Next

 Added some color in a bunch of places today; I need to see this one take shape.

                                                  Messages, work in progress (click on image for larger view)
 

A Good Fit

 That extra paint from Standing Room turned out to be the right color for the "white" areas of this one:

                                                  Messages, work in progress (click on image for larger view)

 
 

Onward

 Using a palette knife, I mixed up a lot of color that will serve as the wall molding. There is a huge amount of paint on the palette, though, and it's going to end up being unused. I'll see if i can put it into another piece.

                                                 Standing Room, work in progress (click on image for larger view)

And I added some blue black glazing to various places on this one:

                                                  In The Halls of Morpheus, work in progress (click on image for larger view)
 
 

Defining The Figure

 Here's one I haven't picked up for a while. It's a snowy day, and I need bright sunlight for the 30x40s, so I'm trying to do other things until the sun returns.

                                                  In The Halls of Morpheus, work in progress (click on image for larger view)

Recuperating

 Back to the easel for a short time this afternoon; many preparations needed to be made in advance of the coming snow. Hopefully tomorrow I'll get in some more bench time.

Below: a pinkish wall.

                                                  The Visit, work in progress (click on image for larger view) 

Next:  More wall, but greyer this time.

                                                  He Was Curiously Drawn To It, work in progress (click on image for larger view)
 

And finally, a little color work on the blossoms.

                                                  Rose Bouquet, work in progress (click on image for larger view)
 
 

Life Throws A Curve Ball

 ...in the form of a bad, bad tooth/gum infection and a scheduled root canal. Still, I've managed to work on the floors of the two 30x40s. Not feeling quite up to painting today but maybe later.

                                                  Standing Room, work in progress (click on image for larger view)

                                                  Messages, work in progress (click on image for larger view)
 

Wall Angst

 When I started out in art school, I had to be conscious of every penny spent on textbooks and art supplies; my parents were not wealthy, and we had always been frugal. This affected my art work as I squeezed out the bare minimum of any color on my palette, and it continues to this day. Unfortunately, I end up not taking chances with color combinations, and even worse, like today, I mix less paint on my palette than I really need to cover a large space like the back wall, below.

I'll have to re-do the wall. The color's entirely too happy, it needs to be greyed down and less forthright; museum walls don't demand attention. And the paint was actually setting up (drying) as I moved from one side to the other! (I blame the lack of indoor humidity in the winter.) 

                                                  Standing Room, work in progress (click on image for larger view)

Also, my original plan was to subtly introduce a soft yellow above each of the paintings, and dark corners to focus attention on the middle of the painting. So I will try again.

Much Improved

 I was right to take out that extraneous information; the painting is much more cohesive now.

                                                  A Street In Old Town, work in progress (click on image for larger view)
 

This Bothers Me

 There's been something about this painting that bothers me. At first, I thought it was the boring color palette, so I started studying Sargent to broaden my idea of what the wall colors could look like. But in the last couple of days I've realized it's the fact that the open door and the two display cases just make the space confusing. I'm going to take the door out the next chance I get, and probably the display case on the left as well.

                                                  A Street In Old Town, work in progress (click on image for larger view)
 

Paintings Within a Painting

 I did get to work on the wall paintings in Standing Room. It took longer than I would have thought, but I managed to get the basics of the pieces brushed in. I'll have to adjust for color next time I work on them, especially the yellows in "Woman With a Necklace" and "Girl Looking in a Mirror."

                                                  Standing Room, work in progress (click on image for larger view)

And I put down a base layer for the walls and floor in this one: 

                                                 He Was Curiously Drawn To It, work in progress (click on image for larger view)

 I was disappointed with the color, though. I have a very accomplished friend who does extraordinary shadows, and one time I asked her what pigment she used to achieve such naturalism. She seemed a bit perplexed at the question, and said, "It's just Raw Umber." So I've used it in a few things since and it's always worked pretty well. But here it looks odd.

I'll see what it looks like tomorrow; perhaps it just needs a little blue mixed in. In any case, I now have 5 museum paintings in the works.
 

Something Has Changed

 Instead of feeling unmoored and lost like I was a couple of months ago, I now feel excited and confident about the museum series. And I am much more sure of color choices. It's a good feeling.

Today I wanted to brush in a few of those paintings on the museum walls. Tomorrow I'll do one or two in the Standing Room painting as well.

                                        Messages, work in progress (click on image for larger view)

 And I splashed some gaudy colors on the two little aluminum panels.

                                        Sunrise or Sunset, work in progress (click on image for larger view)

                                        Cindy's Sunset, work in progress (click on image for larger view)

 

More Toning Down

 

                                                  Another Thursday Evening, work in progress (click on image for larger view)

Color Tryouts

 Still trying to decide on the palette for this:

                                                  The Visit, work in progress (click on image for larger view)
Warm? Cool?

Eureka!

 I have found it. The portrait that I found so elusive and for which I spent many minutes searching several days ago, popped right up when I looked for it at The Met's site. It's a Fantin-Latour, and it has a wonderful back story. Apparently the woman in the painting insisted on paying in cash, in advance, showed up sometimes with an American known as "Becker," and gave as her name one that Latour found questionable. Nobody knows who she really is, or what the relationship was between her and Becker.

Even better, enthused by the finding, I did a search for the last remaining painting on the walls— on the left-hand side, and difficult to make out— and, bingo! It is a Manet, one he considered unfinished, of the funeral procession of his friend Baudelaire. How to link these three images with the figure?

Aha!

 The painting I mentioned in the last post is titled "Soap Bubbles," and it is by Thomas Couture, whose name has been mentioned in the Monet biography. 

That's all.

Messages

 I think that's going to be the new title for this piece. One of the paintings in the background is of a boy blowing soap bubbles as a remark on the transience of life. I've been trying to pin down the other portrait on the back wall, hoping it too will provide a comment on the human condition.

Meanwhile, progress. 

                                         Messages, work in progress (click on image for larger view)

 
 The whitish-green areas are a bit too sharp, but I feel like I've been learning a lot about color lately, and I'll fix them after they dry. And the order of Raw Sienna in a huge 100ml tube arrived yesterday, so I will be painting parquet floors to my heart's content from here on in.

The Meissonier and Monet

 After a reasonably productive day, I'm going to settle into my chair with the Monet biography. I managed to get through Part 1. Hopefully the man will have some success in selling in the rest of the book.

But one thing I found interesting was a reference to Ernst Meissonier, who was active in the war of 1870 that took Bazille's life. The large military painting you see in the piece below took him 14 years to complete. That is Napoleon himself on the white horse at upper left.

                                         A Quiet Moment At The Met, work in progress (click on image for larger view)
 

I am again having problems with the parquet floor on this one, and will have to measure out the small boards. Things get wonky as the eye goes from left to right...I also want to eliminate those dark edge lines but have to make sure that everything is in its proper place first.

Parquet Madness

 Ah, the fun of working on painting a parquet floor. This particular one has floor boards going in every which direction, so it's really messy looking right now. It will eventually coalesce, and partly because of the way light hits the floor from skylights.

                                                  The Red Room, work in progress (click on image for larger view)
 

Soft

Again; the table surface is giving me more trouble than it's worth. I did play with some very soft strokes on the right side in an effort to avoid doing more woodgrain. It's interesting but still not quite right.

                                                     The Visit, work in progress (click on image for larger view)
                                                 

 
 

El Centro

 Trying to line up the two logos across the panes of window glass is not easy. I'm going to have to work first in red and then chisel away at it with deep blue to clean up the lines.

                                                  El Centro, work in progress (click on image for larger view)
 

Night Work

 I used up what was on my palette last night for the wall and floor. The plan is to make the wall a shimmering, undefined color through the use of several layers.

I do love the postures.

 

                                                  The Visit, work in progress (click on image for larger view)

Fixed It

 80% of my motivation comes from looking at a work in progress and seeing something that really bugs me; I have to fix it or I won't be able to rest. The other 20% stems from being excited about the prospect of working on some quirky aspect of the image; a gradually darkened corner of the wall, or a texture on a tablecloth, something challenging.

Today I took care of the left side of the piece below. In its former state, as pretty as it was, it was too light. It drew attention away from the center of the painting. The only thing to do was to use some dark glazes, and I'm actually shocked by how well it came out. It has a sort of soft, dreamy quality about it now, and yet I can still let the two figures stay bright, as though they're spotlit.

                                                 Another Thursday Evening, work in progress (click on image for larger view)

And: worked on the pants of the gentleman on the left, and the hair on three of the women.

                                                 Standing Room, work in progress (click on image for larger view)
 

I must confess that I've fallen into the rabbit hole of a biography of Claude Monet, and that is slowing me down. Also we had snow overnight, so the birds have been frantic and I had to replenish their food supply numerous times today.

Moving Along

 Here is the latest work on Standing Room. 

                                                  Standing Room, work in progress (click on image for larger view)
 

Working Title

 Until I can come up with a more meaningful title, I'm going with The Red Room. Uninspired, I know. Today I attempted to understand how the floor works; it'll take some time before I figure out how to create order from chaos.

                                                  Untitled, work in progress (click on image for larger view)

A Rather Dark Base Layer

I got carried away with the red on the walls. In the past, most of my paintings have skewed towards blue as the main color but at some point in time it all changed and now there is a marked preference for red walls, flowers, store windows, store fronts, shirts, etc. I will have to tone this down with the next layer, but it will provide some richness and depth.

                                                  Untitled, work in progress (click on image for larger view)
 

The Visit

 Added a little more color:

                                                  The Visit, work in progress (click on image for larger view)

The Day Was Not Wasted After All

 Last one for the day:

                                                  Untitled, work in progress (click on image for larger view)