Martice

Martice
Oil on panel, 11x14

This young lady was simply a delight to paint today!  She is just as sweet as can be, and was so patient as we constantly tried to talk her into ignoring her breaks.  Today's focus was temperature, so I kept this in mind as I worked.  Her hair was amazing - with cool light and cooler light reflecting from two separate sources, one more blue, the other pushing lavender.  The skin was truly a challenge.  I found myself seeing one color, looking more intently to see the others.  So much of the life of the painting is accurately seeing all the colors.  With each day, I am seeing more color temperature variations.  Just as with plein air painting outdoors, I can see many more colors when painting from life than I could from a photo.  It never ceases to amaze me.  I am really having fun with this workshop, really trying to push myself to explore the figure and portrait work, and paint more sensitively.  I brought this one home and worked on it a bit more, wanting to capture her sweet, gentle spirit with the oils.  The color is a bit off due to the nighttime lighting, so I'll try to take a better photo tomorrow. Painting number 423 in as many days :)

I can hardly believe that I have been selected as a featured artist in an article by the Missouri Arts Council titled Snapshots of the Missouri Arts Blogosphere!  This is SO exciting!  What an honor it is to mentioned with such amazing artists across the state!  Please go check out the article - there are some wonderful artists and their blogs mentioned.  You just might find a new favorite blog to follow!