Stacy Weitz Minch

6x6", water mixable oil on gessobord, 10/30/15 "Every artist was first an amateur" -Ralph Waldo Emerson. This was one of those paintings where what I was trying to do came pretty close to matching what I actually ended up doing... which is how I envision the creation of art by the masters of this craft. They envision a painting, think through the necessary steps necessary to execute it (drawing on their previous knowledge and experience), and then carry out those steps, making something pretty close to what they envisioned. Precise control. I'm sure the only way to get consistent with that kind of mastery is by putting many miles of canvas behind you.  I've occasionally been told that I am  too  hard on myself. Reading through a few of my blog posts, it's clear that I am critical of my work. I don't gloss over my imperfections. This doesn't bother me. I like to be realistic and authentic. If I feel dissatisfied about something in my p...

Some quick plein air studies from yesterday afternoon.

12x9", pencil on paper, 10/27/15 I was a little more caught up on sleep than I was at figure drawing last week, thank goodness. Same model as last week, and a two hour pose.

9 5/8 x 10 1/16, pencil on paper, 10/26/15 I loved this drawing the first time I saw it. It has such a spontaneous quality, and you can really see how Sargent broke up complex subjects (like shiny black fabric and hands) so simply and effectively. Doing these copies is helping me realize a lot of things. One, I always make heads and facial features too big. Including in this drawing. If you compare it to the real one, it's very obvious (also the tilt of the head is a bit off. see below). It's strange because I think I measure everything out and get it in the right place, and then it's not. Two, capturing a likeness takes ultimate precision. It is not easily done. Three, the details make a huge difference--type of paper (mine was too rough in this instance), sharpness and hardness/softness of the pencil, etc.  I almost want to try this one again to see if I can get the head/face more in proportion... but I probably won't, at least not right this second. Dr...

7x5", water mixable oil on linen board, 10/24/15 I found this beautiful rose growing in our front yard and brought it inside to paint, but I had a really hard time matching the color I was seeing in person. If I made the lighter values as light as they appeared, the saturation of color was completely gone. If I made the saturation as intense as in person, the value was too dark. Then I ended up adding too much in the petals, breaking up the masses too much, and it definitely weakens the rendering of the rose. So I'm not sure how people do this whole flower painting thing. Flowers are tricky little things. Anyway, I do still have this rose sitting in my little painting corner, and maybe I will try again later today. There definitely are things I like about this little painting, and I learn something new each time I paint, so it was not a waste of time. I just think I could do better :)

5x7, water mixable oil on linen panel, 10/23/15 The clouds have been unbelievable lately here in Utah--so big and billowy. Whenever I go outside, I have this urge to paint! But I'm not a landscape painter (yet)... not that I wouldn't like to be. I'd like to be able to paint whatever I want :) However, I used to have this idea that I just couldn't paint landscapes (after a couple of miserable failed attempts).  But now I'm thinking, "Why not?" I'm sure I can learn how with some practice, and I do want to. I'm finding lately (especially since starting this blog and recording some of my thoughts as I go along), that I have this constant inner dialogue regarding my art. There's always a voice saying "you're not any good and you might as well not bother." I don't like that voice. And since I'm more aware of it, I'm becoming more effective and pushing it away. Who really cares if I'm not any good anyway? No on...

5x7, water mixable oil on linen panel, 10/22/15 Same one, actually :) I decided to take Richard Schmid's advice (I read Alla Prima II earlier this year), and try out painting on a surface primed with an oil ground instead of acrylic gesso. Still getting used to it, but the oil ground seems nice--the paint doesn't get absorbed as much as the acrylic stuff (so I find myself painting a bit thicker than is probably necessary). As usual, all I had time for was about 30-45 minutes on this. I think I might get started on another one of those Sargent drawings tomorrow :)

6x4", water mixable oil on linen panel, 10/21/15 Just playing around with some new brushes for a few minutes yesterday afternoon :)

Yesterday was a long day. For some reason, the day after getting back from a trip is always a hard one. There's the let-down of getting back into swing of real life, coupled with the unpredictable behavior of the two little ones (who are also adjusting to the normal routine again after all the excitement of travel).  By the time I got out the door to go drawing I was completely exhausted already, and I was really feeling it as I drew last night. I decided to try out the "sight-size" approach again, standing at the easel and drawing the model the exact same size as she was in my field of vision. It was really frustrating, actually, and I started over a few times. I think my exhaustion played a role. The last 20 minutes, I decided to give it a rest, and moved on to a non-sight-size, no pressure portrait to loosen up a bit. Obviously I didn't have time to finish, or worry too much about getting everything exact--probably a good thing :)

Just got back from a family vacation to San Diego last night. I didn't have time to do much drawing while we were chasing these two little ones around the beach, zoo, airport, etc... But I did catch a couple quiet moments to sketch them quick (very quick) while they were napping--better than nothing :)

This watermelon painting was driving me crazy every time I looked at it--bleh. So I decided to try to bring up some of the values in the melon. I'm always afraid to work back into these little paintings I whip out in an hour or so. I produce them in such a blaze, I'm always afraid I will just ruin them if I touch them again. Case in point, this recent painting of some Bartlett pears, which I tried to develop a little more and ended up totally destroying (sorry, no picture. it went straight to the garbage, which I'm really not sad about since I wasn't happy with it as it was anyway--it probably would have helped to have a reference photo or the pears in front of me again. note taken ;) Anyway, back to the watermelons. I'm happier with the way the flesh of the watermelon looks. But now I'm thinking I should have left the stupid background alone. Dare I try again? Maybe I'll mull it over for a few days before doing anything rash ;) This line fro...

12x9", pencil on paper, 10/13/15 I was thrilled when I showed up at drawing last night and this beautiful expectant mother was modeling. She is just three weeks from her due date. This was a two-hour pose. 

This copy is super tricky. I'm noticing more problems every time I look at this side-by-side. Work in progress!

I'm getting a little addicted to copying these Sargent drawings. Apart from being an excellent exercise for eye training, doing copies like this allows me to produce something that looks nice (all thanks to the master artist I'm copying).  And that's refreshing. Struggling with creating on my own artwork can be a frustrating and disappointing endeavor at times. My vision always outpaces my ability. I wonder if that ever changes? I hope so :)

8x8", water mixable oil on canvas board, 10/9/15 "I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers. it would be terrible if we just skipped from September to November, wouldn't it?" -Anne of Green Gables, L.M. Montgomeru This is a souvenir pumpkin one of my kids picked out at the pumpkin patch the other day--turns out I shouldn't have attempted to wrangle them through the corn maze without another adult along for the ride, because there was a terrifying 10 minutes in which my 4-year-old daughter got lost in the corn maze (me running around with a baby on my hip shouting her name like a crazy woman--to no response--that is, until a kind stranger took her under wing and found me).  Anyway, happy October! (Next time I will try for a little less awkward placement on the canvas. I'm trying to get better at thinking through all the details before I begin something, but I'm afraid it's gonna take a lot of practice before I consiste...

6x6" water mixable oil on board, 10/9/15 I haven't had the best luck picking out watermelon this year, but this one was a winner :) Unfortunately, painting the thing was a little less enjoyable than snacking on it.  I picked up a different brand of paint last time I needed some cadmium red and accidentally got the "hue" (I was in a hurry), and it is truly awful stuff. There were some definite lighter values in the red of the melon, but when I mixed the cad red hue with a little bit of white, it was so chalky pink I was just blown away.  So... anyway. I mixed with yellow instead (to get a lighter value), which resulted in a rather orange-y melon (at least orange is the complement of the blue background, right?). Then I was so preoccupied with the color mixing issues that the drawing got lost along the way (there is something seriously wonky going on with that back piece of melon, ha!).  I will just thank this melon for being an experimental color st...

6x6", water mixable oil on gessobord, 10/8/15 I don't know why I keep painting pears--every time I do, I realize just how frustrating all those tricky color transitions are. There's red and green and blue and brown, and everything in between :/  So... I don't know. I'm not terribly happy with this (since my goal at this point IS to be able to reproduce the way things actually look and this one doesn't quite get there ;), but on the positive side, it probably is the closest I've come to getting all the colors on the pears. Maybe I'll try another one tomorrow and see if I can do any better!

Sometimes I pull out a sketchbook and try to draw my kids. Seriously, they never hold still for more than about 10 seconds at a time. Good speed exercise :)

12x9", graphite on paper, 10/6/15 My drawing from last night's figure drawing session. I didn't pick a great spot--almost nothing in shadow from the angle I was viewing the model from, which was making it tricky to turn the form. And I don't know, something about the pose just seemed a little uncomfortable. That, and I just wasn't really feeling it last night. I don't know why. Some days I look around and see all the artists out there creating great stuff, and wonder, "why do I bother?" As a busy mom of very young children, I have (maybe) an hour a day to put into this.  I remember one of my art teachers at the college once, when he heard I was going into speech therapy, tell me: "there are some artists who go into different careers and occasionally come out with something nice. But from what I've seen, you never really get anywhere with art (career-wise) unless you do it full time."  I think he's probably right....

Approx 24x18", 10/1-3/2015 , charcoal on paper I think this one is finished now... Gosh, I love Sargent. I really love staring at his artwork, studying the strokes, colors, etc. But trying to reproduce it in some form brings the study of his style to a whole new level. I can see why aspiring art students copy master works--such a wealth of information.  I don't know much about charcoal, so this is all very experimental. I definitely didn't capture the particular quality of all the lines (especially in the background--I was using vine charcoal on its side, whereas he appears to have used the end of a larger piece of charcoal).  However, I was a lot more careful about accuracy with this one (as opposed to my first couple charcoal copies). I started out with a very light under drawing in pencil to map out the proportions (it erases so much better than charcoal!), which really helped when I started laying on the charcoal, even though I still needed to make som...

I decided to copy this beautiful drawing of Sargent's. The top image is from a book of drawings by Sargent I have (Dover Art). The second image (colorful one) I found online from a New York City gallery. It was exposed a little more, so I thought it would give me a little more info in the dark areas.  Is it just me, or do they look like different drawings? I started the copy last night from the bottom image, and then when I picked it up again today, I had the top image in my hand and had to move the facial features around. I don't know if it's just some weird trick of the camera (lens distortion?) or the difference in exposure level or what... but I prefer the top image, so I'm going to go with that...