Catching Up with Painting Class

Whew!  Between gardens, sick husband and daughter, and other assorted busy-ness, I haven't had time to fill you in on the last two Faces and Figures class with Margaretta Gilboy at the Art Students League of Denver. 

By the third class, I had gotten used to working for 3 1/2 hours in a row and wasn't so tired.  In my studio, I paint something and then, while it's drying, get dishes done or have a cup of tea or something.  In addition to increasing my painting stamina, I learned "paint, don't think!"  It is a natural human trait to fill in the details with your mind.  Which is why we make fairly useless eye witnesses to events.  Our brain saves us time by completing the picture.  Fine if you're making snap decisions, but awful if you're painting.  I've learned to slow down and really look at my reference - whether it's a photo or a live model - and see the shapes and colors.  For instance, my sucky shadow shape.  Which I repainted again in the 4th class. 

I also had my mind opened to seeing the real colors of things.  Again, circumventing the natural inclination of my brain to fill in the blanks.  Not all shadows are cool colors.  Eureka!  The painting isn't finished, and I honestly am not sure I will finish it, but I learned a great deal while working on it.  I had been very stuck on a portrait I was working on and didn't know why.  In the 4th class, I was trying to add highlights to the painting and did my usual add the light color, freak out because it was so light, remove it and then wonder why it didn't look good.  Margaretta, in her inimitable way, told me to look at the color of the light area, mix it that color, put it on and then put the brush down and go sit on my hands.  Oh that was hard!  My brain was screaming. It's too light omg it looks awful!  But I walked away.  I chatted with other students.  I got a drink of water.  The whole time my brain gasped hysterically fixit, fixit, fixit! 

When I came back, lo and behold, it looked fabulous!  A couple days later, I tried it on the portrait.  The brain still screeched, but I held fast.  Again, fabulous results.  Then I added some real darks... screaming brain and so on... and the person in the painting sprang to life.  I can't tell you how much time and frustration this little nugget is going to save me. 

Here's the painting after each of the 4 classes:

I'll probably work on it a little more and will post another photo.  And the portrait I was talking about... there'll be a post coming soon about that, too.