teapot

Blue Glass and Teapots – in progress

| greenboat

I’m really enjoying this new still life so far. Very exciting to work on the different reflections and forms, the perspective, the color harmonies…

Blue Glass and Teapots_step1
Blue Glass and Teapots_step1: starting the cadmium red underpainting

Blue Glass and Teapots_step2
Blue Glass and Teapots_step2: finished cad red underpainting

Blue Glass and Teapots_step3
Blue Glass and Teapots_step3: overpainting in colors, corrected perspective on left-hand teapot

Blue Glass and Teapots_step4
Blue Glass and Teapots_step4: two color layers on leaves, articulating more of the forms in the blue glass vase

Okay, so it’s running a little later than I’d hoped (like, maybe a month later), but I think it’ll be a nice addition to my body of work. I’m using a lot of Liquin — an alkyd dryer — in my medium, since this one was initially meant to be ready in a couple of days. (What WAS I thinking…?!) Generally I use a 1:1 mixture of stand oil and walnut oil, with just a little Liquin mixed in, but I think I mixed this batch 1:1:1. It’s an interesting texture to work with, and I’m working more in the direction of transparent glazes than opaques. I like the way the cad red underpainting shows through the first layer of dark green in the leaves of the plant. Thought I had a photo of that first layer of green, and will add it later if I find it.

Jim Mullen, printmaker, at the Fine Arts Society of the Southern Tier
Jim Mullen, printmaker, at the Fine Arts Society of the Southern Tier
On Monday I attended my first board meeting of the Fine Arts Society of the Southern Tier (FASST), as secretary — woof, it’s been a while since I had to take notes! Next time I’ll set my iPhone to record the meeting, I think. Later that evening, the program for the general FASST membership meeting was a talk on miniatures, printmaking, and the solitary process of making art, by Jim Mullen, professor of art emeritus at SUNY Oneonta, and now a Greater Binghamton resident. I know Jim from the weekly drawing group in Windsor, but hadn’t seen his finished work close-up or heard him speak before. What a wonderful presentation! His manner and dry wit reminded me a great deal of one of my favorite professors from SUNY Oswego, his old friend George O’Connell.

Meanwhile I’ve been contacting the various dance groups of Binghamton Community Dance — Contra, English, Scottish, with a possible connection to Sword — about photography for Unlikely Dance. As I expected, some are enthusiastic, some not, but I think I should come out of the dealings with some good dancer shots to work into the landscapes and cityscapes I’ve already captured for the project. Also planning to photograph the Binghamton Morris Men, the B.F. Harridans, and their guests during their Harvest Home event in October. The leaves are turning now, so here’s hoping for some autumn pieces for the series! Should it be seasonal, I wonder…?