Happy Birthday

Today was a milestone birthday! My friends took me out for happy hour,and made me feel special.-Love you guys!

Liz was an incredible girl. She kept smiling even though she was undergoing chemo therapy for a cancer that returned after months in remission. Liz was my art student, and by all rights should have graduated from high school, experienced college with all its glory,and gone on to have a great life. Instead, she suffered from a terribly unjust illness that robbed the world of this joy of a girl....Her faith was a true inspiration for us all. This portrait is a commemoration that I painted for her family..

Newest portraits in oil

 

Art WEekenD with my sis. It was filled with laughter, making art, antiqueing, and generally solving the worlds problems.... Our Collage workshop was fun for all, I think. We got some great results. We brought tons of stuff to create with, gave a few instructions, and then turned them loose. We had some fabulous results. Here are some of the backgrounds, and a few with focal points added. They turned out great, and everyone seemed inspired to continue this with their students when they get back to the classroom.
Our travels took us to the little town of Blackwater, population 199, where we made a few friends, and enjoyed some antique shopping and bratwurst. What a fabulous weekend, love you, sis.......

 

Day 1- part 2

Getting farther along

Portrait study, day 1

New portrait, day 1:
This is mainly glazes so far.... It's hard to find the exact look, do you want muted, or contrasted values?? I'm still not sure which.... If you only use glazes, it seems soft, but then again, I'm so used to having definate darks and lights that I can't seem to give up the high contrast.. which do you think is best??

Changed this a bit, what do you think?

I've been looking at this too long. HELP- can anyone give me some constructive advice ?
Do I need to change the background color? How about the values? enough contrast? Be honest and tell me what you think. I can't tell anymore, my eyes are weary...... thanks in advance!!

Portrait in glaze, with a twist

This portrait is started with the glaze technique, but this time I used the method I was teaching my students the other day. We were working first in black and white conte crayon (on pastel paper) drawing a simple still life of forms lit by a single light source. When complete, they used warm colors in the lighted areas, and cool colors in the shaded areas, for added depth. Here is my portrait, and some of the students finished pieces. I thought they did a Great job. !!

Famous St. Louis Artist !!

Here is the great article about Denise Lombardozzi that was the feature article of the style section of our Post-Dispatch Newspaper today..... Hey, Denise!!

Adding some dark values

I'm having a bit of trouble this evening getting my picture to post, but I'll keep trying......

I worked for awhile and put some darks into the face and background, using the same three colors.. The glazes are producing a transparent feel, and using the same three colors in different proportions seems to give unity to the composition, since all the colors have these three in common. More to do, but thought I'd post to give you a look at the work in progress......

Portrait of young boy

Here's the start of portrait # 2. Again, I've used the glazes, starting with an underpainting made from burgundy and yellow glaze, and a hint of thalo blue acrylic in the shaded areas. With the shapes laid in, the next painting session will be the refinement of the tones, colors, and values. These canvases (sp?) are very "used friendly", measuring only 12x12 , and are the extra deep thickness. The ethnic costume on this subject very much appeals to me.

Painting with Glazes

I've decided to try a series of portraits in acrylic. This one is actually done with a layering of glaze colors. I purchased some glazes quite awhile ago and wanted to try them. I started with an underpainting of warm tones, and then began to build on top of them with darker variations of browns and added blues to the darker sections. They no longer make the glazes I used, but I did find Ceramcoat BASE GLAZE which can be added to any acrylic paint to give the same effect. I found this at Michaels.....

Buff left for San Francisco

Tracey left for California, and Sunday she takes off for her adventure on the other side of the globe. We had a tremendous visit, spent as much time cramming in all the fun we could.........

St. Louis Visit

Tracey and I had fun Thursday starting by riding the new Metrolink to Forest Park and walking to the Art Museum after a nice coffee at the coffeeshop on Skinker. We had the Museum to ourselves, talking with the guards, and taking all sorts of pictures. We stopped on the way home and got salmon for dinner, Tracey's friend Kristy joined us, and they had a nice visit.

Friday we just played and piddled, but the evening was reserved for the Clayton Art Show, voted the BEST in the Country...... A WEEKEND of great times, and great art!! It doesn't get much better than that!!- Tracey, Ted, Diane, Jim, Lin, Rog, Bus and I, plus Doug and Tina, and Sharon Knox, had fun eating, listening to the music, and viewing all the cool creations at the Art Show- SUCH CREATIVITY !-wow-FAMILY TIMES-

Fun on a Tuesday in the Studio

Being surrounded with all my "stuff" simply gets me inspired. I am becoming a incurable packrat- or as I like to think, A "Collector"- ha !

I'm addicted to the sales on Saturday mornings that lure me out of my warm bed with the promise of the possible "once-in-a-lifetime" find..... The treasures are finding their way into my artwork, as well as my collage packets for sale, and it "connects" with me in a special way...

The vintage images and old mementos and memorabilia somehow fascinate me. Those special possessions touch me with the individuals personal history, which I find so irresistable.

Tracey Lynn