"Meditative"
Oil, 7"x5"
©2014 Diana Moses Botkin
What to show you for the last day of these postings? Most of my recent work can be seen in my posts for past few years, so I thought I'd share
at least a couple I've not previously shown.
(left) "Her Choice"
Original oil on linen, 16"x20"
©1996 Diana Moses Botkin
Here is another sampling of my work for the 3-in-5 challenge. You can see that by the time I did these, I was getting away from the tight realism I'd been practicing in my earlier paintings.
I still love detail, but for the past decade or so, I've been trying to focus on it not as much, with the idea that "less is more".
Abundance of detail can be quite beautiful, but for many paintings it is simply a distraction from the visual idea. It's interesting to see the progress while looking at the body of my work for these postings.
"Her Choice", above, received top honors at the 1996 National
Christian Fine Arts Exhibit in Farmington, New Mexico and was purchased
by the sponsor, Farmington United Methodist Church. Like the piece I showed yesterday which also resides in their permanent collection, I'm very happy it is being enjoyed on a daily basis by many people. This painting also was used, with my permission, for a book cover and for materials for Lutherans for Life.
(left) "Ministering Hands"
Original oil on hardboard, 16"x20"
©1999 Diana Moses Botkin
"Ministering Hands" is special commission I painted for St. Peter Hospital, Family Practice Clinic, Olympia, Washington. I'm pleased it is also in a public collection and being enjoyed on a daily basis by visitors. Reproductions of "Ministering Hands", and also "Her Choice", can be found at my LifeImages Gallery.
I'm skipping through much of my work since Y2K. Many of those have been smaller pieces, a lot of them efforts to learn plein air painting. I also started trying to do the daily painting practice about 10 years ago and most of those pieces have been small studies of everyday objects. They've been good for practice, but looking through them I can see there are not many paintings which went to public collections or won awards. There are a few, but most of those smaller paintings have been purchased by individual collectors, which of course makes me happy.
(left) "Dancer in Red Slip"
Original oil on hardboard, 12"x9"
©2011 Diana Moses Botkin
"Dancer in Red Slip" appeared in the 2011 Oil Painters of America National Juried Exhibition and resides in a private collection overseas.
(left) "Sunlight and Snowmelt"
Original pastel on Canson, approx. 24"x18"
©1989 Diana Moses Botkin
Here is another group of my paintings from awhile back for the 3-in-5 Challenge. The idea of the exercise is to post early work and then some recent work, so I'll post a few more older pieces today that you might enjoy seeing.
This painting at left of my hand and foot in the stream is illustrative of Isaiah 55:10, 11. The painting was featured at the 1993 Sacred Arts Exhibit at the Billy Graham Center Museum.
(left) "Sunday Evening at 7"
Pastel on cotton charcoal paper,
approx. 18"x24"
©1985 Diana Moses Botkin
I'm posting another batch of older pieces for the 3-in-5 challenge. This cloud painting is one of several I did at the time, trying to capture those forms before they changed too much.
(left) "Gigi"
Last month I taught a portrait workshop in Oklahoma City at Geatches Studio. My demo sketch of our first model is shown at left and below, along with the demo sketch of another model.
I like to start the class showing how to look for shapes and build the form with darks first and then add the lights.
Charcoal and chalk on toned paper are ideal for quick studies and the medium is easy for making corrections. It's always fun to introduce this drawing technique, especially to those who have not yet tried it.
(left) "Anna" charcoal/chalk on cotton paper approx. 16x11" ©2014 Diana Moses Botkin
(right) "June" charcoal/chalk on cotton paper approx. 14x10" ©2014 Diana Moses Botkin
"Palouse Sunset" oil, 8"x10"
©2014 Diana Moses Botki
SOLD
This piece is one I painted en plein air a few months ago. I'd driven out looking for a good spot to paint, pulled over a couple of times, then changed my mind and drove on, looking for something to catch my eye.
The light was going fast, so I parked my van and got my paints out to catch the sunset light on the Palouse hills. But then I turned around and saw the sun peeking through that tree and knew I had to try capturing the contrasts and color.
As sometimes happens when painting at the end of day, the light simply disappears. At such times, one is left nearly painting in the dark. Colors are especially difficult to judge. Edges are too, with fading eyesight and failing light. And there is no snapping a photo reference for later reference, as it is an exercise in futility.
So, I've been revisiting this study off and on for several months, fixing an odd shape here or there and evaluating the piece, trying to remember the colors while I was there. And so, here it is, the impression of the moment that caught my eye.
"Uriah's Wife" Oil on linen, 12"x9"
©2014 Diana Moses Botkin
SOLD
I'm pleased to announce that this painting has been juried into Scottsdale Artists’ School’s 2015 Best and Brightest. If you can't see the show in person, you can enjoy it online here.
The 2015 show and sale opens January 9 and hangs through February 27, 2015.
Two other pieces I submitted were not accepted and when I first skimmed the rejection letter I thought that all three of my entries had been rejected. Those letters of non-acceptance (I've gotten many) are usually very gently worded to let us down easy, but I confess I was disappointed. So it was doubly joyous to get the acceptance email for my painting of "Uriah's Wife".
