Artistic Update

Since my show I haven’t done quite as much painting as the rest of the year, and then the holidays put a crimp in my style when it comes to painting and my etching workshops. Of note however I have just completed a commissioned portrait that I’m very pleased with. I’ll take a photo of it before it goes to its home and share here. I’m also working on a portrait of a couple, another painter and his wife. It was a trade for a portrait of me and my partner. This one is significantly harder to do. Not because either of the subjects are difficult but I’m doing it in their home, which means I’m not in my element, and because of the complexity of the image. It was very important to the couple to be seen in their own environment, including details. I tend to be a simplifier that likes to concentrate on the figure.

One interesting part of the painting that does seem to be working well is that I’m using an old unwanted landscape of the sitter to paint on and it appears that elements of his original work will be left in, making it a bit of a collaboration as well as creating an unusual space. Again, before I release it to the owners, I’ll try and get a picture to share.

My jewelry creation has been on total hiatus since the Christmas shows I did, lack of sales there and on Etsy discouraged creativity. I am about to start work on a new necklace though, a choker of coffee beans using vintage beads and copper findings and chain. I think it will look very good when it’s done. I am definitely moving away from thinking about my pieces in terms of sales and looking at them as works of art in themselves. This is definitely better artistically but won’t help pay the bills!

Ok, artistic update is over.

Artistic Update

I had a lovely dinner at a Thai restaurant last night with my mentor and professor Gary, from when I was an undergraduate at Smith College, and his wife Deedee. It was really flattering because I had sent him a show card for my show this month and he had made the effort to come and see it and have dinner with us. It was so nice and refreshing to look at my paintings with him and hear his insightful critiques once again. He is really such a warm and yet forthright teacher, and he remains my favorite critic to this day. He made sure to let me know how much he enjoyed the work (comparing me to Alice Neels, a comparison I often hear), but also to have really useful and interesting things to say about what specifically worked or didn’t work for him in various pieces.

Then he asked me what was next and I told him about my etching class and that was great too because he’s a printmaker as well as a painter himself and so we talked about that and he encouraged me to work on some of the same ideas I had been working on in the paintings – which is, actually, one of the things I had been thinking about doing!

And just to show how productive I have been in general here is a photo of one of my latest creations that I’m selling at Etsy. I love these elegant winter themed earrings in silver, kyanite, and pearl. I have more of these snowflake charms in a couple different sizes so I think I’m going to work on an earrings and necklace set.

Portrait Anyone?

It’s not been a stellar month for me at Etsy.com, but I can tell you that I was star of my show the other night at my opening. I include a small sample. I’m wondering about including some of my paintings on Etsy or making some cards or ACEO or whatever, but I always hesitate because if I think my jewelry is a slow mover I have to admit my artwork is like sludge. I think I’m a good painter, don’t get me wrong, but fine art paintings are not exactly on the top of anyone’s list in this economy and paintings of still living people are generally only interesting to their relatives! That said I did sell a couple of the portraits at my show, but at pretty discounted prices. I would rather they had a happy home among the people that love the sitters than they sit in my attic, basement, or studio gathering dust.

I do actually hang my own art in my own home and several of my favorite pieces are portraits of people that I don’t even know anymore. I actually had to look up the name of one woman. I had forgotten it, but an intriguing portrait is more than just an individual. It takes on a broader connotation after the person is no longer known and becomes a universal: Madonna, whore, mother, daughter or vanity, wisdom, folly, vision. I have become friends with my portrait paintings in a way that I never expected. I put up some older ones at the show and then was shocked that I didn’t want to sell them. I put up ridiculously high prices for them! I figured if it would help pay the rent it was worth it, but otherwise forget it.