Stacy Weitz Minch

January 1/17/2023 4:07:34 PM It's been a quiet couple of months here--as quiet as quiet is with a home full of pets and kids and holidays and winter illnesses and all the daily happenings of family life...   What I mean by quiet, I guess, is that my artistic output has been a bit sparse. Maybe it's the general malaise of winter days. Or the feeling of having too much or too little to say. Or the fact that I've been waxing philosophical as of late, reexamining my life up to this point (could it be I've lived almost half my days?), feeling the irresistable pull of authenticity dragging me through the mire of what's comfortable and familiar into something that's brighter and darker and startlingly, embarrassingly new.   That all sounds rather vague and cryptic, and I suppose it is. But here I am, one small sojourner on this swirling, ancient planet, engaged in the ever-human search for truth, leaving a smattering of breadcrumbs along the way.   That's the thing...

It's been a busy fall. Between regular family scheduling and an extra-packed art event lineup the last couple months, it feels like I haven't had much time to breathe. I enjoy being busy, but only if that busyness is balanced with a good dose of time for quiet, solitude and creativity. Last week's painting retreat in Zion was just what I needed to refresh my outlook and recharge my batteries. It was inredible to be surrounded by accomplished and interesting artists from around the world, while painting the breathtaking scenery of Zion National Park.  Each night we cooked a big family style meal and talked over dinner. A couple of times, even though the night air was chilly, I braved the pool and swam under a canopy of stars! One of my favorite memories from the trip was waking up before dawn to hike to a lookout point and watch the sun rise. I love hiking, and the majesty of those moments is something I will never forget. It took me 7 hours to drive home in a snowstorm (ins...

3 hour portrait start. Somehow I have her looking younger than she should. I moved the eyes down based on my teacher's critique. There was a space issue, but I'm thinking maybe I should have moved the eyebrows/forehead up instead? I think whatever I did gives her a very youthful look (she's not 13 ;).

8x10", oil on linen mounted to hardboard Another plein air water sketch. Water is some tricky stuff, and the way the light was reflecting in the distance  here was really hard to capture. I kinda liked how the foreground came out though. It has some feeling of movement and depth, and contrasts nicely with that big rock in the corner. I haven't painted much water at all, but so far I find it to be really interesting to study. It's fun to look at something that is so complex and in constant motion and try to simplify it down into its most basic shapes and colors. It's a very impressionistic process, which seems to be right up my alley. I love laying down the impression, but getting into the nitty gritty finishing aspects of a drawing or painting is always a challenge for my patience. I can do it, but I'm not always a happy camper while I'm at it ;) I'm sure I'll learn to enjoy those aspects more with time. I always get frustrated when I'm learn...

I intended to go a little bigger with this portrait than I've been doing lately (mostly I've been painting 3-hour portraits on 8x10's), so I gave myself plenty of space and ended up going a lot bigger, ha (can't quite seem to not fill the available space--I have this taped to a 16x20" board ;). This model had such fair, subtle skin tones, they were really difficult to translate. It seemed like every color I mixed was overstated in one direction--if I saturated the paint enough, the value was too dark, but if I made the value correct, the tone was too cool/chalky. I don't know what the answer is (probably should have at least pulled out the lead white), but I like getting a little painting practice from life in here and there. I was using a limited palette of titanium white, cadmium red, ivory black, yellow ochre, and raw umber. And I'm thinking I should pull the raw umber out (or use a warmer or less green/purple leaning brown). Also probably wasn...

I was an hour late to portrait session last night. We spent an eventful afternoon getting x-rays, casts, etc., after my son broke his arm at the playground. So I didn't have a lot of time on this one, and I didn't quite get the likeness. I think the closest eye needed to move toward the nose a little bit, and the muzzle area needed some tweaking. But in a situation when you're so pressed for time, you have to make a decision whether you are going to keep fiddling with the likeness, or try to work on other aspects of the drawing. I'm really trying to push my ability to describe subtle form, so I let the likeness go to some extent. This kind of angle is always difficult too, because the slightest turn of the head makes a huge difference in the placement of the features.

This has felt like a bit of a rough starts, and seems to be moving really slowly. But I haven't been getting in to work on it much. Things are crazy in the summer--it's hard to keep a set schedule. At this point, I'm still trying to work out the accuracy of the drawing before I really get in there and solidify things.