Pastel on UArt, approx. 4" x 5".
Art purchase inquiries: please email me: jala [at] jalapfaff [dot com].
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Note the difference in sleeping positions between Gadjo and Fennec...
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More art on my website: jalapfaff.com
Showing posts with label Munnar. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Munnar. Show all posts
Sunday, April 1, 2012
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Untitled 213
Pastel on UArt, approx. 6.5" x 7.5".
Art purchase inquiries: please email me: jala [at] jalapfaff [dot com].
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These were taken when Gadjo was probably about 9 months old.
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More art on my website: jalapfaff.com
Monday, July 19, 2010
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.
Friday, July 9, 2010
Untitled 17 (oil)
36" x 36".
Yet again the upper-left glare problem. No, I don't take these with a professional lighting sort of setup. But they mostly come out well regardless.
He sat like this for a long time before I noticed he was in there. He then waited some more, making sure I was going to take some pics of him. Some of you may wonder, why not more photos of Lynx, or Miss Lemon, or Cleo? It's because Rumi is a total camera ham. He adores being the center of attention in any situation. When the camera gets pointed at them, the other cats shy away immediately. Rumi, on the other hand, looks straight into the camera and even offers you multiple poses when you start shooting.
Friday, July 2, 2010
Untitled 55 (Mexican Blanket)
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I've been so busy lately that I haven't had much time in the studio. It felt great to grab a piece of LaCarte today and just go at it.
They look to me like they were having a conversation and then someone made a faux pas (faux "paw").
Incoming fog, Munnar. And no, that is certainly not typical Indian architecture--it's a hotel complex built in Swiss chalet style.More art on my website: jalapfaff.com
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Sketches
The computer gremlins are really taking a toll... Kudos to The Husband who has spent countless hours with them so far. Very stressful. Not sure yet if they have been exorcised. No painting going on, just gremlin control. So here are a few older items from my café sketchbook.
And some Rumi back feet. Just because they're cute.
In Munnar.
Friday, May 28, 2010
Two trees
A mini...only 4" x 4". The color of this is actually more of a blue-violet. I like to think of this as the love child of Mark Leach and Loriann Signori (ha ha).
Whenever Rumi gets intrigued by something, he lifts up one paw and stays like that. It's (of course) incredibly cute.
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Blue Dancer
The Townsend pastels ("soft form") are very gritty-feeling and fill up the tooth pretty much instantly, but there are some wonderful deep rich blues (I own a handful of Townsends; I use 99% Unisons), and when I can get them to work, they give great results. (The red here was a Unison.)
The previous post's painting was also using Townsend blues. You kind of only get one shot at making it work, because so much pastel immediately comes off the stick into the tooth of the paper. Or at least that's what keeps happening to me. It's beautiful, but very hit-or-miss in terms of success.
Rumi, you're my rock star.
Saturday, May 8, 2010
Untitled 52
I'm obsessed by these minimalist "archetypal landscapes." And pastel seems an ideal medium for them.
This position just kills me with its cuteness.
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Sky study 17
That turbulent spring sky...
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The other day I couldn't find Rumi for a while and had to go looking:
Friday, March 26, 2010
Sky study 11
Some notes on these sky studies of late:
1. I don't know why I started doing these, but I'll do them as long as I find them engaging, and then move on to something different. (And then if the urge returns, I'll do more skies.) I try to follow these desires. Whenever I go in the studio and try to force subject matter or medium, it always fails. (I'm slooowly getting better at realizing this. Why it seems necessary to relearn this lesson continually, I don't know. Stubborn brain?)
1a. The translation from: in person --> camera --> iPhoto --> Photoshop
-->blogger realllllly makes them lose something, these sky studies perhaps more than any other pastels I've put up. In person, they are soft, yet have a certain clarity that never comes across on screen. Endless frustration, endless hours wrestling with the technology (pixels, image size, sharpening, color adjustment, raw-format editing...ad nauseum). You'll just have to take my word on it. Or else send Casey's photographer wife.
2.. The few times I've tried using a photo reference, results are poor and I have to give up.
3. These skies don't come from my memory per se (you assign me too much credit, Loriann), but rather I just approach the paper with an "anything goes" attitude, no particular shapes in mind. I then tend to work in one of two ways:
a) grab whatever color is calling to me, and rub it on the paper. Then another color, and make some marks with it too. Then perhaps a third color, and at that point, stop, take a good look and start making some conscious decisions about form, value, composition, and color harmony. My paintings seem to go best when I am able to let go and let them begin to tell me what direction they want to take.
b) propose a challenge to myself before I start, e.g.: can I make an electric-orange sky? can I make a pink cloud in a turquoise sky? can I do a high-value-only sky? or a low-values-only sky? can I make green clouds? yellow clouds? gray yet colorful clouds?.......and have it all look somehow believable, or feasible.
4. I don't consider these realism, nor wholly abstract. One thing that's extremely interesting to me is that, without any visible terra firma reference at all (e.g., no painted or drawn tree tops, horizon line, mountain ridge, etc.), and in spite of them in tangible reality existing merely as smudges and marks of color, people see them as skies and clouds. Why? I'm fascinated by how our brain interprets things to fulfill its own agenda.
You can see from his facial bone structure that Rumi is becoming quite the handsome young man. (Yes, he still adores being in the dishwasher.)Sunday, March 21, 2010
Sky study 9
This is a soft painting, but not as fuzzy as it appears on screen.
But here is something fuzzy:
Fang says hi.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Sky study 7
Because gray skies are not simply gray.
Tea bushes, with rubber (latex-producing) trees interspersed. (In Munnar.)
Hello, new yoga class participants! My name is Rumi and today I will demonstrate the assisted-backbend pose. It is best done from a prone, sleeping position.
(P.S. I love the little "dance" The Husband does while deciding which way to pick him up.)
Friday, March 12, 2010
Jaipur 7
The evolution of abstract imagery fascinates me--how one can get visually from "reality" all the way through different phases of semi-abstract, and finally into pure abstraction. This one started like the previous "Jaipur palace wall" paintings, but it wanted to...keep going.
Rumi enjoys being held like this when he just wakes up, so he can get a good stretch. I think it's safe to say he's the weirdest cat I've ever known. I like the funky perspective in this photo.
Tea transport in Munnar.
Monday, March 1, 2010
Marsh
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