New Commissioned Portraits

I have such joy when I am involved in doing a portrait for a client.  Especially when the subjects are as beautiful as these two gorgeous standard white Poodles.  I took photos of one of the portraits from start to finish and will post them here... Enjoy...

Beginning the Graphite Drawing:

                       Closeup of the details with first watercolor wash..............
And more wash added to the graphite...

 Moving down to the throat and into the body of the dog with watercolor, subtleties carefully modeled...

                    Detail of the nose....

 Finished painting...

And the second dog, done in the same manner.....

Viewing Artwork

Many of my students know how I feel about looking at the artwork of other artists.  Do it!!  Do it all the time.  Seek out those artists whose work you admire; that will lead you to other work.  Soon you will develop a file of wonderful artists whose work will inspire and instruct you every day.  I don't advocate copying other artists work.  That usually isn't a good idea, especially for a beginner, since they are trying to find their own identity, and just learn their way around the materials.  But working in the 'style' of another painter, perhaps emulating their brushwork, their technique, their subject matter, is a good way to learn how to work with the mediums you choose, and then combine those techniques with your own ideas... leading finally to making your own statements... a whole creative process.

I have over 350 artists whose work I keep on file on my computer, some with more than 20 of their paintings, just to look at, learn from, and, yes, drool over.  This is my constant source of support when I have few live painters to work with at any given time.  I think it's important to talk with other artists and look at their work in person, also.  A friendly critique of each others work is ALWAYS helpful.  Viewing the work with another artist or group of artists gives you more eyes, more opportunity to 'see' the work through the filter of 'new' eyes...  If at all possible, join a class or take a workshop, as this is one of the best ways to share the struggle to learn art! 

Some of my favorite moments have been in museums... when I came upon the work of John Singer Sargent in the Houston Museum of Art, seeing Edgar Payne's paintings at the Gilcrease in Oklahoma, viewing Mary Cassatt's work at the McNay museum in San Antonio, and Alice Neal's paintings in Houston... wow, tears to my eyes, overpowering work involving many many hours of love, pain, and, well, WORK!   Never underestimate the power of work, and struggle, and effort... it will pay off in the end!

Well, rambling done for now... sorry I was long-winded, but I just finished looking at 3 of my favorite artists on FB and going through their portfolios... it got me going!

A new Title....

Hey folks... Since I have been writing this blog, infrequently as it has been, my blog NAME has bothered me.  It has never quite been what I wanted or meant to imply what might be in the body of the blog.  So... after much deliberation, I have come up with a new title... please let me know what you think...

GOING PLACES

Dog Portrait Commission

Many of you know I take commissions for portraits, both of people and animals.  Here is one of my latest works, and this time, I remembered to take progress shots of the portrait.  I am using a graphite pencil drawing under watercolor.  I use this combination for my dog portraits because it gives me a substantial textural and detailed underpinning for the watercolor enhancement. 

Start of the pencil drawing...

nearly done with the underdrawing....

beginning the watercolor wash...

about halfway done...

And the finished portrait...

I always send my clients a preview, and if they have any ideas or suggestions for improvement, I then revisit the portrait for additional work before shipping it to them.

http://www.marenphillipsartlines.com    OR     http://www.marensdogart.com

Demo in Brenham..

Today, I did a demo at the Brenham Art League... I came prepared to do a portrait demo in 1 hour with oils using quick studies techniques.  I gave the attendees the choice of what I would paint and they chose a photo of a small dog in the desert...  During the process, I answered questions about colors, approaches, and materials.  It was a good group of painters and everyone was interested in the process.  

 I used a photo of my own dog, Rosey, from several years ago when we were visiting friends in Albuquerque.  This is one of my favorite pictures of Rosey, who loves the sun, worships it even, and was so alive and happy in this picture.

 

And, here is the painting... Done in 50 minutes.............

 

Plein Air Painting with Maren Phillips - Part 1

How cool that one of my students posted this on You Tube of me starting to work on my demo painting during my plein air workshop today!  How fun!!

Fun in Waxahachie!!

Five days of painting, nine paintings total, and lots of new friends and even a couple of sales!  That was May 28th through June 2 in Waxahachie, Texas.  Waxahachie is a small town in North Central Texas, off Interstate 35E, about 50 miles south of Dallas.  If you pass through that area, it would be worth your while to stop for a visit, even a few days, in Waxahachie.  They are renowned for the lovely turn of the century Gingerbread Homes in the historical district.  The townspeople seem to value their resources and take care to renovate and restore their older historical buildings.  When I was there, it was in conjunction with the Ellis County Arts Association and the Gingerbread Homes Tour, for the Paint Historic Waxahachie event.  There were over 30 artists painting over a week long period.  The arts group provided goodies, and directions, and a wonderful venue for display of the wet paintings to the townspeople. 

Here is one of the paintings I did during the competition period of the week.  I had spied this home as I first came into town, did a doubletake and planned right then to paint it.  The only thing I needed was the right light.  We had mostly cloudy and sprinkly weather for several days, but as it happened, there were just the right amount of sunbeams which broke thru as I was working on this painting.  I am including several in process pics so you get an idea of my journey.  This painting won an honorable mention in the competition with over 200 pieces of work!

Here is the photo of the home during one of the sunny moments!
And here is the first stage of my painting, the toned canvas and the sketch for the painting...

Stage two, a block in of large color areas and masses of darks.... establishing values...

 

Stage 3 as I begin to establish mid tones and a bit of detail...  at this stage, I had painted for approximately 90 minutes...

Stage 4 continues the addition of more values, more color in the landscape and greater refinement of the details in the house.  I also began work on the fountain in the foreground...

Stage 5 finds me mostly finished with the painting, with only a few tweaks to finish details and checking darks and lights to make sure they are well placed and balanced....

 

And here is the finished painting, framed, and with it's winning ribbon!