Sarah, 18" x 14", oil on linen

Sarah teaches the Fundamentals of Art class at the Academy.

Sarah asked whether she should pose with her glasses off to help students paint her. I told the students that we should paint her the way she generally looks, with her glasses on. Besides, it would be a good opportunity to paint the effect of glasses.

In this painting, I wanted to paint a "quiet" appearance with an uncomplicated flow of color composition surrounded by a large negative space.

"…you start with what you know, but writing [painting] is a process of discovery…writing [painting] is an act of discovery. You start with a character and you learn about the character by writing [painting] about that character. And you wind up in places you never thought you were gonna go when you started out.…that's the whole reason for writing [painting]; it's for discovery. You do not know what you yourself think until you put it into words [paint].

—Garrison Keillor

Adam, 14" x 11", oil on linen

Adam is another freshman student who's been coming to open painting session and the painting club to get a head start on oil painting.

At the beginning of the session, I didn't have any idea (or didn't set any particular ideas) as to how to paint this painting. All I knew was that I didn't want to paint it the usual way. I just wanted to paint a little differently.

Noticing cool red on his face, I decided to push the temperature further with cool reds and purples.
Later I followed it with exaggerated green for his mustache and blue highlights on his hair.

I told Adam that he looks, in my painting, as though he had a few too many drinks on St. Patrick's Day.

Chase, 18" x 14", oil on canvas

Onto a stark white canvas, I randomly scrubbed in a wet mixture of transparent oxide red and viridian with a large brush to selectively tone the canvas.

I wanted to approach this painting with more drawing and tone than color, and give it a more illustrative look with an emphasis on design.

Tracee, 16" x 12", oil on linen

Tracee is a fine arts graduate who's been coming to the club since last winter, after she got a word about us from Marcie.

Tracee is a fine arts graduate who's been coming to the club since last winter, after she got a word about us from Marcie.

Painting Tracee, I wanted to express a sense of confidence and vibrancy that we know in her personality. For that purpose, I painted the drapery, using a large brush, with intense cadmium red rather than the muted red drapery set in the background.

Also, I painted the brilliant small highlights as they appeared; in her eye, lower eyelid, bridge of the nose and lower lip.

Also, I painted the brilliant small highlights as they appeared; in her eye, lower eyelid, bridge of the nose and lower lip.

At the very onset of the session, I splashed and scrubbed in some yellow and red-purple to key-in Anahita's skin color.

Anahita, 18" x 14", oil on linen

Anahita teaches web design and multimedia classes.

Like most of the guest models we've invited, Anahita was hesitant to pose for the club when I first asked her to.
I had asked her to pose for us a number of times without success, but I think Marcie's gentle nudge last fall finally convinced her that it is worthwhile, so here she is.

When we were deciding the background drapery, noticing her red-purple drapery, I chose an intensely yellow drapery we had hardly used before. I wanted a problem-solving opportunity of working with an intense background, as well as two complementary colors.

I positioned myself so that I could frame her face with the two opposing colors of yellow and purple in the front of her face and the dark of her hair in the back.

One of the challenges of having such an intense background is not to let it dominate the main subject--Anahita. Toward the end of the painting, I lightly brushed in some intense colors on her face so that her face wouldn't lose out to the intensity of the background.