Studio Floors

As some of you may remember, I just recently moved into a new house and studio (which is in a large space in my house). The floors were uneven and because of it, my easel and chair would roll away from me. In addition, I was having to overcompensate in my posture for the slanted floors and this was killing my back. In stepped my fabulous husband and father to design a platform to level my floors. With the help of some friends (Thank you James, Adam and Erik...but especially James who spent a TON of time building), and a week and a half of work, I now have level floors in my studio!!!! I am still planning on adding another coat of paint to the floors, but I hope to move in this weekend. Next up are storage racks...



In other news...I am still working hard on getting some 12x12 pieces done for a 4x4 grid that will be shown at ArtHaus Gallery for my solo show. The show opens October 5th so there's not much time! I have 6 done, 5 in progress, and 5 to start. Good thing these are small!

Work in progress...

 

Alla Prima Portrait Class: Day 2

Today was not a good day in class. It started off all nice and easy. My drawing was looking pretty good. I was feeling pretty good. And then came color, my current nemesis. As I have said before, mixing colors, especially flesh tones, are hard enough. Add in a limited palette (yellow ochre, cadmium red, ivory black, and titanium white) and all hell breaks loose! Okay, maybe that's an exageration, but it felt like it yesterday.
I am still not happy with my final result. If only I had a few more hours...!

I like the way that this started.

Still looking pretty good, although I think the nose looks big...

Adding in the darkest darks.

And here is where it all went wrong. The colors look muddy.
 Too much white was added too soon. This was where I
started to wonder if I could make this painting work.

I wiped out all of the paint and decided that the nose and mouth
area need some reconstructing.

It's looking better here but the skin tones still look too red. She was a
pretty pale woman.

More progress...

My final results. I am still not happy with it. The color still feels off.
I wish I had more time to work on it, but I don't. I have to remind myself that
it's just practice and I am learning. I just hate having incomplete work, and work
that I am unhappy with on top of it.

Alla Prima Portrait Class, Day 1

Last night was my first day of my alla prima portrait class with Felicia Forte. I took this class because I wanted to work with color and also be less "tight" with my paintings, if that makes any sense. I feel like my paintings have lost spontaneity, which isn't necessarily a bad thing since I like what I am doing, but it's also fun to be a bit more gestural too.

Since we start and complete each painting in one sitting, it forces me to paint and draw quicker. I have to be quicker about sketching (which we do with a dry brush and paint) out my faces and making sure they are correctly proportioned. I can't waste too much time redrawing, not if I want to get a mostly finished painting by the end of class. The class is three hours long, but the model poses for twenty minutes at a time with breaks in between. That isn't much time of actual painting.

Then there's the issue of color and mixing skin tones. This is something I am completely unfamiliar with. It's a challenge that I have been looking forward too, even if I don't get it right for a few paintings. Last night's painting of Wendell is a bit too orange. I think if I had more time and practice, I could get it more natural looking. We are only using four colors on our palette, titanium white, yellow ochre, cadmium red, and ivory black. This makes for an "interesting" mixing experience, although I am not sure I would get the skin tone any closer to reality if I had more colors. Perhaps it's better to force myself to mix with this limited Zorn palette (named after artist Anders Zorn) cause I could see myself getting caught up in all the tubes of paints, trying to figure out what to add next. With the Zorn palette, I have less decisions to make so I can spend more time painting.

I'm looking forward to next class and the a different model. I am trying to convince my husband to let me practice painting him but so far, the idea of sitting still for at least three hours doesn't appeal to him. I'm still working on him though!

My painting of Wendell at the end of the night. I am pretty happy
 with my first attempt. I feel like the proportions of the head are good and
 it actually looks kind of like the model. I think I got a good amount
done in the limited time we had.

This was what my painting looked like half ways through our  session. At this point
I was wondering if I could actually get a good likeness. It all worked out okay,
but I felt like it was touch and go for awhile.

Building a Studio: Part One

Now that we are moved into our new house and have unpacked, it is time to get my studio in order. Most of the studio is already built, but there are a few things that need to be added. the most important thing right now is to level the floor. Currently there is a slope that causes my easel and chair to roll away from each other, and when I do paint (with the wheels of both easel and chair taped so they don't move), my back ends up hurting since I am compensating for the uneven floors. My husband and father came up with a plan to level the floor and have been working hard all weekend. I can't say I understand what they are doing, but I am excited to see the results. Hopefully it will be done sometime this week.  Here are the pictures of what they have been doing:

I think the floor is going to be where the laser is marking the wall horizontally.

Apparently this is what the floor will sit upon. Each of those pieces of wood jutting out
 is cut at a different length that will make whatever sits on top, like my floor, level.

Once the floor is done, Ben will build me a rack for all of my panels and then a wall that will separate his workshop from my space.

Hola Indio Cross Border Collaboration

Recently I was invited to participate in a promotional event from Vice Magazine and Heineken to promote Indio beer in the United States. The whole project is pretty amazing and consisted of 8 artists from all over the US linked up with 8 artists from Mexico to create a collaborative painting. (There were also collaborations with American and Mexican musicians creating a collaborative song. These musicians then performed at an event in 5 major cities while our work was displayed in the venue.)

The blank, unstretched canvas was first shipped to the artist in Mexico and, when completed, it was shipped to an artist in the US. I was partnered with Luis Enriquez, aka Smithe. My partner and I exchanged a few emails in order to discuss what we wanted to do. Other than that, I had never met this artist nor had I previously seen his work. It was an interesting process working remotely with someone on a collaboration. I wasn't sure if the painting would work out since we didn't have much contact AND our two styles were so different. I am pretty happy with the result.

In addition to making a collaborative piece, Vice also shot artist profile videos of each artist. I was interviewed in my studio and talked about my work and how I handled the collaboration. We were then filmed at the venue stretching and hanging our artwork. These videos will appear on Indio's Facebook page soon.

What an experience!

The final piece.
"El Abrazo" by Jhina Alvarado and Smithe
I think it worked out well considering our very different styles.

This is what was shipped to me.

Mine and Smithe's painting displayed next to the collaboration piece from SF artist
 Ben Needham and Mexican artist Seher One.

Big Head Update

The underpainting is complete! I may not be able to finish this until next week since I have to start the Vice Magazine/ Heineken collaboration painting with Smithe, from Mexico. I basically have five days once I receive it (which I am hoping will be tomorrow) to complete it, then ship. I will be a VERY busy person in the next few days...oh, and did I mention I am moving this weekend too? YIKES! Too many things all at once! Welcome to my life...

Inspiration is for Amateurs

I am almost done with reading the Chuck Close biography. I have been limiting myself to one chapter a night since I tend to go through books very quickly otherwise (I read 6 books in the two weeks we were in Italy on vacation). It has been an inspiring read with many insights into the artist's process. One thing that stuck out and really resonated with me was a quote in chapter 25.

"Inspiration is for amateurs. The rest of us go to the studio and just get on with it."

You can't wait for inspiration if you want to make art a career. You just have to go in and create.

Before I decided that I wanted to make art a career (around 2009), I only went in to my studio to paint when I felt "up to" painting. Most of the times I went in at least a couple of times a week. Sometimes I wouldn't go in for weeks. I would tell myself that I just wasn't inspired to paint. I had no motivation. Painting wasn't a priority at the time. I had the occasional show, sold a few pieces, but if I wanted a career in art, this would not do. Painting like this wasn't going to get me anywhere. I needed to be disciplined and have regular "office hours", much like Chuck Close did. 

I started coming in five days a week for at least three hours a day. I wanted to be in the studio at least 15 hours a week, even if it meant just prepping panels. Often times this would lead to painting and the next thing I knew, five hours had passed. Once I started having regular studio hours, it was much easier to get a body of work done. My skills improved. I had a routine. I started to look at painting as if it was my job, with specific hours and time that I needed to put in. I really think it's this discipline that has helped me propel my career. After all, you can't have an art career with having art and you can't have art, especially good quality art, without putting in some serious time in the studio.

The act of putting paint brush to panel/ canvas OFTEN is what will get a career going, NOT waiting for inspiration to hit or for the "right time" to happen. I have often observed the "activity" in the building where I paint. I am in a studio space with about 50 artists around me. Of these 50, I only see three at the studio on a regular basis. THREE OUT OF FIFTY! Granted, this is usually in the afternoon, when most people work, but at night, there are still only a handful of regulars. Many of the artists come in once a week, maybe once a month, some not at all, and yet some of these same artists want to want to show in galleries and sell their work regularly. It's really hard to do that when you are not honing your skills and creating work on a regular basis. 

So what is the lesson here? Sometimes you just need to be a Nike ad and "just do it." Now go paint something!

Here is the latest painting I am working on. It's another head shot on a large panel.

The start of my second "big head" on a 36"x36" panel.

I can tell it's going to be painful to cover these eyes later. I'm sure I'll also get
some "hate" emails/ FB comments about covering the eyes too. They are pretty
nice if I say so myself.  :-)

The shadow on her lips and under her nose look a bit odd without
the rest of the face. It looks like she has a mustache!

Looking less like she has a mustache...

The head takes up most of this panel.