Do You Want to Draw Faces?

From my Messenger series, Oil on board

If you have been following my blog, you know that I have spent most of the past year and this year painting figuratively. Every once in a while I think about painting abstractly again, and then am so inspired by the resurgence of strong figurative art, mostly made by young international artists who really know how to draw, paint, and create something new.

I hear many artist saying that they can not draw. Drawing is seeing; really seeing and measuring and I can introduce you to that ability.

I have online classes in drawing and painting faces. I am not teaching portraiture, that is a big difference. It doesn’t matter if you get a great likeness with these classes, I want to share with you the simple way to get a face that looks real, not just a caricature.

Learn to create faces in oil, acrylic, cold wax, pencil, charcoal, ink wash, ink pencil, chalk pastel, and oil pastel, .You do not need to be an accomplished artist. This course is designed for both beginners and professionals.

There are 10 classes, each using a different technique. You can watch them over and over whenever you want; https://vimeo.com/ondemand/21068

Here are some examples from my student. He only has one hour a week for a class with me. Of course he continues to paint after work and his children are asleep.

Here is where my studen José Luis started.

after a few week working with me

Conté crayon

Oil

 

 

José Luis worked as an abstract painter for years before. Now, he is loving painting faces.

Check out my website for more examples of my work.http://ezshwan.com

I will work online with artists and non artist everywhere.

The Art Mentoring Program is something new and intended as a long distance mentoring program, to provide one-on-one guidance to artists working in any medium no matter where they live.   My goal is to give artists honest, clear feedback on their artwork and to engage in meaningful conversation that will help them focus their art practice to develop a cohesive body of work.

Cost: $100 for 4 sessions

How Did I Do That?

After all these years of making art, I sometimes wonder "How did I do that?" I study the painting  up close and try to remember what I used to get that effect or what colors were on my palette during that series.

I always work in series, with rare exception.The exception being when I am experimenting with different mediums and tools. When I am in that special series zone, my excitement and energy pushes me to eagerly keep going . Waking up exhilarated with new ideas,  I work on 3 paintings at a time to stay fresh.

In the series, Women Who Changed the world, you can see the continuing style in each of the paintings:  http://www.artsyshark.com/2015/11/02/featured-artist-ezshwan-winding/

Here is one that I made in about 2010. I still move in close and try to figure out how I did it. This painting of a street musician remains one of my favorites. It was done entirely in encaustic and I recall that I did a lot of scraping.

I published a book, Painting Faces in Encaustic, that I had to look at recently to see how I laid out the hot palette. Of course I had been using oils, almost exclusively last year.

Here's one that sold almost immediately out of a gallery. I must have been in an encaustic zone.

I seem to be out of any zone at the moment. I am awaiting 4 portrait commissions and perhaps it is better to let my muse rest, until it is time to begin those.

"Foods and Flesh; Palette-able Pleasures"

In January and February of 2004, I made a series of smallish oil paintings of nudes and food. I associated food with nurturing and with women. I painted intensely, as I do with all of my series. When I am in a zone and engrossed the the energy of a series, I don't want to stop.  I stop when my muse leaves that particular zone.
 

If I were more commercially minded, I would make the same painting, with some variations, over and over, year after year.  I just can't do that. I get excited about a new concept and technique and just have to explore different subjects and styles.

Here is what an independent art curator in San Francisco said about this series:

"Foods and Flesh; Palette-able Pleasures"

"Throughout history artist have relied on nudes, food and landscapes for inspiration. 

In Ezshwan's body of work entitled, 'Foods and Flesh; Palette-able Pleasures', she blurs the image of food and body and their implications. The subject of food becomes a metaphor to the landscape of flesh (nakedness). The nude is more than a muse. The singularity of food is more than a prop in a still life.

For example, an empty banana peel lies at the feet of a sprawled female torso. It speaks of the vulnerability of the flesh vs. the ironic comedy of life. The nude floats at the feel of "nurture mort", unguarded.

In "Whipped Cream", the relationship between nudity is reversed; the figure is vigorous, commanding the composition of the frame and of the cream.

There is lusciousness of Ezshwan's brush that helps evoke the sensuality of the subjects and the connotation we have with the foods in question.

These paintings are not on my website. To see more recent work:http://www.ezshwan.com

Heavy on My Mind

Juicy Tomato, available

Game Hen, available

Apple, SOLD

Choice, SOLD

A Loaf of Bread, a Jug of Wine And... SOLD

Pomegranate, available

Broken Egg, SOLD

Clams, SOLD

The Banana Peel SOLD

Whipped Cream, SOLD

Archives and Sold Paintings

A little 6"' x 6" that was sold years ago. A friend's poem, printed on a wood cut is the background

The model for this encaustic painting bought it in 2006

I have taken the last few weeks to work on updating my website. I have added images to my online galleries and archived older work; some of which I had forgotten about until I moved tables away from the art stacks and pulled out older work.

I also found old encaustic paintings that I didn't like any more. I put them outside in the intense April sun here in San Miguel de Allende and the layers of wax soften rapidly and can easily be scraped away. I have a mound of old wax piled up.

I am starting to miss working in the studio, but the weeks of computer work has left my clothes spot free and my finger nails are clean for a change.

I hope I can reuse some of this.

A Featured Painting

It is encouraging to have Saatchi Art feature one of my painting on their weekly site. I have great respect for this gallery. The work they handle is top notch.

http://www.saatchiart.com/art-collection/Painting-Drawing-Photography/New-This-Week-4-4-2016/153961/133010/view

Here is a detail from the featured painting:

Here is a diptych from my red series. Lots of carving. 30 x 80 cm.

How I made a figurative encasutic painting

This painting, Sewing in Chiapas, almost painted itself. I was working from a photograph that I took on a visit to San Christobal de Las Casas. It was for a solo show for a gallery entitled "A Time of Witness" influenced by  my respect for the women of Mexico. This particular encaustic image took a different turn. I used transfers of slain Zapatistas, and images of Palenque throughout the background and the woman's clothing. They are purposely subtle. I just wanted the suggestion of the woman's history, not a photographic display. I then added oil stain and colored encausitc and scraped back with a razor blade to the under lying layers for the highlights. A black china marker reinforced the black details.

This painting sold Wednesday night. I especially was attached to this one  and was happy to have it go to its new home.