Transitions

The privilege of having my own studio in the basement has been replaced with the grace of having my own spot behind the couch of my new living room.

<-- Moving from my old studio

MOVING DAY IN PROVO

To my new studio -->








Honestly, though, I'm just grateful to still have a spot of my own to paint and jam out. (Notice the cool headphones.) I'd like to say that I paint to audiobooks and TED talks. And sometimes I do. Sometimes, though, it's more fun to zone out to some good music. My friends have sent in playlists of their favorite artists, as such I've become a bit of an enthusiast. I'm seeing Ed Sheeran and Rudimental on Tuesday, Vance Joy and London Grammar in November. Do you have any suggestions? I promise I'll think of you while I listen.

I'm making good progress on the verdaccio. Darin helped me fix the angle of the eyes--since remember the eyes must be parallel to the line beneath the nose which must be parallel to the line that parts the lips. Mine were originally a bit wonky.

That hair though. It's driving me crazy. I ended up blacking out the left side, I'll start over once I get back to Provo. Darin advised me to just black out the parts I don't like, but... well... I kind of took his advice.

I've started thinking about my own work. I'm still refining my craft, but I don't plan on only doing Renaissance reproductions. My dad took a cool picture of my eye with his new full frame that might be fun to paint, and I may consider doing a blow up of this little girl's hands. Painting body parts, though, will only do for so long, haha, so we'll see what else I come up with.

Thoughts?

Love \\ Christelle

Thinking Out Loud

If you haven't heard Ed Sheeran's new album, "x" (read: multiply) press play below and listen to it while you read. If you know and love him, and loved him before I did, awesome.

 

Thursday evening, I had a lot of pent up emotions, and I felt like the only way to let it out was to have a Kevin Bacon Footloose style maniac dance marathon in one of the studios on campus. Ed's music (and Sam Smith, and Ben Howard) has been playing non-stop in my studio, and "Afire Love" has been particularly moving to me. And at one point my maniacal display of emotion, I was struck by a thought. I rushed to the chalkboard mounted nearby, and began unravelling the following idea:

Art, which is otherwise completely arbitrary, is humanity's way of immortalizing itself. Art's power lies in its capacity to evoke in another what the artist felt and chose to capture, immortalizing the fleeting passion and emotion the artist so desperately felt and loved. That's magic.

Passion and powerful emotions are fleeting. Music, writing, paintings can only capture one moment. The power in that one captured moment lies in its capacity to evoke in another human being that very emotion. And it can do so again and again.

Love \\ Christelle

I Play With Lead Paint

While our nation obsesses over gluten free, sulfite free, dairy free, etc. I spend hours in a basement with lead paint.

My verdaccio palette is made up of Chromium Oxide Green, Mars Black, and Flake White. My base value (1) is a combination of two parts chromium oxide green and one part mars black. Each value has a little bit of flake white mixed in.

Flake white is lead paint. They used to place a block of lead over vinegar, and the fumes would flake off part of the lead. They would collect these flakes, mix it with medium to make paint.

               

    

It will be touched up by next week but you can see the difference in depth already!

Love // Christelle

Thinking Through the Painting (Verdaccio)

The sketch phase of "Little Girl" is done and my paint is mixed. I'm painting in my studio with Ben Howard soothingly serenading me and a whirlwind of a weekend on my mind.

Painting requires me to paint shapes, lines, and values, but with my sketch and my reference, I really have no mapping to do, so my mind is free to evaluate or wander.

I want you to notice her hands. She's no more than five or six years old. The tendons that pull our fingers and thicken with age are but dimples on her extended hands. Extend your hands and notice how your knuckles compare to hers.

Her right shoulder is angled back, her pose is in accordance with the golden mean. The golden mean in crucial as the key ratio found in the beauty of nature.

I need to keep my edges soft. Things that are light are dark in recession, and things that are dark are light in recession. Photographs give off sharp edges, though those edges clearly don't exist. A well done softened edge will be made up of at least three different values.

I'm only just starting on the verdaccio, but just as a quality sketch will lead to quality verdaccio, quality verdaccio leads to a quality color painting. It may never be too late to ameliorate, I want to do it right the first time.

Love \\ Christelle