Mugshot #1, 6x6 Inches, Oil

$100 & $10 S&H

"On October 31st, 2011, disaster struck the tiny island of Hilton Head, South Carolina. Twenty-one notorious characters descended upon Hilton Head and went wild shooting everything in sight.

The purpose of this challenge is to reveal the identities of the Hilton Head Gang by painting their portraits. The first mug to be painted is the leader of this notorious gang - Karin 'Quickdraw' Jurick . Karin can visit a beach and shoot everyone in sight before they even know she is there. Her covert activity is known worldwide."

~ Maria Hock, artist and member of the Hilton Head Gang

The 'mug' above, is Karin.  She is believed to be somewhat armed, in that she has a camera always, and dangerous, well, just because we say so.   

Other HHG members coming, once a week.... till they are all caught....

In other news... today in class we did a 'limited stroke' exercise.  Only using 25 strokes, we challenged ourselves to 1) really think before we put down a stroke, and 2) as Peggi Kroll Roberts advises, 'Paint like a millionaire' and loosen up, using a good amount of paint on your brush.  Here's mine (and accuracy was sacrificed for this exercise!

Then we painted mugshots.  Here's JoAnn's excellent work.

*Saturday Nov. 19th is my baby Molly's 27th birthday!  Happy Birthday sweetheart!*

Cherry Blossoms, 8x8, Acrylic

$100 & $10 S&H

It is a snow day here in RI - a couple of storms have collided overhead and given us a nice Nor'easter.   After shoveling and cocoa, it was time to break out the paints!  I'm already tired of snow, so it helped that I got a commission to paint Cherry Blossoms.  I could really live without the lawn and fill my yard with flowers and flowering trees.  That would probably make me the crazy cat/pug lady with the weird yard. But they're so beautiful!

I had an image to work from - no, they're not blooming here in the snow!  And I just had to keep in my head the voices of all my teachers "Simplify, simplify, simplify..."  And words of wisdom from Peggi Kroll Roberts : "Be a designer!"  So without the background and the zillion of other branches, flowers and such, this is what I came up with!

I promise, no more workshop photos after this!

As promised.... the Belly Dancer! Here I'd first like to send a BIG 'THANKS' to the TSA personnel in Phoenix for untaping all my wet canvas boards (all held aprart so you could actually see in the spaces between the wet paintings), smearing the wet paint all over the paintings packed face-to-face) and effectively ruining every single canvas. I feel so much SAFER now! Seriously, there was an explanatory letter on top of them, with only my empty easel also in the suitcase. Apparently there's a threat of EXPLOSIVE paintings - now there's something I never thought to worry about! Anyway... learned my lesson, and forever more will 1) use only Galkyd paints when I travel, and 2) ship via UPS!

Enough ranting. These belly dancer paintings were only FIVE minutes long, each, so don't be too harsh! They were fun to do, because with just 5 minutes you can't get fussy! Our model really got into it, and she was so strong and fluid it was a pleasure to paint.

Then this last one was from an earlier day, with the most beautiful shawl and dress...


Things to remember from the workshop:

#1 - Be A Designer (don't let reality get in the way of a good painting)!

#2 - Title First (when you give your painting a title first, you are more likely to stick to the focal point!)

#3 - Separate the dark and light pattern with clean, interesting shapes! (and not only things in 'shadow', but things that are actually dark go into the dark area).

#4 - 1/3 - 2/3 rule , keep 1/3 of the painting light, 2/3 dark, or vice versa, to keep a rythm and interest in a painting.

Thanks to all who checked in on the blog, and DOUBLE thanks to everybody who commented - it made me feel like you were right there with me!

*Ooops, Double Post Deleted....

LIVE! From Scottsdale, AZ! PKR workshop!

Hello, Everyone! I'm in Scottsdale at Peggi Kroll Roberts' figure workshop with the Scottsdale Artist School this week! We are painting FIENDS! I feel like we are empty vessels, and PKR is STUFFING us with information on how to paint figures. (Feeling very, very full right now...) She's working us very hard, but it does actually feel like something's 'clicking'!

This is the last one of the day, done outdoors.

Our first outdoor piece, this afternoon...

Sorry, no Photoshop here! No cropping!

Our lovely model, Athena (what a cool name,huh?)

Well, I'll try to check in tomorrow night. I'm missing everyone but am working very hard. It's HOT here, and clear and wonderful. Thanks for checking in! Put any questions/etc. in the 'comments' section on the blog, OK? Thanks, all!