Principle Gallery Opening!

Women Painting Women - The Expedition and Beyond opening on April 13, 2012 in Alexandria, Virginia, was great fun.

American Art Collector Ad, April 2012

American Art Collector preview article, April 2012

Twelve of the thirteen artists who's work is on display were in attendance. (We missed you Kate Stone.)

It was a great experience for the artists and their new collectors. How often are the artists, their models and their collectors in the same room?

Here are the happy new owners of The Three Fates, and my models for the painting, Diane Feissel, Sadie Valeri and Alia El-Bermani.  

It's always a treat to meet new collectors and to have an opportunity to ask them why they relate to the work. After meeting Diana and Chip I have no doubt The Three Fates is going to a good home.

They enjoyed meeting the models/artists, and getting everyone's autographs in the catalog of the exhibition. The catalog is still available and on sale for $15.85 (marked down from $19.00). The publisher, MagCloud is having a spring sale through May 13, 2012. 

It was pretty much standing room only and the air was crackling with awesome energy.

Linda Tracey Brandon with her new collector and model/artist Mia Bergeron.

My daughter Carly, and my friend, Washington, DC area
artist Tricia Ratliff. 

Tricia did a wonderful interview on her blog, Agile Arts Journal, of Diane, Sadie and Alia, the three Women Painting Women bloggers. Check it out, it has some great insight about the show.


I went back the next day to take some pictures of the installation with out the crowd.

Kate Stone

Sadie Valeri, Alex Tyng, Rachel Constantine

Cindy Procious, and a table for the catalogs and the
American Art Collector Magazine.

Sadie Valeri's glorious self portrait and a peek into the yellow room.

Alia  El-Bermani, Catherine Prescott, and Stefani Tewes.

Figure paintings look especially nice on those signature pumpkin colored walls at Principle Gallery.

Linda Tracey Brandon, Kate Stone, and Sadie Valeri

One need look no further than this section of the gallery to see how inspired by each other we are. Left to right, Diane Feissel's painting of Rachel Constantine, Alia El-Bermani's painting of Diane Feissel and my painting of Diane Feissel, Sadie Valeri and Alia El-Bermani.

Mia Bergeron

My little still-life, Hand in Glove.

I love this view of Rachel Constantine's self portrait and Alia El-Bermani's painting facing each other.

Stefani Tewes, Rachel Constantine

Some studies from The Expedition done on location in Charleston.

Shannon Runquist over the fireplace.

Stefani Tewes

Alex Tyng

You can see all 39 pieces in the show in the catalog. The show is up through mid May. Here's the video slide show preview of the exhibit.

Here's a complete list of artists and links to their websites that have work in the show at Principle Gallery:
Mia Bergeron,
Linda Tracey Brandon,
Rachel Constantine,
Alia El-Bermani,
Diane Feissel,
Catherine Prescott,
Cindy Procious,
Shannon Runquist,
Kate Stone,
Terry Strickland,
Stefani Tewes,
Alexandra Tyng,
Sadie Valeri

The Red Thread of Destiny

This is a commissioned painting that I recently finished. 

Terry Strickland, The Red Thread of Destiny - A Wedding Portrait, 28x40 and oil on canvas over panel, 2012

I am honored to have been asked to do this wedding portrait. At a time when same-sex marriage is still being debated I can't help but feel that I am documenting and celebrating with my paint an important event.

The painting says to the world,  "Why are we even having this discussion?  Of course it should be legal, love is love and marriage is about that and commitment."

The couple flew to Birmingham last October and we spent a fun day getting to know each other. We discussed our lives, their past and interests and the upcoming wedding.

They wanted a non-traditional portrait and are drawn to my work because of my use of symbolic imagery. They wanted me to incorporate my interpretation of their relationship into the work. Here a few close-ups of their faces.

Besides being very loving to each other they are accepting of other people. They are consummate travelers and have a respect for other cultures and religions. They are Presbyterians but will include the following religions in the wedding ceremony:

Buddhist (in Chinese and English)
Calvinist Christian (Presbyterian)
Coptic (in Coptic and English)
Hindu (in Sanskrit and English)
Humanist (in English)
Jewish (in Hebrew and English)

How cool is that?

The Red Thread of Destiny also called The Red String of Fate. It is a belief originating in East Asia. According to this myth, the gods tie an invisible red string around the ankles or, in Japan, the little fingers of those that are destined to be soul mates and will one day marry each other.

The two people connected by the red thread are destined lovers, regardless of time, place, or circumstances. This magical cord may stretch or tangle, but never break (I love this part). This myth is similar to the Western concept of soul mates or a twin flame. This concept became the focal point conceptually.

I wanted to include a live plant that would be symbolic of growing together and it turns out that one of the models great-grandparents brought an Easter cactus with them when they immigrated from the Netherlands. Each member of the family has a cutting from the plant.  I added bees to the painting, since bees are symbolic of a harmonious home. Turns out one of the models kept bees at one point so that idea was fortuitous.

One of the models designed the pattern on the wedding bands so I painted that engraved in one of the bricks. Bricks and wood are building materials so I thought they would be good symbolically to include. They serendipitously ended up in the photo shoot. The frame I had built to photograph them was not tall enough so we brought in the bricks. I ended up including them as a reminder of our time together in the studio.

One of the couple went to Princeton and the other's family is from the Netherlands, and the Dutch national color is orange, thus the link between the two that is the House of Orange. The main building of Princeton University is Nassau Hall, named after William III, Prince of Orange-Nassau, a member of the House of Orange. So I have included a bit of orange drapery.

 

The painting was finished off with a hand built frame made as a labor of love by my husband. It has about 10 layers of hand-rubbed tung oil for a finish. He uses furniture style construction. This one is poplar.

I will be delivering this piece in the next couple of weeks and am so excited to see their reaction to the painting.

Commissioned portraits are a collaborative effort and a friendship has been forged as we journeyed together through the design process.

There were countless hours of struggle with the paint, trying to transform these miserable elements of minerals and oil into a physical embodiment of love and commitment.

What a treasure I have been given, this opportunity to meet new people, to be asked to create a work of art to commemorate their love and life together.


I love my job!

Painting a Head Study, Part 6, Final

This was the last day to work on this project for my class. If you are just joining in, the other postings are here:
Part 1, which dealt with griding, drawing and the rub out under painting stage.
Part 2, which included premixing a flesh tone palette and storage of paint;
Part 3, in which I explored oiling out, and the pros and cons of working from photographs; 
Part 4, a session of discoveries and surprises.
Part 5, noticing color shifts and tips for accurate drawing. 

I worked on this with the class, on the upper lip, lips and neck. I knew it wasn't going great. I was having trouble with the chin and the shadow under the chin. I demoed for about an hour, then turned them loose on their own work. It's amazing how tricky it is trying to explain what I'm doing, answer questions, paint, see, all while trying to stand to the side so they can see.

A few days later back in the studio I could see that I had shortened the model's chin.

So I used one of my favorite tricks, flipped it upside down and got medieval on it. About 2 hours later I considered it passable.

There are so many things I could keep working on, more subtle corrections to the drawing, softer transitions between shadow and highlights, reflected lights and shadows, and the PEARLS!

But alas this is just a study, and it's time to move on. This was the first head study that I've ever done from start to finish with a class and it has been a huge learning experience for me.

I'm so proud of the work they have done. For some of them this is the first face they've ever painted, some had never picked up a brush until a few months ago, some have only been painting abstracts or impressionistic work until taking my class in the past few months.

We have all been "lingering in the uncomfortable zone" where real learning takes place and it's been a blast! With their permission I'm sharing a few of them here. Their work is in varying stages of finish.

Dru Griffith

Ira Turner

Janie Chambers

Laura Nigg

Paul Brooks

Suzette Shell

Jamie Wilson

My favorite part is that they all look different, they all have their own voice that is coming through and I encourage that. The basics are the same no matter the style. Value, color principles, edge control and accurate drawing are important fundamental skills that can be built upon.

If they master these principles, they may choose to discard them later to embrace another style. If they do so it will be because they choose to and not because they are limited in their knowledge and skill.
 
My philosophy is that these are tools for the tool box and the more you have the easier it is to create the vision in your head.