Girls in dirndls, and an idea is born

This week I had a thought process that led to some fun ideas for paintings. It started with this monthly painting challenge announcement on Artists Helping Artists, which got me thinking about subjects that could represent September. Here in Munich there’s a big obvious answer: Oktoberfest (which takes place the second half of September). I started combing through our photos from the past two ‘fests for visual inspiration. Crowd scenes and festival rides are not my usual subjects, and I was looking forward to playing around with some new things.

What caught my eye in so many photos was the clothing, especially the dirndls. A dirndl is a traditional Bavarian dress worn with a short, frilly white shirt and an apron. They are very popular among Oktoberfest guests, and the modern versions are infinitely colorful.

As I made some oil sketches from the photos, I knew this was a subject I wanted to pursue more. Luckily most of my friends here have dirndls of their own (as do I), so between them and the upcoming crush of Oktoberfest I’m hoping to find plenty of models for a new group of paintings.

So, who wants to come over and model for me?

Tags: daily painting, dirndls, Germany, Munich, oils, Oktoberfest, painting, portraiture

This week in muse flogging 28 Aug 2010

In my studio this week:

• I worked on a couple portraits, including this one of Jen and a quick live session with my friend Em serving as model.
• My small daily paintings focused on scenes from Munich.

Other exciting stuff:

• All the posts from my old art blog were imported to this blog, so now instead of starting a month and a half ago, the archives go back to 2006. Please let me know if you come across any glitches!

What were your creative accomplishments for the week?

Tags: weekly review

Portrait in progress: Jen

Even when I’m not posting them here, I often take photographs of my works in progress as part of my process. Seeing a photo of a piece helps me evaluate it with different eyes and make decisions about where I need to go next.

In person, I was getting frustrated with this piece because it seemed to have reached a point where it contained way too many colors (and don’t worry, I know the red line on the chin has to go). That problem was so predominant in my mind that I was having trouble thinking about other aspects of the painting. Seeing the painting in a more compact form on the computer screen helped me see some changes I want to make in the hair highlights, for example. I still don’t have a clue what I’ll end up doing with the background, though. Any suggestions?

A couple weeks ago I shared another portrait in progress with you, of my friend Kim; the final version of that portrait is now up on my artist website (check it out in the portraits section).

What tools do you use to evaluate your works in progress?

Tags: oils, painting, portrait, work in progress

Daily painting: everyday Munich

Munich - Sendlingertorplatz, 18 x 24 cm, oil on canvas

SOLD

Munich is such a picturesque city, from the monumental churches and town halls to the calm, peaceful English Garden. So many scenes to paint! This week I’ve been doing some daily paintings that focus on parts of the city that aren’t necessarily famous or iconic, but interesting all the same.

Munich - Gebsattel, 20 x 20 cm, oil on canvas

SOLD

I find myself leaning towards scenes in pedestrian areas, such as the first one of these two, because I like the absence of cars. I understand the necessity of parking, but damn those parked cars lining almost every street in the city sure do ruin many otherwise beautiful scenes. I’m just going to have to get better at imagining them out.

Tags: cityscape, daily painting, Germany, Munich, oils

This week in muse flogging, 21 Aug 2010

Red onions #1, oil on canvas, 15 x 15 cm. ©2010 Julie Galante. [SOLD]

In my studio this week:

• I’m working on a couple portraits, such as this one; the other one is a commission so you won’t see it for a while, until after it’s delivered to the client.
• Daily paintings galore! I’ve been playing with fruits and veggies as subjects. Next up: some Munich scenes.

Other exciting stuff:

• Since I’m looking for ways to start offering prints of my artwork, I started an account at RedBubble. The community of users is quite welcoming. I’m looking forward to checking out the quality of their printing. Do you have any experience with RedBubble?
• I spent an afternoon getting lost in the Alte Pinakothek. Who knew Munich had such an impressive collection of Rubens?

What were your creative accomplishments for the week?

Tags: daily painting, oils, still life, weekly review

New portrait: Uwe

I’ve reached a stopping point on this one and I’m almost ready to declare it done. It’s painted on a canvas covered in roughly-applied, unsanded gesso, and at this point the image seems to fit the support. I’m happy with the texture.

Feedback welcome! There are a couple spots I think need tweaking, but it will be interesting to hear if they bother anyone else (or if you’re bothered by spots I haven’t even noticed yet). The few people who have seen it so far have remarked on the background lines that give the suggestion of a halo. I don’t set out to do it, but this happens a lot in the background of my portraits. I usually end up painting it out in the final version, but in this case I’m inclined to leave the circumscription in.

And just in case you’re wondering, the subject’s name, Uwe, is a somewhat common German name pronounced OO-vah (the “oo” kind of like that in “too”).

Tags: oils, painting, portrait

Daily paintings: Raiding the kitchen

Nectarines [SOLD]

This week I have been finding inspiration in the produce I bring home from the market. I love the vibrant colors of fruits and veggies, which make me want to paint with colors straight out of the tube.

Tomatoes on the vine [SOLD]

These are all 15 x 15 cm (about 6 x 6 in), oil on canvas.

Red pepper

What are your favorite still life subjects?

Tags: daily painting, fruit, oils, painting, still life

This week in muse flogging, 14 Aug 2010

In my studio this week:

• Another portrait is close to finished, and two more are in progress.
• I did a lot of experimenting with daily paintings, trying out different color palettes and subjects. I’ll post some of those soon.

Other exciting stuff:

• Got inspired to learn about encaustic. Unfortunately I couldn’t find any upcoming courses in Munich, but I did find that there are enough demo videos out there for me to get the gist on my own. Not going to invest in the gear just yet, but definitely something I want to try in the future.
• Laughing myself silly over the Museum of Bad Art. I’m sure I have produced plenty of worthy candidate paintings over the years…
• Went to see the Arnulf Rainer exhibit at the Alte Pinakothek. In his new work he paints over facsimiles of some of the museum’s masterpieces. I was kind of ambivalent about the results, but it seemed like it would be a fun project to do.

What were your creative accomplishments for the week?

Tags: weekly review

Face blindness and portrait painting

On a recent Radiolab podcast, Oliver Sacks and Chuck Close discussed what it’s like to be face blind. When the subject and guests were presented, I was so excited I almost started jumping up and down. I love Oliver Sacks, but he wasn’t even the exciting part. Personally I’ve always wondered why I am good at rendering portraits but so bad at recognizing faces – and suddenly I learn that a quite famous portrait artist has the same problem, many times over.

As far back as elementary school I started to notice how people’s faces looked so different to me at different times, like there was no continuity to them at all. By the time I was in high school it became painfully obvious that a lot of people recognized me whom I didn’t recognize back – and not because I was some sort of celebrity. At the same time I discovered a love of portraiture, and given people’s reactions to my drawings and paintings, I wasn’t too bad at it. I looked to feedback from other people to find out how well I was doing at producing likenesses, because I didn’t feel capable of discerning that myself. But artists have a hard time judging the quality of their own work, I told myself. Don’t they?

I’m not anywhere near as face blind as Sacks (who often mistakes his reflection for someone else) or Close (who failed to recognize a long-term roommate), but many of their stories resonated with me. On one hand, it was interesting to hear the different ways the two men dealt with the social awkwardness caused by face blindness; on the other I was thrilled to hear about how Close takes a flat image of a face, breaks it down into tiny units, blows it up and renders it, and finally comes to something akin to recognition. It made me reflect on my own portrait-making process, and somehow it made me feel proud of what I do. I also thought about my awkwardness in social situations, and managed to forgive myself a little.

As someone who has done countless self portraits, I should know my face intricately. In some ways I do – the hump in my nose, the vast expanse between my eyes and brow, my large lower lip. But still each time I look in the mirror, my overall impression is utterly different from the time before. In the current set-up in my studio, I can see my reflection in a mirror when I sit at the computer. It’s distracting, studying this new face over and over again.

Wondering if you have face blindness? You can take some online tests here to measure your ability to recognize faces. As expected, I performed worse than average. How did you do?

Tags: Chuck Close, face blindness, Oliver Sacks, portraiture, Radio Lab

Portrait in progress: Kim

I’m starting to like where this one is going, although I need to figure out the background. Usually I leave the background rather abstract in my portraits. It’s the rendering of the face that interests me, but I need to care about the entire composition. The canvas is 50 x 60 cm.

Any suggestions?

Tags: oils, painting, portrait, work in progress