Plant Studies

About a month ago, I found these beautiful pieces of wood in the dumpster behind my apartment building. I think someone had broken down an old cabinet or something. They were so nice that I took a few pieces and painted on them. I've been doing a variety of things to get back into oil painting, and this was one of them- just having fun painting some luscious leaves on these beautiful panels.

Post Studio Visit

Time in: 10:00 am

This week I had a studio visit with Linda Warren of Linda Warren Gallery. Wesley Kimler had connected me with her for her to come and take a look at my work. As you can see in the picture, I devised a hanging system to get some of my drying paper studies up off the floor- they're clipped to a string that runs along the top of the wall.

Linda came over and looked at pieces from all my series and was very positive about my work. We talked about my work, her gallery and a bit about the Chicago art scene. I know she has an enormous list if gallery artists so my intention in having her over wasn't really to become one of her artists. She may have people in mind that might be interested in some of my work though. She was generous enough to suggest a collector I should contact who is really interested in portraits/figurative work, primarily of women.

It was really great to get someone in the studio who is a professional in the field. It makes me feel like being an artist is more of a reality, in a way. I've been wanting to be around other art professionals for so long, it can feel like you're so isolated and like you're working towards something so vague when you're all alone in your studio, producing and producing.

This week I also finished my application for a grant from the Chenven Foundation. I'm still waiting to hear about the CAAP Grant from Chicago- I emailed them to see what was going on (they said notifications would be sent in May) and they said that they are waiting to see if they're going to get money from the State or City to award grants, so it could take a while yet.

To Do:
Email women about photo shoot
Put away Duplex paintings
Email HT
disc of images/materials for Linda
Email artists for WPG shows
Photograph plant pieces

Playlist:
Barbara Kingsolver on Speaking of Faith
Tom Waits
Joan Armatrading
The Private Patient by PD James

Missing space

I think I'm pretty good at adapting to space restrictions when it comes to my studio. I've had to adapt to a variety of spaces, all with benefits and disadvantages. Right now, my studio bleeds over into the dining room (it's the same room, sort of divided in half, really the dining room table becomes my desk, so I guess the dining room is my studio). It's enough room to work in, it's just not quite big enough to spread out all the pieces I'm working on at once without feeling like I am constantly shuffling things around.

I need to come up with a system for hanging my studies on paper while they're drying, rather than laying them all across the floor. I think with some clever organizing I can make the most of the space I have, I just have to figure out how to do that. I'm planning on hanging some wire/string across the ceiling to clip the papers to. That will at least get them off the floor.

I also need to find a way to easily present my work for viewing. I have a studio visit this week with a gallery owner and wish I had a better way to display my paintings. This will also take some clever organizing of space.

To Do:
Hang paintings to dry
Unwrap paintings and hang what I can
Gesso paper
Hands on head portrait- fix ear
clean brushes

Perceptions, plus

I mentioned in my last post that I had some work included in the latest issue of Perceptions, which is a magazine for the arts put out by Mt. Hood Community College. If you'd like to purchase a copy, you can send either a check or money order to the following address:

Mt. Hood Community College

Humanities Division c/o Megan Jones

26000 SE Stark Street

Gresham, OR 97080

Copies are $15 apiece and you can make checks payable to "Perceptions".

I'm continuing to work on quick studies on paper of facial expressions of women exercising. I'm thinking of them almost like gesture drawings, trying to quickly capture the expression. I'm playing around with both realistic and gestural/expressive portrayals and trying to vary my color palette. I'm thinking of this as a chance to just try out a lot of things without a preconceived idea what I'm trying to achieve as far as a "look".

I'm taking some time to see what happens with regularly working on these. I'm working on cheap paper that I gesso which allows me to make a lot of these. I usually do a few a day- some I work on for just one session, and some I am going back into to work on for multiple sessions.

Sometimes I like what I make, sometimes it changes- I'll like it at first and then not like it and want to paint over it. I need to get some women together to photograph- I am really looking forward to have some new references to work from and new faces to paint.

To Do:
Work on Chenven Foundation grant application
Gesso more paper
3 Sketches
Re-work previous studies
Organize women for exercise photo session

Playlist:
This American Life and Re:Sound
Joan Armatrading
Grace Potter and the Nocturnals
Eddi Reader- Simple Soul
Van Morrison