Rebecca Crowell workshop day 1

This weekend is my 3-day painting workshop with Rebecca Crowell, whose art I truly admire. Today was the first day. I'm not a morning person, so this getting up early is pretty rough on me...I got very little sleep last night and am soooo tired. But it's a great workshop! The oil paint mixed with the cold wax medium allows one to create a lot of texture, and to put on quite a few layers--maybe five or six--in a single day, if desired. These factors lend themselves well to abstract painting.

The photo shows some of the work that the class (there are seven of us) put out today. We spent some time looking at each others' websites after lunch, and I was impressed with the combined talent in that room! All the paintings shown are still in progress. Mine are the four closest ones.

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This is what I want to be doing right now:

More art on my website: jalapfaff.com

Scribble drawings

...Or at least that's what people who see them call them. I don't really call them anything except maybe "super-fast sketches" or "blind sketches" or "semi-blind sketches" (or "super-fast semi-blind sketches"). They are each about 6" x 6" and the way I do these is literally as fast as humanly possible, as fast as the pen can move. I only allow myself to look at my paper a couple of times, so there are plenty of failures, but the ones that turn out have some ineffable, transcendent quality that I love. Each one probably takes about a minute or two. (I also do some that I do totally "blind," i.e., I don't look at the paper at all, only the subject: contour drawing.) I'll try to find some of those too. These are all of The Husband.

These are pretty old but I need something to show you all...I have so many large abstract oils in progress, but none getting done. I worked for two hours last night and started two more...but haven't finished a single one yet. Eventually, I'll have quite a few to show. In the meantime, I'll keep digging up stuff I haven't posted before.

Meanwhile, at the Pfaff-Rajan Museum of Contemporary Art, in the Rothko Forgers Wing...

(Looking at paintings on the opposite wall while the bloody annoying tourist cuts off his line of vision.)

Museum fatigue.

More art on my website: jalapfaff.com

Officially introducing the new biz

I have been very busy lately (less time to paint...yeah, yeah, excuses) starting up a new business (much busy-ness) with The Husband (pictured above). He is in India right now doing preliminary studies, making contacts, fundraising, working with artisans...

Our new business is DESIGNatural, and simultaneously we are initiating and promoting the "Slow Color movement." We will be offering products (clothing "for real people with real bodies" to begin with; later home textiles as well) made from all-natural fibers, and dyed with all-natural plant-based dyes...reviving "dying" dyeing traditions around the world.

These will not be "hippie clothes" but rather premium products, beautifully and professionally made. It will be a sustainable business in every sense--for people and for the planet. We will be providing livelihoods with fair living wages and working conditions, and our practices will be exemplary...well, you can read about it via the links if you're interested in knowing more.

We are still in the very early stages and it's quite insane and overwhelming.

In the photo, The Husband is showing some samples of linen that have been naturally-dyed at the Weavers' Center in Hyderabad, India, this week, working with local experts. I too have interest and expertise in natural dyeing.

And I promise I will get back to painting (whenever I have time!) now that I've plugged our new business. Oh, and showing you more of that crazy white kitty, of course.

Cheers.

Video Day

My paintings just haven't been finishing themselves lately, for some reason.
So it's video day.

Rumi dreams, Lynx has a lazy scratch, and Rumi hunts gnats at the back door.

Life drawing...and what's that in the sink?

It's weird with drawing--sometimes I feel like it'll be a great drawing night and it isn't; other times (like tonight) I go in in a bad mood and the feeling I won't be able to do anything, and things turn out well. There seems to be no predicting the outcome based on mood or on sense of ability going in.

After the quick warm-up sketches (above), the instructor had us divide our paper into quadrants (below) and in each quadrant, we had 10 - 15 minutes and a different pose, and were supposed to do something quite different each time. The lower left one is my favorite of the night.

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I almost had a heart attack this morning when I went to brush my teeth and saw this in the sink:

...It's the fake "squirrel tail" toy that Lynx likes to play with.

(He likes to "drown" things, actually, and we've had to learn to keep the toilet seat lids closed all the time, or we'll find lots of surprises in there.)

And lastly, there's something about the new dog bed...

More art on my website: jalapfaff.com

The many moods of Rumi

I have several paintings in progress but nothing new to show yet. In the meantime, I know you need something to look at. So here's the rock star himself, in some of his many different moods.

Relaxed Rumi.

Coy Rumi.

Bored Rumi.

Goofy Rumi.

Demon-eyes Rumi.

Aloof Rumi.

Disgusted Rumi.

Vulture Rumi.

More art on my website: jalapfaff.com

Life drawing...and an unwelcome visitor

The really fast, warm-up sketches always seem to be my favorites.

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Can you guess what kind of incident we had here the other night? Yep. My reconstruction of the event is as follows: Miss Lemon was enjoying the night air out on our front deck; along came a little black-and-white creature, aka Pepe LePew; the two creatures were startled to see one another; Pepe did his thing; Mojito heard something and demanded to be let out to go save Miss Lemon; Pepe did his thing again. The worst thing is that it happened about two feet from our front door, with all our house windows open, and the deck is wood, and the house is wood, and all the skunk spray sank into the wood, to permeate it, though I hope not permanently. It is, as you might imagine, and as Larry David would put it: pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty bad.

Who knew the windowsill was such a good place to work on one's stretches?

More art on my website: jalapfaff.com

Untitled 20 (oil)

This third one has a bit of a peachy-gray color in it. I think they're not meant to be a triptych in the sense of lined up right next to each other. But I do think they'd look great in the same room, on various walls.

I'd put them in my beach house--if I had one.

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Rumi's favorite place is always in the middle of any activity. He has no self-preservation instincts. We had to teach Mojito (left side of photo) that it was okay for this insane little white creature to come running up to check out his food bowl in the middle of his dinner...or to sprawl out next to his bowl and watch the show as food goes from bowl to (slobbery) dog mouth. It was a bit terrifying when Rumi was really little, especially since Rumi can't hear a warning growl. Mojito's fine with it now; he seems pretty much resigned to how nutty Rumi is. (Jazz has always been too mellow to be even the slightest bit bothered by anything like this.)

Oh, the little crossed paws! They kill me.

In Munnar.

$325.00 - Untitled 20 (No need to frame)

More art on my website: jalapfaff.com

Untitled 19 (oil)

It's hot out. Very, very hot.

So we need another cool painting.

Miss Lemon wanted to show you that Rumi's not the only flat cat in town, and that they shouldn't be called dog days. She votes for a change in nomenclature:

$325.00 - Untitled 19 (oil) (No need to frame)

More art on my website: jalapfaff.com

Untitled 18 (oil)

I've been working on 3 paintings that have the same size and similar palette. There may or may not end up being a diptych or triptych. Each has to be able to stand alone in any case. Here's the first.

24" x 24".

I've been neglectful of responding to comments and visiting others' blogs. Things are so crazy.

And it's hotter than hell outside (perhaps sparking the desire for cool colors?).

Whine, whine, whine.

Lynx and Rumi usurp the new dog bed (complete with dog ball).

Rumi feets.

$325.00 - Untitled 18 (oil) (No need to frame)

More art on my website: jalapfaff.com