eLIZabeth Floyd Studio

A Quick Hello and a New Silverpoint

2009-12-07T11:37:00.005-05:00

Seated Figure – 11" x 7" (28 x 17.8 cm) – Silverpoint on prepared Bristol

Hello Friends ~

I am stopping by for a quick visit before diving back into unpacking boxes, organizing bookshelves and closets. The movers moved all our possessions last week Wednesday and since then my number one goal was to get our kitchen in working order, as I am just about tired of having pizza for lunch and dinner.

The day before the movers arrived I took time off from packing to attend the make-up class for Robert Liberace’s drawing class. It was the best 4+ hours I spent all last week, drawing always takes my mind off of pressing tasks… This silverpoint was completed during the class. After the class I dropped by the house to air out and do some final cleaning. Moving during this time of year has been limiting all my yuletide cheer. Hopefully this will be the last week where most of my time is dedicated to unpacking…

How have you been? Are you prepared for the holidays? I am surely not – so far this year no cards, cookies or gifts have been prepared to be shipped off to friends and family. Now I need to run, but before I go here are some lovely images of the snow that fell this weekend.

Enjoy your day, Liz

Trois Crayons Drawing of Slim

2009-11-22T21:25:00.002-05:00

Slim – Trois Crayons on prepared Canson paper –

half sheet, approx. 12” x 19” (30.5 x 48.3 cm)

Hello,

Drawing has become my only artistic outlet lately. I go to the local library, power up my laptop and draw from photos. This one of Slim uses the trios crayons technique taught in Robert Liberace’s class and I think it really works well with fur.

Over the next few weeks I am going to be absent from updating this blog as the craziness of my home situation has just grown. S and I will be moving soon, so I am busy preparing for that and the holiday season. When it rains it pours.

Liz

Lemon Daily Painting

2009-06-01T22:00:00.006-04:00

Lemon – 6" x 6" (15.25 x 15.25 cm) – Oil Canvas Panel

Available in my Etsy Shop

Today I worked on this painting in the morning as a warm up before working on a larger still life begun over the weekend that also has lemons in it. I find as time goes by I get more and more interested in capturing the nuances of color and value. Lemons are particularly interesting in that the shadow side is dark, with hints of purple and green in it, though the reflected light in the shadow shape is lighter in value but kinda vibrant in color, not desaturated like the rest of the shadow area.

Have a great evening, and thanks for dropping by, Liz

Apricots & Mug {a daily painting}

2009-07-01T22:00:00.003-04:00

Apricots & Mug – 6" x 6" (15.25 x 15.25 cm) – Oil Canvas Panel

Available in my Etsy Shop

I am still focusing some time and thought on how to capture apricots; it is a joy to figuring out how to convey the soft texture and creamy colors. There is still more to learn and gain through experience, but it is pleasant how being creative can fill me up like nothing else can.

Tangerine Still Life

2009-01-25T23:00:00.006-05:00

Tangerine – 6" x 6" – Oil on Canvas Panel

Available in my Etsy Shop

Funny thing about painting still lifes is that sometimes what you set out to paint is not what you end up with. I had cut up two lemons in different ways, had started a painting when I realized it just was not working out. It just was not capturing my interest, so I scraped the painting down to use the canvas panel another day. We had a bowl of tangerines nearby and I decided for a break to eat one. The tangerine ended up replacing the lemon slices and I did not get a chance to eat it until about 4 hours later.

The paint on the canvas panels are getting very juicy and creamy lately as I am trying to use up the several tubes of titanium white I have before I go out and buy some more cremnitz white. The creamy consistency is because titanium white does not setup and stiffen like cremnitz white does. I find that cremnitz can be whipped up into a thick consistency of butter cream, where titanium white is more like meringue. I have to paint with an even lighter touch than usual, which is both fun and a challenge. I used bristle brushes mainly on this painting in order to build texture and emphasize the white pith that stayed on the tangerine slices. This detail shot shows how creamy and thick the paint was.

Orange and Dishcloth {a daily painting}

2009-06-16T21:59:00.005-04:00

Orange on Blue Striped Dishcloth – 8" x 6" (20 x 15.25 cm) – Oil Canvas Panel

Available in my Etsy Shop

After working on the Kitchen Series, painting draped cloth is a pleasure. This painting started out as one with half a loaf of homemade bread, and then as I was wrapping up the bread part I realized it just was too drab and brown, so I switched out an orange. I like to have something bright as the focus of a painting.

Tomato {a daily painting}

2009-07-30T22:00:00.005-04:00

Tomato – 6" x 6" (15.25 x 15.25 cm) – Oil Canvas Panel

Available in my Etsy Shop

CSA Tomatoes {a daily painting}

2009-08-14T21:36:00.004-04:00

CSA Tomatoes – 6" x 8" (15.25 x 20.3 cm) – Oil Canvas Panel

Available in my Etsy Shop

Autumn Leaf {a daily painting}

2009-11-02T21:05:00.006-05:00

Autumn Leaf – 7" x 5" (17.8 x 12.7 cm) – Oil on Linen Canvas Panel

Available in my Etsy Shop

On Saturday this leaf was picked up and carried home. I have a fondness of picking up oddments and bringing them home as momentos. This leaf was so beautiful, I was inspired to capture it in paint.

Thanks for stopping by today : )

Liz

Persimmons {a daily painting}

2009-11-05T21:17:00.005-05:00

Wild Persimmons – 5" x 7" (12.7 x 17.8 cm) – Oil on Linen Panel
Available in my Etsy shop

While out on a walk I passed by an old persimmon tree that was quite wild. Instead of having large opaque skinned fruit like found in the grocery store the fruit was small and berry-like with translucent skin and chalky-white areas of the natural yeast that will be found on some fruit.

As I have been gathering items when out on walks, I brought a branch home and completed this painting.

Silverpoint Drawing and NGA Show

2009-11-18T09:12:00.004-05:00

Standing Figure – 11" x 7" (28 x 17.8 cm) – Silverpoint on prepared Bristol

Hello Friends,

This is my first completed silverpoint drawing. It was finished last week Friday during my drawing class taught by Robert Liberace. I really love this medium, how line quality is so important to defining the form and values of the subject. It seems that silverpoint is very similar to pen and ink drawing and etchings in that once the line is laid down, it is pretty much there for eternity. Erasing silverpoint is possible but you risk messing up the tooth of the prepared paper, and also it will advance the tarnishing of the silver at a faster rate than it naturally oxidizes. A few spots where I touched up with an eraser and soften some lines have turned more red/green prior to the other areas, and it has only been five days since the drawing was finished.

Another value silverpoint has is the amazing deepness of value the delicate lines have, and this only gets better as the drawing ages. Robert had a few examples in class with some drawings that were only days old to over a year old, and the aged drawings had developed such a beautiful patina. I have never seen any of the old masters silverpoint drawings but I would expect they are fantastic.

By the way if you get a chance to visit the National Gallery of Art any time soon, they have a wonderful exhibit on French Drawings from their collection. I spent the most part of Monday in those rooms. Some of the highlights of the show was a Boullee architectural drawing, several beautiful figure drawings by Claude Lorrain, Antoine Watteau, François Boucher, and Jean-Honoré Fragonard. I have been spending time in museums lately because it is not possible to stay home and work in the studio because of the construction noises going on at our apartment building.

So over the next several weeks, I will continue to be somewhat absent from posting to this blog because of all the interruptions caused by the construction repairs. So far it has been exceptionally noisy from around 9am to 4:00pm, but yesterday lasted well close to 5pm. I made the mistake of coming home around four yesterday only to leave again. We are frantically looking for a new place to move in order to escape these intrusions. Now I have another thing to occupy my time while out of the apartment during the day.

Thanks for stopping by,

Liz

Lemon Wedges {a daily painting}

2009-10-29T20:45:00.003-04:00

Lemon Wedges – 5" x 7" (12.7 x 17.8 cm) – Oil Canvas Panel

Hello friends ~

I am pretty beat today and hope you had a nice one. It is at times like this that I realize how important sleep is for keeping creativity up. So will I will keep it short.

See you soon, Liz

Lemons & Folds {a daily painting}

2009-10-27T20:15:00.001-04:00

Lemons and Folds – 5" x 7" (12.7 x 17.8 cm) – Oil Canvas Panel

Over the last two weeks I have worked and reworked the lemons in certain paintings. This is because I sometimes get hung up on the subtleties of the colors in the shadows, is the shadow really that green or purple, or a compilation of the two, or maybe something totally different. So today’s painting is also lemons as I continue to work on discerning these slight changes in color and value.

Before completing this painting and the previous one I did some 10 minute studies of each setup on some gessoed watercolor paper. I got this idea from Carol Marine’s blog where she had her recent workshop students complete various 10 minute sketches. Working with a timer really gets the blood pumping and enhances focus. Once I got down to painting the real painting I felt familiar with the subject and had some experience exploring some different variations of how to apply the paint and accomplish what I wanted to.

Lately I have been using cremnitz white more often than the other whites on my palette, titanium white and zinc buff white. So for the drapery folds I decided to only use titanium white and to play with its fluidity.

{10 minute studies}

Lemon and Lime {a daily painting}

2009-10-25T21:15:00.005-04:00

Lemon and Lime – 5" x 7" (12.7 x 17.8 cm) – Oil on Linen Panel

Hello ~

How was your weekend? My weekend went by fast, it was filled with watching movies, trying out new recipes, and working on some different art projects. I was fortunate enough to finish a few paintings which I am really excited about showing them to you, however they are gifts, so I will wait on sharing them until after they have been received.

I also started thinking about getting back into the daily painting thing. The last one was completed on Sept. 7, 2009, and the next day I left for a trip to Texas and when I returned, my focus was on larger paintings. Which was a nice change, working with larger compositions as I was able to fiddle with new ideas and painting techniques. The down side of this change in focus was that I got out of the groove in completing the smaller daily paintings.

During this time off from I spent some time assessing how I value my time and if it would be a good idea to increase the starting bid on these smaller paintings that go on auction. After thinking about it, discussing it with some valued patrons and friends, I realize it is time to increase the prices. This increase will cover my expenses and also the time spent on these paintings, which is necessary especially as I am now a professional artist. Prior to this point my goal with the daily paintings was to just cover the cost of materials, this was not a sustainable system. I want to be happy and excited when working on daily paintings not regretting the time that could be spent on other pieces. I also want my work to be valued, so after much deliberation today’s daily painting will be at the new starting price.

I want to thank you who have supported me so far and those who have helped me in making this decision.

Have a wonderful evening,

Liz

PS. I will be back soon with some of the gift paintings.

Seated Figure Trois Crayons Drawing

2009-11-12T19:46:00.002-05:00

Seated Figure – Trois Crayons on prepared charcoal paper –

half sheet, approx. 12” x 19” (30.5 x 48.3 cm)

On Fridays I attend a figure drawing class taught by Robert Liberace and on Monday I signed up for it again. I started taking this drawing class last winter term and with only two more classes left of this term I feel it is close enough to call it a year. My goal in attending this class was to improve my drawing abilities by following the classical academic methodology of drawing that Robert teaches. And I am very happy with how the year has progressed. Here are some previous drawings {reclining figure, seated figure, profile, and seated figure}

This drawing is a method Robert developed where you use verithin colored pencils to create the sense of trios crayons of yester-year. It is now very difficult to find quality artist grade red chalk, so by using terra-cotta verithin pencils on prepared paper you can almost create the same effect. For the three colors I used terra-cotta and black verithin pencils and a white pastel pencil for the highlights. It is a fun method of modeling and using warm and cool tones to develop the shadow shapes. This drawing was completed over three sessions.

Tomorrow in class we are working with silverpoint. I think it is my favorite drawing medium next to charcoal (which to me is more like painting) where with silverpoint it is all about the lines. It is all about draughtsmanship and integrity of line and form, and that is what I admire about it so much. Here is a link to a modern artist that works predominantly with silverpoint. I think the current pose is for two more weeks and once it is done I will share it with you.

Until next time, have a wonderful evening.

Liz

Mangos Diptych

2009-11-11T21:25:00.004-05:00

Mangos: Ripe and Almost Ripe {diptych} – both together 4.5” x 11” (11.4 x 27.9 cm) –

Oil on Linen Panel

Available in my Esty Shop

Hello~

I am happy to say that today rained and thus the construction was unable to move forward today, so I had a somewhat sane day. The weather predicts it will rain tomorrow as well, so I am hopeful that the construction will not be able to go on tomorrow as well. So I can spend some stress free time in the studio.

Here is a painting I completed a little over a week ago. It is of one of my favorite subjects, mangos. I bought a box of them and I liked how there was varying ripeness found with the fruit. I have since diced them up and pureed them for future snacks and recipes.

I have had a busy day and ready to call it quits. Until next time, thanks for sharing time with me : )

Liz

More to come during the week... I hope....

2009-11-09T19:29:00.004-05:00

{Slim curled up in a new spot}

Hello~

During the weekend Slim found a new place to nap, my knitting basket, she especially loved curling up on a finished side of a sweater for S.

How was your weekend? Mine went by too fast. Minimal time was devoted to art making instead time was spent on focusing on prepping canvases and organizing and picking up my studio space. I now wish I had spent more time painting and enjoying the quite as you will see...

I am not sure how this upcoming week will progress as today was a pretty pitiful day. The building I live in started some heavy duty façade repairs today, where from 9:30 to around 4pm the sounds of jack hammers and concrete saws reverberated through my apartment, I was forced out of my home around 1pm today because the sound got so bad that headphones would not cancel out the noise. When I returned around 4pm the crew looked to be packing up.

This bodes evil as I use the day to paint, I think a new schedule will need to be sorted out so I can work around this, as management has said this project will go on until February. UGHHHH!!!!

S. recommended that I work into the night and sleep late until the construction starts up in the morning, so I may have to try that out, as nothing art related got completed today and I have a few paintings that need some finishing touches.

Well, I will let you go now and beg to defer posting any new art until tomorrow or Wednesday.

Thanks for stopping by and sharing with my woes,

Liz

Reminiscing about Photography…

2009-11-04T12:19:00.007-05:00

This morning I was reading one of my favorite blogs Little Augury, where she had a wonderful post about the photographer Ivan Terestchenko. In reading the interview about him and then subsequently visiting Terestchenko’s blog I was inspired to reminisce how photography has been an important aspect in my life and how it formed my early sense of design and form. This post particularly is expressive of how I sometimes think about a composition.

{architectural details of bas-relief carvings in Spain}

Before moving into the art of drawing and painting I was a photographer. During my mid-teen years I started using my mom’s old Olympus manual SLR, at 17 I took it with me to South Africa for the year I lived in Pretoria. These initial years were mainly me snapping images that caught my attention, looking at them and deciphering what turned out and what did not, experimenting and starting to discern my personal aesthetic sense. Later I took photography classes, gained a lot of darkroom experience and continued to snap photos and record my surroundings.

While studying architecture, photography was the predominant means of gathering research information in the field while at the same time I began to support the photos with drawings. I was especially fortunate to receive two separate traveling fellowships to study vernacular architecture in Spain, providing the opportunity to travel and complete independant research for my Master's thesis. I always consider these trips to be the pivotal moment in my career where my interest in photography began to support my artistis pursuits versus being my only outlet for creativity.

{scenes that always evoke as sense of peace and serenity in my heart}

{architectural sketches in pencil on canson paper}

As the years have moved by I started to turn more and more towards drawing, then painting as a means of personal expression. I found the feeling of really understanding a place or an object after I would draw it to be more rewarding and deeply emotional versus the experience of taking a photograph and then later finding out how it would turn out after being processed and printed. In reviewing the pencil drawings above I can still feel the dry heat of the afternoon sun falling on my back and then sliding away as the time passed by while drawing, the hard dusty surfaces I would sit on, and with the most right drawing that my back was leaning against the stone wall that surrounds the Mezquita courtyard in Cordoba. While with photographs a sense of moment, of capturing the fleeting moment when my eyes would rest on something and the thought that I wanted to record it for future observation but the memory of the experience is not as strong.

This morning has been a wonderful trip down memory lane and looking at some of my archived photographs I begin to realize that what peaked my interest then, does so now, I just now use different mediums and view photography as one of many interests.

Thank you for sharing this experience and reading my thoughts. I really appreciate it.

Liz

{Visigothic column in mosque courtyard
now attached to a Baroque church in Carmona, Spain}

{detail of carved marble in-floor door hinge}

{hammam in Granada}

Simple Roses Still Life Painting

2009-11-03T21:40:00.003-05:00

Roses – 8" x 8" (20.3 x 20.3 cm) – Oil Canvas Panel
{Flower Project 2009 – No. 4}

Available through my Etsy Shop

Hello ~

This week I am inspired by English literature and on the beauty of roses. I really believe that what I listen to while painting has an effect on how I go about setting up a composition. I often listen to audio books and my favorite resource is librivox, where you can download unabridged open source audio books. Currently I am listening to “The History of Tom Jones” and yesterday I noticed words like “forbear” and “opprobrious” were peppering my speech.

Sunflowers in a White in White Composition

2009-10-21T10:47:00.004-04:00

White on White with Sunflowers – 16" x 12" (40.6 x 30.5 cm) – Oil on Canvas
{Flower Project 2009 – No. 3}

With this painting I was interested in painting a scene that was set in a predominately white environment. Compositions with specific dominate color schemes has been a fascination for me since around 1996 when I took my first art and architecture history class and we studied the Russian suprematist art movement. Malevich’s White on White composition is a painting I often think about, something so simple can also be very thought provoking. The off balance square in a square format, the tension of the tangential corner on the top and near tangent on the right is stabilized by the large negative space of the bottom and left sides.

Even though I paint in a representational manner often the modern and abstract schools of art and architecture will inform my ideas for a composition.

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As an aside, I often do not realize how reliant I am on certain tools to create a single blog post. Last night and this morning I could not get Photoshop to save files, it kept having a program error, so this morning three hours later after uninstalling and reinstalling Adobe Creative Suite I am able to complete a blog post with a saved jpeg of the painting! I am relieved to have my programs working well now. Without technology life would be so simple but not as fun because I would not know the wonderful benefits of blogging.

Thanks for stopping by and sharing the day with me,

Liz

Pomegranate & Plate Still Life

2009-10-26T21:03:00.002-04:00

Pomegranate and Plate – 8" x 8" (20.3 x 20.3 cm) – Oil Canvas Panel

In July my friend, Chrish, generously lent me several Moroccan and Turkish pieces of pottery to paint. Over the last few months I have been working on the two paintings with some of the pieces, and then later I created this painting as a gift for her.

Mexico Series

2009-10-25T21:47:00.005-04:00

{Mexico Series}

A Place in the Sun – 5" x 7" (12.7 x 17.8 cm) – Oil Canvas Panel

Scooter – 5" x 7" (12.7 x 17.8 cm) – Oil Canvas Panel

Mexico Cruiser – 5" x 7" (12.7 x 17.8 cm) – Oil Canvas Panel

These paintings are scenes from Isla Mujeres, Mexico. In June of 2008 our friends, Craig and Yvonne, were married there and S. and I were lucky enough to be invited to join in on the festivities. While there I took tons of photos with the goal of completing some paintings. So far these three paintings and this one are the only ones completed to date.

In lieu of receiving a wedding gift within a year of their wedding, Craig and Yvonne were patient enough to let me work on some paintings for them without a specific time schedule. Thank goodness because I needed all the time it took!

An October Afternoon

2009-10-22T19:10:00.004-04:00

{Slim napping}

Hello~

Today was a quite day working on some smaller projects and prepping for the next in the flower series. Below is a work in progress, my friend Peggy named it "Lemons in Sunset".

Have a nice evening, Liz

Jefferson Memorial

2009-10-12T21:14:00.003-04:00

Jefferson Memorial – 8" x 16" (20.3 x 40.6 cm) – Oil Canvas Panel

Here is the oil painting of the Jefferson Memorial, it was all painted in plein air over three sessions between 10am and 1pm. The quality of light as it struck the marble structure and how the shadows were cast was really important to me, I wanted to capture the golden pink tones of the sunlight sides and the cool purple and greens of the shadows.

I am finding that painting buildings with oil paint is a much more challenging endeavor than working in watercolor. It all has to do with the finessing of edges, not getting to many hard edges except where it is important and also getting the perspective correct. I also wonder if working on a larger canvas would help, to have more room for the more fiddly details. Here is last year’s painting of a nearby view.

Tomorrow is my wedding anniversary and I am taking off the day to spend with my love. This morning I made a banana nut loaf to have something special over breakfast.

Thanks for reading today :)

Liz

First Plein Air Painting of the Year!

2008-05-26T17:41:00.005-04:00

Jefferson Memorial – 8x10 Oil on Canvas Panel

Yesterday, Steve and I went down to the national mall early in the morning to celebrate Memorial Day weekend. I wanted to kick off the plein air painting season and Steve wanted to get out on his bike and ride around the monuments. It worked out great, as I am not a morning person having Steve involved with the scheme it ensured I would get out of bed and get some painting done.

While we were at the mall, we went around to the WWI and WWII monuments, then sat and watched the Rolling Thunder parade go by. Here is a picture of the various motorcycles we saw drive by…

Then we had a laid-back lunch of hot dogs and ice cream, the ducks at the Tidal Basin are super friendly as long as you are eating some form of food with bread. A mallard drake and a mallard hen were our lunch partners along with two small finches. The female duck was more aggressive about grabbing all the choice crumbs, leaving the drake to occasionally obtain a morsel or two.

Happy Memorial Day!