Art in the Making by Jenny Armitage

Paintings Fresh From the Brush

Category: figures

Cello Practice III

Cello Practice III (11 x 13) $100

Cello Practice III (11 x 13) $100

This is my niece playing cello. I took the photo a couple of summers ago at my brother’s house. I just love her long limbs and fingers. Playing the cello shows off those elegant fingers like nothing else. I’ve heard her complain that she hates to see how she was holding her hands on the cello even a few months ago because her positioning is improving. I can’t tell good positioning from bad, but I like the way her hands look. I hope she’ll forgive me for immortalizing her two year old cello technique.

I had intended this painting to be looser, more painterly, and less illustrative than it turned out. That seems to be a painting at the gallery problem. Given an audience I tend to tighten up and draw with the brush. The First Quilt is another tight painting resulting from painting at the gallery. I need to pick my gallery subjects carefully.

But, it’s not a bad little painting. It’s just not what I intended. I do like the way her face and limbs pop out against dark background. I will probably try a much freer version this afternoon.

I used cadmium yellow and quinacridone deep red rose as a foundation for her skin. Other than that I stuck to a three paint palette of burnt sienna, phthalo blue and cobalt blue. I didn’t include a yellow at all. I like the color scheme and will probably keep it in the next version.

I created her appearing and disappearing necklace by first masking it and then removing the mask when the shirt was about half finished. I like the effect.


SociBook del.icio.us Digg Facebook Google Yahoo Buzz StumbleUpon
No Comments by Jenny Armitage on May 14, 2009
filed in figures, for sale
tagged , , , , ,

Pub Talk II: Half Poured and Half Painted

Pub Talk II (9 x 13) $200

Pub Talk II (9 x 13) $200

In this version of Pub Talk I tightened up the composition a little by moving everyone closer together and tying the couples at the far table together with the painting on the back wall. I reduced the number of archways to simplify the pouring process.

I began the picture by painting the people tables and the picture at the far end of the room. This was really the whole lower half of the painting. I used cerulean blue for the older men’s hair and the shadows in the faces. Cerulean blue was much more satisfactory for this purpose than phthalo blue was in Pub Talk I. I dropped cerulean blue and phthalo blue into damp burnt sienna for the darker hair.

For the rest of the direct painting I used the same colors as before. I used layered washes of raw and burnt sienna for the skin again. The clothes are all various combinations of phthalo blue, burnt sienna and raw sienna. The tables are burnt sienna washed over cobalt blue.

direct paint

direct paint

Then I masked the lower half on the picture and poured.

It’s important when pouring to decide what colors need to predominate where and which direction to tip the board after the pour. I tried to place the yellows and reds along the left hand (sunlit) side of the arches. I placed the blues to the outside. I tipped up rather than at a diagonal because I wanted a peaceful cozy feeling.

I used raw sienna, burnt sienna, and phtalo blue for the first two pours. On the third pour I substituted dioxazine purple for the phthalo blue. On the final pour I used burn sienna, cobalt blue and dioxazine purple.

After the Third Pour

After the Third Pour

Removing the mask lifted a fair amount of raw and burn sienna as well was cerulean blue. I rewashed the peoples skin with these two colors. Then I darkened the ceiling fixtures and the archway walls.

Mask Off

Mask Off

Finished. And I do prefer it to the direct paint only version, although I think that may be in part because I got better at the people with each version.


Or purchase a print at Fine Art America.com.

SociBook del.icio.us Digg Facebook Google Yahoo Buzz StumbleUpon
1 Comment by Jenny Armitage on May 7, 2009
filed in figures, for sale, prints available, techniques
tagged , , ,

Pub Talk

Pub Talk (10 x 14) $175

Pub Talk (10 x 14) $125

I love to paint people and I love the interior light of dark restaurants with the sun streaming in through the side windows. Unfortunately if I sketch or photograph people in bars or restaurants they stop acting naturally. I have developed a sneaky system for photographing them. If I use the LED screen as a view finder and turn off the flash, people think I am reviewing previously taken photos rather than taking new ones. I took the photos for this scene in just that way.

I tried pouring this scene first. The result had lovely color and value, but it was rougher than I liked. I loved the light, but didn’t think I could pour it with greater clarity.

Poured Version of Pub Talk

Poured Version of Pub Talk

So I did a little sketching and then painted directly with the same colors I used for the pour: phthalo blue, burnt sienna, raw sienna, dioxazine purple, and cobalt blue.

Pub Talk Sketch

Pub Talk Sketch

I still like the beautiful poured background in my first attempt, and I may do this one again tomorrow using directly painted figures and a poured background.


SociBook del.icio.us Digg Facebook Google Yahoo Buzz StumbleUpon
No Comments by Jenny Armitage on May 6, 2009
filed in Uncategorized, figures, for sale
tagged , , , ,

Homemade Boat

Homemade Boat (8 x 11) $50

Homemade Boat-sketch (8 x 11) $50

I did this little painting at the gallery today. It’s my daughter launching a homemade boat at Mom’s last summer.

Her skin is cadmium red and yellow ochre. Cobalt blue, burnt sienna, and burnt umber complete my palette.


SociBook del.icio.us Digg Facebook Google Yahoo Buzz StumbleUpon
No Comments by Jenny Armitage on May 3, 2009
filed in figures, for sale
tagged , ,

Skipping Stones and Body Paint

Skipping Stones (11 x 14) $75

Skipping Stones (11 x 14) SOLD

Skipping stones is like testing an echo, faced with a smooth body of water and rocks at hand, all right minded people want to do it. This is my husband and girls skipping stones into the Williamettee River. Georgia learned to do two or three skips that day and Paula found some fresh water shells.

Because the painting is really all about basic body shapes and afternoon sun I began it painting by pouring. I wanted bodies washed in color. But I did so much direct painting afterwords that it hardly feels like a poured painting to me. Whatever I did, it wouldn’t come right and I almost gave up on it. I finally decided that for design purposes I should have made Stephen’s hat white like the girls’ hats. But with watercolor white is reserved paper not paint and there was no way I could lift enough paint to make his hat white again, certainly not white in comparison to the girls’ hats.

So I pulled out the white body paint. Body paint or gouache is opaque watercolor. Dark colors are lightened with white. Transparent watercolor dilutes gouache and it won’t cover it. Consequently, gauche must be added last. So I painted the shadow of the hat with transparent colors first and then I painted around the shadow with permanent white gouache. I had to apply it fairly thickly because opaque is one thing but covering is another. While I was at it I reclaimed a little white in Paula’s left shoe too.

The gouache white is bluer that the page, so Stephen’s hat is bluer than the girls. That’s fine because he’s farther away. If he had been close I might have had to paint the girls’s hats too just to even things up.

I’m not tempted to work in gouache. I like the look a transparent watercolor too much. But every once in a while a little gouache is a life saver.

Other than white, I used ceruleum blue, phthalo blue, raw sienna and burnt sienna for the first pour. For the next two pours I substituted cobalt blue for the ceruleum. Ceruleum is an opaque color (but not gouache). I used the same palette for the direct painting with the addition of raw umber.

Prints available through Fine Art America.com.

SociBook del.icio.us Digg Facebook Google Yahoo Buzz StumbleUpon
No Comments by Jenny Armitage on May 2, 2009
filed in figures, prints available, sold, techniques
tagged , , , , , , ,

High Noon at the Gravel Spit II

High Noon the the Gravel Spit II

High Noon the the Gravel Spit II (9 x 12) $100

This is the same basic painting as yesterday writ larger. The method and pigments are the same, except that I didn’t do any direct painting on this one. I didn’t think any further definition of the boys was necessary.

I like it, but I think this one looks more like an ordinary crowd. I think the smaller numbers in the first painting focused the eye on the interactions between the young men. That part of the drama gets lost in a crowd.


Or purchase a print at Fine Art America.com.

SociBook del.icio.us Digg Facebook Google Yahoo Buzz StumbleUpon
No Comments by Jenny Armitage on April 30, 2009
filed in figures, for sale, prints available
tagged , , , ,

High Noon at the Gravel Spit I

High Noon at the Gravel Spit (8 x 10) $100

High Noon at the Gravel Spit (8 x 10) $100

Under the West Salem bridge there is a little sand bar, really a gravel bar. At any given time on the weekend there are likely to be three or four families there and at least one father teaching his son to skip stones. It is an ideal place for skipping stones into the river. It’s a good place for wadding toddlers too.

But looking down from the bridge a couple weeks ago I saw a very different scene. Five or six young men roamed the sandbar, jostling against one another and skipping stones from first one side than the other. There was no real violence, but the boys radiated suppressed anger and extreme restlessness.

Reference IIThis painting is a composite of figures from several of the photos I took of the restless young men. I arranged them to keep the feeling of tension I felt looking down at them from the bridge.

Reference I

The painting is almost entirely poured. The first pour was hansa yellow light, quinacridone deep red rose, and phthalo blue. In the next pour I substituted new gamboge for the hansa yellow and added quincaridone magenta. The third pour I used just the two reds and phthalo blue. For the fourth pour I used quincaridone magenta, dioxzine purple, and phthalo blue.

After the fourth pour I washed the boy’s jeans with phthalo blue and added dioxzine purple and phthalo blue wet into wet into the shadows on their shirts. The little dots are dioxzine purple splattered off the brush.

I think I captured the tension and the pours produced beautiful colors. I’m going to paint a larger more complex version of this painting tomorrow. I like the colors and will probably use them again.


Or purchase a print at Fine Art America.com.

SociBook del.icio.us Digg Facebook Google Yahoo Buzz StumbleUpon
No Comments by Jenny Armitage on April 30, 2009
filed in figures, for sale, prints available
tagged , , , ,

Sneakers II

Paula and her sneakers again.

This time I panted her directly without pouring. I used a very limited palette: burnt sienna, cobalt blue and yellow ochre. I also washed her face with cadmium yellow and winsor red. There is tad of alizarin crimson on her lips and the shaded side of her face.

I prefer this painting but my husband prefers the poured version. I did a better job with her face here. But I agree with Stephen that the colors are livelier in the poured painting. It’s tempting to do a third version, but I think I”ll stop here.


Or purchase a print of this painting at Fine Art America.com.

SociBook del.icio.us Digg Facebook Google Yahoo Buzz StumbleUpon
No Comments by Jenny Armitage on April 26, 2009
filed in Uncategorized, figures, techniques
tagged

Sneakers I: More Pouring

Sneakers I (11 x 17) $125

Sneakers I (11 x 17) $100

This is my youngest daughter in a characteristic pose. I love the way she has clasped her hands in tight but spread her legs out with her feet pidgin toed.

I poured all of this painting except for her hands and feet and an under painting of the carpet. I painted her hands and feet first, and then masked them to protect them from the pour. I left the under-painting of the carpet pattern unmasked.

face and hand

face and hand

[caption id="attachment_211" align="aligncenter" width="60" caption="carpet underpainting"]carpet underpainting[/caption]

I masked and poured three times. When the mask came off: I adjusted the values, added shadows and shoe details; and touched up her face.

first pour

first pour

[caption id="attachment_213" align="aligncenter" width="59" caption="second pour"]second pour[/caption]
mask removed

mask off

I used Winsor red, alizarin crimson, and cadmium yellow for her face and hands. I used hansa yellow medium, burnt sienna and phthalo blue for the first pour. I substituted raw sienna for hansa yellow in the second and third pours. I direct painted with the pouring palette.

What would I do differently? Well I like this painting a lot as is. I would mask the hands and face before painting them and paint them after the pour next time. I think I would also leave the sunshine streaks across the carpet out.

I like the painting enough that I’m going to do it again without pouring.


Or purchase a reproduction of this painting at Fine Art America.com.

SociBook del.icio.us Digg Facebook Google Yahoo Buzz StumbleUpon
1 Comment by Jenny Armitage on April 24, 2009
filed in Uncategorized, figures, for sale, portraits, prints available, techniques
tagged , , , , , , , ,

The First Quilt

The First Quilt (11 x 14) $125

The First Quilt (11 x 14) $125

This is my daughter busily piecing her first quilt–so busy she let me walk around a taking photographs without bothering to complain. I liked the light coming in from window seat hidden off to our right and the look of intense concentration on her face.

I began this painting at the gallery yesterday, but I came home unhappy with where it was going. The basic shapes were right, but the fabric had stolen the center of interest.

Since the fabric moves the eye in into the picture from the left and her face hands and arms form a circular path, recomposing the picture was mostly a matter of toning down and removing everything else. I simplified the quilt fabric, which was brighter and patterned and removed an embroidered medallion from her shirt. I also removed the book shelves from behind her. I toned down the bright white of the sewing machine which had threatened to steal attention from her face and hands.

When I was finished, too much of the painting appeared to be of medium value; so I darkened up her hair to provide contrast for her face. That made all the difference.

Pigment Notes: I used cadmium yellow, alizarin crimson, and burnt sienna for her face and hands. An under-painting of phthalo blue defines the darks in her hair. I washed burn sienna over it. The table is also phthalo blue and burnt sienna. Her shirt is burn sienna and cobalt blue plus a little alizarin crimson. The lilac quilt squares are the same combination, but with more alizarin crimson. I used phthalo blue, burnt sienna and touch of cadmium yellow for the green squares. French ultramarine washes define the sewing machine. I used French ultramarine and burnt sienna for her jeans. The walls are burn sienna with a touch of phthalo blue.


Or purchase a reproduction here.

SociBook del.icio.us Digg Facebook Google Yahoo Buzz StumbleUpon
No Comments by Jenny Armitage on April 18, 2009
filed in Uncategorized, figures, for sale
tagged , , , , ,

Newer Posts »