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!



Comments

  1. 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!

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  2. This one is good.

    Happy New Year!!!

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  3. 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!

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  4. Also, 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.

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  5. Kate- 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!!!

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  6. It was fun to read the artist's response to your work. She loved it and I love your work, too.

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  7. Kate, what a wonderful lively painting! And to think you gessoed something that relates to the board first! Does any of that page show?

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  8. Vicki and/or Ross,
    Thanks 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.

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  9. 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.

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  10. Thanks, Vern! I found a used dictionary for one dollar and got inspired.

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  11. I'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!

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  12. Your portrait is just marvelous, so full of life, her eyes radiate and I love the idea of incorporating the page.
    Well done.

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  13. 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.

    Thanks for your kind comments on my blog. I love your work and will be checking in on a regular basis

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  14. 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.

    I love your use of color and the dictionary page especially - very cool.

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  15. 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.

    It's really kind of tricky to find a dictionary page that doesn't have some horrible word on it.

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  16. 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!

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  17. Carol - thanks!! I do love color and I do love just paint itself!

    Maybe my February series will use more of those dictionary pages.

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  18. 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!

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  19. Camille - thank you so much! Now my head is getting big, won't be able to fit out my front door. ;)

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