The White Swan

Searching

thewhiteswan — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 19:47:44 +0000

This painting shows an individual’s personal search for spirituality and divinity. Reaching out to the light, the need to make a connection.

Reading together- take 3

thewhiteswan — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 19:36:53 +0000

I put this down for a while and walked away. I’m glad that I didn’t abandon this idea entirely. So here it is, finally. Version 3.

Immanence WIP

thewhiteswan — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 17:57:12 +0000

I am trying a different approach with this painting. A bit daunting and not sure what it’s going to look like, but here goes! I got a wonderful book by Jean Pederson called “Expressive Portraits: Creative Methods for Painting People”. It has loads of great information and demonstrations of her techniques. Except that they are for painting wet on wet, on cold press paper, and I paint in a dry-brush technique on hot press paper! Talk about out of my comfort zone. So I am trying to adapt the principles to my style of working first,….then comes the real challenge of trying the techniques the way they are described in the book.

Stay tuned………..

Reading together WIP 2

thewhiteswan — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 17:44:45 +0000

Slow going on this piece. I am thinking of starting over, as a matter of fact. There are places that I feel are overworked. Maybe. I’m not sure. But am I sure that I have to walk away from it for a bit.

New Sketches

thewhiteswan — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 18:04:35 +0000

“Searching”

This concept is of an individual’s search for the Divine, or Deity. They are reaching for the light, straining but can’t quite reach it.

“Immanence”

This idea is to show the theological concept of Immanence of Deity. In many spiritual traditions the belief is that deity or the divine can be found within the individual. I want to try to show that the light is coming from within, and is the only light source.

Reading Together wip

thewhiteswan — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 21:50:50 +0000

Plugging away at the new project. This is the second attempt, the first try I was using a different type of paper, and my usual technique was NOT working well at all. I hadn’t used that paper in about 15 years or so, Fabriano 300 lb hot press. I have been using Arches 300 lb hot press most recently. The Fabriano is a much softer paper, and has a smoother slicker feel, than the Arches. I used to use this paper exclusively, and I loved it, so I was sure that I could pick right back up using this paper with no problems. Apparently my technique and painting style has indeed changed and progressed( I hope) over the years. Here I thought that I was painting pretty much the same way that I always had. It’s a pleasant surprise to realize that growth is indeed happening when you can’t readily see it yourself.

So, I will try some experimenting with this paper, but for now, I switched back to the Arches to finish this piece.

“Reading Together” drawing

thewhiteswan — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 21:21:24 +0000

Here is the drawing for Paige and Brendan- “Reading Together”

A flower for Paige-wip

thewhiteswan — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 20:45:29 +0000

“Mommy can you paint me a picture?” So, of course I complied. Her request was a pink tulip. Okey-dokey!

Just have to finish the background and it’s done. It was nice to work on this whenever I was getting frustrated with the drawing for Reading Together.

Reading Together study

thewhiteswan — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 19:53:12 +0000

Color/value study of the next piece. I took this candid shot of my two little guys and couldn’t wait to try to put it on paper. The drawing is almost done and ready to go. Stay tuned!

Reflection final

thewhiteswan — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 14:22:22 +0000

Well, here is the finished painting. On the whole I am very happy that I decided to keep at it and not give up on the idea, however I am definitely ready to move on.

The concept for this piece was to continue with the idea of grief/depression existing as it’s own entity. You can read my original idea here, and see the first painting. In this second piece I wanted to show only the separate reflection of grief/depression, but so that the viewer can place themselves in the position of the person looking in the mirror, and that the image could be a picture of their own pain.