At the Window

"At the Window" 8" x 6" oil on canvas SOLD Thanks, A.M.

My daughter shot the photo below, in the bathroom mirror of our motel room, on the last trip we took together. She likes the work of Edward Hopper and maybe saw something of his mood in me standing at the window. Someone once commented that my work reminded them of Hopper (those paintings are on my web site, not on this blog), which I considered a supreme compliment, and Rachel's photo inspired me to move that way once again. I include it to show once more how a painting can come from photo without copying it.


My husband, Dennis Meiners, and I are getting ready to participate in our 25th year at Ceramic Showcase in Portland April 25-27. Dennis won Best of Show at this big event last year so his Falling Horse sculptural teapot graces all this year's publicity for the show. Since I no long make ceramic sculpture I show my paintings as canvas giclee prints mounted on ceramic plates which form their frames. Sounds pretty hokey, but they are not and my collectors really like them. Every year I resist doing this a little more. Truthfully, there's not much I'd rather do than just paint (and sell them so I can make more).

Soo...you may not hear from me for a while. We will return on April 29 and I will head for the garden, which will need much attention.

Green Stockings

"Green Stockings" Oil on Masonite panel 15.5 x 12" $185

This is the other half of the painting homework I mentioned yesterday. After the specific parameters for the first painting I asked them to ignore everything we had been studying and just go wild; to make the same painting again, but from the gut rather than the head. The above is what I did. I always do my own assignments so I can better understand the challenges my students face. I chose to do this on the back side of the Masonite panel which is very rough. Click on the image to see the texture better.

Peeping Tom

"Peeping Tom" 15.5 x 12" Oil on Masonite panel $185
SOLD- Thanks, J.E.

I'm disappointed that my camera can't seem to capture the correct yellows in this painting and it is too big to scan here at home, sooo... I'll have to re-post it later.

This was an assignment I gave my painting class: to compose a painting using a figure, a table and one other element, paying attention to the distribution of lights and darks and using a complimentary color scheme (meaning colors across from each other on the color wheel). I came up with this example of complimentary yellow and purple and of taking an unusual viewpoint, under the table. Then my imagination just took over.

There was a second part to the assignment which I will post tomorrow...

The Good Red Road

"The Good Red Road" 9 x12" oil on mahogany panel
SOLD- Thanks, N.W.

I liked this painting when I started it some months ago, but it was set aside. The inspiration came from a hawk that was reappearing every day on our property to the point that I finally consulted my Medicine Cards to see if there was a message we might be ignoring. The Hawk card talked of getting your nose out of the daily grind and taking an overview of your walk on The Good Red Road of life here on Earth. We heeded the message and the hawk went on his way.

When I came back to the painting the figure was standing in such a way that it looked like something was being pulled. A red wagon popped into my head-I've been think a lot lately about how much Stuff we all have.

It's been over a week since I last posted a painting, but that only means I have not been doing the small "daily" paintings, opting instead to do studies and stretch canvases for a couple large ones. I can see where this size thing will fluctuate- I'm getting a little tired of the small brushes and feel like getting my arm into action. I'm debating whether or not to share the process of creating a big painting with you. Having others looking over my shoulder has both pros and cons. We'll see.

Cropping Cherries

"Pitchers with Cherry Trio" 12 x 12" oil on Masonite panel $125

I set up this still life (without the cherries) for my students to practice painting glass, metal, ceramic and drapery. It was tough! and I struggled right along with them. Later, I decided to see if I could make it into something more by adding the cherries for some pizazz, but the composition was still floating in a sea of blue; I felt it needed to be cropped down to a smaller size. Fortunately, since it is painted on panel, I have the option of doing that. I thought you might be interested in the thought process:

Here's the original.










A little too tight..









maybe this is better?










What if I crop a cherry for more tension...









and add some air to the top?



This is what I decided on, but I won't be able to cut it down until it is totally dry so ...


if you like one of the other versions better and want to buy this painting cropped (or not) the way you like it, just let me know.

How's that for interactive art?

Blog use #2 - comments link

I have received a lot of emails from people who are enjoying the blog, and that really helps me stick with painting daily, but many have had problems subscribing or commenting.

On the phone just now, I went through the process of leaving a comment with someone who has valiantly been trying to use the comment link with no luck. We finally figured out that those who opened my blog and tried to use it within the first few days of it's existence probably have the site in their computer's cache, and I mistakenly had the comments function blocked those first days.

If you can't leave comments either, try accessing the blog here: http://leslieleeart.blogspot.com and see if you can post a comment on this fresh page (see the side bar on How to Make Comment). If you can, then your cache is the problem.

To get around this you can link to the blog directly from the email you get (if you have subscribed), which will be a fresh page with a functioning comment link. Or, you may force a refresh of the blog page by hitting the F5 key, or hold down the Shift key and hit the Refresh button in the browser toolbar. This will delete just this web page, and all files associated with it, and reload each again into cache.

I hope these last 2 posts help.

Thanks for sticking with me! Next time a painting-I promise!!
Leslie

P.S. the person I was helping did not realize you could enlarge the pictures by clicking on them. Did you?

A better way to subcribe to this blog

I have changed my subscription server to Google Groups instead of FeedBlitz after hearing about so many of you who could not access the sign-up. I really dislike the ugly box (which I may be able to change), but it seems to be doing a better job and I have more control as well. If you subscribe no one will have access to the list but me and you may unsubscribe at any time.