The Family Room

Posted on February 1, 2021 by Sarah Sullivan

I started a new series today, painting the rooms of our home.

Of course, I had to begin with this room, our family room. Of all the rooms, this one brings out my sentimental side. When we were looking for homes in 1989, this room decided it all for me. Our children were small, and the thought of a space where they could freely enjoy their train tracks, dollhouses, games, books, art materials, and Lego pieces thrilled me. We put my desk in a corner, and their toys just about everywhere else. My husband’s study is in an adjoining space. We graded papers, played games, and life was good.

Over the years, the family room’s design shifted along with our interests and hobbies. The toys are gone. The room is full of art, including carvings from my father and watercolors from my mother. These days I sit at the old game table and read or watch the birds poking around in our patio garden.

I wanted to show you what this room feels like in the morning. I think you can see how the sun pours in through the French doors, across the game table, and accentuates the colors of the floor and wood. And I think you can imagine me standing at my easel across the room, trying to capture it all for you.

Posted in Interior | Tagged , , | 6 Comments

Oh, To Be A Back Seat Driver Again!

Posted on January 31, 2021 by Sarah Sullivan

Well, it doesn’t hurt to think about traveling again, does it? Our camper is calling and surely it won’t be much longer.

Posted in Telling a Story | Tagged , | 5 Comments

By a Pyramid

Posted on January 28, 2021 by Sarah Sullivan

In December, when we went into a COVID related regional lockdown, I began a notebook for doing small imaginative sketches. I thought that since I could not get out for plein air painting, that at least I could learn a little more about composition and the elements and principles of design. I really look forward to these exercises and at this point a second little notebook has replaced the first.

The idea is to spend 20 minutes or so just putting down random marks in a relaxed, non judgmental manner. At some point you stop, take a look at what is on the paper, maybe turn the page upside down, and notice what you might make from it. Then you get picky and get to work.

Here is today’s little sketch. My favorite part is the section in the middle that goes between the two faces and moves from green to blue to yellow.

Posted in Deliberate Practice | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Problem Solving

Posted on January 26, 2021 by Sarah Sullivan

Our Tuesday night Zoom model is also an artist. He put up one of his paintings on his easel and spent the next two hours thinking about it while posing for our group. I decided not to include his easel, thinking that his paintbrush would be enough to indicate that he was thinking about his artwork.

Posted in Figures | Tagged , | 5 Comments

A Good Storm

Posted on January 26, 2021 by Sarah Sullivan

My mother loved a good wind and rainstorm. She lived her life in Arizona, where storms were rare, and regarded each as a treat. When the winds built up and the rains came, we were the kids on the block who were allowed to go out to play. If there was lightning and thunder, all the better. Even into her last year, her eighty-sixth, she was still excited by a good storm.
Today San Diego had an amazing storm, a magnificent storm, just the kind of storm my mother would have loved. My young neighbors were out reveling in it, running, leaping, and seeming so alive. It made me remember how much fun we had in storms because of our extraordinary mother and her sense of beauty. And how fitting that today, on the tenth anniversary of her death, a good storm swept across San Diego and the whole Southwest.

Posted in Cityscape | Tagged , , | 14 Comments

Model in a Closet

Posted on January 19, 2021 by Sarah Sullivan

The Tuesday night Zoom model sat in her closet, surrounded by an abundance of clothing and accessories. The richness of the pose was exciting and I worked to capture as much of it as I could. But the sketch got too confusing and I abandoned it. I tried again, this time enlarging the model’s face, omitting the rest of her body, and eliminating most of the items in the closet. I think I got a better sketch, but at the cost of not showing her intriguing belongings.

Posted in Figures, Uncategorized | Tagged , | 1 Comment

And Around Again

Posted on January 14, 2021 by Sarah Sullivan

While we are under the Coronavirus stay-at-home order, I have been making small experimental paintings. I began this one by making random marks with gray ink and wax medium on slick Bristol paper. I added the color with gouache and the gouache beaded up on the areas that had been waxed. Some areas in the center have multiple coats of wax and gouache and that is what gives it a marbled look.

When we can paint outside again, this technique may turn out to be useful for showing the textures in materials like night skies, pebbles, boulders, and foliage.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments