Women's History Month

For 12 years, I painted nothing but jazz musicians. As I traveled with my late husband, Kai Winding, htmlhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxUj2fKFX7A,  I always had a sketch book in hand and rapidly drew ink sketches of the performers. Even a few years after Kai's death, I continued to focus on the mostly male jazz musicians. One day I realized that that subject was not part of my life anymore. I am not a musician, I am a painter. Females were the biggest part of my life. I have 3 daughters, my partner in the gallery we co-owed in Scottsdale AZ, was a woman; most artists are women...

Then I started my women focused work. It is interesting that I was asked, "What's the matter?
Don't you like men?" All those years that I was drawing and painting men, no one asked if I didn't like women.

The Jazz Festival in Holland

Stan Getz in Nice, France

"I Open My Hand And Let Go from the series, "Her Journey"

"The Maiden and The Crone" from the series, "Every Woman is a Goddess"

Last year, I completed a series of women artists.

Here is one of them:

As I write this, I realize how many series have been focused on women.  I DO LIKE MEN.

Here is a series that I made 2 years ago; "Women Who Changed the World" I removed Suu Kyi, destroyed the painting, after she changed and ceased to be a hero. Here is the short video of that series.
https://vimeo.com/146562085

New Online Class

 Figurative encaustic paintings

I filmed an informal session in my studio of me painting a portrait in encaustic. It is as if you were standing right new to me in my studio watching me work.
https://vimeo.com/251237255

I found that it is a challenge for me to talk while I work. but it is easier to see my palette layout and the use of brushes and tools to create a portrait.

Here is the first comment on the class: "Excellent. I have the book "A step by step guide to creating portraits in encaustic" by her but this video is way more enlightening. Seeing how she works from straight oil paints with only encaustic medium as a carrier is very informative. Watching her work back and forth through the composition is incredibly helpful. Because it gets to the same stage every painting gets where it looks like a mess. But then you see her work through the same steps in increasing detail until it's done. She uses almost no tools - 3 brushes and a pottery carving tool. And the only colored encaustic she uses is black (and that probably wasn't required because she could have used china marker or black oil pastel stick). It does take oil paints to follow this, just a couple reds, a couple yellows, a couple blues, white and an ochre (if you want to do it the same. but the same results could have been achieved probably with a limited palette of red, yellow, blue, white and burnt sienna) At the end where she rubs in oil pastel was very useful is seeing how to get very smooth skin textures if you want. Well worth the money, more useful than the book and faster delivery than the book."

Here  is the intro video:https://vimeo.com/251554130  
 

What's Next?

Even though I have been painting more years than many people reading this blog have been alive, I still go through periods of doubt in my ability. I consider it a honor to call myself an artist and always want to push myself farther and farther. What to do next?

I haven't been able to get back in the studio to work on the last painting I posted since I was traveling in the Yucatan for 9 days and I am in the midst of catching up on postings on my website, blogs, FB page, Instagram, etc., but while looking for a pack of tarot cards that I created from 33 of my paintings back in the early 90's, I found some copies and prints of paintings that I created years ago.
I mentioned to my daughter, "I really could paint!" At this point, perhaps I am trying to hard to be change styles and am influenced by other artists that I admire.

Here are some photos of the tour of the Yucatan. and some old paintings. I

colorful street in Campache

enjoying my stroll by the water

The pelican reserve when 30,000 birds safely nest

Talum, at least there was a ocean breeze

Lots of textured encaustic over oil

a painting I made about 17 years ago, sold

This one is from the 1980's. Stolen . I hope someone is enjoying it.

Another old painting, sold