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Friday, July 17, 2009

Painting Faces and Art Show

Contemplative reverie and emotive blues... these paintings emerged from my hand...Painting Faces
I find myself drawn towards expressing faces with my art lately, whether sketching or painting. The two above are my latest acrylic paintings. My goal in most of my paintings is to express, capture gestures, feelings, a sense of place, and not photographic realism at all. First came the blue face, then two weeks later the more flesh and lavender toned face. I took them to my critique group on Wed morning and got lots of positive feedback on them. Someone pointed out they looked surrealistic in style, and another said the blue one reminded her of Chagall's flying figures...another that they looked like two sides of a woman and would fit in an upcoming breast cancer exhibit. I'm finding the critique group very helpful in the different viewpoints expressed while we take in each of the paintings created, all unique. And so wonderful and inspiring to see the variety of art from these ten talented women.

I was going to include these two faces in my art show, however, decided I couldn't part with them yet, they are too fresh, and I must keep them around for a while. So I'm wondering, readers, do any of you have difficulty letting go of some of your paintings or art?

ArtSplash Art Show!
So, here's a picture of my art space at Artsplash which is through this weekend. I did the hanging and set up on Wednesday. I still hung one very large heavy watercolor painting, but the rest are all the light weight acrylics I have worked on. Again, I have been painting seascapes and desert scenes, favorite subjects. And birds... Stop in for the reception tonight or anytime before 5pm Sunday when it closes.

8 comments:

Clare Wassermann said...

I have really enjoyed your blog

HeartFire said...

Thank you Clare... it is fun to do!

Tara's Art Camp said...

Your work looks so nice for the show. I hope you sell lots!!!

Love your faces, so realistic. I hope you like acrylic better now.
Although, in this heat I'm finding my paintings drying so much faster, I'm not sue to that!

HeartFire said...

Tara, I do like them a bit more, have been experimenting more with the blending. But like you said, they do dry awfully fast! No dallying around with those... glad you like the faces.

Binky said...

I am of the opinion that if a painting is too precious to sell, you're not painting enough.
Your show looks great.
What is the sale in August?

HeartFire said...

Binky,
Yes, I could be painting more... I think I was on a non-painting plateau for quite a long while during which I was experimenting (still am) with lots of media. In the end after these few years, I seem to be circling back into painting again and excited with experimenting with new and mixed media. As for the selling of them, I started painting just for myself/expression, and often still do, not with a goal of selling which distracts me into painting what I think people will like instead of tapping into me. So sometimes I am more attached to one than another... it's probably a letting go thing, since when I think about it, a particular painting I'm attached to might be more similar to letting go of a personal journal page. But no matter, I do what I need to do. I am not driven to sell. Fortunately, I live to make art, and not the other way round. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on it.
The art sale in August is at my fiber/rughooking friend's (Sharon Baker) house... she invited me to set up with her & always does well. I'd give you a link but she has none, she's super prolific & talented.

Gwen said...

Thanks for the comment on my blog, I love your face paintings, and I hope that the show did really well!

HeartFire said...

Gwen,
I did good at the show, and I'm glad you like those face paintings... thanks for the encouragement!