Portrait & Figure Oil Painting Blog

"Thoughts of Love" 24x30" Oil Painting by Mark Lovett

I just finished this finished this oil painting and shipped it out to Rehs Gallery in New York. I understand it will be displayed at Rehs booth at the Los Angeles Art Show Jan 18-22, and at the Palm Beach Jewelery, Art and Antique show February 17-21, 2012.  Right now I’m looking at the image of the painting on my laptop, as I blog, and the foreground and background appear “fire” red. The painting is warm but not that warm. In person, the foreground and background are softer, cooler browns. I am not sure how your monitor is reading the hues. Below is a less saturated version which looks closer to the real painting to my eyes right now.

Several different image captures of the painting have been posted to find one that looks most accurate to the real painting on my laptop monitor.

What I really like about this painting are the lines and curves, the warmth, and the feel.  Below is a close up, tight crop, of some of my favorite areas of the painting. Actually, I think the painting would have worked very well cropped like below too (even with part of the head and elbow cut off).   The curves and lines can really be seen well in this crop. I put alot of effort into capturing them and I am pleased with the result. My model did a great job too!  I thought I may have some difficulty with painting the hand convincingly but it came together very well.  I also put alot of effort into the positioning of the hands in my work. They can be graceful objects of beauty or clumsy, awkward shapes. I really love the hand holding the rose.  It is hard to see all the colors in the photo. The blouse actually has beautiful shades of grays of green and violet moving to soft yellow and white.

If you are interested in purchasing this painting, or seeing more of my work,  contact Rehs Gallery

“In The Garden”

16×20″ Oil on linen panel

This is the second study that I completed this summer. It’s part of a series that I began discussing in my previous post. Most of what I shared in my last post regarding “A Mother’s Gift” applies to this work as well.  My model, her parents, and I, were enjoying a very hot buggy day this summer in very late afternoon (to near sunset)  soft light.

My goal was to capturing a moment in a more impressionist manner rather than in an academic  style. It remained important to me to capture the soul of my model and an exact likeness. I enjoyed sculpting the hat with thick impasto oil paint, and the background was pure abstract expression with the intent of adding interest and creating harmony and balance to the composition. The grass she was sitting in was just to boring to even begin to want to paint so I had fun with it.

Again, she was backlit with soft indirect sky light on her face. There was very little value change, only subtle temperature changes on her face which can also be very difficult to paint well.  I pushed the color in her flesh tones picking up some of the other surrounding composition color which I think added interest and harmony. I did not overly blend the paint, and it may be somewhat crude in places but it feels very pleasing and full of life to me. Hope you enjoy it.

We hope to be taking this one to the Baltimore show this weekend along with “Mother’s Gift”.

Thanks for tuning in.

Mark

www.MarkLovettStudio.com

“A Mother’s Gift”

16×20″ Oil  on linen panel

It’s been a while since I have posted anything on my oil painting blog. I hope all my artist friends have been busy creating art this summer, and I hope my art collector friends have been busy adding fine art to their collections.

I have been very busy this summer on many fronts and have managed to complete two oil studies, one of which is above “A Mother’s Gift”.  My intention was to loosely capture a beautiful moment rather than to complete an academic work. Of course, it took me longer than a few moments to capture this one! I have quite a bit of time in the work. My little model is very special and I insist on capturing her soul rather than just a likeness. I enjoyed working with the pink and green color palette and carrying these colors in the hat, dress , flowers and skin tones.

I also enjoyed working quite a bit of texture with a palette knife  in the hat which became quite a sculptured center piece.

She was back lit with a very soft light coming in from the sky in front, therefore there was very little shadowing on her face. The face was primarily contoured with temperature changes and minor value fluxuations.

The background is where I really loosened up and let go. Although she was sitting in grass,  I chose to express the foliage in an abstract manner. I used colors and shapes in the background  to add interest, and create harmony and balance in the composition.  Hope you enjoy it.

I believe we will be taking it to a show in Baltimore next weekend.

Thanks for looking,

Mark Lovett

www.MarkLovettStudio.com