NEW PAINTING FEATURED 'ON MY EASEL'

'HERES LOOKING AT YOU, KID!'  2012  oil on canvas  (c) Loren Fidalgo 2012

Well, it's time for an 'on my EASEL' painting to be featured on my blog and this painting is a little different than I usually talk about.  Maybe it is because I posted my painting, 'CHUNKY, CHUNKY GIRL' yesterday and it just put me in a funny and light hearted mood? Yeahhh..., yesterday's painting post,  it's still cracking me up!   So here goes another round...

When I first started this painting in 2012, I was really interested in faces and depicting the human face in my sketches and paintings. I usually love to add these big super huge cheeks to illustrate the delight and charm of my characters.  That's not to say that my faces are always happy and elated.  Sometimes they are somber and suffering with despair.  (that's a subject for another post) For this post, I will be focusing on this particular painting 'Here's looking at you, kid!' and the joyful nature of this girl and her suitor who came to give her his heart.

In one of my painting classes I was taking at the time of this painting, I was doing a lot of sketches in my book and the idea was that they were supposed to be from my imagination and/or a memory from something I saw during my day.. In this class, I learned to draw from lightly scribbling on the paper and watching until eventually something would emerge from the scribbling  Maybe it was from my imagination or maybe even a dream?.  Well, most of my scribble drawings I drew became faces of people with a lot of interesting features that had a lot of character.  When I first started painting, I would paint large red and round circles for cheeks and then around 2010, I started creating these paintings with these round, ball cheeks that seemed to be popping out of the faces and off the canvases..  What the large cheeks truly meant, I did not know however, I kept drawing and painting them.

In this painting , she has really large cheeks as I have mentioned  and she seems to be just thrilled with who she is and what she is about. (so I think.  I haven't asked her!).  She is delighted with the little male bird has chosen to make it's way over to her to give her his heart.  He reaches his beak up to her while holding the little red heart as symbolism  for his literal heart. This bird surely wants to give himself to her.   The excitement on her face is clearly evident and it reminds me of the place I was in emotionally when I painted her.  She seems somewhat coquetious, and a little kooky as if she is so proud of herself and why shouldn't she be?  I wasn't feeling in the same mood when I painted her, so I don't know where I pulled this image from my mind, that has such a euphoric tone. Possibly, it was from another part of my mind that I was not accessing at the time I was painting?  That happens to me sometimes. Maybe it happens to you, too?   For me, I will paint and just be in the 'zone' so deeply that may not be conscious of what I am expressing.  Sometimes, I don't know for months or years as in this painting what it is truly about. And the colors...I also don't know why I chose to paint with the colors I did?

This painting is in oils and in this painting the colors are Naples Yellow, Cadmium Red, Titanium White, Cerealean Blue, Ultramarine Blue, Ivory Black and Cadmium Yellow.  I love to paint faces in yellows and warm colors.  I especially love to use Naples Yellow in my faces.  I know it can be tricky color to use and sometimes it can be overused, but at the time I had seemed to be taken to it and loved the buttery consistency and texture. .  I used Utrecht Brand oils then and I still do. I love them and they meet my needs.

So that's a wrap up for 'on my EASEL'.  I hope you enjoyed this one?  I think I am still discovering what my paintings are all about and I like to share the journey of discovery with you.  Keep reading my posts and please feel free and easy to leave a comment if you would like?  I'd love to hear what you are thinking and feeling?

Cheers for now,
Loren

NEW 'on my EASEL' PAINTING FEATURED

Hey, guys it's time for a post about a new painting. It's long over due.  This time I had a lot of trouble deciding what to write about mainly because I have so many paintings that I've done in various mediums and techniques, that I was not quite sure what I should tackle first. I am somewhat stuck. I am tossing back and forth with what paintings I have listed in my etsy shop and on Facebook.  Since I began painting before I began this blog, I have a lot of work to talk about.
In the past year I have been working mainly on abstract experimental painting and still life paintings.  I like to work on both because it keeps my skills up and I am constantly learning new things.  I also find new ways to manipulate the paint and brushes.  I think I am getting better but hey, who am I to judge?
I'll let you be the judge.
Well, let's talk about this new painting...

                                   'HEADING TOWARDS THE LIGHT'

'Heading towards the light'                       24 x 30                       oil on canvas              Loren Fidalgo

Just recently, I sold this painting, YEAH!!! and I would like to talk about it before it leaves it's current home.  The title of this painting is 'Heading towards the light'.  It is 24 x 30 and oil on canvas.  I really love the 24 x 30 size canvas to paint on.

I began this painting shortly after I began painting abstract back in the beginning of 2012. I think it was my 3rd or 4th painting.  I still felt new to abstract and unsure of my direction when I stumbled upon this painting style.

I began this painting using oil paint and by laying down blocks of color in Cerealean Blue and Ultramarine Blue squares in the bottom left hand corner using a palette knife.  I used various shades of these colors next to each other.  I dragged the paint around the canvas and dropped the palette knife down on the canvas where I decided the colors should go.  To merge colors, I dragged the color to the left side into the color in the right side with the flat part of the knife.  I used a lot of Alizarin Crimson as the dominate color around the canvas and especially on the top.  The Crimson color worked it's way into the shape that is painted in a curve.  This is a contrast to the square/ blocks of color.  The curve in Crimson sort of tucks you into the yellow areas of light almost like it is hovering over the yellows like a archway to a bridge or some kind of animal pulling your eyes into the painting.

There are two areas of light, in the blues on the bottom and in the yellows on the middle right side.  The Cadmium Yellow really brings your eye in to it and it looks as if you are heading towards the light starting at the bottom left corner of blues and moving up into the yellows.  In some ways. it reminds me of a landscape sunset with water on the bottom. Do you see it??

Although there are many colors in this painting, when I look at it, I see Crimsons and Yellows.  The other colors kind of recede for me.  They are secondary.  I wanted to show the interaction between many colors all grouped together on one surface.  I had a vision in my mind and at the same time I wanted to just let the colors flow out of me.  I didn't want to judge it while I was painting.  The title came to me right away and I knew what I wanted to say with it.

Well, I have to say "good-bye" to this piece as it will be leaving me soon.  I know it will go in an  awesome home, so I am so happy about that. I created another painting like this one.  I will feature it somewhere down the road.   Leave a comment if you would like to share something about this painting or my work in general.  I love to hear from my readers.

Live life!
Cheers,
Loren

WHERE I'VE BEEN

'HEAVY HEART'    24x30       2012    oil on canvas

I have not posted on this blog for some time now.  I would like to share where I have been and why I have been there.   I have not been writing mainly because I have been in a process of grieving the loss of my precious Mom who passed away last May 6 th. I have been heart broken and filled with sorrow about her passing.  You can read more about her here on her blog.  From the pain and the sorrow it has been very hard to write and organize my thoughts and emotions.  I have been a bit 'stuck' and I have struggled with a blank palette in my mind.  I never realized how much a loss would effect my ability to write and be creative at it, as well.  Although I have been painting this entire year, I never realized how much it would effect my ability to write effectively.  Over this year, I would sit down in front of my computer, open my blog and completely draw a 'blank' inside.  I did not know where to begin.  Ideas were few and hard to come by.  Anxiety started to creep in and the emptiness in my mind became a a real obstacle to writing creatively.  The longer I failed to blog, the harder it became to write.  This cycle went round and round for almost a year.  Can you believe it has been a year?  Well, as time went by, I began to ask myself questions about "how do I begin again to offer inspiration and ideas to anyone when I have not been able to write and express myself and because I have been away from blogging for so long?"   The angst grew more profound for sometime until I finally had a moment of clarity and insight into my own creative thought process.

'SAD, SAD GIRL'      16x20     2011      oil on canvas

 For the past year, even though I was unable to write, I have been painting a lot.  I don't know for certainty why this had been this way, however I do have some ideas about it as I am trying to find the answers as to why writing is so much more of a struggle.  This is what I learned. As I mentioned, I have been painting furiously over this last year however, when it came to expressing my thoughts in writing, it was more difficult, more raw, more open. I guess that through the written word, somehow the reality of my loss seemed to be more real, more true. In art visually, sometimes I find I can hide behind the work, with a 'simple disguise' of sorts but with writing it is just out there.  When I write it is real and coming from the unconscious and unconscious at the same time.  If I were to want to express the pain I am feeling, and I were to write , "I am in pain", that becomes a fact for me just by the act of writing it.  Visually however, allows for that same feeling to be disguised like a woven tapestry with images, shapes and colors and even though it is meant to express the same emotion as something I have written. Visually, it is left to interpretation but in writing, for me, 'it is what it is'.   This is my idea about why for me, writing is so much more difficult and challenging.

'GRIEF AND A BIRD'    18x24       2011      oil on canvas

I've mentioned that I did do a lot of painting, I was able to work in a friend's studio in Philadelphia over the summer and even though I was bouncing around a lot with my ideas, I did manage to produce some interesting new work. Visually I was still able to work creatively.  Although I was thoroughly into my painting, and I was not blogging, I had no idea what the end of the summer would bring in my life and how it would effect my ability to write even more then it previously had. 

Sadly, at the end of the summer, my beloved Gram, ('little Gram' as family all knew her), and the woman who raised me and my siblings, passed away on August 27th.  This loss has hit me so hard and fast and again I was finding myself so paralyzed and unable to make sense out of anything for these past 4 months.  (You can read more about my Gram here , here and here. )  Although I have suffered these losses, what I have come to realize is that I can try to use writing to heal the heart just as I use painting to soothe my soul.  I know I need to get back to writing and share my story, so it is not so raw, so painful.   I am learning that I can use my writing as a way of healing and not shut down from my experiences.  I have come to understand that I need to share this part of my life and at the same time offer my art and inspiration outward.  The two creative processes can coexist. I am struggling but I'm pulling through.  I have also come to realize that I was sheltering myself and hiding away while trying to get some soothing from the two major losses that has happened so close together.  I have been trying to make sense out of nonsense and this can be a never ending challenge and struggle.

'REACHING,  GRASPING,  HOPING'         2012           24x30   oil on canvas

I am ready to begin again along with my losses, sorrows and heart brake to share my experiences on this blog if the moment or time calls for it.  This way I am not boxed in to just write about my work but to share how I am doing along with my work and creative inspiration. I hope I can write about what and how my heart asks me to. 

Thanks to everyone who has come to my blog waiting for a new post. Thanks for giving me this time to finding healing and find my footing. Thanks for reading because this is my story. This is where I've been.  

PAINTING A SIMPLE DISGUISE

THE SIMPLE DISGUISE
OIL ON CANVAS 24 x 30
(c) Loren Fidalgo 2009

This is one of my favorite paintings because I love the different angles and the subject matter. I am also smitten with the colors.  It's a 24 x 30 size painting.  I like to use this size for class paintings and sometimes when I am painting on my own.  The title, 'The Simple Disguise' is somewhat of a mystery to this painting.

I remember when I was beginning to paint this piece and I was really charged up and looking to seriously express something.  I just didn't know what.  At the moment that I put the paint to the scary white canvas, I was a woman on a mission, a rebel without a cause ( can a woman be a rebel, I'm not sure?) but anyhow, as I worked the paint around, I found my groove. I became aware to the idea that I was able to make a bunch of sense from the nonsense I was feeling.  This painting asks you to look closely at it and it just might help answer it's meaning.  I don’t like to talk about the deeper meaning to my work and how it reflects my secret world or life, as we all don’t.  So, you won’t find the answer to the exact meaning of this painting, however, since I am talking about nonsense, it brings me back to the title of this painting, 'The Simple Disguise'.  It is such a topic of conversation for people who view this work. "What does it mean"?  But the curiosity is not whether I have a simple disguise or if you might have one?  It’s about why we have one?  I have come to believe that we all do but in different ways.  I am reminded of a song by Bruce Springsteen titled, ‘The Brilliant Disguise’.  His lyrics in this song speak to me and make me think about the public face and the private face that we all might have.  Again, do all of us really have a disguise?  I'm not so sure how many of us do, but I'll bet that it is more common than people believe or will admit.  And as for my disguise, keep looking because it might reveal itself to you when you are not expecting it to.  But for now, I think it is something for me to think about and to ponder, as I always do. I search for the simple disguise in myself often and try to figure out how it does it's thing in my life. How about your disguise and it's purpose in your life? 


Cheers,
Loren