Last Winter Still Life and Figure Class

Oil on canvas panel 16" x 12"

This was the last winter 2012 still life and figure class. I learnt a lot and was really challenged with both subjects. This painting was painted over 2 classes. The first night I wiped off my painting 5 times, it was a tough night. Sometimes it flows and sometimes the challenges are huge stuggles within. I am happy with the final result and really enjoyed my last class. I am sorry to see them end. I will not be taking her spring classes but look forward to Fall classes with Ingrid.

oil on canvas board 12" x 9"

This was our warmup 20 minute excercise (speed painting is what I call it!). The goal was to capture the model's position and fill up the whole canvas without filling any details. It was both stressful and exhilarating! We lined up everyone's work and Ingrid critiqued them. The easels were in a horse shoe shape around the model so it was fun to see all the different views of the same pose.

Waiting For Spring - oil painting

Waiting for Spring

10.5" x 13" Oil on birch board

This little ceramic frog in the melting snow is from a gift calendar (April 2012) my friend Sue made for me of her artful photographs. I had so much fun painting this little guy as he seemed a little hopeful and tired at the same time, a true "end of winter" feeling. We often get a big snowfall in Calgary after our tulips have graced our gardens.

Still life lesson - seeing colour in white

This is a picture of my easel, paint and still life set up in Ingrid's "Still Life and Figure Class". The lesson here was to see colour in a white set up - white flowers, clear vase, white background. This was a lot harder than I thought it would be. Thank goodness Ingrid does a demo first so we can "see" what she "see's" The lights above help to add shadow to the shapes which help to show the subjects colour.

Oil on canvas board 12" x 16"

This is the final painting and I am really happy with it. I had no idea there were so many colours in white!The colours are not muted or subtle in my painting (couldn't do it if my life depended on it!) and I like the "alive" feeling of the flowers.

Figure Painting Warm Up

This was a 20 minute warm up with a live model in Ingrid's class. The theme was a model with flowers (in her hair). The purpose of this warm up was to get the basic shapes, placements and local colours blocked in. We worked on an unprimed canvas which made the paint hard to spread. I enjoyed this process and found the speed painting both invigorating and stressful. I wiped this warm up off before Ingrid suggested we keep them for a reference!

This is the second painting of the night (on top of the wiped out canvas). The model was reclining instead of sitting like the warm up. Again, it is not a finished painting, but I certainly learned a lot about painting a figure. I am happy that I captured her position, tones and basic body shape. This painting was also wiped off at the end of the night as I would not have a chance to finish it without a model to view.



Fun Still Life in Ingrid Christensen's class!!

This was a wonderful excercise done in Ingrid's class!This is a picture of my view of the still life and my easel.  We under painted our canvas randomly with the colours we were going to use. Some people used very muted colours evenly spread, and as you can see I chose bright fun colours! We were not to try to place any flower shapes and if we had, we were to move our canvas to the upside down position. I really enjoyed the randomness of this start and it was almost a relief to have the canvas covered with so many colours, it was no longer precious. I have started to add the red flowers.

Red Flower Still Life

Oil on canvas panel 12" x 9"

This is the end result. I really enjoyed this evening and it went by really fast. It was difficult for some of my classmates to start a painting like this and I think this is a love it or leave it way to start a painting. Again, the beautiful colours do not show well in this picture.

Fish Creek Park - 26 C

Fish Creek Park -26 C - SOLD

Oil on canvas 16" x 20" in a barn board frame

This painting was based on a photograph my friend Sue took on a very cold winter day last year. I loved the colours, the beautiful blue sky reflected in the snow, the crispnessness that can be felt in her photo as well as the location! The buyer recognized it as Fish Creek Park and wanted art representing Calgary for his new condo. My thanks to Sue and Vishnu!

MRU Library Art Gallery - Winter 2012 2nd painting

This is the other painting in the Mount Royal University Art Gallery's winter show. The Art Gallery displays include photography, paintings, jewelry, pottery, and a variety of art work. Judy and Joan do a wonderful and artful display that is very eye catching and draws you in for a closer look!

Lady Bug and Vase Still Life

 8" x 8" Acrylic on Watercolour paper

Double matted in a 12" x 12" black with red trim frame

I really had fun with this painting. I was playing with different shapes and shadows. When I was done, I peeled the dried acrylic paint off my palette and loved the mix of colours and shapes. I basically painted them back into the painting. It is unfortunate that the depth can not be viewed in this flat picture, it is very textural.

MRU Library Art Gallery - Winter 2012

This painting is now in the Mount Royal Library Art Gallery for the winter display. I had it in my office and really enjoyed the variety of colours. It is a watercolour and acrylic painting painted in a watercolour style. I love the bright red Anthurium with the muted leaves behind. I looked at the Anturium on line and made up the rest around them. It is painted on a full size water colour sheet and double matted in a dark brown wood frame.

 

Anthurium Garden

Watercolour and Acrylic on watercolour paper in a 22" x 28" frame

Self portrait #2

After having one class on a self portrait with Ingrid. I decided to start fresh on my own at home, where I wasn't distracted with the beautiful art coming alive all around me in the class. I also thought I would take a few more pictures of how the painting developed for my own reference later. What I found interesting is how focused and concentrating my facial features were. This apparently was serious business in both self portraits!

This is the underpainting where I am trying to place all the features as well as get the size and placement correct. I toned the canvas first with a warm golden yellow.

The painting is now at mid completion. I have also worked on the background and am quite happy with how it is at this point. Will post the final product at a later date when I get time to work on it again. The good news, the subject is always close at hand!

First self portrait #1

This is my first self portrait done in Ingrid Christensen's figure and still life class. This is the second set of classes I am taking with Ingrid. The thought of ever doing a self portrait never occured to me mainly because I would of had no idea how to tackle it. It was very interesting and intimidating looking at the work done in the class, the styles were all so different! I had a hard time focusing on my painting as I could of happily walked around the class just watching the paintings evolve.

We were to do a thumb nail sketch and decide on the placement on the canvas and the angle of the view. I thought more of a sideways angle would be interesting, but I kept forgetting to put my head at that angle and was painting more face on. This lead to my face shape changing, as well as my eyes and nose in the wrong spot! Ingrid helped me align my painting with a more straight on view as this is what I was really seeing. You can tell even without the features defined how hard I was concentrating!

The picture above is how far I got in class #1. Thank goodness this was over 2 class times. One artist completely finished her painting in that class. I found out afterwards she was a professional portrait artist in water colour. Now you can understand why I would of rather watched than painted!