Painting portraits from life

Why do we paint portraits, knowing there is a zero chance to sell it ? The answer is simple - just exactly why we paint anything from life in ala prima ..It's the best creative practice and  a great exercise to train your eye, wrist, understanding of anatomy, structure,  values and colors ..If you are serious  about your art making, if this is your carrier or just a passion - you need to paint from life!

Also ...a very great way to have more ideas, a way to experiment and  have fun creating !

I've been doing it for decades , in fact I was portrait painting from life since I was 7/8 years old - I painted portraits of my family, friends and even my neighbors :) In those time I painted in watercolors and gouache. I still have some pieces, and frankly it was quite good :)

When a quantity became a quality , simple practice of portrait painting can (will) transform into magic. Suddenly just someone face became an ikon , an image of untenable, intangible emotion..We all should thrive to reach this level ..Here is my few last portraits, painted from life...

"Heidi " oil on canvas , 20x16

Shannon - oil on linen, 20x16

                                                       "White Mink" oil on linen

"Carmen" oil on linen , 20x16

Shifting my style to polychromes

 Those 31 day of painting gave me so many ideas and inspiration to change my style - tell you the truth, I was still dissatisfied with my artistic voice ( after 50 years of painting) lol,  and the painting challenge, and painting from life daily revealed that I got board with painting of what I see ..I needed some stimulation…and I finally got it …I decided to push all the colors I see to more extreme level …and voila- I have completely recharged my color taste …and discovered my lost thrills!  Here it is a few paintings from this series…and you can buy any from my www.artlanegallery.com Www.artlanegallery.com

   

                                                  “Dessert For Two”  oil on museum board , 6x6 

                                                   “ Tea and Cherry “ oil on aluminum, 10x10

“Glass half Full” oil on linen , 8x8

“ French Press” oil on museum board 12x16

I just finished 30 day Strada Easel Challenge !

 Alriiiight , I did it! I finished 30 days painting from life and posting daily Strada Easel Challenge! And I was among 1000 artists doing that :) Majority of them I know well , some know personally. And I can tell you there is an ocean of talents out there ! Is that was difficult? Not really - just because I painted every day anyway , the bigger challenge it's to create a nice, comprehensive set up  to paint from life every day ..

But I CANNOT to stress it more enough - Painting every day from life , is what will IMPROVE your art skills tremendously - You will train your eye and your hand - the dexterity of your wrist  will be magically change ! So here is my 30 daily painting ...Here is just a few of my paintings 

 

Look who is here :)))

 And so it goes : I'm back to blogging, after 3 years, after so many things happened in the World.

After so many things happened  in my life personally and creatively... 

The truth is I feel like there is such a distinct line between "before and after" ...May be, one day I will describe it all in details in my book ..Yes, in the autobiography of my "eventful life "

But  now, I just want to share important art tips about mistakes my students ( and I ) are making times after times while painting  :

1. The first tip is about the composition ...despite my teaching experience for 20 years and preaching this tip year after year, I myself  am constantly making this mistake - the horizon line is not that dramatic as I wish to placed  ....Somehow it's always slowly moving to the center ...Please pay attention to the most important placement of composition 

2. Another mistake we all committing is losing your darks in a process of painting - So please, reestablish your darks as soon as your values started to compress..

3. And another big compositional offender of my students work is overlooking the tangent 

4. One of the most important aspect of color in the painting, and the subject which is so unclear to majority of my students is warm/cold contrast in painting - Important :  make sure you keep a warm/cold contrast and keep it  at the right values! Does it sound as abracadabra ....then you need to sight for my color mixing class :)))))

Here is a few of my latest paintings I tried to applied all mentioned above concepts correctly and intently 

" Quiet Moment" oil on linen , 20x16 

" Silver Over Gold" oil on linen 24x18

"Magic Calm" oil on linen , 9x12

New Paintings and More

 As I'm looking at my last post from 2018 - I can't help but got quiet and little sad reflecting on those 2 years of my personal life, dramatic changes of this country and World ....Little that we all knew, we will be living in a completely  different World in 2021 ....We lost almost half million human lives due to Covid . My own Dad is in intensive care with Covid right now and most likely won't survive this ...The very thought of loosing my parents is sending me into a very dark place and depression. But despite that darkness around , I see the light , I'm full of light and Hope ..I Love and Loved ..I'm happy to create without limitation and pressure of loosing my livelihood and I'm deeply deeply grateful for it...My art business and sales are  growing exponentially..I'm so thankful for my health and mental state. And, yes we live  in a different country today , and there is so much Hope we came out stronger, more kind, more resilient and smarter ...Let's see .....

"One of Seventh" 20x20 oil in linen 

"From the Garden of Eden "- SOLD

"Winter Lilac" 14x14 oil on aluminum 

DAY 11 "A BEND IN THE RIVER"

Paining number eleven of my "Small paintings - Big sale". I'm so curious about how long I can keep this up  because I've never really counted my own paintings, especially the small ones. Yes I paint every day, plus on location and when on the paint outs  I usually paint 2 pieces. Well, I believe, I will figure it out  when I run out of paintings to post .. Such is life...

There is a book called A Bend in the River by Nobel  Laureate V. S. Naipul

His  asserts in the opening line of this book was "The world is what it is" ..And  I agreed , Folks :) 

"A Bend in the River" oil on board, 9x12
$ 100.00

                                                                   "SOLD"

DAY 10...HEALING RAIN

Today is June 17, my beloved, late husband Chris birthday...8 years ago he passed away suddenly from a heart attack. That tragedy changed the course of my life..After the initial shock, after the emotional fog of many months had lifted , I knew that I had to come back to my roots, and start to paint and teach again..It's painting that healed me and opened up a very unexpected and very supportive channel.

"Healing Rain" oil on canvas, 12x12