Thumbs down and thumbs up

Posted by Aline on July 8, 2013

The poster competition deadline was today. I submitted last week, after much fruitless agonizing. I’d been obsessing over the lettering issue. I was seesawing between disliking formal lettering and being horrified by small misalignments of hand lettering. Here is where I got to toward the end.

poster, next to last version

As you might notice, the word “and” leaves a lot to be desired. I just couldn’t leave it like that, which meant I had to paint it out yet again. In desperation, I went out and bought multiple sets of stencils and stickers, hoping one of them would solve my problem, but none did. Without really knowing where I was going, I started to paint out the latest version of “and” when I realized that you can still read the letters when they are partially obscured. Clouds, I thought. One of my followers had actully suggested that, and now I was ready for that solution. Which resulted in this:

poster–final version

Am I happy? No, I realized I was never going to please myself, and I had just better stop messing with it. So in it went. I cringe when I focus on the lettering at the top, and just hope I don’t get laughed out of a competition where most of the entrants know exactly what to do with lettering.

On a more upbeat note, the painting (or study) that I created Tuesday turned out really well. I think so, and Peter Clive, our mentor, said about it something to the effect that it was one of my best, and in addition, it showed feeling.

Fletch, in profile

Every day this week I am immersed in a workshop with Steven Assael at the NH Institute of Art. If I can ever get the photos from my phone onto my computer, I will post the progress pictures from his demo. All I can say for now–amazing. I think I have found a kindred spirit. Stay tuned for a shift in my style.

Aline Lotter is currently exhibiting:

at the Hatfield Gallery and the East Colony Fine Art Gallery in Manchester (Langer Place, 55 S. Commercial St., Manchester, NH); at the Kimball-Jenkins Gallery in Concord, NH; at the Bedford Library in Bedford; at the Bartlett Inn in Bartlett; at the Red Jacket Inn in North Conway; at Stella Blu , an American Tapas restaurant in Nashua; at the law offices of Mesmer and Deleault at 41 Brook St in Manchester; at the Norris Cotton Cancer Center in Manchester (part of the Healing with Art program); and at her studio by appointment. Two paintings are also hanging in the Manchester office of Congresswoman Carol Shea Porter.

Review of June’s Poses

Posted by Aline on July 2, 2013

On the theory that you can never have too much of beautiful nudes, here is my entire collection of the Tuesday June poses, two of which you have already seen but through the glare of wet paint. Margaret times 4:

Margaret-June 2013-#1

Margaret–June 2013–#2

Margaret–June 2013–#3

I still need to finish the background for No. 3, and perhaps bring up her left knee, which for most of the time I could not see at all. That stool swivels, and it was very difficult to get her back into the exact same position after each break. In fact, every time she took a deep breath, the stool swiveled a little.

Margaret–June 2013–#4

No. 4 is obviously unfinished. We all wanted another session on this pose, but since it was the last one with Margaret for a while, we will all have to wait until the fall to finish it up. The pose was one inspired by another painting, one that Tony spotted on a magazine. There’s usually one element of a pose or scene that attracts the eye, and in this case, it’s the curve of the hip. I spent most of my time working on the hip and legs. You can tell. You may also recognize the brown leather sofa. I should start including “brown leather” as a tag to facilitate a search for all of them. Will start with this one, but can’t promise to edit all previous ones.

Aline Lotter is currently exhibiting:

at the Hatfield Gallery and the East Colony Fine Art 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 Stella Blu , an American Tapas restaurant in Nashua; at the law offices of Mesmer and Deleault at 41 Brook St in Manchester; at the Norris Cotton Cancer Center in Manchester (part of the Healing with Art program); and at her studio by appointment. Two paintings are also hanging in the Manchester office of Congresswoman Carol Shea Porter.

Do overs and lupines

Posted by Aline on June 25, 2013

A couple of months ago I posted a rave on Anders Zorn, and I think I may have found him a few new fans. Today, I have another, similar artist for you to sample, through a click back to Robert Genn’s site here. The artist is Joachim Sorolla (WA keem SarOYah), a Spanish contemporary of both Sargent and Zorn. He was a master of all the same skills that I admire in Sargent and Zorn, plus he was a magician with white. Not actual white, but that hue as changed by light and shadows.

And now for a commercial: please visit this address for a view of all the artworks accepted into an online exhibit called “Women’s Rights, An Artist’s Perspective”. My painting “Grandma’s Jewels” was juried into this exhibit. All of the artwork in this and similar exhibits is something called “conceptual”, that is, a message is conveyed, to the most intense degree of drama possible. Picasso’s “Guernica”, for example. I think it would be hard to be a conceptual artist all the time, but some artists thrive on it. Personally, I just like to find something beautiful and paint that. Beauty does not convey message, at least not any message that packs a punch.

OK, with all that out of the way, on to this week’s topic: Do-overs. Lupines. In the past few weeks, I have been outside doing a lot of plein air painting. My best paintings have a way of being alla prima, without any going back to correct or improve. In fact, I cannot think of one that I was able to turn from mediocre into superlative. Yet I keep trying! Of my two from the Forbes House (discussed last week here), I did produce one winner, the little one of the “coverlet”. The other one was a bit messy, and I took a knife (palette knife) to it, thinking to reclaim the panel for another project. But that damned Urge to Fix overcame me, and I repainted the bloody thing, using the ghost images as my guide to the placement and shape of the boats.

Milton Landing, before scraping

Marina, repainted

I’m afraid the result may not have been worth the effort, but no effort is really wasted in this learning process. Or is it?

Then last Thursday, I took the day off to go lupine painting with the lupine experts of the NH Plein Air group. Lupines are a flower that blooms in June rather extravagantly in some places. The town of Sugar Hill has so many lupine fields that it holds a “lupine festival” every year to encourage visitors to the area. Lupines come in shades of blue, pink and white, sometimes within one plant, but mostly blues and purples. They look a lot like the Texas bluebonnet. I have had trouble painting lupines in the past, but I wasn’t giving up on them. Yet.

I produced three lupine paintings. Not happy with any of them. The first was the obligatory field of lupines against the backdrop of receding mountains featuring Mount Washington on the misty horizon. The second was lupines by the lake. In both of these, I was really more interested in the receding mountains and the lake, respectively, than I was in the lupines. The lupines seemed kind of stuck on. An accidental presence. So I painted a quick lupine closeup as my third and last opportunity to conquer the lupine hazard.

When I got home, with the advantage of distance from the actual scene, I decided the problem was my schizo approach to the lupines. To make the first two paintings better, I had to downplay the lupines, stop treating them as pimples on an otherwise idyllic landscape. And for the third study, I just needed a few more strokes to define the nature of the lupine and its leaves. Not so much of a do-over, more of a touch up.

I hope you have not been holding your breath! Here they are, the befores and the afters:

Field of Lupines, BEFORE

Field of Lupines, AFTER

Pearl Lake BEFORE

Pearl Lake, AFTER

Lupines close, BEFORE

Lupines, AFTER

Not only am I cursed by this compulsion to fix mediocre paintings, I am cursed by the compulsion to write about it, doubling the time and effort expended. Should I make this my last lupine festival, or is there hope for me?

Aline Lotter is currently exhibiting:

at the Hatfield Gallery and the East Colony Fine Art 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 Stella Blu , an American Tapas restaurant in Nashua; at the law offices of Mesmer and Deleault at 41 Brook St in Manchester; at the Norris Cotton Cancer Center in Manchester (part of the Healing with Art program); and at her studio by appointment. Two paintings are also hung somewhere in an office of Congresswoman Carol Shea Porter, probably the Manchester one.

She’s Back (More Margaret)

Posted by Aline on June 17, 2013

Margaret in a Twist

June is the month of Margaret, but since we are not meeting on Fridays, we’ll have only the four Tuesday sessions to try to capture her elusive likeness. (Prior agonies were explored in this blog.) This profile isn’t too bad, but what I was concentrating on was the body–the subtle swellings and shadows that reveal bones and muscle and fat. Not much fat on Margaret, but that just makes what is there all the more fascinating. As usual, I enjoyed playing with the colors, exaggerating the warmth that I was seeing in the shadow side. I see a few things (e.g., the way the chair back comes forward) that I would fix if I thought I’d be showing this anyone, but that’s unlikely to happen. (I mean in person, not online.)

Saturday, a welcome change of pace: I took the opportunity to join the NH Plein Air artists in the second annual paint out at the Forbes House Museum in Milton, Massachusetts. Last year we had lots of sales (commission to benefit the Forbes House), so we had some hopes for a repeat. But this year, no bustling crowds. My theory–everyone had graduations to attend. Never mind–the weather was outstanding and we were doing what we love to do. For painting subjects, with the Museum’s encouragement, we left the grounds of the Museum to seek out local water scenes. My driving companion, Flo Parlangeli, has a connection to water that sets her heart to pounding. I’m sorry I didn’t think to take a photo of her painting and her two paintings. She was painting them both at the same time–one on her easel and one in her lap. Pretty peculiar, but it was all because she was working in acrylic paint, which dries fast. The fast drying quality was something Flo was using to her advantage. She’d let one dry and work on the other, then pick up the first and paint over the previous layer, then repeat with the second one.

Milton Landing

This was my first one, which I spent about three hours on. I placed it in an Art Cocoon and to make sure it didn’t flop out, I taped the corners. But I was careless, and turned it upside down, and the panel did flop out of its bed. As a result, I lost some of my crisp dark edges at the bottoms of the boats. I had thick, white paint in those areas that just flattened and spread out over the edges. I like to paint thick, wet into wet, although there is a limit to how much paint you can pile without losing control of the situation. I was too close to losing control here even before the accident with the Cocoon. This also illustrates why Flo was using the fast-drying acrylics.

So Flo was not going anywhere and I was finished with the boats. I could have taken her car and driven to another location. Instead, I set up in a new spot nearby, in the lee of the boat ramp, where I was visited by a family of ducks. Such as the joys of plein air painting, offsetting the distress caused by wind gusts that try to make off with umbrella and anything attached to it (like your easel).

Covelet at Milton Landing

I thank you all for your feedback on last week’s project, the lettering for my Live Free poster. I am still mulling over all the suggestions. In the meantime, I have covered up “. . . and”. Some objected to the ellipsis, but it was part of the original challenge–just in reverse order. I decided to conform to the challenge more literally–when the paint dries, I will paint in letters for “and . . .” When I complete the project, I will post the final version. And if I have nothing more interesting to talk about, I will describe all the suggestions I received and reasons why I did or did not take them.

Aline Lotter is currently exhibiting:

at the Hatfield Gallery and the East Colony Fine Art 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 Stella Blu , an American Tapas restaurant in Nashua; at the law offices of Mesmer and Deleault at 41 Brook St in Manchester; at the Norris Cotton Cancer Center in Manchester (part of the Healing with Art program) and at her studio by appointment. Two paintings are also hung somewhere in an office of Congresswoman Carol Shea Porter, probably the Manchester one. Currently, the only location for viewing the nudes is at her studio.

Living Free in New Hampshire

Posted by Aline on June 10, 2013

This week’s obsession is a poster contest announced by our gem of a museum, the Currier Museum of Art, in Manchester. First, if you are not already familiar with New Hampshire’s notorious motto, here’s a little background.

State Emblem

“Live Free or Die.” The motto achieved its national notoriety after the NH legislature determined that it must be written on our license plates. Some uppity commie liberal type objected to having such an inflammatory statement attached to his personal motor vehicle, and sued all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court to get it removed. Well, that’s the story my memory came up with, but I know better than to trust my memory anymore, so I looked it up on Wikipedia, and it seems the offended motorist was a Jehovah’s Witness, who reacted not by suing but by covering up the “or Die” portion of the motto because death for a political cause was unacceptable in his religion, and the Supreme Court got involved because he was prosecuted under a criminal statute for defacing the license plate. His conviction was overturned under the First Amendment to the U. S. Constitution–the State could not force him to express a sentiment with which he did not agree.

Although that was something of a slap down, the motto remains on the license plate. I had to look to be sure. New Hampshire does live by the motto: seat belts are not mandated for adults; helmets are not required of motorcyclists; soda cans do not come with a refundable deposit; and taxes, at least those that would reach a broad segment of the population, are abhorrent. Cigarettes, fireworks, gambling and liquor are encouraged. They generate revenue. When we say “free”, we don’t mean “tax-free”. For a comedic take on New Hampshire’s philosophy, see Juston McKinney’s YouTube analysis.

In defense of free living, New Hampshire was an early adopter of same-sex marriage, thereby proving it is an independent thinker. I believe there is also a law on the books to the effect that gun-toters must be allowed to enter courtrooms and legislative chambers with their guns on board. In that last case, the death resulting from living free may not be that of the free liver lover. So you see we have a lot of scope for comedy here.

Anyhoo, the Currier has a contest going for the best poster on the theme of “live free AND _______”—you fill in the blank. The idea is to describe or celebrate something wonderful about New Hampshire, where you may live free and also do some constructive things, things other than killing yourself on the highway.

I had an immediate super-brilliant idea and decided to compete, ignoring the fact that I have zero experience or training as a graphic artist. I ordered ten poster boards from Dick Blick, mostly because you can’t order just one. Extras would be good because I would surely mess up the first few attempts. Then I explored the internet for some hints on how to go about painting on poster board. There wasn’t much out there to help me, but I did learn that applying oil paints directly to the board would not be advisable.

Luckily, I keep some acrylic paints on hand, so I planned to paint a base of acrylic, which would seal the surface and prepare it for the eventual painting in oil. The base would coordinate with my background colors. Once I got going, very confidently since I thought I was still just painting the base, the whole thing just sprang to life. My first acrylic painting. I was stunned. And happy.

Then began the process of lettering. OMG. I proceeded with great care (and concern). Again I conceived a plan: The letters are to consist of their outlines only, because I wanted the background painting to show through. I drew the my letters freehand. I did not want mechanical-looking letters but I did some measuring. I cut them out with an Exacto knife. Not as easy as it sounds. Hard, in fact. I stuck them onto my poster with museum putty to see how they looked. I repositioned them. I redid “. . . and” to make that piece smaller than the “Live Free“. I outlined them using a pen. I painted around the outlines. The unevenness bothered me. I didn’t want it to look professional but I wasn’t going for sloppy either. I tried blurring/bleeding edges with my medium (I was using oil paints at this point). Kind of liked that. Wiped out the word “Free” because letters were too crowded together. Painted with acrylic paint over the wipe-out to create fresh, clean surface for next go ’round.

And that’s where I am. Today I am researching the kinds and uses of stencils, vinyl lettering etc. Should I give up on the outline plan? Guess I am going to have to show you in order to get any feedback.

The above is a close up or detail of the painting, showing paper letters positioned where I planned to outline them. I wished I knew how to make the letters look as if they were actually hanging in front of the poster.

Above is the whole thing, with all of the letters positioned; I must have corrected “HIKE”‘s position before penning its outline in red ink.

Above is the state of the poster before I darkened the upper outlines and before I whitened the “HIKE” outline, and yes, before I got up in the middle of the night to remove the crowded letters forming “Free”. I like “HIKE” now, but am worried about “Live Free”. All of my options for stenciling or applying letters involve letting go of the open outline design. What do you think I should do?

As for the subject image, if you have been reading for a while (over a year). you will recognize it from a 9×12 study that I did for a Patrick McCay course at the Institute called “Explore, Express, Exploit”. I published it in this blog from October 2011. Here is the original inspiration:

The Lone Looker (photo)

I am well and truly exploiting that image of the guy on the rock outcrop that I photographed at 2011’s bike race up Mount Washington, thus fulfilling the promise of that course.

Aline Lotter is currently exhibiting:

A Month of Beckys

Posted by Aline on May 27, 2013

My life is just a little bit crazy right now, what with retirement deadline looming and two major art events coming up next week. Yet here I am, whiling away the national holiday making good on my promise to post weekly. It’s a Good Thing though, this weekly blog, perhaps as important as all those other important things. For however long the internet lasts, it will remind me of where I was on Memorial Day of 2013, just before those three major milestones.

(I’m glad at my age to still be counting milestones other than birthdays!)

So, to get to the point: Major Art Event No. 1 is taking place this coming Sunday, June 2, in Boston. From noon until 6 p.m., I with 71 other artists will be participating in the Beacon Hill Art Walk. It’s not your typical urban art show in that many of the artists will be set up in gardens and on firescapes. Bruce and I, however, are setting up a conventional tent right at the S(tart) point on Cambridge Street shown on the map here. I introduced you to Bruce Jones last week as my partner in this Beacon Hill venture. It’s the first of its kind for both of us, possibly the first of many partnerships if this experience is a happy one. I’ve decided to go eclectic with my display, meaning a couple of landscapes, a couple of figurative works, and my steam locomotive.

: Side-lined

Engine 501, depicting the real life orphan at the North Conway train station, has been looking for a forever home via the Bartlett Inn for at least a year now. Maybe Boston will be the place where it comes together with the right guardian. (For those of you in the dark, “forever home” and “guardian” is animal rescue speak, dear to my heart.)

Major Art Event No. 2: I am opening at the East Colony Fine Art Gallery. Some weeks ago I was juried into this artists’ cooperative gallery, located in the Langer Place Building, the very same building where I conduct my figure drawing sessions, and where the Hatfield Gallery is located, where I also exhibit. Friday I hung six pieces, all of them plein air landscapes. All are, of course, my favorites. (But I have more favorites left, to take to Boston.) My first reception as a member of this gallery takes place on Friday, June 7, from 5 to 7 p.m. I would love to see all my friends there, cheering me on, especially those (you know who you are) who have complained I don’t do enough to market myself.

Back to the business of Becky: I have three new paintings to show you, none of them exactly “finished”, but I may not ever touch them again since I got what I needed from my efforts.

In the red sweater

I love the texture of the bare, clear-primed canvas and so my leaving the background unfinished was a choice. Nevertheless, it will probably be classified as a work in progress if it survives a few hundred years. Painting a clothed model was a change of pace, one that I enjoyed very much, but I guess I was in the minority because the following week when Becky asked if we wanted her clothed, the response “No!” rang out. So I painted this:

The Faraway Gaze

I couldn’t finish this one simply because of the size of the canvas: I chose to bring in a 20×16 canvas on stretchers, which I would never use for plein air so why not? I knew I had better concentrate on the face, then the chest since I could leave the background and the hair to memory or invention or both. Everyone, including myself, thought my lips (the ones I painted) were great. What makes them work, though, is how well I painted the chin and philtrum–lips don’t exist in isolation. OK, check off lips; next up is noses. Her nose here is pretty good, which gives me hope. Becky’s ear is amazingly simple–most people have complex ears, lots of folds and dips and valleys. I think I will make Becky’s ear my template for ears so I don’t use up so much time on them. Nobody really cares what happens inside the ear as long as its placement is correct, the shape is correct, and the tilt is correct.

From the large to the small: this painting is only 10×8 and it felt even smaller to me because I was trying to get the whole figure in. It’s hard to paint small, I discovered–that little stroke that does the job on a bigger canvas makes a blob on the small canvas, and sometimes wipes out a nuance I had been counting on. I thought if I went small I would end up with a small, completed jewel of a painting. Ha! But this one could be a jewel with just a few corrections here and there, and maybe tomorrow I will get a chance to make those corrections. That depends on the other members of the gang. Most will probably prefer to move on to a different pose. I must say, it was nice to paint the other side of Becky’s face for a change!

Aline Lotter is currently exhibiting:

at the Hatfield Gallery and the East Colony Fine Art 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 Stella Blu , an American Tapas restaurant in Nashua; at the law offices of Mesmer and Deleault at 41 Brook St in Manchester; at the Norris Cotton Cancer Center in Manchester (part of the Healing with Art program) and at her studio by appointment. Through May 31, nine of her Boston Arboretum paintings are on display at the Leach Library in Londonderry, NH. On Sunday, June 2, she will be participating in the Beacon Hill Art Walk, in Boston.

The White Mountains of New Hampshire

Posted by Aline on May 20, 2013

New Hampshire has a Seacoast region, a Lakes region, and countless quaint farms and towns, but to the rest of the world, New Hampshire means but one thing: the White Mountains. They do rather stand out, compared to all those other things. I believe “white” comes from the glimpse that early seafarers got of them, when covered by snow. Or perhaps it was the sun glinting off the granite.

In any event, they became the subject of many 19th century paintings. Champney, Bierstadt, and dozens of others explored and painted the Whites. For a complete rundown, go to White Mountain Art. Right now there are two major exhibits of White Mountain paintings, one in Jackson and another in Plymouth. The former we have visited twice before. The latter is housed in a brand new Museum of the White Mountains on the campus of Plymouth State College. We stopped there to check it out on our way to Bartlett last Thursday. We came away with a map showing the coordinates of several locations, that is, the coordinates to the spot where the painter stood to paint or make his sketch (probably not many of the paintings were painted outdoors). My painting buddy, Sharon, aspires to paint like the Old Masters, and her enthusiasm led her to download a GPS app to her smartphone, and led both of us over hill and dale in search of the right spots. It was fun. Unfortunately, progress or tree growth interfered with many replications.

My plein air painting No. 1 is a covered bridge not far from Plymouth.

Smith Millenium Bridge

Friday, we got in two painting segments: the first was in the strawberry fields below Cathedral Ledge.

Strawberry Fields (Cathedral Ledge) (No.2)

Usually, my first painting is my best, I think because the inspirational tug is strongest with the first try. If you don’t count the covered bridge–it was on the way into the mountains, not quite there yet–this is the first. And it could be the best. But there are four more, and you might like one of them better.

Friday afternoon we went on our first expedition in search of Old Master painting spot: Mt. Adams as captured by Champney. The actual spot was right in the middle of the Auto Road up Mt. Washington, but we found a better one off to the side.

Mt. Adams (No. 3)

Mount-Adams-Benjamin-Champney-1852-24-x-30-inches

The snow-streaked mountain in the background of my painting is Mt. Jefferson, and on the far left is the beginning of Mt. Washington, which is a sprawling kind of mountain, lumping its way to the highest point in the Northeast. (Last January I had painted a view of this lumpy part of Mt. Washington on that misery-filled plein air weekend.)

Saturday we found our own spots. The day before, on our way back to the Bartlett Inn from the Mt. Adams spot, a stream near the highway had caught our eye and so the next morning we went in search of it. Sharon sometimes ends up in my paintings, and I was particularly glad of the added interest her hat brought to the scene.

Roadside Painter (No. 4)

After a while, the noise of the traffic hurtling by next to us faded from consciousness and all we heard was the gurgling water.

In the afternoon, Sharon introduced me to Echo Lake, at the foot of White Horse Ledge. It was an idyllic spot. Sandy beach, picnic benched (excellent to paint from–you can really spread out your stuff), lively visitors (and I don’t mean the black flies)–one of whom demonstrated the echo for the rest of us.

White Horse Ledge over Echo Lake (No. 5)

My painting had at one point a much more literal depiction of the ledge, but its very literalness bothered me, so I loaded up my palette knife and spread paint liberally. Perhaps something in between would have worked better. Supposedly there is an image of a horse, whitish maybe, delineated in the cracks of this ledge, but I sure couldn’t see it and I wasn’t about to fake it either.

Sunday was a travel day, but we did get in one painting late in the day before heading back South. It was the product of another Champney search, this time in Sugar Hill. Mt. Lafayette is on the left and Cannon is on the right. Personally, I would call it another view of Franconia Notch.

I’d say this is about half done. The dark clouds arrived, threatening rain, before I even touched the sky. The sky had been a dull gray before that anyway. Cannon is a ski mountain, and I’m not sure I want to put the ski trails in. But why not? I don’t know. View is from Lovers Lane, in Sugar Hill.

All of my paintings on this trip were 9×12, except Roadside Painter which was 10×12. I figured I was out of plein air practice, and the smaller format would help me finish paintings. That was correct. Perhaps smaller will mean more salable too. Eventually, I plan to take them back to hang in Bartlett Inn.

Or I may take them to the Beacon Hill Art Walk on June 2. I am trying to decide whether to take only figurative works, only landscapes, or the best of both. I’m sharing a tent with Bruce Jones, who does beautiful work in the style of Don Stone. I’m not sure I want mine compared to his.

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 Stella Blu , an American Tapas restaurant in Nashua; at her law offices at 41 Brook St in Manchester; at the Norris Cotton Cancer Center in Manchester (part of the Healing with Art program) and at her studio by appointment. Through May 30, nine of her Boston Arboretum paintings will be displayed at the Leach Library in Londonderry, NH. On Sunday, June 2, she will be participating in the Beacon Hill Art Walk, in Boston.

Art in Action

Posted by Aline on May 6, 2013

Today, I am still wiped out by the effort of participating in a two-day event called “Art in Action.” The Londonderry Arts Council puts it on twice a year. They were also responsible for the Art in t he Common show last fall which bravely welcomed my nude paintings. They also set up the arrangement with the Leach Library whereby nine of my paintings are displayed there. The Londonderry Arts Council is quite an admirable organization of many artists. Since we have nothing comparable in Manchester, I am grateful that they allow all regional artists to benefit.

Participation entails setting up an area to display your artwork — a mobile gallery of sorts– and space where you demonstrate your art-making–a mobile studio. I kept it simple by displaying only 10 framed paintings, a few giclee prints and two cards. Cards (note cards) seem to be the one thing everyone else had lots of. I sold one of my two, which made for a pretty good percentage of cards sold! For my Day One demonstrating, I continued on my single-minded quest to capture a likeness of Margaret, and once again failed. Everyone else thought it was a wonderful painting, but they don’t realize how woeful the likeness is.

This is actually Margaret. After painting her from life last Tuesday, I tried two more times, using the photo in black and white, to draw her features in black and white.

And here is the painting from the photo:

Margaret herself has advised me that if I put in the moles, that would make her recognizable, but whether I am drawing her with paint or charcoal, I truthfully do not see the moles at all.

My frustration leads me to understand why many artists resort to the projecting an image onto the canvas, instead of drawing it freehand. Hmmm. Should I try that? To do so would certainly not help me improve my drawing skills, but I suppose if I had a photograph in front of me and a commission to paint from it, the projector would be a valuable shortcut, almost irresistible. I’ll wait for the day when I have a commissioned portrait to paint and the subject cannot for some reason sit for it, and then decide whether to succumb to the projector.

For Day Two, my daughter graciously agreed to sit for her live portrait, which included an accessory–her miniature Pomeranian sitting on her lap. I’m happy with the Pomeranian, less so with my daughter–their portraits, that is.

The weekend ended on a high note: I had to part ownership with my Girl in the Red Headdress, as a young woman fell in love with it on Day One, and even though she felt she could not afford to buy it, came back on Day Two after having dreamt about it. It reminded me so much of my first big art purchase. I fell in love on Day One and came back on Day Two to take the plunge. The artist, Roger Graham, became a client and a friend, and by the time he died, I owned probably ten (whose counting?) of his paintings, some hanging at my law office and some at my home/studio. I never regretted a single purchase. If you buy what you love (not what you think will be a good investment), you will never regret it. I was happy for her and for The Girl, who has found, in animal rescue parlance, her new forever home.

Aline Lotter is currently exhibiting:

The Joy of Completion

Posted by Aline on April 29, 2013

Detail from Portrait of Grace

The “Joy of Finishing” was my first thought for the title to this posting, but “Completion” is better. And not just because “completion” brings with it fewer double entendres. You could “finish” or come to an end of a project without being satisfied with it. “Completion” connotes a goal achieved. I could go further in this amusing wordplay by comparing “accomplished” as in “mission accomplished”, but that could get raw.

This week, therefore, I celebrate three completions. Last week you saw the intermediate stages of two of them, so you have some idea of what to expect. Above is the detail from the bigger one. I said I wanted to make the background from the colors of the headscarf and whaddya know–I did!

Portrait of Grace

Grace did not realize we wanted to repeat the pose from last week, so she arrived with a different scarf, wearing different earrings, and carrying a different drape. Just as well–three elements were thus eliminated that I might have spent valuable time on.

This is a pretty good likeness of Grace, but of course, profiles are so much easier than 3/4 or full facial views. Have I mentioned that before? I hate to repeat myself, especially when the point is obvious when you think about it: matching up eyes, eyebrows, lids, etc., etc., especially in the 3/4 view where the shadows make them look different, is really, really tricky. Also, faces are not symmetrical, so too much matchy-matchy would be wrong. Given all that, trying to figure out where the eye on the left should be higher or the one on the right should be lower can give me headache sometimes. No, all the time.

The other just-short-of-finished figure from last week came out OK. I think I messed around a little with the face, to no good purpose, but the main focus was the hand. Now shorter, narrower, and with a hint of finger structure, this hand no longer detracts from the painting as a whole.

Figure Study (M on BLS)

However, the face is not that of Margaret, so I moved in closer, metaphorically, on a second sheet of canvas:

Portrait of Margaret

Still not Margaret. If I had had more time, I would have lengthened the nose perhaps. Or shortened it. But it’s hard to say what exactly is wrong. Peter Clive said, “Margaret is elusive.” I called her “sneaky”. (Which I think she appreciated.) Likeness or not, this painting came out well. What do you think of the background? I was thinking of light through thick green glass, but chose not to take that concept all the way–it was just my inspiration.

You might notice that the head is tilted differently in the second attempt. It’s just impossible to keep a head from moving. If I were alone, and were painting a portrait, I could keep telling the model how to adjust her attitude, but when painting the entire figure, there is so much to keep aligned that you tend not to trust your opinion about where the head should be–especially if changing it might decimate a colleague who thought he had it right. (I apologize for the long sentence but couldn’t find a spot to break it up.) Still and all, frustrating as it is, I would not trade it for drawing from a plaster cast of a head, illuminated by a steady, never varying spotlight. The harder it is, the more ways we learn. I hope. I sure hope so.

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 Stella Blu , an American Tapas restaurant in Nashua; at her law offices at 41 Brook St in Manchester; and at her studio by appointment. Beginning May 1 through May 30, nine of her Boston Arboretum paintings will be displayed at the Leach Library in Londonderry, NH. On Saturday and Sunday May 4-5, she will be exhibiting and demonstrating at the Londonderry annual event “Art in Action”; the location of Art in Action will be the large farmstand operated by Mack’s Apples, 230 Mammoth Road in Londonderry.

Race up Mount Washington

Posted by Aline on April 22, 2013

I’m sharing with you this week a magnum opus WIP (work in progress) that has been in progress for over a year now. It’s not that I’m lazy, at least I don’t think so. Or that I have too many other projects going. I just stopped working on it for many months, waiting for my desire to finish it to return. I explained this in my blog of a few weeks ago, here if you want to read it.

Usually, I am fast to paint and perhaps too fast to declare my painting done. I don’t have time to get bored or the scope to get intimidated. But I almost always have one big painting in the works, and it usually takes me a month or two to work out the problems and declare it finished. This one has been a totally different experience. It has intimidated me with its scope, size and complexity. I now have barely got all the canvas covered, and am only beginning to try to pull it all together as a whole.

Mt. Washington Phase 4

No smart aleck mountaineer (my son) has yet asked, but perhaps I should make it clear that I am not going for accuracy in the configuration of the mountain ranges depicted. The people are, however, based on real people whom I observed at the 2011 Race to the top of Mount Washington. From the hundreds of photos that I took while waiting for my son to finish (33d–that’s really good!), I picked out some vignettes to incorporate in this panoramic scene. I have drawn and/or painted most of them before I started on the present mammoth. (OK, it’s 30×40, not really mammoth, but quite big for me.) Here are my studies, in no particular order:

Fans

Awaiting the Stragglers (3-legged dog)

View of race with vista

Whew! (a top female finisher)

Andy with bike

A Very Special Guy

Bike Race spectator on Mt. Washington (Find him in the magnum opus)

These small paintings are more faithful portraits of the mountains and the infrastructure at the finish line. The two portraits are of my favorite cyclists, the ones I was there to cheer on.

Mount Washington is often referred to, fondly and respectfully, as “the Rockpile”; if nothing else, my painting does give the viewer a sense of why that is. Despite all my practice paintings, I’m still not satisfied with my technique for depicting rock piles. I also intend to enliven my landscape with many more spectators and cyclists. If you examine the distant road, you will see, you might see–some indistinct blobs of color; they are supposed to suggest more cyclists on their way up with spectators along the route.

I would not want to leave you without a nude this week. For the past month or so, I had been sticking to 8×10 and 9×12 canvases for the Tuesday and Friday sessions with live models. Last Tuesday, counting on having my model in her pose for two straight weeks, I brought a larger canvas to work on–16×20. I was using a piece of oil-primed linen from a Centurion pad. If I don’t like all of it when I am finished, I can always cut it down. So I started large.

Figure in Turban and red drape WIP

So far, so good. I have high hopes for this one, but am a bit perplexed by the color of the background. I think I would prefer something that more closely echoed the colors in the turban. Or perhaps a much darker background to set off the figure and the turban. Stay tuned!

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 Stella Blu American Tapas restaurant in Nashua; at her law offices at 41 Brook St in Manchester; and at her studio by appointment.

A Milestone Reached

Posted by Aline on April 15, 2013

Last week, without really thinking about it yet fully conscious of it, I produced something, finally, that I have been aspiring to for many years now. Here it is:

Jon, supine pose

This aspiration started with a class that I took with Patrick McCay at the Institute–a course called Explore, Express, Exploit. At that time, what I had in mind was achieving a style that was loose as opposed to tight. Following Patrick’s course, I took Painting the Contemporary Portrait with Cameron Bennett. Cameron gave us a list of portrait artists, “portrait” being loosely defined and the artists being avant garde, and suggested we look them all up to find one who could inspire our own modern and unique take on portraiture (again, loosely defined). I glomed onto Carolyn Anderson, American artist living in Montana, somewhat obscurely. She seems to be an artists’ artist–known to and collected by fellow artists but not yet collected by museums.

Since then, her work has always been in the back of my mind, even when I am producing the hard-edged, detailed works that seem to come out of me unbidden.

You’ve seen a few nudes from me. Here is the only one I found on Anderson’s website:

Anderson nude

And here is one of her portraits, lovely beyond words to describe:

Anderson portrait

By comparison, I know, my big breakthrough seems heavy-handed. But it occurred–bloomed– quite naturally that Tuesday morning, without a trace of the manipulation that I felt I was guilty of when painting loosely for effect. “Loosely” implies something casual, effortless, airy–not something forced or faked. Here is one of my earliest efforts, and it’s not horrible, but still you can feel the strain it put on me:

Translation of life drawing into Oil

I know from past experience that this reaching a new level, slightly closer to the high level occupied by my hero, does not mean I am permanently raised on that new level. On Friday I tried not to slip back too far. I worry about being too self conscious about it. A Catch-22. You can only succeed by not trying so damn hard.

So here is Margaret, the model with whose limbs I have recently struggled in vain to organize*. I got a break when we posed her with her hair covering up one of her shoulders.

M on brown recliner, WIP

*”organize” is the word used by Robert Liberace to describe the first stages of a drawing or painting, which the parts are sized and fitted together–the jigsaw puzzle stage. It’s so the right word that I am adopting it.

Aline Lotter is currently exhibiting:

Aging

Posted by Aline on April 9, 2013

Well, it happened again. I forgot to post Monday’s blog. I was so pleased with myself Sunday for taking the photographs and uploading them to WordPress, that I must have subconsicously given myself credit for completing the job. Or it’s age. Twice in three weeks–not good! Good thing I am wrapping up my law practice.

Yes, it’s official. I will not be renewing my license to practice law in the state of New Hampshire at the end of our fiscal year. As of July 1, my status will become “inactive”. Of course it may take weeks after that to tend to my clients and sort through and dispose of the accumulations of 29 years. Some of my clients I will continue to be able to serve (e.g., by preparing tax returns) but for those requiring the services of a member of the Bar, I will try to place them with new lawyers. The tax clients will be the hardest to place–not many lawyers want to represent taxpayers in trouble with the IRS. That’s because usually the trouble originated in some fault of the taxpayer–well, not “fault” exactly, but behavior. When people get smacked down or just depressed, they can’t cope with taxes, and of course, to the IRS, it’s just another same old story. Our system of income taxation confers upon the taxpayers great responsibility and great trust. Alleviating that burden on the taxpayer is, in my opinion, the only decent argument in favor of a sales or value added tax. Thank God I won’t have to even think about this stuff in a few months (except, as I said before, a few tax return preparations).

So this week’s original topic was going to WIPs (works in progress), WIP and RIP (rest in peace) are two possibilities existing simultaneously in a half-finished painting, like alternate universes. RIP means I never return to finish the painting. WIP is a hopeful designation. Two unfinished paintings this week are, I hope, WIP and not RIP.

But let me show you first–three completed charcoal drawings from our Saturday Life Group. I’m pretty psyched about them. Our couple was back, and all of us were a little more at ease with each other and the whole concept of two entwined naked bodies. For one 2-minute gesture pose, they even struck a kissing pose. It dawned on me that I could not get more appropriate pieces for the McGowan Gallery‘s annual Valentine’s show, “Love, Lust and Desire“, than these drawings. And pieces in the show are limited in size to 8.5 by 11, so when I decided to bring my 9×12 high-quality pastel paper to SLG that morning, Fate was with me.

I don’t quite remember (age again?) which poses were what length, but the range was 20 minutes to 50 minutes.

LL&D No. 1

LL&D No. 2

LL&D No. 3

I started all three by smearing the paper with soft charcoal. Then I deployed the kneaded eraser to bring out the lights. The paper was not white, so I could have increased the contrast by using white pastel, but for some reason, I felt that much contrast would be too intrusive. Does that make any sense at all?

WIPs I have several, but the most important is my Mt. Washington Oeuvre. I slapped some more paint on it, and it’s beginning to take shape. I’m getting excited about it again, as the background gets covered with paint.

Phase 3–Biking on Mt. Washington

I have to keep reminding myself that I conceptualized the mountains as semi-abstract. I cannot allow myself to get hung up on painting realistic rocks. For the figures, I need to resize them–the ones farther from the viewer need to shrink a bit. I plan to refer to the original photo references for each figure, on my iPad if I can get it to stop going to sleep. Consistency in the direction of sunlight also needs some work.

The next work was a WIP yesterday, when I should have posted this entry, but when I got to Tuesday life group this morning, everyone else wanted to move on with a new pose. So although I may need to tinker with shapes and values here and there, this is essentially a done deal.

Jon seated on stand wip

By the way, I made up the background at home, thinking to get a head start on today’s session. Head start, finish line, same thing almost. One of my cohorts today commented that I had a nice touch with interiors, suggesting I should consider that as a specialty. So watch out for that as a new theme, possibly. I’m pretty opportunistic, like a leaf in a stream of water, just letting it carry me wherever. So far, no interiors have presented themselves as likely candidates for painting subjects. George Nick did some interiors that I admired greatly (many shown in his gallery of 2008-2010 paintings here), and Paul Ingbretson, just one floor below our studio, has an interior that would knock your socks off (see it here–called Warm and Cool). And Van Gogh was very much into interiors. Can you think of other examples? Seems to me to be a pretty untapped seam. Hope I’m not mixing metaphors there.

Aline Lotter is currently exhibiting:

Hello, Again

Posted by Aline on April 1, 2013

To those of you who noticed and cared that I did not post anything last week, I apologize. To those who never noticed or cared, I don’t know what to say. Really? Your lives did not seem emptier? Mine seemed peculiar. I am so used to the follow up discussion among my friends that it was as if we had lost a piece of our conversation template. Perhaps I have gotten spoiled, so it was a good thing to experience a little deprivation for a short time. I have no excuse for missing a week, if that’s what you are waiting to hear. I suddenly realized on Tuesday that I had never posted the Monday blog, or indeed even taken the photographs with which to illustrate it. Instead of bending myself into a pretzel getting a late entry out, I decided to lie back and wait for complaints, if any. Too few complaints were received. Oh, well.

The upside is all the extra material I have for this week. The headline news is progress on the painting that I started a year ago of bikers racing to the top of Mount Washington. Here is a link to what it looked like last year. I brought it out to work on March 23 because of Peter Granucci. He invited us to his studio in Gilsum (where?–middle of nowhere but close to Vermont) for a workshop on stalled projects. I had the perfect candidate in the Mt. Washington painting. He forced me to do exercises of value studies for the painting, six of them, and claimed that each was better than the one before, and only then was I allowed to apply those principles to my big canvas. So annoying to have to apply real rules when all you want to do is follow your instinct. But my instinct had dried up, I guess, and that’s why the canvas had seen stashed away for a whole year. So now Phase 2, which will I hope lead to 3 sooner than a year from now:

Phase 2 of Mt Painting

Another feature from Figure Fridays with Peter Clive is this 2-session study of Fletch reclining on the ubiquitous brown leather sofa. I had two hours remaining when I finished the figure study, so I started a portrait too.

Reclining Male on Brown Sofa

Portrait Fletch Mar 2013

Compare the new portrait to this one from last month. Am I getting better?

Fletch portrait on darker bkgrd

The Saturday group is back in business after two weeks off. Here is the pick of that session.

Reading (Nook) from back

Finally perhaps my favorite of the group is this portrait of Grace. I think I am finally getting the hang of something–the color of the skin, the modeling of the shoulder, and the light touch for the mouth. I’m really fond of this one!

Portrait Grace Mar 2013

Aline Lotter is currently exhibiting:

Portraits, by Zorn

Posted by Aline on March 18, 2013

Just one painting to talk about this week. It’s a portrait. One of my colleagues opined that it was the best thing she had seen me do. She has a fine critical eye, so I was happy to hear that. But later in the week, I was able to take in the special exhibit (titled, A European Artist Seduces America) at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. The European artist was the Swede, Anders Zorn. The exhibit includes many of his portraits. Seeing them reminded me of how far I am from achieving the quality that I admire in Zorn’s work. Reminded? No, that word is way too mild. It whacked me over the head!

First, for context, the result of my effort this week:

Face and Hand

One of Zorn’s:

Martha Dana

Many artists avoid dealing with the open mouth because depicting the teeth can look ridiculous. Not a problem for Zorn, of course. Look at that bow! I would have labored over the thing; he just swipes a loaded brush, right, left, right and done.

Many of my nonartist friends, when I told them about the Zorn exhibit, said they had never heard of Zorn, which is completely understandable since I hadn’t either until I started painting back in 2005. At that time, I was working on landscapes only, and Zorn’s name came up in the context of the limited palette that he had espoused. “Limited palette” means just a few colors (hues), and the limited palette for which he was known consisted of cadmium red, ivory black, white and yellow ocher. Using those hues, he could even make gray look blue. But while he did some spectacular impressionist landscapes, mostly as backdrops for nudes, his principal claim to fame is his portraits. He rivaled Sargent, literally. One of the portraits in the Gardner exhibit, according to the story accompanying it, was created in response to a challenge by the sitter’s husband to make a portrait of her that was better than the one Sargent had done. I think it was this one. Mrs--Bacon-small White gown, overhead view–both to mimic Sargent’s version. I also think he probably met the challenge, but in the world of art, such comparisons are invidious.

So what is so great about Zorn? In a word, his deftness. He could describe a hand, a nose, a cheekbone with a few strokes, and when they was done, he let them be. Or not–in one painting (the next one shown) large, rough strokes surround the figure, but the figure itself is soft and blended. images

His nudes all tend to be smooth and soft, and are usually surrounded by an impressionistic landscape including water. His water was much admired too. Here’s a taste:

Opal

Here, in The Omnibus, is another example of his deft strokes–look at the hands:

1799

I think I may try to copy this painting.

The ability to convey much with very little definition is something I have admired in a contemporary artist, Carolyn Anderson (see descriptions of my struggles here and again here), and I wonder how much she has been influenced by Zorn. His portrait of Gardner herself, in Venice, is considered a major tour de force, because of its liveliness, resulting in no small measure from the looseness and blurriness that also characterizes Anderson’s works:

DSC_0002 - Version 2

Her mouth is open, but you can hardly tell. This painting should be an inspiration for all figure artists who desire to capture movement and spirit in a gesture. I wonder if there is anything written anywhere about how Zorn put this painting together. Clearly Isabella did not pose for more than a minute or two.

If you want to see more, here are two links that I found useful. The Gardner Museum website. The Complete Works of Anders Zorn. I also found a review of the Gardner exhibit here, and an exposition of the Zorn limited palette here.

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.

Through March 29, you can also view (and purchase–of course!) my 6×6’s at the Artstream Gallery in Rochester, NH.

Viewer Discretion Advised

Posted by Aline on March 11, 2013

The weather has been crazy up here in New Hampshire. One day last week everything had to stop for a snow storm, and the next day Spring seemed to arrive. Because of the snow day, what was supposed to be three successive sessions with Becky as our model were interrupted, and as a result, many fine artworks have gone unfinished. Quelle tragique! (Obviously I am referring to the fine artworks in progress by my cohorts, as well as my own.) Here are my almost-finished works from Friday and Tuesday.

Becky on the Green Chair

This one may be finished. I need a critique from Peter to be sure. Since I was working on a 9×12 support, the face was quite small, which frustrated me because it was really beautiful. I decided to quit the one above and start up a portrait, which was going to be finished the next Friday, weather permitting. Which it didn’t.

Half-finished portrait of Becky

And no Sunday sessions, possibly due to a mix up involving Daylight Savings Time. But I still have extra material to show you this week, thanks to the Saturday Life Group. Two Saturdays’ worth, in fact. Not only two Saturdays, but two models on one day–a rare event! But so hard for us as artists to pull off.

I’ll start with the earlier Saturday. Pretty normal stuff, not shooting for the moon, just charcoal on the Mi Tientes pastel paper. I don’t care for that exaggerated texture but I have a lot of it to use up, and it might be growing on me.

Becky, left side view

Becky, right side view–another imitation of Ingres’ Grande Odalisque (see my prior discussion here)

Becky, front view

For the second Saturday, we had two models, both new to us, a couple. We found that posing them in a tableau where they seemed to be interacting with each other made for better results. Here is our first longish (20 minutes) pose.

Duo Jamie and Catherine, No. 1, 20 minutes

The second pose was our longest, about 45 minutes I believe, and as you will see, the models were side by side but not really interacting.

Duo Jamie and Catherine–No. 2, 45 minutes

We had intended that second pose to last the rest of our session, but as a group, we were so disappointed by it, that we abandoned it for another intertwined pose. However, I did enjoy my drawing, which was basically just of the guy, with the girl in the background. The light was interesting. (That studio at the Institute has an overhead skylight, which distinguishes our Saturday drawings from all others in the Langer Place studio.)

Duo Jamie and Catherine–No. 3, 25 minutes

It was hard to account for all the limbs and still keep their positions believable. When a body disappears behind something, it has to come out the other side looking as if it belonged there. If you examine my drawings closely, you can find much fault, but overall, the effect is pleasing, I hope.

Aline Lotter is currently exhibiting:

Through March 29, you can also view (and purchase–of course!) my 6×6’s at the Artstream Gallery in Rochester, NH.

Marco Island Paintings Part Two

Posted by Aline on March 7, 2013

Each painting has a story, but 14 stories is a bit much to ask my followers to, um, follow, so I am just adding a few comments underneath, same as I did for Mary’s paintings in my prior post. Super-short stories, in effect. Unlike the spread of Mary’s paintings, I organized mine in chronological order to the best of my memory.

We were huddled behind some shrubbery seeking shelter from stiff winds on a relatively chilly day (for the tropics), so the subject was not selected by inspiration but forced by necessity. Usually my first painting turns out to be the best, or at least one of the best, in a series of outdoor paintings. As I was working on this one, I thought it was going to be an exception to that “rule”, but now I am liking it better. . .probably because I am far enough away from the scene to be able to forget reality.

Island Woman. It becomes a scene of intense frolicness (frolicity?) on the weekends, but we wouldn’t have been able to park anywhere close then, much less find a place to set up easels.

Lanai Sunset. Strictly speaking, not plein air, but inspired by sight, memory and assisted by iPad photo. Perhaps still a work in progress.

Waterfront Home. The boats are up in the air on hoists, and I worried about how it would read. But not important now, I think. The water looks liquid, don’t you agree?

Frangepani Tree. Economy of effort:–beautiful bark, few leaves, and blossoms rationed to bloom at the ends of branches for short time. This one had buds but no blooms yet.

Farmers Market Musician. We were chased out of the grounds proper and forced to set up behind the “band”. Lucky for us!

Octagonal house. Occasionally, we can’t resist recording the unusual.

MarGood Park View from the Gazebo. Our 2d visit to this spot. Behind me was the skiff that I painted two days before. It was while I was working on this scene that I got skiff-owner’s request to purchase my painting of his boat and his dog. I posted that news here. Pelican landed just in time to get included in the painting.

Dinner! These are six of the 2 dozen blue crabs that I received in partial payment for the skiff-dog painting. Don’t they look delicious? (I think they were blue before being steamed.)

Fishing under the Jolley Bridge. Had highest hopes for this one, but now worry it has missed the mark. There is a slight curve in the bridge, so don’t get on my case about perspective!

Waterside Dining. That’s how they characterize it. I left out the blue dolphin that Mary chose to feature. Dolphins all over the city, like moose sculptures in NH. Cows in Chicago. Gnus in New London. (look it up)

Two Tiny Visitors to Residents Beach. What? You don’t see them? I thought they were warblers, but the bird book suggests they are more likely wrens. Also met my first Red Knots and Brewer’s Blackbirds in the course of making this painting. (Beach is to the right, past the vegetation barrier.)

Plein Air Still Life? I’m always saying: I don’t “do” still lifes. This not really “still” because the light keeps moving!

Morning of my Travel Day: San Marco R.C. Church. Foreground, what foreground? What can you do with a parking lot? Had to pack up and catch plane in afternoon, so I forgot to get photo of Mary’s version, which was excellent.

I hope that adds up to fourteen. I wish I had a better photo of number 15, which I had to leave in Florida with its happy new owner. I took a photo of Stephen holding his painting, but it turned out horrible. Here instead is a photo of my collector, which I lifted from the Naples Daily News, online edition.

Crabby Stephen

He may look like he only knows about collecting (and cooking) crabs, but he is also experienced in matting and framing, so the painting is in the best of hands. I asked him to send photo of painting when and as framed.

Aline Lotter is currently exhibiting:

Through March 29, you can also view (and purchase–of course!) my 6×6’s at the Artstream Gallery in Rochester, NH.

If you happen to be near Tampa, Florida on March 7, 8, and 9, you could (and should) catch Nude Nite, happening with music and other entertainment at 3606 E. 4th Ave., in Tampa. Hours are 6 pm to midnight. (Nude NITE, after all)

Marco Island Paintings Part One: M.C. Reining

Posted by Aline on February 24, 2013

I returned from my two-week painting vacation on Marco Island with 14 paintings, and the next two days was back to painting and drawing nudes. Too much for one blogpost anyway, so I am deferring for a few days the pleasure of showing my art in favor of first displaying the artworks created by my Marco Island hostess, Mary Crawford Reining.

On most occasions, we were looking in the roughly same direction to paint if not the same scene, neighboring scenes. You will be able to identify a few exceptions (most prominently the boat featured in my previous posting). You might find it interesting to compare our different treatments of the same subjects. But it would be like comparing apples to oranges, which I understand is not a good thing to do. Mary is a watercolorist (she claims to switch from medium to medium, but I have only seen her painting with watercolors in the five years that I have been plein air painting with her) and her style is looser than mine. I have noticed that the more experienced an artist is, the more successfully they attain looseness. Mary is very experienced, having studied art and having taught art, and, most importantly, having never in all those years ceased to think and behave like an artist.

P.S. Heather’s from Tuesday

Posted by Aline on February 17, 2013

This is a kind of postscript to my blog entry from yesterday. After publishing yesterday, feeling pretty satisfied that I had used my time in Cleveland well, I continued on to Fort Myers. Then I got to wondering why Heather’s painting was not uploaded. Today, hooked back uo to the Internet, I discovered that the photo of her painting had never left my phone. Oh, boy! I had to learn a new thing–how to get photo from phone to WordPress with help from my computer. My iPad would have to rise to the occasion.

Well, some hours later, I give up on amending original blog and settle for this special edition. Heather deserves a page of her own anyway, because she got me thinking in terms of long-pose painting in the first place, and because she and I have been progressing together, taking the same classes for several years now.

Your Last Nudes for a While–A collection from the Circle

Posted by Aline on February 16, 2013

Still a work in progress

That photo is a product of my cell phone. While in the throes of packing my gear for Florida last night (I’m writing this from Cleveland airport during a long layover), just for the sake of comparison, I snapped this image of the same painting with my Nikon.

Yes, my hand shook a little ( couldn’t afford the time to set up properly with tripod), but the colors are truer. Bearing that in mind, here are the cell-phone-pix of my fellow artists:

The Front by Nancy H.

The Back by Nancy C

Nita’s Portrait

In the course of packing for Florida, I came across a forgotten painting, forgotten only a matter of weeks, perhaps. It’s interesting for the uncharacteristic brownish flesh tone. It reminds me of Rembrandt’s palette.

brownie

I recognize that beach chair, but can’t remember the last time I’ve seen it. So this painting may be months older than I originally thought. I found it in the framing studio so it seems likely that it predates that great framing effort for the Londonderry show in September.

Aline Lotter is currently exhibiting:

In February, you can also view (and purchase–of course!) my 6×6’s at the Artstream Gallery in Rochester, NH.

Potpourri–Nudes, Landscapes, Almost Abstract

Posted by Aline on February 11, 2013

Sideways (12×9)

Once again I lead off with a nude. I love my nudes. This was today’s. You probably recognize the model. Our Saturday group got cancelled by the snowstorm and my painting from Tuesday is not finished, so it’s the only nude I have for you today. (We have Tuesday’s model again this week, so I will finish that one up and post it before I leave for Florida for two weeks.) I am not sure that I will be able to keep to my Monday blogging schedule while I am down in Florida, but I should be able to post photos of the paintings from time to time.

Today I finally noticed why I sometimes see shadows as orange. When it’s cold in the studio, we used a space heater to keep our model comfortable. The heater glows orange. Her breast looked as if it were on fire yesterday. That was the clue. But it doesn’t explain other orange shadows, the ones on the other side from the heater. Maybe it’s simply what I see, after having one cataract removed. Can’t wait for the other one to go.

I also loves me some landscapes. Without a Saturday Life Group session, I was unleashed to paint a landscape. Ever since the Eric Aho exhibit, I’ve had this notion that I too could paint an abstract landscape if I simply gave myself permission . Turns out, it’s not that easy. I have, in the past, made paintings that look abstract–well, only two, to be exact. One happened in a magical state of unconscious creativity (as seen in hindsight, of course), and the other’s subject matter was inherently abstract. “Spirit Lake” is the former; the name I gave it may be a subconscious bow to the process that created it. Click here to go to my web page showing Spirit Lake.

The inherently abstract one was a close up view of the mangrove swamp in the Ding Darling National Wildlife Preserve.

Mangroves, Ding Darling

So Saturday I taped up a 16×20 piece of oil primed linen on a drawing board, and got out a volume of spectacular photographs by Tim Palmer, of some of the most spectacular scenery in existence. I met Tim some years ago at a Sierra Club meeting, and told him I wanted to use his photographs as inspiration for paintings, and he gladly gave me permission to do so. His book, titled “Luminous Mountains: The Sierra Nevada of California”, had been waiting patiently in my studio all these years to be put into service. I opened the book and did not get further than the frontispiece, a magical scene titled “Volunteer Mountain, Yosemite, at Sunset.” I tried valiantly not to paint the photograph, but I’m sorry to report, my product is not very abstract. Not abstract at all.

California Landscape

It’s also earthier, less magical, than the photograph. Isn’t that strange? I may try again, next time limiting my palette–no blues or greens allowed.

I also took the Saturday opportunity to modify, perhaps improve, the frigid plein air paintings of a few weeks ago. I actually made something of that first effort in the windy, subzero meadow off Route 302.

Mt. Washington from 302, No. 4

The scene of the Jackson church needed some cleaning up, and fresh whites (actually not pure white, but white with a tiny bit of yellow). Compare:

Jackson Community Church, looking west, BEFORE

Jackson, AFTER

The differences are perhaps too subtle to show up in this medium, same as a photograph can never do justice to a painting, unless it is printed as a giclee and there is nothing between you and the giclee print. (No digital interface, e.g.)

Aline Lotter is currently exhibiting:

In February, you can also view (and purchase–of course!) some of my paintings and drawings at the McGowan Gallery in Concord, NH, (“Love, Lust and Desire” is the theme) and my 6×6’s at the Artstream Gallery in Rochester, NH.

If you happen to be near Orlando, Florida on February 14, 15 or 16, or Tampa, Florida on March 7, 8, and 9, you could (and should) catch Nude Nite, happening with music and other entertainment at these locations, respectively: 639 W. Church St. (blue freestanding warehouse just East of I-4) in Orlando; and 3606 E. 4th Ave., in Tampa. Hours are 6 pm to midnight. (Nude NITE, after all)

Welcome, Groundhogs*

Posted by Aline on February 4, 2013

Skin Colors

Yesterday’s quasi portrait is my pick of this week. It could be improved, for sure. But overall I am pleased–with the gesture, the drawing, the colors, the modeling. I wanted to leave the background unpainted, to show off the fact that I made no changes in the outside contour of the figure. But now I do need to make some changes, so I will try to match the color of the paper I was painting on to eliminate that dark edge atop her left arm, and to carve away at the neck and jaw on her left side. I would also like to point that I snuck in a tiny glimmer of teeth showing between her open lips. Even more so than hands and feet, teeth are the painter’s nemesis.

This brown card stock, which I have been using a lot lately, is called “carton board” and is made by Judson’s (Guerrilla Painter). It looks like stiffened brown Kraft paper but is sized to accept oil paints without absorbing them. It does kind of absorb the Gamsol, but dries out quickly. It leaves a spot. You can see a spot near her left jaw, where I was trying to carve away at it without deploying paint.

Other things I want to change about this piece: the eyes–too heavy with the dark line, I think; the transitions between colors in skin tones–too abrupt in certain places; the hair: too restrained–she has quite a mop, and showing that would add interest to the painting.

In my stories about the Circle of Six (or Seven), I showed you several examples of what my colleagues were doing with the same poses, but somehow I missed capturing this one by Steve:

Steve’s Best

Steven thinks this is his best drawing of Becky. For the blog that showed more takes on this pose, go here.

I have heart-warming news in abundance today. One of my little 6×6 paintings was selected by one of the sponsors for the Notecard project of the Women’s Caucus for Art. OK, that requires an awful lot of explanation. The WCA pulls together an annual exhibit to showcase members’ 6×6 pieces, which are sold for $66. Artists purchase the 6×6 blank panels from WCA and the money we raise from these sales of blank panels to artists goes into the scholarship fund. (We award a $1,000 each year to a NH woman attending art school in NH.) The sale of the finished panels generates revenue for the artists and the gallery, not the WCA. So this year, for the first time, our beloved leader (Suzanne Whittaker) developed the Notecard Project: ten sponsors donate a largish sum of money in exchange for the credit that goes with the publication of sets of ten note cards, each set containing reproductions of all ten 6x6s chosen by sponsors for such honor, to be sold throughout the year in various retail locations. The money raised from the sales of the notecards goes to the scholarship fund. The money raised from the sponsorships pays for the printing of the notecards, and a little bit goes back to the artists chosen to be in the notecard pack.

That takes so long to explain because there are so many interlocking elements. I was intending to show you my oown 6×6’s eventually, but had so much content on other subjects that I never got around to it. Here they are:

A Walk in the Woods, 1

A Walk in the Woods, 2

A View of the Bay

A View of the Forest

Barrington Editions, a business that creates giclee reproductions of artists’ paintings, is the sponsor who chose one of mine for the notecards. They chose the one I call A Walk in the Woods 1. To create these pieces, I cut up old watercolors to the correct size and mounted them onto the 6×6 panels. I enhanced them with black and brown ink, then I covered them with an acrylic gel, which protects the watercolor paper and adds a nice shine. Inspired by the shine, I decided to construct wires simulating windows. This turned out to be much more difficult than I had imagined, and I became worried that the wires were too fussy, especially for the first two, which seemed to stand well on their own. So in the end, I added the window wires only to the last two above, then forgot to photograph them in their little cages.

Other big news, which cannot wait: Nude Nite Tampa invited BOTH of my pieces. These two.

Artists and Model

I’m not quite ready to part with Artists and Models, but now I have to. Am wondering if it will be any cheaper to ship two smaller pieces than the one large one that went down to Orlando last week, at a cost of $122. (I do hope it sells, but in case it doesn’t, the trip back home is already paid for.)

Aline Lotter is currently exhibiting:

*I really have nothing to say to groundhogs, but am so grateful that Phil has ordained an early spring for us that I just had to call out.

Frozen Moments

Posted by Aline on January 28, 2013

My boots were duck hunter’s boots, so wide and thick that I have a hard time climbing stairs in them. I wore four layers on my legs, four on my torso, three on my arms and hands, two on my head, plus a scarf to wrap around my face. My equipment held up well, creaking a little bit but not refusing to lock and unlock. My brushes were frozen but not brittle enough to break. My Gamsol did not turn into jelly in subzero temperatures like my Turpenoid did two years ago. Nevertheless, painting plein air this past weekend in the North Country was a fool’s enterprise.

My biggest surprise was my paint. I made the mistake of leaving it outside overnight. Freezing oil paint is a good way to prevent the large gobs of untubed paint from drying out; it does not damage the paint. But my paint never had a chance to unfreeze before I set out to paint that first crisp morning. (“Crisp” is such an understatement that it is funny–temps were around minus 14 with strong winds adding emphasis.) Once I got my brushes working, I could only poke at the paint and smear it around a little. (Sharon reported that she couldn’t even make a dent in her yellow with a palette knife.) Meanwhile, my face was so covered up that I couldn’t really see what I was doing, and gusts of wind (which fortunately you do hear coming) would periodically force me to hang onto the equipment and endure sprays of snow until the wind died down. I lasted about 20 minutes not counting set up and break down time. Sharon soldiered on for about another ten minutes. [Sharon Allen is the leader of the NH Plein Air painters group, and for the weekend, my chauffeur and guide.] Below are photos of the spot we were painting and our two attempts.

Mt. Washington from Rte 302

Heroic Effort (Sharon’s)

Heroic Effort (Aline’s)

Just for comparison, here is a painting I did in the fall, after a snowfall on the mountains, from the same spot.

Mt. Wash. from 302

Somewhat wiser after lunch, we sought out a sheltered spot for our next attempt. Nothing like an indoor viewing point for sheltering from wind, so we drove up to the Glen House, across from the Mt. Washington Auto Road, and obtained permission to set up in a corner of the restaurant. Sharon painted the view to the north while mine was southwest.

Plein air? Not.

Glen House Painters

In my view is Mt. Washington, but a shoulder obscures the top, so no buildings are visible. It’s the hump toward the left side of my panel. Route 16 runs through the painting but I decided to leave it vague.

Indoor painting of Mt. Washington

The next day, Saturday, was a little better. I think the temperature rose to 5 degrees, and the wind had died down. Nevertheless, we got lots of passersby commenting variously on our bravery, determination, and insanity. I was by that time in total agreement. Knocked down a peg or two was I! Below are photos memorializing these efforts.

Artist or Terrorist? (Sharon)

Frozen Stream

This green tinted frozen water was what had fascinated both Sharon and me. We had not realized how hard it is to depict frozen water. I had never learned of any way to signal to the onlooker that, hey, this is frozen water here–not flowing water, not an empty field.

WIP Sharon

Jackson Community Church, looking west

Jackson Community Church looking east

Above was a view we had planned to paint Saturday afternoon, but the wind! I guess we were lucky to get in a halfway decent morning. The church in this photo is the same one I was trying to paint from my location in the parking lot of the Jackson Historical Society, up river and to the right in the photo. You can see the sign on the building in the background behind Sharon’s easel, which is why I didn’t crop her Work In Progress down to just the painting itself. The Jackson Historical Society has a collection of White Mountain Art, including a few by Benjamin Champney. Metcalf, Gerry and Shapleigh were my favorites in that collection. The parking lot was a great place to paint if you don’t mind being interrupted by passersby, and since these passersby were on their way inside to see White Mountain art, they got our full attention.

But we never found a suitable spot to paint that afternoon or Sunday either. Every time we spotted a paintable spot, we would check the flagpoles. The flags kept up the whipping all the way home. We took pictures and persuaded ourselves that in doing so, we were doing artists’ work. We wandered through Conway, Albany, Moultonborough, Meredith (lunched there), Weirs Beach, Alton Bay, Chichester, Northwood, and Nottingham (there we stopped by Jenness Farm to buy goat milk soap and socialize with the goats).

The Friendly Goats of Jenness Farm

So I conclude that to get more use out of my duck hunter’s boots, I must be alert to a good painting day around home and just seize it. Carpe diem! We have a few warmer days coming up this week.

Aline Lotter is currently exhibiting:

In February, you can also view some of my paintings and drawings at the McGowan Gallery in Concord, NH, and at the Artstream Gallery in Rochester, NH. Receptions for those shows are, respectively, Feb 1, 5-7; and Feb 2, 5-8.

If you happen to be near Orlando, Florida on February 14, 15 or 16, you should go to Nude Nite, a happening at this location: 639 W. Church St. (Blue Freestanding Warehouse just East of I-4). One of my paintings was invited to participate. This one:

Standing Tall

Breaking Bad

Posted by Aline on January 14, 2013

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:

This week’s nudes

Posted by Aline on January 7, 2013

I’m risking a “same old, same old” reaction from my followers, but I really have no choice. Nudes are what I did this week, so we are stuck with it. I regret not getting photos of the others’ paintings as well, but that’s not what I’m thinking about at the close of a session when we are cleaning up, packing up, making arrangements for our next meeting. On Friday, our model continued the pose that you have already seen two weeks of, from every possible perspective. But today you get one of those perspectives from me.

a different perspective

As chance would have it, I grabbed a sheet of 16×20 canvas simply because it was handy, and I had only one session to produce something on it, so I knew I could not finish anything. But I should at least have got the proportions correct, and I see problems with that aspect. Nothing prevents me from working more on this painting at home (=studio) and bringing it closer to a state of completion/satisfaction. Whether I will feel like doing that is the question.

Our Sunday sessions are back. I took in a smaller canvas this time–12×16, same size as the successful one from the last two weeks, “Artists and Model“. 12×16 is a good size to work with, because I don’t have to use it all. I can carve an 11×14 painting out of a sheet that is 12×16. This time, however, I wanted all of the sixteen inches of available length and less of the width. So I carved away (not literally–I just drew a line) about 2 inches from one side. My composition was improved, but maybe I was just too lazy to contemplate filling the space behind the model. There were no artists on the other side for me to inspire me.

Leaning pose

Because of my pruning, if this painting turns out to be a keeper, I will have to order a custom-sized frame for it. Pondering that result as I was painting away Sunday, I suddenly understood why so many of the masters’ paintings were odd-sized–not just 22 x 31, say, but 22 and 3/8 by 31 and 1/2. They must have cropped their paintings to achieve the optimum composition for each. For the Old Old Masters, the frame sizes were not standardized anyway.

Upon further reflection today, I realize what a handicap we modern, thrifty painters accept, those of us who strive to paint to a standard size frame. My very best frames come from a company that sells only standard sizes, and you have to buy of lot of them at one time. Their frames have “closed corners”, which means the frames are put together before the finish (gold leaf, e.g.) is applied. You won’t see a seam in the corners. The other kind of frame is “chop” or something like that, and on those frames the seams are discernible. When a painter reaches the level of selling for $50,000 a painting , he or she will order a custom, closed-corner frame and pay thousands of dollars per frame. I’m not there yet.

Aline Lotter is currently exhibiting:

More from the Circle of Six

Posted by Aline on December 31, 2012

Artists and Model

I completed this painting last Friday, and there seems to be universal agreement that it is one of my best, knocking last June’s “In the Artist’s Studio” out of the top spot. What makes it best is, I believe, the additional interest contributed by the figures in the background, and I surely do hope I did not go overboard in depicting them. I was acutely aware of the need to not compete with the central figure of the model, and I therefore had intended to be much sketchier with the artist figures. But, as happens so often to me, the painting wrested control from me. So far, no one admits to thinking the background figures are too prominent.

As I laid it out for you last week: Tony is still the one on the far left, and Steve is the one across the room from me. Both of them started over on new works this week. Here is Steve’s, and after it is Tony’s–in paint this week (hurrah!):

Steve’s drawing

Tony’s painting

Continuing around the room counterclockwise, next is Fletcher’s painting, then Nita’s.

Fletcher’s painting (awesome knee!)

Nita’s painting

Heather was not with us this week; she was a casualty of the snowstorm we had the day before. Elizabeth couldn’t make it either, a worrisome thing; I hope you will eventually get to see some of her work.

I’ll keep it short and (hope-you-agree) sweet this last day of the year 2012. Happy New Year!

Aline Lotter is currently exhibiting:

Circle of Six, Sometimes Seven

Posted by Aline on December 24, 2012

Gentle readers, particularly the artists among you, are you wondering at the many opportunities I get to paint from live models? How does that happen when there is no way could I afford it on my own? It happens because I am lucky enough to have friends who are just as obsessed as I am, and another friend slightly less possessed but able to offer us the hospitality of her studio. With the advantage of so much practice since last Spring, we have been progressing as artists. One by one, each of us has turned from drawing to painting. Suddenly, two weeks ago, I looked around the studio and discovered sights amazing and inspiring. Since then I have been collecting as many images from the stalwarts as I could, to share them with you.

So this week I celebrate the team, the Circle of Six (sometimes seven) who show up week after week, sometimes twice a week, each week producing better and better art, and now producing it better with paint.

Heather Lord was the original painting fool among us. I remember her years ago, bringing her paints to the Saturday Life Group, trying desperately to capture those short poses with oil paint. Daft, but the results were vibrant. It was her desire for longer, painting-possible poses that last April, led to our Tuesday morning experiment with 3-hours-as-default programming.

This Fall, with the consent of Peter Clive, our Friday workshop instructor, we continued with 3-hour program. Lately, for both Tuesday and Friday sessions, we have enjoyed double sessions on the same pose. We have just come off two straight weeks with Becky in one pose, and started on another pose that will continue next week.) I was lucky enough to get photos of Heather’s paintings of both poses, the second one still a work in progress.

From Heather, pose 1

Heather's painting of Rebecca [Work in Progress} week 2

Heather’s painting of Rebecca [Work in Progress} pose 2

My own portrait of Becky in week 1 of pose 1 was in last week’s blog, “Painting Faces“. Week 2 of pose 1 is toward the end of this blog.

After noticing what fun the two painters (that’s Heather and I) were having, the others decided to give painting a try too. Nita Van Zandt was one of the first to brave the new frontier of painting, and right away–way too quickly we first adopters carped–she began creating bold, vivid images, experimenting, of course, because painting is all about experimentation.

Nita’s, pose 1

Elizabeth Peck–no one works harder than Elizabeth to perfect her art. She takes countless workshops and can quote some famous artist on almost any point. However, she was too busy to furnish a photo this time. I hope we can catch her later.

For years perhaps, Fletcher Taft had been drawing with pencil or Conte crayon. He produced small, delicate images, quite lovely, but not “bold” or “adventurous”. Look at him now!

Fletch’s, pose 1

Fletcher’s pose 2

Nancy Healy has been at this longer than any of the rest of us. Her artistry was and is already mature, so “progress” is less striking and unnecessary for her. She favors painting with pastels, despite its drawbacks. (Pastel paintings are very fragile.) Like the rest of us, Nancy doesn’t worry about selling, and she is a master with her pastels.

Nancy’s pose 1

The sometimes-seventh member of our circle is Tony Fiore. Tony is a man “who knows a lot”. About everything. But not in an obnoxious way. He entertains us with random knowledge on those days when his sailing does not interfere with his art-making. Like most of us (except Nancy), he is a frequent student at the Institute of Art (the “Tute”, he likes to call it). He was the last of us to try painting, possibly because he refuses to paint in oils, but eventually he could not resist, and for week 1 of pose 1, he brought his acrylics to give it a go. Unfortunately I did not get a picture of his painting from that week, and he reverted to charcoal this week. For the time being, we’ll have to settle for his drawing.

Tony’s drawing pose 1

I had a particularly good week myself. I completed one on Tuesday that may be my best yet, and started one on Friday that I will be finishing up next week. Here they are:

Seated on Red Drape (Tuesday)

Seated on platform, WIP, Pose 2

I accidentally smudged the first one in the course of getting it home, but decided not to repair. I took a photograph at an angle to the second one so as to avoid glare, so that’s why it off kilter to the camera. But no glare! When finished, there will be a suggestion of the two artists painting in the background, and one of them is Tony. The other is Steve, who comes so rarely that despite his role as model for this painting, is getting no glory. Yet.

Aline Lotter is currently exhibiting:

Painting Faces

Posted by Aline on December 17, 2012

Lately, in a change-up from the nudes, I have been trying to paint faces. I suppose in the back of my mind I had been harboring some hope of getting good enough at painting faces to paint portraits. The master of portraits is John Singer Sargent. I’m beginning to realize that I will never ever be good enough to paint a portrait that I could even show to JSS for a critique. No, of course I’m not aspiring to paint as expertly as JSS, but there is a continuum, let’s say of 100 points. JSS is 100. I had hoped to reach 80. And for a while, it had seemed doable, as I gradually captured more and more of the likenesses of my subjects. But OMG, it dawned on me between this and that stray thought, almost casually, that capturing a likeness is simply putting the correct shape in the correct spot, sort of like the police artist who renders the likeness of a suspect from the selections of a witness. A likeness is only the beginning of a portrait, a toe in the water of portraiture. I did two likenesses this week.

Close up of Becky’s Face

Close up

Neither of them qualify as portraits. Let us compare JSS’s portraits.

First, his portraits are full length. I can’t think of a single JSS painting of a face. (He did do many smaller charcoal or pencil drawings of facial likenesses, which I love to copy.) “Portrait” signifies so much more than facial features. “Portrait” suggests that attributes of the subject’s disposition are revealed. The posture of the subject, the objects held by the subject, all contribute toward conveying what the subject holds dear and what attitude the subject takes toward life.

Second, consider the monumentality of effort that JSS put into his portraits. Despite the fact that he was superbly accomplished and experienced, he would not complete a portrait with fewer than eight sittings (according to Wikipedia) and rumor has it that in at least one instance, the unfortunate subject had to submit to something like 80 hours of sitting. And by the way, again according to Wikipedia’s source, he usually got the likeness right away, in the first sitting. The rest of the sitting time, the bulk of his efforts, had to do with everything other than the likeness.

So in conclusion, I have not yet completed a real portrait, or even come close. And if I were good enough to get so far as to complete one in my lifetime, which is alas limited to another 30 years at best, I should have by now received some inkling of the possibility. I continue to make progress, but I will never arrive.

But hey! I’m having a wonderful time. Here is the lovely nude that escaped my camera last week, and a few more from this Saturday’s session:

Attitude for 20 minutes

10-minute pose

5-minute pose

35-minute pose in charcoal

You might like the 5- and 10-minute short poses better than the longer 35-minute pose. That 5-minute pose is the best pose–wish I could have had an hour with it. (The 50-minute pose was too horrible–I won’t even look at it, much less photograph it.) The photos this week were, by the way, brought to you by my phone, pitch-hitting for the digital single lens reflex made by Nikon. Not too shabby for a camera phone.

After our grueling session in the morning, a few of us SLG-ers got together for a party that night, and someone else’s camera phone caught this totally unposed candid shot of a few luminaries in attendance. Not.

Members of Saturday Life Group at Xmas party

From left to right: Marion Hazelton, Joey Pearson, Bea Bearden, Larry Christian (yes, THE Larry Christian), and me.

Aline Lotter is currently exhibiting:

Slacker!

Posted by Aline on December 10, 2012

I only painted thrice last week, and it’s thanks to my Tuesday and Friday morning life drawing sessions and the Saturday Life Group that I accomplished that much. It made me realize how little time I have been putting in on studio projects, and on painting in the great outdoors. I used to be a pretty decent, very enthusiastic plein air painter. Without actually counting, I would bet I produced over 50 plein air paintings in 2011, compared to 25 this year. I miss it. But so much of my artistic energy has been absorbed by the figurative and portrait sessions that I haven’t been carving out time for plein air outings. Now the weather is getting nasty outside. My New Year’s resolution, adopted early, is to find more opportunities to get outside to paint–starting with our first ever Bartlett Artists Winter Getaway in January, followed by a visit to Mary on Marco Island, probably in February.

Meanwhile, the story of this week: Since our Tuesday model and our Friday model and our next Friday model is the same person, those of us who do both Tuesday and Friday decided to make it a repeating pose, enabling a total of 9 hours on one pose for those who wanted it. I will probably the only one of us who will use all three sessions on a single painting, although I expect not to use the entire final session on this painting.

“Huis Clos” (“Inside closed doors” or “no exit”?) WIP after 2d of 3-session pose

One of the more interesting aspects of this painting is the background architecture. I had recently watched a video, part 1 of Dan Thompson painting a figure, in which he recommended painting in the background, at least temporarily, in order to use it as a roadmap. It works. Before I drew in the Exit door on the left of the painting, I had drawn the figure’s arm too close to his body. By situating the frame of the door where it intersected the body, I uncovered the drafting error in the arm. The cubicle on the right (it’s the bathroom) helped me with sizing the figure’s left leg (leg on the viewer’s right).

Because I knew about the extended pose, I started this painting on a 16×20 sheet of primed linen. I intended it to be a whole body pose, but allowed my impulsive first blocking in to change my mind. What you see is the product of two sessions, and it is almost finished. Some tinkering with the facial features and decisions on the background are needed next week. When it is finished, I will roll it up and stash it away with so many other paintings on which I have lavished hours of time and effort. And love. Paintings that, unlike landscapes, no one else is likely to savor.

At SLG (Saturday Life Group) I continued the experimentation with compressed charcoal that I had started in Larry Christian’s class at the Institute. Here is the final pose of the session:

40-minute pose, view of the back

Yes, I do like backs.

There is another drawing, from a 20-minute pose, that I wanted to include today, but for some reason, the photo I thought I took of it did not turn out. Too bad. It was a good one, and different from the one above. I will include it next week if I can work it into next week’s topic, whatever that might be. I hope next week’s topic will include work in my studio, inspired by the successful completion of my reorganization exertions. Yes, that’s my excuse for no studio painting: I have been laboring on moving stuff, and removing stuff, to create more space in my bedroom/studio for the studio portion. Books, heavy books, had to be carried downstairs to make room for just art books on the studio shelves. Underbed storage units had to be emptied to make room for clear bags, saved drawings and such art-related, seldom-accessed items. Dust bunnies had to be captured and disposed of (sneeze!). Furniture had to be rearranged and some of it relegated to the guest room. Today, I ache all over. Well, that’s nothing new. Arthritis. Really slowing me. Down.

Aline Lotter is currently exhibiting:

Lessons Less Enjoyed

Posted by Aline on December 3, 2012

Sometimes I struggle and I’m not sure why. Flailing is probably the more descriptive term. Such was the case this week. I was painting from life one of my favorite models, and I thought I was doing all the usual stuff, noting proportions, juxtapositions, etc., getting all the puzzle pieces in place. But the result was not coming out right. As Dan Thompson says in one of his videos, if the measurements are correct but it doesn’t look right, it’s not right. The eye is the final judge. That is true of all painting from life–I have heard myself make that excuse (“hey, that’s the way it was for real”) and simultaneously cringe, because I do know that reality is not a justification for failing to satisfy the eye. But in this case, I really, really want to understand why my usual tools were not working. I still don’t have the answer, but I have perhaps a theory. But first, to deal with the most glaring mistakes, I made some repairs back in my own studio.

Seated Nude, WIP

Easy to fix was the arm in the back (her right arm), which was too large. Because that arm was farther away, it must look smaller than the one in the foreground. The bigger problem was the length of her torso. While amending the right arm I also brought it down a smidge, thereby shrinking the torso the tiniest bit.

Seated Nude

I think this helped, but it didn’t solve the puzzle. Perhaps the figure is just too skinny? My model is rather thin, but she is not particularly long limbed. My guess now is that everything is too long (or not wide enough), but only in the torso does that exaggeration jar the senses.

As if to make up for that struggle, the gods of painting blessed my effort on Sunday to paint a portrait of Grace wearing her glasses.

Portrait of Grace

Keeping the glasses on was Adrienne’s idea. I painted around them until I could no longer avoid them. I tackled them very delicately, framing them in with mere wisps of paint. But one of my goals was to show the reflections as well, so I could not stay timid. One thing about glasses: you’ve got to get real accurate to matching one lens with the other–more so than with the eyes. The eyes are often seen from different perspectives, one going round behind the face while the other is in full view. But glasses are pretty much right there, perched on the nose, and aside from perspective, should match up exactly. Well, almost exactly.

I am most pleased with the mouth. Doesn’t she look alive enough to plant a kiss on you? I worked and reworked the mouth, until it is almost where I want it to be. Grace will be back in two weeks to enable Adrienne and me to finish our respective starts. I want to perfect the philtrum (that groove between nose and upper lip), the nose, perhaps the eyes, and the hair. And the background.

Aline Lotter is currently exhibiting:

The Struggle (with compressed charcoal)

Posted by Aline on November 26, 2012

I’m pleased to report that I did not chicken out. Monday a week ago, I proclaimed my intent to deploy compressed charcoal in Larry Christian’s life drawing class, and on Tuesday I did just that. I had prepared myself by acquiring a large bag of cots. What is a cot, you ask? They are little rubber caps for fingers. They look like condoms. Larry said they would fit his dog’s, well, you know. I thought I would need only one cot, for the third finger, which I favor for smearing soft willow charcoal. I soon discovered that compressed charcoal attaches itself to fingers that merely touch the stick. By the end of the class, I had one cot on every finger of my right hand, because all of them were handling the stick. My thumb is fatter than my other fingers, and all my cots were medium-sized to fit my other four fingers, so my poor thumb suffered mightily from the constriction of blood flow; after all that, my thumb still got covered in dust because of a pinhole leak in the tip of the cot.

Smearing, the technique that I love to use with ordinary, vine charcoal, is not a good technique for compressed charcoal. You can’t soften a mark left by compressed charcoal–you can only make it look messy. You’ll see.

I started with a test sheet of mark-making.

A test of handling

My sticks were square, but not precisely square. One side of a square might produce a perfectly even application of charcoal, while the side next to it will produce streaks of darker lines at the edge. Unless you were expecting and planning for those streaks, this would be quite upsetting. Because THERE IS NO CORRECTING OF MARKS MADE BY COMPRESSED CHARCOAL. You can start light and get darker, but you can’t reverse direction. If you try to erase, you’ll probably sink the boat.

Gestures, no. 2

Upper left–that’s what happens when you try to smear or spread the mark left on the paper by compressed charcoal. Yucky!

Gestures, no. 1

gestures, no. 3

Gestures, No. 4

Gestures, No. 5

Gestures, No. 6

You’ll notice that I am not drawing with lines. Instead, I am trying to create form by darkening the space around it, or by filling in form with a darker value. Given the size of the charcoal stick, details can’t make it into the picture. You can probably deduce from a few stray boobs that our model was not a man.

The magic of the compressed charcoal comes from its revelation of the grain of the paper. Almost anything you do can look cool. To the extent that these gesture drawings are successful, it is probably because I didn’t have time to find ways of spoiling them. The more time I got with a pose, the harder it became for me to adjust to the unique properties of the compressed charcoal, as these next three poses demonstrate.

Struggle no. 1 Where do you go when you can’t draw the face or fingers?

struggle no. 2 still trying to complicate things

Struggle no. 3 Falling back on lines

Too black, too soon, those last two. I resolved thereafter to slow down, tread softly. Restraint is key.

Stuggle no. 4

Finally, I feel I am getting somewhere. Can you make out the smudges from my fingertips (actually from the cots on my fingertips)? By this time, my finger cots were layered in thick, greasy, black soot.

Struggle no. 5–close, or there?

Because the back view is my favorite, or maybe because this was our last pose of the night, whatever, I finally produced something of which to be proud. My light, early marks that were “wrong” (too wide buttocks) did not detract from the beauty of the final drawing. The paper I was using was low-quality sketch paper. I can’t wait to see how these marks will look on some decent “laid” charcoal paper.

Isn’t it ironic that a drawing that looks as though it were born of wild abandon is actually born of restraint?

P.S. Larry was quite pleased with me.

Finding a Face

Posted by Aline on November 19, 2012

My day has started out badly. My camera misbehaved in a way that has me stumped. I was taking photos of three paintings that I intended to show you, trying out all kinds a strategies short of standing on my head to get one without glare. I finally figured out that I had to get farther get away from the painting to avoid the shine, and zoom in on it. But the camera went into some kind of zombie mode wherein the painting showed up as a blank gray canvas. I loaded the images into iPhoto and increased the exposure, to reveal a ghostly image of the painting. Scratching my head. Did I change a setting by accident? It’s a Nikon D70, if anyone out there has an idea.

underexposed

Meanwhile, moving on: “finding a face” refers to the process involved in painting a portrait. I contrast the two nudes with faces attached that I worked on earlier in the week, with the stubbornly unphotographable portrait with body attached that I worked on over the weekend. Here are the bodies:

From Head to Foot

Larger copy of earlier pose

These faces are sketched in–not carelessly but not with any refinement either. A little dot of paint placed in the right spot pretty much does the job. Since the paintings are pretty rough overall, a refined face would look out of place anyway. These paintings are in line with the fast and loose style toward which I am reaching.

Enter Dan Thompson. I took a two-day workshop at the Institute with this painter, who hails from New York City (“the South”, as he refers to it) where he teaches at the Art Students League. There were no beginners in this workshop. In fact, two of the Institute’s teachers were taking part. Whereas I have been mostly concerned with getting the features placed in the correct spot, Dan’s primary focus was on the shapes of things. For example, in Sunday morning’s lecture/demo, we explored, in great detail, every nuance of the nose, ears, mouth and eyes–in that order. Before the demo of each feature, we received a lecture with diagrams. The following two photos show his roughed in portrait from Saturday’s morning demo/lecture, with the nose developed in the first one, and the ears in the second:

Nose

Ears

For the nose and ears, I made notes in my sketchbook. Then I got a little savvier, and took pictures of the diagrams. Here are his diagrams with lists of terms, one for the parts of a mouth and the other for the eyes, followed by his demo of each:

Somewhere under all the arrows and embellishments, there was an outline of a mouth.

mouth

eyes

I loved it. Every little bitty stroke had its own reason for color and direction, yet the product does not look overworked. No blending. I went back and examined my own work in progress from Saturday and was depressed; I didn’t even have the features in the right spots.

WIP– Halfway there?

But I pulled myself together and applied the thinking Dan had just demonstrated to us, and it got better–yet another portrait of Becky. (For a few earlier portraits of Becky, see my blog titled “Becky”. On his last go-round, he complimented me mildly, saying “nice job” as he left my station for another, and I have stored that memory in the place where I keep similarly encouraging statements, a place that I revisit whenever I think this whole striving to be great is just a foolish pipe dream.

umpteenth portrait of Rebecca

Aline Lotter is currently exhibiting:

Catching the Odd Perspective

Posted by Aline on November 12, 2012

I haven’t mentioned it before, but I have been taking a figure drawing class at the Institute with Larry Christian. Larry’s approach to drawing the figure is the opposite of academic drawing. He pushes us to draw quickly, intuitively, expressively. The techniques are familiar ones, but to please Larry, we must apply those techniques more fluidly and expressively to create an image that is unique.

I took this course with Larry before, in the spring of 2006, when I was just getting started as an artist. At that time, I was obsessing on landscapes, particularly plein air painting. Now that I have done a 180 on that preference, and also come to admire Larry’s drawings, I was motivated to retake the course, hoping to find out how Larry achieves his dramatic effects. For the only images of his work I could find online, click here. By way of contrast, look at Anthony Ryder’s drawing, so meticulous, and also lovely, but definitely academic in style.

Most of our work product in Larry’s course is not fit for public view. We bring nothing to completion. We produce pages and pages of gesture drawings, 30 or more of them each week, and then do our exercises on the technique du jour. One week it was drawing shapes instead of lines. The next week, drawing negative shapes. The week after that, creating form with darker values for shadows. Most recent week, creating form by wiping out darker values to create light.

Last week did produce a few showable drawings. And one of them contributed to the title of this week’s blog.

Bent

We applied charcoal evenly over the paper in order to create a non-white ground, and then erased that charcoal to bring out the shape of the model. I got lucky in my angle on the crouching pose–the simplicity of the shape and the shadow distinguish this drawing. The one before it was a more traditional pose, more complicated, yet less interesting.

Seated

Now that the course is winding to a conclusion, I have a pretty good idea of what I will be practicing in order to emulate Larry Christian: Use compressed charcoal; draw negative spaces; and my shadow areas will be all in one value. That last point was a revelation.

The other example of an odd perspective is my painting from yesterday, Sunday. I brought a larger canvas (12×16) and had less time (we didn’t get started until 45 minutes into our 3-hour session with the model), so perhaps that inspired me to paint more with the larger, simpler shapes. Or maybe I was influenced by the success of my crouching pose above. In any event, here it is:

Pillowed

In evaluating this painting, I remembered one from a month or so ago, which, by consensus of my friends, I had ruined by smoothing out the shapes within shapes. It’s very hard to restrain oneself. Right now I’m looking at that light patch on her forehead, thinking it should be smoothed. But I had a light patch like that on her breast at one point, and it disappeared and I don’t even remember doing it. That’s how hard it is to restrain oneself.

Following up on the Soo Rye Gallery opening last Saturday, I’m hoping you are dying to see my photos taken at the reception.

Totem displayed in Soo Rye Art Gallery

High and Dry on exhibit at Soo Rye

Lotus Studies, on exhibit at Soo Rye

Bea’s drawing, displayed in Soo Rye Gallery

Bea’s portrait of Becky

Aline Lotter is currently exhibiting:

The Week of “Super Storm”

Posted by Aline on November 5, 2012

Haven’t you heard enough about Sandy already? New Hampshire is one of the suffering states, but I got off pretty easy. Looks like I’m going to have to pay for a new roof without help from the insurance company. Being unscathed myself, I insisted on holding the Tuesday life group. It was, after all, a pretty nice day, weather-wise, a little rainy but hardly any wind to speak of. But most of the other artists were dealing with one storm-related problem or another and couldn’t get here for the group. So it was just the model, another unscathed artist, and me.

We set up in the window side of the studio and had our model lounge on the familiar old brown leather sofa. We found ourselves looking down on him, which felt strange at first. The model stand that we usually use puts the model at my eye level or above. (I sit to paint.) We also forewent any supplemental lighting inasmuch as the sun was streaming right in at our backs (yes, SUN). No dramatic shadows to fall back on for creating interest. But as it turned out, I didn’t need any drama from lighting. I accepted a full-on frontal foreshortened pose with the model’s feet practically in my face. (Of course that’s an exaggeration–I did say “practically”.) I was super pleased with this development because it furnishes a response to a taunt from one of my colleagues who, upon viewing last week’s blog, complained that I was not giving enough attention to feet. Since he is also one of our models, I suspect it is HIS feet he want more attention paid to. Nevertheless, feet are feet:

The Feet Have It

I have to point out that it is not often that you get to depict the wrinkles on the sole of a foot. Having recently watched a documentary on Lucien Freud, I also felt as if I were channeling him every so slightly, as I tried to paint the effect of hairy legs.

On Friday, four of us met with Peter Clive for a quasi-workshop session. Peter had during the summer been attending our Tuesday group whenever he could, but currently his teaching schedule at the NH Institute of Art kept him there on Tuesdays. So he offered to come instead on Fridays and critique work in progress, when corrections are possible. In the course of the summer and now the fall, Peter has seen quite a few of my paintings. He compliments me by saying something like “That’s a nice study,” or even “That’s a great study.” He said that about The Feet. Noting his use of the word “study”, I had reconciled myself to the reality that a serious artist does not go around producing a finished painting in three hours (actually less when you consider setting up time and break times). The fact that I consider these paintings as complete if not completely wonderful just shows how far I am from being a serious artist. There is a whole level of professionalism up there that I can only imagine.

However, the work that I did Friday was, at the end of the three hours, pronouced a “painting” by Peter, “not just a good study”. Yes, he actually said those words.

An Actual Painting

He liked the composition, which I admit, I had worked out early in the process. before paying much attention to the figure. So that was unusual. Perhaps because of that, a certain painterly quality emerged for the whole painting. But when I got home, I noticed that the right leg was too short, both as measured against her left leg and as measured against her torso. So I “fixed” it. I tried to duplicate the original foot before I covered it up, but the new foot (FEET again!) doesn’t look right. I may have botched this painting by correcting one errant part of it that may not have mattered in the big scheme of things. All is not lost, however–the same model is returning in two weeks for the same pose, and I will get another crack at that foot. I am also hoping to paint a larger version from the same pose.

Totem, 11×14, $300

Lotus Studies 13×13 $265

: High and Dry, 11×14, $300

A plug for the Soo Rye Art Gallery opening on November 10, reception from 5 to 8 p.m. The address is 11 Sagamore Road, Rye, NH. All the artworks being exhibited are priced no higher than $300. I contributed “Totem”, “Lotus Studies”, and “High and Dry”, three of my all-time favorite paintings. If you can’t get to the opening, the show continues through the end of December, but I expect that a lot of the art will be sold at the opening.

Here is some history for these three paintings:

Totem was accepted in a regional show juried by Don Stone for the Rockport Art Association (Massachusetts, not Maine). I painted Totem on the coast of Rhode Island, near Narragransett, with my artist friend, Mary Crawford Reining. The totem, actually more accurately called a cairn, in the painting really did exist exactly as I painted it. Other cairns had been built by person or persons unknown, but this one was the most adventurous. It was more than a cairn–so I titled it Totem. Earlier in that morning, I had painted another, more complex view of this rocky beach, and had an hour left over. Only much later did I realize until later what a successful painting Totem was.

Lotus Studies won Best in Show at a Manchester Artists Association exhibit, about a year ago when the MAA had a gallery of its own, but I created it at least a year before that for the Women’s Caucus for Art annual 6×6 show. That had been my first year in the WCA, hence my first 6×6 show. I had easy inspiration from photographs taken at the lotus pond in Wickford, Rhode Island, again visiting Mary. The next year we tried plein air painting at the pond, but my output was worthless.

High and Dry has no distinction to report, but it deserves an award, in my humble opinion, for oozing the most charm. I have Mary Crawford Reining to thank again, for High and Dry: this time I was a visiting her Marco Island home for perhaps the third year in a row. None of my Florida paintings had amounted to much until this one, and I still consider it the Prize of my Florida collection. Funny thing is, Mary had had her eye on this boat for a long time, wanting to paint it but never having got around to it. So I swoop in and steal her subject as it were, and make it one of my best from Florida.

Only in the writing of these descriptions did I notice the huge debt I owe Mary Crawford Reining for guiding me to these three inspiring subjects.

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 the Soo Rye Art Gallery in Rye NH; at the law offices at 41 Brook St in Manchester; and at her studio by appointment. Also, if you want to plan ahead, on December 1-2, a two-day show of unframed works at Adrienne’s studio on the 4th floor of Langer Place, 55 S. Commercial St., Manchester, NH; the artwork will be priced no higher than $150! At least six artists are participating in this sale.

Waiting for the Roof to Blow Off

Posted by Aline on October 29, 2012

Hurricane Sandy is on her (his?) way and I need a new roof. Fingers crossed.

But so far, the wind is not even moderately scary. People have lost power though. Peculiar. I am sitting pretty with my permanent generator, installed last year after the surprise October snowstorm. After I finish my blog, I get to clean my palette in readiness for the Tuesday life group tomorrow, instead of my usual Monday bridge game. Bridge is cancelled because of the storm. Many have advised me to cancel this meeting of the Tuesday life group, but I am waiting to see if it’s going to that bad in the morning. I’m almost hoping it will be bad–I could use an unplanned for day off. Almost. Falling behind doesn’t help in the long run.

Since last week I didn’t post any of my new nudes or portraits, I have twice as much inventory this week. The choices aren’t easy. None are perfect, but each has something I am proud of. So that will be my theme this week: proud parts. No, that doesn’t sound right. Part of which I am Proud.

Sitting Tall

I struggled most with the arms, and finally got one down but ran out of time. The part I like is the head. There is a resemblance. I think the hands could have been better articulated, but I got a good start on them.

Occupier

In this charcoal drawing, I like the different textures I tried out on the chair and the background. Also, the big toe. And the resemblence isn’t bad either.

Sitting Solid

The hands are my favorite part of this portrait. His hands have always been excellent models for me. I also like the face.

Finding Flight

For a change, I am not pleased with the face because it looks too old for this model. But I like most of the rest of this painting–I like the quality of the paint, the values, the colors. This little green chair is showing up more often–it’s a good choice for us because it has no arms to block one’s view of the model from the side.

Cheeky

This is my favorite of the two weeks. I like to draw profiles. Her face was so shadowed that after getting the profile itself in, I had to imagine the rest. I started it as a charcoal drawing on a dull orange paper, but added a few pastels (yellow, pink and rust) to bring this drawing closer to being a painting.

Aline Lotter is currently exhibiting:

at the Hatfield Gallery in Manchester; at the Bartlett Inn in Bartlett; at the Red Jacket Inn in North Conway; for a few more days only at the Pantano Gallery in the Shapiro Library at Southern NH University and at the Derry Public Library; at the law offices at 41 Brook St in Manchester; and at her studio by appointment. And coming soon: at the Soo Rye Art Gallery in Rye NH; the opening reception is Saturday, November 10, 5-8. Also, if you want to plan ahead, a 2-day show of unframed works at Adrienne’s studio in Langer Place, 55 S. Commercial Ave., Manchester, NH; the artwork will be priced no higher than $150.

The Wall of Nudes

Posted by Aline on October 22, 2012

I received a request, in response to last week’s blog, for a picture of my Wall of Nudes before I dismantled it all. I agreed to comply, but before I could photograph it for posterity, I felt obliged to try for some semblance of order. Not perfect order, as you will see, but a little bit more coherent than the crazy-quilt effect suffered by my bridge players. I filled all the gaps at least, which produces a display of nudity even more overwhelming than the original. You are fortunate not to have to experience this in the flesh. (forgive me, pun intended)

I kept out of photo range all of my paintings by Others. The effect is chaotic enough without introducing totally dissimilar artworks. Plus, I would have felt obliged to identify all of them, which would make for a cumbersome blog entry. However, having decided to devote this blog to the Wall of Nudes, I thought I might as well include other nooks and crannies of that room and an adjoining one, the Yellow Room. We tend to name rooms by their predominant color, rather than by their purpose. Purposes of rooms in my house tend to change over time. The Wall of Nudes is in a room formerly known as the Pink Room, for its carpet. The carpet is gone, but I still refer to it as the Pink Room. Others call it the Striped Room (for the stripes painted on the wall). As far as purpose, the Pink Room currently serves as Gallery, Entertainment Room (TV, etc), Pet Dwelling (one dog and a bunny). I suppose it is, in modern parlance, a Family Room. This family, however, consists of me, the dog and the bunny. (My granddaughter, who loves upstairs, has her own fancier TV and does not join us in the Pink Room for any purpose other than a meet up with the dog. (Her dog.)

The Yellow Room is where I do stuff like stretch canvas, mount canvas onto panels, gesso panels, and frame paintings. Framing oil paintings is a pretty simple affair, and if you stick to certain standard sizes, you can pop a painting in and out of a frame quick as a . . . well, bunny. When I began this journey, I would search for and order a specific frame for a specific painting. Somewhere along the line, the possibility of switching frames dawned upon me. I began to stock up on standard sizes at sales, and fit them to paintings as needed for exhibits. At one particularly prolific point of time, I managed to frame and display 81 paintings at one time, finding something appropriate for each one of them in my supply. Nowadays, my paintings are predominantly 11×14, while I have more 10×12 frames than I can use. Turns out 10×12 is not a standard size, but I didn’t know that when I ordered a supply of 10×12 panels from RayMar back in 2006. So for a while there, I was glomming onto 10×12 frames wherever I could find them. Then, of course, wiser, I stopped painting on 10×12 panels. Ergo, excess 10×12 frames. Which led to a wall of 10×12 frames right where I can lay my hands on them, if I ever need them. Why didn’t someone explain the Facts of Frames to me in the beginning?

I explain all of this ahead of time in part to whet your appetite, but mostly because I have little confidence that you would read it after the slide show.

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Aline Lotter is currently exhibiting:

at the Hatfield Gallery in Manchester; at the Bartlett Inn in Bartlett; at the Red Jacket Inn in North Conway; at the Pantano Gallery in the Shapiro Library at Southern NH University; at the Derry Public Library; at the law offices at 41 Brook St in Manchester; and at her studio by appointment.

Weary of nudes?

Posted by Aline on October 17, 2012

When Londonderry Arts Council decided to take the plunge and allow nude images to be exhibited at their annual “Art on the Common”, an outdoor art show to be visited by regular folk and their innocent, sheltered children, I threw caution to the winds and signed up. In order to show my nudes, I had to mount and frame them. Big effort, but more significantly, big expense. After the one-day show, I had about 25 paintings of nudes, many of them in new frames purchased for the occasion. What to do with all those riches? Hang them up, of course. I have one room in my house pretty much covered from ceiling to floor by artwork, most of it my artwork. I took down all of my artwork, and replaced those pieces with my nudes. When you walk into that room now, you are pretty much overwhelmed by the beauty of the naked body. It’s a bit too much, even for me. That room is where I host the weekly bridge game, and this week was the first time my bridge players had seen the room in its reborn splendor. I allowed as how the display was too much, and was rewarded with this telling remark: “I’d say you got that down — you don’t need to do any more.”

Need vs. want. I am an addict. I spend so much time in a week working on my little studies of nudes that I have not made a lot effort to get outside and paint landscapes, or put in some time on my large studio project. Between my Saturday group, my Tuesday group, my Tuesday night class, my Friday morning workshop, and my Sunday group, I currently probably have more opportunities for life drawing and painting than practically anyone else has ever had since the beginning of modern times (by which I mean the 20th and 21st centuries). The ability to admit this may be my first step back on the pathway to normalcy. Or not.

I think I will take down most of the nudes gracing my walls, but I can’t stop myself when it comes to the drawing and painting part.

Sometimes I get distracted by the face. The ability to paint or draw portraits is important to me. I keep thinking that if I just keep trying, I will eventually learn how to capture the elusive likeness, and when that happens, only after that happens, I can start to apply some Art to the likeness. And that thought has led me to another breakthrough insight into modern art, at least the kind of modern art which represents a depiction of something. The depiction of something with paint or whatever other medium can range from photographic to practically abstract. The purely photographic requires a great deal of skill and patience. But it’s doable, given time, talent and determination. The other end of the spectrum is largely inspirational. The amazement it engenders in the beholder is something more rarefied than mere appreciation of skill. That is not to say that both appreciations cannot be embodied in a single work of art. Sargent, say. Or my latest hero, Eric Aho, an abstract landscape artist. Also, see Antonio Lopez Garcia , a realist of inspired genius. Here is one of my favorite works by Garcia:

Sink and Mirror, by Antonio Lopez Garcia

An artist who creates amazing, inspired art is gifted with more than mere talent for drawing and painting. He (or she) is gifted with genius. I suppose it is my hope that somewhere hidden inside me is a spark of genius, if only I can find it. And that’s why I can’t stop drawing and painting nudes. It’s my pathway. To destinations unknown.

So, speaking of which, here are SOME of the nudes of the past week, one of which is a portrait:

Figure in Charcoal

This young gentleman is a new, inexperienced model. I hope we see him again. In addition to the full figure above, I also drew a pretty accurate portrait, but forgot to photograph it.

Full figure in charcoal

I am starting to misremember when and where I painted what, but I’m pretty sure this charcoal drawing happened in the past week in Adrienne’s studio. I just can’t figure out how I must have drawn this as well as the portrait below within the same three hours. I would have skipped over this one but for the breast resting on the ottoman–does it perfectly evoke the soft tissue or could I have done it better? Doubt is such a demon.

Becky portrait in charcoal

You all know Becky by now. I thought this was an excellent likeness when I drew it, but now I think I have made her look just a little bit older than she is.

Relaxed

This is a colleague who models for us occasionally so as to defray his cost of participating as an artist. Artists make the best models.

Long-stemmed rose

Our new long-limbed model. Drove me crazy as I kept revisiting the question, is her leg (arm, foot, hand) really that long or have I exaggerated it?

Aline Lotter is currently exhibiting:

Roaa

Posted by Aline on October 8, 2012

Pretty in Pink

Roaa is a young (14 or 15) Sudanese girl now living in Manchester. She is a Muslim, I am told, but lucky for us, not opposed to being painted or photographed. We have painted two other Sudanese women, but they were not Muslims. So we felt very honored that Roaa was allowed to pose for us on the last two Sundays. On the right is my piece as completed that first Sunday, in about two hours. I had marked off a 9×12 section of canvas from a pad to use as my surface. Subsequently, I took it to an informal critique, and made a few improvements. Here is the new, improved version.

Roaa No. 1, finished

The changes were so subtle that they may get lost in the translation to digital photographs.

Covering 9×12 in two hours is a lot easier than covering 16×12, as I was remindedyesterday at our second Sunday with Roaa. I decided to paint bigger, intending to go for more of a head portrait. But when she got situated in the light with her hands again cupping each other, I could not resist another half-figure portrait. Naturally, with the enlargement came complications, and I could not achieve the likeness that I had captured the week before. I am going to have to find a way to stand (as opposed to sit, as I usually do) for the painting of larger portraits. When I stand, I can more readily back away to get a better perspective. Or I must at least remember to use my reducing glass. The catch is, while I am working, I’m not thinking about whether I need to check my work. During the process of painting, I may not be “thinking” at all. So every now and then, I should stop painting and tell myself to think. So annoying.

Roaa No. 2, in Peach

The wrap that she wore for this sitting was a peach, almost pink, but at the end I decided to lay over some cadmium yellow, from the tube I got from Michael Harding. It’s so vivid, I love it. Why do I still call it “peach”? It’s the color of the insider of a real peach, isn’t it? Anyway, this is an unfinished portrait, but I’m not going to develop it any further. Roaa thought it looked more like her mother than herself, and that may be because I got the nose too long. Again.

In a parallel theme, I am taking a course with Larry Christian at the NH Institute of Art. It’s the same course that I took back in 2006 when I first started on this art track, but today I’m jumping in at an advanced level. As luck would have it (good luck), nobody in the class is a beginner. Larry encourages–no, demands— his students to loosen up. I like to work fast, so it’s kind of liberating for me. I dug out my compressed charcoal, ready for anything. Saturday, at SLG, I tried to apply the new thinking, with three pretty different results. Bet you can’t tell which one took 20 minutes, which took 40 minutes, and which took 50 minutes.

Getting the Angles Right

Out of the Fog and Mist

Blackest Black

But I know you can tell where I used the compressed charcoal! It’s a bit like finger painting, and it took two days of scrubbing to get the stuff completely off my fingers. Badge of honor.

Aline Lotter is currently exhibiting:

Margaret

Posted by Aline on October 1, 2012

Last week, Becky was my headliner. This week, Margaret is the star. Margaret is another of our regular models. She met with a terrible mishap last Spring: While modeling for another group–in a standing pose, she fainted, and crashed from the model stand onto her jaw, breaking it in three places and damaging 11 teeth. Young people don’t buy health insurance, and Margaret was just past the age when she could have been included under her parents’ policy. But you’d never know from her cheerful attitude that the whole traumatic, painful and expensive mess was anything but an adventure. She even celebrates the scar under her chin. So let’s celebrate her this week, and her youthful exuberance that refuses to be bottled up.

The paintings, all painted in the past month, are shown in chronological order.

Figure on the Green Tuffet

Margaret, portrait from the right side

Second portrait of M, left side

We were so happy to see her again, that we have cut her some slack with the talking. She’s a talker, and even a jaw wired shut could not completely shut her up, according to her dad (as reported by Margaret). That relatively silent period probably increases the happiness she feels now in being able to talk nonstop. Stop her we did, eventually, because you just can’t paint a face that is talking.

AlineLotter is currently exhibiting:

Becky

Posted by Aline on September 24, 2012

I have a lot of different subjects I could go on about this week, and I’m not that great at choosing. My initial instinct was to present a retrospective of all my portraits of a certain model because A) yesterday’s portrait is the most recent thing I have done and B) yesterday’s portrait, of all the many (countless) ones, is, in my opinion, the best likeness. Then I considered the plein air landscape, which appeals to my eye but which is kind of a dead end of a topic, however appealing the image is. Moving backwards, I have a portrait of Margaret from Friday, another portrait from a photograph done Thursday night after work to enter in an online contest, and a my usual nude from Tuesday. Oops! I totally forgot to photograph whatever it was that I did Tuesday, so never mind that one. Either I have regressed further into senility, or this is what it is like to be a full-time artist, almost. But really, I am impressed with myself that I painted (or maybe I drew) every day except Monday and Wednesday of the past week. It would be easier to keep track if I was working multiple days on a single painting.

So that’s the background. I would put it to a vote, but that would be too time-consuming. By the time I got all the votes in and counted, I could have posted a second blog wrapping up all the leftover bits. So it’s between what I can’t resist and what was my first instinct. By definition, we go with what I can’t resist.

The Mill in New Boston

This is a scene in New Boston, on the property of a private residence called “The Mill”. Rural NH folk like to name their homes, but in this case, the name is descriptive: the home was once a mill–the dark red building on the right side of my painting. There were paintable scenes all around us, but this view of the river coursing along where the dam used to be just demanded to be done first. Of course we got permission from the owners to set up and paint from their property, and as we were wandering about, a lovely lady cop stopped to find out what we were up to. Strangers in Town! But we felt Very Safe. “We”, by the way, is just two of us, me and Bea.

Bea had to be back home by noon for a project with her life partner, so I had planned another painting foray for Saturday afternoon in Auburn with a newcomer to NH, but that companion stood me up, so I took that opportunity to make ratatouille out of the veggies I had picked up at the farmer’s market in New Boston. All in all, a very productive day, with a good painting to show for it, and several days’ worth of ratatouille, even if it was overcooked.

The other irresistible topic is the portrait I did of Becky on Sunday. As I mentioned before, I have done many portraits of this model since the first one in June of 2011. This is the best likeness, I believe. You have no c hoice but to take my word for it.

Becky with mink stole

I’m not going to do the entire retrospective, but just for giggles, here is the first one:

Becky No. 1, June 2011

Meanwhile, you may be wondering, “What’s with the mink stole? If she’s so cold, why doesn’t she put on some clothes?” Ah, well! Adrienne’s studio, Adrienne’s mink stole, Adrienne’s concept. What worried me more was, what color is the shine on mink fur? How do I distinguish the mink stole from the model’s hair? My questions–and yours–are still unanswered.

AlineLotter is currently exhibiting:

at the Hatfield Gallery in Manchester; at the Bartlett Inn in Bartlett; at the Red Jacket Inn in North Conway; at the Gallery at Red Gate Farm in Plymouth; at the Yoga Balance Studio in Manchester; at the Pantano Gallery in the Shapiro Library at Southern NH University; at the law offices at 41 Brook St in Manchester; and at her studio by appointment.

Bonus Blog: Cruisin’ and Paintin’ the Essex River

Posted by Aline on September 17, 2012

Last Wednesday I took the day off from my job as a lawyer in my own law firm (I can do that sort of thing when it’s my firm), and ventured South to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts with Sharon Allen, best known as the “plein air gal” responsible for holding our listserv together. I had two tickets for the Essex River Cruise at one o’clock, and figured we could fit in one painting before and one after the cruise. And so we did, even taking time out for a seashore dinner in the town of Essex, and even though poor Sharon was probably more wiped out than she wanted to tell me, inasmuch as she is recuperating from a terrifying regimen of chemotherapy and radiation treatments. We focused so hard on our paintings that neither of use looked up to see what the other was up to. We painted until the mosquitos came out in force and the light started to fail. When I got home that night, I crashed. I can’t imagine how tired Sharon much have been.

Our morning painting was done at Cogswell’s Grant, an historic location including a farm. We didn’t investigate the farm much, just found a shady spot with an attractive view and went to work. My view is of the parking area. That’s not as crazy as it sounds.

Parking for Cogswell’s Grant

The Essex River is not quite visible from here, but it is not far away, to the left of the parking area. The cars, in case you are wondering, are behind the shrubbery on the right.

Our cruise was pleasant, and the weather was perfect for that kind of an outing. Did you know that the 1995 movie “The Crucible” was filmed on an island in Essex, presumably because of its proximity to Salem, Massachusetts. The movie makers recreated the Town of Salem as it had existed in 1692, and it sounded to me as if everything was removed after the movie was completed.

After getting our bites to eat (fried clams being the local specialty, that’s what I had), we set out to find a location that our cruise boat guide had called a magnet for artists–the Cox reservation. Once there, we settled on a knoll with a wide view of the marshy unnavigable strands of the Essex River, looking toward the ocean but not quite seeing it.

View of Essex River marshes from the Cox Reservation

AlineLotter is currently exhibiting:

The Wolfeboro Paintout

Posted by Aline on September 17, 2012

I’m getting a little spacey, a little forgetful; I forgot that I have this self-imposed obligation to post something beautiful and interesting to my blog every week on Monday. My excuse is that I was just too busy yesterday picking apples. Well, I mostly observed the actual apple-picking part, but the whole afternoon was a visit, with my apple-picking family, to old friends from law school, who own a house in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, plunked in the middle of — you guessed it!–an apple orchard. We started with a repast set outside in the orchard–so heavenly! (Heavenly, thanks to the glorious weather we have been enjoying. I entertain a horribly selfish thought: “If this is climate change, bring it on!” Then I remind myself that with warmth comes insects, and invasive plants.)

Anyway, all that information is in aid of explaining why I forgot to photograph paintings for the blog today. There is another, possibly truer, explanation: I am a older person. Older people tend toward absent-mindedness. This is actually because they have lived a long time, long enough to figure out not to sweat the small stuff. Not to imply that you are small stuff. No, you are big stuff, but the self-imposed blog regime is small stuff.

However, I have a few shots taken on Saturday with my smart-ish phone. They are not great photos. I think my previous phone, which wasn’t at all smart, took much better photos. But in phones, as in everything, you can’t have everything. (My smart-ish phone is a Samsung Conquer and it came free with my new Credo cell service provider. I am half-expecting Apple to swoop down and confiscate it after its big court win. Then maybe Credo will offer me the new iPhone. I’m sure the photo quality would improve because I have complete faith in all things Apple, having forgiven Apple for dropping iWeb.

Now that I have got used to WordPress, I would not want to return to iWeb for this blog. With WordPress, I can start the blog at one location (home or office) and finish it at another. That means I can write stuff now, and delay publishing until I get home tonight, take better photos, and post them then–still Monday, just later on Monday. However, another regular Monday thing that I do is play bridge, in the evening. I could work on the blog after bridge, before I go to bed, but, you know, older person? So I’m thinking I had better give you what I have today, and catch up on the good photos next week.

Unfortunately, there will never be a good photo of one subject. Saturday, with a few other painters in the New Hampshire Plein Air group, I participated in the Wolfeboro “Paint the Town” fundraising event. My first painting was sold (YEA!), so I have only that camera phone shot to show for it. Here is the scene I was painting:

Three Boats and a Wetsuit (photo)

It was the wetsuit that caught my eye, but it is such a small detail in the painting as a whole, that I felt I had to draw attention to it in the title to the painting. Also, I worried that the dark splotch might not immediately read as “wetsuit” unless I provided a clue.

Three Boats and a Wetsuit (painting)

The wetsuit painting is, trust me on this, much livelier that it appears to be in this poorly exposed, horribly framed photo. I let the carrier go with the painting. Sometimes I can retrieve the carrier from the buyer, which is to be desired since the carriers (“Art Cocoons”) cost each about $10.

For my second painting, I looked around for a spot overlooked, an interesting corner with good composition and contrasts of light and shade, where I could be myself in the shade. I found one that excited a lot of comments and curiosity from passersby (why would I chose to turn my back on the docks, etc. to paint this dark corner–what could I possibly find interesting enough to paint in this dark corner?), but it was not purchased. Good. I see a few things that I can improve. And I will be able to get a better photograph of it.

Wolfeboro painting no. 2 (Cate Park)

Cate Park Painting–better photo!

P.S. P.S. P.S.

Aline Lotter is currently exhibiting:

Letting down

Posted by Aline on September 10, 2012

Thank goodness, it’s all over. The one-day show on Saturday that I was furiously prepping for–it ended without disaster. Sure, two rods holding the tent up broke, but I had whimsically thrown in some duct tape at the last minute, which rescued that situation. And my little crew of two useless females and one strong clever one were assisted by the men on either side of us in getting that “EZ Up” up. E-Z, bah humbug! It is not anything I could have accomplished alone, that’s for sure. My granddaughter (the strong clever member of the crew) was there at beginning and end for the heavy lifting part, and my daughter kept me company during the day with her mini Pomeranian dog. The sun came in and out, a little breeze snaked in every now and then, and the rain didn’t start until we were packing up. Here is what my 10 ft by 10 ft space looked like.

Left corner

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Right Corner

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I was the only artist there whose entire exhibit (almost) featured paintings of nudes. (28 works framed, of which all but one were paintings; of the paintings, all but three were paintings of nudes) Apparently there was some controversy generated by the decision to show nudes. Two artists (artists!) boycotted the event in protest. But the organizer promised me, when it was all over and we were packing everything up, that they would continue to allow artistic nudes to be exhibited. It grieves me to report that there were at least three other artists present whose nudes were more award-worthy than the one I picked out as my award candidate. I wish I could show you what these winning works looked like, but the Londonderry Art on the Common PR machine has not got as far as issuing press releases or creating a blog.

On a cheerier note, I was a winner in another show. It opened in Plymouth at the Gallery at Red Gate Farm, last Friday. I couldn’t get there because I couldn’t find a ride (granddaughter needed the car more than I did), but I heard it was the best reception ever, and one of my two paintings was honored. Not sure for what, exactly–just a really nice painting. The theme of the show is “Reinventing the Farm. My painting was “Apples Ready to Pick”, and indeed, I painted them at Mack’s Apples, which allows people to come in and pick their own. I guess you could say that is one way of reinventing the farm.

Apples Ready to Pick

Lest you think I was too preoccupied by the above activities to paint, let me reassure you, by no means! I have two new nudes:

Standing Nude

I had to cheat a bit on the length of his legs in order to fit the feet in the picture. I deliberately left the feet kind of unfinished-looking, but notice how well they are planted. I really love this painting just the way it is, dribbles of diluted paint and all. Cameron, if you are reading this, I would love to hear from you whether you think I can “get away” with leaving this painting in this unfinished state.

It was not dry enough for me to mount it for the show, but I stuck it in a frame anyway and displayed it. You can probably pick it out in the photograph of the Right Corner; it is in the middle, on the ground but leaning against the wall. Many of my portly visitors, when they saw it, started considering a new career in modeling.

My second nude of the week is from a 3-hour workshop with Peter Clive, an instructor at the NH Institute of Art. I spent half the time watching him do a demo, and the other half trying to emulate (in small degree) his tighter approach, starting from highlights, then filling in dark accents, and last, working in the midtones. I think I usually start with the midtones. Everybody has their own “attack”, one that works best for them.

Seated Nude (M)

You’ve probably remarked on how restrained this painting is, compared to my usually more bravura approach. The skin tone is totally realistic. I do like it. Although the skin is quite light, the highly lit parts not look chalky. The highlights on my other nudes tend to bleach out. Must have something to do with values, with contrast. One of these days, I will get to the bottom of that.

One last thing of note–only because I have photographs. I will only subject you to one as I know you must be tiring. This is one section of an exhibit of plein air paintings from five or six members of the NH Plein Air group.

NH Plein Air exhibit at Pantano Gallery

One of mine is on the top left. Flo Parlangeli has two–top right and bottom left. Barbara Carr did the one on the bottom right. To see the entire exhibit, go to the Southern NH University in Hooksett, NH, find the library (Shapiro Library, if there are more than one) and then locate the Pantano Gallery within the Library.

Aline Lotter is currently exhibiting:

Prepping for A Show of Nudes

Posted by Aline on September 3, 2012

You can’t wait until the last minute to prepare for a show. I started by ordering a modest number of new frames intended to accommodate my recent paintings of nudes on unstretched canvas, with the mixed results that I described in last week’s blog. This week, while waiting for the second order of frames to come in, I framed up what I could, and worked on those 12×16 canvases that needed paint to the edges. So far, I have nine “studies” from this spring and summer all framed and ready to pack, and five 20×16 more fully realized nudes framed and boxed. Three more 12×16 edge-painted studies and the five waiting on the new frames brings the total to 22. There is at least one portrait of a clothed model included in the collection, and I may bring along other recent figure or portrait paintings. I have to keep in mind that I may be doing this on my own.

Since of the nine studies I have framed there are two that you have not yet seen, I decided to photograph all nine in their frames. But first, the painting from yesterday, which cannot be framed yet:

Owning the Brown Leather Sofa

Now for the nine, in chronological order to the best of my memory:

Week One, Brown Leather Recliner Pose No. 1

This was one of my experiments with the palette knife, and the first of four paintings from the same pose. The second is waiting to be framed as a 12×16 after being painted to the edge. The third, a head portrait and another knife painting, may be left home. The fourth is one of the 20×16 framed and already boxed.

In the Artist’s Studio

This would have been my pride and joy, but I ruined it with a sloppy mount. Lesson learned. It will be on display but not for sale.

In the Artist’s Studio, No. 2

In this photograph you can judge the new frames that I ordered specially for my nude studies. They have a subtle scrolling that harks back to olden times, as befits paintings of nudes, ironically in our liberated age not often displayed. This painting is one of my resizing victims (from 11×16 down to 11×14).

In the Artist’s Studio, Green Drape

I wanted to crop this one, but could not sacrifice either the elbow or the foot, so I had to extend the green drape to the bottom edge. Note to future generations of art lovers: it would OK with me if you were to reframe this one with the bottom one inch cut off.

African Queen

This is the only one of the 22 that looks better in a black frame than in silver or gold.

New Angle on the Brown Leather Recliner

Modern Odalisque

Another resizing victim.

untitled

In the Artist’s Studio, Green Hassock

Aline Lotter is currently exhibiting:

at the Hatfield Gallery in Manchester; at the Bartlett Inn in Bartlett; at the Red Jacket Inn in North Conway; at the Gallery at Red Gate Farm in Plymouth; at the Yoga Balance Studio in Manchester; at the law offices at 41 Brook St in Manchester; and at her studio by appointment.

And don’t forget: Saturday, June 8, Londonderry Art in the Common. (Rain date is June 9)

No Nudes Week

Posted by Aline on August 27, 2012

I mislaid my Tuesday painting of a lovely male nude. That’s the primary reason for depriving you of any paintings or drawing of nude people this week. However, it creates the opportunity to publish the plein air paintings that I left behind in Portsmouth a few weeks ago.

Bridge to Pierce/Peirce Island

This first painting, “The Bridge to Pierce/Peirce Island,” I worked on for about three hours, and brought it pretty much to a point where I felt it was finished. Notice the American flags. They were present, of course, but I could have ignored them. As the result of spending so much time on the bridge painting, I did not have as much time as I needed to finish the second one.

NHAA’s Sheafe Warehouse

I had expected the Warehouse to make for a simpler painting, but I had difficulty with perspective and texture, which took time to work out and so I ran out of time. One day, when I am more experienced, I will know to ignore the deadline and just withhold an unfinished painting from the wet paint sale. I don’t plan to finish this painting. It goes on the discard pile, to be sanded and painted over.

I’ve been wondering why I tend to go in close to buildings instead of situating them in a landscape. I’m beginning to realize that it’s harder to paint a successful landscape painting with so little actual land. Buildings can be beautiful, but they need to be placed in context. In the next painting, I stepped back a little bit–but still I chose to lose the top of the barn.

Swallow Barn

I produced this painting in the course of collecting the above two Portsmouth paintings from my artist friend, Bruce Jones, who had kept them safe. This barn is across the street from his home in Exeter. [Exeter is the home of Don Stone. Bruce paints with Don Stone and has a lovely loose style that you sometimes see in a Don Stone painting. Who influenced whom?] I titled the painting “Swallow Barn” because Bruce’s wife Tracy told me about barn swallows who have made this barn their home. I wish I could have caught them in my painting but I guess they were snoozing. Instead, I put in the shovel, as my quirky substitute for life. Don’t you wonder what use that shovel was being put to, in the middle of August?

Report on exhibits: Two of my plein air paintings were accepted into an exhibit titled “Reinventing the Farm”, opening this Friday in Plymouth NH–the Gallery at Red Gate Farm, 188 Highland Street. The reception is Friday from 6 to 9. I never got around to mailing out the post card invitations to attend the reception. I feel really bad about that, and hope a few of my blog readers will make the effort although I know Plymouth seems a bit out of the way.

Another painting, not plein air but rather a combination of still life and photographic references, that I developed specifically for an exhibit titled “Add Women and Stir”, was rejected. To check out the rejectee, click here. Perhaps not edgy enough, perhaps just not good enough. I look for excuses but “just not good enough” seems most likely reason.

I round out this week of painting-from-life-but-not-nudes with my two paintings of our new Sudanese model, Yannette. These are from our Sunday life group. The first is the one I started last week. I “finished” it this week, which only means I came to a point where the painting seemed uniformly complete and I didn’t feel like taking it any further.

Yanette

Sorry about the glare. The painting is 20×16, which is a very large surface to light without incurring any shine anywhere. I’m going to be doing more paintings of that size now that I possess a 16×20 canvas pad, so I promise to figure out how to photograph paintings of size more competently. Surely there is something on the Web, if only I can find it.

I may have rushed the full length portrait of Yannette to conclusion because my secret desire was to paint a closeup portrait of her.

Yanette Profile

Finally, a fuller explanation of why I mislaid my lovely Tuesday nude. I have been readying my nudes for display at the Londonderry Art in the Park on September 8 (Saturday). As I mentioned in an earlier post, Londonderry is not only permitting the display of pre-approved nudes, it is encouraging it by making the theme of the show “Bare Essentials” and awarding a prize for the best nude in the show.

I probably have twenty or so nudes painted in oils, and hundreds of nude drawings that I could mat and frame. To keep effort and costs down, I have decided to concentrate on the oil paintings. I ordered six new, distinctive frames, which arrived Thursday, two days early. I selected my ten favorite nudes–almost all of them had been painted on 12×16 unmounted, unstretched canvas. I had to choose whether to crop to 11×14 or to add paint to the edges where my support had covered up the surface. This choice resulted in a lot of agony. Even the painting to the edge distorts the composition of the original painting. If only I could wave a wand and produce odd-sized panels to mount them on, and odd-sized frames to put them in. Then, picture this: I go to insert my cropped-down treasures in the new 11×14 frames and they won’t fit! Five of my hardboard supports had been cut slightly too large. Price being no object when it comes to presenting my paintings, I got on the phone today and ordered five more frames cut slightly larger than 11×14. Meanwhile, I had put aside my last nude because it was not quite dry enough for the mounting thing, and it disappeared in the midst of the chaos. I’m not worried. It will turn up, and it will be on display in my tent at the Londonderry Art in the Park on September 8. Be There!

Aline Lotter is currently exhibiting:

at the Hatfield Gallery in Manchester; at the Bartlett Inn in Bartlett; at the Red Jacket Inn in North Conway; at the Gallery at Red Gate Farm in Plymouth; at the Yoga Balance Studio in Manchester; at the law offices at 41 Brook St in Manchester; and at her studio by appointment.

Painting outside in not so random back yard

Posted by Aline on August 20, 2012

Some Back Yard!

Saturday I got out to paint with the New Hampshire Plein Air painters for only the fourth time this season. There are two reasons for that rarity–first and primarily, Sharon, our leader, and my usual ride for these activities, was knocked low for the season by precautionary chemo and radiation treatments; and second, I have been satisfying my painting urge with the twice-a-week life painting sessions. (Last Saturday I got out, in my own car!, and painted two scenes in Portsmouth, part of the Art Festival paint out organized by the NH Art Association–but I left my paintings behind for a wet paint sale, without grabbing photos first. No, they didn’t sell, and I will get them back eventually, and if they look as interesting as I remember, I will post photos of them then.)

So this Saturday we showed up at an Open House in Madison, NH (two and a half hour drive from Manchester) to decorate the grounds with our artistic activities. The place would also make a great artist colony. The realtor lured us with promises of food, drink, bathrooms, and good views. She came through on all counts. We’d like to buy the property, but it’s a little outside of our means. So we are hoping it doesn’t sell quickly so she will have us back in the Fall. There’s a view across the fields of a cluster of buildings, including a churchly steeple, that I have my eye on. But the most compelling view was this one of the water and its reflections.

Back Yard photo

My position was dictated by the presence of a watercolorist working to my right, so the tree was smack in front of me.

I think it’s important to document all the discomfort a plein air artist has to put up with, after jostling for a decent view of the desired subject matter. I had to peek around the sides of the tree to see what was going on in the margins. I was on a hill– fortunately, facing downward. Sideways would have been impossible. Because I was on a hill, my sandals dug in between the toes. So I did the sensible thing and went barefoot. The flies of Madison apparently go gaga over bare feet. Luckily I had my bug spray with me, and doused the feet. (No more bug issues, which is amazing. I suspect the realtor of debugging the property before we got there.) I was standing to paint, so my back was hurting. To give it respite and get a longer view of my painting, I had to get out from under the tree (see that branch in the foreground?), and climb uphill to my chair, whence I took the above photo. Can you even see the painting from there? Here is a better look at my work in progress.

Some Back Yard! WIP

The sight that attracted me to this painting was the dark and light reflections in the water. You can see in this photo that I started by laying in the darks first. By the way, to lay out my composition, I was drawing with paint from my new tube of Michael Harding Red Umber. Since I never heard of Red Umber before, I thought you too might be curious about it. Then, after I got some beautiful reflections in, I allowed the leaves of the irises or lilies to obscure the water. By that time, I had dragged my chair downhill and was dabbing away at the painting from a position below it. Shocking? There are no rules, damn it! I regret not taking more WIP photos. Could be that the painting was much better somewhere midway, before my back started to kill me.

Naturally, I still got in my two life painting sessions on Tuesday and Sunday. Tuesday I experimented with more extreme colors mostly in one range–yellow to red.

Male Nude in Red and Yellow

Sunday’s painting is either unfinished or a study. A lovely Sudanese refugee posed for us, her very first experience at modeling, in one of her native dresses.

We will have her again in the same pose next week, so I will have to decide whether to revisit what I started yesterday, or start over.

Yannette

One factor: I did yesterday’s work on a 20×16 piece of canvas, taped to a board. Seems a waste to paint a study on something that large.

They (good artists) say that worrying about waste is something a good artist gets over in time. Not there yet.

Aline Lotter is currently exhibiting:

at the Hatfield Gallery in Manchester; at the Bartlett Inn in Bartlett; at the Red Jacket Inn in North Conway; at the Bedford Public Library, in Bedford; at the law offices at 41 Brook St in Manchester; and at her studio by appointment.

Deception

Posted by Aline on August 6, 2012

Yesterday’s painting, part still life, part breathing life, represents a bit of a change of pace. I requested a view of the model’s back because I wanted to concentrate on larger shapes, more subtle changes in value. I didn’t really intend to get hung up on the decorative pillows and drapes, but I can’t help myself. To my eye, those pillows now look exactly like the real thing, even though I suggested only their basic characteristics. It doesn’t take much information from the eye to translate a form into something the brain recognizes. That ability of the brain to glom onto something and make sense of it is what enables a certain colleague of mine to see elves and monkeys in just about any painting of shrubbery or clouds. That ability might also be the thing that gets in the way of accuracy when you really need it, as when you are painting a portrait. “That’s it, you got that!” the brain exclaims, but it’s just not trustworthy.

The comparison of my reclining nude to the Ingres “Odalisque” is inevitable–well, I like to think it’s inevitable. Comparing my work to Ingres’ is a little bit of . . . is “hubris” the correct word? What the hell, let’s do it anyway:

300px-Jean_Auguste_Dominique_Ingres,_La_Grande_Odalisque,_1814

La Grande Odalisque by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres

Much has been made of the anatomical distortions in Ingres’ figure. Ingres is one of the foremost figure artists of all time, so he didn’t make anatomical mistakes. He exaggerated, on purpose, the length of her torso and right arm. And it works, if you don’t think about it too hard.

My model’s back was almost as smooth as Odalisque’s, but I took pains to include as much nuance as was available. I’m now thinking some of it is overstated. I have to keep reminding myself, it doesn’t take much of a change in value or color to get the point across, not with the brain of my viewer zeroing in on the point with great efficiency.

In my Tuesday Life Group, the pose was a carryover from the week before. (One of our artists needed two sessions to work on her painting.) So I moved to a different part of the room, one I usually avoid. As a result I suffered from glare from the sunlit windows combined with insufficient light on my canvas. Add to that the fact that my new lens in my right eye does not focus as well as the old one, cloudy though the old one was. With so many visual handicaps, you’d expect me to strike out on this one altogether.

African Queen

Apart from one yellow breast and one red one, there’s not much I want to change. Is good vision overrated? No. I worked hard to compensate for the poor conditions: I wore a hat with a brim that I could pull down to shield my eyes from the glare from the windows, and I would bring the painting in close to my eye when I needed to be able to see what I was doing (putting the lights in her eyes, for example. or the highlights on the earrings). [Footnote: My left is the distance eye, which I use to see the model, whereas the right eye, is the near eye, which I use to see what I am painting. It was the right eye that got a new lens.]

Seeing what you are doing in fine detail is not important most of the time, unless you are a classical artist. (Like Ingres). By the way, this is a pretty good likeness, my untrustworthy brain thinks. And how about those earrings! I so loved painting the earrings, which required a bit of skill, and the headband, which required no skill at all. I love being able to put a stroke of paint on a spot and having it pop right in place and speak its nature. Obedient.

I want to record herewith an “improvement” made to another painting. I was bothered by the highlights on her eyelids, and when a friend confessed that the highlights bothered her too, I fixed them. Here is the before and after.

On the brown leather sofa (BEFORE)

AFTER

Less is more when it comes to values. I tend to overdo the highlights, because that’s what I see–the highlight on dark skin is almost blindingly white, like light bouncing off a glass. In a painting, however, such bright highlights look strange. Or, perhaps, this exemplifies another deception, eye-brain-wise: those highlights were never as bright as I think I see them, they just looked bright by contrast with the surrounding color. And it illustrates another truth–sometimes you need to separate the painting from the live subject of a painting in order to see and correct the values.

So to sum up this week’s theme: Beware of deceiving yourself, but take advantage of your viewers’ willingness to see what you want them to see.

Aline Lotter is currently exhibiting:

at the Hatfield Gallery in Manchester; at the Bartlett Inn in Bartlett; at the Red Jacket Inn in North Conway; at the Epsom Public Library in Epsom; at the Bedford Public Library, in Bedford; at the law offices at 41 Brook St in Manchester; and at her studio by appointment.

Jewel Tones

Posted by Aline on July 30, 2012

Reclining Nude, Green Drape

I didn’t have to think too long before coming up with this week’s caption, “Jewel Tones”. Any buyer of women’s clothing knows what “jewel tones” means. It means, for the rest of you, saturated color. At least, it means that to me. I didn’t look it up. It’s one of those intuitive things, primarily enjoyed by women, which as it turns out is singularly appropriate this week. You’ll see.

My first example has the turquoise green, with which I drew my image so as to force some green into the skin tones. My second image depicts some actual jewels. And my third goes all the way out there in jewel-tone-land, and I love it best.

Girl on Green Drape is another study in my quest to find the colors of black (so-called) skin. My favorite part of this painting is her head, with perhaps the jewelry in close second place. One of my mates (in the Brit sense of chum) declared the cheek color “authentic” and the earring and necklace “unbelievable”, by which I think he meant, totally believable. I have been doing a pretty good job with heads lately, even as I focus all my discussion on skin tones. I have figured out that, when it comes to heads, less is more. The secret is placement. All you have to do is get a stroke of the right paint in the right place and voila, it looks like something! Leave it for a bit, then go back and analyze what will make it better, and apply that stroke. And so on. Until you can’t think of any way to make it better. So now everyone can go out and do it!

I finished the painting that I dreamed up for another WCA themed exhibit. I really racked the old bean for this one. Googled the theme, for starters. “Add Women and Stir.” It means, I gather, that getting women involved in politics and business and such will lead to world peace and a healthy environment. Good idea. However, you must have noticed that I am not disposed to paint ideas. Conceptual art, and what I call message art, just does not appeal to me. But I am a member of the WCA (Women’s Caucus for Art), actually on the Board of Directors, and I also like to participate in exhibits. It’s a stretch for me, so it’s a good thing. All stretching is good.

This will be the third concept piece I have done for the sake of a WCA exhibit. (For most other exhibits, I have been able to shoehorn existing paintings into the themes.) I painted the nude brown fairy in the Iris for “Flowers, Interpreted” (see it here) in order to sneak a nude into an exhibit–hard to do around here. I did “Starry, Starry Night” for “On Target” (which by the way was selected for a newspaper article on the show).

So here’s my entry into “Add Women and Stir”:

Grandma’s Jewels

Do you get it? Old woman sighing over the hope represented by the button for the Equal Rights Amendment, which never did garner the requisite number of states to ratify it and make it part of the U.S. Constitution. She is going through her jewelry box (costume jewelry–but still in line with today’s jewelry theme), selecting pieces to give to her grandchild (probably a girl, but maybe not), and comes across that old ERA button.

Last month I was despairing over this piece, and thought I might have to start over. Revisit my wailing here, where I argue that regardless of outcome, no painting is a waste of time. But instead I painted out the parts I didn’t like and found some photographic references online to guide me in the repainting of those parts. Does the old woman look like Queen Elizabeth to you? I devoutly hope not.

The “Add Women and Stir” exhibit is going to be juried by Sarah Chafee of the McGowan Gallery in Concord, even though the exhibit itself is headed to the Newport Public Library. (Usually somebody affiliated with the exhibit site juries the entries.) Notwithstanding all the agony of producing this painting for this exhibit, it might not be accepted. Will I feel stupid? A little, but it’s a risk I took on willingly, for the sake of a project that stretched me. As I said before, nothing is a waste of time.

My final jewel today is from yesterday, still so wet that the camera caught glints of light all over the place. I started removing them one by one with my iPhoto blemish removal tool, but it was too tedious. You will be able to respond to the jewel tones anyway.

The Color Purple (Standing Nude against Purple Background)

With this painting I felt for the first time as if I had got beyond the fretting over black skin tones and had just painted. I stopped being literal. It’s probably a truism, but you start this artistic journey by being literal, by trying to replicate exactly what you see. Somewhere along the way, you let reality go and paint what you feel, smell, taste as well. Maybe even hearing comes into it, since we play music during our sessions with the model. Amy Winehouse yesterday– I’m catching up with the current music scene, thanks to my fellow artists. Followed by Eric Satie. I couldn’t say which one wrought the bigger influence on this painting. It must be the combination: Winehouse-Satie. Not quite as impressive as a Joplin-Satie combo would have been, but right up there.

Aline Lotter is currently exhibiting:

The color black

Posted by Aline on July 23, 2012

It’s a paradox. Scientifically, black is empty of color, and white, the color of light, contains all the colors. But an artist wishing to paint the color black selects all of the darkest colors on his/her palette and mixes them together. It’s a delicate balance to keep one of the original colors from dominating, but done right, it creates black. So there are two kinds of black–the kind that is devoid of color, and the kind that contains all the colors.

Lately, I have been talking about painting all the colors I can find in Caucasian skin. “White” skin. More accurately, light skin. Today I have two new paintings of a “black” model. More accurately, a really dark-skinned model. Not my first really dark skin, by any means, but my first while consciously searching for more color in skin tones. I honestly don’t know, as I put this blog together, whether being color-conscious has made any difference.

My very first portrait class, a few years ago, utilized a black model, but I don’t have a photo of that and besides, we don’t need to go back that far, surely. Here is one I painted last fall or spring from a life drawing (so I was imagining the color):

Proud (Nude Seated on Pedestal)

From the looks of it, I used a lot of burnt sienna and ochre.

Here is a portrait from life done last spring:

Sabrin in the Gold Chair

Looks like I started with burnt umber. Sabrin’s arm photographed grayer than the actual painting, so the color here is not quite as awful as it looks. I used a lot of purple here.

Here is a head shot of the same model:

Girl in the Red Turban

I was in such a hurry–the model was very late to arrive, that my choice of colors here must have been pure instinct, based on what I saw. Let it be acknowledged, however, that the model’s skin was quite a dark brown, not caramel brown.

Then, just a few weeks ago, I posted this painting of Grace in the yellow chair, which I believe is my first live painting of her. Apparently, I found some red in her.

A Nude Study in Brown, Mustard Yellow and Lime Green

All of that was done without much thought. Some thought, just not as much as I have been wallowing in lately. Gosh, I hope that’s a sign I am becoming a better artist–more time to wallow in thought.

I’m skipping over the next two–one because of the hot pink drape that I hated, and the other because I hated the whole thing (although I have not yet destroyed it). If you feel compelled to check it out, the hot pink drape was two weeks ago, and all-bad one here.

Finally, drum roll please, here are the two from last week:

The red hairband (Nude Reclining on Blue Stand)

Nude, On the brown leather sofa

I hope you can tell which was the earlier, because I tackled the second one with even more resolve to find colors other than brown. One problem I have with the darker, brown base is that the color tends to gray down if you just add white, like that arm in Sabrin. Lighter colors seem easier to keep pure. No, that’s just an excuse. The truth is, I couldn’t see any colors that were not variations of brown. Mostly warm browns. My model said other people have claimed that they see blue in her skin. Not me. Maybe some navy blue in the shadows. Maybe some hint of sky blue in the highlights (as I found on the Girl in the Red Headdress). Maybe purple in the shadows. But no aquas, no greens.

I am loving the brown sofa painting, regardless of color issue–the pose and composition are very pleasing. Almost lost the foot, but managed to rescue it by foreshortening the lower limb. Also, I discovered, with my new eye (cataract removed two weeks ago), that the blue drape reflected the brown of Grace’s skin, which was kind of startling. Note that the brown leather sofa is a match to the brown leather recliner. If we keep this up, you are going to become familiar with every piece of furniture in Adrienne and Heather’s studio.

Grace is back on deck this Tuesday. Maybe I should start by drawing her figure in green or aqua, instead of burnt sienna, just to see what effect it has. Not kidding.

Aline Lotter is currently exhibiting:

Skin, Colors of

Posted by Aline on July 16, 2012

Back in the Brown Recliner (Nude Seated in Recliner)

By now you should be aware, I have been caught up in an activity that could be headlined: Live! Nudes! Good thing I am a little old lady with white hair, or regular people might suspect something irregular is going on. This luxury of painting live nudes (as opposed to drawing) has come my way fairly recently, thanks to the generosity of a fellow artist, Adrienne Silversmith, who lends her studio (nominal fee) for my Tuesday Group, and runs her own group on Sundays. It was at Adrienne’s Sunday sessions last Spring that I first embarked on painting, rather than drawing, the models. Why? Because Adrienne had the model holding the same pose, not just for the 3-hour session, but for multiple successive sessions. (I didn’t take advantage of the multiple sessions to continue a painting over more than one session–instead I made a series of four paintings of “The Pose”.)

It was this simple formatting decision that opened the door for my fantastic voyage into live nude painting. Most life drawing sessions are broken up into segments of quick poses, slightly less quick poses, and longer (1 hour) poses. The quick poses get you warmed up, and challenge you with positions that a model could not physically hold for longer than 1 or 5 minutes. Trying to paint short poses can be frustrating, although I did do it once when I had only painting supplies with me.

In the course of these few months of live nude painting, plus the portraits class that I took with Cameron Bennett, I have learned a few things about painting skin tones. (Caucasian skin tones, that is. I feel I am still in the experimental stage with darker skins.)

Before I had live nudes to paint, I painted them from drawings that I had made during our Saturday life group. My very first one, a few years ago, came out all harsh in reds and blues, and I was disappointed in it. It went away to that special place reserved for things to do over, or paint over. Then, after a long hiatus, I brought it out again, and painted over it with different colors.

From a Charcoal Drawing, a Painting of a Nude Woman

I may have tried a set of pre-mixed colors put together by Howard Sanden. Sanden is one of the top portraitists of our time, and he had honed his skin-tone expertise to the point where he premixed his skin-tone colors. Then he decided to sell those premixed colors, and I won a set on eBay. I found them harder to use than mixing my own colors. They interrupted my rhythm. Figuring out how to use them added a layer of complication. They limited my colors as well. I wasn’t aware of that shortcoming at the time, but as you can see, I invented skin tones even here that were not to be found in Sanden’s palette.

When I was working from a black and white drawing, I had to invent my colors. A lot of lavender shows up in my shadows there–probably because, as a plein air landscape painter, lavender shadows were what I was used to. In a live model, lavender is not much there. Maybe it depends on the model–most of my best paintings feature Rebecca, and her shadows can be red, green, gray, red, and ochre, pink; and purple when I wanted it really dark. For example:

(“In the Artist’s Studio”, my still favorite nude painting, which I keep finding excuses to show.)

So I have stopped worrying about skin tones per se. Instead, I try to evaluate my paintings on the basis of value, and just enjoy the color. Here and there I will throw in a few patches of traditional skin color, merely as a reference point for the viewer. “Here’s what this skin looks like in the light.”

“Back in the Brown Recliner”, shown at the top of the blog, is my latest, from last Tuesday. We started a about 20 minutes late, so I had to finish up the painting at home, which is kind of interesting in itself. I seem to be on a clock of three hours, start to finish. I don’t consciously pace myself to finish within three hours–it just happens. Except last Tuesday, but that was because we spent a lot of extra time figuring out where and how we wanted our model to pose.

What we ended up with was a pose practically identical the “The Pose”–that Sunday pose held by the same model in the brown recliner for four weeks in succession. But this time I had a different angle on it. Here is the No. 4 painting in that original series.

The Pose, No4 (Nude Woman in Brown Recliner

I have 2 photos of this painting, taken a week apart. Here is the other one.

The Pose, No. 4, v. 2 (Nude Woman in a Brown Recliner)

The colors are so different, it’s disturbing. I believe the first one is more accurate. Perhaps it goes to show how it’s not the color of skin, it’s the values and the heat that make or break a nude painting. Well, any painting, really; it’s just more obvious with nudes. It also goes to show that you can’t trust a photograph to convey the true beauty of a painting.

By the way, I’m posting larger versions of some of my paintings because I lately realized that you cannot click on an image to enlarge it. That must have been something I remember from the iWeb days. I hope you enjoy seeing the brush strokes up close. I see you lose the title though. I guess nothing’s perfect.

Aline Lotter is currently exhibiting:

Painting Luscious, or Painting with your Tastebuds

Posted by Aline on July 9, 2012

There’s nothing like oil paint to please the senses. My senses, at least. Not that one wants to smear it all over one’s body, although that sometimes happens when one least expects it, but it just looks sensuous. I concede that a good pastel painting can look as if it had been created by oil paints . After all, the same pigments form the bases of oils, pastels, and watercolors. But for sheer yummy lusciousness, however, there’s nothing like oils. I love the look of wet oil paint in particular. The glossiness of it. You never get that with pastels or watercolor. Or, dare I say, with acrylic?

To keep that glossy look of wet paint, I have been using a medium that includes Liquin. It works so well that recently when I took a painting in to be scanned for reproductions, there was a concern that the shine would interfere with the scan. It didn’t, thank goodness.

I bring this up today because the painting I was working on Sunday sings to me like a ripe peach. I don’t know how else to describe it.

Study in Reds (Nude seated on pillows)

Although it might not come through on the computer screen, every area of this painting is permeated with red. I was in a red mood, I guess.

I might have been teetering on the edge of another breakthrough (yes, yet another breakthrough): this one, out of realism and into something different–a realm where seeing is only one of the engaged senses. Feeling, smelling, hearing, even tasting seem to figure in the experience. Notice the words I chose above–singing peaches, luscious paint. “Peaches” evokes tasting and smelling. “Singing” evokes hearing and feeling. Touching– through the brush–that IS painting. I think maybe, just maybe, this ability of a work of art to evoke more than a visual response is what makes art important to our civilization.

Lest you think I am going all weird and mystical on you, let me reassure you that I have not gone off the deep end or found religion. But I like my new hypothesis: only when you are able to let go of the visual rules for creating art (I mean, not break the rules, but LET GO) and allow your nonvisual senses to manifest themselves in a painting, only then are you making good art. Let me be clear–it’s not about breaking any rules; you may, or you may not. However many rules may underpin a great work of art, they don’t control a great work of art. Think Van Gogh.

Now that I’ve got some rules down pat, I will try to let them slide in favor of putting my other senses in charge. I will at least be thinking about doing that.

My last two Tuesday paintings are more down to earth:

The Last of the Hot Pink Drape (Nude Woman Lying on pink-draped stand)

The title means: no way am I allowing that drape in a future session! You’d think that I’d like hot pink, given my fondness for reds. But this shade of hot pink was too intimidating, too overpowering. I couldn’t see color anywhere else. This painting could have been pretty good if I had only solved the problem of color and background. The lines of the figure should be the story here, not all that distracting pink and bilious background. Might be worth fixing. In my studio where no hot pink is allowed.

Fletch, Thinking? (Nude Man seated on blue-draped block)

I could have called this a “Study in Complementary Colors.” (blue and orange) Reading or sharing my distress over the hot pink drape of the week before, Fletch, who most of the time is one of us artists, arrived with his own blue drape. He’s also good at moving the model stand and getting the overhead fans to work. Full service model! For most of the session, his left foot was not visible–it had sunk deep into the three pillows that he was resting it on. It didn’t look right, having his leg end at the ankle, so at the end we substituted a trash can for the pillows just so that I could get a view of the leg terminating in a proper foot. (One of the pillows got obliterated as well–who needs that detail when you have a lovely foot to admire?)

Mark the date: September 8. On this day the Town of Londonderry NH is doing a very courageous thing: it is allowing depictions of the nude figure in its annual Art on the Common show. The special theme of the show is “Bare Essentials”. Every nude must be juried into the show in order to screen out anything deemed too . . . pornographic? I am so hoping that some of my nudes will be acceptable to the censors. But whatever, even if my nudes don’t make it, this is monumental! — this welcoming of nudes in a venue to be frequented by innocent young children whose eyes have never beheld such a thing before, presumably. PLEASE support Londonderry’s Art in the Common 2012 with your enthusiastic attendance.
Aline Lotter is currently exhibiting:

at the Hatfield Gallery in Manchester; at the Bartlett Inn in Bartlett; at the Epsom Public Library in Epsom; at the Bedford Public Library, in Bedford; and at her studio by appointment.

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