I don't have a current picture of "Fighter" to post, but I have been working on it quite steadily the last few weeks.  Something new has been happening a lot lately.....I'm gaining more and more confidence in myself  and my work.  This to me is quite astounding.  I have never forgotten Ron Sherr (my painting instructor back in the early 90's at the Art Students' League of New York) telling me that the one thing that I lacked was confidence.  And I remember the fear that it struck in me...instead of seeing it as an observation that could lend itself to helping me, I saw it as....... a death curse.  I thought that because he said that, I would be cursed with a lack of self-confidence for the rest of my life.  It has taken me a loo---ooo---oong time to believe in myself as an artist, but also as a human being capable of living a productive, prosperous and successful existence.  I was telling one of my students today in class that a couple of years back I had been listening to an audio-book, Success is a Choice, by Rick Pitino.  The senctence "positive thinking is a discipline" was a total newsflash to me.  I thought that positive thinking was something that might or might not happen around 2 in the afternoon, maybe once every 2-3 weeks.  I had a pretty serious and monumental problem with negativity.  It took a really good therapist, a lot of positive thinking and even some good meds to help pull me out of the dungeon of self-doubt.  Oh and building a belief in something wonderful, good and powerful that could nurture and sustain me, my soul.  All this stuff is what helped to create "Fighter", which to me tells the story of this most personal battle.

Painting Peonies alla prima with a palette knife....from start to finish!

Ok............here we are with the blank canvas, getting ready to paint the peonies which are behind to the left.



.....and here I am, all eager to get started!



Here is the start...directly on the white canvas....no toned camvas for all of you Incamminatites.  (That's we who paint at Incamminati, art school started by Nelson Shanks)  When I was still in Florida, as a Mennonite, pre-Incamminatite, this is how we (Nike Parton and students) would start a painting.

Here is the start of laying in color, relatively thin with the palette knife. 

Closing in on the gaps, and then adding more definition to the flowers and the foliage.

and................finis!!!!
Time to go mow the lawn!!!

Just came back from a road trip with Karl, my husband.  We drove to Harrisburg to drop off "Miranda" to the State Museum of Pennsylvania for the 2012 Art of the State show, which opens June 16th.  We ate at a restaurant, and I met a man that I asked to photograph for a painting that I want to do, that involves four people.  Can't wait to start it!

The latest update of my portrait that I am finally finishing after starting it two or three years ago.  The young woman sat for me the first couple of days, and then I worked it from photographs.

Ugh!!!!!!  This makes me sick!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I was just thinking about this painting the other day, wondering what I had done with it....my first formal still-life painting from when I was around 16-17.....someone commissioned me to do it for a wedding gift, and then turned it down.  I was so depressed that I threw it away and a friend of mine retrieved it from the trash!!!!!  Wish I still had it!!!!   Well....sorry...can't get it on here for some reason.....you'll have it see it on my facebook page

Ok....as was promised....here is some of my art collection as promised in afore-mentioned post.

portrait of me by Pilar Cruz

This is a portrait of me done a little more than 20 years ago, when I was about 28.  My friend, Pilar Cruz, from Nelson's (Shanks) class had come over to my apartment (414 West 56th Street, NY NY) and painted me one Saturday or Sunday evening.  I love this little portrait (14" x 14" appr.).  She was one of my closest friends back then, and we are friends again on Facebook.  She is a singer/musician  now., and you can hear some of her music here:  http://soundcloud.com/goup

Nike Parton, watercolor on paper

This is a watercolor (appr.18" x 24") by my first painting instructor, and mentor, Nike Parton of Sarasota, Florida.  I think that it was painted in the late 70's when I was studying with her.  She died about three years ago.

This is a print of Nike's....she would make them into cards and then send them to me at least twice a year, for Christmas and for my birthdays.  I have about 15 of them.  I loved her dearly, admired her talent and passion for art, and wish that she was still alive so that I could call her up and tell her what I was up to.  She is the person responsible for getting me to the Art Students' League of New York....where I met Nelson, Pilar, and so many, many others.

Dianne Rappissi, oil on canvas board
Dianne was the second administrator of Incamminati, and the whole time she worked there, about a year?, she secretly yearned to be a student there......she eventually got her wish!  She was a very good student, and now lives in Denver, Colorado.  I was visiting her in Massachussets and we went out painting together, and then exchanged a painting.

These two paintings were done by Darren Kingsley, who was actually one of my instructors....figure drawing, graphite....for about two years.  I found these in the trash bin, and rescued them.  When he discovered that they were being picked out of the trash he started breaking them, and them putting them in the trash.  Everytime that he would come over to my house, I would hide them, so he wouldn't know that I had them.  Then one time. recently, he came over for Thanksgiving, and I fessed up to him about the paintings.....he said that he had already been told about them by some other person (rat)....he had known that I had them and that I hid them everytime that he came to visit!!!

this is a palette-knife portrait painting that Kerry Dunn did, and then gave me for taking care of his cat, Bodacious, one Christmas, so that he could go down to Florida to visit his family.  Kerry is now an instructor, but when Incamminati opened 10 years ago, he packed his belongings in his car, and moved up here to study with Nelson...................and lived in the car for a couple of weeks before I found out about it, and informed him that he was living with my husband and me in Germantown.  It was timely...he was getting a cold, and was getting pretty ripe for a shower!!!

This is a 24" x 12" oil painting that Lea Colie Wight did, and exchanged for one of my paintings.  No tidbits of information here, except Lea is one of the instructors at Inc, and is a very nice person.  We both have our studios on the 4th floor of the Wolf Building where Inc. is located.

Dan Thompson painted this, and gave me it for my 50th birthday....thank-you Dan!  Dan and I are very good friends,  and I studied drawing and painting with him for a number of years.  This is a 16" x 12" oil painting on canvas.

This is by my bff, Natalie Italiano, a "duotone" sketch that I fell in love with, and traded one of my paintings for.  Nat just finished a year-long project of painting 100 alla prima portraits of teen-agers in her area of Haddonfield, New Jersey.  Now she is getting ready to write a book about the experience.  She is responsible for getting me into two galleries this month.....she's a multi-tasking, talented, go-getter!!!  She was also responsible for getting me to start a blog.  She has a million ideas a minute!

These two paintings were done by Snehal Page, when she was a student at Inc.  She was a pleasure to have as a student, and lived with Karl and me for the last year that she was here in the States.  She moved back to India at the end of the school year(last year).  I still miss her, but she is coming back for a visit this month because she got accepted into the International Portrat Society Competition 2012.  She entered last year, but she got rejected....she didn't care, she just wanted to say "I am here!"  That became the title to my self-portrait that I did this past year.

"I am here!"  60" x 24"

This is a collage that my friend, Richard Swartz, made, as a gift almost 30 years ago.

 

this is a self-portrait that I did some years back, and Nelson helped me with it.  He actually stood behind me looking into the mirror, and reaching over painted the face for me!  Always a great learning tool to watch the instructor work, and I was left with a gem that I got to keep!

This is one more of my paintings that Nelson helped with when I was at Incamminati as a student......and it's mine now!!!

............and don't even think about stealing this collection.....I have two nasty pitbull things that will bite your hands off if you try!

8:00 a.m. in my studio, getting ready to work on the portrait of Mehgna Varma.  Carpooled with Joe Dolderer, another one of my talented artist friends here at Incamminati.  I love talking about painting with him, and we have a lot of fun when we are together......uncanny...there is about a 30 year difference in age between us.  The painting above is one of Joe's...gorgeous right?
Ok.....to the easle