The Egg and the Girl

This Sunday I started my first oil painting class (out of 6 total classes) with Sadie Valeri . Now some of you may be wondering why I am taking an oil painting class when I already paint in oils. Well, I do paint in oils, but if you haven't noticed, I only use two colors, which means I am good with tones but not color. I want to learn how to use colors and oil paint the "Old Masters" way. I want to learn how to make my colors look like jewels you can almost touch. I want my paintings to, well, glow. This class focuses on the Flemish style of painting, which uses a 7 layer process. I'm not quite sure what those 7 layers entail just yet, but I am sure I will find out. Sunday's class focused on drawing a single egg, which we will paint in the next five weeks. One egg, six total weeks. Yup, this will be a test of patience for me! But if it's anything like the figure drawing class I took with Sadie, I am sure time will fly and I will not have a completed piece by the end of the six weeks. As homework we have to transfer out drawing and then put a thin layer of a damar/ turpentine mix to seal it. I think I can handle that, no problem.

In other news, I am still trying to complete 4 new paintings before Thanksgiving so that I can ship these to my new gallery in Whistler, BC. I started painting number 3 yesterday. Fortunately for me, I am a quick painter and I am pretty sure this piece will be done by the end of the week. Check it out:

This woman is sitting on a sail boat. The final piece is 30"x30".

This is a close-up on the same painting. I am still in the underpainting stage of this...



Still life of an egg: I am working on the one on the right.

Can you believe this took me an hour to draw?