Painting of Rome's Campo dei Fiori Market

Today was wonderful. I struggled for the rest of last week in Sherrie McGraw's workshop ... trying to get it, thinking while painting (a tough combination ... as I tell my drawing 101 students), learning new materials, attempting to be a good student, absorbing all I could. I created some funny-looking work even though I had great inspiration. (Coming out with acceptable paintings wasn't the point ... learning was.)

But, today, I just breathed. Painted and reflected and found that I'd learned some invaluable lessons that are going to greatly influence my work. I picked back up on "Fresh Produce", a painting of a produce vendor from the Campo dei Fiori market in Rome. Husband Randy and I took an art historical trip there over Easter week this year. This was a break from art history.

One lesson I applied here was to think about what function I wanted each of the parts of my painting to play ... did I want it to be a dark or light. And, regardless of reality, how did I want to orchestrate the music of light and dark on the canvas to tell my story? An unusual approach, but one I see clearly taken in the work of Rembrandt, Caravaggio, Raphael. It's all about the light and its shape.

See more of my market paintings in the Places and Still Life Galleries on my web site: www.jillbanks.com.

This is still a work in progress. Check back.

"Fresh Produce" work in progress, oil on Senso linen, 20"h x 16"w, copyright Jill Banks 2010.

Web: www.jillbanks.com
Blog: jillbanks.blogspot.com
Email: jillbanks1@aol.com
Phone: 703.403.7435

News from My Workshop

I'm attending a workshop by Sherrie McGraw all this week and it's been fantastic. She's a great teacher and thoughtful painter. She thinks carefully about what she wants to paint -- the model or still life, all the elements, what's driving her to paint that subject. She thinks about every stroke she places on the canvas. She edits constantly, getting rid of one detail after another. Big shapes. Lights and darks. Patterns. Make the painting hold from across the room.

Everything she says is resonating with me. She talked about having a relationship with your subject and the painting itself. When asked if she ever finishes a painting from a photo, she said she couldn't. She just doesn't have a relationship with a photo. Yup.

I'm also learning as a teacher. I love so many of the answers she gives. She is not teaching a technique ... but teaching us about becoming painters.

I'm showing you day two of a little portrait I did. Sherrie gave a demo each morning and part of the workshop participants (me, too) painted the model in the afternoon. Tomorrow morning I paint a different model and then in the afternoon I switch over to painting the still life. Picking what to paint will be a challenge. I pretty much want to paint everything. As usual, but this is worse. Vicki Blum and Tricia Ratliff organized the workshop and brought in the most beautiful flowers and vases and vessels, vegetables and fruits, fabrics and more. The array is breathtaking.

Oh, and we also have had terrific conversations at lunch and during the breaks. It's been fun catching up with fellow artist friends I haven't seen for awhile and talk art.

"Liz in the Orange Turban", oil on Raymar panel, 12"h x 9"w, copyright Jill Banks 2010. (Sorry about the bad photo -- too much glare on wet paint.)

Web: www.jillbanks.com
Blog: jillbanks.blogspot.com
Email: jillbanks1@aol.com
Phone: 703.403.7435