Portrait Study

"Casey"

6x8 oil on panel

I decided to get busy and do some major cleaning in my studio. I ran across this portrait study of my grandson I painted a few years ago. It had been stacked away in a drawer and forgotten. I never liked the composition but now I see all it needed was a little cropping and maybe a frame. I did this painting on a panel prepared with oil base gesso and used only one color, Chromium Oxid Red. 

Kurt

"Kurt"
(in the style of Vincent van Gogh)

6x8 oil on canvas
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Gloria Zukaro of Daily Paintworks challenged artists to paint in the style of an artist they admire.  I always wanted to do a portrait of my son-in law in the style of Vincent van Gogh. Kurt, who looks like Vincent's better looking twin is a song-writer and musician.

For reference, I used one of van Gogh's last self-portraits painted in 1889 a year before his untimely death. I'm afraid I got a little carried away with lines and swirls, but at the same time I found myself admiring the passion and genius of this prolific painter.

"This is my ambition, which is, in spite of everything, founded less on anger than on love, more on serenity than on passion. It is true that I am often in the greatest misery, but still there is a calm pure harmony and music inside me..."  

Vincent van Gogh

Christmas Carol

Christmas Carol
13x15 Conte Crayon 
Carol Horzempa
NFS

I've been away from my studio and busy with the holiday madness so I decided to post this drawing I did several years ago. For inspiration I used an old photo taken of me on Christmas morning when I was a small child. This drawing was done with Conte Crayon on Canson drawing paper.

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays to everyone!

Self-Portrait

"Self-Portrait"
6.5x8 oil on linen

This is my contribution to Alice Thompson's first challenge on her new blog, "Calypso Moon Artist Movement." She has invited fine artists to do a self-portrait using only one color of their choice along with black and white.

I have been thinking about doing a self-portrait and decided this would be a good time to try since I haven't done one in years.

I had no problem in deciding what color to choose since I have been using the Zorn palette lately and have been fascinated by the rich browns I can get with just Cadmium red light and Ivory black. Also when Ivory black, which is a cool color, is mixed with Titanium white it looks blue next to the warm red. In this portrait I was pleasantly surprised that I could get nice flesh tones with the three colors minus Yellow Ochre that I had been using in the Zorn palette.

Thank you Alice for coming up with this wonderful creative challenge and inviting other artists to participate.

Gesture Portrait Study III

"Gesture Portrait Study"

7x10 oil on linen
NFS

I'm back to painting another gesture portrait from the Jeffery Watts DVD. I followed along as before but put more detail into the hat and clothes than Jeffery did in his demonstration. (He ends his demos switching to a palette knife, making flamboyant strokes with thick paint which is a little scary for me).

I used the Zorn palette again that I have fallen in love with. Check below in "Portrait Study II" about the colors and Anders Zorn. You can NOT mix mud with these four colors. It is a great way to study values and learn to draw with a brush according to Jeffery Watts.

I also must add that these gesture portraits are suppose to take only 30 minutes but I haven't come close to that. I do find painting this way does go a lot faster and I can do them in one sitting.

My Tribute to Karin Jurick

My Tribute to Karin Jurick

oil on canvas

A couple years ago Karin Jurick created Different Strokes from Different Folks blog. Every three weeks she challenged artists to paint, draw or sketch in their own way a photo she posted on her blog. Because of Karin's devotion to her blog and participating artists, she has helped connect artists from all over the world.

Jill Polsby, one of the 180 artists who participated in Karin's year-end Portrait Swap came up with a great idea. She asked fellow artist if they would like to paint a portrait of Karin as a way of thanking her for all her "wonderfully fun challenges." 118 artist accepted the offer and as a result, Jill printed all the portraits in book form to present to Karin as a gift.

You can see all the wonderful variations of Karin by fellow artists on Jill's photo page here. Be sure to stop by Jill's new blog where she has a link to Karin's You Tube montage of all 180 paintings in the 2009 Portrait Swap.

Gesture Portrait Study II

"Gesture Portrait Study II"

7x9 oil on canvas
NFS

In this portrait study I worked with a limited palette of Cadmium Red light, Yellow Ochre, Ivory black and Titanium white, which is also called the Zorn palette named after the late Anders Zorn. Click on his name to see a gallery of his amazing work and learn more about this celebrated painter and print-maker.

I have a lot more to learn using the Zorn palette but so far I am surprised how many colors I got from just four tubes of paint! I realize now that I should have used more Yellow Ochre in the flesh tones.

I followed along with Jeffery Watt's demonstration using the same colors and subject he painted from and paused the DVD every so often to keep up. He shows a lot of color mixing on a glass palette with gray paper underneath. I tried the same thing and what a pleasure it is to mix oil paint on glass! Now I am sold on this kind of palette.

Update: Another thing I would like to share; I use a Masterson Sta-Wet Palette Seal that is a very durable 12 x 16 x 1-3/4 flexible plastic box with an airtight cover to keep my palette in. I was previously using a disposable paper palette that fits in the box. Now with glass cut the same size, it works out even better. I can also put the container in my freezer if I have unused paint. It will stay fresh for quite a few days.

Gesture Portrait Study

"Gesture Portrait Study"
7x10 oil on canvas
NFS

I did this portrait in less than two hours. Usually it takes me three days of struggling away with details and ending up with an over-worked painting.

A couple weeks ago I discovered a great 5-hour DVD by Jeffery R. Watts demonstrating Gesture Portraits and decided to give it a try. He does nine portraits each taking only a half hour. I of course am slower and had to put the DVD on pause every so often but so far I'm very impressed with his teaching method. There is also a lot of teaching on palette colors on four different levels.
So this is my first gesture portrait. I followed along doing the same portrait he did using Burnt Umber and Titanium White. The eyes are a bit off but I sure had fun painting them in a loose style! Whether I can do a gestures portrait without following along with a master remains to be seen.

Great-Grandmother

"Great-Grandmother"
12x14 Conte Crayon on paper

Carol Horzempa
NFS

Thirteen years ago I did this portrait of my mother-in-law Estelle meeting her first great-grandchild, Casey Ray. It was a moment in time that I was able to capture with my camera and later as a drawing with Conte Crayon on Bienfang paper. Casey of course is a teenager now. You can see a painting of him titled "13" done by his mom (my daughter) on her blog.

Estelle is ninety-six years young now and is able to remain independent in her own home with the help of family members taking care of her needs.

This is going to be a busy year for me but I hope to focus on doing more portraits in the near future.

Portrait Study

"Portrait Study"
7x7 oil on Masonite

Carol Horzempa

This is my contribution to the year-end portrait swap on Karin Jurick's Different Strokes from Different Folks blog. Thanks to Karin Jurick this has been a great year of challenges for fellow artist.

I had a lot of fun with this challenge and tried not to labor over getting a perfect likeness. My main goal was to keep it fresh and try to capture this artist's spirit. This study was painted with Raw Sienna and a touch of Ultramarine Blue on a gessoed masonite panel.

I think I know who this artist is and had a great photo to work from. He will be doing my portrait in exchange and I can't wait to see it.

Georgia Man

"Georgia Man" 

6x8 oil on canvas

Carol Horzempa

In Karin Jurick’s latest DSFDF challenge, she posted a reference photo of a man at the Perry, Georgia State Fair. I chose to crop the photo to what interested me the most and also decided to set a limit on my painting time. Testing myself to see how fast I could paint this challenge, I surprised myself by finishing this portrait in 2 1/2 hours. I have a habit of measuring distance between shapes with the handle of my paintbrush and thumb which really speeds the process and something Karin suggested on this challenge.

I painted over a bright orange acrylic undertone, which can be seen poking through throughout the painting. I used a touch of my favorite Rembrandt Transparent Oxide Red in the skin tones along with a mixture of Cadmium Red, Cadmium Yellow Medium, and Cobalt Blue plus Titanium White.

There are several things I could have changed to get it “just right” but this time I decided to leave it and shoot for speed and fresh brushstrokes. I think this was the most fun I had of all Karin's challenges!

UPDATE: I just reread Karin's instructions and realize the focus of this challenge was suppose to be on the whole figure...oops!

Portrait of Vicki

"Portrait of Vicki"

     oil on canvas

             Sold

This is my portrait for Karin Jurick's portrait swap challenge Different Strokes for Different Folks. We were paired with other artists to paint each other's portrait from a photo. Check out Karin's blog to view all of the "challenge" paintings.