I love the light and her serene expression. Overall, I enjoy the warm and calm emotion of it. Reference image provided by Tim Ichien. Knowing myself, this painting is not finished but it is the completed part of the first phase of the painting. That’s just the way the painting process goes. It takes time over time.
From time to time, over the past 4 years, I’ve viewed the reference photo I took and used for this painting. Often I felt it far too complex for me to paint – or at least, I didn’t want to work that hard. I did love the shapes of the chair backs and of course, the candlelight and the shadowy figures in the dark. Finally I decided I was ready and actually enjoyed the painting process very much. As always there is a change in painting content from that which existed in the photo but that’s to be expected. Hope you enjoy. Winifred
I painted this portrait during the time of the Tokyo Olympic Games. It portrays an emotion of the almost unbearable, whether it be sheer exhaustion, pain, sadness, defeat or even in the case of Simone Biles, “the twistees”. I’m sure this was an emotion that many of the athletes experienced at one time or another, as we all have in our lives.
As far as Simone Biles is concerned, I’m very proud of her decision to limit her performances in order to take care of mental and physical self. I hope we are all able to grow to to do the same.
I took many photos of this young lady with the intention of adding to my photo reference collection. I have many beautiful portraits of her. They are NORMAL beautiful portraits. Somehow, for reasons I cannot remember, I saw her hands go up to her face. It was not a pose I had created – not sure how it happened but I ask her immediately to repeat the action. I saw something special in it and more importantly I FELT something. Though I otherwise have some stunning photos of her, I immediately knew this was the pose I wanted to paint. It was so full of emotion. Hope you enjoy. Winifred
I textured my panel before I began this painting. I made a modest attempt to bear in mind the shape of the figurative elements so the texturing wouldn’t look completely crazy!
There was no umbrella showing in my reference photo though I knew she held one and so with a few expressive red lines, an umbrella was created. When people have seen this painting, they thought it referenced a far away exotic country. The fact is, I took the reference photo of a friend returning from a celebration. She was walking right in front of me, in the middle of the concrete street, with cars on the edge of the road and houses in front of her, right here in Poulsbo, Washington.
I’m enjoying living in a gallery. Many friends and neighbors have visited. It’s quite enjoyable when they do. Call first. 360.779.1375. If you don’t know about the gallery, please see my previous post. I hope to see you in the near future. Have a great day.
Welcome! Something big has happened to my home! With the help of two talented and wonderful friends my environment has changed dramatically, my home has become a gallery. (Above: Almost a 270 degree living room/gallery panorama). Overall 86 paintings are on my walls.
Creating this environment was an immense amount of work. During my past 5 years painting with oils, I didn’t hang paintings on my walls. I chose to daily paint daily – and not focus on using my painting as decor. Well, that’s changed. Paintings stacked up in a spare room in a hap hazard fashion. I needed to either hang them or box them for protection. Painting still lifes, more so than portraits, was new for me. Early in my oil painting life I received many commissioned portrait sales. They were beautiful. I’m comfortable with portraiture. For 20 years, I had created portraiture photographically, as digital art and then in oil. I love portraiture, although, as you will see, I wanted to spread my wings.
Now, I’m surrounded by paintings of all kinds. Not only that, I brought into this space my most interesting soft furnishings to compliment the painting presentation, which I’ll also show you. I’m thoroughly enjoying the new environment and I can now easily share my work with invited friends and neighbors.
Each wall or grouping has a theme by content or color. There were roses and peonies on one wall, oranges and yellows, primarily sunflowers and fruit on another. I paid close attention as the concept was developed and the layout created on the floor before it was installed on the wall. Husband and wife team, Sapna Sopori and Alex Wisniewski – have professional lives which have nothing to do with this kind of activity. However, I had noticed Sapna’s passion for decorating and lots of picture hanging in her home. I ask if she would help me. She excitedly said “yes”. Not sure what I would have done without the two of them.
This dragon bench is certainly one of my favorite pieces of soft art, made by artist Marilyn Phillips. I’ve had it for a long time. It fits in very well with the paintings. Sapna, who designed this project is captivated by the dynamic of the single escaping grape in the still life above and the dragon, thinking that at any moment grape might just fall into the dragons mouth. The paneled room divider with it’s square sections also works perfectly in the overall design scheme.
Below: I don’t know much about the origins of the settee below. It’s an antique. I previously used it in my portrait studio.
This settee was the most used piece of furniture in my portrait studio and gallery because of it’s adjustability. The arms can be moved from completely vertical to completely flat. In addition, it’s so perfect for a mid day nap! It’s also the perfect compliment for my collections of daisies and sunflowers paintings above or in fact any group of paintings. By the way, I’m thinking of painting that gray/green wall a deep burgundy/brown so the blinds disappear. I actually have just the correct color on the opposite wall.
The paintings below, are on the wall just to the left of the red settee – still in the living room. On this wall the paintings are a little more abstract than others.
Below: To the left of paintings above is my green settee.
I found this unusual piece of furniture at the Salvation Army Antique store in Seattle 20 years ago. I was so excited. It was torn in places; you can see the new fabric used to make repairs.The arms can be rolled out and off. They are attached with curved metal rods. The back will pull off. I wondered about the origins of this unusual piece. A while back, on a business trip to Colorado I entered an antique store – where to my surprise were several identically configured pieces of furniture – but with different fabric. They were in a terrible state of repair. The shop owner explained that they use to be in the lobby of old movie theaters. I’ve been told that the fabric on my settee is something very special – designed by someone very famous who has work in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. I’m making efforts to know more about it. I should do an image search – but as yet, I’ve not.
As we pass the green settee, we approach the dining area.
Above and Below:- Wall of portraits and figurative paintings. I’m enjoying doing portraits and figurative painting again.
Below: Dining area.
To the right side of the blinds in the dining area is another portrait wall which includes shopkeeper in Italy and Italian women walking in the rain with umbrella, a Guatemalan woman and intense portrait of a women in “despair” and a musician in glamorous attire. Below the portraits is a ceramic art piece named by artist Steven McGovney named “Winifred”. It’s a book end. There were two. The other bookend “Priscilla” was blonde and sadly she was broken.They were best of friends!
Above: My most recent portrait/figurative paintings have some cyan coloring. The others I painted earlier, including two which are part of my Venice collection.
Moving toward the stairs and the entry of my home are two paintings commemorating the Covid Pandemic and Black Lives Matter demonstrations which took place during this period. We then head toward the stairway to view the “Venice in the Rain” series. It’s a themed series which includes people with umbrellas, painted from photos taken on a rainy night in Venice. I have created 11 paintings in that series. Only 7 are on that wall, but there was no way to capture them all at the same time.
To the far right on the stairway landing, you see a glimpse of another painting. It’s a painting which purchased in New York years ago from painter Steve Lindsay
Below: I attempted to create a panoramic image of the Venice themed paintings while walking downstairs. In a way, it didn’t work, but in a different way, it worked fantastically. I love the breaking apart and abstraction which occurred. It’s the best!!!
It’s done!!
Comments are back on. I’d love to know what you think. Thank you … and Thank you Sapna and Alex. Winifred
I took the reference photo for this painting probably 17 or 18 years ago. It’s a photo, not even a digital file which I happened upon recently. This painting may get additional attention in the future – which is frequently the case, but for now, I’m just try to figure out how to get through the extreme and unusual heat expected over the next few days. Monday is projected to reach 106 – historic by far! The great majority of people in the Northwest don’t have air conditioning – including me. We would typically not use if for more than 1 or 2 days during the summer if the temperature reached the high 80’s or low 90’s for a couple of days. But as we’ve seen radical weather changes all over the country, it could happen here, again. Although no air conditioners are available right now – sold out, I think I’ll place an order believing that as early as it is in summer, I should plan for a duplicate performance. This is what’s on my mind today.
Fortunately, my studio is probably 20 degrees cooler than it is outside – so I’ll keep painting for sure. With care, keeping blinds and doors closed and fans going, I can maintain a reasonable comfort level and “power through” the heat. Sunday 99, Monday 106 degrees,Tuesday 90. Wednesday 81 or something like that, so I’ll manage. I’m a person who prefers 70 degrees so this heat will be challenging. Hope you’re comfortable wherever you are.
In the not to distant future I’ll show you why I’ve been so distracted from my post, but I did manage to finish this painting which I like quite a lot. I forgot to photograph this painting before framing it but that’s okay. This ends or at lease puts a pause in my Guatemalan series of paintings. It was fun. Thanks to Daphne and Art Carlyle for the reference photos. Hope everyone is enjoying their Spring/Summer. I certainly am. Winifred
I had hoped to have my “Guatemalan Man” painting completed to post today but I’ve been so busy framing a large number of paintings to finally hang on my walls. Actually, friends who are good at that kind of thing are coming over to help – in fact, coming over to lead the effort. That’s why I’ve not finished the “man’s” painting. I want to, I really like it quite a lot. I’ll post it soon.
I think this this floral has good energy in it’s expressive petal strokes. I like the way it “feels”and looks. I hope you enjoy it. It’s framed in a 5 inch wide antique frame I purchased at an estate sale recently which gives it lots of presence. There was a wonderful beveled glass mirror in the frame which I removed. It’s just perfect. I don’t intend to begin a new still life for awhile.
There was no abstraction in the photo reference. It was a normal street scene with a building in the background, a door, a window, a street and a curb. Originally I painted this. The photo was interesting, but in the painting those street/building elements were not working design wise as I had painted them. I decided it would be a better choice to eliminate them. I wiped those elements from my panel, leaving some rough drying brush marks and the color changes I’d made to the background. It turned out the removed elements had not been essential to my focus – the woman carrying the load on her head. I added some additional brushstrokes to enhance the abstraction, the painting was was done and I liked it. Quite by accident I’d created an urban street scene abstraction or what might remind me sadly of war torn Gaza as a background. (Photo reference by Daphne and Art Carlyle).
There will be one more painting from a Guatemalan photo reference and I’ll be done with that series. It will be a man.
Another enjoyable painting. I particularly enjoyed interpreting the reference photo I used. It’s fun to work out new patterns and colors or lack thereof. That’s the challenge and creativity for me – not painting what I see – looking at a photo and painting something different. Most often, I don’t share the reference but on this occasion – for no particular reason, I will. Initially I painted the large bag with stripes. That was good but I kept seeing RED – so I painted out the stripes and gave her a large red bag. I’m not sure a Guatemalan woman would ever use a solid colored cloth. I have never seen such in a photo.
One of the things I most like about the reference image is the shape of her body and the bag within the space. It’s pretty much a diamond shape with the point of her hat and the point of her feet. I also found the window bars interesting. I kept them but chose to soften their impact overall and enhance the impact of the little phone since that’s the story.
Starting with photography, then digital art, portraits are my foundation. 6 months into oil painting I was creating client portraits. Those are seriously hard work. Currently, I’m working to be more casual and loose in style and loving that. It’s particularly fun when I don’t have to create a likeness.
Well, we’re beginning to peel off the mask. YEAH! Have a great weekend. Don’t forget, comments are off but all emails and messages are welcome. Winifred