Andra

Chris Saper · 07-27-2006, 07:05 PM

18 x 14 oil on a wiped-off painting from long ago.

Having become a bit more accustomed to painting larger heads, this ended up being a bit small. But for the demo at the SAS Open Session, I wanted to talk about how to make sure that the composition wouldn't run off the bottom of the canvas at an awkward place (in this case above the V on the neckline).

You can see how dark the surface was when I started, but it was kind of fun putting all those strong lighter colors against a dark ground. With all the caution I hear about dark grounds and flake white, I guess this image will probably disappear at some point...

Janel Maples · 07-27-2006, 07:47 PM

Chris,

Was this your demo at the conference?

How do you do this in 3 hours? Just when I'm feeling good about myself I get
blasted back to the real world.........I have so far to go.

Chris Saper · 07-27-2006, 09:13 PM

Janel,

Sorry to be incomplete. Andra was painted at one of the Scottsdale Artists' School's, new Open Session format - where I was the instructor of the week. It's an Open Studio that runs from 10 - 4 with half an hour for lunch, so there's considerably more painting time available than in a typical Open Studio session.

The painting I did at the PSA conference demo ( is that what you mean?) is here. That was probably about 90 minutes painting time or so.

I'll perhaps repost it here when I get a chance to see if I can come up with any in-process images to accompany it.

We all have so far to go, that's what keeps it fun.

Alexandra Tyng · 07-28-2006, 09:21 AM

Chris,

You just keep outdoing yourself! I really like how you set this up in terms of color and light. I've been staring at it a long time, trying to figure out what is different about this, and I realized you usually (not always) use brighter colors in the clothing. But here, the strong design and light-shadow contrast create a lot of excitement, and their importance is underscored, when the color scheme is mainly subtle pinks, browns, skin tones, and hair color. There are so many nice transitions, and the brush strokes are so scrumptiously appealing and confident in the nose and the pink drape.

How does it work when there is an open session and a demo? Do you use the first session to demonstrate? Do you act as an instructor? To me, "open" implies "not a class," but then what do I know? I'd be interested to hear more about how it is set up.

Chris Saper · 07-28-2006, 11:40 AM

Thanks Alex -

The Open Sessions are very unstructured and left pretty much up to the Instructor of the Week. I think that they allow 12 -14 students in most of the sessions, and artists pay $40 for the day. There is one live model and one still life set-up, and people just choose which they want to work on - or both if they'd like.

Some of the instructors are portrait or figure painters, and some are still life painters - so usually someone who is interested in still life would select an open sessiion where the instructor of the week could be more helpful to them. I think that sometimes the instructor just uses the time to do his or own open session, and is available if students have questions. In my case I turned it into a mini-class, and as I seem to be able to talk and paint at the same time ( that might not be a good thing

)I just keep a running dialog gong all day.

Students don't have to pay attention to anything they don't want to- so they can just work on their own thing, too.

I really love these sessions and plan to sign up as a student as often as possible. It's a luxury to have a live model for 6 hours, with a limited number of painters. Very often the School's regular Open Studios are packed.
Linda Brandon did one of these so Linda, if you see this you might jump in, or post seprately.

Carol Norton · 07-28-2006, 04:37 PM

Ahhhhh, sigh. So beautiful...and I missed it. Darn. I even love the drips at the bottom.

Alexandra Tyng · 07-28-2006, 07:44 PM

What a good idea! I wonder whether this kind of thing is done at the art centers around here. Thanks so much for explaining.

Michele Rushworth · 08-13-2006, 11:20 AM

This is so sculptural. I love the high contrast ratio and the classic positioning of the light and shadow shapes.

Cindy Procious · 08-14-2006, 07:27 AM

Chris, what a gorgeous painting. You should paint over old paintings more often.

What makes the pink paint drip like that at the bottom? I like the effect. Is it thinned with turpentine, OMS, or is it some other medium?

Chris Saper · 08-14-2006, 10:41 AM

Thanks!

The paint drip is due to: 1) Needing to anchor the composition to the bottom; 2) No more time left; and 3) Lots of OMS left