Getting the studio ready
It's hard to believe that another year has come and gone and it is once again East Bay Open Studios. What is particularly exciting about this year's Open Studios is that it will be the first time in 6 years that I've actually had a studio to show!
Open Studios Details:
June 1 & 2 and June 8 & 9, 11 a.m. - 5 p.m.
June 1, 5 - 10 p.m., opening PARTY!
Norton Factory Studios
3094 East 10th Street, Oakland, CA 94601
www.facebook.com/NortonFactoryStudios/
I'm working on a commissioned portrait of a young girl with a butterfly resting on her wrist. I'm capturing the day by day transformation of the piece. Below is the portrait from initial sketch to underpainting to somewhat more developed painting.
Lara Hoke, portrait in progress
I am thrilled to be moving into my new studio next month at Norton Factory Studios. The past several years I've been lucky enough to have space in our home to paint. I'll miss the convenience of home, but won't miss some of the challenges (lighting, ventilation, cat hair...). What I'm most excited about is the opportunity to be part of a community. It is something I've missed dearly ever since I left Madarts Studios in Brooklyn five years ago.
It's hard to capture the beauty of the space. It is airy and full of natural light. Construction is not yet complete, but it will be ready for move-in on February 15th.
After about a month's break from the studio, there are couple of new Oakland nightscape studies in the cooker. I'm also planning a slightly new approach to the paintings, stay tuned!
Lara Hoke, Oakland Nightscape Study
I'm excited to begin a new portrait commission and looking forward to the challenges it will present. This portrait is of an adorable young girl delicately holding a butterfly on her wrist. The image was captured by her parents while visiting the Audobon Butterfly Garden in New Orleans.
The painting will be executed in oil on panel. Below is a study for the portrait.
Lara Hoke
Study of Girl with Butterfly
This past weekend I took a two-day workshop on encaustic painting at Kala with the artist and paint maker Hylla Evans. Encaustic painting, also known as hot wax painting, involves using heated and pigmented beeswax.
Learning a new medium and technique is both intimidating and freeing. What I ended up creating was nothing like what I expected to create. To learn something new is to take a risk.
Photo collage of my encaustic paintings
The paintings in my studio
Below is the latest painting in my Oakland Nightscapes series. Unlike the previous paintings in the series, which were primarily concerned with a particular corner and storefront, this painting is of our house.
This series of paintings explores familiar places that take on a very different character after dusk.
This painting is still in-progress though I anticipate completing it within the next week. I apologize for the quality of the photo. This series has been notoriously difficult to photograph.
Lara Hoke, Oakland Nightscape, in-progress
Thanks to everyone for your thoughts on my painting of Ben. I've made progress, but am still having trouble with his left eye. What do you think? Does it still look awkward or distracting? Or do you not notice it?
Ben, in-progress, Lara Hoke
Below is the most recent photo of my painting of Ben. I think (hope?) it is almost complete, but am curious to hear what you think. I am particularly interested in feedback on the sketchiness of his ear, shirt, and left eye.
Ben, in-progress
I am participating in a show titled "Faces" in Berkeley that opens early next month. I will be showing three pieces and--potentially--a fourth, if I can complete this portrait of Ben which I started this week. I want this painting to feel like a charcoal drawing, with the artist's hand present in the push and pull between additions and erasures. The main image below is where the portrait is now. The three images in the strip below are from earlier stages in the portrait's evolution.
Ben, in progress
I meant to post this three weeks ago, but forgot...
7/20/2012
Our crit group met last night. I brought the two paintings I recently dusted off and am reworking. The experience was a reminder the feedback is invaluable. The comments and suggestions on where to take the paintings were much appreciated. It is easy to become blind to your work. Critiques give you an opportunity to see your work through another's eyes.
During my critique, I was reminded to not get distracted by detail and to look at the shapes.
I specifically asked for feedback in regards to Kim - I was concerned about how sacharine it was and wanted suggestions on how to make it less so. One group member suggested I remove the plants and pots. I did that first thing in the studio today. I also am paying more attention to the angles in the painting. In Lindsey. I removed the ambiguous shape behind her head and simplified the space.
Kim
Kim, Detail
Lindsey
Lindsey, Detail
If you are in San Francisco next Tuesday, July 24th, swing by 111 Minna Gallery for their monthly Sketch Tuesdays event. I am honored to be among a handful of female Bay Area artists featured at this month's Sketch Tuesday event.
From 111 Minna Gallery's website -
Each month the gallery hosts an evening of live art making featuring both established and emerging Bay Area artists. Inspired by Southern Exposure’s Monster Drawing Rally, 111 Minna offers patrons the opportunity to see local artists at work and get acquainted with them. It is also a way for artists to meet each other and to be inspired by each other’s creative process.
Sketch Tuesdays offers the local arts community a place to congregate, to talk, to create and to be seen. There is usually room for artists to just drop in and start drawing, but the good seats are reserved for the invited artists.
Art is for sale at reasonable prices and will be displayed until the event closes. This is a great opportunity to become a collector and to meet some very talented people!!
I was recently asked to show my work as part of a group show at a new gallery in Livermore, CA. The show is about the figure and being such, the gallery was interested in my older work, most of which is no longer in my possession. To meet the gallery's request, I pulled two half-finished paintings off the shelf, dusted them of, and started painting. It is fascinating and challenging working on pieces from the past. I was surprised to see how my brushwork has changed in the three or four years it has been since I last worked on these two paintings. It is looser, softer, less interested in edges. I have eight days to finish the paintings. Wish me luck!
You can see the original versions of these paintings here:
For better images of the portrait, please visit my Portraiture page.
Cheers!
This past weekend my friend Lindsey and I made a pilgrammage to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. We were both captivated by the jellies. Below are some of my favorite shots.
I'm excited to share these images, the portraits are getting closer and closer to completion. It's been difficult working with reference photos that are black and white (portrait on left) and under saturated (portrait on right), but I'm always up for a challenge.
Please note the black lines are digitally imposed and used as guides rather tan being part of the final product.
Many artists project the source image on canvas and trace the outlines. In my portrait work, I've found this approach to be helpful when working in the dry, precise medium of graphite. However, it is totally useless when I work in oil. My painting process involves loose application of paint, blending, wiping, and reapplication of paint. If I traced the image, it would be like painting between the lines or color by number. The painting would have no life of its own.
In addition to overlaying the in-progress portrait over the source photo (see the previous post), I've started outlining the source photo in Photoshop and overlaying the drawn outline over a photo of the painting in progress.
Periodically while I work on a portrait I use Photoshop to overlay a photo of the painting on the source image. Not a fancy technique by any means, but a hugely useful one. By overlaying the images I can see immediately where my painting is off. For example, in the first series below, I can easily see that my painting is too straight on. Rather than directly facing the camera as I've painted him, the subject is turning slightly toward his right. In the second series I see several issues. The most important of which are the tilt of the head and the placement of the right eye.
Capturing the spirit of the subject can't be helped by technology. Thank goodness at least likeness can.
Reference Photograph, Grandfather Buck
Although early in the process of painting the portraits, I want to be careful not to overwork them. I want the paintings to be a combination of fully developed areas and loose, gestural lines.
This summer I was blown away by Pat Sonnino's series of Moleskine Japanese sketchbooks that combined materials (largely from Rome's vast Porta Porteses flea market) with pen and ink and gauche.
Inspired by her work, I purchased a sketchbook and began drawing. Each set of pages is of a particular space, our living room, a friend's apartment, a coffee shop. Each space is connected to the next set of pages by an architectural element, shape, or line.
I've always been a fan of the Surrealist parlor game Exquisite Corpse and like to think of this sketchbook as a spatial version of the game.
I shared my first sketchbook with my critique group last week and received some great feedback. One suggestion was to research the variety of camera angles used to create interest and meaning in film and bring that variation into my work. This shot below is of my first attempt to incorporate this idea. I think it's a start, but that I can push this idea much further.
