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| JD (I Gotta Crow) in progress. |
With the final tests the hospital wanted done yesterday and the presurgery muscle stimulator device delivered today, the curvaceous, full figured woman is humming, I felt an urgency to finish JD's portrait. After September 10th, I have no idea when I will be able to get down those stairs to the studio again. It was time to stop sidestepping. My plan for the day was to warm up to the portrait by working on the clothing. Instead, I zeroed in on his face and hair. No coward here.
It was a semi-successful painting session. Ellis passed by and interrupted my concentration; it was irritating. I really do not like being interrupted when my brushes are loaded and I'm intense upon capturing the shapes of darks and lights. Nevertheless, I think I did manage a few improvements. Observing it here, the head still needs shaping; the superciliary arch needs to be modified, but I'm getting the darkness of the skin tones in the heavily shaded situation. This painting really could use a live sitting or two. Unfortunately, there's no chance of that.
I like the progress, looking forward to see more. I hope you get well soon. Hug!
ReplyDeleteI'm not hurting yet. Days to go. But I'm looking forward to the repair and reclaiming what was once an active life. So that bum knee needs to go.
DeleteThanks Roger. It was great being back at it. I had ignored it too long. --no thirty seven strokes here or thirty seven minutes or a tiny canvas. I do have a lot of nerve for a newbie/oldbie.
I'm having a bit of a reprieve for the moment, guess it will all go wrong, kneewise, again though. The WIP is coming along brilliantly. Hope all goes well for you.
ReplyDeleteWhat do you mean you suppose it will all go wrong again? I don't want to hear it. I'm doing this once and for all. With new padding between those bones, I intend to get back to activities that have fallen off as the knee worsened over the last seven years. What knee problems do you have? What procedure did you have? John, your comment has sparked a whole slew of questions that need answers.
Deletearthritis both knees ... no procedures as my general health stopped them at pre-med time... diet and stretching exercises .... and a clear conscious ;0)
DeleteI'm sorry to hear that. Not even cortisone shots; they helped a lot for a long time. I've got a friend, Morris, who is still on them after many years. He's about 83 and walking fine. Mine were wearing out in two months, below the time they are supposed to work. I suuppose I could just wait out the third month, but I do want to get back on the elliptical trainer, biking for more than ten minutes a time period and walking up and down those 38 stairs that lead to our lake front beach area. So I'm taking the risk. Stretching is wonderful exercise and the most important of all--along with balance exercises. A clear conscience I have--except for that time when I was eighteen and didn't tell my mom....:-)))
DeleteIt will be my 25th wedding anniversary on Sept 10th, but I shall be thinking of you amidst the revelry,and hoping all goes well!
ReplyDeleteJD is progressing marvellously, he has such a cheery face. Colours are spot on.
Happy Anniversary! I'm glad someone will be having a cheery day--of course, I'll be pretty cheery too given all those good knock-out drugs. :-)) JD is coming--if Ellis will just stop interrupting. I'm off to carry him a bit further now. I'm adding linseed oil to the mineral spirits ( half and half) so the paint will flow better and be more buttery.
DeleteDear Linda, I think I can hear your thoughts ... The portrait is fine and will be fine as everything you do, where ever you put your soul and your art passionate and fascinating for those who follow you, like me! !
ReplyDeleteYou are you, well beyond the minutes, the brush strokes and canvas sizes!
I hope all is well in your health, to be able to quickly resume your work of art and to be able to live a quality life at all levels.
Warm hugs,Rita.
(PS.I hope that the translator has translated well my thoughts...)
Thank you for your kind wishes Rita. My health is good. The knee will be good too given a new layer of cartilage. As for Ellis, the question is will he be good in the kitchen those first days home? Cooking isn't one of his talents. :-))
DeleteTake care of those knees, Linda!!! Hope everything goes well!!
ReplyDeleteJD is coming along beautifully.!!!
You take care of your too. I have no idea what activity I did in my life that did in one knee and not the other. As far as I know, the only thing I did that's unfriendly to knee joints is I squated while I painted, which makes my knee problem similar to a baseball catcher. Who knew painting was a dangerous sport? Thanks. Progress was good today too--better. I went back to using linseed oil in the painting medium and the paint flowed beautifully.
DeleteBest wishes, Linda - I hope the knee surgery goes smoothly and the recovery is quick and complete. JD is really coming along beautifully - you have the tilt of his head and his brilliant smile done perfectly. Personally, I don't think he needs much more to call this one done and a complete success!
ReplyDeleteI think so too--just tame down that lump on his upper lip and put a few highlights in his hair. Then, there's the rest of him. I've got a week and a half before I have to turn myself in at the hospital. Plenty of time that will fly all too quickly.
DeleteAfter looking at that portrait you saw at the San Francisco Museum, I wondered how long did it take the artist to paint? We all talk about speed of production, I wonder if speed was as important in the 18th century? Houdon did a life size statue of George Washington for Virginia. It took two months to cross the Atlantic to sketch him, make a life mould of his face, which took a few weeks, two months back over the Atlantic to his studio and two or three years to create the rest of his body. Then, of course, there was the shipping of the finished piece back to Virginia. But that was a statue. A painting probably only took a couple of months?
JD is coming along wonderfully! Wish you all the best for the surgery. My bum knee will need something like that in the future.
ReplyDeleteThe future is here with me. I've been coddling this knee for seven years. Now the coddling isn't working. The good news seems to be, I don't need a full knee replacement, just a half knee replacement, which involves no cutting of bone or muscle, no metal inserts, just a soft pad of cartilage put into place. Supposedly,the recovery is faster and there's less pain. Of course, I'll let you know. Thanks for your best wishes Judy.
DeleteI laughed when You mentioned getting irritated. Loved it - been there done that but usually hate to say it. Good for you. Want to wish you a successful procedure and a quick convalescence. Half a knee is better than the whole thing for sure but still something you need to behave with.
ReplyDeleteI am beginning to figure out when I comment on my phone it does not always record. I had sent a comment right after you commented on my blog. Glad i came back to check.
I, too am curious about if the technology works. I always check; it's my distruss of anything mechanical. n
DeleteI am very firm on passing on to "young" artists just starting out what actually does go on during the artistic process. I am way past being the famous artist I dreamed of being, so I want to let budding artists know, painting is no picnic; there are good days, but, like any thing else, there are days that are really annoying. They make you wonder why you ever decided to pursue this discipline. No one ever told me, the student, about the agony of achieving appreciable skill. I do wish they had been straight forward.