More PDA from Venice

11 x 14 Watercolor

I remember now the main reason the "Daily" part of this fell off; it gets really, toe-curlingly hard to post when you've had a bad painting day. My brother will get down on me for being negative, but hey, negative is as negative does.

So today's painting won't make it to post, either, and instead I offer an old one from the Love in Venice series. Onward, the daily struggle to either embrace one's relentless march (back) toward realism, or continue to fight the good fight to find something else.

Holding Forth (aka Beach Bums)

Upon receiving a rejection of this painting from an exhibition, I can now alter it and see if I can cure some of the things that bothered me in the first place. I removed the background scene which suggested a beach; it wasn't adding much and I thought took some focus off the figures, which is the main event here. So I tried throwing in a wash of Raw Seinna, thinking i would try to create one of those warm, weathered Italian walls. It can't be that salmoney color, as the faces would disappear and they are already having trouble standing up to what's there. I can already see that things are going to have to be adjusted if we're going to stay with this plan.

I did do another painting today, but it was so bad it refused to be posted.

Two Joans, Day Three

Alla Prima/Direct Approach (all in one go)

This is fresher, cleaner paint and there's lots of white space. However, some people are very bothered by the sloppiness and unfinished quality, but that happens to be what I like about it. They say that the better one gets at painting, the less polished and more "loose" they like to paint. I don't know about better, but I know this is more fun and a lot less dinking around. You put it down and live with it, no mucking about.


Traditional Approach

Darker, more "modeled" and probably more realistic. Also, muddier and overworked -- this is why I prefer the other approach. This has more 3D sense of form, whereas the other is flatter and less dimensional.

It really all comes down to intent. Likeness and reality are not often my purpose these days, as I am getting more interested in the quality of the paint as it sits on the surface of the paper. Now, that was more than you wanted to know about painting, eh?

Two Joans, Day Two

This is the first wash for the traditional approach. All is still light and loose, I'm trying to remember to paint through boundary lines instead of staying in the lines as though it is a coloring book; this helps to unify things and keep the figure from looking pasted onto the ground. I can see that, other than skin color, I don't have much of an idea where I'm going colorwise, except that it will be warm temperature. I also will be working toward a "low key" use of values/ tones, which means the darker end of the scale.

There is no companion image for the other approach, that gets done all in one go. No stages. Tomorrow for that.

Two Approaches to Joan

I don't know how to make these sit evenly side by side, but you can see they are two slightly different drawings of the same woman, my friend Joan as she kindly posed for me in my messy, cluttered studio. They are contour drawings, which is the style I like to use for watercolors. The plan here is to paint these using two different approaches. The one on the right is for the more traditional approach, building from light to dark with layered washes, large forms to small. The one on the left is for my (usually preferred, when it's working for me) method. Here, I've erased or left out some lines where I do not intend to have any contrast or edges, and want the shapes to blend or bleed together. The idea is to break up the rectangle into flattened, two dimensional shapes. Also, I will begin instead with small, dark forms and work toward larger, looser shapes toward the end. So, two kind of opposite approaches. (What always surprises me is how I usually manage to make them end up more similar than I'd like.)

RABBITS, RABBITS! It's a new month....

When I was a girl, a friend told me that if you say "Rabbits, rabbits!" out loud, first thing before your feet hit the floor out of bed in the morning, you will have good luck all month long. Even though I have no idea of the story behind this, I still think of it on the first day of each month, although not always in time to get the full dose of good luck..... I never heard anybody else ever mention this for years and years until one day in the locker room at the Y, I overhead a woman telling another about saying "Rabbits and hares, rabbits and hares!" for good luck on the first of the month. She didn't know what it was all about, either, but she had been doing it since she was a girl.

Does anybody out there know the story behind this?

Anyway, March 1 marks a period of new resolve; I'm going to try to POST some painting each day. Doesn't mean I'll complete a painting each day, just that I'll post whatever I've got going, in whatever stage it's in. It was right about this time last year that my daily painting fell apart, which I'm blaming on the flood. They say we're to have another this year, but I have resolve about trying to stay the course here. Onward.

Crazy Head

14 x 10 WC

Another magazine-head-warmup-painting. Still knocking around, looking for a "look" I can call my own. Or, a/k/a work-avoidance. Still haven't moved forward on any of the other paintings posted recently. Maybe I should rename this blog "Sometimes Janart."

Today oldest son finally threw up an image on the website I've held for 7 years that has been "under construction" all that time. Next week: a home page with actual buttons/links? A contact page? Woo hoo!

Note to those of you getting these in your mailbox; please let me know if you want to take a break and let somebody else delete all the fun!

Progressions -- still in progress, but further along..

22 x 30 Watercolor

Wondering if I'm ADD? I believe I am, which is plenty rationalization for working on 4 paintings at once. Back to Peter again, not far from done. I was thinking of entering this in a show, but I became frustrated with so many little pickyune things that I had to set it aside for a while. I need to tighten up a few areas, and loosen up a few others, make some value and edge adjustments. As stated previously (January?) I have worked with this image off and on in several paintings, and I want to do it justice. So no half-baked rushing to the finish line. I think this is a function of working larger than the usual 14 x 11 size I prefer; with those, I can work start to finish all in one go, in one state of mind, with one impetus. These larger pieces (the last two posts and the one to come) cannot be slogged through, at least not effectively. I run out of steam and have finally learned to put the brush down, let things sit, but it means having to gather up "the force" for each session. Contrary to my scattershot nature, and that's why it helps to have several going at once. Also why watercolor is working better than oil these days.

That Restaurant Near Peggy's Place (Venice)

30 x 15 Watercolor

I stumbled across somebody else's paintings of Venice in which they had used this long tall format, which I thought so beautifully suited the narrow canals of Venice; hence this and the previously posted painting. First and second wash represented here. Really avoiding the water for now, I want it to be one simple mass eventually. It's decision time on the rest of it, whether to push the mid-values and how (dis)connected will the darks be? Guess I'll figure it out when I get there.

Bellagio Cafe 2

5 x 30 watercolor

Here's the first application of color, kind of spotty but I'm trying not to overthink this and just use it as a warm up for the day. I have no plans for it, so no pressure and I can just wander through. So far it looks like I am setting up color triads.