Paint the Ballet

Blue Ballet
By Cynthia Rowland
11" x 14"
Oil Painting
Sold

Final Act

By Cynthia Rowland

14" x 11"

Oil Painting

Sold

For the past few weeks, I have been involved in a cooperative arts project
called Paint the Ballet, founded by my friend and fellow artist John Meister, http://meistergraphics.com/ballet.html. This project was developed with the idea of promoting awareness and increase the visibility of the New Mexico Ballet Company and the artists who were invited to paint them. This effort allows artists to support artists. The proceeds of the sales are split 50/50 between the Ballet Company and the painter.

The show will hang for five weeks at the New Mexico Art League, 3409 Juan Tabo Blvd. NE, in Albuquerque. The Opening and Artist Reception is tomorrow, Friday, Nov. 8, 5 - 8pm. The exhibition will be shown through December 14. There are some wonderful paintings in the exhibit, and I am happy to say that two of mine are included. If you get a chance, stop by and see the show!

For more information, visit https://newmexicoartleague.wildapricot.org/.

Healing Tea

Healing Tea

6" x 8"

Oil Painting 

by Cynthia Rowland

$250

The last few weeks have not left me much time to paint. I went to an Art Business Workshop in Denver hosted by Alyson Stanfield, Art Biz Coach. It was a fabulous two days and I got so much from her presentations. I would highly recommend the workshop if you can make your way to Denver next year. I believe she said the workshop would be in November of 2014. She offers so much and she is all about helping artists and their businesses. Alyson's website is http://www.artbizcoach.com/. 

When I got home, I came down with the flu, and am still under the weather. My friend and fellow painter, Ming Franz gave me a good Chinese recipe for the flu:

1. Ginger: peel the skin and slice in small pieces, cook in 3 cups of water for a half hour
2. Turn the fire off, add lemon juice and a slice of apple and pear and black tea
3. Cover for a half hour
4. When the water is warm or cool put honey in it.

It seems to be helping!

I painted this before I left for Denver. The blue and white teapot comes from my mother-in-law and I never tire of painting it. Who doesn't love blue and white? In fact, she gave me quite a collection of blue and white before she passed on. Somehow, getting sick and then with Ming's recipe for her healing tea seemed the appropriate time to post the painting. The paining is available at http://www.dailypaintworks.com/Artists/cynthia-rowland-4009

The War of Art

 

I am a bookaholic. I love books. My husband is so patient with all the books I have scattered over our home.  I heard about the War of Art by Steven Pressfield, ordered it and this book really is a kick in the pants. We all have fear and uncertainty when it comes to our art. I've heard it said discomfort is an indication of growth. If that is the case, I must be growing quite a bit lately!

The War of Art is made up of three parts:

Book One - The Resistance\Defining the Enemy

Overcoming resistance, the enemy of our mind.

Book Two - Combating Resistance/Turning Pro

Showing up, staying on the job while making the commitment over the long haul.

Book Three - Beyond Resistance/The Higher Realm

Approaching the mystery of creation and invoking the muses.

These are battles we must win in order to succeed! I liked the metaphor, because I become motivated when I can name my enemy. I think it's one of the best books I've read on overcoming creative blocks and obstacles and I highly recommend it! I love sharing books! Let me know if you discover a great book! I'd love to hear about it!

Nostalgia

Nostalgia

6" x 8"

Oil on Canvas

by Cynthia Rowland

During the past month, I have had three sets of company. Although, I loved having them visit, painting and blogging had to go on the back burner. Autumn is a beautiful time to visit New Mexico. The weather has been amazing with a whopping two inches of rain which is so unusual, giving us a final burst of color in the garden. This rose was the last one to bloom as fall makes itself known and summer comes to an end. I named the painting Nostalgia, because like my friends and family, it is hard to see the roses leave. It reminds me to appreciate the moment, for good or bad, nothing stays the same.

Nostalgia can be purchased at http://dailypaintworks.com.

Star Chain

   

Star Chain
6" x 8"
Oil Painting
by Cynthia Rowland
SOLD


Van Gogh was not the only painter to take sunflowers as a subject, but also Piet Mondrian, Georges Braque, William Blake and Emile Nolde. Van Gogh painted six versions of sunflowers and hung them in Gauguin's bedroom in the Yellow House. I find it helpful to keep in mind these artists were just people like you and me, trying to paint and understand the world we live in.

At this time of year, you can find sunflowers everywhere in New Mexico. In this painting, I was really looking to get the form of the sunflower with the color, the shape and the edges, without painting every petal. They were attached to one another in my set up, creating a link of sunflowers, and it reminded me of a bigger version of the daisy chains we use to make when we were kids! They are in the same family, Asteraceae, from the type genus Aster, which is a Greek term meaning "star". 

Star Chain is available at http://www.dailypaintworks.com/fineart/cynthia-rowland/star-chain/161709

High Summer Progression

I thought I would share with you the progression of High Summer, a 6" x 8" painting that I am selling at Daily Paintworks, http://dailypaintworks.com/. My goal is to post three times a week on Daily Paintworks. I have really enjoyed doing these little works. It's a way to try out different ideas, color combinations, studies and concepts for larger paintings. I hope you will find the following useful to you in your painting.

1. Gesture

2. Block-In

The Gesture and Block-In
There are so many ways to begin a painting. I began this with a color block-in on a lightly toned canvas. I kept the paint very thin. One reason for doing this is that sometimes colors can get a little muddy, so I'm trying to overcome that by putting down pure thin color. I want the yellows to be very bright. I'm also thinking about the gesture as I begin to lay in the colors. I'm trying to keep it loose and open and think about the larger areas and shapes of color. It's so important to not think sunflowers, but shapes, sizes and proportion for your lay-in. Once I'm satisfied with the placement, I begin filling in the shadow shapes of the vase, flowers and leaves. I'm also massing in the shapes of the butterfly bush from by mother's garden.

3. Color Extremes 

4. Background

Color Extremes and Background

Next, I begin to lay in my extremes, meaning the lightest light (which happens to be the highlight in the painting), the brightest colors (the yellows, reds and magentas) and the darkest colors. I use a palette knife to lay in the extreme colors in the light because the palette knife will lay the paint on thicker than my brush. For the darks, I try to keep the paint thin as I like to have different textures on the canvas to look at. Establishing these extremes early helps to have solid color relationships to work with. Next, I have to place my set up in the space it resides in, and that is done by putting in the background. I think about space all the time when I am painting, what is close to me, what is further away and so on.

5. Color in Light and Shadow

6. Edges and Finishing                SOLD

Color, Edges and Finishing

I made quite a jump before I took my next picture. I'll try to do better next time. I am now refining my color in the light and in the shadow. I added a couple of peaches as I found the yellows, oranges, reds and magentas on them and they tied in with my color scheme.  As I am refining the painting, it is so important to be thinking in terms of shape, form, dimension, space, value, color, etc., the language of painting rather than sunflowers, vase, peaches and butterfly bush. This is a very difficult concept for students to get and it took me years to get it as well, so stay patient and persevere! I revisit my edges to make sure they are not too hard in too many places. For the finish, I decided that my background was a little too warm, and so I cooled it down a bit. The sunflowers are beautiful this time of year. They are nature's gift of radiant warmth and their meaning is loyalty and longevity! Be sure to enjoy them and paint some for yourself this summer! Thanks for visiting!

Let's Do Color!

The phrase, "If I could only get the right color . . . .", is heard over and over in the classes I teach. This is the chance for you to get the color you are looking for. My goal for this class is to take the fear out of mixing color, after all, isn't that why we become painters? We love color, paint and picture making. We will cover the phenomenon of color and how it relates to other colors. Students will learn techniques for mixing color to achieve desired results and how to use the palette as a tool rather than a hindrance. Hue, value, intensity and temperature are the vocabulary of pigments used to understand color. We will create space with color and learn the difference between opaque and translucent colors. In each class, students will be making color studies to build a notebook for future color references. Once a certain familiarity with color is established, students will paint a simple still life composed of one color to train the eye to perceive subtle differences of color. This will reinforce the concepts and techniques covered earlier in the class.

Be sure to check out the New Mexico Art League website for this and other classes and workshops for 2013 and 2013 at  https://newmexicoartleague.org.

Blue with Sunflowers

Blue with Sunflowers
Oil on Canvas
6" x 8"
By Cynthia Rowland
SOLD

Who can't help but think of Van Gogh when you see sunflowers. They were his flowers. 
I painted this piece after reading more about him in the book I mentioned below. This vase was given to me by a dear friend. I love the blue wave across the middle and somehow it seemed to intensify when I placed the yellow sunflowers inside.

This leads me into an area I will be teaching this fall at the Art League, LET'S DO COLOR! 
It occurred to me to start posting items about color for my students to keep in mind and hopefully keep them motivated outside of class! Life can always give you an excuse not to paint. Painting requires discipline, dedication and perseverance even when the going gets tough, like Van Gogh!

P. S. I am selling my small paintings at Daily Paintworks, http://www.dailypaintworks.com/. It is a great site, and I was flattered yesterday when they put this painting on their Facebook page. Thanks DPW!!

Van Gogh and the Blues

The newest book, Van Gogh by Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith is a must read for all artists! It is so well written. The book has 885 pages and I am now on page 718 and Vincent has just cut off his ear. 

We all have times when we think our work isn't good enough, we doubt ourselves and have frustrations, but it's good to have a reference point, like Van Gogh. I know I sometimes get the blues, pity myself about the useless art training I received in college, if I had just started sooner, . . . it can go on and on. However, it is helpful to remember that Van Gogh produced all the work of his life in a mere eight years under extremely difficult mental complications and challenges. So, for those of us who started late, this is a statistic to keep in mind and stay positive!

My Portrait Workshop at the New Mexico Art League

The garden in front of the New Mexico Art League was in full bloom, welcoming all the students to my summer 2013 Portrait Workshop.

The first thing I did, to prepare for this class, was to set up a portrait wall with some of my favorite paintings to inspire the students. My wall included images by Richard Schmid, Antonio Mancini, Rob Liberace, John William Waterhouse, Sir Henry Raeburn, William Merritt Chase and others.

Here is the League workshop room all set up and prepared for the students to begin. The first model (of 10 models for the week) was about to arrive.

On the second day, the students used only burnt sienna and ultramarine blue, which is why I had this beautiful redhead posing in a royal blue robe.

The students mixed the different values of burnt sienna and ultramarine blue to establish warm and cool tones in the skin. This enables the painter to bring forms closer with the warm colors and push forms back with the cooler colors.

On day three, we all stayed after hours to watch a Rob Liberace video, eat pizza and drink wine! Great fun!!

On day five, I needed my tenth model to inspire everyone, because exhaustion was setting in. She came dressed in 1800's clothing. If you look closely, you can see a little bird nesting in the hat among the flowers!

She looked fabulous, but thank goodness, times have changed and we can stay cool in our shorts and t-shirts!

Everyone on break!! It is really important for students to get away from the easel and their painting during the breaks. This allows them to come back with fresh eyes and see something they might have missed previously.

We laid all the paintings on the floor in the north room of the League. Here you can see the paintings they did on the first day with just burnt umber and white on a toned grey surface.

The top two rows show the work done on the second day with burnt sienna and ultramarine blue.

By day four, they were using two blues, two reds and two yellows. We had a gentleman pose with a green hat in the morning and a young girl aged eleven came in the afternoon with a large white bow in her hair.

I had such a great group of people in this workshop.They all showed up, stayed open to new ideas and worked hard. Consequently, they painted some very strong work. I was proud of each one of them and their efforts. 

My thanks to those of you who took the workshop, and to you for stopping by to take a look!

Happy Painting!
Cynthia

RISTRA WREATH

Ristra Wreath

Oil Painting, 6" x 6"

Ristras are seen all over New Mexico at the entrances of houses, patios, and fences as a sign of welcome. They are said to bring good health and good luck! They come from a centuries old tradition of drying chiles in the Southwest. After the harvest, in late summer, the chiles are strung up to dry and used in the kitchen during the rest of the year. I've had this little wreath, made from the smaller Pequin chiles, for many months and this painting was my way of welcoming you to my blog.

PORTRAIT PAINTING WORKSHOP
2013 Summer Workshop Dates

July 22 - 26, 2013
The New Mexico Art League
Portrait Painting Workshop
http://www.newmexicoartleague.org/workshops.html

Students will have 10 models for this workshop. There will be a new model for each 3-hour session. We will begin with a monochrome palette, burnt umber and white and graduate to more colors as the week progresses. Burnt sienna and ultramarine blue for the second day, the three primaries for the third day, a warm and cool for each or the primaries for the fourth day and ending with the Sargent palette on the fifth day. It is essential to have a good beginning and to create an accurate head study by simplification of abstract forms,and this is better understood without the problems of color in the beginning. Understanding basic bone structure, musculature and relationships between forms are the essence of good portrait painting. These methods will help the student understand how the head is constructed and fee confident in undertaking future head studies.