Chrome Orange

ChromeOrange is a standing self portrait, started last spring.

Above is the current state. Following are a few of the previous

states. Something kept bugging me. I finally have the figure

firmly planted on the floor and a fair resolution to the lower right.

The black chalk lines will change. It's not finished. I'll set it aside for

now. Paintings happen slowly and since I figure everything out on

the canvas, change is constant until it is signed.

This state could have worked; but the white chalk

bugged me, as well as the fight for space of the reds.

almost; except the painting kept dividing into two,

with a floor plane that wouldn't hold it's space. i loved

this state for about 2 hours.

Slip sliding away and feet of cement.This is where I put 

the brush down last spring. The color bugged me.

This block headed monk is where it all started.

Any one of the various states would have been 

fine. I'm not a millionaire, can you tell?

best,

and onward.

deb.

Painting: Cripple Cove lowtide

Every once-in-awhile I have a go at the view towards Joey.

These are the remnants of the pier which burned down sometime

in the seventies. Wally's packing house once stood on these burnt

pilings stubs. I packed whiting there one very cold season when

I was just a girl and money packing fresh fish was good.

There were 2 paintings of this view. I killed one and kept the

best. 20x20" oil on canvas.

copyright clarke 2015

gloucester ma

feet on floor, eyes forward, brush-in-hand,

onward

deb.

Another Ghost of Versailles

still working on the Ghosts of Versailles.  This is a 20x20"  oil on canvas that I banged out late yesterday afternoon.  now, back to the other painting.  It just isn't coming together in a way that feels right.  This other painting gave me some clues.  Will see how it goes today.  changed up the palette with addition of alizarin and phthalo green to give some punch to the values.

best, and onwards,

deb.

Signed/unsigned

i signed it today then crossed it out  there is a freshness to the drawing that appeals to me.  i will turn it to the wall and let it it dry for a few days.  there is a fresh canvas that is triple primed with a burnt sienna imprimatura ready to go.  will put it on the easel and move onto the next one of the ghosts of versailles.  i think this painting feels very french.  what do you think?

best and onwards, 

deb

Ghosts of Versailles, continues

I've moved some stuff around, enlarged a few shapes.  got the big brush out yesterday.  today i am glazing with raw sienna.  oil on canvas 24x24"

So what have you been painting lately?  having any more luck than i am?

best and onwards,
deb.

Ghost of Versailles re-grouping

Added a new few new colors to the palette:  manganese blue ad citron yellow.  The manganese blue is not a true manganese, which darkens to green, it is a pthalo blue mixed to the hue of manganese.  good in tints.  the citron yellow is a chrome or zinc yellow, not sure.  used to brighten ochre. raw umber:  a very dark yellow, burnt umber is the darkest yellow.  burnt sienna, the darkest orange, grumbacher red, a true red, neither blue, nor orange in tint or mixture. titanium white. french ultramarine dark.  i can bust out a lot of color with these babies.

This morning the grid was returned to, re-sized the masses, eliminated some stuff, beefed up the whites. This is the oddest painting I have ever worked on.  Still trying to live up to my potential.  

best, and onwards,

deb

Ghosts of Versailles

This is a work in progress, an oil painting of my friend Paula and I in the Hall of Mirrors, on the left, and a bunch of tourists.  The work is progressing slowly, I'm holding back on a heavy handed brush with this one.

Almost daily updates are updated on facebook.  I'm debbie.clarke.5011,

My daughter Elizabeth has asked me to start posting less on facebook and to

start blogging, so here I am. 

best, and onward

deb.

from the archives: 4 Stand

4 Stand with details. oil on canvas. circa 2003/4/5? looking at the inter-shapes. may redefine. faces? don't know. the line work interests me.

work in progress?

in process?

it's not signed so it must be unfinished.

best,

deb.

Intershell Seafood, oil on canvas $275

This is a quick study that I painted during a Sunday morning painting class this past summer.  They hadn't started to set the staging for Fiesta, so this must have been painted in early June.

The painting has been donated to raise funds for my friend Jim and his wife.  Jim ran Jim's Frame Shop for years.  He was my framer.  Their handicapped van rusted out and they are now stuck without transportation.  The community is raising funds to help them get a new van.  This painting is at Stuff on Main Street in Gloucester.  All funds from the sale of this painting goes towards the fund to buy the van.

best,

deb

Magnolia boats 2001

The  Magnolia Boats 2001 can now be seen at The Windemere Gallery of Arts and Antiques in Rockport.  The painting is oil on canvas, painted from memory.  it was a white hot day in the milky harbor. 

the work continues: the wip: if their mothers knew

had to bring this canvas indoors last night to escape the ravages of Earl.  it was a non-event, just rain, good thing i brought it in.  i took this opportunity to work for a bit under incandescent light, and low light.  and started again.  i like the pentimento and heed the advice that some pigments placed over a layer of ivory black may curdle.  i'm making this up as i go along, so who knows what the finished work will be, i surely don't.  not even an intimation, other than there will be figures.

best,

deb.

Art for Sale: Beacon Marine

Beacon Marine viewed from Rocky Neck.  This is an oil painting of the view from our old apartment on Rocky Neck.  The apartment was smaller than this one, but i sure got a lot of painting done in that space.  My struggle was to get the color, activate the picture plane and make the 'box' of the building.  The box is successful.  It was a real struggle to understand the activity below the doc and putting the boats on the plane of the water.  The painting is oil on canvas 24x30".  $375.  copyright Clarke 2007 

(wow, seems like just yesterday)

best,

deb

inquiries about this painting and others always welcomed.

Refrigerator Bio in 4 Parts

Three refrigerator magnets, courtesy of my friend Brenda support the painting that i am working on.  i did the chalk drawing during the Sunday morning painting class.  the orange chalk is sealed with yesterday morning's application of oil/damar.  today the drawing is refined with a few cool blotches.  also note the refrigerator bio.

detail with ganesh, calculator magnet, howard kline inspirational art card.

another view with refrigerator poetry

the big picture.

This morning's class

Color Spot Painting, introductory demo

the colors are a bit florescent in the pic

the demo, started from the cad orange spot on the right. the reds are not as closely related as this pic would have you believe. i have to learn how to edit the colors in photoshop.  another time, and cobalt blue is a deeper value, and the yellows, well...another lesson for this artist.  and is the painting even in focus?  ugh.

and this beauty is a 20 minute color spot painting demo  that i did for a painting class back in '97.  wow, i gotta get back in shape, i used 'fatter' paint then.  the painting is as fresh as it was then.  again some photo issues, but this one is truer than the first two.

best,
deb.

How to Paint A Chair, a work in progress, thoughts on painting and Big Images!

click the image for a REALLY BIG image!

"Art is really a battlefield.  Only when he no longer knows what he is doing, does the painter do good things."
Edgar Degas, French Impressionist

and some music that I want for my studio archive:  Sade.  have always loved her work, and 'soldiers of art' are 'soldiers of love', in that if you are called to make art, you will make art for a very demanding mistress.  a lover that will have no one between, that will wake you when you want sleep, that will delay you when you have appointments, that will make you not feel 'well'  when you are not dancing with the muse.  and muse seems too nice a word. dancing with a muse is  neither romantic nor poetic.  it is a hungry ghost in need of a door into this realm of reality. and when she truly decides to dance with, then through you, it is better than an orgasm.




 the muse doesn't dance every day, she is fickle in her love, and never obediant.  i spend most of my days in the practice of seeing and drawing, so my hands, eyes, and heart are ready, whenever she decides to come, because that is her nature.

Rembrandt Yellow!

Palette:  Rembrandt Yellow
oil on panel
copyright clarke 2010
gloucester ma

no iinspiration?  no such thing.  art is 99% persperation, 1% inspiration.  and when i don't have a lot of available time, no major 'projects' going on, i play around. and in these palette paintings i accomplish two things:  i get to paint, and discover a bit about my medium.

Pthalo!

Palette:  Permanent Green
copyright clarke 2010
gloucester ma
oil on panel with litho crayon

pthalo is an amazing pigment, it can be found in paints with hues ranging from yellowish green, to rose, to green, to the darkest blue.  one of my favorites, but it creeps on the palette, and if one is not careful it will get into every mix.  good practices and lots of rag for a clean brush helps!

Helen Van Wyck: She will teach you how to paint, or make soup.

Helen Van Wyck's color recipes is in my studio library. 

I met Helen when I was 13 years old and had just started lessons with Gloucester artist Ken Gore.  My grandmother, grandfather, great-aunt were taking lessons with Helen, and she had just released a new book on painting with acrylic paints.  I went to the book release, she signed my book, it too is in my collection.  It is the first 'how to' book I ever owned.  The most valuable lesson in her acrylic book was how to block in the head, to do portraits.

In color recipes Helen explains in very simple language and color accurate photos, the properties of pigment, paint and light.  The best information this book gave me is about reds.  Have you ever noticed that some reds (cadmiums) lean towards orange, and that cadmium reds turn dull when extended with white?  The best red to use?  Grumbacher Red!  It is a true red, leaning neither towards orange nor blue.  I stays bright and true in mixture and dries a bit faster than the cadmium reds. 

Helen writes in a warm accessible manner that makes me feel as if I am in her studio with her, learning how to paint, or make soup! 

So, if you are having issues with your color, and want to know how to make warm greens, which colors 'creep', which whites are warm or cool...get this book! 

 if you click through to Amazon from here, I will get a small piece of the pie for my recommendation.

A few quick oil studies from summer 2007

Looking Towards the Rudder 2007

Beacon Marine across the cove 2007

Magnolia Pier 2007