This painting has gone through many iterations to finally come to this point. It is one of those projects that I kept revisiting.
Someone asked me yesterday, how do you know when you are done with a painting?
For this one, I believe it finally has the feeling that I had when I stood in front of this actual scene in Colorado.
It was so beautiful, so serene like somewhere I could be forever on the brink of a new day.
I thought it appropriate at the beginning of this new year to have it complete. My New Year's resolution is to do more finished paintings, not just quick studies. To suffer through and explore a deeper more finished product, while attempting to keep things fresh and alive. Such a delicate balance, and so worth trying to achieve. I will set time aside to work this way.
20" x 24" Oil on Panel
Sunday, January 01, 2012
Glimpse of Heaven
Tuesday, December 06, 2011
Newhall Gold
Colorful Sycamore trees stood as my models. Each leaning and twisting in a graceful pose. The sound of the wind all so restful to my ears, the feeling of outdoors. This is what I love, where I belong on this day.
I delight in these days and want for longer periods to grow deeper into this subject . To seek out it's secrets and settle into natures embrace.
9" x 12" Plein Air Painting
Oil on Panel
Monday, December 05, 2011
November's Brush
Finally back to Plein Air, which I have missed over the last month or so. I found it interesting to move back into this mindset, almost a fresh start.
I had to quiet myself down and tune in which took a bit, but I did find my hook. The painting also needed to be corralled in, as my excitement took over my choices. Once I got myself more under control, my painting moved into a more pleasing rhythm and result.
As I switch between my subjects of street painting, figure/portrait painting, and landscape/plein air painting, and stone carvingI notice how I have to reenter my process, but I see that it still works out as I remember.
8" x 10" Oil on Panel
Sunday, December 04, 2011
Lace, Grace and Pearls
A path is visible lately, a voice coming through clearly.
Synthesis of skill and aesthetic underway.
Both brought about through visions present and years of understanding.
Miles of individual strokes laid as stepping stones, which have brought me thus far.
20" x 24" Oil on Canvas Board
Tuesday, November 01, 2011
The Seven Crow Princess-after Addrienne Segur
Street Painting demonstration at the Platt Library-
This illustration is after Addrienne Segur. The Fairy Tale Book has been my favorite throughout my lifetime. Her illustrations are so beautiful and touching they mesmerize me to this very day. I would look at them for hours.
2' x 3' 1 1/2 hour Demo
The Grape Picker Streetpainting
The Grape Picker Streetpainting
Street painting performance at Pelican Hill's Festa Dell'Autunno After Eugene de Blaas- 1902
8' x 10' Pastel Street painting
Portrait of Michael Milken
Portrait I did of Michael Milken at the ULI Convention - Los Angeles Convention Center.
4' x 8' Pastel on Black Panel
Don Bren - LA Convention Center
Grand Scale Portrait I did of Don Bren for the ULI Convention at the Los Angeles Convention Center.
4' x 8' Pastel Portrait on Black Panel
Portrait of Time Leiweke
Installation at the Los Angeles Convention Center! I worked on Tim Leiweke, He is the President of AEG- a Huge Sporting and Entertainment Group. He help create LA Live and the Staple Center. Today He saw me painting his portrait, as his personal assistant was sending him a video cast. WOW!!!
4' x 8' Pastel on Black Panel
Sense of Sight with Sunflowers
Street painting done for the Tulare Festival of Hope 2011.
9' x 12' Variation - after Anne Souisa Swynnerton- 1895
Monday, October 24, 2011
Classic Approach
This painting caught that classical feel that draws me to many of my street paintings.
I feel satisfied that this piece carries that type of sensibility. It is just what I love and enjoy seeing in my own work. I hope I can do this again sometime when the all the phrases come together so well.
12' X 16" Life Study in Oils on Canvas
Monday, October 03, 2011
Hold the Course
The last three painting sessions I have approached my life painting subject in a consistant manner, trying hard to keep a certain train of thought as I proceed.
I have heard that a first time success is luck.
The second time is coincidence, and
the third success is skill.
This piece was second and the third was produced today. I am hoping I am on to something.
16" x 20" Life Study on Panel
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Life Study
This one fell off the brush a little more easily than usual. Intense practice from last week probably made the difference.
16" x 20" Life Study in Oils on Canvas
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Wondering
Sometimes when I am painting these life models I clue into something about the person, or rather my painting process picks up on some subtle characteristic that my conscious mind may have overlooked.
Looking back at this session, I realize a subtle wistfulness about this model, or at least that is what I saw. Maybe it is just the pose, or my position to the model, but somehow a certain mood was coming through.
It is interesting to distance yourself from your work and look back at it. You see the imperfections, or possibly the particular beauty that came through in that moment. This piece has both.
16" x 20" Life Study in Oils on Panel
Friday, September 16, 2011
Quick Draw Portraits- Senses
Well I plunged into a Quick Draw gig at our City's Art Walk Event called "Senses".
A line grew and I did about 8 portraits in 4 hours.
It was like speed dating! It was a challenge that I threw myself into, and I am still coming down from the experience.
Learned some new things, enjoyed the live models and had a great time. Always interesting, this art thing...
18" x 24" Live Portraits- Quick Draw
Pastel on Paper-
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Roots in Pittsburgh
I met this fellow sometime ago. I was absolutely intrigued with his face. Now that I have painted him during this quick sketch session (about 4 hours), I know I have to do more. Spend more time getting deeper into this portrait. I will be calling upon him soon to work again. I am hooked and cannot resist a face that speaks to me.
12" x 16" Life Study in Oils on Canvas
Sunday, September 04, 2011
The Rønningen Boys
This is a painting I did from a snapshot I took in Norway. These children run around today on a farm I stayed at about 40 years ago.
Bittersweet memories come flooding towards me, but I try hard to keep it together. ( A long back story).
A young family resides there now. Their sweet young boys play in the tall grasses glancing at this tall brunette stranger who speaks in this foreign tongue while holding back her tears.
Strange to revisit a place, to remember the people, the memories you fight back. It all reaches deeply into my heart.
Hard to believe all this coming now as I write. This place, the Rønningen Family, my family, Norway. It is all so far away, yet so very close to me. Really part of me.
16" x 20" Oil on Panel
Saturday, September 03, 2011
My King
My subject was larger than life in many ways. Big personality, full of energy and hard to pin down. I kept trying to deal with all his movement and I almost gave up out of frustration, but eventually I caught him and now I like what I see... This image exudes a persona that is full. Unwilling to be bottled up or put in a box.
I get it... the models are living, not manikins.
What we cannot see or "measure" we must
know and understand. That part of the process is up to the painter. We have no excuses.
16" x 20" Life Study in Oils on Panel
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Water's Edge- Lake Elizabeth
Escaping the heat we wondered over to Lake Elizabeth. The welcoming relief of a watery shoreline soothed me. Part of me just wanted to sit there quietly, not paint at all, just soak in the stillness.
I think if I had a wish it would be to be able to come back a second or third day after a quiet time with a place before I paint it. I want to know the thing more intimately, feel what I am painting. Everything is so spontaneous. I need time to contemplate quiet down, honor what I represent.
How much of this is about the art or about the artist? The boundaries blur as I write this. I want time to respect and honor my acts.
9" x 12" Plien Air Study
Oil on Panel
Monday, August 22, 2011
Life Study
This is a piece I did a few Mondays ago at my Life Painting class. Some things I like and some things I don't.
I have been working with Karl Gnass for over a year now and slowly, very slowly, I think I make some progress. I have much more work to do, but at least the concepts are getting more clear to me.
Practice, clarify my thinking and practice some more. That is it
16" x 20" Life Study in Oils on Panel
Friday, August 19, 2011
San Francisquito Riverbed
Last Friday I painted out in the Summer Heat. Myself and another woman painter, scoping out various scenic possibilities.
First Stop was a beautiful scene, worthy of painting, yet challenging due to a ton (literally) of construction debris littered in the foreground. I couldn't see past it! Not this time, when I was so looking forward to beauty. It was just beyond me at that point. So we continued.
Up to road was this scene, not an "in your face" obvious subject, yet I found interesting design in the riverbed. So here we are quietly painting off the road were approached by several male spectators.
One fellow inquired about directions. Another man resembling ZZ Top that worked/lived as a Blacksmith in a abandoned mining site, invited us up for a Plein air painting expedition sometime. The last one stopped while we ate our tail-gate lunches with words and innuendos I would rather not publish.
Quite a different experience from when I paint or go out with male painters, or my husband.
We finished up after lunch and too much heat to go up the road a bit further to Lake Elizabeth. Where we found beautiful cool shade and shoreline. I will post that painting next. It was a full day with an interesting cast of characters. I wonder when I look back at this painting if I will remember all these scenarios? I guess that is why the blog is good as well.
9" x 12" Plein Air Study in Oils on Panel
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Top of the Mountain- Fraizer Park
Lately I have made myself stop to take in my surroundings. So often I am begin analyzing a scene before I have taken the time to digest where I am. Taking in the scene before I dissect it. This is on my mind more lately. I want to bring all my senses into the experience. Slow down more and regard my subject. After all, just hammering a lot of work out there is not my purpose. I want to go deeper beneath the surface to bring out more of the living experience.
11" x 14" Oil on Canvas Board
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Fraizer Park Barn
Friday I went to Fraizer Park again. On the way home last time I spotted this great old barn, so I ventured back to it today.
Most everything was painted that day on site, but then back in my studio I found some other things to resolve.
The process of inventing, observing, simplifying, yet communicating were pulling me in different directions. It was a struggle, but I think I came to a fair conclusion.
I felt as though I was on a teeter tooter with this one, towards the end as I was refining the finishing touches. Working mostly from my memory and responding to the painting itself. I had taken some photos, but I decided to work intuitively rather than literally. Good practice, and difficult.
14" x 18" Plein Air Painting
Oil on Panel
Saturday, July 09, 2011
Wild Iris Mountain Meadow
www.lorellemiller.com
I came home and could not stop thinking about the scene set before my eyes today. I have been a lot of places lately and seen a lot of magnificent scenes, but
this much I know... That extraordinary field of Irises was astonishing and is a miracle just up the road. It just goes to show you that beauty hides within our midst.
9" x 12" Plein Air Study in Oils
Friday, July 01, 2011
Lorelle Plein Air Painting at Mjsoa Lake, Norway
www.lorellemiller.com
To think I was there, painting in the cool sweet air of Norway, is a dream. I never thought I would get back there, ever. Hard to believe my art has brought me to so many places, in the US and abroad. I bow my head with gratitude for these miracles. I cannot say enough to express my gratitude to those who made this possible for me.
Downtown Hamar Norway
In between teaching a short portrait drawing class, as well as working with the kids doing the street painting, I managed to do an oil painting of the city street outside the Art Studio. I also had some student artists working beside me, learning about plien air painting! What a great day!
16" x 20" Plein Air Study in Oils on Canvas
Lakeside at Mjosa Lake- Norway
I had only a little time left to paint in Norway, so off I went to Mjsoa, the local lake which is the largest one in all of Norway. Everywhere I looked I could see a painting. I settled on this view which was so fresh and clear.
The weather was so clean, I could have painted there for days. Several people stopped to look, and one gentlemen said he wanted to buy this piece, so I left it in Norway for the time being. I may in fact have an exhibit there sometime in the future. You just never know. This trip was a complete surprise and it worked out so wonderfully.
8" x 10" Plein Air Study in Oils on Canvas Board
Church on the Hill- Norway
This little piece I did down the road from where I was staying. By this time some of the locals had seen me in their newspaper with my street painting projects at Gustava's Cultural Factory.
They do not have a lot of plein air painters around this area, so I was an unusual sight. That along with the street painting projects must have left some kind of an impression. I was a bit uncomfortable at first, but then just let it all happen. Once they understood what I was doing there more and more people stopped by to see the painting.
8" x 10" Plein Air Study in OIls on Canvas Panel
Norweign Countryside
This was the 1st plein air piece I did this summer in the Hamar, Norway countryside.
People were surprised to see a painter tucked away in the trees. A smile and a wave usually did the trick to communicate that I was just there to paint, nothing else.
8" x 10" Plein AIr Study in Oils on Canvas Panel.
Fishermen Hauling Dragnet- Kroyer 1883
This piece was done as a permanent installation for Gustava's Cultural Factory in Hamar Norway.
It is about 5' x 10' pastel on Wood Panel. It was done as part of an International Art Exchange program where we are bringing unusual art forms to this community.
Fisherman- after Christian Krog 1879
This is a street painting I did at one of the Jr. High Schools in Hamar Norway this summer.
Christian Krog was one of the well known Skagen Painters.
5' x 7' approx. size
Wednesday, June 08, 2011
Demo for Simi Valley Artists Association
I did this quick oil sketch for the Simi Valley Artist's Association.
The piece was done from a live model. This woman bought about 20 raffle tickets so that she would be sure to win the opportunity to be painted for the evenings event. The demo was somewhat complete in about 1 1/2 hours. I could have worked longer obviously, but that is what I had for a time limit.
16" x 20" Life Study in Oils on Panel
Sunday, June 05, 2011
Val Verde Field
These are some of the most peaceful yet enriching moments of my life, where I quietly paint alongside my friend Ernie.
Both of us working at solving problems and taking in the silent views surrounding us.
Every time I get to go out and do this I feel so grateful. My life feels balanced. I just want to experience the love and passion of what I do as an artist. I have found my language, my center. That along with my family makes my life complete.
8" x 10" Plein Air Study in Oils
Friday, June 03, 2011
Last Dance
Via Flickr:
Today I went out painting with my newly invented pochade box.
I leave for Norway in a week, and did not want to bring my expensive and somewhat bulky plein air set up, so as usual, I improvised. It is still not perfect, not as solid as I would like, but I have a few more days to fiddle with it.
This painting was done in the field of my dear friend Rod Edwards who passed away, not long ago. Things are changing and I am not sure I will get the opportunity to paint in this great field of his again, we will see. I have a lot of great memories. I still feel him watching me as I paint. Still missing him. Ernie and I both think of him on days like this, I am certain!
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
I Madonnari Streetpainting Santa Barbara - 2011
Joesph's Dream
8' x 8' Streetpainting
after Gaetano Gandolfi 1750
Friday, May 27, 2011
Large Figure Study
This challenge was set by my teacher Mr. Karl Gnass. He said..."That's it Lorelle, you must go larger scale, no excuses, just get a large canvas, some house painting brushes and go for it!!" So that is what I did.
This exercise was done in two live sessions about 6 hours a piece from concept to complete. Great Challenge and it felt right.
3' x 4' Life Study on Canvas
Wednesday, May 04, 2011
When the Mood Strikes Her
This was an exercise in the concept of Gothic
sensibilities. I liked the models translucent skin and somber appearance. Appealing to the dark side, the moody side.
She is still soft and feminine, but a bit foreboding, cold to the touch, so to speak.
16" x 20" Life Study in Oils on Panel
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
What's Funny
A 2 day modeling session with a rather funny, quirky model/actor/musician/writer. His pose defied his personality since he appeared to be a rather happy fellow. I guess that is what makes a good actor.
Enjoy, I did!
16" X 20" Life Study in Oils
Thursday, April 07, 2011
Portrait of Jim Ventress
A commissioned piece for the Boys and Girls Club honoring Mr. Jim Ventress and his 25+ years of service.
Not my typical style at all, but was asked to create a "jazzy" feel for this piece, since that is one of his major passions.
Mr. Ventress told me the painting was surreal, like he was looking at himself.
I had never met him before the presentation, so I was quite happy with his comment.
16" x 20" Oil on Canvas
