What are you working on?

[laf.art]

Today is the first day since we started back to school... "distance learning"... that I have been able to get into the studio. Distance learning... involving posting lessons online, checking on the work online, doing grading online... and holding weekly live class sessions may work for the classroom teachers who have one class and maybe 20-35 students at the outermost. It is insane for the teachers in Art, Music, PE, and other special courses. I teach 9 grade levels and 18 different classes including the Special Ed classes. We're expected to make live videos of ourselves demonstrating each lesson for each class for students who miss the live sessions (which is about 3/4ths of them) and then I have to post lessons on two different platforms for the younger kids: the main sight (Schoology) and one that is far more accessible for the younger kids (Seesaw). On top of this, I can't use the majority of the lessons I have employed over the years because some of the kids... a good many of them... don't have most of the materials that we might employ in class: glue, construction paper, watercolor, poster paints, pastels, etc... Cleveland has once again entered into the Red Zone for outbreaks of the virus and so we are going to be working this way until Christmas Break.

Nevertheless... I did get into the studio today. Now someone please remind me why I elected to go with blackberries... again!? A sudden instance of masochism?

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You'd think I would have learned something from the last time I used blackberries in one of my paintings... which wasn't all that long ago:

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I still have 9 or 10 blackberries to do on this side alone!

A glutton for punishment then

 

[laf.art]

Pizza delivery!

Origins of Odd. (Detail)

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I like your avatar in amongst the oddities

 

[laf.art]

Leaving my various half baked paintings to one side I'm in the process of sorting out prints of my bird photos and various other bits and bobs with the intention of starting another collage. The mess seems to help

 

[stlukesguild]

A glutton for punishment then

Unfortunately, it seems that way... during the actual process. I'll end up spending more time... quite a bit more time... on the elements within the halo in this painting... and others like it... than I will upon the figure... which just seems wrong.

 

[laf.art]

A glutton for punishment then

Unfortunately, it seems that way... during the actual process. I'll end up spending more time... quite a bit more time... on the elements within the halo in this painting... and others like it... than I will upon the figure... which just seems wrong.

The blackberries do look fab tho

 

[snoball]

The blackberries are quite difficult, I'm sure, but they really add interest to the work. Suck it up Buttercup, do those blackberries.

 

[Desforges]

I love to do that.
Bits of everything that you have kept and loved only in parts or only once, then put together to become a favorite. When anything goes, often goes well.

 

[Artyczar]

As usual, it's slow going. It's something I'll have to do in layers.

In the meantime, I'm itching to get started on something else simultaneously. An oil painting.

 

[Iain]

I like this as it is.

I like your avatar in amongst the oddities

I like yours too.

 

[Artyczar]

Iain, I like how that is at it is too. That's a gooder!

 

[laf.art]

Dancing bear

 

[Iain]

Yes, that is the title. I don't know how you knew that. They would have burnt you at the stake in an earlier century. And I would defy time and flames to pull you out.

 

[OliveOyl]

I’m waiting on supplies and so for the last 4 or 5 days, I’m just puttering around. (I’m not sure how non-painting people get through the day without the focus of a painting in front of their face.) So in the meantime, I decided to repair the 2” spot of peeling paint in the shower stall with enamel paint. So one coat goes on, and I wait until it dries, then another coat and another, rinse and repeat...since yesterday. I’m sure there’s a better and quicker handy man version of how to do this, but this is how *I’m* doing it.

Literally just hanging around and watching a 2” spot of paint dry.

 

[Maybenartist]

Looking Good St Luke's.

 

[Artyczar]

Olive, I woke up at 3:00 am because I couldn't stop thinking about the current painting I'm working on. Even when I'm not painting, I'm thinking about a drawing, or the next work and sometimes I lose sleep over it. Waiting for supplies is the worst, especially when you're on a roll. I think non-painting people watch a lot of TV.

 

[Iain]

They don't realise you can do both.

 

[stlukesguild]

It turns out there were 13 more blackberries in the "halo" behind the figure on the left. Today is only the second day I've had in the studio since school started so I tried to make the best of it. I finished the background on the left and then just started the bird. I realized that the weight of the black in the bird will need to be countered below. I'm thinking if the hair were black or near black the painting would look top-heavy with nothing to draw the eye downward. I have some ideas... but we'll see. When I finish the background above I'll raise the painting upward and then work out the torso before lowering it again to begin on the face. The photos are quite off color-wise due to the cool cloudy light coming in at a raking angle from the side. Next time I'll have to take photos at night using all artificial spotlights.

 

[Artyczar]

F-ing-WOW SLG!!!

 

[Iain]

That is absolutely stunning. I love it all, but to point out one thing. The slightly unkempt appearance of the crow works beautifully against the lush background.

 

[stlukesguild]

Thanks! Now if this damn pandemic ever comes to an end I'll be able to look about for a real studio space again and spend less time preparing for school than I have to no with this distance-learning.