painting on the internet





I did another hour of talk and painting on coagula.com. I brought in a canvas with a stalled painting on it (Sara painting at the LA river) intending to overwhelm it with a different composition, a sketch I did yesterday while visiting with Kimberly Zsebe, amazing artist herself! (also photographer!) I worked in a limited value range (slightly dark middle grey to white) used a LOT of liquin, which speeds drying and makes a strong paint surface, and kept the paint opaque and flat. I'm going to let it dry good and hard and paint on it again with an expanded value range. Here's pics of everything plus a digital overlay of the drawing over the painting, just to see how 'off' I am! Also a link to today's episode of the Alex Schaefer Hour

The Great Giveaway, Part One





         How to commemorate the Great Giveaway of nearly all of a lifetime of art? Especially as the huge physical push on the parts of myself and others that it entailed coincided with the Great Earthquake and Tsunami of Japan? That soon after beginning to realize what was happening there, one of the Great Nuclear Disasters in human history was taking place for the people of Japan? For the world?
          I felt guilty continuing to process all that I had been put through, all I was putting myself, friends, acquaintances through. For me this past eviction from my art studio and all I did to save my work from the dump will always be somehow preempted in my mind by tragedy on a scale of which my relatively small drama pales in comparison. It is just as when Pedro's and my exhibition at Deeproots, the reception of which was in the very week I realized that the studio I had occupied for the past twenty years would have to be vacated by Pedro and me despite more than five years fighting my landlord there, coincided with the breaching of the seawall that was Hurricane Katrina. How to properly address one's own personal tragedy in the face of catastrophic disaster affecting entire regions, an entire country, the world?
         I don't know, I suppose it's something to do with the famous selfishness by necessity of the artist.
         I blog, I have begun to work on a documentary film about this eviction, and the imperative of the art I had to give away, the imperative of the giving away of the art.

Painting, The Beating Heart of the Butterfly, owned by Lana Jean Rose

et in arcadia ego


I've always wanted to do paintings of my favorite greek gods so today I starting hacking out a rough composition of Hermes and Iris in Arcadia. It's mixed media, analog/digital chop suey and I like how it's coming out so far. I picture painting this in the manner of the Fool.

Live at the Hive



This week I took the Alex Schaefer Hour downtown and broadcast LIVE from the Hive gallery. If you want to participate livw, then listen Wednesdays at 1pm at coagula.com, otherwise you can click this link and listen on the internet whenever you like! Here's a photo of the mobile broadcasting unit and the painting that happened during the show.

California Art Club 100th Annual Gold Medal Juried Exhibition


I am proud and amazed to be an exhibiting artist in the 100th annual gold medal exhibition of the California Art Club! And I'm also being published in the book commemorating the 100th year of the CAC called California Light: A Century of Landscapes I admire a lot of the early CAC painters like Payne, Wendt, and Maurice Braun, as I do other painters like Henri, Homer, and Guy Wiggins So the thought of being part of the history of an organization that would have those great painters, and me, is fun! Despite my varied taste in subject matter, I think I'm working in that same California spirit. This is the painting I got in the show and here's a video I shot that day at the location. The show runs at the PMCA from April 2nd to the 21st. Click the link for details

3D Street Painting in Curacao

Ok, so I'm 5 and a half months pregnant and should be painting our babies nursery this week but instead we are heading to The Netherlands Antilles to paint on the Island of Curacao.  They are having their 2nd annual International Street Painting Festival, The Colors of Willemstad.  I'm really excited to be able to attend but am curious to see how my belly will get in the way of my process ;)  If you're curious as well you'll be able to see the whole thing online.  e-remmie.com will be live streaming my work start to finish on www.LiveStreetPainting.com   So you'll be able to see me and my baby belly navigating a 3 x 7 meter painting.

Painting 101

Yesterday on the Alex Schaefer Hour, we returned to Painting 101 basics and painted a still life as a means to explain certain important concepts to understand. During the show I posted some tweets, a little blurry, which give a little visual accompaniment to the lesson.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THE SHOW!

my 5 step gradation palette: http://twitpic.com/4a44x6
my still life setup: http://twitpic.com/4a49q7
starting off with a little drawing: http://twitpic.com/4a4bi1
the background blocked in: http://twitpic.com/4a6a95
still life totally blocked in: http://twitpic.com/4a6byf

drawing




I think because of the drawing class I'm teaching that I've been drawing more lately. Here's a couple pages from my sketchbook, drawing the drawing workshop at art center and from outside the Downbeat Cafe in Echo Park. Also here's a pic Nathan took of some of us drawing in my space at the Hive Gallery during artwalk...

Amtrak - New Jersey to Washington DC

" Amtrak - New Jersey to Washington DC-II" 20x30 Oil on linen.
this is my new large painting on the same subject I did two years ago. The painting is available on my
website.
............................................sold
"Amtrak - New Jersey to Washington DC" 12"x20" oil on linen.

the alex schaefer hour


The Alex Schaefer Hour is back this week and it's time to get your learn on. Do you love oil painting? Do you want to paint lovely oil paintings? Have you experimented with acrylics because you're "afraid of oil" but found them completely unfun? Let Schaefer lead the way! We're going to start this Wednesday with Oil Painting 101. Get over your fear and fall in love! Teaching visual arts through an aural medium might be a bit like juggling in the dark, but Alex is going to give it a shot. If you listen to today's show, this will make sense to you. Here is a photo of my palette with a five step greyscale from white to black. These are the "notes" of a painter. CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THE SHOW!

come through the looking glass


Saturday March 5th at the Hive! I'll have plenty of art for sale and will be making more at the show. Click here for all the info

New Pieces For Sale!

Better late than never. I've finally got a chance to add 6 older pieces for sale to my Etsy store. You can check them all out here:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/SarahWhitmire

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