Day 11: A Joyous Day

Spent the afternoon staffing the Viva Gallery in Studio City, CA, with another very interesting woman, Barbara Byrne, a collage artist, who also crafts and wears gorgeous handmade jewelry. So many talented people out there! Am in a joyous mood, thrilled to be exhibiting a couple of paintings, joyous to be included among other extremely talented well known painters, foremost of whom is Brenda Swenson, almost a neighbor, who does such wonderful work. http://www.swensonsart.net/  She took a prize in this show (special honors) "H20 in 2010", the show mounted by the Valley Watercolor Society.  Below: "The Forbidden Fruit", a fabulous example of Brenda's wonderful negative painting style.  I had such a good time talking to the visitors on this incredibly rainy Saturday.

Day 10: 2 more paintings of Karin

I've added two more paintings to the Thank You Project for Karin Jurick.  I notified everyone of David Christy's wonderful painting which I totally screwed up on and failed to add to the Photo Album we sent Karin.  And then today another wonderful painting from Violetta Smith arrived in my email inbox which I added to the Picasa Album.

http://picasaweb.google.com/polsby/The122FacesOfKarinJurickJanuary2010?authkey=Gv1sRgCPCNrO-srfW09AE#

You'll have to scan all the photos to find those two. I have yet to figure out how Picasa sorts things. I asked for a sort by name.........and how the paintings are now? Is how Picasa thought they should be sort. Go figger!

Day 9: An internet site I'd forgotten about but...

About a year ago, I think it was Myrna Wacknov who brought this site to my attention: http://www.posemaniacs.com/    Great drawing spot for those of us who are trying to draw every day.

Myrna, when sketching from posemaniacs, used to use the ubiquitous telephone book pages as sketch paper, drawing with a sharpie or some other black pen.

If you don't know about Myrna, she has very innovative methods she uses to create multi-media projects and she has received multiple awards for her fabulous bozzetto style watercolor painting "Reflections on Turning 65".

http://myrnawacknov.blogspot.com/

bozzetto as defined:  http://www.painterskeys.com/clickbacks/bozzetto-value.asp

Day 8: Donna Zagotta's interesting blog spots

Donna Zagotta is a "feed" that I subscribe to (it's free). Today's post was interesting enough that it allowed me to spend (waste?) an hour or so, wandering the web, reading, looking, having a wonderful mind time as I call it.  Take a look at the best blogs as submitted by Donna's followers.

http://donnazagotta.com/blog/

Day 7: An interesting painting thought

http://www.twentyminutechallenge.blogspot.com/

This artist, Katharine Cartwright, runs an interesting blog and features people's work that they submit following the rules of her challenge.  The Challenge itself is a great idea as it gets us drawing, something we should be doing a lot more of.  Take a look at the blog and get to drawing!!

Day 6: I'm in a show!!

I'm a member of the Valley Watercolor Society (a Los Angeles area watercolor group).

http://www.valleywatercolorsociety.org/ 

Several months ago they had a jurying into the Society and I submitted two paintings to be juried in. I was accepted!! Never thought I would be as I love everyone else's work and usually am not too thrilled with my own. A stereotypical attitude I think.

Valley Watercolor Society then announced a show "H2O in 2010" and called for entries. I submitted my two framed matted plexiglassed paintings (with hanging wires no more than 2" from the top of the frame) and whoopee!!! I was accepted. Two Paintings!!

"H2O in 2010" starts this Wednesday, the 24th of February at the Viva Gallery http://www.vivaartcenter.org/

The Reception (wine and cheese, ooh la la) is Sunday the 28th from 2-4 p.m. I hope, if you're free, and live in the area, you'll come see some really fine work.

"Past Their Prime"

 

"Christmas Meadow - Utah"

Day 5: Practice Paintings of Karin

I was tidying up my "studio" (a fold up card table in the guest bedroom) and came across the preliminary paintings I had done of Karin before I painted the one which became my final version. Thought it was interesting that such slight variations in a nose? in the width of a face? made such definite changes to the same face. So for your enjoyment herewith are the 3 other paintings I did of Karin Jurick.

I do portrait work by (1) drawing the face on drawing paper, not watercolor paper. I then (2) trace my drawing onto tracing paper. Then (3) using a light table, I transfer the drawing to the 140# cold press Lanaquarelle paper I've been using.  As I (4) paint the face I note where I'm going wrong. Back to the drawing, change the nose a little, lift the lips a little, fix the tracing paper image, light table it onto another piece of w/c paper, etc etc until I feel I've finally gotten the drawing right.  I realize this creates a lot of work for myself but I always feel better about the images of "real" people when I do them this way.

Day 4: My painting of Karin Jurick for the Thank You Project

This is the image of Karin Jurick that I painted for the Karin Jurick Thank You Project. 118 fabulous painters, pastelers, charcoalers, pencilers drew their version of Karin from the same photograph that was supplied to them.  This is my version. Would love to meet this lovely lady sometime, when next I'm in Georgia. We're all wishing Karin "big luck" for her show in March.

Day Two of Jill's Blog

I have not yet mastered coding, picture uploading, etc so my Day Three post is going to contain "links" to other sites.  Bear with me as I learn.  You'd never believe I actually teach people to use their computers! 

The Karin Jurick Project was a fantabulous experience both in working with wonderful artists and in learning how to create a book. Thank all 118 of you for painting/drawing/pasteling such wonderful works of art!! I'm sure she's going to be thrilled with our huge Thank You Karin.

On Day Three, to be posted in 3-5 days, you will find all the links necessary to enjoy each other's work.

Day Three: The 118/119/120/121/122 Faces of Karin Jurick

In December 2009, Karin Jurick through her wonderful website "Different Strokes From Different Folks", mounted a portrait challenge.  180 people from around the world were to submit a head and shoulders photo of themselves to Karin so that some other person of the 180 would paint it.  Painters painted each other anonymously and then Karin posted all of the wonderful paintings and drawings on http://differentstrokesfromdifferentfolks.blogspot.com/2009/12/hold-your-horses.html

She also created fantastic YouTube videos of the photo morphing into the painting. Be sure and take a look at these as well. It's a fabulous viewing experience!!
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rf5CYNe50os
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ig_AbM1rWqg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILvBE2eVyQ4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5lEKmlhaM4

As a Thank You to Karin Jurick Tribute, 118 of the above 180 artists (those who could be located) painted a portrait of Karin from a photograph supplied to them by Jill Polsby.  I've created a link to the Picasa album for everyone to enjoy and I've copied the link to the Snapfish book that was created and mailed to Karin as a huge thank you from her fans. 

I can't thank everyone enough for their enthusiastic response to this Thank You Project for Karin. Thank you!!

Picasa Album:
http://picasaweb.google.com/polsby/The122FacesOfKarinJurickJanuary2010?authkey=Gv1sRgCPCNrO-srfW09AE

Snapfish Album ordered to be sent to Karin:

It's been noticed that some of the Snapfish pictures appear cropped. Snapfish dictated the size of the photo and some of the paintings were affected more than others. My apologies if it happened to your work.  When you get to the Snapfish site, below the pictures over to the right....you can click on an icon that gives you a much bigger version of the finished book.
http://www5.snapfish.com/projectshareewelcome/l=6789956008/p=98061265506009909/g=27938450/cobrandOid=1000/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/otsc=SYE/otsi=SPBKlink/