Posts in Category: painting
Memory Blocks: E is for Empathy
E is for Empathy
12″x9″ (30 x 23 cm) – oil on gessobord – NFS
This is the latest installation of Memory Blocks series, it is titled E is for Empathy.
This painting is created for the front cover of my husband’s new book The Rumor of Empathy accepted for publication by Routledge Taylor and Francis group. This is the reason the painting is “Not For Sale”, I want to keep all the rights for now.
Update on March 30th: Lou heard from the publisher – E is for Empathy image is accepted for the front cover! Happy news :)!
Eggshells
Eggshells
6″ x 6″ (15 x 15 cm) – oil on gessobord – SOLD
The last one! Number 6 of 6!
I had several subjects for this painting, some were planned for a long time. But that one evening, right before I was to start a new board, Lou decided to make an omelette and as we know – you cannot make an omelette without breaking eggs :). He threw the eggshells into the sink. When I picked them up to toss them into trash I marveled at how perfect they were. Out of the window went my planned compositions, I couldn’t sleep that night waiting for that morning light to hit my precious eggshells.
Now that this one is finished I am taking a much deserved break. The house got overtaken by entropy while I painted, I abandoned my sketches, a portrait promised to a friend is still in pencil… I am going to be busy doing all that :).
And then I am planning something new :)! Stay tuned!
Plus Two Dollars
Plus Two Dollars
6″ x 6″ (15 x 15 cm) – oil on gessobord – SOLD
The second painting for the second show I am painting for. This one in California.
But let me tell you a story. I have this church down the block, I am sure many of you have heard of it by now. Every year they have a rummage sale, and every year I go to hunt for props, and every time I hunt I score. A winning proposition :).
This year I went again and found a basket-full of mismachted bone china, bent silver spoons, a large shell with an ocean sound inside, and a set of 16 prints by Toulouse-Lautrec. Every object was a dollar or two. The fun started at earnest when I went to pay for my loot. The nice elderly gentleman was a singularly wrong person to manage the cash box! He decided to do the sums in his head and kept making mistakes in my favor. By the time he had 9, I had 11 and corrected him… by the time he had 14, I had 16 and corrected him again. All the while he wanted to talk about Lautrec, American realism, painting in general, and modeling for life sessions. In the end he got 18. I no longer believed him and gave him 20 – God bless!! 🙂
Here I have for you the three cups from the rummage sale… Plus the two dollars difference in our sums.
With Cherries on Top
With Cherries on Top
6″ x 6″ (15 x 15 cm) – oil on gessobord – SOLD
This was supposed to be the last of the three paintings for the Buck County gallery show. After this one the plan was to relax, go sketching, catch up with planning the USk Chicago Seminar, maybe do laundry… But while I painted it I heard from Randy Higbee about his spectacular 6″ Squared Show in December. I managed to miss it last year and promised myself to make sure to be in it this year. And so I need two more paintings to make it into two different shows. Pressure! Stress! Deadlines! I thought I left that kind of stuff behind when I left the corporate rat race – LOL!
I am rather pleased with this painting. The idea occurred to me in early summer, when Rainer cherries were in season. I composed my setup, but wasn’t sure of it. So I sketched it first and showed the sketch to my Sketckpack buddies. They liked it. With that I felt better and painted it :).
Every day in August – the last sketches
So many things were happening in the last weeks that I nearly forgot I had a few more sketches from Every Day in August project! These are from around my neighborhood – Edgewater.
The little red tractor-beachcomber is busy combing our beach every morning along with two others – one blue and one green. It makes a nice summery buzz-buzz-clankedy-clunk noise to wake up to.
Our beach looks just like Miami with these ultramarine umbrellas. We call this area Michigan Riviera in summer. You don’t want to know what I call it in winter.
In Chicago we only get two seasons – Winter and Construction. It is Construction now, I had a choice of three different backhoes within 2 blocks of my building.
And then the project came to an end. Here’s the whole concertina pack – 31 sketches – just before it got into the mail to go to Cape Town. I already heard from South Africa that it arrived (whew!) and is being installed in the exhibition.
The earlier sketches can be seen under these links:
The Trumpeter
The Trumpeter
6″ x 6″ (15 x 15 cm) – oil on gessobord
The second painting for Buck County 6 x 6 show later this fall. Two down – one more to paint. I had fun with new textures I had to play with – leather, suede and velvet.
Being curious I Googled John McCormack and The Trumpeter and to my delight found a recording – from a vinyl – of John McCormack singing The Trumpeter in 1915 – 98 years ago. It is so good – it gives me goosebumps!
John McCormack sings The Trumpeter in 1915
Every day in August – 4th installment
Here are a few more sketches for the wonderful Sketchpack Project 2013 out of Capetown, South Africa. The first three are fun classic cars from a classic cars show we stumbled upon in Stockholm – an MG, a Ford, and a Buick. And a delightful garland of kids I caught walking down my street a few months back. I let myself use my Artistic License painting their clothes, and had to nearly completely invent the leading boy because he walked out of the frame while I fumbled with my camera :).
The earlier sketches can be seen under these links:
– Every Day in August – more sketches
One of these days I will make a separate page for them.
alexandrazonis.com
Today my blog turns 4 years old! Who could have thought?! To celebrate this occasion we, the blog and I, got ourselves a present – a brand new URL.
Welcome to alexandrazonis.com!
And I also want to use this post to share 6 more sketches from Sketchpack project.
See more Everyday in August sketches here: Everyday in August part 1 and Everyday in August part 2.
Every day in August – more sketches
The next 6 sketches for the wonderful Sketchpack Project 2013 out of Capetown, South Africa. The first 6 can be seen here – Every Day in August.
We have a Facebook group for members of this project where we post our daily sketches and chat away about sketches and everything else. It is quite amazing to say this – but I seem to have a few new friends in Capetown and Johannesburg area. Some even invited me to visit – an amazing feat considering the distance – 8494 miles – and amount of jet fuel needed to get there from Chicago. But you never know… if there is a will – there is a way!
Six and a half
Six and a Half
6″ x 6″ (15 x 15 cm) – oil on gessobord
It seems that every realist painter worth his or her salt paints eggs at some point. It is almost like a rite of passage. Can I or can I not?!… I noticed this phenomena some time ago and knew that I too would have to paint eggs sometime.
And now I have. It was damned hard, just as expected. They have to be perfect, I discovered, and curve perfectly in the light or they will not look like real eggs – and that’s the whole point!
Eggs are an excellent assessment of one’s current skill as a realist painter. I know I will paint eggs again in the future – to see my progress if nothing else.