Portrait studies

Going to start two small portraits in oil paint. Lets see how it goes.

Palms

A little poem I wrote almost a year ago. I've always had poetic tendencies since forever. I was the girl with the thick glasses and braids, going to the library to borrow The Oxford Collection of Poems and limericks. Not suprisingly, I was always the last to be chosen for the school sports team.
I wrote this after noticing how transparent my hands were when I held them up against a strong ray of sunlight. It got me thinking about connections people make between light as revelation and hands as a sign of salvation, forgiveness, generosity. So this is what I managed to come up with. I've since chucked out those old glasses, but I haven't changed one bit. There's just something so intangible yet irresistable about libraries and staring at my hands for an hour... lol



When the light is strongest,
You can see capillaries of blood.
Movements you never imagined to see so clearly,
Light pushing between your fingers.
You have only a matter of seconds to touch it;
To feed on what revelation it may offer you.
The most delicate part of your wrist
Turns itself to catch the sun's descent.

Spirit of The Beehive

One of my favourite films.
I'm going to visit the Berardo Museum before work, so I won't be drawing much today.

Paula Rego

This is my own interpretation of a sketch by Paula Rego. It was a study for one of her paintings. She did it in pencil and I decided to do it in a finepoint sepia pen. I enjoy looking at artists sketches and studies. I think it gives a wonderful insight into the ways in which an artist plans things out. Each artist does it so differently.

Self Portrait

Elephant

Tabla

Too dark at the bottom and bad photo. Otherwise not too bad if I say so myself :)

Apple on a china plate

I told you I would go back to basics didnt I? :)

Back to Basics

I've been thinking alot over the weekend about my mild painting obsession and Ive decided to go back to the basics: learn how to 'see' which I guess means staring at things for a very very long time. I think I need to teach my eyes to see in a way that the average person may not be aware of having the capability to do so.
There was a point when I would have frequent daydreams about being Frida Kahlos or Mattises' art assistant: stretching canvases, organising their beautifully chaotic studios, making tea for Henri, and posing for Frida....... but wait-imagine how awful it would be if everything I ever painted started to look like Fridas or Henris? Some might say rather resoundingly But that would be an artists dream! And im sure it would, that is, if I happen to have been, by some strange freak of nature, possessed by their creative genes . The point I'm making, and its a point I made to myself over the weekend, is, why in the world would I want to paint like others when the most original and exciting thing in the world would be to paint like the enigmatic (though far from Great) moi? I see too many paintings that art shouting to be accepted as 'art' particularly online. So I think its time I am more sincere and honest with myself to avoid participating in all that 'noise' and general rush to be accepted. Its all about focusing on what you like, what you know, and accepting what you dont know too.
My habit up until now has been to doodle, look at endless amount of art, both from the past and the present, sketch here and there and then give in to that strange afterwork impulse to just 'paint something'. I'm certainly happy to have excavated a huge array of potential ideas from my tiny brain. All of this painting palaver actually got going this summer, when a little sketch for my boyfriends 3 year old neice, served as a key to a box crammed with ideas. (not all of quality of course, I have a mental sieve at work, doing its best to seperate the interesting from the downright strange...and i have allllooot of them..) I notice that when i look at a particular painting, I find that i mimick them subconsciously or otherwise, thus rendering everything i do afterwards tainted in someway by what I saw.
So I guess Ive decided to go back to nature and do as all students do: learn.

Town City Village

Another one of my morning doodlings....

Grubby Indian Girl

Shes looking abit grubby in places so in true artist style, Im not going to touch it for a couple of days, let it dry and then start cleaning her up abit. Doing this portrait has definately taken alot of the mystery out of skin tones and colourschemes .I still have alot to do though...

morning doodle

A sketch I made this morning over a cup of coffee and a croissant :p a little bit on the creepy side but its an idea that may be worth developing. I'm alot more appreciative to the subtleties of doodling. I think its one of the best ways of tapping into a vast array of potential ideas. Even though it may look completely crap in the beginning.

Lisbon Art Fair 2007

A very kind friend gave me an invitation to the fair a couple of days ago, and I hadn't even known about it until she mentioned it. She's an art photographer and some of her work was on display at the fair (all of which were beautiful.. and I'm not just saying that because of her kindness..) In fact, I found the photographic work much more interesting than all the paintings which was both surprising and disappointing at the same time. I had my own inner objectives as I perused the endless maze of stalls. I wanted to look at how artists form their ideas, particularly crazy ideas, and whether or not it came across effectively within their chosen medium. I also wanted to look at the more traditionalist techniques of skin tones in portraits and new mediums that I might like to try in the future (using aluminium, embroidery, large mixed media pieces, photography). All in all, I think it really helped me to understand the art market. Something I feel I should start getting to grips with, no matter how superficial it may be.

Take All of Me

Head Tree

Pretty Indian girl

My very first portrait! Still early stages but I'm very happy with it so far.

A few quick sketches before work

artistic confidence gone astray....:-(

I bought a fabulous collection of artbooks from a townfair near my workplace. Very affordable with beautiful pictures. In addition to gazing enviably at the technique of such great masters of art, I also had a look at a considerable number of artists websites. Looking for inspiration is a healthy thing to do. Until, that is, you come to the conclusion that EVERYONE has what it takes and you don't! :-( The last time I painted the human form was when I was 16. That was more than 10 years ago so as you can probably guess, I'm not the most confident of artists... Well, nevertheless I shall persevere on the sole fact that it is one of the few things that makes me intensely happy :-)

Fruity...

Ever noticed how beautiful the centre of a piece of fruit looks? I spent my weekend attempting to stock up on my fruit intake .I ate too many Portuguese sweets last week...(all of which went so well with my midnight Oprah schedule and a pair of comfy home socks too...) I liked doing this particular sketch in homage to the humble fruit and it got me thinking about doing a whole series of 'cut up fruit and veg' with the look of an anatomical diagram. Lets see whether I actually get started on this idea or get sidetracked by something else entirely.......
Strange thing I should mention now but all my favourite fruits (even though I find myself trading them for Maltesers) begin with the letter P... peaches,pears,papaya,pineapple.....hmm. Not quite Twilight Zone worthy but wierd to little ol' me..

My Garden of Earthly Desires

I've finally finished it after a multitude of distractions which inlclude making tea, checking my mails and Oprah... Theres something sticking out from behind the frame ...very unprofessional of me, but I'm just way too tired to care.. Gonna sit back, eat dinner and pat myself on the back for a few minutes..:-)