Monthly Archives: October 2011

Tale of Woe

Posted by Aline on

. . . Snow woe?  Weather woe?  Maybe lack-of-power woe.  “Power.”  Have you ever thought about the usages of the word “power”.  We use it to describe an attribute of people who attain positions where they can control the lives of others.  Power is also an attribute of an individual who can control his/her own life.  So why does  “Power” also refer to  electrical current to run lights, furnace, phone, internet, microwave, TV, DVD, and radio, to charge cell phones and Palm Pilots?  Because without all those abilities, one is powerless.

Without power (in the technological sense) One is also cold, hungry, and sleepless.  So I write this tale of powerlessness–obviously not from home–in a state of grogginess.  For the first time in my life, I slept with a Great Dane.   I invited her into bed with me when her “mom”, my granddaughter, bailed on us to go spend the night with a friend with “power”.  Honey, the Great Dane, usually sleeps with Tabitha, my granddaughter.  Tabitha thoughtfully lent us her comforter and Honey was dressed in a woolly sweater.  I wore my thermally correct underwear and a snuggly fleece robe-type thing over that.  We were warm enough.  Well, I was warm enough.  Honey was shivering and twitching all night, while I concentrated on hanging on to my share of the bed and waiting for the sun to rise.

Actually, I wasn’t all that hungry because I got to spend a wonderful 4 to 5 hours at a party with artists earlier in the day.  Mill Brook Gallery in Concord held an opening for an exhibit that was enchanting in its originality and breadth.  http://www.themillbrookgallery.com/  I had been invited by Patrick McCay, one of the featured artists, who is my EEE teacher.  (EEE stands for Explore, Exploit, Express–in whatever medium, whatever style.)  Two of his paintings already had red dots on them when we got there.  “We” because I did not have the use of my car yesterday but got a ride with two other artists, Bea Bearden and David Wells.  Through Bea and David I also found myself welcomed to a pot luck supper after the reception.  What a pot luck supper it was!  It deserves commemoration by publication of the entire amazing menu, but I cannot do it justice on the wing with descriptions like “quiche-type thing” and “rice and beans”.  I didn’t go near the pies–no room for dessert.

So in truth I was warm enough and not hungry at all, and only sleepless now.  Yesterday, before going off and partying, I used a few daylight hours to tinker with three paintings that I had started in EEE.  The third one is my newest one, which you have not yet seen.  In order to get enough light in which to photograph it, I brought it to the office with my camera.  No tripod though, so it looks a little fuzzy.

Taking a Bow

As the cyclists arrive at the top, someone throws a gray blanket over their shoulders, which keeps them from getting too chilled after their sweaty exertion.  The top of Mt. Washington is, even in August, likely to be a chilly place.  Andy, who happens to be my son, appears to be wearing a ribbon of some sort, which I only noticed in the course of working on this painting.  Will have to find out the significance of that.

The train car in the background is part of the  Cog Railway.

In this painting, I believe I have become more of an impressionist, which is kind of  what I have set out to do in the EEE class.  My highest goal is to emulate  Sargent and Sorolla, which to me means using the brush strokes expressively.  I really enjoyed working on this painting.  It is another of the studies for the larger work I am hoping to get to, the one of the whole top of the mountain with the crowds, the cyclists, and the mountain vistas.

Aline Lotter is currently exhibiting:

at the Gallery at 100 Market Street in Portsmouth; at the Sage Gallery in Manchester; at the Manchester Artists Association Gallery in Manchester; at the Bartlett Inn in Bartlett; at the Red Jacket Inn in North Conway; at the Rockport Art Association Gallery in Rockport, Massachusetts.

Link to website:  www.paintingsbyaline.com

Progress on the 6×6 paintings

Posted by Aline on

At home

I just laid down my brushes and photographed the 6×6 plaques that I am painting for the upcoming Women’s Caucus for Art exhibit.  I “previewed” this project back in September and that was the last blog entry I was able to upload using my old iWeb program, so I’m feeling a little nervous about approaching the 6×6 subject matter again.  But I’m not superstitious, am I?  No.  Not at all.  So here goes:

WHERE AND WHEN:  The exhibit is to take place in the Chimera Gallery in the Picker Building at 99 Factory Street, Nashua.  It opens Saturday, November 5, at noon.  Saturday hours are noon to 5 o’clock.  It closes the next day, Sunday, at 4 o’clock.  The Sunday hours are noon to 4 o’clock.  The reception will take place Sunday, between 2 and 5.

These are unusual hours.  In years past, we have left the exhibit up for about a month, thinking to accommodate Christmas shoppers.  But almost all sales occurred during the reception, and people seem to be shopping for Christmas earlier and earlier each year.  (Pavlov’s dog experiment comes to mind as an explanation of this phenomenon.)

The exhibit is unusual in another respect:  Not only 2011 plaques will be exhibited and offered for sale ($66 each), but also plaques from years past–a retrospective of sorts.   This being my third year as a member of the organization, I will be exhibiting 12 plaques.  My 2009 four consisted of Lotus Studies, which has become a stand-alone piece, as I discussed in the September blog.  You can revisit the earlier blog here.   You can also inspect the condition of the new pieces as works in progress.  Today they may still be works in progress, but progress has been made, and only a few tinkering details remain.  I hope!  But first, I will show you the three brand new images, then follow up with three from before, as improved.

Noodles, a Cockapoo-Poodle

I met Noodles last week in Bartlett.  He belongs to Sami, the innkeepers’ daughter.  Noodles is still a puppy.  A sweeter dog cannot be imagined.

Alpaca Love

Why this title?  Impulse, inspired by the expressive face, which seems to be regarding a beloved.   I painted this portrait from the same photograph that I am using to insert an alpaca close-up in my Alpaca Ranch painting.  (See last week’s blog.)  I painted this on a plaque from 2010, on top of the original painting.  You can see a ghost of the 2010 image in the shadows.   Obviously, I didn’t like the 2010 painting and am very glad of the opportunity to obliterate it.

At Home

This is our Great Dane, Honey,  getting comfy on the sofa.  The strong desire of Great Danes to seek comfort is well-known.  The white spots in the photo are light reflecting off globs of wet paint.  This image also conceals an old one that I will not miss.  (Two more of the 2010 reborn plaques are shown in the September blog.)

Red-Breasted Plover

The Plover was featured in the previous blog. I made refinements, not changes:  The canopy on which he stands sinks a little more under his weight, which I hope explains what kind of a surface it is.  The red reflection on his breast is a little more intense.  The feathers have been touched up.  A light reflection has been added to his eye.

Poser

Another one from the previous post, with no changes to the Snowy Egret’s persona, but I did insert the words taken from a Wallace Stevens poem “. . . the feathers flare And bluster in the wind. . .” because they describe what is happening.  I wouldn’t want anyone to think the bird looks like this all the time.  I’m thinking I should add to the blustering plumage on the right side of the image.

At home

This is Sundance, a former resident of my household.  Despire his appropriation of my bed in this picture, he now prefers to be on his own.  Of the works in progress, this painting received the most of my attention.  His posture was unexplained before.  Now that  you can see he is slumbering away, sunken in pillows, I think this image is very appealing.  I am betting that if any of my plaques sell, this will be the first one to go.  (Going by my own weakness for cat images.)

Aline Lotter is currently exhibiting:

at the Gallery at 100 Market Street in Portsmouth; at the Sage Gallery in Manchester; at the Manchester Artists Association Gallery in Manchester; at the Bartlett Inn in Bartlett; at the Rockport Art Association Gallery in Rockport, Massachusetts.

Link to website:  www.paintingsbyaline.com

Bartlett, October 2011

Posted by Aline on

Bike Race spectator on Mt. Washington

In my EEE class last week, I painted one of my studies for the Mt. Washington Bike Race painting, and since it is my favorite painting for the week, I start with it.  The official title is “On the Top of the Rockpile”.  Mt. Washington is, for those of you not from New Hampshire, referred to affectionately as the Rockpile because above treeline, it seems to be nothing more than pile of rocks–quite a few of them loose rocks, which makes the going tough for hikers.  Here at the tip top, the boulders are more civilized.  I painted this painting on a 9×12 art panel that had been first painted with an acrylic cadmium yellow.  You can see some yellow peeking through a thumb print and some smears in the upper right corner.  I had dropped the painting, face-down, on a cat-and-dog-fur loaded carpet when I got home after class.  The figure escaped undamaged, and the rocks conceal any hairy texture (is the painting now “mixed media”?), but I tried to wipe the sky clean of fur and dirt.

The biannual trip to Bartlett for the artists’ getaway fell on last weekend.  “Fell” seems appropriate because the weather was pretty darn awful.  We could not visit the Rockpile, or any other tempting peak.  In fact, another guest at the Bartlett Inn reported that the Cog Railroad on Saturday started up Mt. Washington but had to back down because of the high winds.  Most of us painters sat out Thursday altogether; painted under a roof Friday (pavillion at Swift River Lower Falls), managed to get a few windy hours in before rain started on Saturday, and finally got a rain-free, partially sunny day on the appropriately named Sunday.  I usually come home with 5 or  6 paintings from a Bartlett weekend.  This time, only three:

Lower Falls

Mt. Washington Valley with Moat Mt. and cornfield

The view above is from the lawn of the Red Jacket Inn.  The painting will be exhibited at the Red Jacket once it is finished and framed.

Alpaca Farm in North Conway

I got out my big Beauport easel and a 16×20 panel for the alpaca farm.  I intend to add a close up of an alpaca, using one of my photographs.  Here is one of my models:

Head Shot

I had to minimize the shadows with my photo editing program (iPhoto) in order to see her amazing face.  She came up fairly close to me several times, but each time I could not get my camera in focus quickly enough to get the straight on gaze that I would love to have in the painting.

Not all of the alpacas were this lovely chestnut color.  I love that red shade because the edges generate such a warm glow.

Gray Alpaca

White Alpaca

Here are two others, who were not disposed to come so close to me.  They are shown galloping toward their owner at the back of the barn, who called them in by shouting “Ladies!”  At all other times, their muzzles are buried in the delicious grass.

Aline Lotter is currently exhibiting:

at the Gallery at 100 Market Street in Portsmouth; at the Sage Gallery in Manchester; at the Manchester Artists Association Gallery in Manchester; at the Bartlett Inn in Bartlett; at the Rockport Art Association Gallery in Rockport, Massachusetts.

Link to website:  www.paintingsbyaline.com

Brave New World

Posted by Aline on

The title of this post has nothing to do with any art that I am sharing with you.   It refers to my destination after Apple’s iWeb stopping publishing updates to my Blog.   OK, I’m not going to complain anymore.  I’m just going to get on with it.

I have lots of art to share: a backlog of nudes, my own “Motif No. 1”, sketches from the Mt. Washington Bike Race, and progress in my class with Patrick McCay.

Let’s start with Motif No. 1:  Every artist should have a version of this red building, which came to be known as “Motif No. 1” because every artist painting in Rockport, Massachusetts, did have a version of this building.   (Google it!)  I painted mine yesterday from the “T Wharf”.  I debated whether to include the pirate ship–thought it might be too much detail.  But I liked the two masts and decided I could handle it.  But the pirate ship kept leaving.  I think they were selling rides.  I would look up to check a detail, and it would have vanished, only to return an hour later.

I was in Rockport to attend the reception for the New England Invitational exhibit at the Rockport Art Association Gallery.   Wonderful, large gallery, great reception food, with wine and champagne.  Much more elegant than I am accustomed to.  On the other hand, they were interested in my name tag, which I bought years ago for Manchester Art Association receptions.  It identifies me as an exhibiting artist.  Apparently, no one has thought of doing that before, but it was definitely useful.  It caused the director to stop and shake hands with me, which I am sure she never would have done but for knowing who I was.

Another plein air enthusiast accompanied me to Rockport and to the reception.  In fact, but for Clinton Swank and his car, I would not have been able to get to Rockport at all.  Clinton is a young 20-something painter, absorbing knowledge and experience like a sponge.  He did not know about Motif No. 1 and chose to paint another scene from the T Wharf even after I told him about Motif No. 1.

The McCay class is called “Explore, Exploit, Express”, maybe not in that order.   In the future I will refer to it as the EEE class.  This week my project was to repaint the first Bedford Farmers’ Market scene, the one with the multi-colored umbrella, but to paint it as if I had only ten minutes to get it down.  It was a mess.  But Patrick advised me to blur all the edges and then come back in with fresh strokes of highlights.  I gave that a try, and there is where it stands as of today:This one is headed back to class for more help Wednesday, but already everyone who has seen both versions has preferred this version to the original.  To view the original, click on the link below.  http://web.mac.com/alotter/Paintings_by_Aline/Index_to_Painting_Albums/Pages/Newest_Additions.html

My long range project still involves the Mt. Washington Bike Race.  Here are two pages of vignettes that I hope to piece together in a large painting: 

Before working on the Big Picture, however, I will paint studies from these sketches.  It is my intent, my goal, to keep the brushstrokes loose and fresh.

SLG, or Saturday Life Group, has met four times already!  In years past, we would just be getting started in October, but since we meet in a classroom at the Institute (NH Institute of Art), we are subject to the Institute’s calendar, which means there are some Saturdays when we cannot meet there–when prospective students are invited for tours of the campus, for instance.  We used to be required to stop working and cover up our model to let groups of impressionable youths come in and inspect our goings on.  So instead of suffering such interruptions, we start the season a few weeks earlier.  

Here are my best drawings from the past four weeks: