Katie Painting

Oil on canvas panel 11" by 14" -- The artist at work is Katie Horacek. I snapped a photo of the scene that I had been painting and caught her hard at work painting. It was just before Noon and we had both been painting in the shade of some large trees on a day that reached over 100 degrees that afternoon. Katie is a new member on this site; please welcome her. I had help with this painting from Katie, who encoraged me to make it more dramatc with a lot of contrast and from Michael Severin who gave me some excellent advice.

13 members like this

View Full Size

Tags:

Add a Comment

You need to be a member of The Complete Artist to add comments!

Join The Complete Artist

Comment by Stuart J. Gourlay on March 12, 2014 at 15:37: Thanks Olivia. It was the dappled light in my photo that intrigued me, and along with Katie's intense focus on her work compelled me to paint this. She is a very talented portrait and figurative artist and quite a plein air painter. I gave her the painting. Stu

Comment by Olivia O'Carra on March 12, 2014 at 6:52: Love this.Its so atmospheric.Love the dappled light on her arms

Comment by Stuart J. Gourlay on October 25, 2013 at 15:49: Thanks Li. Stu

Comment by Ningning Li on October 25, 2013 at 14:53: So well done! I can feel the hairs of the brushes and pick them up.

Comment by Stuart J. Gourlay on October 17, 2013 at 16:51: Jenrawar, I know that that left eye and bidge of the nose look weird, but there was very little light on her upper face because of the broad brim of the hat and she had on a pain of glasses that gave some strange diffraction of the light. I am actually giving her the painting in a couple of days, and if she is bothered by it, I will fix it, since I want to remain good friends with her. We go out painting outdoors with a small group of artists weekly. John Singer Sargent painted many of his friends and one of his quotes is: "Everytime I paint a portrait, I lose another friend." Thanks for you comments and if I change the painting, I will repost it with what I did to improve it. Stu

Comment by Jendrawan Husada on October 17, 2013 at 6:56: Very realistic Stu , in case of the box easel nearly photo and the mood you caught perfectly.. I'm not sure about the features though, I might be looking for a bit of (reflected) highlight on the nose.

Comment by Stuart J. Gourlay on October 10, 2013 at 17:09: Thanks a lot Dor. I've been working on improving my figure painting. I had help on this from Michael and also from Katie. I'm trying to get Katie to sign up for Richard's workshops; she met him at the plein air convention this year. I keep telling her about all the wonderful people here; I did get her to join and post a painting. How are you coming on your painting for this workshop? I've gathered all my photo references and done both value and color studies, but I'm not sure if I like my composition, so I'm rethinking it. Nice to hear from you. I thought you might be mad at me for telling you to paint your value study more contrasty and not so high key last time. Boy, I was dead wrong about that one and I owe you a giant apology; my higher contrast and lower key grisaille looked just awful when I glazed it, so I need to keep my big mouth shut! I did learn a lot about using glazing in the workshop, especially what not to do. Stu

Comment by Dorian Aronson on October 10, 2013 at 16:51: Very nice painting Stu........Smiles : ))

Comment by Stuart J. Gourlay on October 6, 2013 at 20:31: Ann, we'll figure out some way. We don't live that far apart. Katie lives a few miles from me in San Rafael and we're in a group that paints outdoors every Saturday when the weather permits. There are usually about 7 or 8 that show up. If you are interested in driving up to Marin some Saturday let me know; we'd love to have you join us. I've been trying to get Michael Severin to come down here some weekend, but that hasn't happened yet. Katie went to the plein air convention last year and I think she's planning on going next year. I am hoping to go as well. Michael says he's hoping to go also. If you want to get better at plein air painting, the only way to do it is to get out there. Since I joined this group and .began going out every week, my outdoor paintings have steadily improved. Stu

Comment by Ann Turner on October 6, 2013 at 20:05: I just saw your invite to plein air paint together. We will have to plan a trip but not yet, I'm just trying to figure it out and am not so sure about the whole process yet. I'll practice and get my act together then we can try. I also read somewhere that you are thinking about the Plein air Convention this April, I would encourage you to go ! It is inspiring and lots of fun !