Sage Gallery, Haverhill, MA

I've leased a space for $1 a day at the Sage Gallery for the next two months but the paintings I want to hang are currently still on show in Merrimac at the Rhythm Cafe, so in the meantime, this very big joyful painting will be there until February 11th.  I have also made some note cards and magnets of the Bear Hill Road Show paintings that will also be available.

At the Sage Gallery now through March

Joy of Spring 36x48" oil and glass beads on canvas with beautiful solid maple floater frame with colored margin

Uncertainty prevails

George with very happy face

I've been thinking a lot about the very large portrait that I've been planning.  Something is not right about it.  I thought, "well, I'll do a bunch of studies of his face first", then it occurred to me that what I was planning to paint originally is more of an interior painting than a portrait painting.  So now what?  I guess I'll go ahead and work on some "heads" while I'm trying to sort it out.  If I do a traditional portrait, why do one as the bartender when that was a short section of his life, so now I'll examine the type of, what attitude? that the painting should have.  I do have 150 photos of him from last week as the bartender.  This funny face is from last November at one of my art events.  I don't have many photos of him as a younger man that I can recall.  In the meantime, I'm back to studying my web building software and experimenting with that.  My mind is never far away from this portrait process, and my art student is wrapping up her first course with me this week.  I'll have to work on the next syllabus while she is away on vacation for two weeks. 

Guache study coming along...

After a couple of days of drawing and working on drafts of the BARTENDER painting, here is a still unfinished gouache study.  Actually you can see the photo montage, the first go at the drawing with black and white pencil didn't work out so I grabbed my gouache and tried that to work on proportions and the design as well as lights and darks.  The jury is still out on this one.  You can see it with a lighter room, which would not be typical of that place, and then the darker version, better I think. 
This is only a rough version and the main subject, George, is not in his final self.  (He is also the other guy at the end of the bar.) The photo montage is 11 by 14", this gouache study is 15 by 20".  I liked working with this water medium.  Its very fast and freeing--I might just try acrylics again.

I love it when stuff goes RIGHT!

As amazing as it is, sometimes sleeping on a problem or just letting information saturate your brain helps so much.  I remembered that this wonderful resizing software lets me resize photos and then simply copy them to WordPerfect. I highly recommend this site for it's simplicity, quick and easy: Resize Photos
Today I was able to make these little magnets to hand out but in particular to people at my current solo show.
Write me if you want one, mpyche@comcast.net.