Portraits v. Landscape v. Still Life?

[Peter Jochems]

I really like these still-lifes. Great white pot, like Tim said (the rest is not bad either ). I especially like, for some reason, the painted flower on the white pot and the reflected light of the apple.... If the bad economy gives you a reason to make more of these... Well... Then that's a good side-effect... You should have a third web-site devoted to these.

Peter

[Catherine Muhly]

I've been playing with pastels on Wallis paper. Here's a still life. I haven't done many still lifes; landscapes are even rarer (I think I did one - an abstract). Mosquitos and ticks love me. I'm getting quite turned on to pastels!

[SB Wang]

There are many wonderful scenery and "mountain and water" paintings (landscape, is also called "wind scenery")in China. A saying goes that a youngster can paint a good portrait, a middle-aged person can paint "flower and bird painting" well, and, for landscape painting, one needs to be quite aged. (Don't regard this as formalization).

[Mikael Melbye]

Well,
Since many people have asked to see stuff from the Town to which all roads lead, here are a few things:

First the sketch from the other day, which is now photographed. It is 1,5ft by 4ft and I think I will call it "Nocturne". It's the trees right in front of The Danish Academy with a fuzzy moon.

Then I thought it might be an idea to show you how I normally work, so here are some different photos on my approach to things:

1. Drawing is the foundation of a good painting, and I usually do a fairly detailed one that will guide me through the rest of the process.

2.This time I simply used a pensil directly on the oil primed canvas.

3. Then, since I desided to do as the old Romans did it (when in Rome, do as the Romans) I re drew everything with a pigment pen. This is in order not to smear the draft when I do the the imprimitura.

4. Here, since the light is very warm, I wanted to have a warm under tone, I used a burnt umbra directly from the tube. Sometimes when I chose the background to look more like the canvas it self, I use raw umbra in stead. (mant different earth tones can be used here depending on tast.

5. So now it will dry down a little until tomorrow. Then it gets that special, slightly sticky quality that i like so much to start painting for real.

Hope this showes you something about my normal landscape painting.

Do comment, please!!!

Best wishes

Mikael

[Mikael Melbye]

Here are the rest of the photos:

I dip a rag in mineral spirits after having "dotted" the canvas with the color, and simply keep on smearing until it is even.

Then the drawing in "pigment pen" stands out very nicely, ready to receive the daring brush.

All the best

Mikael

[Allan Rahbek]

Hello Mikael,
It

[Mikael Melbye]

Dear Allan,
No, I don't always work the same way, but I thought that I couldn't do this fairly large canvas in one go (1,5ft X 4ft) and therefore wanted to have the opportunity to work a little like the old masters. Maybe some glazing and so on. We'll see what comes out of it. I sometimes use it in portraits too, but it depends very much on the mood of the portrait I think. When it is very "Chiaro-scuro" it sometimes is a help for me to start with a middle value and work in both directions.

The "pigment pen" is a water based very densly pigmented black or brown (rust) colored pen that can be bought in most drawing supplie stores. The good thing about it, is that it doesn't desolve with anything, as opposed to for instance the simple pensel drawing which disappears immediately with the kind of treatment i give it here.

The Danish Academy is not an art school, but simply an accademy for artists, scientists, authers and other scolars. They have two studios for painters and some music rooms for the musicians, the cellar is full of pots and other artifacts from anscient Rome for the archeologists and they have a great library. It is mainly a place of contemplation and inspiration. And of course it is in the middle of Rome which is the battery for all of us here. So that's why there are no models to do portraits from, so I'm afraid that's not what you are going to get from me here. You applie for a grant to come here, or you can pay for your stay as a privatist.

I'm glad you like the pines. It's so Rome that I just had to paint them.

Greetings from

Mikael

[Nicola Scott]

Hiya and welcome
I really like your paintig of the woman with her hands on the edges of the canvas.Great idea

[Linda Brandon]

Mikael, your "Nocturne" is extremely beautiful and haunting, thank you for posting it. I hope you'll get a chance soon to post examples of your figurative works in process, I'll be watching for them.

[Chris Saper]

Dear Mikael,

Just a note to let you all know that I have moved your "Work from Rome" to this section of the Cafe, where members post non-portrait work.

I have to add my compliments on these lovely drawings, great composition, and fresh style!