movement in the studio

hi all.  since i've last written i've been busy on an original as well as class work that is my style and reference combined with the artist/teachers style (so still original work, but inspired by the class).

lets start with the first project i worked on.  i found a reference photo on unsplash that made me swoon and imagine my own likeness in place of the model.  the image is based on van Gogh, whos work is very inspiring to me, and so i'm running with the idea of putting me inside of his Starry Night painting.

"Becoming the Art (ist)"

still in progress

 

reference photo by Marina Montoya on unsplash.com

at the same time a favorite contemporary artist came up in week 8 of Lets Face It 2022. emma petitt finds fun and unique poses and uses foreshortening to create beautiful figurative, full-figured gals.  i love her style and the way she layers paint, so was excited to play with her again!  find more classes of hers, including free ones, here

 

here's emmas' style;

 you can buy prints of some of emmas work here, and you can watch fun time-lapse videos of her creating here

 

and here is emmas week 8 class in Lets Face It 2022;

 

more classes, including free ones, at kara bullocks site

 

i used my own reference photo and covered up an old, unfinished painting of mine that didnt speak to me anymore.  i felt that the old painting said what it needed to say at the time, and made sure i photographed it to go into my store, but it was finished healing me.  it was time to focus on fun.

here's the old painting

"Of Darkness and Light"

 

here's my main inspiration photo with a heart between the models.  i had references for hands and feet as well, with a total of 4 reference photos.

photo by felipe bustillo on unsplash.com

 

and here's the new painting (with me for size comparison)

"Besties Holiday"

 

i wish i were there with them.  it's COLD in massachusetts!

(slippers and hoodie went back on real quick after this photo was taken)

this is a better painting for my mental health, but getting my depression out onto the canvas was important.  i love the feeling of this new painting and the heart their bodies make between them!

 

"Besties Holiday"

and some fun detail shots with all the texture

friends at heart

 

 

their toes in the sand

 

 

the look of love

 

 

this morning sweetie and i put this painting and 2 more up in my shop.  details coming soon, or just visit my society6 shop to see them first!

 

until later,

jenny

class work

 ok, I lied in my last post about what was coming next.  I was inspired by this weeks and last weeks Let's Face It classes, taught by Jeanne-Marie Webb and Emma Petitt.  Jeanne-Marie's class had me bringing out a reference image I had wanted to try anyway, of two women together, but to paint it in a loose, non-realistic way, with lots of mark-making and layers.  and I wanted to incorporate Emmas large, figurative hands.

heres the initial reference photo that intrigued me;

I liked their stance and the hands.

and heres how my progress went;

getting ideas and blocking it in

have a harvest theme in mind with pumpkins and a bushel of hearts

the end result;

gave up on the left-side pumpkins, 

added lots of autumn leaves 

and the hearts became an inner-work symbol

some close up photos of spots I adore;

the hearts and texture of the bold underpainting (that I didn't photograph)

her eyes...  full of love and concern toward her tired sister

ugh, the moodiness of her!  she is beat.

love the necklace area, the hair, the leaves, her voluptuous lips...

just yes to all this!

they make a great team

"Sisters of the Autumn Wind"

Changes are happening.  They are ending the busy time of harvest and entering a time of well-deserved rest, when they will go inward with love and self-care to develop a plan for the next season.

and this is how I'll be treating myself these next few months of transformation.  I'm going from a full summer of growth; myself as well as my garden and the knowledge I obtained as my body grew stronger.  I'm tired and struggling with some new health challenges, and some old symptoms that have returned.  I'm turning inward again as I have almost reached the end of harvest season.  I'll be centering my focus back on the inner self.   I was neglecting some important things as I tended the gardens and canned the resulting fruits of my labor in order to nourish me over the cold months.  I hope I can learn to juggle these things a bit better in years to come, for next years garden is in planning stages, and it will be an exciting one to work on!  

but for now, I'm still tending the last few fruits to ripen in this years beautiful garden.

until later,

Jenny

The Weary Lightworker, a new painting

I've been in a creative mood lately it seems, which fits me fine!  a bit of dabbling in paint after a bit of dabbling in the garden has been very soothing lately.  my soul needs a break from all the heavy stuff, and this painting is a reflection of that.

per usual, I started with a pose I liked via unsplash.com and used it for body position and shadow reference.  I was also inspired by a class by Lucy Cooke in Lets Face It 2020 where she created a "Modern Matisse".  I knew I wanted to try my hand at a bit more pattern, more background to my painting, but I wanted it also in a style more my own.

this was the pose I was drawn to for this class.

(forgive the placement issue, blogger has changed the format and I'm not used to it yet.  not sure it will do everything I wish it to)

I sketched out the pose;

added some bold color;

then I found a painting by Matisse that felt good to me and found some colors

then to start painting!

and at this point, and for the rest of the painting I wondered "what have I done!?"

The Weary Lightworker 

8/6/2020 Jenny gabrenas
her crown is askew as she takes a rest. she reflects on how to continue her work, as she loves this world so deeply.

I fiddled way too much with the feet/legs that aren't even close to the center of attention.  everything else seemed ok, but those non-important (and off the canvas of the original photo) feet really threw me for a loop.  I finally am to the point of aquiescense with the appendages, and might be finished with the effort of fiddling with such unimportant details.   the problem is they are all I see right now.  

so, I now turn my attention to the things I like about this painting;

I adore the message.  she is me.  I love the world and it's inhabitants.  I wish to help spread the light to all souls in order to help rise above the chaos, but I am so very weary.  I will take my time to rest when I am overwhelmed by things, adjust my crown and get back to it.  

I love her sweet little face and her crooked crown, symbolizing my humanness.  my faults that are present because I am here on earth and have forgotten what my spirit knows.

I love the textures in the background and the pink peeking through.  I love the white and pink chair.  I love the folds in her clothes.  I love her hair.

so, there are many aspects of this work that I really can appreciate, so I will keep my focus on those.  and, thats exactly how I can keep my calm during my difficult times.  I will focus on the good.  what do I like?  what is good here, now?  where is the pretty color, where is my joy?

I hope this painting gives you some joy, something to focus on, something that can inspire you to rest, take a breath and adjust your own crown.

until later,

Jenny

a new painting finished

I'm behind with posting my newest painting here.  although I've posted her on my other social media, I wanted to hold the story about her coming into being.

this painting was helped along as a response to Lets Face It class week 4 with artist Amy Beeman.  I had found a beautiful reference photo that matched what the class was doing, at my royalty free happy-place, unsplash.  I've wanted to learn how to paint red hair so was waiting to paint this model and was excited to dive into learning a little about using the Postershine app to help distinguish where highlights and lowlights are in the photo.

photo by branislav belko

(I go to unsplash to get ideas, color schemes, and inspiration for new paintings and to unwind and relax.  this is my happy place.  there are photos of places and cars and trees and just everything, within reason)



I used this reference loosely, as a guideline, but didn't care if I got it perfectly.  I just wanted the feel of her;  the long, red hair with highlights; the slight tilt to the face; the soft expression.   I did a quick sketch of the reference photo, just trying to get everything in roughly the correct places on the face.

I then went to town painting her.  didn't get any progress shots until the end.  it was a good day with motivation and I worked a long time, ignoring my own body pain and just doing the work.

"All You Need"

her title was the song that kept playing in my head as I painted her, so had to use it.  she makes me happy.


sweetie almost immediately put it up in my shops!

heres the society6 page for the art print

go to page and then scroll down to find more products 

society6 has new merchandise out, too!

I like how these notebooks came out

the redbubble site has changed.  I, for one am not a fan of change, and I find this one was counter-intuitive.  oh well.  

heres the link to the photographic print.  if you scroll down, you will see "available on +46 products".  click on that, and it will show you all the products that painting is on, and you can click on the one you'd like to see.

they have a new, second tote.  this one is cotton!

and here is their spiral bound notebook.

as I browsed my shops I have found I need to do some work to make it a bit more easy to navigate in redbubble, and I need to add my paintings into format for the newest products in society6.  I'm not the best when it comes to this tech stuff, so it might be a slow and frustrating process for me.  but, at least I know that things need to be worked on.  apparently some things change while one is dealing with life-stuff...  how rude!  time to play catch-up.

in the meantime, I look fondly at my new artwork, and know I am surrounded in love and peace.

until later,
 Jenny

feels like forever

it's been a while since I've been attempting any artwork.  the holiday crazies were here- that could possibly be referring to my son and grandtwins from California, as well as the gift buying and wrapping that goes with the season.  I was also furiously resting my weakened body, delegating tasks, and letting go of a lot of my own expectations of the holiday.

seeing the grandtwins helped the mood!

I continue to be pretty exhausted and am looking forward to a lyme appointment in a couple of weeks.  hoping to get me back on track with my treatments and my emotional stability.  the feeling of going stagnant and even going backwards is very much present with me, and it's hard to get myself off the couch to do anything.  my sweetie only wants me to be happy (and healthy), and is excited if the only thing constructive I do is art related.

I was thrilled when sweetie gifted me with two classes this year!  I started the year off thinking I wouldn't be able to do the "lets face it" year long course this year.  this course has been a main part of my looking forward to a new week in the past years, and I knew this year would be even harder to look forward to without the weekly classes lovingly brought together by kara bullock < her facebook page.  not only was I signed up for "lets face it 2020" (which has 50 weeks of lessons from 26 artists!), but I was signed up for "fluid figures" (10 classes with 14 hours of invaluable instruction!) with Emma Petitt, a wonderful artist whose flowing style I highly admire.  both these courses have lifetime access with tons of downloadable content and facebook groups for guidance with the artists.

I started doing the first of Emmas 10 classes over the weekend and then crashed.  the first class was sketching in a short time frame of 30 seconds up to 2 minutes, gesso-ing after each loose sketch.   I finished the class up today with a 2 minute painting

I've also decided to fill a small sketchbook with hands, starting with the ASL alphabet.

I even got my stumpy little thumb, hehehe

we're 3 classes in since the beginning of lets face it, and I've only been able to do an attempt at week 2 with Angela Kennedy;

I had to stop before getting to the rest of the details

I was excited to learn to get more detail into the eyes during sketches

I'm very excited to work on the fluid figures class, as I dont think I have it in me to keep painting as tightly as I was with so much detail.  I dont need to get into realism to bring my voice into the world.

slow and steady I guess.  thats about as fast as I go these days!

until later,

Jenny

thinking out loud

I finished my bears yesterday.  heres where they were;

then I got inspired by this dried up bit on my palette

heres where they ended up

"Bear Guide" and "Strength from Within"

I used the yellow I mixed up with a pallet knife and dabbed it down in just a few spots, then mixed some teal and white and carefully dragged it and dabbed it around the still wet areas.  they are so full of texture, and I love them!

I also finished this weeks Lets Face It class with Ivy Newport yesterday.  we learned 'the box technique' where you put a box directly around your subject, hitting all the outermost points, and find the shapes within the box to map out your focal point.  my attempt wasn't as successful as I had hoped it would be as we dont have toner for our printer at the moment, so my proportions were off.  I couldn't map it with my ruler...

got frustrated at the head and face, 

so jotted some notes and left it

yesterday was a really good mental health day for me. mark got home and I was bubbly and talkative and smiling. not one tiny bit of anxiety or sadness. it was a feeling I'd like to repeat as often as I can!

went to bed tired last night, as I usually do. had a hard time settling down, as I usually do. one thing was different, though. instead of anxiety, it was paint color choices that I was excited about for my next minis. subject matter is decided, reference photos found, and now color! I so wanted to skip sleep and start working!

so, today I start working on my newest minis, and varnish my bears which got scanned last night for my society6 and redbubble shops. this weekend has a lot of art business stuff happening, including adding more items to both online shops, and bringing my bears to Bates Crafters Gallery. busy, busy trying to get my name out there!

until later,
Jenny