Louis Is ‘Da Man

My work day started this morning at a client site near the Minneapolis Institute of Art (MIA). After that, I needed to head home to work in the afternoon, except that I decided to fit in a quick visit to the MIA. When I am on vacation, I spend a significant amount of time looking at art and going to museums, but I don’t do either of these things very often when I am home.

In a friend’s blog post about her most recent art-making experience, she mentioned a number of sources of inspiration, some of which came from items at the MIA or from former exhibits at the MIA. It got me thinking that I need to do a better job enjoying the art and museums in my hometown. Plus, I really should be more familiar with the works in the MIA. When I go to Chicago, I have friends that I have to visit at the Art Institute, so I really should also have friends at the MIA.

I spent time in 2 galleries and randomly wandered on my way out. While I spent most of my time with drawings and paintings in the two galleries, the best part of the visit was the architecture. There is an area where there are pieces from the Prairie / Mission / Arts and Crafts era. When I wandered into it, I was completely surprised to see my favorite architecture element. I am lucky that I have friends who don’t back away slowly when I mention that I have a favorite architectural element. In fact, one of my friends has a favorite clock. It’s at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich. It’s one of the Harrison clocks. I believe it’s H2. It’s good to have friends like this.

Anyway, I had completely forgotten that the MIA has an elevator grille from the Chicago Stock Exchange building which was torn down many years ago. This was, or course, designed by Louis Sullivan. This brings my current count up to seeing 4 of these grilles. There’s one at the Art Institute in Chicago, which I go to visit whenever I can. I saw a second one at a special exhibit in Chicago years ago and you could even touch that one! There's one at the Victoria and Albert Museum. It really surprised me when I came across it the first time. Now I know there’s one at the MIA I can visit whenever I want.

Here it is, in all of it’s glory.

I know I sound a little wackier than usual in this post, but I adore building ornamentation designed by Louis Sullivan. In fact, I have more or less decided (subject to the veto power of my partner) that I would like to name the next household pet, Sullivan.  If we get a pair, my thoughts are either Adler and Sullivan named for the architectural firm or Hubbard and Sullivan.  Hubbard would be after Elbert Hubbard.

Hello There

I have been painting more days than not, but my time has been limited and I haven't had much to say. I was a little afraid to finish the painting from my most recent post, so I put it off. This is the second version of a background. I didn't like the first version and I don't like this one. The cool color seems worse than the warmer color of the first version, but I think I'm done and I'm moving on.

I really enjoyed painting from a picture with dark, dramatic lighting and painting with such a different aspect ratio. I will use the source picture again and I would like to think about other pictures I can crop with this ratio.

#336 - Mr. Biggs - Drama Shot - 5" x 10" - paper

One other interesting thing about this painting. When I was painting the cat, it was easier to stay in the world of values and value shapes. When I was painting the bed frame, I found myself painting a bed frame.

Since it's almost the end of May, I also did three paintings from life. Each was excruciating. For one of them, I really wanted to paint my heavy, white/beige, glazed mug, but I struggled with the view finder. Since it's almost June, I am thinking about picking up a simple roundish fruit from the store and doing some 10 minute paintings to get past this. 

I am willing to share the painting of one of my other ceramic mugs.

#338 - Mug - 6" x 6" - paper

I had some trouble with my paint brush. There's a part of the background near the lip at the top where I tried to fix a boo-boo. The paint stroke direction and the paint color makes it visually confusing between the edge of the lip and the background. Also, the handle of the mug at the bottom doesn't connect quite right. Right next to that, there is a part that juts out a bit which was very, very light, but my brush stroke was way too big and makes it look kike the light part goes down to the bottom. It doesn't and that creates some confusion about the bottom of the mug and the background. 

I think some 10-minute paintings and maybe grabbing a few spring flowers in my yard and just painting without going for accuracy might be the ticket for getting out of my painting malaise. 

Aspect Ratio = Very Vertical

Currently, Kat has been doing some long vertical paintings. Here is an example and here is another one. It's had me thinking about the subject matter or composition for this type of format. Mostly, I paint square or rectangular which isn't that far off of being a square (5" x 7" or 8" x 10").

On Friday morning, I had breakfast with my hubby and nephew. My nephew showed me a picture of his cat and, hurrah, it called out for cropping into a long vertical piece. Even better, the picture had very dramatic lighting. Sometimes, you put out a small intention in the world and it arrives.

The shape of the left eye needs a little fixing and I can see a few touch ups which are needed, but otherwise I am pretty pleased with this. This is Mr. What Color Is He Anyway, but that's not as important with most of his body in dark, dramatic lighting. Tomorrow, I'll finish it and I am sure that I will paint from the source picture again.

I love how the paws drape over. This is a 5" x 10".

Lots and Lots of Oranges

Orange cats are a frequent painting subject and I've noticed that I dull down my oranges too much. As a result, I decided to paint a bunch of different shades of orange. All were painted with Hansa Yellow Opaque, Quinacridone Magenta, and Titanium White.

The top set was one layer of paint. The following are notes which relate to the numbered swatches.

1. Mix of yellow and magenta. No white added. It's too dark. Plus, it could also use some white  to make it more opaque. The rest of the swatches in the 1st and second row are all a mix of yellow, magenta, and white.
2. These swatches are too yellow, so that I see this as a yellow-orange rather than orange.
3. These are muted with a little Phthalo Blue Red Shade. Ugh. This makes a dull, muted color, so why do I tend to add a little of this color when I am painting my orange cats. Must stop!
4. Same as #3, except the additional color was Phthalo Blue Green Shade. Ugh, again.
5. I tried to finish with a really great orange color in one layer. 

Having failed to get a really great orange color in one layer, I did experiment #2. Each row has one layer of the same color. The left column shows the original, one-layer color. In the middle and right column, a second layer of paint was added after the first one dried. The same light color orange was used as the top layer in the middle column and the same darker orange was used as a top layer in the right column.     

It was surprising to see that the top layer of paint in the middle and right column was so dominant that the underneath layer didn't matter much. My guess is that this is because there was Titanium White in both of the oranges in the top layer.

Lessons learned:

• I really do need two layers of paint to get a vivid orange.
• The top layer is the one which really matters. 

Wish / Hope:

• I hope all of this helps me to stop dulling my oranges. 

How Do You Paint A Color You Can’t Name?

On top of that, brown tabby cats are not in fact brown. I’m not sure what color they are and I am not sure how to mix a paint color to represent what color they are, but I am certain that they are not brown. The really dark stripy parts are black. The slightly lighter colors are taupe/purple and taupe/beige. The lighter stripes are more straw colored. Nowhere do I see brown.

Who names these things? Although I guess it’s easier to call them brown tabbies than to call them stripy cats with colors which are hard to name.

In my zeal to mix an appropriate color, I think I covered up too much of the black gesso.

#335 - Mr. Biggs - 8” x 8” - paper

It’s funny in life and in the picture, his notched ear stands out, but it doesn’t in the painting.

2, 4, 6, 8 - How Do I Evaluate?

Short answer: I don't.

Long answer: First, I procrastinate. I am not good about evaluating my paintings.  One reason is simply discipline or the lack thereof. I haven't made it a priority. The other is that most of the time I feel like I am seeing more with my brain than my eyes, so I don't trust my ability to evaluate myself. Instead, I will look at a piece right after I'm done and usually I'll look at it the next day when I take a picture to post here, but both times it's in a cursory manner. If I ever look further, it's mostly to reassure myself that there is some resemblance between my source material and the final result.

I am thinking about doing a weekly or bi-weekly self-evaluation where I look at what I've drawn or painted since the last time. I don't want to make it a big, super formal deal. I may or may not write about it here, but I think it would help me improve.

When I look Roz Stendahl's drawing class two years ago, she was a big proponent of self-evaluation. She referred to the "editing eye" and also encouraged participants to focus on one thing they liked about a piece and one thing they would like to improve upon.

In just thinking about evaluating myself, I know I need to do better at focusing on the value shifts and making the lightest lights lighter (say that 3 times fast!). When I've been drawing out a new painting, I've noticed that I tend to draw features more than the value shifts, so that is something to think about. Plus, I think I also need to use a smaller brush (size 8 rather than size 10 and maybe a size 6 for 6 inch paintings. .

I have not been painting as much as I would like. I am in full gardening mode and there is just so much to do! I didn't anticipate having to build fences to keep the rabbits out of my vegetable garden, but it became apparent that I could have happy rabbits or happy vegetables.

Here's the latest.

#334 - Desk Cat - 8" x 8" - paper

Crazy Eyes

Many of my paintings of Chandler have a slightly cartoonish aspect to them. While that may be at least partially a lack of skill on my part, it’s also partially an aspect of Chandler. One time at the vet, I explained that he is my explanation point cat. That means he is a cat of intensity. If he is scared, lovey, or wacky, he is really, really scared, lovey, or wacky. When he is in full wackadoodle mode, which happens a lot in the spring, he will literally bounce off of the kitchen walls.

I will redo this one at some point in the future.

#333 - Crazy Eyes - 6" x 6" - paper

I don't like the background, especially in person. My palette has some areas with a coating of matte medium from when I was experimenting with that. I didn't work quickly enough do I ended up with hard edges in a way I don't like.

Redo-do-do

Repainting from the same source material helps me. At least, I think it does, as along as I don't go down the rabbit hole of painting the same thing again and again and again until I am completely satisfied. That never happens.

I really like this picture of Hammett.

My first attempt was a timed painting, but I ended up abandoning that and took a trip to the land of overworking.

#331 - Hammett - 8” x10” - paper

I thought I could do better, so my very next next painting was a redo. In total, I took 55 minutes over several days. The angle of his face is better in this one, although the eyes don't line up correctly.

#332 - Hammett - 8" x 10" - paper

When I finish a painting, my first glance impression is rarely favorable. After getting away for even 1 minute or two and I take a second look, I think I am mostly glad / relieved that the painting resembles what it is supposed to that I don't go further. Put another way, I don't think I evaluate or critique my work at all.

For example in this case, I knew I could do better than the first attempt, but still I liked the first one. The head shape was off, but it seemed okay to  me. After I completed the second one and looked back at the first one, I see a lot more problems with it.

In both of them, I enjoyed playing with different paint strokes and paint stroke directions to try and convey the tilt and lean of his body.