Well, Big Eyed Fiona has stuck. That’s her name.  I’m going to start another painting next week. I’ve also got my art room set up now, and found a few paintings in a box that I started on, but never finished. That is my next project, to finish them one by one. I’ll post the first one (the unfinished version) next week.

In the meantime, I’d like to talk about my friend and fine art photographer, Jen Steele. Otherwise known as Sas, Sassy, Jen-4 and Jen Steele Photography (Victoria, British Columbia). She has been in the industry for almost two decades (even though she’s only 20 years old and holding - haha). Please take time to visit her web site. She also has a blog, and has posted some recent wedding and family portrait moments. Her work has always reminded me of Annie Leibovitz  and she continues to push the boundaries of making you feel the picture, and drawing emotions from how the moment was captured. Now that she’s perfected the technical aspects of photography, I love the way she plays with light and shadows, colours, but my favorite is the setting, mood, moment, and it reminds me of still photos from a movie production. My suggestion is to get yourself or a loved one immortalized by her visionary photography now! Put away the outdated family portraits and get some quality fine art photos done now! Call her 250-812-0006 or visit her web site http://www.jensteele.com

Some examples to the right and below:

Title: Big Eyed Fiona

Medium: Acrylic on Canvas

Date: 2008

Size: 24 X 18

Artist: Carollyne Yardley

I’m going to do the final touches tonight. I used a very light yellow glaze in the backdrop area to pop it out a bit more. New name: Big Eyed, Four Toed Fiona and Her Peacock Feathers….Maybe a new name will come to me. Xine, from Chicken Scratch suggests a goddess like name, maybe she’s the Muse of Sweeping (Purgamentum) Sweep (Verrimus) , or To Sweep (Everro) or the Muse of One Big Eye (Unus Magnus Oculus), of the Muse of Missing Toes (Absentis Toes). HaHa! You know, I really like the names Purgamentum, Verrimus, and Everro! Muse number #1 shall have her name soon. I’m leaning towards Evvero.

I’ve applied paint for another 3.5 hours. Some bits need more work like the leg, and the drapes - I think I liked them better 3.5 hours ago. Hmm. Good thing I’m taking photos, it’s the first time I have recorded along the way. The photography is definately distorting the colours. Will try to take best quality photo tomorrow, which will also signal the painting as “finished status - about 1.5 more hours to go.

As you might guess, this blog is helping me document how long it takes me to complete  painting, and also to document my progress, and abilities as a painter. This is the most amount of time I have spent painting in one consecutive week in almost 20 years. The last time I painted was almost a year ago, and before that was five years. Thank-you for supportive comments so far. I am pleased with this painting to date. I am looking forward to my art room being set up, currently the light I paint under is quite poor, and although I should be painting in daylight, I’m at work during those blessed hours, so night lights will have to suffice for now.

This is the painting with 5 more hours of work. I guesstimate that I require another 5 hours to be satisfied. Two more sittings though, just so I can take a look at it with fresh eyes.  LG just gave me potential name for my painting - Big Eyed Fiona - we’ll see if there’s any permutations of the name in the next day, funny guy.

I had my third class this week, and I really like the assignment. We learned about split complimentarys, and we were asked to choose a famous piece of work, then interpret it in a post-modern style, while using split complimentary colours. I chose orange and green, so my splits are: yellow-orange, red-orange, and green-purple, and blue-green. I’ve posted what I worked on last night, spent about 3 hours so far. This one is going to take awhile, as I’ve only got her face partially done and the canvas is 18 X 24. I’m going to piant more tonight, and I will post the next sit down results. It’s a nice advancement to the work I did 15 years ago, which used a lot of black to separate the colours. While I like that effect, this feels much more mature in it’s presentation, and the energy is really coming out in the colours.

ORIGINAL:

Ingres, Jean-Auguste-Dominique, La Grande Odalisque, 1814, oil on canvas, 91 x 162 cm, Louvre, Paris

Hi again,

This little piece I’m working on outside of art class. It’s heavily inspired by a print I found at a garage sale. I’m using it to teach myself how to paint faces. I call this one Little Bun. I still have more work to do on the flowers, but I am posting my progress so far…

I discovered the artists name of the original work - called Mederios, an artist from the 1960’s

Here is the original below

 The second day of this study required some reading about an American artist named Pat Steir (1938 -   ), who painted with the purpose for transformation, and finding out where she fit into history in art. The examples of Pat’s work showed her interest in 17th century painting equal to the modern cubist development. My task was to paint on a 12 X 36 canvas or matte board divided into three even squares, transitioning from small –> large, detail –> closeup,  several items –> one close up, or three pieces styled to be one piece. We also had to ask, “what shape is it?” And design with shapes, patterns and contours. I chose the colours to remain constant (purple, yellow, red, green, white), and went from a full vase of flowers –> one close up. Not sure how I compared to the class yet, but I painted this one standing up the whole time, and really tried to loosen up, by painting with my hand extended, rather than painting up close. Results are humbly submitted above.

I went to Christine Woods blog, Chicken-Scratch again, and found another great artist  Blogthing. It said that Alfred Gockel should paint me, and I agree! Alfred baby - call me!

Who Should Paint You: Alfred Gockel

All American yet funky, you inspire an artist’s imagination And while not everyone will understand your portrait, you will! http://www.blogthings.com/whatartistshouldpaintyourportraitquiz/

Hey all (or maybe it’s just one right now!),

This first draft was about small, medium, and large squares, using 2 secondary colours and white and black. We had to experiment with shapes, and spaces, and how they go together with horizontal and vertical movements, overlapping with depth and space. We had to use 3 different brush techiques chosen from the following:

- arms length, left handed, palette knives (small flat, large flat), round small & large, and dry brush.

I chose orange and green with arms length, palette knive small, and round small. I also threw in some dry brush. Pianted in about 2 hours, it’s on 12 X 12 matte board. Here’s my results to the right.