Ora et Labora

The title of the painting, Ora et Labora, is Latin for Pray and work.

From left to right, I'll list the symbols as they pertain to the individual:
Nun #1 - The Crane: Loyalty, Monastic life. Ivy wreath: hospitality. Lamp: Wisdom.
Nun #2 - Columbine flower: Holy Spirit. Snow: Purity, innocence. Heart: love and charity.
Nun #3 - Scallop shell: Pilgrim. Bee: hard work. Potter's wheel: being formed by God.
Nun #4 - Butterfly: new life. Fern: solitude, humility and sincerity. Sunflower: keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus.
The colors have meaning also. Gold: worth. Blue: wisdom and charity. Green: growth, life, hope. Red: love, holy zeal.
In the background are wheat fields. Wheat has always represented the Holy Eucharist which is what the Catholic faith is centered around.

St. Emma's III

I've really come along farther than I expected so soon. But I'm racing against the clock to get this done for an exhibit.

The right nun's habit is now covered in Christian symbols that I feel represent her: butterfly, sunflowers and ferns. Each is painted with a transparent red wash, and outlined in gold metalic. The color is symbolic of love and joy.

Two faces to go, more symbols and the background and I'm done.

St. Emma's continues

I've re-evaluated the composition on this and came up with some good changes: I took out one of the nuns, furthest back in the picture plane; I changed the lay of the land just a little; and added just the veil of an additional nun off to the right. There was too much space on the right that was unused.

Yesterday I painted the face of nun#1, on the right. Today, #2. Sorry I don't have an image to show, but I will tomorrow.

Upcoming Exhibits for September 09

"Fission of Form" is a collaborative exhibit being held at Panza Gallery, Millvale PA. 20 members of the Pittsburgh Society of Sculptors created 3D works; 20 members of the Pittsburgh Poets each took home a sculpture for 2 months and allowed it to inspire them. Then 20 members of the Pittsburgh Society of Illustrators (I'm one of them) were each assigned a poem, without seeing the sculpture on which it was based, and created an illustration. My painting was inspired by the poem "I Hugged My Death Like a Child." The opening is on September 5, at 7 pm.

The next exhibit is Art in the Garden, at the Le Moyne House in Washington, PA. It is a show of small works only, being held on Sunday September 13, 2-6 pm in the gardens of the Historical Society (the Le Moyne House.) It really is a lovely affair, with wine and music and a wide variety of work by many wonderful local artists. Both my Fox miniatures will be there!

St. Emma's

Every year there is a couple's retreat at St. Emma's Benedictine Monastery. The good sisters who run the place are beautiful and caring and make an interesting subject to paint.

This is a fairly large canvas, 3'x4'. I toned the canvas with a dilute mixture of Viridian green and Transparent red oxide, which creates a range of raw umber colors.

Next I started with the far right face. I always block in the area with a thin glaze of Terra Rosa, wipe out the highlights of the nose and forehead, then with stronger terra rosa I mark the inside corner of each eye. From there I rough in the eyes and start lifting off more highlights. It's much like sculpture because you are modeling a form.

The red and green tones on the faces are part of the underpainting, to influence the skin tone I will apply later.

The black Habits of the sisters were painted on with a knife. The designs in each one are scraffitoed into the thick paint (each design is based on a Christian symbol that I felt said something about that person.) My intention is to paint the faces very luminously, but the Habits will be flat and graphic. Wheat fields will develop in the background.

Fox Den And Hemlock finished

Painting fur can be daunting if you don't know what order to put down the colors. I started out blocking in the fox shape with a transparent red oxide. Using a tiny grass rake brush, the various shades of earthy reds were worked, layer upon layer. The highlights were last.

Talk about tiny! The pups' heads are only about 5/16th of an inch.

After it dries, I will coat the painting with Galkyd medium. It will give it an even gloss, and because it is a painting medium, not a varnish, it can be applied over paint that has just dried. Varnishes can only be applied after about 6 months of cure time. Galkyd also deepens all the darks and brings out the brightness of lighter colors. Below is Fox and Fern, which has been coated with Galkyd.

Finding a vision

I wrote a children's story and decided I wanted to illustrate it myself. The first "vision" I had of these illustrations was oils done in the tradition of my fine art. This is my first:

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I really liked the ominious presence of the crow, but after coming upon a book about Arthur Rackham, I fell in love with idea of the sepia tones in watercolor, with ink. I felt it fit the time frame of the story, seeing as our main character is Escar Gogh, the artist snail, and the story is full of puns set against paintings of Van Gogh's. This is my second vision:

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After a rousing critique by an art director and a room full of published illustrators, I realized that the main character, the snail, was out of sync with the look of everything else. He looked too cute and coloring-bookish. And the heirloom look just wasn't going to sell to publishers. A more modern approach was needed... more humor. Maybe even some down right silliness. So this is my final vision (without color... I'm still working on that.) The crow will not be that fatal black; he'll just be a ratty grey. The snail has more attitude and character. The coloration of the background will be loose and not so serious. I've also changed the type of snail... he was a pond snail with a shell that, honestly, reminded me of a pile of dog poo. Now he is an Apple snail with a shell that follows the Golden Mean . (It's a mathematical formula created by God to design many things in nature, such as the petals on a sunflower, or the spiral of a shell. It is also used by many master painters to determine the composition of their masterpieces.)

Underpainting for Fox Den and Hemlock

The first thing I do is apply a thin dark neutral over the entire piece. Then block in the trees and deeper parts of the woods with black- greens and black- browns. The normal rule of thumb for perspective is the farther back in the landscape, the lighter you paint, but this is a setting with the dark woods reaching beyond. 

         

Starting at the top, I work in very dark leafy shapes, leaving some of the darkest show between the leaves and tree trunks. Next I begin to place ferns, painting the darker, more distant ferns first, and working my way forward and down. It is tedious work, so I give myself a break occasionally and paint the lichen and moss on the tree bark. Lastly I add sunlit leaves hanging down from branches of the background trees. I also add highlights on the ferns where sun is peeking through the trees. I loosely work in several exposed roots in the foreground to get a sense of placement.

Painting in Miniature

                                               

Let me quote the Miniature Art Society of Florida: "Miniature art is fine art. Miniature art is most often extremely detailed work, exquisite in color with a strength of composition which can more than compete with larger paintings. A compositional guide requires a gentle, no more than 1/6th scale of the actual subject. 

A miniature usually takes as long or longer to produce as a large piece of art. A fine miniature can be magnified many times and it will still hold together as a fine work of art of much greater size. This unique art form, based on a minute scale, traces its roots back to the book paintings and illuminated manuscripts of the 7th century."

I prefer to paint on copper, due to it's smooth surface and midtone color. Although most miniatures rely on a white support to reflect light through the thin layers of paint, I proceed as if I am painting one of my large canvases. Thus I am painting a true miniature of MY art.

To begin, I start with a square or rectangle of copper (copper roof flashing works wonderfully). I polish the surface, then spray it with a matte fixative. It allows the color of the copper to show, but dulls the surface to allow the paint to stick. It also protects the copper from oxidation.