People

"Portrait of a Parisian Waitress" by Lesley Spanos. Acrylic painting on Ampersand Gessobord, 14" x 18". Copyright ©2011 Lesley Spanos, all rights reserved.

I couldn’t resist painting  a portrait of this lovely waitress from a photo taken by artist/photographer/traveler/blogger Lee Brown. Lee generously lends some of his travel photos to artists in the context of his ADNW painting challenges. Participants get one month to submit their interpretations of his image.  There’s some cool stuff already posted. Go see it here.

I don’t know what I liked more – the quality of the light, or the shape of her hair and all those wispy tendrils. Both were tons of fun to paint.

"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:

 

"Like Moths" by Lesley Spanos. Acrylic painting on Multimedia Artboard mounted on Ampersand Gessobord, 6" x 8". Copyright ©2011 Lesley Spanos, all rights reserved.

Like moths to a flame, they gather. This is another image from the Indiana State Fair balloon glow.

The unusual flat-bottomed shape of this hot air balloon hints at its purpose. It’s a promotional balloon shaped like a giant can of Pepsi.

This painting is available on Zatista, where I’m starting to list some of my originals. I like Zatista. They’re selective. They sell nothing but original wall art. Their artists are screened by a review board, so the quality is good. The site is small enough to be browsable, but large enough so you can find what you need. For buyers, the main difference is that now you won’t need a PayPal account to purchase my art. Any major credit card will do. Zatista handles the paperwork, and I’ll still be fulfilling the orders myself.

Here are some images taken along the way:

"Shades" by Lesley Spanos. Acrylic painting on Ampersand Gessobord, 5 x 7". Copyright ©2011 Lesley Spanos, all rights reserved.

After a week of painting pets, we’re back to the State Fair. This bronc rider had the rodeo in his eyes, or at least in his mirrored sunglasses.

Here are some photos taken along the way:

"Climber Boy" by Lesley Spanos. Acrylic painting on Ampersand Gessobord, 5 x 7". Copyright ©2011 Lesley Spanos, all rights reserved. $125

Earlier I painted a girl climbing the rock wall at the State Fair.  Here’s her male counterpart. I like how boldly he attacked the wall.

"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.