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.