Self Portrait

What better way to start a figure and faces journey than to practice on someone who is readily available:  me!  I had painted a couple of self portraits several years ago.  A photo of the first one I painted is posted first -- a very dear friend of mine said it looked like John Lennon!  Not quite the look I was going for.  Ha!  So, here is the first one (it is okay to laugh):

Okay, now here is the latest painting -- and I don't think anyone realizes how difficult it is to get a likeness of someone until you actually try to do it.  So, I don't think it looks like me -- and it is a little primitive, but I have to start somewhere.  I do think it is interesting to see how my painting style has changed over the last several years.  So, i think the important thing is to keep painting and see what happens.  Will keep you posted . . .
Linda

A different path . . .

I feel that by taking from the same teacher (as opposed to workshops from different teachers) for the last year has helped me to become a better painter - but, more importantly, more confident in my ability as a painter.  Put simply, I now know I can paint.

My interest in figures/faces in art goes way back.  Whenever I go to art shows, galleries or museums, I am always dawn to the figurative work.  I have dabbled in efforts to paint figures/faces, but haven't pursued it seriously.  I have drawn a lot of "caricatures" for my watercolor cards - and that's what I like, loose, impressionistic, whimsical - not photo realism.

As in anything else, practice is the key to improving.  I have decided to really concentrate on figures/faces for the next 6 months.   This will be an experimentation of sorts - to have fun, try different media and see what emerges.  I will post some paintings/drawings as I travel on this artistic path.

In that vein, I am taking a sketch book with me everywhere (actually drew some people while at jury duty today).  Here is a photo of a couple little drawings I did the other night while watching TV -- it will be easy to make them into gift tags.
Linda

Lily Pad Paintings

This afternoon, I headed over to work and hung the 2 lily pad paintings.  Took me awhile to get them exactly even, but voila! Here they are . . .
Linda

Getting Funky!

So, in class today we painted a still life with sunflowers.  I love sunflowers, but have not had great success painting them.  Once I got my canvas covered, I decided to wipe it all off and start over.  My teacher told me not to wipe it out, but said "you have to funk it up!"  So, I took out my palette knife and got funky. 
Here are today's sunflowers!
Linda

Lily Pads - Part Deux

Okay, here is the second painting of the lily pads - to be hung next to last week's painting.  Once the paintings dry and I hang them up at work, I will show you what they look like together.
Linda

Daisies

Did a quick little painting of daisies this afternoon.  I love daisies - they are so cheerful!
Linda

Lily Pads

There is a large vacant wall at work and a couple people keep asking me to do a painting for that wall.  So, thinking it would be a good place to show a piece of my work, I decided to do 2 paintings to hang side by side, each 24x24.  The following is my first attempt, next week I will try to do the companion piece.  We'll see how they look together and I will go from there. 
Linda