On my way to a painting session, I had found this fairly sizable Masonite board, and since I’d been wanting to try painting something larger, I took it with me.  I had time for an oil sketch, so that’s what I did.  I could have worked on it some more in my studio, but the model was no longer available, and I didn’t have the feeling that working without her would make the picture any better, so I left it as it was. 

When I look at the painting now, it makes me ask: When is a painting finished? When is it time to stop working on it and say that it’s done?

This is a tricky question. While it seems primarily an emotional decision, it is also informed by sometimes conflicting criteria. For example, I like it when the parts of a painting have some unifying elements: the colors and shapes work with each other, there is some consistency in the handling of the parts. This painting doesn’t feel cohesive. The four elements, the figure, the chair, the floor and the background are all handled differently. The brushstrokes, the colors, the blending, the extent of definition are each applied separately. And yet, I decided it was finished and signed it.

Why did I do so? I think it is because it was more important for me to take what I had learned from the painting and to move on than to keep working on it. While it doesn’t really work as a painting, partially because both the composition and the theme are rather simplistic , I do like it as a color sketch, and I don’t mind sharing it. I left this painting with a clearer sense of where I wanted my painting to go, and that is quite valuable. In this case, it is finished because it served its purpose. Next time, I’ll show a painting that is finished because it is more artistically complete.

Vivienne 2016

Siri Chakti 2016

Continuing with painting over printed canvases, I did these two paintings on somewhat larger canvases – these are each 40cm x 70cm. The one on the left, of Vivienne was done in one two and a half hour session I spent two session doing the one on the right of Siri Chakti. As with the previous smaller paintings, there is not much left to see of the original print. In the painting of Vivienne, there is still some color showing through in and behind her hair and in her shirt and on her face, but in the other painting, the print is pretty much gone. Nonetheless, having a starting point of color to react to changes the way I put paint on the canvas. It feels less contemplative and more combative than starting with a blank or tinted canvas. The first strokes are faster and use more paint, and I’m less inclined to spend time mixing colors until later. I start off with a thick brush and often use it for most of the painting. As for now, I’ve mostly run out of printed canvases, but since I want to continue with the method, I plan to start out by painting some abstract colorful shapes on my next canvases before starting the portraits. I’m looking forward to seeing what comes of it.

Das Weserwehr 2016

Painting the weserwehr was a lot of fun, but also something of an ordeal. The day I planned to go, the weather didn’t look good, so I just took my sketchbook and made some sketches. when I got home, I started the painting based on the sketches. The next day, the weather looked a bit better, so I packed my stuff (I was very proud of having managed to carry everything I needed on my bicycle, including a table and an easel) and set off for the site. It turned out that the weather was not much better than the day before. In fact, it was so windy that I had to tie the painting to the easel and the easel to the railing to keep everything from blowing away. Much of the time that I was painting, I had a tight grip on the painting with my left hand. At one point it actually did start to rain, but luckily it only lasted for 15 minutes and I was able to continue.

Painting the weserwehr.

As to the painting, I found it really interesting to try to paint water, and I swear I did see some purple out there, though not so much as remained in the painting. I guess I just liked the color, so I kept it.

Each of these three paintings was done in one 2 1/2 hour session (including breaks), which meant that I had to make quick decisions, using thick applications of paint. I mixed the skin colors with Titanium white to make them opaque. In the paintings of Birte and T., I covered the whole surface of the canvas with paint, but let some of the colors from the underlying image shine through. In the painting of Hoda, I left some of the original print uncovered. The painting of Birte was done after I had started the other painting of her. I find it interesting to compare the hair in the two paintings. In this fast one, the treatment of the hair feels more consistent – thick chunky brushstrokes.

These paintings all have a certain freshness to them that I like, though some of my decisions, such as the green outline in the painting of T. or the relics of the print in the painting of Hoda and in Birte’s hair seem somewhat arbitrary. In any case, the challenge of not having a virginal canvas as a starting point made me paint differently, and that was good.

As always, you can click on the images to see a larger version.

Hoda 2016

Tomuka 2016

Birte 2016

Similar to the painting of my father, this was done on an orange canvas, and the skin was underpainted with a mix of titanium white and terre verte.  In contrast to the painting of my father, I felt that the orange worked well, both for the color of the face and the hair.  Here are two photos of the painting next to each other.  The first was after one two and a half hour session, and the second was after another session of the same duration a week later:

Birte 2016

Birte in progress 2016

When I look at the two paintings now, I am struck by how much I like the work in progress.  In the finished version, the lower part of the hair has more the quality of an abstract shape than hair, whereas in the work in progress, the quick brushstrokes over the orange give a fresher  impression.  This also feels true for the left side of the background.  In the work in progress, there are some shapes and brushstrokes to look at, whereas in the finished painting, the shapes are mostly gone and instead the color has become more important. Also in the face, the visible brushstrokes give the painting a certain liveliness.  There are of course areas that I like better in the finished painting.  The colors of the hair and face feel right, and there is some interesting variation in how the hair is treated.  Also the softer quality seems more fitting to the subject.  Nonetheless, I am left with the feeling that I would like to see more evidence of brushstrokes.  In the next installment of my blog, I will show a series of three paintings in which I did just that.

Stewart traveling 2016

This portrait was based on a photograph of my father, though I took some liberties, particularly with the background.  Here is the photograph:

I started by making a sketch:

Then, I gave painted the canvas with a rather orangey mixture of burnt sienna and raw umber, and did a charcoal drawing on that.

Afterwards, I did an underpainting using terra verde.

Both of these choices caused me quite a bit of trouble as the work continued. The orange proved very dominant, and the green gave the skin a pale and pallid color.

Painting the shirt red seemed to help with the skin color, giving it some warm tones to relate to, and darkening setting helped subdue the orange.  A lot of the rest of my time was spent moving the figures around in the background. My original aim had been to make them anonymous, but this proved intriguingly difficult.  

Shortly after this, I showed the painting to my friend Jiska, whose observations regarding the light on the figures led me to make some changes that helped unify the painting.  In the end, I felt fairly satisfied with the painting.  Although it felt somewhat limiting to work from a photo, I nonetheless felt that there were still plenty artistic choices left to make.  I enjoyed designing a context for the figure and had a great time thinking about and trying to present the intricacies of my father’s expression.

Standing nude 2016
Ball point pen on paper 50cm x 70cm

A while ago, I bought some nice paper, fairly large, 50cm x 70cm, and for quite some time I struggled with it. It seemed that every medium I tried, be it ink or pencil, seemed not to do it justice. There just wasn’t enough mark on the page. Then, out of a whim, I tried using a ball point pen, and I was quite surprised to find that not only did I like the results, I also enjoyed the scribbling on the paper. Here are a few of the drawings that I did over the past month or two:

Reclining nude 2016
Ball point pen on paper 70 cm x 50 cm

Seated nude 2016
Ball point pen on paper 70 cm x 50 cm

Seated nude 2016
Ball point pen on paper 50 cm x 70 cm

Jiska’s studio turned gallery

I exhibited my paintings for the first time last weekend!  Although the event was marred by the fact that my friend and colleague, Jiska Engelke broke her ankle while setting up the show (a ladder slipped), we both enjoyed a great exhibition with over 300 appreciative guests.

The event was called Kunstwerk im Viertel (artwork in the quarter), a yearly happening in which local artists open up their studios for a weekend.  This year, Jiska had invited me to appear as a guest artist in her studio, which for me was a remarkable honor.  We decided both to present portraits.  My paintings hung on the right side of the room, and hers were on the left and in the back.  I showed 6 paintings, all but one of which I had painted during the last year.

Me in front of my paintings

Jiska in front of her paintings

As a particular point of interest, Jiska and I each showed a painting that we had simultaneously painted of each other.  Her painting can be seen on the easel next to the picture of her, and mine is here:

Jiska 2015

Another highlight was on Saturday evening when we invited a number of our models to appear holding portraits we had painted of them.

models and paintings

Showing my work in public felt like a big step for me, and it felt good to be perceived as an artist.  I felt comfortable showing my work, and was thrilled every time a guest spent some time in front of one of my paintings.  I hope that I’ll have another opportunity to show my work, but in any case, I feel quite inspired to move on to new territory.

Self Portrait 2015

I painted this a few weeks ago. It is quite a different experience making a self portrait than painting someone else. While I was working on it, I would sometimes look at parts and think: this doesn’t seem like me, and then I would take a closer look in the mirror. This allowed me to make some subtle corrections that I think I have not nailed so well in some of my other paintings. It’s also nice to have a model who will pose exactly the way I want them to.

David 2015

I had been wanting to paint a portrait of an older man for quite some time, and when I mentioned this to Jiska at the beginning of summer vacation, she immediately called her father and asked if he would be willing to sit for a portrait. As luck would have it, he was, and a week later Jiska and I were in his apartment setting up our easels.

The reason I wanted to paint an older man was because I hoped the evidence of an older man’s character would be more distinct, and also perhaps that an absence of vanity would make it easier to for me to remain true to my impressions. Of course an artist always aims to be true to his impressions, but it’s not necessarily easy.

I must admit that I find some people more interesting than others, and Jiska’s father is a person I found interesting. Making a portrait is something like an exercise in getting to know someone. Sometimes when you paint people, they basically sit still and you are left primarily with a visual impression. This was different. David didn’t sit still for an instant. He was very animated, telling jokes and telling stories and talking with us about religion, politics, science and math. I indeed have the opportunity to get to know him a bit.

On the first day, I made some exploratory drawings, none of which looked or felt much like him at all, but I did at least decide on a direction for the head. Here is the drawing on the canvas.

Usually, one does not go into such detail, but I was still exploring so it didn’t matter, and I wiped it off when I started painting the next day.Here is the painting as it progressed:

As the three days went by, it felt as if the image was getting gradually closer to what I thought David was like – thoughtful, wise, witty. I can’t help wondering how the portrait would have changed if I had had the opportunity to continue getting to know him. He said several times that he felt honored that we had come to paint him – I’m not sure why, but it certainly felt like a privilege to me.  Here he is in a photograph, standing next to the paintings we made.

A few weeks later, I worked some more on the paintings, adding a background of bookshelves.

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