Month: April 2016

Looking to May

| lisamistry2

Well, I have been working on the Portraits of Petersburg exhibit but missed a week because of illness. I have to prep for my art show at the Petersburg Public Library and will be taking a selection of my portraits plus a few other paintings to hang. Library already has made a flyer and written a press release. Since it is May the art theme will be “mothers” and I want to post quotes from the participants next to the work. Another possibility is famous quotes painted on canvas. We will see.Libraryflyer

The flyer looks great.

I still have a few more days to paint some more portraits. Already I started two today;

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This is after day one. Tomorrow I will correct and finish it in keeping with the two day limit.
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A sneak peek on how I start my portraits. I didn’t have a lot of time to continue today but I will paint more tomorrow.

 

I am on portrait number 25, but I want to still do more. The impact will be greater with a large group. 2016 will have to be my ‘Year of Portraits”.

April Showers Brings More Portraits

| lisamistry2
Portraits of Petersburg: From January 8th to April 7th0408161613Gallery visitor:  “Wow, these look so much better in person than in a photograph.”

 

Twenty-one! I counted all the portraits I completed so far since I started in January.  Two portraits have found homes already as gifts, leaving me with 19 on display at the gallery for the whole month of April. Of course I have to keep painting and started portrait number 22 and what else do I do this week? Sign up even more people to paint. Naturally. Now that I have over 50 people signed up I want to make it an even bigger project.

You must be willing to suffer for the sake of art.

Here you can see the progression from sketch to finished portrait of local artist Jasmine Mills (instagram@ARTISTJAZZ), completed just in time for display on Friday for the Arts in Old Towne while she has an art show at the Petersburg Area Art League.

The big news is I am going to be showing my portrait art at the Petersburg Public Library next month. The library is asking me to do something appropriate for Mother’s Day and I have something already in mind.

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Latest work in progress

The GoFundMe donations for #PortraitsofPetersburg are still coming in and I am so grateful to have people so interested in supporting this community art project. The lease will be soon up at the gallery and I may be looking for new studio space soon but I will keep painting portraits.

Portraits of Petersburg

| lisamistry2

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This is the latest painting finished for Portraits of Petersburg. I am running behind a bit but I have another almost completed on the easel today so I think I can get back on track.

The next big hurdle will be keeping my studio space if the gallery closes earlier than expected. The lease was to run out end of June and I had planned on having a show in the gallery on the 10th, June’s Friday for the Arts  in Petersburg but now it looks like someone else would like to rent the space. I need to find a new place to work. The GoFundMe page has raised $533.00 so far, for which I am grateful, but I need to maintain a locale in Petersburg if this show is to keep on growing so I have to keep all my options open.

One thing I do love is painting the portraits. They are luminous when you see them in person. So much softer in appearance than in a photo. At first I wasn’t sure if the strong colors straight out of the tubes would work because acrylics can look hard and flat and the crazy mix of colors can overwhelm the features of the person. I want these paintings to look lively as well as capture a likeness even with the constraints of only two days of painting per portrait.