Stacy Weitz Minch

We're spending the week in Southern Arizona with family. It was a chilly morning while I was attempting to paint this barrel cactus (painting fail :P). Plein air painting is hard.

12 5/8 x 8 1/4", pencil on paper, 12/20/15 Another infamous Madame X sketch. I'm not usually much of a perfectionist, but doing these Sargent copies definitely brings it out in me. I could probably make corrections forever! I guess I don't know how hard I should try to be absolutely exact with my copying, but I do know that doing these copies has really helped me learn how to approach a drawing and become more effective and accurate from the start. I got dark with my pencil lines a little prematurely here, and if I try to erase it will look a mess. So I'm going to call this one done, even though I can see (especially looking at this side-by-side on the computer screen) that there are plenty of errors I'm just itching to fix. I'm tempted to try again tomorrow (maybe make a copy the same size as my intended finished drawing--I think that would help a lot).

12x12", water mixable oil on board, 12/17/15 December is so crazy busy. It feels impossible to get anything done--between dance recitals, holiday gatherings, gift shopping and wrapping--all that on top of the usual piles of laundry and daily life with the little ones. Whew! I really had to force a little painting into my day today because there are just so many other things I could be doing... but I'm glad I did. It always makes me feel better to use up some creative energy and refocus, even if it's just for a short little hour here and there :)

16x20, water mixable oil on panel, finished 12/13/15 I've been in the mood to finish old projects lately--the dress I started sewing for my daughter (which I'd like to get done before she grows out of it!), a quilt I started 6-7 years ago, and this painting. You can see which of my projects got first priority. An unfinished painting sort of gnaws at me, and I don't really know why... from what I've heard, DaVinci carried around the Mona Lisa for 25 years while he was still working on it--25 years!!! Ha, I don't think I could do it. Anyway, it was that silly white blanket and the proportions on the woman that kept holding me back, and while I am not perfectly satisfied with everything about this painting, I'm calling it good enough (mostly so I can feel good about starting on something else--I really don't like unfinished projects, and this one's been dragging on too long). So I guess all there's left is to do is sign my name ;)

I currently have a whole bunch of my little paintings hanging at a coffee shop called the Coffee Pod in Provo, UT! If you're in the area, check it out! Thanks to a good friend, the opportunity just fell into my lap a couple weeks ago, so I couldn't let it pass by (even though I didn't quite feel prepared... but I wonder if you ever do?). Anyway, this is exciting stuff, guys--it's so fun to see my work hanging in a public space. The show should be up for at least a month :)

10x8", water mixable oil on linen mounted on gator foam, 12/9/15 "Give a tree its gesture... in a tree there is a spirit of life, a spirit of growth and a spirit of holding its head up." ( The Art Spirit , Robert Henri). I love Robert Henri... a lot of his paintings are really great. I really like the laughing children he started doing later in his career--his quick, bold brush strokes really capture the feeling of the moment. Some of his stuff doesn't really do much for me. I recently saw one of his quickly rendered street scenes in the Portland art museum, and was like, hmmm... but really, I find that encouraging. Everyone has their failures and triumphs (not saying he would have considered it a failure--he was so instrumental in championing art as an individual mode of self expression and a way of living a life, so I appreciate his work anyway, even if I don't find some of it particularly beautiful). Anyway, his passion and enthusiasm for painting are c

12x9", pencil on paper, 12/8/15

6x6", water mixable oil on gessobord, 12/6/15 My daughter really wanted a watermelon when she saw them at the grocery store the other day, and it really wasn't very good... but at least the color was nice ;)

Both 6x6", acrylic on canvas panel, 12/3/15 5AM is too early to be painting (or doing anything for that matter), but when the baby wakes me up at 4 and I can't fall back asleep (worst time of the night to wake up, dontcha know?--fyi, I have lots of Minnesota relatives ;), well I might as well take advantage of the quiet house. These little studies were exercises in speed, really. They are both in acrylic, which is some crazy weird stuff. After painting with oil for a while, acrylic really throws me for a loop. You have to race the brush from the palette to the canvas, just so it doesn't dry in the meantime ;) And the paints I have aren't the heavy body kind, so they seem to have almost the consistency of, maybe mayonnaise? It's a whole different animal. But it does force me to go for just the essential values and colors and stop right there--acrylics are also very shiny and hard to get a good shot of without glare, sorry (some pretty distracting glar

6x6, water mixable oil on canvas panel, 12/2/15 I don't know why I keep trying to paint these roses--the color is impossible. It's making me think I should start on one of those massive color chart projects to see if I can figure out a way to duplicate what I'm seeing ;) Yes. I should, I should, I should. But I don't waaaaant to. It feels too much like homework ;) On another note, flowers. And painting in general. I'm starting to realize that it's all about simplification and holding back (hmmm, not so successful with this painting--I got a little stroke happy with those petals). Which before this year was something I would have never really supposed (doesn't it seem like when you look at a very realistic painting, that there is so much detail work?). But for the painter, it's all about leaving things out and only putting what is absolutely necessary--eliminating the details (where possible) and simplifying the scene into distinct masses for the v

6x6, water mixable oil on gessobord, 12/1/15 This little apple balanced better on its side than upright--which somehow reminded me of that silly spin the bottle game I heard all about in jr. high, but never actually played ;)

Last night's figure drawing. This was a two hour pose, and well, if I don't get slower at drawing each week! I think it's because I'm becoming more and more aware of my accuracy errors and caring more about fixing them. Probably not a bad thing ;)