My weekend was dominated by my iPad (Christmas gift) and my discovery of the HBO series “Breaking Bad”.  Apparently it’s been around since 2008, but only recently came to my notice.  Convergently, my iPad excels at downstreaming (if that the correct term) episodes of Breaking Bad from Netflix, 46 episodes starting in 2008, each about 48 minutes long.  I made only a small dent.  Needless to say, not much art got created.  So in a way, I acted out in my own very small way the title of the series, which refers to the conduct of a high school chemistry teacher who breaks bad and sets up a secret lab to manufacture crystal meth.

Thank goodness for Nita and Nancy, my fellow Circlers, who have provided images of their creations to flesh out this sorry specimen of a blog entry.  All three of us painted Tuesday morning, and Nita painted Friday as well, while Nancy and I were gallivanting to Boston for the Symphony and the MFA.  Let’s start with Friday and go backwards for a change (it’s good for your mental agility, they say):

Nita’s Friday Project

I’m so impressed with this portrait.  It is well drawn, and the lips in particular are so delicately painted (and accurate for the likeness, if that matters–it matters in the sense that you score more points for a likeness, but doesn’t matter in terms of quality of painting).  The modeling of the facial structures is also well done.  And the eyes are good.  Skin tone, really good, well I could go on, but you get the idea.

Because we were a smaller than usual group on Tuesday, we gathered around the brown leather sofa, on the sunlit side of Adrienne’s studio.

Nancy’s pastel painting

Nita’s Oil Painting

My Oil Painting

I took this painting to a collegial critique on Wednesday and got some really useful suggestions, which I promptly implemented, all except one which I forgot about until just now (add red reflection of the drape on his thigh).  My handling of the pillows and the sofa itself drew more admiration than the figure.  Here are some–perhaps all, at least all that I could locate–of my prior interpretations of that sofa:

The Feet Have It

Owning the Brown Leather Sofa

On the Brown Leather Sofa

Vote for your favorite brown leather sofa painting by commenting below.  If you want to.  Don’t feel obligated!

I will be participating again this year in the McGowan Gallery’s annual “Love, Lust and Desire” show–it’s a Valentine theme for the month of February.  The reception will be February 1, from 5-7. The show is unique, or at least pretty unusual, for the limitation on the size of the artworks:  2D, no larger than 8×11.  The prices are accordingly affordable.  McGowan is a superb, high-end gallery, worth regular visits any time you might be in the neighborhood.  10 Hills Avenue, Concord, NH.  My contributions to the exhibit are mostly small oil paintings on treated paper.  I included two copies of master’s portraits that I am particularly proud of.  One is a self-portrait by Pietro Annigoni , the other a detail from a painting by Jacob Collins.  I love this black and white closeup of his model’s head almost better than the original half-figure-in-color version.

After Jacob Collins (detail from Carolina)

Aline Lotter is currently exhibiting:

at the Hatfield Gallery in Manchester (Langer Place, 55 S. Commercial St., Manchester, NH); at the Bartlett Inn in Bartlett; at the Red Jacket Inn in North Conway;  at her law offices at 41 Brook St in Manchester; and at her studio by appointment.