My Utrecht easel has served me well. True, it’s held together with glue and clamps, but it still handles the large-size paintings that I make. One thing the easel lacks is a place to rest a palette, even a small one. I keep my normal palette on a mobile cabinet that I wheel around as…
I wrote glowingly about the Utrecht easel that I purchased. I said that it was a great bargain–an under-$300 medium-duty easel. But soon a support broke and the mechanism to lower and raise the tray support was frustratingly difficult to use. My praise transformed to scorn. I repaired the broken support with glue and a…
I started working on the painting on the easel, Along 4th Street, yesterday. I’ve had two long sessions on it, but it still needs a lot of work. I’m careful about cutting off figures by the canvas edge. One of my teachers, Pearlstein, is well known for cutting figures. He used the device to…
Graduation Day is almost done. I teed it up today for the finish, but only shot par. I have to beat par–come on. Some things still bug me; the purple dress for one, and a couple of other things too. I like painting cars. There are two in Graduation Day. I am planning another painting that is…
My kids are used to seeing themselves in paintings. I use them as models a lot, although less these days than previously. Painting children is challenging and can easily lead to kitsch. There are always topics that are ‘forbidden’ in ‘high art’ (a single sentence with two sets of scare-quotes–a record for me). Not long…
I finished Taking Note this morning. This was my 15th session with the 42″ x 56″ oil. I don’t know the sitter. She is (I think) on the staff of the Cleveland Museum of Art. To me, this painting is pretty abstract, but all my paintings seem that way to me. Perhaps a better word…
I still have more sessions on The Photographer ahead of me, but I getting to the finishing stages. Some things went smoothly straightaway, others less so. Simple designs have to get some things just right.
I put my mind to finishing Main Street II yesterday. You get in that groove where everything goes clickety-clack smooth and all problems become trivial and melt away. You know that groove? 12 hours yesterday and back at it again today, all day. But–sigh–it’s not to be. I’m tired, that is, mentally exhausted, and the figure on…