Day 16 of 21-in-31: The Letter

 

Day 16 of 21-in-31: "The Letter" (pastel, 16x20 inches)
This is a portrait of my niece (doubled) that was a very long time in the making! Read more about it and watch a short video of the progress here!

Golden

 

"Golden"  (pastel, 12x9 inches) $1350

Painted in 2017, this is the fourth or fifth portrait I've done using the toned underpainting technique with the gold and terra cotta primers, and it's sill the most successful with my ultimate goal of  letting much of the underpainting "speak" along with the pastel. I think my favorite part is the reflected light under her chin. That's all underpainting and no pastel!

This was one of the merchants at the Texas Renaissance Festival during the daily parade. I love the parade for catching all kinds of excellent pics!

"Golden" is just now beyond her competition age (most competitions require works less than 4 years old) so it's time to bring her out to the art festivals! She'll be with me this weekend at the Naples Downtown Art Show. If you're in the area, find me in booth 222 on 5th ave between 4th and 5th streets.

See progress pics and read more about my process here!

Audrey with Flowers at Seven

 

This week I'll be sharing a few of my favorite paintings that I'll have with me at the Naples Downtown Art Show this weekend. This is "Audrey With Flowers at Seven" (pastel, 26x20 inches) Painted in 2011-2012, it has a long history and many awards. Read all about it and see the reference photo here!

Day 14 of 30 - Elegance

 

Day 14 of 30 paintings in June - "Elegance" (pastel, 12x6 inches)

I may be entering this one into a show. I don't know yet. Or I may have already done. I've been drafting so many of these posts in advance while I paint new paintings that I'm loosing track of days! 😅

Click here to see a GIF and some progress pictures!

Day 5 of 30 - Life drawing with the NODG

 

"Shadiya in the Mirror" (pastel pencil and pastel, 12x16 inches)

I was honored to be the guest artist at the New Orleans Drawing Group on Thursday evening, to have a Q&A after the drawing session. I was not required to draw, but I decided what the heck why not? It had been a VEERRY long time since I had done any life drawing so I thought it would be good for me.

I'm so glad I did! The model for the evening, Shadiyah Curione, had very imaginative and challenging poses. The long pose is above. I had to go in for dinner for most of it, but I caught the first 20 minutes and the last 15 or so. So this drawing took about 35 minutes. The light was from a candle near the hand mirror on the table (not drawn) The light was so amazing, it was hard to do it justice. 

See more of the other artists' paintings and drawings of Shadiyah on the NODG Facebook group page

Below (cringe) are my 1-minute (marker on smooth paper) and 5-minute (roll-point pen on sketch paper) drawings. I really needed the warm-up!

And by the way, in case you missed this message earlier, I need to tell you something!

The Feedburner team announced that their email subscription service will be discontinued in July 2021. As a result, Blogger’s email subscription widget, also known as FollowByEmail, will be turned off. Specifically, the email subscription system will no longer work and subscribers to Google blogs will no longer receive email updates.

SO! If you're receiving this post via email, I thank you for your subscription, but you will no longer be getting these delivered to you from my Google Blog after next month. 

But don't despair! Here are two ways you can still get my (almost) Daily Paintings in your inbox!

#1 - Sign up for my website's New Art Alerts. I basically have been pasting the same info into my website art posts as I do here, so you won't be missing a thing. CLICK HERE to get my New Art Alerts from my website at RitaKirkman.com.

#2 - Follow my public Patreon Posts. Sure, Patreon is a subscription-based creative support platform, but you don't have to pay anything for my public posts, and just about all of my new work gets posted on my Patreon page, usually with cool little extras like progress pics or short speed videos (like the one linked above!) CLICK HERE to go to my Patreon Page and right below the membership levels, next to a button that says "share" is a button that says "follow". It's that easy! (Browse around my other free posts while you're in there..)

Thanks so much for liking my work and following my blog. Here's to many more years of following my Website or my Patreon, and to many more years of creating!

"Cousins" won Best of Show at APS

 "Cousins" (pastel, 32x32 inches) $14,000

I'm beyond thrilled to announce that my weeks of labor on this, my newest large figurative painting, has paid off big time with a Best of Show win at the Austin Pastel Society Annual Juried Member Exhibition 2021 Celebrating Pastels! A huge thank you to show judge and juror Karen Margulis for her inspired decisions. She has curated a beautiful show. Congratulations to all of the winners and all of the accepted entrants. I love the Austin Pastel Society. It hold a dear place in my heart as the first pastel society I ever joined and the sheer talent of the members keeps getting better and better!

The exhibit is showing at the Austin Fine Art Gallery, 2805 Bee Cave Rd, Suite 430, Austin, TX. Feb 6 - March 31, 2021. You can also view the show online on the APS Flickr page HERE (the "2021 AJME Juried Set") A new album will soon be uploaded for the award winners.

This painting for me is about the blurred lines between past, present and future. The focus is on the lovely young girl with an aura of Vermeer in her unselfconsciously classic pose. The past is echoed again in the curve of the antique sofa. But the clothing (not to mention the Nintendo 3DS) declare this scene undeniably modern. The future is in the gaze of this girl who is now (along with her cousin and brother) already a young adult.

I couldn't find a way to fit all of that into one title, so it's just "Cousins." The girl with the gaze is Samantha, my husband's niece. The other girl is our daughter Audrey, next to Adam, Samantha's brother. The reference was composed from several photos taken on a Christmas visit a few years ago.

Their dog, Chico, was added for balance. ;)

Here are some closer views:

Here is an 8 minute slide show of the many progress shots and some short video clips of the process of painting Cousins:

For a $10 pledge you can watch an hour of live underpainting progress HERE, full of conversation and descriptions of my photo editing and much of my thought process behind the composition, along with a little history of my underpainting method.

Finally... A Studio Sale! Thank You and Be Safe

"July" (pastel, 16x22) studio sale

Change can be scary ... but

It's been a strange world lately. News about the new coronavirus has come to a head, and concerns about it's spread has led to the canceling of events and temporary closing of businesses. Even as we can understand how necessary these measures are for slowing the spread of the disease, it's still difficult and a bit scary to live through these rapidly changing times. We have all been affected in some way; schools going remote, sporting events canceled, people working from home.

Art connects people.

Artists and independent craftspeople are being hit hard. Perhaps one of the worst effects of the virus is how it's forcing people to disconnect. Artists make our living by connecting people with art, yet all of the art festivals and events on my calendar for the next several weeks have been canceled or postponed.

"Straight Up" (pastel, 5x7)

Finding blessings...

When I got the email about the Winter Park Art Festival being canceled, my first thought was to bemoan the missed opportunity to connect with all those Floridian collectors for the first time (not to mention the lost potential income!) But my second thought was that my kids are being granted an extended spring break and now I get to be home with them!
😀

I'm also blessed to have friends and clients like you, who have always been so supportive and appreciative of my art, and some of you have followed my career from it's beginning. To all of you who have connected with my art, I thank you!

"BonBon" (pastel, 12" circle)

Studio Sale.. Finally!

I also realized that now is a very good time to post the Studio Sale that I've had in mind for a while but hadn't had the time to organize. I've had quite a few favorite pieces in past years that by quirks of fate have just not yet found their forever home, and I have gathered them all into a new online page of my site. You can view the Studio Sale Here. These pieces are a select and eclectic group of paintings and drawings that I've always liked. You can consider this as your very own Virtual Art Festival Sale, with no traveling required! They are all priced to sell (and hopefully to buy groceries for two hungry adult children) at prices 40-70% below retail. The listed prices are unframed, but for most I have framing available at a lower-than-retail cost, just ask.

Another perk... Free shipping!

Additionally, as a convenience for y'all in this time of travel restrictions, I've decided to offer free shipping in the U.S. for the next 30 days. Yes, this includes even framed paintings, as well as any painting not included in the Studio Sale and not currently at a gallery or show, in case you see something else that really connects with you among my recent work.

"Red Rock" (pastel, 8x10)

Again, thank you.

We will weather this strange storm that has us all holed in our homes, and sooner or later things will be back to normal. But for now, if you can afford to, please consider purchasing a painting. Treat yourself or a friend to something lovely. Art enriches life. Thank you, and stay safe and healthy.

~Rita

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Persephone awarded in the Richeson75!

"Persephone" (pastel, 8x6 inches) $1150

I'm excited to find out this evening that this painting has won Second Place Other Media in the 2020 Richeson75 Small Works Exhibit and Competition!

Much thanks and appreciation to award judge David Carpenter! Here's what he had to say:
"I really enjoyed this piece for its use of color to produce light. Luminous is the first word that comes to mind when I see this piece from across the gallery. It also becomes more interesting up close because you can see all the marks that went into it."

View the entire online show HERE.

The physical show continues through April 11, 2020, at the Richeson School of Art and Gallery in Kimberly, Wisconsin.

See the progress pics of Persephone on her original blog post HERE.

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Day 29 - Self Caricature

"Me, 2019" (Prismacolor markers and art stix, 14x11 inches)

Day 29 of my 31-in-31 posts in January.

Yeah you guessed it, no new painting today. So here's something a little different to celebrate the San Antonio Rodeo coming up February 6-23, 2020. Some of you know that I've been doing caricatures since 1988 with a long history of working in amusement parks, and I still do them each year at the SA Rodeo along with quick portrait sketches.

This is my recent updated caricature, the first one I've done of me in a couple decades. Here's my old one, from (wow) ...18 years ago... Been a long time since I've had long hair and short bangs!

Come on out to the Rodeo if you're in the area! Find my booth in the Freeman Coliseum just down the stairs from the front entrance.

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Day 9 - A Graduation

"A Graduation" (conte and pastel pencils, 10x8 inches, from client photo) sold

Another commission from last month. One of my favorite challenges. Her photo was actually printed on a metal diploma, in one of those dot matrix prints that are used in newspapers. I took a photo of the photo so you could see what I mean...

Your monitor or device screen might play havoc with the patterns on this image, but click it and zoom in! Weird!

My client was super happy to have this portrait more clearly drawn. It was the only photo she had of herself at that age.

See more of my pencil portraits at RitaKirkmanDrawings.com.

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Day 7 - Brooke, again!

"Brooke" (pastel, 24x18 inches, from client photo) sold

Day 7 of my 31-in-31 of January!

I discovered I hadn't actually posted this finished portrait yet. This client gets his grandkids' portraits done every 5 years. Wonderful consistency! I'm ever so grateful!

I'm low on time this evening, but take a look at Brooke's portrait from 2015 here, with progress pics! The 2015 portrait was on one of my last sheets of Wallis belgian mist. I've since started using the MingART paper in medium gray instead.

See some of my other pastel portraits (including some commissions) on my website RitaKirkman.com.

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Day 6 - A baby commission

Baby Sisters (conte and pastel pencil, 8x10 inches, from client photo)

Day 6 of my 31-in-31 for January.

Pressed for time today so here's a commission for last month. Cute little baby sisters, 10 months apart!

See more of my pencil portraits at RitaKirkmanDrawings.com
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A portrait commission and a New Goal for a New Year

"Bible Study" (16x12, conte and pastel pencils, from client photo) sold

Well, another year is gone and a new year begins again.

I was thrown off my usual rhythm in November when my schedule had me in Montreal for a workshop and various other things kept me away from doing my annual 30-in-30 November challenge. Then I was largely offline most of December, immersed in portrait commissions at a Holiday craft show that I've been doing for decades.

It's strange and powerful this hold that the creative urge has over an artist. It's too easy to let it all slide and get caught up in other daily routines, errands, paperwork, dinner chores, and then another day is gone and nothing new has been created. But the urge is still there, like a craving.

Commission work is wonderful and is awesome for paying the bills, but when 99% of it is from client photos, it's not creation, it's copywork. It takes skill, yes, and occasionally one gets to copy a lovely image with exciting light and a decent composition, like the one above, but what the client still wants in the end is an accurate copy of their photo.

After a month of commissions (and more yet on my schedule) I'm dying to dive back into my own ideas. The distractions and excuses are still loud: my database broke, the paperwork is overflowing, one of my hard drives is glitching, and the master closet is scary. But I have decided that the only way I'll be able to really get back to work is to tell someone I'm going to do it! (Because I'm a woman of my word.)

So here it is: I'm going to jump start my 2020 with a 31-in-31 month of posts!

Fine print: I will be using the Leslie Saeta set of rules for my 31-in-31, so if I don't paint a new painting every day, I'll be able to fill in with some of the portraits I did last month (starting with this one.) But I will be posting something that has not been posted before, every day this month!

Thanks for following along with my journey, stay tuned for more, and let me know what you think!

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PS: see more Detailed Pencil Portraits on my drawings site RitaKirkmanDrawings.com.

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X O Award of Excellence in Chicago

"X O" (pastel, 12x6 inches) $1250

I haven't had time to post much in December, but now that my local craft show (where I've done portrait sketches for the last several years) is over for the Holidays, I'll be back to posting more frequently again I hope!

I noticed that I had bragged about this award on Facebook but didn't blog it, so here it is! I'm thrilled to say that "X O", an offshoot of my Renaissance Portrait series, won the Award of Excellence (equivalent of Second in Show!) at the Chicago Pastel Painters 7th Biennial National Juried Exhibition, Pastels Chicago 2019.

Since my own personal subtitle for this one is "Biker Santa", I thought it made an appropriate post for this time of year... Santa's headed toward his leisure days after all his hard work last week. ;)

See some progress pics of X O on an earlier blog post here: http://ritakirkman.blogspot.com/2017/10/x-o-wins-award.html

"Transience of Innocence" in Southwest Art Mag

"Transience of Innocence" (pastel, 26x19 inches)


I'm proud to announce that my painting "Transience of Innocence" has won an Honorable Mention in the 2019 Southwest Art Artistic Excellence Competition, and is published in the Dec 2019/Jan 2020 issue (page 70.)
 

Read the article online here. 

 

Read more about this painting's history here!

 

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The Ruby Princess - Best of Show at PSST

"The Ruby Princess" (pastel, 8x6 inches) $1150

One of my new Renaissance portraits is in the Pastel Society of Southeast Texas National Juried Exhibition, Art of the Pastel, ​October 19 - November 16, 2019 at The Gallery at Round Top, 203 E. Austin, Round Top, TX.

I wasn't able to attend the reception on Saturday, but I was so excited to receive a text that my Ruby Princess won Best of Show!! Wow! A huge thank you to show judge Jeannette Cuevas, and congratulations to all the other winners!

See all of this year's winners here:

Some progress pics:

 I started off too light in the highlights so I wiped off that side and went more slowly in the lights.

 The background was too "cotton candy" and the blue wasn't working... so I wiped it off, added more thinned terra cotta primer, and went with some warm greens.

 I used some of my precious Roche iridescent gold pastel here and there..

Young Diana

"Young Diana" (pastel, 10x8 inches) $1200

One of my most recent themed portraits, Young Diana is currently in the Connecticut Pastel Society Renaissance in Pastel 26th Annual National Juried Exhibition, at the Slater Memorial Museum in Norwich, CT. The show will run from October 11 – December 6, 2019.

Many thanks to Jurors of Selection Judith Leeds, Jeanne Tangney and Kurt Weiser for selecting my painting to be included!

Artists Reception: Sunday, October 27, 2:00 – 4:00 PM

Persephone in NYC

"Persephone" (pastel, 8x6 inches) $1150

I'm grateful to have my latest Renaissance portrait "Persephone" (pastel, 8x6 inches) accepted to the prestigious exhibition, the Pastel Society of America's 47th Annual Exhibition Enduring Brilliance! The show hangs at the Grand Gallery of the National Arts Club, 15 Gramercy Park South, NYC, September 3-28, 2019.

Gallery Tour & Reception, Sept. 20, 6pm
Materials Fair, Sept. 21, 10am – 4pm
Awards Ceremony, Sept. 22, 4pm

Wish me luck! I'm just one award away from PSA Master Pastelist!

Check this PSA page soon for the show to be posted.

See some progress pics of Persephone on her original blog post here.

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Golden - New Award!

"Golden" (pastel, 12x9 inches) $1350

I'm very happy to be able to brag that "Golden" has won the Terry Ludwig Pastels Award at the Pastel Society of Colorado's 15th Annual Mile High National Pastel Exhibition. This makes her fourth award from five shows in 20 months. She's having a good run!

The Mile High Exhibition continues to June 29, 2019, at the Curtis Center for the Arts, 2349 E Orchard Rd, Greenwood Village, CO. Big thanks to Barbara Jaenicke for judging the show, and to Terry Ludwig for his generous donation!

An eloquent quote from Barbara:  
    "It's apparent from the title that the artist effectively stayed on track with a clear visual statement about her subject; a statement that could easily be overdone without the adept skill and experience evident in this painting. ...This artist very successfully balanced the color temperature, intensity and edge treatment so that the concept was subtle but still clear, making this piece a truly 'golden' winner."

Read more about Golden and her list of recognition here!

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Persephone

"Persephone" (pastel, 8x6 inches)

"Persephone", my newest addition to my Renaissance Portrait Series, has been accepted into the Austin Pastel Society's Juried exhibit. (She will also be going to IAPS  - the International Pastel Master's Circle Exhibit at the Convention in June!) That was my plan, one painting for two shows...

Actually, my original plan was a much larger painting with three figures but I ran out of time to complete, so Persephone was my Plan B.

You can see her and the other amazing paintings of the members of the Austin Pastel Society at the Chase Bank Building Corridor of Art, 700 Lavaca Street, Austin, TX, now through April 28, 2019.

Or peek at the show here, online!

Join us at the reception: Thursday, March 21 from 2 – 4 p.m.

Click here for directions and more show info.

Just for you! Some progress shots of Persephone:

Thanks for watching! Please share!

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