Inspiration

Inspiration    Oil on Linen    48 x 30

This painting will be shown for the month of September at Carrollwood Cultural Center, along with 8 other paintings in the "Feeling Series". For more information on this painting click here.





Genesis: Blue Corn

This is number 22 in the Genesis Series of paintings. I wanted to find real Hopi Blue Corn for another painting, but no luck, even from friends in Arizona/New Mexico. Evidently you just can't get the real thing anywhere. I finally bought blue corn (Indian Corn) at Thanksgiving time from my local supermarket. It isn't the same but it is close enough. I especially liked the fact that the corn cob was red, which I would not have known had the kernels not fallen out when I moved the bunch of cobs. It looked awful in the painting I bought it for, so it became one of the Genesis paintings. 

Primary Trilogy

It took a long time to get these three finished. The Red and Yellow paintings were done in 2009 but I only just finished the Blue painting two weeks ago. They will be shown at the upcoming Student/Faculty show at Carrollwood Cultural Center.

TOTAL DISASTER!

After about a week at home touching base with my life and work I decided to apply an egg wash to the painting I did at the workshop. Who knows what happened but the egg wash didn't go on properly, it puddled into thickish spots of brownish yellow goop that didn't bleach out in the sun. I have finished all my ET paintings this way and never had this kind of problem. The more I tried to fix it the worse it became. The painting was ruined. I was devasted!

I thought I'd have to throw it out and begin again, but I decided to experiment, based on Koo's advice that "there are very few problems that can not be fixed in Egg Tempera", so I plunged ahead and sanded off the several coats of gluey egg wash removing some of the background color in the process. There were several bare spots down to the gesso panel showing when I set up to fix the mess.

I spent all day on Sunday working on the painting. I couldn't duplicate the color of the background so I changed to a new color that I had ordered in dispersion form from Natural Pigments, Maya Blue...a lovely grey blue color. I cut new masks and out of acetate this time and could control the sponge a bit better this time. Practice, practice, practice.....she makes it look so easy. After about 20 more paintings I'll have it down.

Anyway, here is the revised painting. Perhaps a bit better? I love it still, but am afraid to seal it off with another egg wash. This one will probably just go under plastic glazing as is. It appears to be a little dark in this blog, but you get the idea.

Celebration of the Egg (Revised)

Back to my life

I drove home yesterday afternoon after another full day of painting and listening to Koo's amazing lectures on Renaissance painters. Her concise lectures made me feel like I had completed one semester of art history in only a few days. It reminded me how much I don't know, or have forgotten. Not to mention the tips and techniques that she uses to create her stunning paintings, as well as a demonstration of how she photographs still life subjects and portraits to achieve that one source light that is key to Renaissance painting. We all crammed into the small office to watch her demonstration, using an ordinary point and shoot camera, and a spiral bulb, giving those rich darks and patterned lights. Some students used her still life photographs for their paintings and they really looked like an old master painting!

I have decided not to work on my painting. The energy and focus is gone. My life is now back to its humdrum routine. I like what I have done here. Sure, it could use many more layers, but it seems pointless to keep reworking it.

Celebration of the Egg          8 x 10           Egg Tempera

Koo Schadler

I am taking a 5 day workshop with the Egg Tempera artist extraordinaire, Koo Schadler. It is organized by The Amelia Island Artist Workshop, run by two ladies who bring renowned artists to this part of the state of Florida, and what a tight ship they run! Koo defies description, as she is a fountain of knowledge about art, Egg Tempera techniques, Renaissance artists, and she shares her vast knowledge in a totally unpretentious, humorous and loving way, and her lectures on various aspects of the craft of creating a painting are amazingly organized and presented so all levels of ability and knowledge can be informed.

Koo's process of creating Egg Tempera paintings cuts through hours of tedious layering, and it is a thrill to me to learn how to hasten my work through using masks, stencils, tracings, sponging and applying scumbles and glazes.

 

Prior to the workshop we each received extensive lists of materials, directions, directives and choices to make about gesso panel sizes and were advised to plan to work on a still life that we photographed at home, brought to work from life, or used one of Koo's photos. This sent me into a couple of weeks of angst about what I was going to paint, eventually deciding on the "Celebration of Egg Tempera" theme, rather than the Easter Bunny droppings that was a possible substitute still life consisting of candy in various forms, wrappers and containers, which I would have probably titled "Candyfest" (which may still make it into a painting at a later time.)

Here is Day 2 with my photograph on the right and the beginning of my Egg Tempera painting on the left

The masks and cutouts are made from photo copies of my scaled to size photo and here they are shown on the right after being applied to the panel by the use of cosmetic sponges....in one day I have achieved about a week's work using my old way!

At the end of Day three I have layered over my base more precise work using various masks as well as applying "fussy brush work" (as Koo calls it), and the form is built up by sponging veils of color glazes, alternating with a scumble of thin white paint. To look at one of Koo's paintings, one could not imagine that it was created with a cosmetic sponge, but here is the proof! 

Thanks Koo, for a wonderful workshop. I have been to a few of them...even given them myself, but none come close to this super organized, well presented, and beautifully taught 5 glorious days of no TV, no cellphone, no hassles, and hours of blessed painting time in a beautiful setting with nine enthusiastic and happy people painting and learning together. What a way to celebrate Easter!

My New Job

Last week I was named Art Curator of the Gallery at Carrollwood Cultural Center. It will be very difficult to follow in the footsteps of my friend, Mary Ellen Bitner, but I will muddle through, I'm sure. Mary Ellen was the driving force behind the whole visual arts program at the Center and her ideas and energy will be missed. I have a few ideas that I will be trying to implement as soon as possible. I'll be working on trying to make a connection between the art viewer and their pocketbooks.

I am so excited to have this opportunity to work in the art world for a change. It could not have come at a better time! It compliments my other work at the Center, teaching classes in painting, digital photography and computers, so I expect to be in Tampa nearly every day.

to view the Center's website: http://www.carrollwoodcenter.org/

Two New Egg Tempera Paintings

Genesis: Pear     6 x 8      Egg Tempera on Gesso Panel

Genesis: Apricot        6 x 8      Egg Tempera on Gesso Panel 

Both of these paintings are available for sale (PayPal) on my website

FIVE TO TRY

Freelance writer, Chris Kuhn, decided to try out 5 new things each  month and then blog about her experiences. One of her "Five to Try" is my Sampling the Media class at Carrollwood Cultural Center, on Wednesday nights from 7:00 to 9:00.

Go here http://en.wordpress.com/tag/five-to-try/ to see a list of her "Five to Try" entries on her blog and see her adventures with Oils, Acrylics, and Watercolors. The entries start on January 10 and go through February 17. If you are thinking a new art adventure is something YOU want to try but can't quite get fired up about it, read Chris's blog entries for a week-by-week review. The next class begins on March 2nd and will run for 6 weeks.

Impressionism: The Story of a Grand Revolt

This is a PowerPoint slide lecture I gave last spring at Carrollwood Cultural Center. I have tried to make it into a DVD with very little success. It seems not to want to play on either computers or TVs. So much for my great conversion software. I found AuthorStream and decided to post it to my blog and see what happens. It seems like it works well. I had hoped to sell the DVD but have decided to ask people to donate whatever they like if they watch it. I won't know if you watch it and DON'T donate, so enjoy either way.

See more presentations by gerinzhills | Upload your own PowerPoint presentations

Waiting For the Green Light

Waiting For The Green Light

12 x 24 Oil on Canvas $800

The view out of the 12th floor window of the John Knox Village hi-rise building, overlooks Fletcher Avenue, The Mormon Church, and the entrance to the University of South Florida. The Sun Dome is at the far right of the painting.

Fear is going to Minnesota!

Today I finalized the sale of Fear! It will go to Hazelden Foundation, as a donation to them from a grateful client. I am thrilled to have Fear out of the dark storage unit in Zephyrhills, where it has been for most of the past 9 years, and it will be placed in a collection where many can see it! My buyer said, when asked how he found it online "I searched for "beautiful paintings" and it was at the top"....how is this possible? I couldn't get Google to do that when I tried it.

Today is also my 29th wedding anniversary and I am both elated and sad. I would have loved to share this huge step in my career with George! Well of course, we can have various ideas about that.....

Best In Show!

White Orchids

Oil 36 x 36 $1200

On exhibit at Carrollwood Cultural Center until September 29, 2010.

I was so pleased to be awarded a Best in Show for this painting; one of my favorites, and created for my living room in Florida.

August 8th, 2010

After living with this still life for 6 years in two different studios it was finally removed by me and my friend Kit Tobin, yesterday at my "End of Shame" party. In 2004 I had set up the Shame still life in my studio but I didn't like it. During one of Kit's visits I mentioned that I didn't like it and she made a suggestion that made a huge difference. We tore it all apart and redid it, and yesterday she was on deck to help me dismantle it. This morning my studio looks and feels like a new place....everything is cleaned up, moved out of the way, and I have the feeling of being renewed and refreshed! It always helps to have a party to clean out the cobwebs!

I'm Celebrating the End of Shame

Sunday, August 1, 2010 at 6:37 PM I put the last paint stroke on the Shame Painting. It has been a long battle to get this painting finished. I blogged some of this struggle here, and made a public pledge to my Pen Women meeting in May that it would be finished by the time we met again in September. I am early!

I am throwing myself a party this Sunday, open house in my studio from 2:00 to 5:00. It is coincidently the one year anniversary of George's Memorial Celebration in Connecticut. My friend, Kit Tobin, helped me set up this still life in 2004 during one of her frequent visits, and it is very appropriate that she will be here to help me dismantle the still life on Sunday.

This is all about moving on, and I feel that I have come full circle, as this painting was an incredible challenge to paint, as the subject matter stirred up many uncomfortable episodes in my life. Not to mention that working on it over the past number of years had to be sandwiched in between George's frequent health problems, the need to find jobs and money, and wedged into a very tiny studio that made me feel as if the painting was attacking me. I see the end of Shame as a symbol for the end of a cycle of trouble, and I am excited to look forward to starting the next one. Stay tuned!

If you are in Tampa, and want to come to my party email me....for directions.