American Beauty #3 (Martha) - preliminary sketch

It was a productive day in the studio. I worked on my One in Eight installation piece, experimented with a collage concept, researched more mirrors and finished the day with this priliminary sketch for American Beauty #3. I drew the smile lines a little darker than I would have liked but I did it so I could see them better when I go to paint this lovely lady (she is Andy's boss! as well as one of my patrons). I was explaining my series to her when we were in Newport for Andy's ECOS meeting and she volunteered to be one of my models. I was concerned about getting on her crazy busy calendar to photograph her but lucked out when we all went on a Scooner ride (being the prepared artist that I am, I brought my camera and managed to snap this image). Normally I don't go for portraits with teeth but I think this one might work out as she has such beautiful smile lines. I do think I need to tweak the teeth a wee bit but otherwise this will be a good reference sketch to work from! 

Now off to walk Molly before I head out to my gallery meeting at Core New Art Space. Hoping to squeeze in a bit of meditation before the meeting. 

Male Gaze Experiment #1

Dang it! The photo looks crooked, or maybe it's the print that is crooked?! In any case this is my first experiment combining the image of a mirror with the eye of a man. This concept also has to do with objectification and the idea of when we  (women or females as this could also apply to teenage girls) look in the mirror are we viewing ourselves through our eyes or that of the male gender? This is just the start of my experiments on this concept. As I research images of mirrors, I will explore different mediums to use to create the frames of the mirrors. In place of the actual mirror I will continue to paint the male eye.

I created this frame using paper plate lithography. I'm thinking a trip to Good Will our an Antique store might be in order as it might be fun to find a vintage compact mirror and actually paint on the mirror! I'm also tossing around the idea of using gold leaf to create a mirror but that idea is still developing in my little brain. More later on these experiments...

American Beauty #2 (Meg)

I present American Beauty #2 (Meg) I think she might be done but I want to give it a day or two to see if I want to tweak her lips a wee bit on the right side as well as anything else that might jump out at me after not viewing her for a few days. Over all I am very please with how this one turned out. Definitely feel like I'm getting my painting MoJo back (stupid cupcakes... what the hell was I thinking, I paint people not pastries!) My dear friend Lisa Kennedy told me about another artist (Ray Turner) who did a series called Populations where he painted 12 x 12 portraits of people and it seemed to be well recieved but the art community in CA. Whereas his presents images of the population and my series focuses on women who are 60 years of age or older and the contemplation of objectification and how women of a certain age view themselves as well as how society views them, it is validating to know that other established artists are using portraiture as a venue to create contemporary art. This makes me happy!

American Beauties #2 (Meg)

It's been a productive day today in the studio. I started by doing some tweaks to American Beauty #1, I decided I needed to make some adjustments to her mouth and slim her face a wee bit (I think I'd rendered it a little too wide at the bottom). Then it was on to beauty #2 (Meg). I sketched her out on Tuesday but didn't have a chance to scan it in (actually I don't know how to scan - sad I know) so here she is here, first as a sketch and then a painting in progress... since studio days are Tuesdays and Thursdays I should have her finished next Tuesday, or Thursday if I get distracted by another project like One in Eight (still working on that one although I lost my exhibition space for it... a colleague advised me to seek out the Boulder Contemporary Art Museum so I have that on my 'to do' list for the next coming month. Anyway... I always forget how much I love painting portraits until I sit down and do one, then I'm in heaven. I've decided to table the cupcake series (also known as the Huge Tracks of Land series and the 99 names for boobs series)... I just wasn't feeling it and was totally not satisfied with the paintings that I had produced thus far (although both are currently in exhibits in Denver). I'm thinking paint isn't the medium for that concept nor is the cupcake the vehicle to convey the idea so I'm going to give it a rest until something comes to me ... I have a few ideas but want to work on the American Beauties for a while (and 1 in 8), in between I will noodle with other ideas as well as start a collaborative project with my friend Lisa... instead of writing letters or emails (it is the 21st century after all) we talked about sending a sketchbook back and forth to each other. I love the idea and have the sketchbook... I just need to get my sketch finished so I can send it off to her (Lisa if you are reading this I'm excited to see what you think about the sketchbook - I didn't make it but now I want to learn how to make the paper that is in it! It will be coming your way soon!)

So that's it for now... It’s off to walk Molly and then back to the studio for some sketching and computer work (yeah to the sketching boo to the computer work! Actually the computer work isn't bad, I need to create an excel spread sheet so I can keep track of my American Beauties!)