Complete!
Almost finished.
 Smiling head-shot with retracting neck. |  Great Egret landing. |
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Almost finished.
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 It's been six days since the last post. As you can see, I am mixing two different styles of painting: hard-edge and painterly. Hard-edge is painting in which abrupt transitions are found between color areas and is commonly related to geometric abstraction. Painterly is defined by qualities of color, brush stroke, and texture.  An aside: Living in my apartment complex, there are many distractions. Footsteps resonate. Laughter carries. But those are short lived. The most annoying distractions are loudmouth conversations which can go on and on. How do artists maintain a peaceful coexistence and still bring it to the neighbor's attention?   Here is the sketch for my next project. An egret has been a fixture in Walnut Creek in Govalle Park, so I begin photographing him. But, I could only get so close. I had to select a photo off the internet. There were many to choose from, and I think I chose the best one available. The bird is captured landing. Next, came the canvas. I penciled in grids in order to better determine the proportionality. And you can see for yourselves what I have done up to this point.  Northern Light is best.  Egret in process  An artist is always looking for inspiration. Every time I go to Taos, my inspiration is all around. From the art galleries that line the streets and fill the plaza, to the museums like the Fechin House and Harwood Museum. It all started with Ernest Blumenschein and Bert Phillips and their legendary broken Wagon Wheel. So began the Taos Six, aka Taos Society of Artists, which lasted from 1915 till 1927. After that, Taos became a renowned art colony and destination for artists from around the world. In 1928, a restless Marjorie Eaton appeared from Northern California, and immediately fell under the spell of the Taos mesa and Sangre de Cristo mountain range. Luckily for Vic and me, the Fechin House was exhibiting for the first time ever a comprehensive exhibit of her work. "There are paintings, photos, personal effects and letters on display that haven't until now been seen together," according to Christy Schoedinger Coleman, executive director of the Taos Art Museum at Fechin House.  Marjorie and Juan at Taos Pueblo Juan Mirabal, a Taos Pueblo native, and Eaton developed a relationship. He became one of her models. She demonstrated modernist techniques in her paintings: bold lines and strong colors. After 3 years in Taos, she left for New York where she met Diego Rivera and Frieda Kahlo. They invited her to come paint with them in Mexico. Through cubism and expressionism, as she did in Taos, Eaton painted women and children of the village . To learn more about this inspiring artist and my muse, click on the link https://www.taosnews.com/…/marjorie-eaton-a-life-in-picture….
 Actor Marjorie Eaton as Emperor Palpatine in The Empire Strikes Back |
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