Stacy Weitz Minch

4x6", oil on linen mounted to hardboard Quick sketch of a wild rose I clipped from a bush in our backyard. I've started keeping a cigar box loaded with paint in the freezer at all times. It's so much easier to find a few minutes to paint when setup is taken out of the equation.

  Another quick study of this rose I have hanging around my kitchen, this time in watercolor and watercolor pencil.   And the second session on this long pose. It's feeling super scary right now. And maybe the head, or at least the face, is too big. I started bringing down the values but didn't get all that far...

  Okay, one more unfortunate flower attempt ;) One of my biggest hurdles is time. I find 20-30 minutes here and there and though I'd like to be able to whip out a decent little rose study in that amount of time, maybe it's just not that plausible. I'll keep trying, though. 

6x4", water mixable oil on linen panel I just wanted to do a quick little sketch tonight while we were watching the Olympics. I had my lamp in the opposite corner of my teeny tiny dormer window studio, and I really liked how it was actually making shadow shapes in the petals of the rose. So I decided to leave it there, even though the thought ran through my head "But I should be painting in the same light that is falling on the subject." Listen to that little voice, Stacy! ha. Clearly, I didn't listen. Subject, lighted. Canvas, in shadow. Not good. Here's a rather sad little progression of how things went down. But the good news is that, from what I hear, experience is the best teacher--perhaps I won't make that mistake again? I wouldn't necessarily count on it, but I'll try to remember ;) (also, don't paint with transparent colors in the dark)     And while we're on the subject of flowers, late last night I read t...

I'd really kind of like it if my window wasn't placed in such a way that everything I set up ends up being very softly back lit. I mean, I'm sure it's really great for helping me see subtlety and all, but sometimes I'd just like a big old drastic shadow, you know? Anyway, I don't mean to complain. It's a very nice window and I'm glad I have it. I'm very fortunate to be one of the few humans in this world who have the means to paint at all. I decided to use a limited palette for this mini sketch session (50 minutes for both roses). So I had white, black, naphthol red, and yellow ochre on my palette. It's kind of cool to see what that simple color combo can do. Not that this was a very complex subject as far as color goes. But it does somewhat simplify your color decisions to have just a few piles of paint on the palette. Painting is so stinking hard. It's something I realize more and more each time I try. But someday I'll be a...

6x4", water mixable oil on linen panel Yesterday was a long day. I guess the problem was that I was trying to get a few things done. We were having dinner guests, so I was trying to clean up a bit. We had to make a run to the grocery store. And I needed to make some dinner preparations throughout the day. Which doesn't sound like all that much to get done, but seriously. If ever there is something I have to accomplish during the day aside from playing the constant entertainer and referee... well, it can be a little frustrating. Anyway, the evening went much better than the rest of the day, and while my husband got the kids off to bed, I painted this little rose. Somehow, doing something artistic usually makes my world feel a little more rosy--clearly not all the time, but most the time ;)  I've been experimenting a little bit with varying levels of paint thickness on the canvas.  I think it makes the surface more interesting. When we were in San Diego last fall...

You know I won't be able to leave the yellow alone until I feel it hasn't licked me (so expect some more yellow flowers ;), but this one felt better than the lilies (simpler shape, for one). The background got a little out of control, but that's okay. I can always try again. The water mixable oil in burnt umber tends to come out really sticky, and if I don't mix it with a little more oil right away it gets all clumpy and uneven, and that's how this background started (I was just going to do a light wash with a mix of burnt umber and a couple other colors), but then I just had to keep adding more to camouflage the clumpy-ness, and there you have it--solid burnt umber background, ha. how boring :) The major difference I've noticed between water mixable and regular oil paint is that the water mixable doesn't thin as well with water as regular oils do with solvent. So it's harder to do a nice light wash of color to tone the canvas if you so desire (whic...

10x8", water mixable oil on panel Alright, time to give the yellow a rest. We've had these beautiful sun-bleached pink roses in bloom by our fence and they're just about to wilt into nothing, so I thought I would try painting one before it's too late. It seems like the values are just a little too segmented. Looking at other rose paintings I like, the lights are more or less connected, forming more of a solid value area with subtle variations within them (strangely enough, I kind of like the value structure my 30-second reductive drawing more than the finished product--the simplicity is nice). I think I'll probably go back to a drawing copy or something next. There's this teaching concept we use in speech pathology when working with dementia patients called errorless learning. Basically you teach people something on a level at which they can succeed every time, then increase complexity slowly, only as fast as they continue being successful. A little ...

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...

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 :)

6x6", water mixable oil on canvas board, 9/16/2015 Another rose from the same bouquet as my previous rose bloom painting--this one beginning to show her age. Some days, I can really relate ;)

6x6", water mixable oil on canvas board, 9/12/15 I was having the hardest time with this rose. I completely wiped off my first attempt because I was getting so frustrated. The tricky thing about painting this particular flower was that there was no combination of paint I could find that would even closely approximate the vivid pink color of the petals. So I just dug in with all the reds I had, and hoped for the best :) If any painters out there have any tips on how to get really vivid pinks, please share! I was using primarily permanent rose with some alizarin crimson and cadmium reds in the mix :)