Today I wrestled with an attempt at painting a tree...it doesn't look great.
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Today was incredibly beautiful. I sat for an hour and a half and drew these weird clumpy things.     Today, my artist friend, Airy and I spent the afternoon at the botanical gardens and came across this miraculous plant. Many bees fluttered around with clumps of the brightest orange pollen stuck to their legs.    Airy's painting for the day Once a year, the de Young Museum hosts an event where they invite florists to bring in flower arrangements to compliment some of the artworks. Afterward, my friend Airy and I sketched.    I find portraits extremely challenging but felt I needed to face this one.  A good friend's son recently died, so I painted a portrait. I'm unhappy with the way the mouth turned out, but I like his hair. It took me a long time because every time I sat down to paint his picture, I became overwhelmed with emotion. To help me, I turned the picture upside down and painted this way.  I am still having a lot of problems with watercolor painting. I'll keep practicing.  Airy's current work in progress.
If I were to try and save this one, I would use white gouache and eliminate the 3 avocados on the left. Even then, it would not be great.  The stamen needs to be adjusted and shadows were not completed.   This is too overworked.  I like the looseness of this one.
 Photo by Mark    I decided to cool the surface and strengthen the shadows. Did I improve it?  Mark's tribute to artist by making a stencil.
I started en plein air group to help get artists out of the house and into the parks. This week we met in the Mission Community Gardens. I am currently struggling to paint looser with watercolor and have been practicing a lot. I'm not happy with my finished paintings but I DO enjoy sitting outside and staring at flowers.   I still need to add the shadows underneath.  Mark's pressed flower experiment
I thought I would try using an ink outline, but realized that I do not care for that kind of style. It pushes things into an illustrative or cartoon world. I also struggled with remembering to keep certain areas unpainted for highlights. Here I tried to scrub away some of the paint, which resulted in damaged paper.   |
AUTHORTerrance Graven is a San Francisco artist whose installations incorporate sculptural elements, performance art, costumes, sound pieces, and theatrical lighting. CATEGORIES
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March 2024
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