Well, here is a portrait that I have worked on for a couple of years. This is what it looked like about a year to a year-and-a-half ago: I started with a tinted-gesso ground, using burnt umber acrylic paint mixed into the gesso. As you can see, the technique is to develop the highlights and shadows from the tinted ground using only burnt umber and white, and then to add color as one of the last steps.

I am calling it: "Mater ut musa (Portrait of the artist's mother as a young woman)." I painted it from a photograph, which I believe was taken ca. 1977. The photo was taken at an outdoor festival in Oklahoma, during the summer. She was sitting in the bright sun, which was picked up by the ribbon on the hat. I didn't want to include people from the crowd, which surrounded her in the photo.

To focus more attention on the figure I decided to make the background dark. Also, to keep the background from being too flat, I decided to make it mottled. One thing led to another, and now it looks almost like a cloudy night scene. Oh, well! I briefly considered adding a bit of moon peeping over the "clouds," but this wouldn't agree with the lighting on the figure, so I decided against it.

I'm giving it to her in a few days. I hope that she appreciates it.

Here is an update on my "Madonna of the Blue Scarf." I added some "gold"-flake oil paint to the halo, and then changed the background to increase the contrast between it and the halo. You can judge for yourself if this reads any better. I am actually not entirely satisfied, myself. I tried the "gold"-flake oil paint as a simpler option to the more complicated 3-step technique of applying "gold" leaf. But this doesn't have as much reflective "shine" as I would like, so I may try the "gold" leaf, in 6 months, after this paint dries properly.

I participated in a workshop in September, that could have been entitled: "Create your own Rembrandt," led by my portrait teacher, Carin Hebenstreit. I don't remember what the workshop was actually entitled, but the object was to make a close copy of one of the master's works. Carin had chosen a portrait with a very interesting history. Rembrandt had painted a portrait of one of his house maids, then placed it in a window facing the street. Apparently many of the townsfolk believed that it was really a person in the window. There may also have been some scandal about an idle servant, and/or a servant girl wearing jewelry (how scandalous!). About one day into the 3-day workshop my copy looked like this:

But at the end of second day I had brought it to this more or less final state: Had I been able to attend the third day of the workshop, I might have been able to give it a more "finished" look. But it was great fun nonetheless.

Well, it is nearly Thanksgiving. I wish you well for the holidays. WRT to my art classes, I have a couple of portraits to share. The first is of a model named Brian Baxter. When I finished this painting I kept reading in it a sense of sereenity, almost religious in nature. There was something about it that reminded me of Warren Sallman's "Head of Christ." The latter was an image that I saw a lot during my childhood. I'm not sure what I find similar between them. Maybe, quiet composure and seriousness. Anyhow I recognized that something internal was wanting to express a religious feeling.

So, following on the heels of this, I gave creedence to the desire to create a religious image. We had a young woman next as our model: an artist named Kathryn Hinton. She had a soft appeal, which lent itself nicely to this endeavor. So here is my latest. I'm calling it "Madonna with Blue Scarf." This photo is prior to adding gilding to the halo.

Summer Paintings 2009

This summer I continued with classes at the Art Academy of Cincinati. I especially enjoyed the figure-drawing class taught by Marlene Steele. She was in great spirits all summer, and this made a great difference in terms of what growth & progress the students made. I posted below (in June) a drawing of Angela from this session.

In Carin Hebenstreit's "Portrait Techniques of the Masters" we had another opportunity to paint Alicia, also in June. I really enjoyed painting her because of her rich skin tones and what this allows for the painter. She was the proprietress of "F*ing Good Cookies," and a nice model. Alas, she moved to New York at the end of this session.

Then in July we had a new model, John. He had never modeled for an art class before, but did remarkably well. One weekend he was observing a friend modeling for the figure-drawing class, and then 4 days later he was modeling for our portrait class. Carin wanted me to soften this portrait, and indeed the reference photo I took of John indicated him to be a soft and/or sensitive indivual. However, I felt differently myself. Because of what I am experiencing emotionally I wanted a more dramatic statement. I'm afraid that the photo of this painting does not show quite how much I tried to emphasize strength. Notice the reflection off of the background, which is green, not black, but there you have it, eh? Anyhow, I feel that this painting says something about myself. Any guesses what I am thinking?

June 2009

Well, it's been a while since I posted, and I've been meaning to catch up, so this is my chance.

A friend asked me to enter something into a show that she was curating. So in January I began preparing 2 works for "The Art of Healing", which ran from 21 Mar - 25 April, 2009. The first piece, “Stefan Let Ræisa”, is a memorial for a friend that died a fews years ago. She was someone very dear to my heart. Having read about, and seen images of, memorial runestones such as those raised in Scandinavia, I wanted to create something similar. Here is the artist's statement:

This piece was inspired by the tragic death of a dear friend. Part of dealing with grief was, for me, the creation of some type of a memorial. An image came to my mind of rune stones, such as those created in Late Viking-era Sweden (ca. 980-1040 A.D.) to commemorate relatives and loved ones. I studied both the runes, the orthography of the rune stones, as well as the old tongue known as “Run Svensk” in order to create this memorial as accurately and faithfully as possible. The following are the letter-by-letter transliteration of the runes, and an English translation of their meaning.

stefan let ræisa markaði þenna æftiR ellen maksdottiR listamaðir dansir natturelskir ok vinkona - dans i guðs ljus - finna angan ok friðr þarna - stefan raði

Stephen raised this monument in memory of Ellen Makarewicz, artist, dancer, naturalist, and friend. Dance in God's light. Find joy and peace there. Stephen drew (these runes).

After the show ended I had a giclée made for myself, and sent the original to her brother in Connecticut.

The second piece is"The Apostatic Heart": This piece was inspired by an episode of personal illness. A few years ago I began having a series of pains, which a string of doctors were unable to treat until I was finally diagnosed with fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS). This disease may be typified as “the perceived sensation of pain in the absence of direct stimulus.” My pains were becoming debilitating until I began pharmaceutical treatment. There is believed to be an underlying psychological condition, perhaps suppressed angst over the status of one’s life, which initiates FMS. It is the underlying condition that I am trying to confront in this drawing, hoping to eventually overcome the source of my distress, and outgrow FMS.

It is now hanging in the kitchen.

Following "The Art of Healing" show I entered works into a show called "On My Own Time" in Syracuse, NY, which ran from 27 April-15 May, 2009 at the offices of my employer (O'Brien & Gere). I sent my etching of John Muir, 2 of my Prud'hon copies (Femme nue debout, de dos & Tete de la Vengeance Divine), a new protrait of Alicia, and I reworked the portrait of Kris (the blonde shown here). You can see that I have added skin color to Kris, darkened her hair slightly and added figures to her dress. I'm liking it much better now, but am still thinking of a couple of improvements I can make to enhance the contrast (for the sake of readability across a room). Meanwhile, Alicia, being Afro-American, is inherently free of the problem of contrast or readability. The curators of the Everson Art Museum in Syracuse saw the works in the "On My Own Time", and selected my Prud'hon's Femme nue debout, de dos to be in their show in October. I also won first place in the Print category for John Muir, which, it turns out, was the only print submitted to the show.

For the last few months I have also been working on a very different kind of project (different for me at least). Several months ago, to help a friend with depression I got out the old rune stones, and helped her cast them. She enojyed the reading so much that I decided to make her at set. Here you see the finished set, which are hand-carved in walnut, stained, painted gold (with a touch of green) and varnished with 3 coats of polyurethane. I have discovered that carving wood requires more steadiness of hand than I have ever had, so the result should not be scrutinized too closely. The overall effect is nice, though it took many, many hours, making it highly unprofittable to make with the intention of selling. Thus, I may never make another set.

Now that it is June, community ed classes have

finally started up again at the Art Academy of Cincinnati. Here is the result of last Saturday's figure-drawing class. It is a pen & ink/brush & ink-wash drawing. I'm rather fond of this one, though the head is perhaps a touch small for the figure.

Well, that's it for now. Be sure to share your comments with me, so that I may continue to grow.