Waiting for My Creative Muse...

So. This is what I have to do sometimes... just lay and wait for something to happen. It is often I show up to the "easel" and... begin to panic... over-think... worry... over-plan... try to control EVERYTHING about my painting or a show I am painting for. Well today I learned (from my fantastic friend and painter Lisa Lamoreaux) that you can't micromanage your creative muse. If you do, she doesn't show. You can't control her. And I have no business even trying. My job is to paint. That's it! Just show up, it's that easy.

So today, after spending a great deal of time worrying about what colors to use, what if I forgot how to paint, is this piece too big for the show, what will I paint next, blah blah blah... After spending as much time as I could in swimming in self sabotage, I finally shut down my over active inner critic and... guess what? - my muse showed up!

The following resulted after spending 5 hours of time NOT thinking at all:

Under-painting

Untitled Diptych

Oil on two wood panels

36x72"

The start to my new year has been wonderful! (except for the part where I got Pneumonia) I have moved into a new studio in Renton, WA with a wonderful friend and inspiring artist, Lisa Lamoreaux. This new space has a lot more walls that will allow for me paint bigger and work on several things at once. Additionally, my new studio mate and I are business buddies and accountability partners! It has been so amazing spending time with Lisa on a regular basis to share ideas, plan our year, and simply check in with each other on our goals etc... I think after spending the last three years painting at home really makes me realize now how important it is to be surrounded by other artists. It is super motivating. Especially because we share a lot of the same drive and passion for what we do... I look forward to new adventures this year indeed!

I have a full schedule again this year with 2 shows coming up this March and April at the Cole Gallery and Lucia Douglas Gallery. AND I am happy to announce that I will be featured in American Art Collector Magazine this coming April!!! Lots of new things on the horizon I will be sharing more later!

Please join Jennifer Phillips Art on FACEBOOK for more up to date daily posts and in progress work photos!

Can I Get a Drum Roll Please?

Began with a light sketch and "fixed" into place with Matte Varnish.

Used my infamous "Saparindian" color to tint the surface and begin wiping out highlights.

Adding the darks to establish more value shift.

Began "sculpting" the edges of the trees... one of my favorite parts.

Used a mixture of Alizarin, French Ultra Blue, and Cad Red to create the rich dark undertones of the red tree.

Once I get into laying the rest of the color I am in a trance... almost like the character on Heros where his eyes glaze over and magically a painting appears from his subconscious. I hear nothing and see nothing for hours until I get to a comfortable stopping point. 

Therefore, I didn't take anymore in-progress shots till the end. Still need to get it professionally photographed, but you'll get the idea here.

For every artist there is an area of their painting of which shows a spot where they have fallen in love... for me it is the flickering light that falls on the tips of the trees and the juicy glow of red on the main subject. Makes me all warm and fuzzy...

"Turning Red"

30"x30"

Oil on Panel

SOLD

On display at the Greenwood-Phinney Artwalk May 8th & 9th

Tah dah! It's finished!

"The Road to Lilliano" Commission

36"x48"

Oil on Canvas

SOLD

As promised, here is the final piece and a step by step slideshow to follow. Thank you to everyone who left me feedback on JenTV... corrections have been made and the slide shows are  more comfortable to watch! Yes folks, I have slowed them down quite a bit so you can actually see what is going on! Whew! I told you I need an assistant. (grin)

I can't wait to deliver the piece to my clients house! It is so fun to see what it looks like in it's new home. What an honor it was to do such a large piece. Now I have definitely have to visit Italy and the road to Lilliano!

Published in the Daniel Smith Artist Materials Catalog!

Last year I was contacted by Ampersand Art Supply to write an article about working in oil on Gessobord. (They are a wonderful company that makes some of the best archival wood surfaces I have ever used!) I was honored to say the least, and began a new painting documenting every step of the way... I am excited to announce that this article has now been published in the recent copy of Daniel Smith Artist Materials Spring Catalog!  The article is titled, "How to get More Out of Your Painting Surface, Working with Oils on Gessobord". View the article by clicking HERE.

Detail from "Starting Point"

The painting titled, "Starting Point", that I did for the article has recently sold, but all the photos I took of the painting in progress have been organized into a slideshow now showing on JenTV! I have now added the JenTV feature to my website! So now you can explore all my slideshows and movies about technique in one spot! To view this slideshow visit JenTV now! -click HERE.

Under-painting Cont'd...

Well, folks, I'm back. I have had several technical difficulties over the past few weeks that have kept me from posting my photos to my blog... sorry for the delay, but I am VERY happy to be back!

These photos posted today show a continuation on my initial stages on the under-painting for "The Road to Lilliano", a commission piece I am working on.  I've been blocking in the darker shapes of the bushes that line the road, with my special Sap-ar-indian mixture and a bit of Viridian, all while pulling out some highlights with my rag.

I am just dying to get to the trees and their branches that are so beautifully reaching out in all directions! It will truly be my most favorite part... or maybe painting the breaks of light that are sprinkled all over the road... must have patience, first things first!

This Just In... VENTILATE YOUR STUDIO!

My newest commission!

"The Road to Lilliano"

Oil and noxious fumes on canvas.

36x48 

Ventilate: (verb) to cause air to enter and circulate freely.

I have been working on a new project for a wonderful couple I met at one of my shows back in May. It is my first extra large painting that I have done in my new studio. Lucky me! I have found out that my studio lacks a certain necessity for an oil painter. AIR. The kind that flows in and on it's way out, takes with it all the harmful fumes that accumulate when painting like I do. Instead, they linger. So I turn a little green and pass out for a couple of minutes, and then I am good to go. Just kidding, it's not that bad, but unfortunately it does cause my painting sessions to be a bit short.

This piece is wonderfully inspiring. It is farther along than this picture reveals at this point, and I am waiting for paint to dry to the touch before I can continue so I thought I would post some pictures of my process in the mean time. So I will begin feeding my blog updates daily... so stay tuned and you will see, just what a cool painting this will be! If you have time to come and play, you will find out how it changes every day! In the end it will become, something that doesn't look so dumb... Ok, kidding again. It's not dumb, I was just trying to rhyme. It's just that as we all know, the beginning steps of a painting look a bit rough around the edges so to speak. So close your eyes and come back tomorrow!

New Commission Piece

 

Back in July/August I met a nice lady that ended up commissioning me to do a new piece for her interior design client. I was honored! Immediately I built the wood panel from scratch. I have been tackling with paint little by little every week. I am taking this one a bit slower so that I can focus. I chose not to use drying medium this time so the paint is taking forever to dry! So long, in fact, that I am way over due! I feel awful! I really under estimated the timeline on this one... 

So even though I am farther along than these photos represent above, I thought it would be fun to post the in progress work from the beginning. Meanwhile, my painting is drying. Tomorrow I will continue to work on it and in the end I will probably throw together a slide show about it.

Kind of an extra bonus for the client to be able to see the birth of their new artwork! 

These beginning stages are very important to me. I wash in my darker undertone. This time I used my famous "Saparindian" concoction with raw umber and quinacridone gold. Then I literally wipe out all my white areas to reveal the shapes of the long twisted tree branches. So I rely heavily on my ability to see negative and positive shapes, adding and subtracting paint as I go. 

This wipe out method is a great way to "sketch" in oil... once it is dry, color is the next step.

The Arrival of Jen TV

Titled: "Highway 26 Black & White" 12x12 

Oil Pastel on tinted Ampersand Hardbord

$309 

SWEEEEET! I'm on tv! 

What a cool tool... not me silly, the slideshow playing above... 

Anyway, last night I documented my full painting session in order to post to my bloggie today. It took a little while, as it was unfamiliar territory uploading all the pics, but I now have a tool that I can post videos and slideshows of my work and techniques to share with all of you! Eventually if you click in the upper right side of the window above on "Shows", you will be able to view whatever is playing on Jen TV at the time! Kinda like flipping through channels on a regular tv at home... it even has sound, just click on the musical note! I'm a genius (not really).

I will be working on a series of new oil pastel paintings over the next week for a show I am having at Neptune Coffee on Greenwood this Sept. 6th from 6pm-10pm. So, yes, Bert (my brush-incase you are new) and I will be taking a little break for a week. Probably good, as he is still recovering from his eye injury. 

My newest friends are a box of Sennelier Oil Pastels. They don't have eyes, so there is less chance of injury with these guys... I chose to do a black and white version this time, in order to play off the idea I typed about in my "Wipe Out" post a couple days ago... eliminate color and focus on playing with value and composition. Plus, I just really like doing pieces that have high contrasting values - creates a glow and a little drama. There are techinquie things going on in this painting that I intend to provide at a later date explaining my step by step process, including a final posting about how I frame these puppies...

So, why was last nights image upside down? No, I haven't lost my mind. In fact you may already do this yourself. I often will turn my paintings upside down in order to get a fresh view of them from a different angle. It helps me to identify issues I may be having with composition, value, or color. Once inverted, problem areas (usually) stick out like a sore thumb. I often continue to work on the piece while it is upside down. This way I can turn off my brain and stop it from recognizing what I am working on. I can then focus more clearly on compositional elements.

I can also get a fresh view of my painting by looking in a mirror. I have a HUGE mirror behind me in my studio. My husband thinks I am vain. Ok, maybe a little, but seriously - it is so nice to be able to quickly turn around and instantly I have a different view point of my painting... or my hair, or my new shirt... 

Another thing I do is look at my painting from a distance, either during the process or after I have put the brush down. I have this habit of leaving my painting out in the open for it to "catch my eye" when I least expect it. I will leave it sitting in the corner of the living room over night sometimes. In the morning I wake up, climb out of bed, pop my contacts in, and jump out of the hallway into the living room like I was at a surprise party! OR I will walk through the hall and peak around the corner at it as if I was to sneak up on it. My eyes instantly fall on my painting and I can then determine what areas are problematic. I will leave it out for several days until I finally decide if it is finished or not. Yeah, I'm crazy (not really).

Geesh, my blog posts are getting wordy. Sometimes I just like to type till my fingers swell. Thanks for leaving your comments... please don't "dine and dash", let me know your thoughts...

A final note before I pull another painting out of the night... Thank you to Nina in Stockholm! Nina Aidas mentioned me on her blog today - seems I inspired her all the way over in Sweden! (my tail is wagging!) -check out her blog

Wipe Out

Discovery Park oil on canvas 11 x 12

I love to work in warm hues. It is an addiction, a habit, or maybe an obsession...I don't quite know where it comes from... almost every painting I do begins with an under-painting of some sort of warm reddish color. The red often peaks through the added top layers of color, creating areas that seem to glow while creating a unity in my work with out even thinking too much about it!

The process of under-painting for me is one of my most favorite moments with a brush and rag in hand. I use a wipe out method - literally slathering the surface of the canvas or board with color and wiping back the white areas of the canvas where I want to reveal the lighter values in a painting. I can accomplish several important things in the early stages of a painting this way:

1. Tone my canvas

2. Establish my Compostion

3. Play with Value (light and dark)

4. Find a balance between hard vs soft edges

5. Get familiar with my subject matter before introducing color.

I am a firm believer that besides being able to accurately draw your subject matter, composition and value are the back bone to a successful painting. Color is just the icing on the cake. Under-painting is a great way to work out these elements. And for those that are afraid of color (like me!), it is an amazing way to empower yourself to paint with out fear!!! 

Way back when I was in school I discovered a paint mixture that I still use today to do all my under-paintings. I call it Saparindian! It is a mixture of Daniel Smith brand Sap Green, Permanent Alizarin Crimson, and Indian Yellow. It is the most beautiful transparent rusty red I have ever found. Sure you can buy transparent red oxide or something close at the art store, BUT what is the fun in that!? Mixing my own allows me the freedom to play with the formula... I can make it browner or redder, or even yellower, depending on my subject matter! I mix up a whole bunch and tube it myself for later use... Which makes me think... if want to have one to try, I can make one for you, just email me. Even though I just gave away my secret formula... sigh... I just really like to share...

I often will do a painting like the one above, and fall in love with the soft glowing quality so much that I will not paint on top of it as originally intended. This one is complete. No color needed. It says what I needed it to say, all with one color (or three depending on how you look at it!)

Happy Painting!