Multimedia Artboard

"Every Stroke Counts" by Lesley Spanos. Acrylic painting on Multimedia Artboard, 5" x 5". Copyright ©2011 Lesley Spanos, all rights reserved.

A little exercise never hurts. This painting exercise called the Limited Stroke Challenge was posted by artist Nancy Colella on Daily Paintworks. It’s purpose is twofold:  She wanted us to use every stroke efficiently, and to remind us not to be stingy with the paint. Nancy says, “The result will be a rather abstract, simple painting with wonderful surface quality and a “effortless” feel!”

(The part about being stingy with the paint made me think about how varied the goals of artists can be. Artists who paint primarily to sell originals can pile on the paint, creating beautiful textures that beg to be touched. Artists like me, who paint with reproduction in mind, have to think about how the piece will scan, and how it will look in print. Thick, juicy strokes can look cheesy in a flat print.)

We were told to plan in advance how many strokes we thought we’d need to create the painting, then paint it in that many strokes. Hash marks keep a running tally. By definition, a stroke ends when the brush is lifted. Some people did some amazing work in under 30 or 40 strokes, but having done a few 100 stroke paintings with great difficulty, I knew my limitations! I felt it was a sufficient challenge to assign myself a maximum of 75 strokes.  I went over a tiny bit, using 78, because there were some things at the end that I HAD to fix. If I’d had another 25 strokes, I could have fixed the drawing enough to be happy with it.

78 strokes from start to finish. Each stroke is recorded by a hash mark on the paper. You can see how I was falling apart at the end by how my hash marks trail off the paper. Oh, and that's tea in the cup, not coffee, because I was in the tea-drinking portion of my day. The coffee part of my day ends around noon, then I switch to fully caffeinated tea. Later, it's decaf tea. After that, wine. Maybe if I'd waited for the wine part of the day, the painting would have been looser.

UPDATE:

It was bothering me. There were things I had to fix before I could move on to the next painting. So I did. The drawing is still a little wonky, but it’s better than it was:

"Every Stroke Counts" (final) by Lesley Spanos. Acrylic painting on Multimedia Artboard, 5" x 5". Copyright ©2011 Lesley Spanos, all rights reserved.

"Flare" by Lesley Spanos. Gouache painting on Multimedia Artboard, 6" x 4". Copyright ©2011 Lesley Spanos, all rights reserved.

This is a harness racing horse I saw at the State Fair a couple of years ago. It’s painted in M. Graham gouache. I love gouache!  The matte surface is so velvety. I’d use it more often, if it didn’t require framing under glass.

"The Buzz" by Lesley Spanos. Acrylic painting on Multimedia Artboard, 9" x 11". Copyright ©2011 Lesley Spanos, all rights reserved. NFS

It seems like months since these happy little bees rolled into the state fairgrounds on the back of a truck, but really, it was just over two weeks ago. My husband was over at fairgrounds as the carnival rides were arriving for the fair, and snapped some photos of the unassembled Bumble Bee Bop ride  – the cutest ride in the world – knowing I’d jump at the chance to paint it.  I got to work on it right away,  but then the Fair started, and I put it aside as I went into information gathering mode. I only get eighteen days to gather reference material for the rest of the year, so I have to make the most of it. I shot – and organized – thousands of photos and hours of video. I sketched, and took notes for my book. Sometimes I just sat and soaked up the atmosphere. I love the fair.

Last Saturday morning, the weather was gorgeous and moods were light. Someone was playing classic rock from the ’70s over the PA system, and people were singing to themselves. Bye, bye, Miss American Pie, and welcome to the Hotel California.  I saw one woman dancing in the street, and I swear, if the rest of us felt we could sing and dance we would’ve joined her in an impromptu performance. I watched weiner dog races, a pole vaulting demonstration, and the Governor’s wife as she lead a fitness walk around the grounds. It was one of the best mornings ever at the fair.

That evening, everything changed. Just before Sugarland went onstage for their show, the roof at the main concert stage collapsed in a sudden freak storm, killing 5 6 people and injuring dozens.  I had planned to be there that night, but after long back-to-back photo sessions the night before and that morning, I was exhausted, and after a few days at the fair, the cupboard was bare. So instead of going to the fair, I went to the supermarket. On my way out of the store, I was caught in the storm, and I can say firsthand that the wind was utterly freakish. It came out of nowhere, and was strong enough to rock my Jeep. It wasn’t a storm, but a hammer blow from the sky.

The fair was cancelled Sunday, so all we could do was watch the sad news on television.  Monday, the fair reopened, but I didn’t go. I had planned to shoot the rodeo that day, but every event scheduled for the grandstand – the rodeo, concerts, harness racing, demolition derby, and fireworks – was cancelled. So I worked on the Bumble Bee Bop painting. I thought the bees would lift my mood, but really, I was annoyed at them for being so cheerful. That’s probably why it took me so long to finish them.

This week I’ve been forced to think about what my State Fair USA project is about. I thought it was all fun, rides, cute animals, and junk food, but maybe I need to dig deeper than that. Someone on the news called the State Fair a “family reunion in Indiana’s back yard.” As a non-native observer, I’d never thought of it that way. Now I feel the need to work more relationships into my paintings.

Here are some shots from yesterday. Due to the ongoing investigation, the roof has not been moved, so it’s a constant reminder of the tragedy.

The band Sugarland lost all their gear in the accident, and had to leave their trailers behind. Thursday they were able to retrieve some of it, but this trailer remained. Their logo and graphics are the best, ever.

Two tragedies: The Pepsi Coliseum looms over the broken stage at the Indiana state fairgrounds. During an Ice Capades performance in 1963, a propane explosion killed 74 people in the Coliseum. On the plus side, The Beatles performed in both locations.

A growing memorial under the grandstand.

"The Palladium" by Lesley Spanos. Acrylic painting on Multimedia Artboard, 9 x 12". Copyright ©2011 Lesley Spanos, all rights reserved.

This is the newly built Palladium, a 1600 seat concert hall in Carmel-by-the-Interstate, Indiana. Those of you who remember your art history might notice its resemblance to Andrea Palladio’s (1508-1580) La Rotunda. Palladio was also influential in the field of theater design as the architect of the Olympic Theater, which still stands in Vicenza. The Palladium combines aspects of both designs. It’s a graceful monument to the arts built of limestone, tile,  marble, and plaster.

Last week I attended a PBS taping of a Micheal Feinstein special there, and felt inspired to paint it. My husband provided a photo taken on his iphone.

The interior of The Palladium

"By a Nose" by Lesley Spanos. Acrylic painting on Multimedia Artboard, 9" x 12". Copyright ©2011 Lesley Spanos, all rights reserved.

I began this painting on Kentucky Derby day in honor of all horses who run in circles. I didn’t expect it to be a three-day painting! The details really grabbed me.

This painting is available on the Daily Paintworks auction. Auction ends next Monday, and I’m starting it at a low price  of $100.

Here are some images taken along the way:

"Me, 3" by Lesley Spanos. Acrylic painting on Multimedia Artboard, 6" x 6". Copyright ©2011 Lesley Spanos, all rights reserved.

When my husband saw this painting in the studio last night, he asked, “Why do you always look so serious in your self portraits?”

Thinking about my last post – “I always look a little POed in self portraits” – I replied with another question: “Did you read that in my blog?”

“No, I just saw the painting and wondered why.”

He’s right. I do look stern, and it bothers me. Am I really that sour all the time? I tried to explain my dilemma, which stems from how I shoot my reference photos:

“I shoot the photos in a mirror so I can see what what the light is doing. When I took that photo, I was crouching on the kitchen floor, trying to get a beam of light to hit my eye just right. I had to move around like a sumo wrestler to get it where I wanted it, and this was while I was holding the mirror in one hand, and trying to focus and shoot with the other. So, yeah, I was a little tense.”

“Couldn’t you put the camera on a tripod?”

Good question. “Well, I could, except I don’t have the remote shutter release for this camera. Plus, I was bouncing all over the place because the light was changing so fast, so I needed the camera to move with me.”

I think he understood at that point that this was a problem he couldn’t solve.

As for me, I’m just relieved that he thinks I look grumpy in the photos, because that means I really don’t look that way all the time.