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fingerfold: August 2014

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Monday, August 25, 2014. What the paint will do. A few months ago I started working on a portrait of my friend's daughter, for fun. I had already done the ground in loose, wash-y strokes, and wanted to try to keep the same looseness in the face, too. From the outset, though, I layed down some heavy, chalky colors that simply would not harmonize. Too much contrast; too dark, too purple. Next layer, I'll reconcile that, I told myself. I never do that. Still too purple. I can fix it. A couple of months late...

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fingerfold: leap

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Monday, July 13, 2015. If you have ever spent time at Girl's Gone Child. You already know that Rebecca Woolf is. An amazing writer, honest and funny and candid; and you may have also noticed that she is a fantastically talented photographer, too. If you haven't. Ever spent time there, go do, I'll wait. With her usual ebullience, and I couldn't help but feel like I'd had a brush with celebrity. I tried to play it cool, but inside I was totally dorking out. Detail, in progress:. Annnnnd, the finished piece:.

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fingerfold: January 2015

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Monday, January 26, 2015. I am suddenly the busiest I've ever been with portrait commissions, which is of course both exhilarating and terrifying. I feel like the girl in the story of Rumpelstiltskin,. I explained to Jason: I have told people that I can spin straw into gold, and now I have to find a way to actually do that. So I distracted myself by doing a quick study of him, instead. Forget the straw, forget the gold; the only rule is work. Subscribe to: Posts (Atom).

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fingerfold: May 2014

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Thursday, May 22, 2014. I have a recurring dream about flying. Each time I have the dream, the details are a little different - the scenery from above, the mechanism of the flying machine - but the trajectory is always the same. The exhilaration of the ability to take flight, followed by the crushing disappointment of losing it. I had this dream the other night, and it finally occured to me that it is exactly the feeling I have about painting. How does it work? How do I make the thing go? I have no idea.

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fingerfold: February 2015

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Wednesday, February 4, 2015. Cart before the horse. Lately all the dreams I've been having take place in Japan, as though my brain is finally getting around to sorting it all out. Funny how there's a lag time. Last summer I collected pottery shards from the Kamo River, intending to make little studies of each one, so in love with the bright blue and creamy white. I finally got around to it, but it was mainly because during the course of unpacking here in England, I found a frame I really needed to fill.

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fingerfold: September 2014

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Thursday, September 25, 2014. So, whoa. We live in England now. We are here and living out of suitcases and riding double-decker buses and discovering parks and museums and funny little alleyways. There is a hustle-and-bustle that is familiar from Kyoto, but a quaintness that suits the scale of the city of Oxford. There is an arched walkway between two university buildings called "The Bridge of Sighs.". We will likely be having high tea with Harry Potter soon enough. So the adventure begins. We spent one...

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fingerfold: October 2014

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Saturday, October 4, 2014. So, I am without paints until I can figure out where to go to start replacing my stock. Rather than wallow in righteous resentment, I've decided to keep my hands busy by taking an online workshop in collage, led by artist Randel Plowman, of the inspiring A Collage A Day. I like how collages can be quick studies of color and composition, and it's oddly freeing to work with just a limited range of materials. The results have been looser, less protected, less calculated.

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fingerfold: April 2015

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Tuesday, April 21, 2015. The power of a portrait. One of the most arresting paintings I saw at the National Portrait Gallery in London was this one:. Portrait of Ayuba Suleiman Diallo, by William Hoare, 1733. He was caught attempting an escape, and while in custody, attracted the attention of an English lawyer who was impressed by his literacy (in Arabic) and religious devotion. Despite this apparent conflict of interest - or maybe even because of it. it's complicated, OK? This portrait came to symbolize...

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fingerfold: April 2014

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Tuesday, April 15, 2014. The kids are back in school after their year-end break: Isla in a new class at kindergarten, and Auden, suddenly, impossibly, a First Grader. He barely made the cut-off date, starting just days after his 6th birthday. Isla likes to run around outside too, and hide in the narrow spaces between houses, in doorways, in the maze of narrow streets around our house. When I find her, she squeals with laughter, looking mischievous and triumphant. The minute they stop needing me at their ...

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fingerfold: June 2015

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Thursday, June 25, 2015. In the course of some internet wanderings, I came across an image of a beautiful woman holding her infant son. Serene faces, direct gazes, unfussy composition, gorgeous light. Right away I wanted to paint it:. Madonna and Child" 16 x 20", oil on canvas. Afterward, I saw the power of the mother's protective gesture, and I think that's what really drew me in. Subscribe to: Posts (Atom). Simple template. Powered by Blogger.