Ellie WC

This is a watercolor portrait of Ellie the year she graduated from Syracuse University. Ellie used to work in the coffee shop in Hendrick's Chapel. Ellie knew everyone's name, knew how they preferred their coffee, and met everyone with enthusiasm and a great smile. She was also delightfully "crazy" and yet had a "no nonsense" side to her as well. She would make a wonderful teacher and eventually entered a graduate program leading to teacher certification. Just before Ellie graduated, she posed for me in the great light of the Hendrick's Chapel. I've turned two of the over 100 photos of Ellie into paintings. My first painting was done with pastel and the second (shown here) was painted with watercolor. Both paintings show Ellie in a serious or contemplative mood. I'm not quite sure why I was drawn to the more somber mood, but it surely wasn't her typical demeanor. The more technical goals of this painting were: to loosen up, cut back on detail, leave white paper, and reveal some of the defining properties of watercolor. I made some progress toward meeting those goals, but I still have a long way to go.

Watermelon Party 1903

This is a watercolor painting from a picture that was published in a book entitled "The Way We Were." The book was published by the newspaper company (The Pilot) in our town of Southport, NC. Wanda Cornelius, a member of our watercolor painting group, arranged with the Associated Artists of Southport and two local galleries to show paintings based on images in the book. My entry shown here leaves out some of the people in the photograph and takes liberty with color and some of the buildings in the background. Around the turn of the century a Quarantine Station was located just off shore from the village of Southport. When the station was no longer used for its intended purposes, the station became a place to visit for recreation. The painting is of the watermelon party on the dock of the Quarantine Station.

Fish Factory Evangelism

This is a watercolor of an old fish processing factory. It's on the waterfront in Southport, NC. It's abandoned and falling apart. But on it's exterior is a white, wooden cross someone has attached to the building. I've learned, but have not verified, that a group of Christians at one time used the vacated building as a meeting place. The old building has been about gathering fish from the beginning until the present. Jesus at one timed asked his disciples to become fishers of men. What started out as a place to receive and process fish, became a place where human "fish" gathered and fished for others.

Finished Painting of Lena

I finished this painting of my granddaughter, Lena, just in time to frame it and give it to my daughter, Karmin, and her husband, Tom, for Christmas. I had to make up some leaves and move a branch around. There are are lot of pointers in the painting which hopefully draw the eye to Lena's face.

Lena Painting Stage 2

Lena's right hand in the photo was too "posed" (all fingers perfectly aligned). I decided to change the hand and ended up looking at my own hand in a mirror and redrawing Lena's hand. Ultimately, I made only a few changes which, to my thinking, improved the look. I learned that small changes can make a big difference in my judgement. The tree gave me (is giving me) lots of trouble. I started putting in a lot of detail to attempt to capture the texture of the bark. At some point I decided that there was too much detail and smudged out (and erased) a lot of the work. When in doubt simplify. I am also learning that it is important to carefully study objects before attempting to paint them. When I get going, I begin to make up the texture. Unless I really know the object from study, I cannot capture the texture or essence of the object. Slowly, I added some of the detail back. The tree is still bugging me. I just read a quote from Sally Strand, "The lights carry the color, but the darks carry the painting." Now I'm concerned about the darks (trees left and right) and how they will or will not support Lena. My fear is that the dark trees with their detail will steal attention away from Lena. We'll see. Back to work.

Lena Painting Stage 1

This is the beginning of a portrait of my granddaughter, Lena. The portrait is being painted with pastels on paper. My process starts with a drawing on rather cheap paper (newsprint). If my corrections are destroying the paper, I may use a light table to trace the drawing onto a fresh piece of cheap paper where I continue to make corrections. Once I'm satisfied with the drawing, I'll again use my light table to trace the final drawing onto tracing paper. On the back side of the tracing paper, I cover just the lines with soft, white pastel. The tracing paper is laid on pastel paper and the lines are delicately traced in order to transfer the image to the pastel paper. If the lines are traced with too much pressure, the transferred lines are difficult to cover or erase during the painting process. I have to remember to trace with just enough pressure to transfer the line to the pastel paper. The white lines in the above "start" are traced from the tracing paper. Since errors and distortions occur in this tracing process, the white guidelines on the pastel paper have to be checked and corrected. If time permits, I'll show the progress of the painting in subsequent blogs.

Portrait of Granddaughter Carson

This is a portrait of Carson Brooke Schafer, my granddaughter. Carson is the daughter of my son, Andrew, and his wife Lauren. The painting is pastel on Wallis paper and measures about 22" x 32." There is no one photo that was used to create this painting. Carson's head is from one photo; some of Carson's hair was made up or taken from different photos; Carson's body is from another photo; the chair is a neighbor's chair which was painted purple; the texture, color, and grain of the wood in the chair is from an old bridge; the flowers were found growing up someone's mailbox; and the cushion was invented. The color and texture of the chair was changed to "match" a chair at Carson's home. Carson has beautiful hair which changes color in different photos and in different light. I was unable to capture that color in the painting.