Actually, Steven Assael still lives, but his spirit visited me this morning.  You may remember how impressed I was by him in the course of a workshop that I took last summer.  I was impressed and frustrated.  Read all about it here.  This morning, at our regular meeting of the Tuesday Life Group,  I felt as if I had, for the very first time, successfully applied his method for painting a nude, and boy! did it feel good!  Not all of the painting is a success . . . yet.  Our model will be giving us another session next week in the same pose.  But I am so thrilled with this start that I had to share it with you.  While I was still in the act of painting, I wanted to shout out to the room for the other artists to gather around and see what I was accomplishing.  Here is the image:

Margaret and her Nook WIP

The big deal here is the quality of the skin, especially on her back.  The key technique:  I feathered it with the fan brush that I acquired for the Assael workshop but never got around to using because I never got this close to finishing.  My heretofore preferred way of painting nudes is more impressionistic.   Perhaps the only significant difference is a simple one:  Assael feathers his brushstrokes on the skin; my Impressionistic style favors obvious unmodulated brush strokes.  I guess it has taken me several months to let go of my old conceit and actually try to create the kind of glow achieved by Assael.  To see what he did as a demo for us, click here.  This new painting method may not represent a permanent new me, but it is something that fascinates me, and offers new challenges for painting nudes.  Keeps it interesting!

And on another track, way off to the side of the above:–my exploration of abstract landscapes.  Here is a Work in Progress:

Imaginary Elements WIP

Here is the finished painting:  (I need to know what you think–then next week I will report on the class’s reaction.)

Imaginary Elements

Here is another start on something, another abstracted landscape I guess.  I’m thinking it would make interesting wallpaper at this point, so I have to dig down and find a more compelling reason for it to continue in existence.

The Start of Something

Remember how I bellyached about not have having any photographic record of all my Blackstone Valley paintings?  One of my buyers came through with an image of the Castle Hill painting that they purchased.

Castle Hill

This is a fairly accurately rendered painting of funky farm buildings located in Whitinsville, Massachusetts.  I think the stone wall stole the show.  The wall was built by hand by men employed by the landowner to keep them busy (and earning money) during the Great Depression.  The funky buildings resulted from the same impulse, I believe.

Aline Lotter is currently exhibiting:

at the Hatfield Gallery and the East Colony Fine Art Gallery in Manchester (both are in Langer Place, 55 S. Commercial St., Manchester, NH);  at the Bartlett Inn in Bartlett; at the Red Jacket Inn in North Conway;  at the law offices of Mesmer and Deleault at 41 Brook St in Manchester; in the Community Gallery at the Currier Gallery in Manchester; at the Manchester office of Congresswoman Carol Shea Porter;  at the Studio 550 Art Center in Manchester NH, as part of the annual 6×6 show of the Womens Caucus for Art; and at her studio by appointment (email: alotter@mac.com).