Brain Dump

I'm attempting to work from a photograph, I prefer to work from life but I'm seduced by the idea of doing a series from a farm that I worked on (volunteered ) in exchange for photographing my friends business. I'm finding it a challenge, since I don't have any sketches or color notations for the photos. I did do a few in the field , the successful ones I sold. Relying on my knowledge of painting from life, I noticed the photos just don't have the colors, I'm going to have to invent them.

The question was posed at lunch yesterday . Some said there thoughts change from painting to painting. Others it stays constant , darks , light , form, color temperature , value etc. A couple agreed with the zone, meditative. Not thinking , letting it happen. Hmmmmm. I sat quietly listening, eating while thinking I do all those . When a subject is difficult to tackle , I usually start out drawing on my canvas first, making notations, then actually drawing the angle especially if it's foreshortened . I can really get lost. In the form. I think about shapes , darks, put in light notations , maybe a mid tone note. I guess I go in and out of meditative and checking. The more experience I rack up I can feel something isn't looking quite right. Then the mirror, backing up, the turning upside down evaluation begins. If the painting doesn't meet my criteria it gets wiped off. Then comes the danger of my moods, is my interpretation of it correct or is my perception clouded. ...

Our model Claire. Her last day of posing for us. She's off to Europe. I wonderful day

I had so much fun painting with the wonderful members at the Palette and Chisel in Chicago, I went again on Tuesday. I'm ecstatic that I went, the model was a Poet, who teaches at SAIC. WOW, he was great. We got him before he shaves off his beard , Check it out Peter the Poet

Monday's model from the Palette and Chisel. Claire a college student from North Carolina She understands the process and knows how to sit. I really enjoyed being with my Palette friends, they are so welcoming and concerned when I haven't been around for awhile. I ask myself, what was going on that I couldn't make it down. I love painting in the North light studio.

Looking from the side of the farm across Hospital Road. Done during a workshop all on sight. A few suggestions from Frankie Johnson, workshop presenter. All my own painting . Frankie made a suggestion of making one silo instead of 2. I thought it was unusual to have 2 . Frankie's workshop was a wonderful workshop in that it stretched me in different ways. I see differently now. The light, it's all about the light. I see it now. I painted scenery that I would not have normally have chosen. The group I painted with was outstanding . Friendly, caring , excepting and sharing. Not to mention talented . Highly recommend a work shop with Frankie Johnson at The Main Street Gallery in Lake Zurich

Framed and sold this Saturday at our "E" nEw vision show

A look to my left, a sea of silver umbrellas.