J D Lindholm - Fine Art Portraits & Paintings

My visit to Zorn's Museum

I write this as I sit waiting for my guided tour through Anders Zorn's home. While I understand Swedish better than I speak it, I am lucky that they have an English-speaking tour going off in a few minutes. Mora, Sweden is beautiful (as is all of Sweden!) and today the sun is once again shining on us. I have already spent the past two hours going through the museum--I have long loved Zorn's work and found myself studying every painting with tears in my eyes.
It's a wonderful, awe-inspiring feeling to see so many originals in one place. I would love to share with photos, but could only bring myself to get a picture of Anders' paintbox and palette.
More after the tour...

Hey Philly Artists -- The Daily Candy article on Free Artist Co-Ops

PHILADELPHIA | March 23, 2009

Artful Execution
Arts on South Rent-Free Artist Co-Ops

You wanted to be a novelist; your
parents said “ad copywriter.” You
thought you’d be the next Basquiat;
 they said “graphic designer.”

Reclaim your dashed dreams on South
Street (of all places). Hoping to
inspire a renaissance, nonprofit
group Arts on South is asking those
of the creative persuasion to remake
the hood.

Here’s the deal: Rather than let
empty storefronts suck up space,
they’re offering the buildings to
artists to use as galleries. All you
have to do is show a modicum of talent,
pony up the cost of utilities (no rent),
and set up shop.

Take the leap yourself or attend
gallery openings to support the ballsy
 effort. So far, they’ve had seven
takers — from ecoartists to new
collective St. March Gallery.

None of whom are squatting;
they’re in real estate.

Gallery applications at Eyes Gallery,
402 South Street (215-925-0193).

Newman's Lane sketch

Newman's Lane view    8"x8"      Oil on canvas panel

I'm very happy with this quick sketch I did last Sunday. It's no where near a "finished" painting (as my paintings go), but it captured what I was going for. It is an oil on canvas panel and will be used as reference for a larger painting for my Landscape exhibition scheduled for later this year. This view is from Newman's Lane looking southeast towards the reservoir.

 This particular day, Jonas and Erik had gone for their normal walk through Washington Valley park, which is practically in our back yard.  I grabbed my paintbox and tripod and drove down to the Newman's lane parking area and set up along the walking trail.  It was around 4:30-5 so I knew I had to work pretty fast before I really started losing the light.  I had already arranged that Jonas and Erik would walk to me and then we could all drive home together. Hence, I wanted to get a good sketch in before they pounced on me as well.

Within 20 minutes I had a rough grisaille done and the initial sky color down... I know this because a gentleman walking his dog stopped and asked me how long it took me to get to that point, so I looked at my watch to give him an answer.  He was quite surprised but like I told him..."when you've been painting for a couple decades, you learn to jump out of the gate fairly quickly". 

In the end, I really only got about an hour in on this one before I heard Erik's giggles coming up behind me..."look daddy, it's mommy painting!" ....I hope he's always that happy to see me.

Grisailles & Color Studies from Studio Incamminati

I've told most people I know about my time at Studio Incamminati--I've even tweeted about it, but I haven't yet shown you any images of what I did there. The following paintings were completed either during a refresher workshop that I just recently attended in January.  Take a look and I'll explain the process.

The process of painting at Studio Incamminati always starts with quick gestural paintings. After working on those for awhile, we progressed to the grisaille and then a duo tone grisaille.  These images are of a cople duo tone grisailles done fairly quickly -- 20 minutes if I recall, but I may be wrong.

 

This duotonne grisaille is actually two done on the same canvas....no sense in wasting space for practice, right?

After duo tones we jump into color studies....aaaahhhh the wonderful, free, frustrating world of the Incamminati color study.  You think it should be fun right?  well, it could be if they didn't want you to work so fast that you feel like you're flying from the seat of your pants!  I admit that I am not a fast painter.  I like to mix and choose my colors accurately the first time and often this takes more time than just grabbing a color and throwing it up on the canvas.  It was fun though...the first couple times. Have a look:

  This was a 20 minute exercise that took the image from quick gesture right into full color study.  It was fun.  Here are a couple more that took a little bit longer.

             

I wish I could show you an actual "finished" painting, but it was a workshop afterall and, as I mentioned before, I'm not really a fast painter.  I like to build my painting one stroke at a time with intentional deliberance. May be good, may be bad, but it is.

Hope you're having a great President's Day!

Long Lost Poster...

Is it true? is there really a new post on this blog?  We haven't seen typing on this blog since last May, is it real or a mirage?

I know, I know.....I deserve all the backtalk that I'm giving myself.  What can I say?  i'm a reluctant blogger. Life got really busy but that's no excuse.  I DO realize that sometimes I need to share information or stories that require more than the 140 characters permitted on twitter.  go figure? from someone that likes to talk? 

So, what have I been doing since last May?  well, the big recap....I created and unveiled a large painting at the International Securities Exchange in NYC, I learned to golf (more about that in a bit), I took a two week Advanced Portrait workshop at Nelson Shanks' Studio Incamminati...oh, I could just go on and on about painting and painting and painting.  Everyone gets that I was busy. Everyone is busy!

All I can say is that I will try harder.  I actually have many things to talk about...especially with recent activities and events, but, for now -- being Valentine's Day and all, I just really want to sincerely wish you a Happy Valentine's Day!!!  I hope you have a great day!

Can it really be May?

Have I really become one of those bloggers that only posts once a quarter???  Sadly, it seems it's true -- at least this quarter.
I have reasoned with my husband that this is the  reason I need a laptop! : )   I'm just too busy running around, traveling, working on commissions and logistically handling our day-to-day lives that I have no time to blog! If I had a laptop, then I could be multitasking and oh so much more effective as a blogger.   

Ha! my husband says

...not really. 
I haven't even brought up the blog.  I do often bring up the laptop though.  I have told him that part of my next painting commission is going towards the purchase of a laptop so this way he won't be surprised when he sees me with one.

So, what's the real reason I haven't posted?  I have been wonderfully busy.  I have been working on a portrait for a client in Ohio and then I was commissioned to do a painting for a large firm in NYC! In April, I went to the annual Portrait Society of America conference, which was held in Philadelphia and caught up with all of my artist friends from around the world.  What a great time.  I love that conference!  This has since kept me busy doing activities related to my ambassador work for the Portrait Society.

Since then, I have been working, working, working.  We also started a renovation on our house, which has involved ripping out the entire old kitchen to replace.  Somehow, I don't think I'm really going to miss that 1947 kitchen.....or that 1963 electric stove/oven (that still worked!)  They are both completely gone now, leaving an empty space that's just waiting for the new floor, cabinets, appliances, lighting, etc.   Almost like a blank canvas waiting for a new painting to emerge!

I'm off to Ohio for a week....little man Erik will be going with.  This will be sure to give my husband some uninterrupted quality time with the power tools and the empty space called a kitchen.  I promise I'll keep you posted more often!

Why I enjoy painting from life...

Not long ago I read an article where the author asked:  "Why spend hours recreating in paint what a good camera can do in seconds?  A camera, being a machine, is completely impersonal and totally objective. It hides the person behind the lens while bloodlessly recording the likeness of the person in front of the lens. In a sense, the artist has gone missing.  Painting directly from life usually results in a painting exuding much more personality because the viewer encounters both the sitter and the artist. This confluence of two individuals makes a portrait from life unique and compelling."

I thought this held a lot of truth, though there are times when a camera can catch that split-second "thing" that you see only fleetingly from a sitter.  It's not easy sitting for a portrait.  The sitter has to remain still and silent (for the most part).  I know that the thoughts are running through their head for you can see emotion changes on their face.  Sometimes the camera can just freeze the particular emotion or story that the artist wants to express.

I spent the weekend in the city at The Art Students League painting from life along with about 30 others.  It was a workshop with Everett Raymond Kinstler who is always entertaining and informative.  It's so interesting to me to look at the works created in a setting like this.  We're all looking at the same model  although from different perspectives.  I couldn't help thinking that nothing illustrates the uniqueness of the encounter between sitter and individual artist better than when you have one sitter and 15 artists in a room.  Each and every one of the paintings was different in emotion and composition...(and not just because we were scattered around the room!)  They were all different because each artist brought something different to the easel.  Some paintings were large covering the full body....others were just head and shoulder studies, but all captured something different about our model Francesco.

The key for me is to be able to mentally capture that frozen moment of emotion that excited me in the first place and then artistically recreate it in paint without using a camera.  (As you will notice...I'm not that good of a photographer! :O )

 It's no wonder I enjoy painting from life.... I love a good challenge!

Home from Disney

It's fun to go away, but it's also great to come home too!
We had a great time seeing all of the characters and the sites of Disney.  I was particularly amazed by the "Talking Turtle with Crush" -- phenomenal! Geared to small children but entertaining to all.  If you're going to be at Epcot Center any time soon, do check it out.  You won't be disappointed.

So, now that I'm back home, it's back to work in the studio!  Below is a small painting I finished right before leaving for Disney and I thought I would share it with you now...Hope you like it!

ooops!

Sorry about that last post email.....I have a separate blog for the Portrait Society members in NJ and Delaware.  Well, thinking I could just email a quick update to it,  I forgot that any email updates I have go straight to my own personal blog!  OOOOOPPs!  sorry about that.

if you clicked on the link (as I'm sure you already realize) you got a big NOTHING!!  because I had already moved the posting.  oh....just when I thought I had all this stuff handled. : ) 

If you really do want to read about the Sargent/Sorolla Lecture that's being held in two weeks, just click on this link.

Have a great day!!!

I've been tagged....

So have you ever been tagged?  .  I used to play the game regularly as a kid and sometimes, when my whole family gets together, my older siblings still play it. (Believe it or not)  I have never been tagged online -- well, not until I was tagged back in December by Alyson Stanfield of ArtBizCoach.com.  I have a sneaking suspicion that Alyson kindly tagged me in order that I would have something to write about!!!  Whatever the motivation, I'll take it!  Thank you Alyson! 

So, what does it mean to be tagged?  From what I can gather, I'm now supposed to tell you 5 things that you DON'T know about me.  This, as many of you will already know, is a very difficult proposition as I admit that I am pretty much an OPEN BOOK@!  I have shared since I was born (I am a twin) and have been sharing ever since!  So, the prospect of coming up with 5 things about me that you might not know is going to be interesting......Here goes

1. I was born the 6th of 7 children and I'm a twin (which I mentioned above). All of our first names start with "J" and all of our middle names start with "L" -- well, mine used to start with an L-- I didn't like my middle name so I legally changed it when I got married. What you may not know is that I was delivered feet first, face up!  -- they would never deliver a baby in that position today!!!  I like to think that I came out ready to hit the ground running!

2. I won my very first little art competition when I was 6 and my photo was in the paper.  WooHoo!

3. I am equally left and right brained...equally auditory and visual.  I have taken many hemispheric brain dominance tests and they always indicate that I use both hemispheres of my brain equally.  Don't ask me why I find this interesting...

4. My big secret will be out with this one as I don't often talk about it.... I am an "intuitive" -- i.e. I have the faculty of knowing or sensing without the use of rational processes; you'll have to trust me on this one, though I've got many predictions documented and I did accurately document Sept. 11th and the passing of NBC's David Bloom a week before they happened.  Too bad I can't intuitively "know" the lottery numbers! : ) (you should also know that I love all things spiritual, metaphysical, psychic, etc. and I do my own tarot readings)

5. my favorite color is Yellow and I believe that we can do ANYTHING and EVERYTHING we put our minds to -- just maybe not all at the same time. : )

hmmmmmm....now who should I tag?  ..... you know....I'm the only one of my friends that has a blog so that even if I do tag them, we won't be able to go to their site to visit.  I reserve the right to save my tags for future use!