The Aschbacher Children

IMG_4592, originally uploaded by aunt.meeb.

My amazing co-teacher, Resa, has a gift for capturing children on film. Not only that, but she has been patient with me as I've navigated the new waters of early childhood education. In thanks, I wanted to merge our talents into paintings of her four children from photos she had taken. She provided me with some wonderful, informal shots from a summer years ago when her children all received a small amount of Skittles as a special treat. I sketched out the composition for her, and we talked about color one afternoon.

My intention was for these four canvases to be able to be displayed as a square grouping, or as a long line of four. I was pleased with how they turned out, but a few adjustments still need to be made. 

See below for some close-ups.
Dean:

Greta:

Sadie:

Andrew:

I'd love to know what you think.

Work in Progress: MGK and SPK

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I love everything about this portrait. Stephanie (right) has come together easily. Margaret has been quite contrary, but she's coming around. There's still some work to be done, but it's getting close.

Here's a progression for you:

(This is quite the lazy underpainting, by the way.)

Thoughts? I really am anxious to hear what you think about this. I have a fear (irrational, I know, but real) that what I see varies greatly from what everyone else sees. Plus, I know these girls. I see their personalities because I know them. Do they shine through to you?

Here is a link to my post with the original photograph. It was taken very informally, as the girls were getting into their van after Margaret's preschool graduation ceremony. 

(Her dress, by the way, was worn by Stephanie in our wedding. It is probably the most awesome flower girl dress ever, and has been well-loved and well-worn.)

Progression

IMG_3692, originally uploaded by aunt.meeb.

I love the Third Style of painting from Pompeii. It struck me as soon as I saw it, face-to-face. Since that time, I've been attracted to small pictures centered within a wide expanse of color. In my senior show at Centre, I had a few panels drifting on top of a darkly-painted background. Now, I've been drawn to squares, especially these great 12" x 12" pieces of gessoed masonite.

In addition, I've gathered a number of photos I've taken that I think are simple and bold enough to stand on their own against the stark white.

I love how quickly these paintings come together. Here is how I do it:

I traced around a picture and then put painter's tape on the outside edges to keep them crisp.

Next I filled in the background color.

Then I painted my image.

This shows the color variation in the black parts of the bird.

Remove the tape and voilà!

I like that I can do this in an hour or less. Since I'm starting back to school and am giving up my studio space (*bawl*), I need to find little nuggets like these that can be done in a small area and in a space of an evening. It's somewhat mindless, since I'm copying a picture exactly. I don't know how I feel about that. I hope that the time I took to compose the shot and then pick it out makes up for the simple copy-and-paste element of converting it to paint. I see this as more of a study, but I could see these be more popular than something intricate like a portrait. Lastly, I am really trying to pare down which images work in oil, versus watercolor or pencil or pastel. That is a really tricky decision to make. I hope it gets easier.

What do you think?

Mask

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I love this photo. I am not crazy about the unfinished, alien-looking pseudo-painting of my niece, but my other niece, Kate, holding it creates an interesting image. We were having a blast dancing around the studio, and she picked up this piece of attempt-on-masonite. This is what I captured.

Light and Motion

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Again, I'm getting more and more obsessed with a focused face (or foot), and the surrounding scene more blurry. One of my favorite portraits of Sargent's (Lady Agnew of Lochnaw) had this same feel to it, with her facial features immaculately captured, and the rest of the painting a little more loose. Below is another shot that I think captures the effect I'm attempting. Notice how dark her eyes and mouth are, compared to the background. I would assume that if she were still, the shadows under the railing, her hair and the woods behind would be much darker and therefore compete with her features.

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Animal Studies

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Just a few studies of some beloved pets. Whitley, above, and Artemis and Flower are below.

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Summer: Take 2

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Nothing says summer like daisies in your hair, a pretty white cotton dress, and green, green grass. Although there is not a lot of contrast in her face, I think this would work really well as an oil on canvas. These are the types of pictures that make portraiture easy: good color, simple composition, and (for me) high contrast between background and foreground. Some portrait artists insist on lighter backgrounds, but I like the depth of the dark backgrounds, as they tend not to compete with lighter skin tones.

Summer: Take 1

IMG_1562, originally uploaded by aunt.meeb.

I've been trying to capture the kids outside this summer. I especially like this image of William reading in the grass. I'm trying to use things like the horizon intentionally when setting up a composition. I prefer non-traditional positioning of the person off to one side. I have been watching and re-watching Wes Anderson flicks for their cinematography; I am overwhelmingly drawn to his compositions and dramatic color choices. I literally am astounded every time I watch "The Life Aquatic" or "The Darjeeling Limited." Each time I see something new, and I hope to integrate these layers of interest in my future attempts.

Whitley

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Well, since I gave some space to a pup, I figured I should be PC and throw this out for all the cat lovers.

This kitty belongs to my sister, her husband and their seven kiddos. The cat has not aged in ten years. I swear. He works together with the family dog to trap chipmunks, and we will often find a tail or some entrails near the front door. Ugh.

Sweet cat, though.

Emily in Graphite

IMG_0962, originally uploaded by aunt.meeb.

You can see the Pompeiian influence in this composition. I like teeny, tiny pictures with a wide border. I tried this one from a picture I took of my niece, Emily, on a ferris wheel. I was happy with how her facial features turned out, but I was kicking myself for using a charcoal pencil to blacken the background. It ended up making the graphite look lighter and even more shiny. Any recommendations?

Close up:

Rocco

DSC05605, originally uploaded by aunt.meeb.

I think this would make a divine portrait. Rocco's coat is so many different shades of interesting.

UPDATE:

What do you think?

Still Life: Cherries

DSC05315, originally uploaded by aunt.meeb.

My college art professor lauded the benefits of doing still life studies as often as possible. He saddled us with the responsibility to create our own compositions. Truly, some of my favorite works were a result of these assignments. Here, I worked for about an hour on a bowl of cherries in a windowsill on a very windy day. The clouds would block the sun and delete the shadows from my view, and then the sun would reemerge, almost blinding me. Still, I need to do more of these.

Below is some pictorial documentation of the process.

The initial outline/composition sketch in charcoal:

Starting to fill in some tones:

Tones pretty much complete; adding detail:

Finished product:

Biking the Bluegrass

DSC05243, originally uploaded by aunt.meeb.

My husband and I decided to participate in this year's Bike the Bluegrass to raise money for Multiple Sclerosis. Though we are not professional cyclists, nor are we exceptionally skilled at fundraising, we really enjoyed the trip and were able to complete the 125+ miles over two days without injury. I got into the habit of wearing my camera around me as I rode. I like how the composition is slanted - it represents my attempts to take pictures while riding. Dangerous, yes...but in my defense, the roads were all but deserted as we sped along from Louisville to Frankfort, and then from Frankfort to Lexington.

Peace

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This is the baby sister of the toddler shown earlier, children of a favorite college roommate. This image presents a stark contrast with the prior shot, and has a bit of a divine light cast. I am starting to be aware of the way a shot can be divided, and this one has a very geometric, 90-degree feel to it.

I am trying to figure out how to keep Flickr/Blogger from cropping my pictures down to fit the layout, so please click on the above image to see it completely.

Movement

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I am continually entranced by movement. It came about as an accident, as I was getting tired of the nasty colors a built-in flash casts over subjects in low-light settings. So I started turning my flash off. It resulted in hundreds (thousands?) of blurry pictures. Some are not salvageable. Some, like this, capture for me the essence of a fleeting moment in the life of a youngster. Indeed, were I to paint this even in the minutes after having taken the picture, the child would be already different - they grow so rapidly.

But this, to me, is the essence of bottling the energy that comes free with every two-year-old.

Studio, Space

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Eric and I decided to take advantage of a great opportunity and rent the first floor of our condo as studio space for the three summer months I'm off school. That way, I would have a dedicated space to work, and I would feel compelled (since we are paying for it) to be down there as often as possible. It is amazing, the feeling of reconnecting with part of you that's been neglected. The smells of the oil paint, familiar faces on dusty canvases, the feel of the masonite in your hands...it is powerful.

My main goals are to practice, practice, practice. I intend on working specifically from pictures, just to get back into the habit (plus I have some images that I've been desperately wanting to preserve in oil paint), but I hope to also do some still life and experiment with other media. I hope I can share this space with loved ones as well. It's so open and airy. I will have a hard time giving it up in September, but deadlines are good for me. Stay tuned...

Man in Nature

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If I could remember my art history, I could cite for you a number of painters that employed this drastic juxtaposition of a small human within the context of a very large landscape. Caspar David Friedrich comes to mind with some of his landscapes, though certainly there are others to whom this style would more readily be attributed.

It reminds me a lot of a shot I took earlier in the year:

DSC05387, originally uploaded by aunt.meeb.

Idol

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This is a neat composition between cousins. The more I look at it, the more I like it. I like how minimal it is, with the most detail relegated to the corners. I like Kate's blurry hand, and how their lips pop out against the stark colors. I just think the expressions are priceless, as is the unspoken (but highly visible) admiration Kate has for her cousin James.

Dapper

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The lighting is exquisite, huh? It's that warm grey color that settles after a good rain as dusk approaches. Christopher was swinging the umbrella around and stopped for me, for a split second before careening down a dewy hill. The white pants miraculously came out unscathed and unsoiled.

I love how his face is framed in the focus of the umbrella, and the background deep greens. The angle of the shadows is subtle on the pavement, but absolutely encourages your eye back to his face.

Sisters

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This is probably one of my favorite shots from the year so far. I love the composition, the color, the expressions, and that fabulous flower girl dress - of course! It has a story all its own, but for now, I just want you to bask in the loveliness of two sisters.

VSA Side by Side

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This is the second year in a row that I've participated in the VSA Side by Side program. I worked with two girls, one was a teenager and the other was about 8. With the teenager, we went out, took a bunch of pictures (shown in this set), and then picked out the ones we both liked. I then arranged them in a 3x3 grouping that was displayed with the student's other work. With the younger artist, we worked together on a couple watercolor paintings of trees. We experimented with my Chinese calligraphy set, and also studied a tree from life. I only had a total of about two hours with each girl, so we really had to be efficient with our time.

I was pleased with what we were able to accomplish, and I was thrilled that my nieces got a chance to see my art in a studio. Hopefully it will be the first of many shows? *fingers crossed*

I look forward to participating in the Side by Side exhibit in the future. It is a really great way to practice teaching techniques and get to know some pretty cool kids.