Posts by les

"Cherries and Blue Cheese" by Lesley Spanos. Acrylic painting on Ampersand Aquabord, 6" x 6". Copyright ©2011 Lesley Spanos, all rights reserved.

This was my lunch a couple of days ago – a small wedge of Castello-Rosenborg Danish Blue Cheese and some ripe cherries. It was a miserably hot day when I took my plate outside to photograph it, which made the cheese get all melty. Mmmm!

These cherries are painted larger than life. Here are some images taken along the way:

"Wisteria" by Lesley Spanos. Acrylic painting on Arches CP watercolor paper, 15" x 22". Copyright ©2011 Lesley Spanos, all rights reserved.

Another one for the “The Color Of Music Challenge” I’m hosting on Daily Paintworks this week. I am so impressed by what the artists have posted so far. Really cool paintings, and I love the stories.

The music I’ve used is my favorite song of all time, “Wisteria.”  I could get married, buried, and everything in between to that song. It’s also from  “The Garden” by Michael Nesmith.  (Yeah, he used to be a Monkee.) It features some goose-bump inducing guitar work by John Jorgenson.

I wanted to demonstrate that there’s no right or wrong way to do this challenge, so I did a 180 degree turn from the water lilies and painted what I call a  rhythmic abstraction. This is where I put the music on repeat, and let my brush flow with the sounds. It’s almost like tracing the blade of a figure skating dancing to the song. Wisteria is about a journey up a mountain on a path filled with imagined perils. Jason’s emotions range from confusion and fear to eventual enlightenment. So I chose dark colors for the scary part, and light for the… well… enlightenment. The most literal thing I did was trace a path to the top inspired by the guitar. All those little squiggles were done in time to the music. It’s not great art, but it sure was fun!

"Life Becoming" by Lesley Spanos. Acrylic painting on Ampersand Gessobord, 6" x 8". Copyright ©2011 Lesley Spanos, all rights reserved.

This week I’m hosting the painting challenge on Daily Paintworks. It’s called “The Color Of Music,”  and you’re invited to play along! The idea is to paint a favorite piece of music, converting sound to pigment.

My song choice, “Life Becoming,” comes from a long-time favorite album by Michael Nesmith called “The Garden.”   This mostly instrumental album comes boxed with a short novel. The idea is to play the music while reading the book, allowing the written word to sync with the music. Sounds weird, but if you’re a visually-minded person, it’s almost like watching a movie in your mind. The album provides the script and soundtrack, and the user is free to create whatever mind-pictures they want. Be your own cinematographer. I like that.

As an artist, I also appreciate that the book is illustrated with paintings by Monet, and loosely suggests his efforts to bring water to his garden in Giverny. The main character is named Jason, and he’s not a painter, but the garden described is definitely Monet’s.

“Life Becoming” is the final “scene” in the story. Jason has returned home after his quest to discover that his once-dry yard is now a beautiful garden. Monet’s garden. He walks down the rose-arbor allée to the lily pond, where he is greeted by the woman he loves. They stand silently on the Japanese bridge, gazing over the peaceful lily pond.   The music is repetitive and graceful, almost circular, so painting a series of repeating round shapes – lily pads – was a natural choice.  The two lilies represent the man and the woman.

"Summer Yellow" by Lesley Spanos. Acrylic painting on Ampersand Aquabord, 6" x 6". Copyright ©2011 Lesley Spanos, all rights reserved.

This pretty sunflower and its five friends currently reside on my work table, thanks to my wonderful husband. Usually I paint from printouts or my monitor, but this one was painted from life thanks to the impending demise of my computer.  Poor thing has been overheating and locking up every few minutes and generally making my life miserable. Tomorrow I’ll send it over the electronic rainbow bridge and set up its replacement. Then I can finally get some work done!

"Dusk on the Midway" by Lesley Spanos. Acrylic painting on Ampersand Aquabord, 6" x 6". Copyright ©2011 Lesley Spanos, all rights reserved.

Dusk is my favorite time to photograph the midway. As blue skies deepen, the lights begin to sparkle. The hot, humid day gives way to cooling breezes, and the grandstand pulses to the beat of an American Idol. There’s a little extra excitement in the air. We’re going to have some fun tonight!

This is my first experience using Ampersand Aquabord. (Not a misspelling. Ampersand calls all their boards “‘bord.”) As the name implies, this surface designed for water media. I picked up some on sale, thinking if I hated it I could always use it to mount prints or paper. But I liked it. With some more experience, I think I could do some cool things on this surface. The gesso is absorbent, like paper, so I used that to my advantage for the initial soft washes (first image, below). When the background was dry, I sealed it with binder medium so the “bord” wouldn’t be quite so absorbent as I painted subsequent layers. I’m not ready to give up my beloved Gessobord, but it’s nice to have options.

Some paintings gradually come into focus as elements are layered into the scene. This is one of them. I’ve watched this carnival being built from the asphalt up, and I’ve painted it in much the same way. Here are a few images I saved along the way: