Different Strokes - Pat Burns and joi de vivre!
The stellar Karin Jurick arranged for 130 (yes 130!) artists to paint from a randomly selected photo of another artist. Mine took forever since I was in California and then out sick for days with this nasty cold. I spotted her portrait of me and just wish I was nearly as talented at faces as she is. Usually my faces are green, blue and all kinds of wacky colors. I made a concerted effort to go for flesh tones and it was a very educational exercise - but I definitely want to do some more similar challenges and get better!
I loved this lady's wonderful smile. She reminds me (happily) of both my mom and my stepmom, both of whom are full of pep / moxie / life! If I didn't get all the proportions right, I hope I got this zest communicated!
This is 5" x 7" on panel, onto which I gessoed a dictionary page - one that included the word "cat" since there was a cat drawing in the background of my mystery lady's photo and I'm guessing she likes them. Hope so!
The mystery artist is ME... and I love, love, love your portrait of me!!! My ultra casual house is full of bright, rich colors and 6 cats. I'm the most unstuffy person you'd ever dare to meet, so you've got me pegged!
ReplyDeleteThis one is good.
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year!!!
Pat - I'm SO glad you like it!! Too bad you don't live near Austin, I think Karin randomly matched a couple of kindred spirits and it would be a delight to go out and paint with you. Let me know if you're ever down this way!
ReplyDeleteAlso, Pat, if you send me your snail mail to my direct email (k8degr8@gmail.com), I'd be honored to send the painting to you. It needs to dry for a few days first though.
ReplyDeleteKate- it certainly seems like we do have a lot in common & I'm happy that we shared this experience. I'll email you & we can exchange portraits. Thanks for being so 'kind' with mine!!!
ReplyDeleteIt was fun to read the artist's response to your work. She loved it and I love your work, too.
ReplyDeleteKate, what a wonderful lively painting! And to think you gessoed something that relates to the board first! Does any of that page show?
ReplyDeleteVicki and/or Ross,
ReplyDeleteThanks so much! The dictionary page can be faintly seen on the very left side under the green background. Everything else was too many layers to be transparent.
Kate, I love this painting and much to my surprise, when I blew it up,(which took a while) you had painted over a printed page. I later read your account and thought...clever! Keep up the good work.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Vern! I found a used dictionary for one dollar and got inspired.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad I read Vern's post and I'm glad you posted this so I could see the details up close. Even more wonderful. Congrats on the ultimate complement from the artist herself love, love, loving your work!
ReplyDeleteYour portrait is just marvelous, so full of life, her eyes radiate and I love the idea of incorporating the page.
ReplyDeleteWell done.
You are so clever and obviously afun loving gal. I think the other artist captured your spirit in her painting too! What a fun project this was. Karin has set the bar very high, I wonder what she will come up with as a following act.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your kind comments on my blog. I love your work and will be checking in on a regular basis
wow - this is a GREAT portrait! And I clicked through to see the one she did of you, and it's super, too. What a cool project.
ReplyDeleteI love your use of color and the dictionary page especially - very cool.
Wow, I haven't felt this popular in a while! Thanks ChouChou, Carol, Dominique, Sheila. Looks like I've happily stumbled on a wonderful supportive blog community here - lucky me! Well, chou-chou is really my sister, so she's a built-in fan club already.
ReplyDeleteIt's really kind of tricky to find a dictionary page that doesn't have some horrible word on it.
I had to go back and look again to see the dictionary page. What a novel idea for the background and your colors are very refreshing. Love your work!
ReplyDeleteCarol - thanks!! I do love color and I do love just paint itself!
ReplyDeleteMaybe my February series will use more of those dictionary pages.
Kate, I wish I had already told you sooner how much I love this one of Pat Burns! I love the close-up angle, the aqua blues and that bright red lipstick, and she just looks so real she could jump through the computer screen. Wonderful, wonderful job, a happy painting!
ReplyDeleteCamille - thank you so much! Now my head is getting big, won't be able to fit out my front door. ;)
ReplyDelete