicking in for some reason tonight.)

Sebbie and Friends at a Puppet Show

Latest Sebbie:

Beginners

I took a beginning figure sculpture workshop this past weekend. I've wanted to try my hand at it since I was learning to draw the figure at the Florence Academy years ago: somehow, it seemed that if only I could reach out and manipulate my drawing as one would clay, it would have been easier. I don't know about easier, but it was satisfying in a way drawing is not (for me). In the four hour workshop I felt (naturally) that I'd only begun to touch on the basics of what is figure sculpture, but, perhaps more importantly, I reaffirmed my respect and compassion for beginners. I regularly teach beginning painters, and while I often see them confronting the fear of trying something completely new and unknown, it's been awhile since I was the one in room full of strangers admitting I had no idea how to do what was asked of me. There is a bravery in trying. A bravery in risking failure. And while I truly believe art skills and techniques can be learned by almost everyone, I think, too often, we fail to acknowledge the courage it takes to try. Part of me (possibly a vain and silly part) is embarrassed by my beginning sculpture--it is not perfect--but I'm sharing it anyway, knowing I have to start somewhere, and in solidarity with so many beginners.

Figure sculpture study (#1):

Figure drawing from all those years ago:

And in other news, I received this beautiful catalogue from Lotton gallery in the mail today:

Sebbiekins

 Recent Sebbie paintings I haven't posted in completion (self explanatory, really):

Busyness

I've been very busy lately. I have, in my head, the deadline of May 1st for a fair amount of work (the actual deadlines are a bit later, but I want to be done early, and have wiggle room,) and, accordingly, I've been spending most of my time working on those pieces. My inspiration, however, has a bit of a short attention span, so I've been letting it wander to the occasional figure or flower study before dragging it back to the other. 

Here are the latest Sebbie paintings, still in progress. They've been an adventure for a couple reasons. One, they are being painted using the same set up, but from different angles and with different lighting--something I've never tried before. Two, both are requiring a fair amount of painting from memory. In the first one, in the actual set up, there is a little toy deer standing in front of Mr. Sebbie, so I've been doing a fair amount of bobbing and weaving to see what I need to see. In the second one, to get the lighting on the set up as I want, I can't see the colors on the painting properly. I'm sure I could play around with lightbulbs, screens, etc., but I haven't, so the result is that the painting I'm doing with the lighting correct on the set up is more in the manner of taking notes, and the real painting of the painting I'm doing when the light is completely wrong, using my notes, what I remember of the light impression, and the incorrectly lit objects as placement reference. It's kind of awesomely fun, and I'm excited to try some nocturnal landscapes using the same approach. So here they are, neither are finished yet, but you get the idea:

Sebbie:

Sebbie at the Shadow Puppet Theatre:

And here is the work my inspiration's attention span would rather I be working on. (I actually think it's more a matter of my inspiration being stubborn and immediately disliking, or pretending to dislike, anything it's told it has to do--it may take after the more adolescent aspects of my personality.) I would like to work on them more, as they are they're still rough studies, but they'll have to wait until the other work is done.  

I've always done standing or, occasionally, seated, nudes, reclining is new for me.

And some more ornithogalum, quick study:

Salon International: update

Happy to hear this little guy won both an Honorable Mention and a Jury's Top 60 award at Greenhouse Gallery's Salon International this year.

Salon International

Greenhouse Gallery's Salon International 2013 opens tonight in San Antonio, Texas.  These paintings will be there, will you?

Sebbie and the Spyglass

June Bug Portraits