Thursday, July 19, 2012

Mirror Mirror

10x12 oil on panel
Available at Tidewater Gallery
$900 framed
 
This is the same model as yesterday. This was mostly a photo session we'd done at this location, hence the different scenes. I had some comments about arranging models rather than just taking candids - which I do a great deal of too! A few years ago (I can't keep track of time!) I had the idea to hire models to pose at my house and even to pose in public spaces. I wanted to paint more from life, but still paint the scenes I love, not just a figure posed or nudes from a life drawing session. There are a lot of resources in Austin for models so finding references wasn't too hard. You can probably find them in your area through colleges, the art community, theater community, etc. 


BUT - you never can tell about personalities and I've heard horror stories from models as well as artists. I have a minorly scarey/funny story myself. Luckily, the model was fine when I had her at my house and another location in town, but she invited some of us to come to her property to paint there. Terri and Carol might chuckle over this memory! We drove out to this place, buried in the woods and a little rundown. No grand vistas, no water, lots of "funny smoke" in the air, shall we say. She took us on a grand tour through the brush telling us her big ideas about a music event she was planning on the property - spicing things up with some outlandish ideas of government plots, oil and gas industry poisonings, etc. It just got weirder. And we are all too polite to just take off, so we tried to set up and paint - our backs together in  a circle practically. Carol, as I recall managed to get a neat painting in of an abandoned car... hmmm, that seemed to become a theme for her! HA HA
Anyway, the woman was on something and unbalanced and we were happy to make as hasty a retreat as we could. I was a little shaken. 
Moral of the story, don't go out to paint alone. Ever. 


It took me awhile to decide to try the model thing again - and this time I focused on public spaces like outdoor cafes, etc. And it went well... for awhile. There is ANOTHER story. Stay tuned!

3 comments:

Lisa Graham said...

Love the vintage feel of this scene...it reminds me of old movies like Guess Who's Coming to Dinner.

Your paintings are so wonderful and such a pleasure to view. I always enjoy your blog so much. Your story was good...never thought of the various shady situations you can get into when working with live models.

Studio at the Farm said...

Love the painting, and LOVE the morality story!!! Hilarious!

Kikiblanca said...

I just entered your little contest about what I liked about your paintings. I made me want to go back and find the original piece. This was it, the girl looking in the mirror by the dresser. By the way your model story cracked me up the first time and did so again.

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