Life Drawings (Autumn/Winter 2009)

Seated Nude
Charcoal on Paper
30 x 20"

For sale - contact me for a price.
shelley.zentner@gmail.com

Learning to love green

Untitled Study in Green
Oil on Panel
15 x 30"

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"Green how I want you green. Green wind. Green branches."

Federico García Lorca
Spanish Poet and Playwright, 1898-1936
"Romance Sonámbulo"

"Green is the prime color of the world, and that from which its loveliness arises."

Pedro Calderon de la Barca
Spanish Poet and Playwright, 1600-1681

"He had that curious love of green, which in individuals is always the sig of a subtle artistic temperament, and in nations is said to denote a laxity, if not a decadence of morals."

Oscar Wilde
Irish Playwright, Novelist, Poet, Short Story Writer and Freemason, 1854-1900
"Pen, Pencil and Poison," Fortnightly Review (London, January 1889)

"Absolute green is the most restful color, lacking any undertone of joy, grief, or passion. On exhausted men this restfulness has a beneficial effect, but after a time it becomes tedious."

Wassily Kandinsky
Russian-born French Expressionist Painter, 1866-1944

"Green represents the dead image of life."

Rudolf Steiner
Austrian Philosopher, Literary Scholar, Architect, Playwright, Educator, Social Thinker and Esotericist, 1861-1925

This was a study I did in Phyllis Shafer's figure painting class, and was an exercise in colour. We were looking at Secondary Colours, that is two primary colours mixed together - green, violet and orange. Now, I would never usually use such a revolting combination to paint a human being, or anything else for that matter - which just goes to show how much I understood the properties of colour. I had visions of lurid fauves - type imagery, which is fine if that's what you want to create, but I don't, so I was slightly appalled at the task in hand.

Then Phyllis demonstrated the colours when mixed and desaturated (mixed with white, black or grey) - and my horror subsided into curiosity and wonder. A new visual world was opening up to me, which I had resisted partly due to my arrogance (I know what I like, and I don't like that!) and partly because I had no idea about how to use these colours in a naturalistic way.

"There are no "beautiful" or "ugly" colours. Those words describe our feelings about colours, not their intrinsic properties. "Wrong" or "muddy" colours are simply mixtures that are the inappropriate relative temperature for the area in which they are placed."

Richard Schmid, Everything I Know About Painting.

The model was posed on emerald green velvet, and despite my initial, "oh god, I actually have to use that Viridian with the cobwebs on it", I really enjoyed painting this. I took my time, used every ounce of observation skill at my disposal, and pieced together this study from all the tiny shifts in colour I now saw in the models' flesh tones - as reflected by the green velvet and the light I now understand a little better.

So now I understand a little more about the properties of green, and how it affects the colours around it, I'm learning to love it.

The Earring

The Earring
Oil on Canvas
50 x 40"

So this is the painting I posted as an underpainting a while back. I tried really hard not to lose that energy in the markmaking that I loved so much. It was hard because I've been working on wood for so long, and then painting on canvas again is completely different. I primed it 6 times, but it was still more absorbent than I wanted it to be. I'm torn now, because I like the texture of canvas, but I like my paint to slide around on the surface more than my canvas will allow. Perhaps I just need a finer weave? If anybody has any suggestions, please let me know.

Charcoal Study

Danielle (i)
Charcoal on Tinted Paper
22x15"

Underpainting #1

I'm ridiculously excited about this painting - I've been learning a lot about edges and values from reading an amazing book: Alla Prima: Everything I know about painting, by Richard Schmid. I've been reading it and making notes for the past few weeks - and although there's an intimidatingly large amount of information, I think some of it is finally going in. My friend, and new boss Kim Wyatt (of Bona Fide Books*, a brand new small press in Tahoe) referred to what I'm doing as 'composting' - that is, reading some, and then allowing it to settle in my brain before going on to the next chunk.

I'm enjoying my new mode of working; Without the pressure of chasing shows and sales, I'm finally on the path I wanted to take when I left the UK - which is painting for the love of painting - not trying to second guess what other people might like in order to make a living. My new job is giving me the money to contribute to our income, and buy paints - and is a nice enough job that it doesn't suck all the creativity out of me like a bar job would. When I'm satisfied that I've got a decent enough body of work to show - then I'll start sending out artists packets to galleries.

The other important reason why I'm able to do this right now, is that I was awarded the Jackpot Grant from the Nevada Arts Council for the second year running. This time, the budget is for models - so I can produce a body of figure paintings from life over the summer. This means a huge amount to me, and I'm very grateful to receive a grant in these hard economic times. Thankyou, Nevada Arts Council!



*Website coming soon!

Figure Painting Class

Kirsten (i)
Oil on Panel
30x20"

Here's one of my recent paintings from Phyllis Shafer's Figure Painting class. I didn't get to finish it unfortunately, but I was pleased with most of it - especially the face. Isn't it always the way....the section which took the least amount of time and effort was the bit which worked best.

In my opinion anyway.

It's easy to overwork something, or overuse a trick I've picked up that works. I feel like I'm still very much finding my way with these figure paintings, but the common theme of my practice seems to be: Stay loose, stay back, take breaks. The minute I start 'noodling' or trying to use a small brush when a bigger one could be used to make one clean, precise mark, is when I need to have the discipline to stand back for a few, take a breath or two, and look properly at the entire painting. Then I look at the painting upside down (head rush!), and also refer back to my subject by flicking my eyes back and forth between the painting and the model. This often reveals the mistakes I need to correct (i.e "oh my god the head is tiny!! how did I not see that?!!")

Then back to work.

Charcoal Figures

Untitled Nude (i)
Charcoal on Paper
20x30"

I've set myself a task - to produce thirty life drawings before I pick up a brush again. I've neglected drawing in favour of painting for a long time now, and doing the Black & White show at the Truckee River Gallery reminded me how important it is to draw.

I love drawing figures, so this should be a really fun task. I tend to look for drama in a drawing, so I set up the lights to almost obscure the model's face and any detail on the upper body. I'm drawn to the idea of transcendance in this image, the blurring of boundries and identity - of finding something more universal, or archetypal.

When I was at art school, we discussed the difference between being naked and being nude. In my understanding, being naked implies a vulnerability - being stripped of clothing, exposed. Whereas a nude person wears their body like an expensive dress - confident, in control.