Sentinel

We spotted this little guy at the Great Trails Festival in Malvern and he seemed to be really getting into his role. I asked him if he would let me take his picture and he went right into his pose like he was seriously out to do some bad bidness to protect his posse from the enemy.

There is a bit of annoying glare here that I couldn't seem to eliminate and I should have taken the painting off the easel to avoid the shadow at the top.

Anyway, I'm pretty happy here. I think good things are happening. The important thing though is I feel like I'm continuing to learn and grow and make progress.

Sentinel

Oil on Panel - 14 x 18

Stanka Kordic Workshop or, Do Things You Don't Usually Do

I did a two day workshop with Stanka Kordic at our local art center. My way of working is pretty far away from the way Stanka paints, which is why I chose to do it.

I had been feeling like my paintings needed an infusion of something different. I like a lot of different representational painters. Some of the ones I like make great use of the textural qualities of paint. Nicolai Fechin comes to mind. Stanka's work is in this vein as well and I've greatly appreciated it for a few years now. She's a great experimenter, which is one reason why her paintings are so interesting. There is a real sense of depth and mystery in them, I think, because of her willingness to cast aside fear and just go for it. This is what I was hoping to get just a little bit of into my paintings. I'm never going to be a Stanka clone, which is good news for everyone, right? But if something of that fearlessness works its way into future paintings, I think that will be a good thing.

Here is the practice painting I did from the workshop.

Trey

This little portrait is of a young model that I'd painted previously. I rather like the way this one came out. I completed this in around 2-1/2 hours. I really like the surface it's painted on. It's a Sourcetek panel covered in Claessens 66 linen. Really nice weave and texture on this which I tried to exploit. 

Hope you like it.

Trey

Oil on Canvas Panel - 11 x 14

Arthur

Well I finally remembered the name of this Friday's most recent model.

I'm seeing some things I like in this one. It was mostly in shadow so it was very important to use temperature to get the forms to turn because pretty much all the values were very similar. Also, played some with the palette knife in the background for some textural interest and variety,

Young Man in Profile

Yes the blogpost title is lame, but once again I failed to get the models name. Another 2-1/2 hour study with a smidge of follow up at home.

Oil on canvas board - 11 x 14

One thing that doesn't show up in the photo are some blue accents in the hair, but generally the values and hues are pretty close.