Attempting to develop

My desire is to free myself up as an artist and become more creative in my interpretations of photographs and other source material. Sometimes I get a bit frustrated with myself because I tend to stick so close to the literal appearance of the photograph. So in November I took a very inspiring workshop from the super duper Portland artist William Park called "The Spirit of Drawing". I have to say that the change in my art has been visible, though not dramatic. I move very slowly, but I am persistant!

BTW! If you are intersted in seeing William's work or taking what may be his last workshop for a while, visit www.williampark.net


This is a piece I like very much called "We Came for Work". It is from a very early photo, probably 1900-1920.


This piece is also from an early photo, probably from 1910-1920, called "Love and Adventure". I enjoy doing snow scenes quite a bit. I usually I use acrylic medium when I want to thin my paint and make it translucent. In this one I use water as a thinner, which has a different quality in its results, more matte and soft.



This one is called "I Knew You'd Come" It was featured in a previous post "An Artistic Conundrum" This is the results of struggling with that conundrum. I may never be sure how successful it was.


This piece is called "Humbug Mountain State Park; The Park Ranger's Family" It is of my mother's family. If you look very closely, you can see a small white bundle being held by the man on the far right; that bundle is my newborn mother. This painting also uses water a lot as a thinner, and I let the energenic charcoal drawing of the bushes remain exposed.



Tune in next post to follow the exciting saga of Leslie's art.