It seems like it is time for me to write another post on my blog. Although I try to be regular about it, it seems time simply flies by me. Therefore when My son Dave, who is a writer in Baltimore sends out his blog, I know its time for me to write mine. He is amazingly regular. he writes on tiny letter if you want to check him out.

Actually I have been working on a number of things: The first being a conservation of a painting for my sister.It's rather large 28 x 26 and it was supposed to be a tempera on canvas. However I discovered that it is actually an oil though it could have some tempera in there somewhere. There was a period before Van Eyck finally found the good oil paint formula when they combined the two. This painting though dirty was really full of fly feces which had to be removed by scraping gently with a scalpel-. here is an image of the painting

I also had to add a new piece of canvas to the edge and discovered the painting had been reduced so I added the piece back after consulting with my sister. I am still working on this painting so I will take another pic when it is done

My sister has a good friend Emily M who likes my work and she really liked a piece I had done several years ago and sold, so I told her I could re-do it in a different format so I did working on Uart paper rather than pastel mat ( my favorite paper) and adding some tops of buildings . I also handled the foreground darks slightly differently with a combination of purple, blue, dark brown and very dark green- no black at all.  I also wanted to get the detail of the electric wires and lights more precisely which  the Uart paper allows you to do.I liked the way it turned out

It is going to go to a friend of hers in California so I will be packing it myself before sending it off.

I also have been working on a color values workshop which happened last sunday. We worked in gouache because the mixing mimics oil painting but dries faster considering it is a water based paint. Although only a couple of students attended, i think it went well and hopefully it will impact their future paintings. here are a couple of examples of my studies for it

This is a house in Gettysburg. I did it using a limited palette of cad yellow ,orange, a carmine red, ultramarine blue, prussian blue and black. Very interesting the color mixtures one can make with just 3 of this colors. This one I used yellow orange and blue

Next time I will show you the window encased in stone and explain the mixtures I used in that one so until next time.

     

      It seems we all have settled into  a covidness with the wearing of masks and massive cleaning episodes. For me and my studio we are slowly getting to a 'new normal" . I have had time though to work on the illustrations of my children's book and to finally finish them. now we wait for the book to be published so the ball is out of my court

 With the Illustrations finally finished, however,I was somewhat at a loss at what to create next. I find when I have an involved project like a large portrait or a series of illustrations, it is all encompassing and very fulfilling so when it is finished there is a bit of a let down....

 I have started some smaller landscapes and am working on a very different art conservation project but I really needed the proverbial shot in the arm.  

Robert Liberace, an artist whose figure and portrait drawings I admire had a zoom demo which iIreally wanted to do, but did not try since I never seem able to attend his workshops- either I am too late or cannot afford it -so I did not attempt it . However he posted several reference photos of the model he used and I purchased them. She is lovely and was dressed in medieval attire so I chose one and did a drawing this morning. It needs more darks but so far I am pleased. I am planning on doing a painting but want to do several drawings first. Here is what I did this morning

I am pretty pleased with it though It needs stronger darks and work done on the hand. I will be doing some more drawings  of this subject.

In addition to this fun exercise, I have been doing some pastel landscapes of sunsets. One of these I tried on a surface of metal with a sound for pastels. It did not turn out too badly, although I personally think it is too stiff for my way of doing pastels. I have a commission for a friend of my sisters and I wanted to see how it would work but I think I will do it on Uart paper as the detail will be easier

I still need to put detail in the poles and the lines but at least you get the idea.

That is all for now. I will be discussing my conservation project in the next blog so till then