A Recidivist Painter of Nudes

Beautiful pose.  Beautiful model.  Sometimes you just have to back off the abstract stuff and paint a figure.  This one was done from a drawing from the Saturday morning figure group that is now held in the drawing studio at the Springhill College Art Dept.  The colors, particularly the reds,  toned down a bit when loaded onto the blog.

A. A.    32 x 28 inches  Oil on Canvas

There are a couple of unusual shows coming up next year called "Nude Night" that actually last 3 nights.  One is in Orlando and the other in Tampa.  I've been thinking of entering this painting and another one in the Tampa show.  These shows are kinda along the lines of Blue Velvet Studio's "Nudes in November" only much larger and more rebald   Haven't decided whether to go to the expense or not.  nude night in Orlando is a video they're putting out to promote the shows.  see what I mean.  Not sure about the art but Orlando IS where Micky lives.

Sailing, Sailing over the Bounding Main or whatever.

Apparently there is a traveling show of maritime art coming the the Mobile Museum of Art early in 2012.  To get everyone in the mood they decided to have a juried exhibition of 'maritime' paintings by local artists.  Ben Shamback, a very good, kinda super realistic painter of still life who is a professor at USA art dept was lined up to be the juror.   Now rest assured I am not a maritime painter but last spring I'd done 3 smallish paintings based on rainbows, an old visual element of mine.  2 of them sorta evolved toward a water scene so I ended up sticking a sail shape in them and then since it was water an unrealistic reflection.  Tah dah, 2 maritime paintings.  The third one was dry land.  So even though I would not have done paintings to conform to this theme to enter the show surprise, surprise, I had 2 perfectly good maritime paintings just sitting there.  The entry fee was cool, $0.00.  So I entered.

The blue painting below was awarded 2nd "prize".  I would have given Best in Show to someone else, NOT ME.  I really dislike the idea of 1st 2nd 3rd place etc.  It is ridiculous to try to rate paintings that way.  My thoughts are to give a number of merit awards, equal if there's money involved.

There I've ridden my  white charger once again.

 Rainbow #2        22 x 22 inches   Oil on Canvas

Passing Storm (got to call it something)  ca. 34 x 36 inches  Oil on Canvas


Actually I like the other one at the top better

It Ain't Always Good (till the next time)

Big Vic............Vibrator  36 x 38 oil on canvas

Finished this painting and posted it once but it just didn't look right.  Hopefully it looks more right now,

New Drawings From A New Place

A.A. #1

A.A.#2

Nan

For about the last 3 years, first on Wednesday nights then on Friday and Saturday mornings we've had some kind of figure drawing group at Space 301.  I have been handling the Saturday morning group since January 2010.    Cindy Phillips who was the education co-ordinator was helpful and tried to accomdate the group as much as possibile.  Life Was Good. or a reasonable facsimili.

After a nationwide search a new director was found for CLA.  Attitudes changed. We felt that there was little interest in having our group there.  So we moved to the Springhill College Art Dept.  They were glad to have us.  Wanda Sullivan has been most helpful.  The facility is good and we're happy to be there.

So as far as I know the only open figure drawing opportunity in Mobile is our group.  (Ben Shamback has a group for USA students, faculty and alumni)

So a couple of drawings of A.A. (no drinking involved) and one of Nan who has moved away and is missed.                                         

Scumbling, Scumbling, hope you're scumbling, too.

I'm getting into this thing of painting/drawing something and then partially obscuring with a transluscent film.  Oh mystery.

Just finished this one.  I'm going to send a CD of this and several similar ones to a gallery in Atlanta.  Might as well get rejection.  It has no title yet.

                                              No Title  44 x 48  Oil on Canvas

the V. Virgin series continues

                          
   V. Virgin Not................Unless       44 x 44  Oil

I've given up on trying to put text above the picture. used to be able to drag the picture but that doesn't seem to work.  and can't get the colors 100% on the screen.  complain, complain, etc.

"V" for Big Vic remembered

"Big Vic- Vibrator" 36 x 38 oil on canvas

Once upon a time there was a chain of exercise salons called Vic Tanny. They often had leotard clad women in the window using one of their machines. They really didn't need it. This particular one was a vibrating belt.

Vestal Virgins Rock

V. V. Resting 36 x 36 oil on canvas

I just finished this thing, the purple is still wet, so it may occur to me to change something in the future. But I think not. Sometimes you just have to think 'how I did dat?'.

I add my share of BS

Actually there's a whole painting under this one that just didn't pan out. There's nothing of it showing but some textured paint build up.


Vestal Virgins Floating Away 44 x 44 Oil



There's often a lot said about art being about causes, political, social, whatever. Much of this turns out bad or in the end has nothing relative to the "cause". Case in point the current exhibit at Space 301. It's supposed to relate to hurricane Katrina and the Flooding of New Orleans. There are a few good pieces in the show. Enough said. Just make art for the sake of making art. Off the soap box.
I'm not one for a lot of theory in doing art. Whether the figure comes through in the things I'm doing now really isn't important. One thing I want to try out is the idea of selective focus (remember Rembrandt and the other old guys) but in the abstract. Maybe it'll mean something, maybe not.

For the record the windmill references weren't really about global warming but I do believe AlGore is a fat fraud.

Back to the Future

Well, it's been a while since I posted anything and I've noticed that a few of my friends are just as remiss.


"Old Fart Getting Older" 22 x 16" WC/Pastel


I felt I was getting boxed in with the figure paintings I was doing so decided to go back a little and do some fun stuff. Paint is the subject and you can do as you want with space and color. there a figurative references more and less.

The Windmill Will Save Us" 38 x 36 oil

"When in Danger or in Doubt Run in Circles, Scream and Shout:

The Windmill Will Save Us." 46 x 42 oil

"Windmills and Huddled Masses" 32 x 30 oil

The above have something to do with AlGore in a perverse sort of way.

"Woman Again" 44 x 46 acrylic

A throwback to the 60s. Acrylics don't look exactly like oil. Both have their good points.

drawing on saturday

3 little drawings, a couple of them could work in small paintings. We'll see.
All 14 x 17 in graphite.

I have a new live in model (not the one below) but she won't be still. Keeps wagging her tail. She doesn't understand the concept of not being patted and petted all the time either. Hard to work in the studio but hopefully she'll figure it out.

1/1/11

2 figures

Many moons ago the concept of being alive in 2011 was an abstract one. I had hoped to celebrate the new year by finishing everything I was working on but I have fallen short. The larger paintings just needed more layers of paint than I could do in the time constraints.

However, I did finish 8 small paintings, miniatures to me. They are 8 x 8 or 8 x 9 inches. The square ones are 8 x 8 and the ones that aren't square are 8 x 9. Ha! 4 figures and 4 portraits in what I hope is a traditional style. 7 of them are oil on masonite panels, 1 is on stretched canvas. I've mounted them on a slightly larger piece of masonite painted black so that when framed the rabbit won't cover the edge of the painting and give a black reveal around the picture. This isn't an original way.

I went to the trouble of setting the white balance on the camera but should have left it on auto. I just couldn't do it all over. whine!

So I have 20 or so blank formats of all size plus the 3 leftovers to start the year. we'll see how that goes.

So here they are with a progress foto at the end.

Happy New Year.

conroy

coastal figure

figure

Janet

Kimberly

Lydia drinking

Lydia eating

Puff # ?

The end