Blog
1/31/2013 6:35:52 AM
DAY 30 OF 30 PAINTINGS IN 30 DAYS!!!! Wow, I made it! I have learned more in the past month than I have in years of painting. I began to think of this as a painting vacation and not a challenge. My last painting is not quite finished but considering it's size and that my schedule is packed for a few days I am calling it finished enough for now. This is a painting about light. October light to be specific. There are those rare October days that are perfect. The color is at peak, the sky is blue, and the breeze is warm. When one of those days occur I grab my daughter and we head over to the same field where Max takes his walk. My daughter is a trooper who lets me photograph her in different poses and outfits. This pose was from one of those days. I did a 5x7 color study in October and thought of doing a larger work. After I became comfortable with getting a painting done each day the thought became, "GO BIG." So I did. This was as far as I got in one day. There are some light shapes I would like to cut into the background to give a feeling of depth but one thing I learned in these 30 days is how to avoid noodling and take it to finish. I will post the finished painting later. Now I am going to have a glass of wine and call it a night. Thank you to Leslie Seata for hosting this and thank you to those of you have followed these postings and have been so kind to comment on them.
October Afternoon. 24x36 Oil
Happy Painting,
Vianna Szabo
1/30/2013 6:01:29 AM
Day 29 of 30 Paintings in 30 Days: Wow, I can see the finish line. Honestly when I started I wasn't sure that I could complete this challenge. It has changed my work more than I ever thought possible! If you had told me January 1st that I would be completing a 18x24 oil in one day I would not have believed it. The little Max paintings allowed me to jump right in and work on this big one. The palette was already out, the paints chosen. The shapes blocked in. It was a matter of repeating what I did before, sort of. I kept Max pretty much a flat shape and then really played with the texture of the grass for contrast. Lots of palette knife work and working close with the values but changing the color for dimension. This painting is about texture more than anything Letting the slide show roll of the walk with Max kept me from copying and focused more on getting the feeling of the field and the winter day. "Dog Walk" 18x24 oil
1/28/2013 11:04:30 PM
Day 28 of 30 Paintings in 30 Days: This is my favorite of the three small Max paintings. It is more of a gesture than the other two and the simplicity of the the dark shape with the softer shapes and edges of blue, violet and ocher give the impression of Max wandering off, oblivious to anything but what his nose tells him. This is a painting where I feel like I knew when to stop. That is an important lesson to learn. End Of Walk, 5x7 oil
1/28/2013 9:25:08 AM
Day 27 of 30 Paintings in 30 Days: The dog walk series continues. Once again using Max, our black lab-ish mutt, as inspiration. Max is not a complex dog. His wants are simple, food, squirrel, couch, love, and walk, make up his daily requirements of dog life. Simple shapes are what the composition of these paintings are about. I am hoping to capture the gesture of canine exploration without a lot of detail. "Sniff Test" 6x8 oil. To purchase this painting and many others please visit my 30/30 collection.
1/27/2013 7:11:22 PM
Day 26 of 30 Paintings in 30 Days: My daughter was teasing me that her days of modeling for me are over; she has been replaced by the family dog. Payment is doled out by walking him, giving him treats and his beloved din-din. I did three little paintings today and blocked in an 18x24 all based on a walk in the snowy field with the family dog, Max. A black dog against white snow and the ocher patches of grass allowed me to play with local color. Usually I am a form freak. I love all the teasing of values and edges that turn form but with Max and snow I just painted shapes. Black dog shape, shadow shape, snow shape, grass shape. What fun to see the shapes become a record of his blissful walk.
If you would like to view a larger version of this painting visit the 30/30 collection on my website. "This Way" 5x7 oil
1/26/2013 7:47:29 PM
Day 25 of 30 Paintings in 30 Days: Today was a play day. I love watercolor and am a big admirer of those who have mastered the medium. I am not that familiar with it or what pigments and paper do what. So I played around with painting using a limited palette of permanent rose, new gamboge, ultramarine blue, and hookers green. The paper is bristol board 400 series. It is very smooth and the paint can be moved around on it easily when dry. Oil and pastel are such forgiving mediums and it is easy to get lazy and feel like you can fix things later. If I play with watercolor some more it could force me to be more conscious of each stroke and what it will do. I also love how the whole painting changes as it dries. Lots of unexpected surprises show up which usually make the work more interesting. "Waiting" 14x11 watercolor.
1/25/2013 7:11:22 PM
Day 24 of 30 Paintings in 30 Days: My lovely friend, Kim, sat for another lovely friend and I on Tuesday night. I was not happy with the painting I got at that session so I revisited the portrait today using the live sketch and photos. This is painted in a method learned from a workshop with Robert Liberace. The canvas was toned with a neutral gray acrylic then sketched in with a mixture of transparent oxide red and ultramarine blue. This mixture resembles burnt umber but is not dull when it dries. Next the shadows were massed in with the same mixture. Next I blocked in the lights using white and transparent red oxide in a mid-value. Using more white the highlights were blocked in. Areas of gray were left open which is an easy way to make a transition into the shadow area. Finally a bit of white and cadmium red laid in a couple of spots helps give a feeling of the form changing without changing the value.
I left much of this with the line showing on purpose. Amy Foster (my other lovely friend) and I will be having a two person exhibition called "Line and Brush:Two Figurative Visions." Amy is passionate about drawing and is an amazing draftsman (woman?). I will be the brush half of the show but thought this little portrait could blend both. "Kim" 8x10 oil
1/24/2013 8:25:32 PM
Day 23 of 30 Paintings in 30 Days: This was a fast one. Ran out of time on another painting I was working on and decided to paint a quick one for the evening. After playing with strong color the past two days it was kind of nice to tone it down. "Shiny" 8x10 oil
1/23/2013 8:02:16 PM
Day 22 or 30 paintings in 30 days: This was the morning demo. I took a painting from seven years ago that was not-so-good and changed it dramatically into somewhat-better. The old painting had fall leaves and a cloth and the edge of the table and folds in the cloth. It was a painting that was about everything and therefore about nothing. I tried to simplify it to make it about the light and the rose. Of course there was nothing to reference to so the idea was how can I make this work by just thinking shape, value, edge, color, and texture. It is not the best painting but it was a good demo and I could see the light bulbs above students heads as the unneccessary was removed and the painting strengthened. I am a lucky teacher with great students!
1/22/2013 2:09:54 PM
Day 21 of 30 paintings in 30 days: The painting today is brought to you by the color red. Still testing the limits of the still life box and decided to go hog-wild with color. I had to work fast because today is a day of paper work followed by a day of teaching so I need a couple of paintings today to stay on top of the challenge. "Turnip Top", 8x10 pastel on U-Art paper
1/21/2013 8:01:58 PM
Day 20 of 30 paintings in 30 days. Today I decided to do a color study to work out the composition of a larger painting that I have in mind. Color studies are a blast, no pressure, just a chance to lay down some color values and see if the ideas work. When I painted with Plein Air Magazine in the Adirondacks there was this beautiful abandoned house about a mile out of Paul Smiths College where we stayed. The sprawling home had been grand at one time but was slowly returning to the earth. Something about this house called to me and there are several paintings in the waiting. The light in the Adirondacks is breathtaking and I wanted to capture that moment where afternoon nods to evening. "Home Away" 8x6 oil
This and many other of the 30/30 series are for sale at my website. www.viannaszabo.com
1/20/2013 5:24:05 PM
Day 19 of 30 paintings in 30 days: I knew I had to work from life after my struggle yesterday. A leggy geranium is budding on my kitchen counter giving a nice spot of color in winter. I brought it into the studio and duct taped it into the vase so it would not slip down. What I didn't count on was it responding to the light and opening and turning as I painted it. Once again limiting myself to the 30 still life pastels and am now pretty sure about the set and any changes that should be made.
1/20/2013 4:55:35 PM
Day 19 of 30 paintings in 30 days: I knew I had to work from life after my struggle yesterday. A leggy geranium is budding on my kitchen counter giving a nice spot of color in winter. I brought it into the studio and duct taped it into the vase so it would not slip down. What I didn't count on was it responding to the light and opening and turning as I painted it. Once again limiting myself to the 30 still life pastels and am now pretty sure about the set and any changes that should be made. " A Touch of Summer" 9x12 pastel
1/20/2013 9:53:18 AM
Day 18 of 30 paintings in 30 days: Ever have one of those paintings that you loved, then you thought I'll make one little change which led to bigger changes and then it was a whole new painting and a whole new mess? That is what happened here. I started this one a few months back with a simple color wash on Wallis paper and built the figure into the wash and it was a lovely painting. I should have stopped there.
" What if I add a suggestion of landscape?" was my next thought and soon the painting became literal in the description of the landscape and the figure was swallowed by everything around it. I have been surprisingly happy with some of the paintings I have done in this challenge and so I hoped some of that ju-ju would transfer into this one and fix it. I worked hard, too hard, on this yesterday and this morning. I did learn some new application with pastel. I began applying the soft pastels by rubbing them onto a cloth and then applying the color with my finger in the cloth pressing in the pigment to make different marks. I began rolling the round pastels to see what effect that would give. Lots to learn but this painting is going back on the shelf. Perhaps if I had done the challenge previous to this painting I would have known better than to mess with it in the first place. No title yet, 24x18 Pastel on Wallis Paper.
1/18/2013 5:16:32 PM
Day 17 of 30 paintings in 30 days: Went to a friends studio to paint from the our lovely model, Becka. She has such a sweetness about her and beautiful coloring. I was in a dark corner so it was difficult to see the colors on my palette. I relied on my experience with a limited palette to help me through. The colors I used were cadmium red medium, yellow ochre, ultramarine blue and titanium white. I know the value and the saturation limits of this combination and simply thought, "Here it goes a bit more orange" (cad red and yellow ocher) "Next to it it cools and lightens (add white) "Then it warms and goes slightly purplish ( more red, touch of blue and yellow). The goal was to do a painting and not a portrait so I spent a lot of time on the entire painting and let the face stay loose. That was hard, every cell in my brain wanted me to refine the face, but I knew my time was limited and at the end of two and a half hours I called it done. Becka Waiting 11x14 oil
1/18/2013 10:13:17 AM
Here is a step by step of View From Above, 9x12 on U-Art 400 grit.
First of all I am limiting myself to only the 30 pastels in this still life set of Terry Ludwig's. I choose the colors and I am trying them out to see what they will do.
This is the initial drawing and lay in to check the composition. Since this will be mostly white on white the shadows will be the foundation of the painting.
Now the lay in of the color values keeping in mind that this is white on white and I will be glazing with the lights to get the effect I need later. So the colors are going in pretty bright and strong now.
Now the fun begins! I dip an old watercolor brush into thinner and brush the surface of the paper letting the pigment mix and drip. The trick is to start with the lights then move to a value that is one step darker until you reach the darkest darks. Keep the brush clean in between washing the values or it will mix to one value all over. The thinner makes the painting look much darker until it dries.
Here it is dry and ready to be painted on. It is hard to see in the photo but it dries lighter and takes on a watercolor appearance.
Now most of the hard work is done and it is a matter of refining the decisions I made early on.
Finished, I think. Still might play with this one in the future.
1/17/2013 8:22:46 PM
Day 16 of 30 paintings in 30 days: Once again I did not paint what I intended to. This collection was on the table and I happened to be looking directly down and thought, "That's it, that is what I am going to paint tonight!" I limited myself to the 30 pastels in the still life box . It was a real challenge and I am not quite sure I am done with this piece. I may add more pastel to even out some of the tones. When you work with such a limited pastel palette it is tough to get what you want. You have to plan and envision what the painting will look like at the end. It is like playing chess, trying to see what the pigment will do ten steps ahead of where you are. I did take photos of the process and will post them tomorrow on my blog.
1/16/2013 7:53:26 PM
Day 15 of 30 paintings in 30 days. Halfway through! Wednesday is my long teaching day so I am posting my demo for the pastel class from last week. Now to eat and go to sleep.
Below is a mini- demo I did of spheres showing how the color of the light affects the color of the shadow. Demo of Onions, Pastel on U-Art.
1/15/2013 2:43:58 PM
Day Fourteen of 30 Paintings in 30 Days: Yesterday it was about painting sunshine on grass and today it is about sunshine on snow. I went for a walk in the woods with my two favorite men, my husband and son. It was a perfect winter day. Temperatures were in the high 20s, the sun was shining and there was abundant snow which carpeted the forest floor. The shadows were a beautiful blue shifting from cobalt to ultramarine. I tried to memorize the feeling of light knowing that I wanted to paint it. I shot a few photos so I could capture the unique shapes of the shadows. That night I did a demonstration for a local art group using a limited palette. I was going to do a portrait but opted instead for a painting of the walk while it was still fresh in my memory. The limited palette consisted of ultramarine blue, permanent rose, cadmium yellow medium and white. I toned the painting with the rose and then laid the lights on top of the toned canvas to get the pattern. When I got home I stuck it in my freezer to work on at a later date. The snow has melted but I decided to see how far I could get with this painting. It has a sketchy feeling but I like the sense of memory it carries about a perfect walk in the snowy woods. "A Winter Walk" 10x10 oil on canvas.
1/14/2013 6:58:44 PM
Day 13 of 30 Paintings in 30 Days: Ever have one of those paintings that insisted on being painted? That was the case for Koala Days. This was from the same photo session as "Koala Games." My daughter posed for me while I shot photo after photo of her one glorious October day in 2010. Last night I thought I would do a pastel still life today. I had it all set up in the corner and ready to go. Before I went to bed I flipped through some photos and this one of her in the field with the hat caught my eye. This morning when I woke up my first thought was "time to paint the figure" No, I had a still life set up waiting for me and that was what I was going to work on but this nagging feeling of "paint the figure" kept rolling around in my brain. One thing I have learned over the many years of painting is when the muse is knocking at the door answer it. I spent a delightful time in my studio pushing around paint and raising the value key to create sunshine. Viridian and yellow ochre pale were predominant on the pallet and they created every green under the sun, and I mean that literally. Sure would be nice for the muse to visit me again tomorrow but I probably won't be so lucky. "Koala Days" 20x13 oil on canvas
1/13/2013 8:40:00 PM
Day 12 of the 30/30 challenge: I thought I would do a warm up for a bigger painting tomorrow. This method of painting consists of a transparent wash of pure colors brushed over the canvas. In this case it was permanent rose and indian yellow. Then paint on top of the wash and allow bits of the under layer to shine through. Lots of thick gooey paint in some of the light areas push the feeling of dimension on the canvas. This is a lot of fun to play with but very difficult to get a good photograph of the work.
1/12/2013 9:02:24 PM
I wanted to play with some flat shapes and see how they would play off of a simplified face. This gentleman fit the bill. I spotted him at a civil war reenactment and with his top hat, red shirt, and bright yellow coat he stood out even among all the other grand costumes. He was gracious enough to let me photograph him. The reenactments are great places for collecting photographic reference and the people who are participating make wonderful models. Still only used the portrait set but added the lime green again. "Colorful Character" 12x12 pastel
1/11/2013 5:31:38 PM
Day ten or one third of the way through, yay! I was feeling better today and joined several friends to paint from the model. I decided to work in umber with the idea or washing off some of the early poses to create the background. This leaves a nice transparent drippy undertone to work over. The first 10 poses lasted one minute and I had fun alternating between line and mass to try to capture the gesture. We then went into 3 five-minute poses. I was having some trouble because the canvas was too wet and would not take any more paint. Luckily I just rubbed out the trouble makers and by the time we went into 10 and 20 minute poses the canvas took paint again. In the longer poses I added white with cadmium red to get a feeling of light. The umber mixed with white took on a nice greenish tone next to the red. I have posted some close ups below. "Gregs" 24x18 oil on canvas.
Bottom detail- no pun intended!
Top detail
1/10/2013 5:22:08 PM
Day 9 of 30 paintings in 30 days. A version of the plague has visited our home and I woke up this morning as its newest victim. Still, it is not so bad to be sick when all you have to do is paint. Another trial of the Terry Ludwig portrait set. Still working with 30 pastels. This time I did have to add in a lime green pastel to make the colors work. I will revisit the set and see what colors I am not using and where the lime green could go. " Becka" is 8x10 on Wallis Paper that was sold at the last IAPS conference. This paper is a beautiful warm gray with slight mottling. Kitty Wallis was selling it cheap because it was not a standard color but I love the uneven tone as a background for portraits. I'm hoping she will be selling it at the conference again this June.
Happy News: I found out today that "Koala Games" placed an Honorable Mention in the "Out of the Box" division of the Portrait Artist Society of America Members Only Competition.
1/9/2013 8:47:08 PM
Day 8 of 30 painting in 30 days challenge: OK, today I am tired! This was the first day of the winter semester and I taught three classes back to back. Being the first day it was also demo day for the new students. So I did two demos today. I will post the other one at a later date. This was for my alla prima still life class. The goal of the class is to paint a still life from start to finish in three hours, less if you consider I always give a lecture. I have the most amazing students that continuously impress me with their curiosity and ability to take on any challenge I give them. The focus on the class is on understanding the process and not on getting a masterpiece but I have seen some remarkable work finished in that class. I guess doing the 30 paintings in 30 days challenge is giving me a chance to be in their shoes, minus the bossy teacher of course!
Demo Day 6x8 oil on canvas
1/8/2013 5:58:18 PM
The walk in the snow yesterday inspired me to do a white on white still life. I still limited myself to the 30 within the Terry Ludwig set. A bit challenging but it is good to try them out in different color keys and see what happens. White As Snow 9x9 pastel on U-Art paper.
1/7/2013 9:38:38 PM
Day 6 of 30 Paintings in 30 Days: I got a late start today, My husband and son were home and I decided to play hookey and take a hike in the snowy woods with them. The sun was shining and the cast shadows of the trees were pure cobalt blue. I thought I might get a painting at a demo I did this evening but no such luck. For that reason I am posting my little onesie I painted the other day. I call it a onesie because it was painted in two 30 minute sessions. I literally set the timer and go! The break in between is used to check the progress. The break is as important as the painting. I was going to post this in Wed, which is my long teaching day but instead I'll paint two tomorrow.
Side Pear 6x8 Oil on canvas
1/6/2013 7:17:51 PM
As part of the challenge I am also photographing the work in progress. Here it is for Green Apple Shine.
First of all I am limiting the painting to the 30 pastels in my Terry Ludwig Still Life set + one pastel pencil for the initial sketch.
Sketched out with a pastel pencil on 12x16 U-Art paper 400 grit. I began by laying in the shadows. Shadows act as an anchor to the composition and it is a good way to see if it will look good from the start.
This is the color lay in. I am using local color and color of the light to make the decisions.
Next I take a paint brush dip it into thinner and wash in the background, cloth, and shadows. This is where trust comes into play because the thinner initially darkens the wet areas by two values but as it dries it takes on a watercolor appearance. I plan on leaving most of the background and foreground in the wash stage so I can play up the lights with thicker pastel. This is used in oils too. Thin paint gives the suggestion of shadow and thick paint gives volume to the lights.
Most of the big decisions have been made and now it is a matter of refining the edges. and pushing the values to their extremes.
Green Apple Shine 12x16 Pastel- For sale on my website.
1/6/2013 3:41:52 PM
Day Five of 30 Paintings in 30 Days: Another day of two challenges, completing a painting in one day and only using the thirty piece set of Terry Ludwig Pastels that I selected for still life. I'm currently testing out the still life and pastel sets to see if they need to be revised at all. So far I'm very happy with the portrait one but I may change the bright red in the still life set. I will post a photo of the set and the progress of this work on a separate blog post. I am really enjoying this challenge. This morning I woke up with all kinds of inspiration for different paintings. I think all the work is calling forth the creative muse!
1/5/2013 8:46:52 PM
Day Four of the 30 paintings in 30 day challenge: This is my second painting of the day. My first one is a still life. I am saving that one to post on my long teaching day. Tonight my son, Shawn, sat for me. Shawn was my first model and used to play on the floor with his blocks and legos while I sketched him. He continued to pose for me in high school and appreciated the money when groups of artists would hire him to pose with his guitar. He has been busy with college and is a recent grad from MSU. Home before he heads off to a job he sat for me once more. The last time I painted him he was a teenager, this time I painted a young man.
1/4/2013 5:43:22 PM
Day Three: I felt anxious the first two days about finishing a painting for the challenge. I think that anxiety drove me to over fuss parts of the painting yesterday but forcing myself to finish was a wonderful lesson. Today I awoke and gave myself a no noodle challenge. I went plein air painting in the bitter cold. Do not be too impressed because I stayed in the car with the window down. The chilly temperatures and moving light challenged me to create the composition based on the cobalt shadows then finish it even as the shadows shifted dramatically within the two hours. This little school-house has stood in this spot for almost a century but with a hole in the roof and the shutters falling I'm afraid it may be it's last year standing.
1/3/2013 5:13:22 PM
Day two: I saw today why it is so important I tackle this challenge. I struggled with this simple still life and found myself noodling in areas that were not important. Twice I wiped it off and started again, with the thought that no matter what it would be finished and posted today. Too often I hit a point of frustration and set the painting aside till a later date. That is all well and good until the studio is overflowing with "finish at a later date" paintings. The main goal of this challenge is to find ways to complete paintings in one sitting. Tomorrow I will go plein air painting in the snow. Nothing like below freezing temps to keep and artist motivated!
1/2/2013 5:37:51 PM
This is named "First Try" for a reason. This is my first painting for the 30 paintings in 30 days challenge AND it is my first try with the Terry Ludwig Portrait Pastel set that I put together. I limited the pastels to only the 30 that are within the set. I chose cool light and warm shadow for this pose. I am going to play with different skin tones and different lighting to test the versatility of the set.
1/1/2013 10:55:33 AM
2013 promises to be a year of growth and change. I am kicking it off by tackling the painting challenge of 30 paintings in 30 days posted by Leslie Saeta's blog- Slice of life. The goal is to create a painting every day from January 2nd to the 31st. This should be a great learning experience. Creative exercise is like physical exercise, consistency counts, and I look forward to the changes this will bring to my work. I am lining up canvases and taping down sandpaper and will post each painting on my blog and website. There are over two hundred artists taking part in this challenge and will be sharing their progress on Leslie's blog and their own. I invite you to paint along and I always appreciate your comments. Let the fun begin!
