tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-239516582011-08-16T11:30:06.962-06:00Don't AfraidI used to study painting in Queens, NY. Most Monday nights you would find my Ukrainian painting teacher, arms crossed, standing behind me as I painted. He'd watch my hand reach for color and hesitatingly move the brush across the canvas. Through a thick accent he'd almost bark, "Don't afraid!" He'd shake his head, repeating "Don't afraid, don't afraid--you must paint." He'd take the brush and show me how it's done.Jillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10764067128095919620noreply@blogger.comBlogger34125DontAfraidhttp://feedburner.google.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23951658.post-76319080648978439382011-04-01T09:28:00.000-06:002011-04-01T09:28:55.026-06:002011-04-01T09:28:55.026-06:00Quick StudiesTime does fly. I've been busy, but not busy doing much painting. I suppose I've been busy with life issues and self-discovery. And trying to make a bit of money proofreading. Right now I find myself anxiously awaiting getting into my studio -- an old warehouse is being renovated and I was hoping to get in by April 1, but it looks like it will be two more weeks. I'm eager to break bad habits and Jillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10764067128095919620noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23951658.post-62282658449751304792010-11-19T02:33:00.002-07:002010-11-19T02:33:55.921-07:002010-11-19T02:33:55.921-07:00Painting my portrait: things I know on some level but have to experience to internalizeI've spent the last several weeks working on a self-portrait on and off. I started with a realistic goal: do a small head study. But before I knew it I was creating the first in the grief/end-of-life series I've been planning to paint for years, developing a 20x30 charcoal drawing of me hugging my arms to my chest. Hey, sounds tough, but I can do this, right -- wish I'd done a few more of Jillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10764067128095919620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23951658.post-55802349118312184612010-11-05T09:22:00.000-06:002010-11-05T09:22:32.248-06:002010-11-05T09:22:32.248-06:00Finding my way...I've been avoiding writing. Not purposely, but on some subconscious level I didn't want to face up to the reality versus "the plan" of my arrival and work in London. But while on a recent trip to Morocco I had a lot of time to think about the way I was going about the transition from school to being a working artist. This is what I came up with:
I am only now, as I wander lost through the world,Jillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10764067128095919620noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23951658.post-21470602395104952962010-03-20T07:57:00.000-06:002010-03-20T06:58:39.491-06:002010-03-20T06:58:39.491-06:00Knowing ThingsI wrote this in April 2009 but for some reason never published it... I don't remember what events led to its creation, but I came across it this morning and really liked the ideas...It is amazing that you can look so intently at something, absorb it in all its lines, shapes and colors, reproduce it even, then come back the next day and see that this is smaller, or this is larger, this angle is Jillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10764067128095919620noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23951658.post-34662652033385544942010-03-20T06:16:00.004-06:002010-03-20T06:43:17.629-06:002010-03-20T06:43:17.629-06:00Pencil SketchesEvery morning students stumble into the main figure room, a large room with a central model stand under a big skylight, with eighteen easels forming a semi-circle wrapping around the stand. Five days a week we draw or paint the figure from nine to noon. We have three long poses (one 15-week, one 5-week, and one 12-week) throughout the course of a year, and numerous 4-session pencil poses on Jillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10764067128095919620noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23951658.post-73916969664574080932010-01-05T09:34:00.003-07:002011-03-05T16:56:59.343-07:002011-03-05T16:56:59.343-07:00Married!Jillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10764067128095919620noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23951658.post-18567324798087853692009-11-09T17:55:00.004-07:002009-11-09T19:18:14.594-07:002009-11-09T19:18:14.594-07:00Check out the new site I have with Jeff...It isn't a replacement for this one... jut serves a different function. I'll get to photographing and updating this eventually!www.jillandjeff.usJillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10764067128095919620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23951658.post-90460892178813908612009-04-01T16:06:00.006-06:002009-04-02T18:40:05.876-06:002009-04-02T18:40:05.876-06:00Taking a break... other forms of creativityI recently had a week off for spring break, and although I had planned to work on a new still life at school, I just couldn't bring myself to do it. I still attended my extra night classes, but otherwise felt burned out.I spent a lot of the break doing little that I could call productive... in retrospect I think I felt a bit stifled by the daily academic coursework. Don't get me wrong--I love it,Jillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10764067128095919620noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23951658.post-15196556467189348192009-03-22T18:30:00.006-06:002009-03-22T18:54:50.914-06:002009-03-22T18:54:50.914-06:00The Buddha Loves BaseballHere's my latest painting. The photo isn't the best (that's a dark shadow in the lower right corner, from what I don't know) but it'll have to do!After painting in black and white I decided I wanted to paint white objects in color. I'll try to get better close up photos so you can see how much color actually lives in the objects. I wanted to paint another cast and I wanted to do something for Jillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10764067128095919620noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23951658.post-86650696760204066722009-02-06T17:06:00.004-07:002009-02-06T17:34:43.307-07:002009-02-06T17:34:43.307-07:00Nude isn't new--but I love it!(Sorry, but despite my enthusiasm, no photo will be accompanying this blog posting.)I began posing nude last week. I do it once a week, for a night class of about fifteen students at my school. I know about half of them from school and the portrait class I posed for last semester. I was more nervous about getting up in front of them and appearing nervous than actually nervous itself. I'll tell Jillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10764067128095919620noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23951658.post-80999571967106797892009-01-20T21:05:00.002-07:002009-02-01T18:52:41.048-07:002009-02-01T18:52:41.048-07:00The New RealityEven my art is excited about Obama! (This is digitized--not original art.)Jillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10764067128095919620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23951658.post-32143352677184386722009-01-13T19:33:00.003-07:002009-01-13T20:10:14.214-07:002009-01-13T20:10:14.214-07:00Starts and FinishesI finished this painting over the holidays. Next step: painting still life in color.Before moving on to still life painting, my teachers asked that I complete a color exercise. I set up a small still life and spent the first two days doing a color study. I then did a one-day color study of the same still life, followed by another, then finished with two studies in one day. The point was to see Jillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10764067128095919620noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23951658.post-77956911823294922822008-11-22T16:01:00.005-07:002008-11-22T16:21:22.776-07:002008-11-22T16:21:22.776-07:00I'm posting a few photos of works in progress before I head to Denver for the holidays:This is a large charcoal drawing I work on three mornings a week. I still have quite a bit of work to do--the finished drawing should be pretty polished. I'll do another one of these beginning in January and then hope to move on to painting the figure in black and white.This is the set-up for my cast painting. Jillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10764067128095919620noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23951658.post-12332827558481957752008-11-13T07:21:00.009-07:002008-11-14T06:55:06.610-07:002008-11-14T06:55:06.610-07:00From Leaves to RosesThis morning I was stirring a pile of rose petals strewn across my tabletop. Jeff brought them home after the Obama victory last week -- we're living in The After now, and roses seemed required -- and I've decided to extend their life by making potpourri. Their soft and dainty colors and the smell that settled in the air as I moved them reminded me of an artist and painting I was introduced to a Jillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10764067128095919620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23951658.post-32326990007905398142008-11-12T17:10:00.004-07:002008-11-12T17:54:22.774-07:002008-11-12T17:54:22.774-07:00On Seeing LeavesI've begun reading Harold Speed's "The Art and Science of Drawing." I've been trying to read a borrowed copy, but finally bought my own--I take such pleasure in the act of underlining and starring sentences, of jotting down notes on the page; I connect with what I am reading and I remember more.I've barely finished the preface and introduction and my mind is already swimming with ideas about whatJillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10764067128095919620noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23951658.post-50861255683304476352008-10-06T15:58:00.002-06:002008-10-12T08:57:54.309-06:002008-10-12T08:57:54.309-06:00At home in MinneapolisWell, it has been a while. I've turned over a new leaf--or perhaps an old leaf I have turned before but somehow left to get blown about and land however it chose. I am no longer going to go through life apologizing for the intermittent updates to blogs or phone calls and email to friends and family... this is just one aspect of my personality that we will all have to learn to call "endearing."Jillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10764067128095919620noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23951658.post-40313568039418919602008-07-25T17:03:00.002-06:002008-07-30T18:11:59.944-06:002008-07-30T18:11:59.944-06:00I managed to skip a layer somewhere in here--always forgetting to bring my camera with me! This photo show parts of two different stages. The week before last I was so frustrated that I just about scrubbed out her face--I realized that the face had grown too large and need to shorten it a bit. Of course if you change one thing you seem to have to change everything around it, so the fabric and Jillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10764067128095919620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23951658.post-62044699560078191242008-07-04T17:21:00.000-06:002008-07-04T17:22:28.291-06:002008-07-04T17:22:28.291-06:00I finished another layer today... it was a struggle, but it is coming along:Jillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10764067128095919620noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23951658.post-66008434130730194572008-07-04T07:29:00.004-06:002008-07-04T07:46:44.835-06:002008-07-04T07:46:44.835-06:00This is the photo of the second stage of the copy I am making:I didn't use enough paint in these layers and am covering the canvas again right now. I was pretty frustrated working on the third stage yesterday--I lost a bit of the drawing beneath the painting and just couldn't seem to get it back. (I have been painting from a book propped on a stool near me and it doesn't seem to work so well. I Jillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10764067128095919620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23951658.post-49587451687281817482008-06-29T08:36:00.004-06:002008-06-29T08:49:17.810-06:002008-06-29T08:49:17.810-06:00Back at it...I've been in a funk and haven't done much lately--caught up in proofreading a mystery novel, planning my move, and spending time with my family--but finally forced the issue and feel great that I am back in the swing of things. It's always a relief to feel so good when I stop and then start painting again--rediscovering that sense of passion and satisfaction with my current abilities and the Jillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10764067128095919620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23951658.post-78354996167246160462008-06-13T18:01:00.003-06:002008-06-14T09:24:31.516-06:002008-06-14T09:24:31.516-06:00Moving on...I have accepted a spot at The Atelier in Minneapolis! I have yet to hear back from Studio Incamminati in Philadelphia (they are sending out a decision letter on the 16th) but am not waiting for a reply--The Atelier's program seems like a perfect fit for me.The school is one of the oldest classical realist painting schools in the U.S. It has a long tradition and a great reputation for creating Jillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10764067128095919620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23951658.post-70297813398778494372008-06-08T18:09:00.005-06:002008-06-08T18:58:30.491-06:002008-06-08T18:58:30.491-06:00Listening to Amy and ArantxaI've long had this blog and often had intentions of updating it regularly with both images of my work and writing about my artistic process. Unfortunately, the finished work I produced during the first year of work at here in school was slow in completion, and the writing followed suit. I've been admonished by two creative friends for the lack of attention to my blog--and am listening to their Jillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10764067128095919620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23951658.post-60500110745007277282008-05-26T06:52:00.024-06:002010-11-19T03:25:54.415-07:002010-11-19T03:25:54.415-07:00My Latest WorkHere are a couple of small still-life studies I've done here in London:
Untitled, 10x10
If she could stand still enough, no one would see her, 8x16
This still-life recently made it through the first round of a national open-art competition but didn't get into the show. The color is much warmer in reality, but for the life of me I cannot get it in this photo!Jillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10764067128095919620noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23951658.post-32872473134947139442008-05-21T06:15:00.005-06:002008-06-12T09:30:55.131-06:002008-06-12T09:30:55.131-06:00Thank you for supporting my dream!A few years ago I was working on human trafficking issues when I realized that I was out of steam and needed a break from the social services field. I enrolled in a painting class at the Art Students League of New York -- and was hooked! I determined to devote myself full-time to becoming an artist -- but as I continue my schooling the burning need to become an artist has also burned up the fundsJillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10764067128095919620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23951658.post-45315014311921717812008-03-21T06:11:00.000-06:002010-06-15T10:20:09.418-06:002010-06-15T10:20:09.418-06:00My PaintingsThe AtelierMinneapolis, MN2008-2010(click on image to enlarge)18x22, oil on linen, May 1020x20, oil on linen, May 1032x42 oil on linen, February 1018x24 oil on linen, March 1018x24 oil on linen, December 0918x24 oil on linen, August 09oil on linen, January 10oil on linen, February 10This was a shorter pose -- and not the best start. I wish I could say every painting is a success, but it's nice toJillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10764067128095919620noreply@blogger.com1