East Bay Figure Painting

Wendell, Signe and Jenny

2012-02-10T17:23:00.000-08:00

Meredith Steele sent these painting to post on the blog. She has been painting with the group ever since we started at the Firehouse about 2 years ago. She showed her work in our show Work From the Model last year. And although she posts on her own blog, her family and teaching keep her pretty busy so this is the first time she put paintings on our blog. They are done in acrylic on paper.

Signe acrylic on paper

Jenny acrylic on paper

Wendell acrylic on paper

Waiting at the Cafe

2012-02-09T00:18:00.000-08:00

Waiting at the Cafe oil 18 by 24

Started working on this at the Firehouse Studio in Berkeley on Tuesday. We had a wonderful model, Talia.. There is a model set up in an environment each week. This is a pretty awesome place with pretty awesome people ...
Greatly appreciate it....
Deirde Shibano

Figure and Still Life

2012-02-08T16:34:00.000-08:00

Jenny with Urban Ore Pottery acrylic on canvas 28 by 22

I went to urban ore and got some pottery for the painting session. I spent a little time thinking about the setup because it is helping me work on composition. We had Talia in the morning session and although she is a good model I did not like what I did with the painting so I painted over it in the evening session. The set up was the same but I took a different vantage point. Karen

Carrie

2012-02-06T19:02:00.000-08:00

Carrie, Oil on canvas, 14 x 11"

This was a tiny painting I completed right there at the Firehouse, no revisions.

Otenio

2012-02-06T18:57:00.001-08:00

Otenio, Oil on canvas, 16 x 12"

I painted Otenio over another painting I had in the studio.

Model with Flowers

2012-02-06T15:46:00.000-08:00

Model with Flowers and Book acrylic on canvas

I painted the model incorporating the show at the Firehouse. She was looking at an art book and I set up a still life. Karen

Painting Mark and our Landscape Show

2012-02-06T15:33:00.000-08:00

I enjoyed painting Mark in the setting with the paintings from our landscape show. Karen

Mark with Landscape Show acrylic on canvas 20 by 30

A Selection From the Last Few Months

2012-02-05T14:59:00.000-08:00

David oil

Firehouse Model oil

Leah Before Italy oil

Deirdre Shibano sent these painting to post. They are from the last few months of models we have had in the Tuesday morning group.

Mark at a Cafe

2012-02-02T22:55:00.000-08:00

At the Cafe oil on canvas

Mark with Flowers ( detail) oil on canvas

I love painting at the Firehouse in the mornings. Besides feeling fresh, one gets two sessions to work with the same model. Mark was a great model, although it was his first time modeling! In this painting, all of the items were there except I made the vase and flower taller, so as to break the wall horizontal line, and I added a red scarf on the chair. The intention was to create a narrative picture... The viewer makes the story. This piece is still in process, but I think it is still worth playing with.

D Shibano

Thoughts About a Painting of Mark

2012-02-01T09:39:00.000-08:00

Mark oil on canvas 20 by 16

I began with a lightly painted line drawing, and didn´t notice that the head-size was a little too large for the size (20" x 16") of the canvas. This seems to be an oft-repeated problem for me.

When I returned for the 2nd and last session with Mark, I concentrated on fleshing out the true colors of his face; darkening the shadow side and adding bright color to the lit side. All that I need to do in order to finish, is to complete the background and add some highlights to his hair.

Vicki Salzman

Mark

2012-01-24T21:39:00.000-08:00

Mark is an amateur model but a very good one.

His dramatic, intense features seemed to

demand a lively treatment. I used hatch marks

to create the planes of the face and exaggerated

the colors in his complexion. Usually I try to even

out the skin tones in a painting with layers of

glazes, but in this case I omitted all that.

This is in acrylics on paper, about 18" x 24"

Landscape Show at the Firehouse North

2012-01-05T16:37:00.000-08:00

Jenny

2012-01-03T15:47:00.000-08:00

This was my first opportunity to paint Jenny. She wore a wonderful, richly-colored velvet top. Her face has a lot of interesting planes and contours, which looked better before I softened them with a layer of overpainting. The eyes aren't quite right either. Still, it was fun. This painting is in acrylics on paper, about 18" x 24".

Lisa D.

2011-12-27T15:40:00.000-08:00

This was my first painting with the Firehouse group in about a month. It felt good to be back. This portrait is in acrylics on paper (about 18" x 24").

BTW, the new look of this blog is attractive.

The red lettering looks very festive.

The Whole Room...In Oil

2011-12-26T19:09:00.000-08:00

My first oil after a six-month hiatus was... a bit uncomfortable. I was complaining the whole time and must have sounded quite annoying to my colleagues. This was a 24 x 24" oil on canvas. I distorted the dimensions of the room to give it more of a claustrophobic feel and based the colors of the pre-painted oil background on the colors of the acrylic background from the previous week (see post below) because I wanted to save time to work on the figures. Predictably, the colors didn't turn out as crisp as I envisioned because I was painting on a still-wet background. I should say that the way I normally paint with oil is to reserve open canvas space for most things non-background so these baby food colors were deeply disturbing. But I revised, working from memory. For example, I exaggerated the lights from the lamps above and I repainted a some colors the way I remembered them. I like it more now, and I think I did something different, although I can't yet tell what it is.

Phillip In the Foreground

2011-12-26T18:58:00.000-08:00

I started out with a completely black 20 x 16" canvas, and worked my way out of that darkness by adding people and objects from the background to the foreground with acrylic. Because the first layers were dry before I placed the next figures, this method was perfect. I ended up paying a lot of attention to Phillip's gesture. On the floor you can see Andrew. This painting was relatively drama-free for me, as it was a small canvas, I was working in the amazingly forgiving medium of acrylic, I have painted his view a thousand times, and I had started with a dark background.

The result of this happy intersection of circumstances was that I barely had to think about what I was doing. I operated on automatic, and the results are satisfactory, but I also know this is not the situation where I do my best learning.

Julie Paints Bonnie

2011-12-26T18:52:00.000-08:00

Here I should be honest and say I don't really love this 24 x 24" oil on canvas of Bonnie, our substitute model. I like the composition, but not the color harmony. The palette was a split primary: ultramarine and pthalo blue, cadmium and alizarin red, and cadmium and lemon yellow with titanium white. But the harmony is olive green, cerulean, orange, and a warm and cold white. A yucky "harmony."

In the field of literacy, the theory of automaticity explains the inverse relationship between reading comprehension and text complexity. Basically, your brain's juice is so tied up interpreting the longer sentences and complex vocabulary in a difficult text, that you have little energy left to interpret what you are reading. I believe that something similar happens when you switch mediums or try out a new one. In this case my brain may have been so tied up with the difficulty of thinking in oil after a long period of using acrylic that I had no juice left to spend on other issues.

A look at previous winter Firehouse paintings made me realize the actual problem: all of the values are too high. The room was actually darker, but in this painting the brightness level approaches that of an emergency room. With the lower values, the saturation would have come down a tad, but more importantly, the color harmony would have clicked. Orange would have become burnt sienna, cerulean would have become a blue-gray, olive would have turned into a nondescript dark green and so on. You get the picture.

Prudence

2011-12-19T15:54:00.000-08:00

Prudence acrylic on canvas 24 by 30

Prudence is a favorite model. She has a lot of energy and takes charge of the space in the room. I finally did one that I feel deals with Prudence's space. Karen

Painting Occupy

2011-12-18T10:03:00.000-08:00

One of our figure painters, Jessica Joy Jirsa, has been painting the Occupy movement in Oakland and San Francisco. You can view the occupy video put together by another painter Anthony Holdsworth and see some wonderful examples of her work. Anthony put together the video to document the events of the last few months at the sites and he writes about it on his blog.

Some Favorites

2011-12-16T17:37:00.000-08:00

Diana

Leah

Prudence

Andrew Pick sent these painting to post on the blog. He has been coming for many months often painting in both the morning and evening group on Tuesdays. Soon he plans on moving to New York City and he will be missed in our group. These are some of the paintings he has done and are his favorites. I believe they are all done in oil on canvas.

Signe Models

2011-12-15T14:43:00.000-08:00

Signe acrylic on canvas 18 by 24

Signe was holding a book in the pose. The big flower pattern stirred up a little bit of the quietness. The lines help me to draw the shape and curves of her body. I added a glass of water on the table, she deserved it. Philip Ng

Karisa in the Evening Group

2011-11-26T16:57:00.001-08:00

Karisa acrylic on canvas 18 by 24

Karisa looked very nice in her beautiful silky night robe. I loved the choice of the setting in the pose. The patterns of the cushions added a lot to the atmosphere of the painting. Philip Ng

Wendell Models at the Firehouse

2011-11-22T16:11:00.001-08:00

Wendell Sports Bling oil on canvas 24 by 18

Wendell was fun to paint with his strong features and proud bearing. His jewelry was also very interesting.
Iris Sabre

Lauren

2011-11-16T17:45:00.001-08:00

Viridian Green Dress acrylic on 20 by 24 canvas

I liked what Lauren chose to wear for the pose. Only wish I had done her great shoes.
Karen

Stacey

2011-11-13T18:19:00.001-08:00

A quiet, thoughtful moment as Stacey gazes at the book spread out on her lap.

Iris Sabre

Stacey oil on canvas 18 by 24

Karissa

2011-11-13T18:15:00.001-08:00

Karissa needed a cup of coffee or toothpicks to hold her eyes open, but she was a beautiful model. Her black kimono with the pink flowers was lovely next to her skin and masses of dark wavy hair.

Karissa oil on canvas 18 by 24

Iris Sabre

Artist at Work

2011-11-11T21:57:00.001-08:00

Ricardo posed for us in the evening session at the Firehouse. The canvas and the palette in the pose were actually blank canvas panels. I blocked in a portrait and made up the palette to make the painting looked more interesting. The colors on the palette in the picture were actually a copy of the colors I used in my palette. This is an acrylic on a 18" by 24" canvas.
Philip Ng

Painting Lisa at the Firehouse

2011-11-04T16:09:00.000-07:00

When I was setting up the model I was thinking of a Milton Avery painting of a young women at a desk writing a note. I had planned on doing a set up something like that. It turned out our model Lisa looked a lot like the women in the Avery painting. I added some of the other painters to the composition.

Painting Lisa at the Firehouse acrylic on canvas 24 by 30

Karen

Lisa Models

2011-10-25T15:44:00.000-07:00

Studying acrylic on canvas 18 by 24

It is quite a challenge to paint in the evening session at the Firehouse. We have a model for one session only. With little thinking, I used large shapes and lines to block in the composition, then added color. In the halfway, I noticed all my focus was on the left of the canvas, the colorful cushions, the bench and the model. There was nothing on the right. I brought in a chair and the model's handbag into my painting. Although the shadow of the chair was on the wrong side but it help to break up the wall space, so I kept it. To move the focus a little bid more to the right, the color of the cushions was subdued. I added more detail work and light on the book. To push the focus to the right a little bid more, I made contrast of the reflected light against the shadow of the chair on the wall. A couple of brush stocks were used to break up that long line on the wall. Philip Ng

Diana in a Green Dress

2011-10-16T16:09:00.000-07:00

Diana is a great artist and a great model too. I have been painting with her in the morning session at the Firehouse for more than a year. This was the third time I painted her. The painting was done with acrylic on a 18" x 24" canvas.

Philip Ng

My Car

2011-10-14T13:43:00.000-07:00

The Gold Saturn oil over acrylic 18 by 24

Sometimes I rework older paintings that did not work well enough and sometimes I just paint over them. This one I reworked with oil over the original acrylic. I can't remember who the model was but see the old couch we used to have in the room and outside the window is my gold Saturn. Karen

Watty

2011-10-09T21:21:00.000-07:00

Where do I begin? I guess the story has already been told, that this was not a model from the Model's Guild. This is a 24 x 18" acrylic. I am frustrated with the photo and the colors it shows, probably because it was already 5 pm when I took the pic. What you see here is my attempt to fix it with photoshop so it resembles the original more closely.

The Graffiti Artist

2011-10-07T15:05:00.000-07:00

Drew is a great model. He is different from the usual pretty face with his strong features and wiggy hair. He kept a difficult pose, looking upward, which I'm sure was hard on his eyes.

The Graffiti Artist oil, 18 by 24

Iris Sabre

Carla at the Firehouse

2011-10-05T18:14:00.000-07:00

Woman with Flowers acrylic, 24 by 30

We had Carla model for two session at the Firehouse. No matter how many times I paint her there is always something new to try with her.

Karen

Looner as Jesus

2011-10-05T08:15:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I went to the evening session specifically to paint Looner, whose intriguing features and hair promised an interesting experience. About twenty minutes into this portrait the model started to look like Jesus, so I went with it. The irregular halo needs work, but overall I'm happy to have had a chance to paint the savior. This is in acrylics on paper and the scale is a little larger than life.

Waddi

2011-10-02T12:06:00.000-07:00

Waddi was out stolling one evening when he saw us setting up our easels to paint. Did we need a model? he asked. As it happened, the model we were expeccting was a no-show and Waddi saved the day.

Waddi oil 24" by 18"

Iris Sabre

Judith

2011-10-02T11:09:00.000-07:00

Judith oil 24' by 18"

Judith has her long slender fingers perched precariously on the rim of the glass.

Iris Sabre

The Accidental Male Model

2011-10-01T11:02:00.001-07:00

It happened one evening we did not have a model. A gentleman walked into the shop and offered to sit for us. What a happy fit! He did a good job! This is a painting of him. I did it with acrylic on a 18"x24" canvas.

Philip Ng

Karen Models

2011-09-26T16:03:00.000-07:00

Women with Book acrylic on canvas, 24 by 30

Karen modeled in the evening group last month. I worked again with very large shapes and brush strokes. KZS

Cynthia and Spunky

2011-09-26T15:36:00.000-07:00

Cynthia and Spunky acrylic on canvas, 24 by 30

I am way behind in taking pictures to post. Got very frustrated with the bad photos I got and now my decent camera can't focus so I am using my point and shoot. I had a good time with this painting of Cynthia and Spunkiyusing large strokes and minimal definition. Sorry about the date stamp across Spunky. Karen

Using the Space

2011-09-25T18:04:00.000-07:00

Recently I've challenged myself to just paint what's in the room. These two acrylics were almost finished at the Firehouse, then I worked on them from memory in my studio. The top painting (the one with just Nathan) only has two figures and was done on a larger (24 x 36") canvas. The bottom painting shows a crowded night. There were two other painters in the room, so people were standing closer together. Months ago I was painting more views of the door and windows. I found views of either side of the room too difficult to paint. They still are! I did not take a break during the painting of either one of these two.

Tyler

2011-09-20T15:00:00.000-07:00

Today I had zero energy and almost didn't come to paint, but I'm glad I forced myself. This portrait of Tyler is in acrylics on paper.

Louise and Iris, Painters of the Night

2011-09-19T20:48:00.000-07:00

This is one of my most favorite acrylics of late, of the ones I've done at the Firehouse. I believe the size was 24 x 24". I love the palette: burnt sienna, yellow ochre, dioaxine violet, thalo blue, and alizarin crimson. Iris was painting with a wrist brace. I wanted Iris to be a silouette, but I was never able to control the urge to depict all of those rich and darker shades my eyes were still able to discern even in the darkness. With Louise, I just wanted to do justice to her million dollar hair color. The easels were a pain, but I finished at home from memory.

David

2011-09-19T20:31:00.000-07:00

This was an acrylic painting, 20 x 16", done with a lot of gel and in semi-darkness. I discovered the perspective was askew and corrected some of it at home. A sedate palette: titanium white, yellow ochre, burnt sienna, alizarin crimson, ultramarine blue and thalo blue.

Cynthia

2011-09-06T15:09:00.000-07:00

I did three drawings and one (unfinished) collage of

Cynthia. This drawing here is the only one that

turned out sort of okay. It's in pastel on paper

treated with sauce and gold powder.

Painting Prudence

2011-09-05T23:36:00.000-07:00

Prudence in acrylic

JoAnn McMahon sent this recent painting done in the evening session to post.

Stripes and Sparky

2011-09-04T20:20:00.000-07:00

Stripes & Sparky (detail) acrylic on canvas panel

Painted from life... a mature blonde bombshell in a 'fruit stripe gum' dress, with her dog (Spunky? Sparky?). I was pleased when she said I had captured the gestalt of the pose.

Kanna

Christopher

2011-08-22T16:00:00.000-07:00

Christopher posed 2 sessions for us. I did several sketches of him in pencil and one in charcoal. Here are two of them that I did with pencil. I used the 2H, HB and 4B graphite pencils on acid-free sketch paper. The sizes were 11"x 14".
Philip Ng

Diana

2011-08-22T15:57:00.000-07:00

Diana is always nice. One day she did a short pose for us before we started a painting session. This was a pencil rendering on a 11" x 14" 65lb paper.

Philip Ng

Evening Session Paintings

2011-08-19T10:15:00.000-07:00

Iris Sabre sent these two paintings to post. She works in oil in our Tuesday evening session so both of these were done in one session. We have a different model each week.

Christopher in Biker Gear

2011-08-17T22:04:00.000-07:00

Christopher posed for us twice in his "biker" gear at the Tuesday morning group. The preliminary sketch is sanguine on paper and the finished oil painting is 16"x20". I have sketched Christopher in the past in other groups, but never with his clothes on! I loved his Fu Man Chu beard, but didn't feel it necessary to include in the final painting. Teresa Chuh

Diana Blackwell shows at Bridge Art Space

2011-08-17T08:56:00.000-07:00

We are happy to announce Diana's show at Bridge Art Space in Richmond. Many of these strong pieces were done in our Tuesday morning figure group. See you at the reception!

Juliana in the Evening

2011-08-15T15:19:00.000-07:00

Juliana took a beautiful pose. This is a 24 by 30 canvas. i worked with large shapes and brush strokes and finished in only two hours. Decided not to add any more detail. This photo got cropped somehow and will replace it when I take a better one.

Karen

Red Camisole

2011-08-14T13:19:00.000-07:00

This 18 x 24" acrylic gave me a good "run for the money," as it took everything I had to finish it in three hours. There are some revisions I'd like to make, but overall, I'm happy with it.

Christopher

2011-08-02T19:05:00.000-07:00

Christopher did a wonderful pose in tough-guy biker get-up. I had a blast doing four studies of him in dry media. These three head studies are the most successful. The black/white one is charcoal on plain paper. The other two are pastel/charcoal/colored pencil on watercolor paper treated with sauce.

Twilight Painting

2011-07-24T20:20:00.000-07:00

I don't remember who this is, or the date when I painted it. It was not a big canvas, 16 x 20" in size. I really like how the model came out, though. I have been using a whole lot of gel and doing a lot of scraping in these paintings, and it really shows on this one.

Jennifer M.

2011-07-12T15:08:00.000-07:00

The color drawing with the rose is in pastel on paper treated with sauce and metallic gold powder. The black/white drawing is in charcoal. The 3/4 view is in colored pencil on handmade paper (and is the least accurate in terms of likeness).

Cool blog!

2011-07-08T14:42:00.000-07:00

Want to see some cool paintings by people outside our group? Check out
Women Painting Women: http://womenpaintingwomen.blogspot.com/

Two Figure Painters have openings, Sunday July 10

2011-07-06T12:49:00.000-07:00

Two of the painters who come to our figure painting group have shows opening on the same day Sunday, July 10. And luckily for us the timing makes it possible to go to both. Lin Fischer and
Kanna Aoki also both incorporate landscape in their work. Linda's opening is from 11:30 to 2 pm and Kanna's is from 4 to 6 pm. There is more information below. See you there.

more information about Kanna's

upcomming shows

Reading

2011-06-30T14:34:00.000-07:00

In late June it rained very hard outside the gallery, but it was warm inside. Our model, Ricardo, was wearing a bright warm orange T-shirt with a shiny purple violet scarf. This is a figure study I did with soft pastel on Carson pastel paper. The size is 19" x 29" Philip Ng

Terry

2011-06-28T13:22:00.000-07:00

Terry has an interesting face with lots of

character. I did three studies of him in acrylic on paper. This was the most successful of them.

Making Comments

2011-06-21T17:01:00.000-07:00

We like to hear comments about the work we are doing in our figure painting groups and wish more people would post and more would give comments. But recently a number of blog followers have had trouble posting comment to the site. I you have tried but have been unable to post a comment please let us know and at the rea.rebaren@gmail email.

Karen

Comments: Harder now????

2011-06-19T15:27:00.000-07:00

Am I the only person who is having trouble posting comments here?
Even though I'm logged in, and Blogger/EBFP knows who I am, I can't
post comments any more because every time I try to, I am asked to
select a "profile" from a list that includes nothing that pertains to me.
Anybody else have this problem?

Red Prom Dress

2011-06-14T22:21:00.000-07:00

I was completely interested in the dress and not so much on the figure in this painting. I wanted to depict shiny red satin.

Lorraine in a Blue Leotard

2011-06-14T15:15:00.000-07:00

Having seen paintings by Egon Schiele in Vienna recently, I was itching to try something new. So I tried to break out of my box (and paint like Schiele). These don't look anything like Schiele's work, but they are a slight departure from my usual drill.

I keep trying to do something different, and must confess I find it very difficult. Even though I don't think of myself as having much of a "style," whatever "style" I do possess seems very hard to escape.

Our First Nude in a While

2011-06-12T22:31:00.000-07:00

The Firehouse just acquired these great curtains, so now we can paint nudes if we want to. Considering that is the first one I paint in more than a year, I have two things to say: It is possible to see the gradations of the flesh tones at night, even with incandescent light. Your eyes eventually get used to this over a period of months. Also, using gel helps you control opacity. This makes it easier to depict flesh with acrylic. Lately, I've been experimenting with applying layers of opposite values with a paint knife, then scraping through them or blending them to form various grays. To see what this looks like, look at the wall.

Setting up the Model for Painting

2011-05-26T15:50:00.000-07:00

I have put a little more effort into our set ups lately because I incorporate the background into my painting and have been getting bored with the same things over and over. So in the morning group I used a new chair and covered the platform with a light blue cloth. In the evening we put together a scene with a bed and side table and the model looking at the paper. I worked on these 24 by 30 canvases. Karen

Looking Outside

2011-05-18T16:03:00.000-07:00

Working at the Firehouse is interesting because it is a somewhat public space and people look in and watch us at times. So I worked on a composition that focused a little more on the outside. It is a 20 by 28 acrylic.
Karen

Lady in Blue Coat

2011-05-05T10:42:00.000-07:00

Barbara posed in the Firehouse North in April. She had a beautiful blue coat on. She was gorgeous and relaxed. This is an oil on a 12 by 16 canvas panel. Philip Ng

Evening Session at the Firehouse

2011-05-04T16:51:00.000-07:00

There is interesting work going on in the new evening session at the Firehouse. There we have a long pose but a different model and pose each week. The evening light gives some of the paintings a very moody feel. Now that it stays light longer we have a changing light situation during the evening that inspires a variety of approaches.

Micky

2011-05-03T15:17:00.001-07:00

The two color drawings are pastel on paper

treated with sauce. The other one is graphite on

plain paper. In the pencil drawing, I enjoyed exaggerating the sloping, "Siamese cat" quality

of Micky's profile.

Diana at the Firehouse

2011-04-28T16:14:00.000-07:00

Diana modeled recently for us in the evening and took a beautiful pose. I worked on a 24 by 36 canvas. I like that size for the compositions I have been doing in the room. It was more interesting to work on a model I knew. I think I caputered some of her vibrancy. Karen

Colorful Portrait

2011-04-14T13:00:00.000-07:00

It's amazing what a rainbow wig can do for a model.

Here is a sample oil painting using one.

It kind of reminds me of the poster for the musical HAIR

16 x 20 oil Leo Zubritsky

Jennings Models at the Firehouse

2011-04-10T20:05:00.000-07:00

I did the portrait study of Jennings in one session. It happended there was a white wall background behind the model this time. I painted the portrait loosely and with bold brush strokes. It was an oil on a 11" x 14" canvas panel. Philip Ng

Prudence & Jennings

2011-04-05T16:19:00.000-07:00

I did about six drawings of Jennings. This pencil portrait is my favorite. The drawing of his hands is done in pastel and china marker on paper treated with gouache and sauce. The session with Prudence was difficult because a power failure forced us to draw in the dark for over an hour.

Sonia at the Firehouse

2011-03-30T13:21:00.000-07:00

We had two very vibrant models at the Firehouse sessions last week, Sonia and Prudence. In the evening session Sonia modeled in a new bright red floor length dress that had a scalloped hem. The group did some wonderful paintings of her and I used bold colors to record what was going on in the room. It is an 18 by 24 acrylic on canvas. Karen

Karen's Paintings and Linda

2011-03-09T12:33:00.000-08:00

oil on masonite, 20" x 16"

I am trying simplify my approach to the figure. The smooth masonite makes it easy to brush out earlier steps until I get a shape I like. I used a photo I took of the background to finish the area behind the model. It's nice the paintings bring in other colors. Betsy Kendall

Tough Pose

2011-03-09T12:15:00.000-08:00

We had a new model who took a great pose she had trouble repeating. Because I was sitting to the side I was able to correct a bit. I loved the way her skin took the light. The artist sitting opposite had to leave early; maybe I can capture her features some other night! I loved the way the two sets of blue-jeaned legs joined at the knee.
Oil on gessoed cardboard, 32" x 28" Betsy Kendall

Tracy

2011-03-08T18:13:00.000-08:00

I hated every one of these drawings while I was still at the Firehouse. But when I came home and worked on them a bit more, I liked them a little better. They're all done in pastel and colored pencil, with a little india ink. The paper is watercolor paper treated with sauce.

Invitation to a Show

2011-03-06T18:02:00.000-08:00

Kanna Aoki who paints in the Tuesday morning figure group will be showing paintings in March at Neilson Arts, 1537 Solano Ave in Berkeley. The opening receptions is Sat. March 12 from 7 to 9. She is showing with Barbara Maricle and Wilma Wyss who are both on our Reemerging Artist list. Hope to see you there.

Firehouse at Night

2011-03-01T15:27:00.000-08:00

I have started scratching the surface of canvas covered in a thin film of dark paint. At night, it seems easier to start from the dark, instead of from a light-colored canvas. Then I paint on top of this film and the values stay dark enough. For the light areas, I scrape the space they occupy with a palette knife... if I remember to bring one!

Painting Jenny

2011-02-23T16:36:00.000-08:00

The evening group had Jenny as a model. We have a different model each week with a long pose. I worked on this one more in my studio. I always love Jenny as a model because she can make lots of shapes in the simplest of poses with twists and use of her hands. She said my paintings reminded her of a friend of hers and I looked him up. There were a lot of similarities. I liked his paintings. He had more humor in them than I do and they were very spontaneous. This one of Jenny is 24 by 30 acrylic on canvas.

Invitation to East Bay Landscape Painters Show

2011-02-19T09:57:00.000-08:00

We would love to see you. This is the sister landscape group to our figure group. Find out more about it and join us painting outside!!

Karen B.

2011-02-08T17:28:00.000-08:00

Karen was a lot of fun to paint. This one was done in acrylics on canvas.

Judith, Blue Turban

2011-01-26T09:27:00.001-08:00

Judith wore a wonderful blue turban.

It seemed to cry out for a contrasting orange

background. Now I'm not so sure. This painting

is far from finished.

Diana Also Wore Red

2011-01-12T12:17:00.000-08:00

Red is good color. And Diana wore it well.

Karen

Our Model Wore a Red Dress

2011-01-12T12:10:00.000-08:00

I am a little behind in my posting. I loved the red dress she was wearing and was also pleased I was able to do one I liked painting over an old canvas. Usually the texture underneath is hard to deal with but this time it worked for me. It is 22 by 28 acrylic on canvas.

Judith, Judith, Rebeca

2011-01-11T22:27:00.001-08:00

Our model arrived late, so we began by drawing each other. The drawing of Rebeca was begun in regular graphite pencil, amplified in colored pencil , and finished in ink. The drawing

of Judith D. (with blue shirt) was done in

pastel and colored pencil on paper treated with

sauce.

After Judith D. finished posing, our model, Judith S., arrived. The portrait of Judith S. was done in pastel and colored pencil on paper treated with sauce. So was the hand study.

Miguel

2011-01-04T17:55:00.000-08:00

I was out of practice after missing two sessions.

I did four drawings of Miguel. This is the only one that was semi-decent. It's in pastel and colored pencil on watercolor paper treated with sauce.

Our Story

2010-12-20T14:41:00.000-08:00

The East Bay Figure Painting is one of three groups under the Reemerging Artists grassroots organization. For the benefit of people new to these groups, and in celebration of our three year anniversary on November 28, here's our story:

Birth of the Figure Painting
Susan Brand, Susan Newman, Karen Zullo Sherr, Barbara Maricle, Mike Warner and Rebeca Garcia-Gonzalez met at the figure drawing class that the Richmond Art Center then offered. Their first session was inspired by an invitation from Mike Warner to continue drawing and painting during the Richmond Art Center's winter break. He offered his shop in El Sobrante as our first location. Rebeca created the listserv, a Google group then called West Contra Costa Figure Drawing, on November 15, 2007. It was meant to keep everyone in the loop as they figured out how to keep the sessions going.

Back then, the group was primarily interested in painting the figure, so on November 28, 2007, they met to draw each other - they had no model! The second session took place at Rebeca's studio, and the third, at Karen's. The group hired amateurs until it was able to secure an account with the Bay Area Models' Guild. But the guild booking person at the time thought that sending models to rotating locations would be confusing, so Rebeca offered her studio as the primary location until the start of RAC classes. Soon after, Karen and Rebeca decided a three hour pose was not such a bad idea, so they began scheduling models with this in mind (as opposed to the 20 min poses at the RAC).

After a few weeks of this, they began discussing ways to make the volunteer-run environment welcoming and supportive, and settled for a few principles that are still part of both groups: Membership involved neither fees nor a portfolio review, just a commitment to painting, because they wanted members to have diverse approaches and levels of experience. Through a non-teaching environment, they wanted to encourage and support the development of members’ individual styles, believing this diversity contributes to a developing critical dialogue. And they encouraged members to share their knowledge of online communication, digital image processing, and the art market through free member workshops and joint projects.

For more than a year since its beginning, the figure drawing group continued meeting in Rebeca's small studio, which held a maximum of five painters. Karen and Rebeca shared the booking and coordination, and quickly discovered that a small group of drop-ins cannot always afford the model's fees, so they decided to seek a more spacious location in the spring of 2009. This was the Richmond Art Center at first, but because the center was undergoing a renovation, it was very difficult to stay. This prompted Karen to broker an arrangement with the members of what was then the Berkeley Firehouse Collective during that summer. Along the way, she came up with a new name. By August, Rebeca introduced a blog and a separate listserv for this group, and Karen took over the booking and coordination. The group, now named East Bay Figure Painting, began advertising almost immediately on Craiglist and other venues, to ensure they could cover the model's fees in the new location. The Berkeley location attracts a steady group of 5-9 painters, and they have achieved a supportive environment respectful of diversity in artistic approaches. In 2010 the East Bay Figure Painters put together their first show at the Firehouse Gallery. It was a smashing success.

Birth of the Landscape Group
At the same time, Karen and Rebeca began painting outdoors together. Their first session took place in 2007 on a very cold Tuesday. On January 8, 2008 they went to Inspiration Point in Berkeley, and they almost froze! They returned there the following week, but did not develop a steady routine until later. For a few months, it was mostly just them and a schedule that moved between Tuesdays and Mondays. From the beginning, they thought about painting on weekends but a busy family schedule made this difficult. Ever so slowly, they began meeting painters who had these days available, and who were very committed to painting outdoors. Mike found Larry Hatfield painting near his house in El Sobrante, and Karen brought Vicki Salzman. They were added to the proto-listserv, which was then open to anyone who wanted to join and held the names of those interested in figure or outdoor painting.

On February 2009 (fourteen months after its start)the listserv was vandalized for the second time and Rebeca was forced to close it, delete it, and start a new one with a new name: East Bay Plein Air. This list continued to include people from both groups until August 2009.

The first blog was devoted to plein air painting, and made its debut in May 4, 2009. Rebeca wanted to have a public space in which to announce locations, since the listserv was no longer open to the public. She also envisioned it as a collaborative space where members could post work done during the group's painting sessions. It quickly gained a big readership because it is updated frequently with members' work. The group also began advertising on Craigslist and on Facebook. Because of this, the group and its listserv have grown. The group now meets twice a week and sends updates to 77 local artists.

After their 2009 proposal got rejected by a local arts organization, the East Bay Landscape Painters booked their first group exhibit at the San Pablo Gallery. The group changed its name once more in the Spring of 2010 because another, older group with no web presence had held the name for a while and we didn't want to steal their identity.

After the figure painting exhibit, Karen organized a support group for reemerging artists that was very well-attended, and a volunteer offered to coordinate it. This group is different in that artists get together not to paint or draw, but to discuss their lives and work. This group now has its won blog and listserv.

The three groups exist together as a collaborative network, Re-Emerging Artists. Its mission is to facilitate the re-entry of artists into the art world. It has been three years full of accomplishments!

All comments are welcome...
Rebeca and Karen

Cynthia

2010-12-17T08:18:00.000-08:00

These were done in pastel on paper. The

standing figure is on green Colorfix paper. The portrait and standing sketch are on bristol vellum treated with sauce. The reclining pose is on plain bristol vellum, and was done on a rough, wooden drawing board that imparted its texture to the drawing, unfortunately. I had a terrible time with the portrait. I couldn't seem to get Cynthia's nose right, and the process was not helped by her steady stare into my eyes as I drew her face. She hated the portrait and told me so.

Bob

2010-11-30T20:34:00.000-08:00

The last time Bob posed for us, I did one big painting

in acrylic on canvas. This time, I did a bunch of drawings in pastel (and colored pencil) on paper. The one with a solid, dark brown background was done on Colorfix Paper, which has a rough, colored coating that helps pastels stick to the surface. The others were all done on bristol vellum treated with sauce.

Ishtar in a Red Dress

2010-11-17T11:44:00.000-08:00

I did two versions of Ishtar. This is the first and I am still working on the second one. It is a 22 by 28 acrylic on canvas. Karen

Mary

2010-11-17T11:33:00.000-08:00

Mary is a new model for me. I liked her pose and did this one very broadly and reworked in the studio later. It is 22 by 28 acrylic on canvas. Karen

Ishtar

2010-11-16T15:38:00.001-08:00

Artist & Craftsman supply sells a drawing paper that's

treated with a rough, colored coating that works very well with pastel. I used this paper with pastels and conte on Legs and also the portrait with the blue background. The other, simpler portrait was done in pastels and ink on paper treated with sauce.

Call for art

2010-10-16T13:03:00.000-07:00

Hey, figure painters! Some people are putting together a book of
Bay Area figurative art. And they're accepting submissions.
All media are accepted, but the models must be from the Guild.
You can read all about it at www.artistdavid.com/modelbook.html

Alexander Models

2010-10-13T09:44:00.000-07:00

This one of Alexander uses a lot of texture and came together just at the end when I was able to de emphasize the background. It is an 18 by 24 acrylic.

Karen

Jenny models

2010-10-11T11:56:00.000-07:00

This is my second painting of Jenny. I had a good start and then lost it in the middle. I worked on it later and like the soft focus and light now. It is a15 by 30 canvas.

An Artists' Get Together, Saturday, September 25, 2 to 4pm

2010-09-19T12:55:00.000-07:00

Re-emerging Artists

An Artists’ Support Network

Model in a Belly Dancer Costume

2010-09-18T17:24:00.000-07:00

I did this before our show and it seems like a long time ago now. Our model was also a belly dancer and makes her own costumes. She took a standing pose and that is pretty rare for our group. But I think she regretted it the second week because she was pretty tired that day. But still it was great to have a standing pose for a change. Karen