Here’s my last onsite Door County sketch, 6.5 x 9
Here’s my last view from the window sketch for a while, 6x9. I’ve lost interest in the format, plus today’s wind is getting rid of a lot of leaves.
Here are today’s figs, 3.5 x 5.5.
Here’s a Quinn sketch on tracing paper, 12x12. I’m thinking of maybe a color pencil portrait...
And here’s my pencil sketch and freehand watercolor portrait, both 9x12. I was working from a tiny wedding photo booth photo, thus the goofy hat. I find I approach the watercolor like I do the pencil sketch, getting the shape of the face and features in place and lined up, which gives it a stilted look, imo. I’m trying to see the shapes instead, but that is really hard with faces. I mean, an eye is an eye is an eye, if you know what I mean....
I’ve been lying low with a back spasm the last couple of days, so here’s a couple of good Netflix movie suggestions: Dick Johnson Is Dead, a documentary, and Forty year old Version, an autobiopic. Both involve art and are funny and sad, just like life...
The 2 window paintings of the" falling leaves drift by my window" remind me of one of my late mom's favorite songs! The top of the dresser or table caught my attention! Baby Quinn is a bundle of joy in black & white! The figs look good to eat!You painted expressive eyes in both media of the man with the hat!
ReplyDeleteI'm hoping you'll revisit the window series as I really like them. I don't know what you're talking about with portraits. Your pencil sketches are so active and alive. And your paintings are not stilted at all. They have a softness (especially in the colors and value contrast) and a monumental quality all at the same time. The hat and vest make Andrew look like a turn-of-the-century Amish farmer, so timeless, too.
ReplyDeleteSo, are those the figs you grew yourself? I'm impressed with the sketch--and the figs. Oh, and thanks for adding the sizes, even to the sketches. It's really helpful.
Wow, you've done a lot of work there, Sara. I like both the window views and hope you don't stop doing them. Especially interesting is all the "things" happening in the first one where my eyes keep going in and around the painting (interior, midway and outside). Everything works really well together. I especially enjoy all the little detail on the
ReplyDeletetable and the slice of lamp, and the striped cushion, all the browns/warmth of the indoors and the blues/coolness of the outdoors. Nice. The other one is more simplified, but still works well.
Your figs are built like Cezanne's fruit paintings. And the background really works with them. How do you grow your own figs?
I thought that last portrait was some antique historical image. Both the drawing and the watercolor are striking and yet sublime. Hypnotic, in fact. Way to go, girl.
And your drawings are absolutely fabulous, you know.
First you buy a small fig tree in a normal size pot. Then you wait five years, dragging it inside in the winter and outside in the spring as it gets bigger and heavier. On the 6th summer you hope those 5 little figs will grow bigger and softer before it gets too cold. And when they do, you notice the ants crawling in and out the hole At the bottom of the figs. You pick them, submerge them in water to kill any ants, paint them and then eat them! They were pretty sweet, as long as I didn’t think about the ants....
ReplyDeleteI like the first window better than the second, but it occurs to me that maybe autumn leaves are not a good thing to be looking out at the window. In person they are all fluttering leaves but in a small space like through a windowpane on a small paper they are just like blobs of color.
ReplyDeleteNormally I like your sketches better than the paintings because I like the lines. In this case I like the painting better, It has movement like he is leaning forward to see something better.
You have the most interesting window scenes. I like the four panes. Baby is up to something.
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