Portfolio

It has once again been awhile since I have posted anything here. I have been working on my portfolio and now have finished the 2nd painting for it. My instructor is wanting me to work on several projects for a more official portfolio. My first project was a landscape that I really enjoyed doing. It is a “country path” with a fall tree and water. It just “feels” calming to me. I hope that is what you get from it. I have included the photograph I worked from, and the final product.

My second portfolio project was a still life that took me much longer than anticipated. I don’t think I will ever choose to paint pumpkins again. The biggest issue was that I used artificial pumpkins and the colors were really bad, so I tried to use the colors of real pumpkins from photos and “transpose” them into the painting. It was a journey.

The other, perhaps bigger issue was what did I want the still life “to say?” My instructor Michael and I talked about where I wanted the eye to go and how I wanted the painting to look, beyond simply “copying” what was in front of me. I think this is my biggest challenge, especially using photographs or still life. I draw what is there, and paint what I see, but I also want the picture to “say” something to the viewer. I don’t think I have gotten there yet. In the landscape I purposely toned down the clouds, and the water, to keep the eye on the path and the trees. I wanted the viewer to think they were taking a walk. Thinking that way about a still life is very different, at least for me. I like to arrange things until I think they “look right” but I’m not sure what the arrangement says. I attempted to get the viewer to see the pitcher in this still life, see what you think. You can see a first attempt along with the still life as it was, and my final version.

I have started a second still life, no pumpkins, and I’m hoping that it will go a bit better this time round. I also just returned from a trip to New Mexico and have lots of landscape photos that I would love to try to capture in paint. So, I might be making more posts in the coming months, depending how long all of this takes. See you soon, I hope.