Work in progress – Page 13 – Katie Jeanne Wood

5 minute daily painting – because you CAN get a lot done in 5 minutes a day, and I’m going to prove it

5 minute painting
day 1
Work in progress
daily painting: 365 day art project
Day 137
Created on Dec 1st, 2017

Sometimes you want to run away, sometimes you think you do, but you never had a dream like this before and you don’t want to ask for more, sometimes you leave a mark before you know the score. -Ric Ocasek

This is the beginning of my new theme for the month of December. 5 minute painting!! Laaaa!

I want to start off by saying, I never begin a painting this way. I usually either immediately start putting down collage papers or I prep the canvas with modeling or molding paste. I’ve written about my dislike for painting directly on canvas many times in the past, but to quickly recap, I’ve never liked the texture or look of finished canvas paintings. Too much of the canvas texture shows through, and I lose sight of the painting..all I can see is the canvas underneath the painting. It’s too distracting to me. I know, I’m weird, and I mean no offense to artists who paint directly on canvas, for sure. It’s just one of my little idiosyncrasies.

Since I only had 5 minutes, and knew I needed a photo to show my progress, I decided to forgo my usual routine. I was leaning toward using modeling paste, not collage papers, but then all I’d have to show for my time was a white canvas. I figured that would be a boring way to start this challenge. Instead, I thought eh, I can get past all the crazy in my head about canvas texture, no problem. I got busy making marks. The whole time I was doing it, all I could think was ugh. I HATE this. I didn’t like how the chalk and pastels felt or looked going on the canvas.

I kept pushing forward because 1. TICK TOCK – TIMER! and 2. my goal on this day, which I quickly made up in my head to distract me from my weird canvas phobia was to completely cover the entire canvas. I must say, even though I didn’t like the process or the result, it was still a success. I had a smile on my face as I threw my arms up in the air when the timer went off. It was a fun start to a new month of daily painting.

Reading: The Immersive Power of Painting (a painting truth you can learn too late) – this is somewhat similar to what I wrote last week about 5 minute painting. Maybe? Just a little?

13 more days

Work in progress
4×4 oil portrait painting
Daily painting: 365 day art project
Day 47

I have 13 days left of these oil portrait paintings, and to be honest, I’ll be ecstatic when I stop painting them. I keep coming thisclose to throwing in the towel, and going back to painting with acrylics. It would make my life sooo much easier. I’ve been dreading going into my studio these days, which is so unlike me. Feeling like this has caught me off guard because I normally love and prefer oils when painting portraits. Trying to get one rush-painted every day is not fun, I’ve realized.

There should be no hustle, bustle, or racing against the clock when it comes to oil painting. Painting should feel like lounging in a tub full of bubbles on a rainy day, glass of wine in hand, violin music playing softly in the background, with nothing on the schedule that needs attention. Instead, this feels stressful, frustrating, hurried, and I get annoyed that the oils aren’t behaving the way I want them to (y’know, like acrylics).

A couple days ago, I started using a medium I normally don’t use to speed up the drying time. The problem with that is it’s also drying out my palette. I usually mix about 3 to 7 days worth of paint on my palette. Since I started using the fast drying medium, my oils are caking and hardening on the glass, and my brush as I’m painting. It makes painting difficult. I prefer a buttery brush stroke.

Also, I have to constantly scrape my glass palette with a razor blade, which means I’m wasting paint. Oils are expensive, so this is far from an ideal situation. Hey, I wanted the oils to act like acrylics, right? Um..no, I guess not. I prefer to give the oils the time they need to do their own thing. If my back wasn’t up against the clock, the days weren’t marching swiftly on, and I hadn’t promised to blog every day, I know I could do better.

I don’t think oils are the best choice for what I had in mind this 365 day art project, so I probably won’t be using them again. No worries, tho. I’ll still be painting with oils behind the scenes because I adore them when I’m able to slow my pace.

PS: After writing the word “buttery” in the paragraph above, this thought came to mind…forget about using a fast drying medium. Instead, mix Dorland’s wax medium in with the paint on the palette because Dorland’s wax + oil paint = buttery feel on brush. Duh. I knew this already, and have used Dorland’s several times before in my oil paint. If I remember correctly, it also dries slower than the medium, so my paint shouldn’t dry out on the palette as fast. Hopefully this is a solution to my problem. I might also get better alma prima results with the wax. hm.. I’ll let you know.

Daily painting: 365 day project – day 45

Work in progress
oil portrait painting
daily painting: 365 day project
day 45

Still working on painting alma prima (by using less medium). I’m not quite there yet, but I feel like I will get there some day soon. Have to keep practicing. Layer 2 is coming. Stay tuned!

Simone de Beauvoir oil portrait painting work in progress

work in progress

I love how things come full circle. I’ve been wanting to start a black and white series for years now, but never got around to doing it. Probably because I have a long list of series that I’m constantly working on like the bird series (over 200), floral series (over 300), landscape series (356), abstract series (started in 1999, so I’ve lost count), the girl and bird series (30), the sunglasses/glasses portrait series (10ish), the sisters/friends series (15ish), and the series of portraits on 6×6 panel (26). I also have a long list of retired series, such as the Plain Jane Series (200), the $10 series (100+), the Masquerade Mask series (100+), and the Photo Booth Series (20-30). I know there’s probably more I’m forgetting, but my point is, I’ve been a little busy. haha

I recently started to reread The Age of Reason by Jean-Paul Satre for the 3rd or 4th time. It led me to looking up his lifelong partner online, Simone de Beauvoir. When I saw the black and white photo of her, so full of emotion, I knew I had to paint her. So the black & white series has finally begun, perhaps? The photo above is only the first layer. Still needs a lot of work, but I’m letting it dry a bit before I continue.

In the meantime, I started painting a black & white of Virginia Woolfe, which if you follow me on IG you’ll see there. BTW, my IG is often times way ahead of my blog because I post more in the moment type things there. Feel free to follow me.

Handmade drying shelves for oil paintings

work in progress
oil portrait painting

My husband built these handmade shelves for drying my oil paintings. I’m not sure if I’ve ever shown a photo before. I remember writing about the shelves a couple years ago, when he was building them. I think I got busy filling them up, and forgot to post a photo.

This photo was taken with my iPhone last summer, and it’s not that great. The lighting is horrible out there in my shipping room, but I’m posting it anyway, so you can see my drying situation.

I have more of these shelves lining the walls in my studio, and office. Now that I have them, I have no idea what I’d do without them. I can’t imagine all these painting lying on my work tables, taking up space for a month while they dry. I’d never get any work done.

Three paintings from one reference photo

You know how I like to reuse my reference photos, right? I have evidence of that all over my blog. I’m constantly repainting a painting I love. I usually leave a little space and time between each re-creation. In some cases, years will pass before I repaint an old favorite.

Last week I wanted to mix things up a bit, and I painted these girls on three consecutive days. It was my first time using this particular reference photo, so I wanted to break it in right away.

The only time I feel alive is when I’m painting.
Vincent van Gogh

I didn’t want three exact copies, so each day I approached the painting slightly differently. These all have a first layer of oil paint, and are a work in progress. The first two were painted with brushes, and the third was painted exclusively with palette knives. I’ll be showing you close up photos of all my knife marks soon. Also, I’m recording the process of all three of these gals, so the videos will be going up on my youtube channel at some point.

I started this oil portrait project last March, if I remember correctly, and I haven’t begun to put a dent in my stacks of 6×6 hardboard yet. I thought it was going to move along much faster than this, but I seem to be finishing paintings at a turtle’s pace or at least it seems like it when I look at this crazy stash of mine. And, on that note, I’m going to wander off into my studio, and maybe give one of these girls a second layer of oils, and see what happens from there.

You do not need to know precisely what is happening, or exactly where it is all going. What you need is to recognize the possibilities and challenges offered by the present moment, and to embrace them with courage, faith and hope.”
― Thomas Merton

Listening to: the soundtrack to This is Us.

I hope you had a great weekend, and are rested up. We have the entire week stretched out in front of us. Let’s all paint like mad.

She Tucked Herself Away For Safekeeping – oil portrait painting

She Tucked Herself Away for Safekeeping No 2
oil portrait painting on 12×12 inch canvas
work in progress – first layer

second layer

This week I decided to recreate one of my portrait paintings from 2012ish. It’s a painting which sold long ago. Seeing the photo below made me feel a little nostalgic, and I wanted her back in my life once again. I’m obviously not trying to copy it exactly (although I might some day). For this one, I’m going for the basic features, and the mood, but I’m changing it up a bit.

She Tucked Herself Away For Safekeeping No 1
sold
Prints are available in my Miz Katie shop

A good painting to me has always been like a friend. It keeps me company, comforts and inspires.

Hedy Lamarr

The first one I painted in acrylics, and for the past year or so, I’ve preferred working in oils whenever I paint a portrait. I like the slower drying time, and how easy it is to blend the oils when making skin tones. I was going to go with a darker background, but I’m loving the smokey gray, and will probably leave it as is.

I am filming the making of this portrait, so be sure to look for it soon on my YT channel. I hope to have this piece finished by next week, and will post updated photos when I’m finished. The video will come sometime in the future, whenever I get around to editing it.

Harold watching the squirrels out my studio window yesterday.
I can’t decide if he loves or hates the squirrels, but he sure does like to chatter at them.
So cute!!

In other news, we’re back to winter around here after enjoying temperatures in the 70s and 80s for the past week or two. I noticed this morning the buds on the trees are turning green, and leaves are starting to pop out. Spring is right around the corner.

Reading: 50 Ways to Use Your Unfinished Artwork
Watching: Minimalism: a documentary about important things – lots of 1 star negative reviews on this one, I noticed. The documentary didn’t offend me as much as it did others, but I get what the one star givers are saying. I didn’t love it or hate it, so I’d give it 3 stars. It’s worth watching if you like the concept of minimalism, but the guy who goes around hugging every stranger he meets does get a bit tedious. The point they were trying to drive home..people, including complete strangers, should be considered the “important things” in life, not things. Got it!

Girl and bird paintings – wip

Katie Jeanne - wip girl and bird paintings
work in progress

Two girl and bird paintings that I started working on a couple weeks ago. I got to the “have to let this dry because I’m turning everything into mud” stage. I’m painting these in oils, and as you probably know, oil takes forever to dry. So, they’ve been sitting on the shelf above my desk, and I must say, it’s hard for me to sit here every day and see these unfinished paintings staring back at me. I am extremely anal retentive about finishing what I start.

I wasn’t always like this, I was actually the complete opposite, and hardly ever finished what I began painting. I paid for it dearly when I ended up with over 100 unfinished paintings stacked up in a corner to deal with back in 2009 or 2010. It took me forever to go through all of them, and most got painted over because the moment had long passed. I didn’t want to finish them at that point. It was a huge lesson for me to learn, and that’s why I prefer to paint alla prima now, which is Italian for “at first attempt”.

Katie Jeanne - glass oil palette
Oil palette I used on these paintings

It means to apply oil paint wet-on-wet, so you can finish it all in one sitting. I usually paint this way, but for some reason, I couldn’t pull it off with these two paintings. I didn’t have the patience to deal with the paint getting muddy because I was blending too much. You have to keep a very light touch on the knives when you paint like this, and I didn’t have it that night. I felt incompetent, off my game, and knew I better stop before I end up scraping both of them down to the canvas. I hate wasting paint, especially oil because it’s super expensive.

These are dry enough to continue painting them now, so you know what I’ll be doing today. 🙂 Yup, I’ll be starting an unfinished pile in the corner of my studio. NOT! haha Never again!!

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