"Hands" - The July 2012 Diana Moses Botkin Artist's Challenge

Oil on museum quality Ampersand Gessobord panel  - 8" x 8"

Challenge indeed!  This month's theme is "hands" - the bane of many a painter, myself included. Upon seeing this month's challenge theme, I had half a mind to paint the face of a clock.  After all, Diana didn't exactly specify what kind of hands. I suppose if it wasn't difficult or slightly "out of the box," it wouldn't be a challenge, would it?  Why is depicting the metacarpus so difficult?  Why are our paws so hard to portray?    I have often heard that the expression, "that will cost you an arm and a leg" was based on early portrait painters who charged the least amount for a bust, more for a painting that included the arms and hands, and yet more for a full length portrait.  Further research on the internet seems to debunk that explanation, but I am sticking with it. 

Here is another theory:

 

Adam told God he was lonely, so God said, "I will create a perfect companion for you who will always look after you, do all the house work, cook all the food, carry your children, look after you when you are sick, love and cherish you always. When you have an argument your companion will always be the first to say "I'm  sorry because you were right."
"That sounds too good to be true," said Adam.  "How much will this cost me, God?"
And God said, "An arm and a leg."
Then Adam said, "What can I get for a rib?"
And the rest is History.

Hands, often even more than faces, express a lot about a person.  Why is that, I wonder?  My mother was a particularly expressive, theatrical talker - her hands waving and gesticulating wildly as she spoke.  Yet even at rest, her slender hands proclaimed her style and grace.  

I would have loved to have had even just ten minutes with John Singer Sargent while he was painting the hands on one of his portraits.  Painted with an exiguous amount of strokes, they are almost abstract when you get right up on them.  The fluidity and expressiveness of his hands are almost too much for this artist to bear.    

Here are my  fellow challengees' mitts:

"Blue Egg"
Oil on hardboard 6"x6"
©2012 Diana Moses Botkin

"'lil Mama-San"
6x6" Oil on Linen
© V.N.Ross

"Kerri and Chi Chi"

Oil on museum quality ampersand gessobord panel - 8" x 10"

I was going to call this, "The Tattooed Girl with the Dragon" because Chi Chi looks like a little baby dragon here. Perhaps more like a gremlin that has been splashed with water, if you remember your movie trivia. My friend Debby leans more in the area of fruit bat when describing her. This little girl was rescued from the shelter and did yeoman's duty as constant companion and protector (!?!) to Debby's father-in-law during his last months of convalescence and subsequent hospice care. Chi Chi's two compadres, if you can believe it, are a leggy Great Dane named Emma and Walter, the Wonder Wiener. If you think Emma (or Debby) rules the roost in this household, think again. Chi Chi doesn't take a back seat to anyone!

"Missy and Walter"

Oil on canvas - 15" x 20"

This was actually my very first attempt at the Zorn palette for the Diana Moses Botkin March challenge. Although it lit the fire in me, subsequent small studies such as "Laura and Vincent" and "Sunlit nude in a Victorian Boudoir" had more of an over-all Zorniness. You can see by the lush(?) foliage out the window that Mary and Becky were right about the lack of a range of greens, although I find it works OK here.

"Study for Amy Angel"

Oil on museum quality ampersand gessobord panel - 8" x 10"

As you can see, I am still enamored with the Zorn palette. For more than eight years I have had a life-sized variation of this piece sitting in my studio. The statue is mostly finished in it, and the mirror. The loosely sketched in, ghostly figure of Amy has haunted me for nearly a decade. I think I can finally finish it now, thanks to Mr. Zorn. I kept this study loose, as I was more concerned with the flesh values than creating a precious jewel. although, frankly, I am quite fond of it. I call this "Amy Angel" because the statue reflected in the mirror reminds me of Angel wings.

"Nude on the staircase"

Oil on museum quality, archival ampersand gessobord™ panel - 5” x 7”

I had a model over yesterday and found some interesting light on the spiral staircase in the studio.  The figure was almost totally in silhouette, which cried out for a sketch loaded with brushwork.  The aura of white gave an ethereal quality to the figure.  Had she been coming down the stairs, I might have had to give her the cubist/futurist treatment à la Marcel Duchamp.  As it was she was ascending, so my realist self came through (sort of).  It was fun to be loose for a change.

"Sleeping Nude"

Oil on archival, museum quality, 1/8” Ampersand Gessobord™ panel – 8" x 8"

It’s been a while since I played with a little nude. {;-)> I miss my old palette knife more than ever. Painting flesh requires lots of color mixing. If anyone out there has an old Japanese Loew-Cornell 41F palette knife they’d be willing to part with, let me know.

Painting the figure on such a small scale is challenging to say the least. I tried not to get fussy with this piece; oops, too late. I have more respect than I already had for Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Vermeer and Jean Leon Gerome this morning. Miniature painters are a mad bunch.