Friday, April 05, 2013

Sister Friends

Sister Friends40 x 30
a recap of this painting

Inspiration
One of my paintings from the "sister" series was my inspiration
 Preliminary sketch on the cello wrapping.

 Canvas prep and sketch
Started painting with the first face on the left.
I remember the struggle as it had been two months since I picked up a brush.
Added collage with two tissue patterns and one napkin.
So far, I pretty much was following the original sketch except for some changes in the hands.
And then I could not love the napkin that I used in the center girl. The lines just never set well with me. 
I also knew that the girl in the back would be repainted. 
Never loved her.
At some point, I sunk into the notion that this painting was going to take me a long time and I got comfortable with that knowing there was much for me to learn. 
That was the permission to keep changing stuff.

One of the things I did not like about the girl in the back her face was too small. You can see in the above two photos that I did manage to enlarge her enough to be happy with her. Adding the crown hair did help with the too small problem.
I really liked the center girl's headdress while it was in white. I toyed with the idea of her being different in that way but knew the white headdress would be too different. 
She is the focal (in my opinion) and the white headdress inspired the white flowers. 
This painting took me over a month to paint and I want to share some things I learned, if I can.

  • I always knew this painting was about hands and they would be connected like the inspiration piece. I learned that I could cling to that inspiration and still change anything else.
  • One of the first things I learned was how helpful it was to do a quick preliminary sketch on the cello wrapping. This was helpful with the placement of five faces because the canvas was so large. 
  • About using tissue paper and napkins: Tearing the tissue before gluing it down forces me to repaint over the tissue.  Thereby, making it my design. 
  • I don't like stripes or lines.
  • The scale of the torn/cut tissues informs the size of the flowers.
  • It is helpful to have the tissue collage in the background because you don't have to apply paint everywhere as you would with a black canvas. I like that.
  • I learned to paint these flowers.
  • I used Matisse Background paints and learned to paint the faces with them as well as hands, flowers and the background. I don't know why it never occurred to me that I would do that. I purchased seven more colors last weekend just in time to finish the painting. 
  • I discovered how to distress by scrapping some of the white paper doily off and was so happy with that result. 
  • Hands don't have to be perfect.
  • Changing the scale of the flowers from head to head, as well as, limiting a few of the flowers to only one girl kept them separate. I worried that it would look like all the same gob of flowers across the canvas.
  • The white of their dresses balanced well with the flowers. That was a concern. I knew from the beginning the dresses would be white so the connecting ribbon would be very visible.
  • There were days and days that I did not paint. there were days I painted when I did not want to. There were days I wanted to paint but didn't or couldn't and then in the end, I wanted to paint until it was finished.  I think if I had painted this from beginning to end in a few days or hours, the flow of painting the very next thing I know to paint from impulse to impulse would have been different and therefore the outcome would have been different.
I can't help but wonder how different. For more 

For more of the progression of this painting, the previous 12 post were about this one painting. 

30 comments:

  1. Absolutely awesome! Very much appreciate the show and tell. Thank you so much for sharing this, soo beautiful!
    Andrea.

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  2. thank you for sharing *all* of this with us, sharon!! xoxo

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  3. thank you so much for showing the progress of this fantastic painting. Hugs Annette x

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  4. Thank you for sharing your art, what you learn and the progression of it all. I am so grateful. I love it all! <3

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  5. Wowie Zowie! You DID IT! This is just amazing Sharon! I always learn so much from your processes. This all was delicious!!!! And, I love the red thread weaving together the fabric of their (our) lives. Just amazing. Just beautiful!
    hugs to you
    Chris

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  6. Sharon! This is quite beautiful, It is sometimes so hard to devote so much time to one piece, but my goodness you have really produced a piece of magic here. Thanks for sharing your process. There are so many useful tips. As I said..... Beautiful!!!! The way your sisters are holding the string reminds me of my Daisy chain canvas, great minds think alike eh? :)

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    1. Thanks! Had to search for you Daisy Chain painting. It is lovely. Yep, "great minds...."

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  7. So beautiful! Thank you for sharing your process with us.

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  8. You are truly amazing. I love watching the canvas transform into this beautiful painting. I have always liked the way you paint hands, those long delicate fingers. Beautiful.

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  9. Thank you for sharing all of your knowledge and talent with us. The piece is quite nice....my favorite part is how you painted the dresses....I love the transparent look of them and....I think my favorite face is the one in the back...but it is hard to choose favorites here. Beautiful painting.

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    1. Thank you, My favorite changes with each one that I finished. That's how it always is with me. Oh yes and the one in the back....remember how u-glee she was? We are all happy now.

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  10. You finished it! I keep going back and forth through the progression photos... Your "notes" help in finding the details. It's marvelous! I adore the flowers on the middle figurel Sooo good! It must be impressive "in person", where I'm sure the size of it grabs the space :)

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    1. Hey my friend, Thank you and you are correct. The size of it grabs the space. I don't have a clue what to do with it now. There is not a wall in the studio that will accommodate it.

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  11. I knew it was going to be good but never guessed it would be THIS good! Man...what a beautiful creation. Thank you for showing steps and mistakes, corrections. Very helpful. I love this piece of work.

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  12. It's just gorgeous! Thank you for sharing...I love, not only seeing the process, but hearing your thoughts and tips. It's been fun!!!

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  13. Beautiful and I can only imagine it in person. I think the size of the canvas or any art work is an element that doesn't translate in photo's but has such impact when viewed. For me size is ab important component, be the work large or small. Thanks for taking time to share your notes with us.

    Darla

    PS isn't this the month for your classes in CA?

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  14. Thank you, thank you, thank you all so very much for staying with me on the journey. I appreciate you all so much.

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  15. Hi Sharon, I really appreciate this recap of the progress of your painting. I had been following the day to day (or whenever) updates but maybe because I'm a Virgo, I love the all-in one-spot post. And the notes at the end, excellent. It was easy on my end to watch, maybe not so much on your end, but the progression has been so helpful to me. Thank you. Joanie.

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    1. Thank you Joanie, I wish I had written down the notes as I was going because there were more things that I could have shared. I knew when I realized the painting process was going take me forever, I would have to blog about it on the go in segments; otherwise, I had nothing to blog about. Then when I did finish, I really wanted to share the whole canvas as it moved along. Thank you so much and I'm glad you enjoyed it.

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  16. I love this piece, as a matter of fact I love all your work . . . "You Rock, Sister" :)
    I thought that I was already following your blog, then to my surprise I found that I wasn't.
    Well, I solved that problem . . . follower #707.
    Looks like a lot of smart people love your art :)
    Have a wonderful day, and if you get the time or inclination come visit and follow me back.
    Your blogging sister, Connie :)

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  17. A lovely painting. So wonderful you have taken photos as it progresses. Very interesting to me to see all of the bright rich colors that were first painted under the white. I love the effect of that hint of color through the white - the transparency.

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    1. Thanks Susan. Did you see that hint of color came from the blocks of color that I randomly painted in the very beginning. It worked.

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  18. Love watching the progression of the painting!

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    1. It means so much to hear from all of you that you appreciate the progression shots. I worry that I bore you with so many. Can't help myself. I like to see them too.....especially when they are forever gone.

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  19. I new from the beginning it would be fabulous!

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  21. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151553561713544&set=a.401893488543.176310.339932038543&type=1&theater

    I hope you can see this photo. It reminds me of Sister-friends.
    Happy Thursday!

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  22. Sharon, this is so beautiful, moving and powerful. Strongly bonded women, yet all so unique and independent. I love this. I also loved reading what you learned from this painting. It caused me to look at some things a little more closely. I love how their hands turned out. Beautiful Beautiful piece!!

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