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I felt like I had to do at least one more cardinal.  And since yesterday's cardinal was biking, I thought we should go old-school and have a cardinal flying today. I think this guy is enjoying the last of the warm weather before the snow moved in tomorrow. :(

The rose is burning
in its watery vessel-
searing my eyes

Tangerine Rose, 7 x 5 inches, oil on linen mounted to panel
This piece will be on display in this upcoming exhibit:
Small Works 2010
Artists' House Gallery
December 3 to December 24, 2010
Two receptions:
First Friday:
December 3,
5 - 8:30pm
Sunday,
December 5,
1 - 4pm

Artists' House
57 North Second Street
Philadelphia, PA 19106
(215) 923-8440
[email protected]

Crocus in an Egg Cup, oil on linen on wood, 4 x 6 inches, 2010

Green Jello: First Attempt, oil on linen on wood, 5 x 7 inches. 2010

I found Jello to be a surprisingly challenging subject! It is translucent, reflective, smooth, and textured, with lots of inner goings on: bubbles and fissures and air pockets.

Little Silver Bag with Red Apple, oil on linen, 8 x 10 inches, 2010

Glazed, oil on linen on wood, 8 x 6 inches, 2010
This was one session: it's difficult to achieve that glazed look without actually glazing! ;-)

BRAVE is the theme this week at Illustration Friday. I thought this portrait demo I did for a class I am teaching would fit the bill. In several ways:

1) It is brave of me to show an unfinished piece. In fact, a barely started piece. I was demonstrating how to start a portrait and then was kept busy individually assisting my students for the rest of the session.
2) Teachers have to be brave to do demos in general. There is nothing like standing there in front of a class for a little performance pressure! Added to it, is that you need to talk, explain what you are doing and answer questions, while producing something the students will find worth emulating.
3) This model, whom I have used frequently, strikes me as a brave soul. Also an artist, trying to piece together a living with modeling and rare commissions and sales and other part-time jobs: living on the edge.

We all artists have to be brave, and also a little strange, to do what we do.

Lily stepped back to get her canvas - so - into perspective. It was an odd road to be walking, this of painting. Out and out one went, further and further, until at last one seemed to be on a narrow plank, perfectly alone, over the sea.

~Virginia Woolf, from To the Lighthouse

Sand Dollar in a Box, oil on canvas on wood, 4 x 6 inches, 2010

Little Gold Sweet, oil on canvas, 2.5 x 3.5 inches, 2010

Duck in a Box, oil on gessoed ragboard, 6 x 6 inches, 2010

Bagel on Blue, oil on gessoed ragboard, 4 x 6 inches, 2010

Overturned Mushroom
oil on gessoed cardboard, 4 x 6 inches, 2010

Rooftops in the Snow, oil on linen on panel, 10 x 8 inches, 2010

I did this out the smaller studio window this afternoon. Snowed again all day today. It has not amounted to much as yet, just a lot of cold wetness melting in the streets and sticking to the old piles of snow. And scaring the populace, with our fresh memories of the recent blizzard and power outages. It's certainly pretty though!

Thyme in a Bottle
oil on linen on wood, 6 x 4 inches, 2010

I might go back and touch up the label a bit more tomorrow or the next day. The paint is too thick and wet for me to get further detail in. BTW, I truly did not even think of the song title till after I'd posted the image! Now I've got it in my head....

Ripe Berry
oil on gessoed cardboard, 3 x 3 inches, 2010

This may have been my fastest one yet. And I can't even see what it really looks like, because it was dusk when I started painting and after only about 15 minutes I dropped my brush and raced out the door to pick up youngest son from his after school activity. When I got home, night had fallen. I've never managed to set up good artificial lighting in my studio, and rely entirely on daylight. I may be in for a huge surprise in the morning! Well, never a dull moment when you are a painter.

EGG TRIO
oil on gessoed cardboard, 5 x 7 inches, 2010

Starfish from Eric, oil on canvas, 3 x 3 inches, 2010

Snow Man
oil on gilt cardboard, 8 x 6 inches, 2010

Maybe I will start a new blog category: speed painting. The way I am using this term, it is a subset of alla prima painting and consists of getting the image onto the canvas in the fewest strokes possible. We are talking half an hour or less! Speed painting was necessitated in this case by the pain of painting while looking into the white glare of snow...excruciating. I wore a hat to cut the glare but even so...ouch.



My youngest son took this picture of me as I was crouched on the landing painting (I think he was very pleased that I was painting his snowman!) Very circular..taking a photograph of someone painting a sculpture created by the person taking the picture. Am I dizzy!

Lauren Digital Portrait Painting by Kayleen West I completed this portrait tonight. I was using a program I mentioned in the previous post to record the painting in progress however it distorted the image and so I am yet to provide you with a video. I am using (or trying to use) Capturix 5.61.630 but it was difficult to paint with it as I noticed it slowed the brush stokes down and as a result

Timothy Digital Portrait Painting by Kayleen West I have been testing digital recording software to create what is known as fast-forward or speed paintings. I had hoped to have something to post this week however I have had difficulties with trail versions. One screen recording software shut down at the end of a painting and as a result I lost all the files. The one I trailed today would not