Painting Series Fall 2006
Well as you can see this series is not complete. However 1/3 of it is here and the other parts will be done by Tuesday (that is when they are due). If I had to pick a title for it it would be, "The Series From Hell," because I put a little too much on my plate for this assignment. Hopefully I can get it done. I began looking at some hispanic artists for inspiration because I was thinking about studing Mexican culture/art over the summer and came upon a talented painter/sculptor by the name of Manuel Neri. His work intrigues me due to his treatment of color and integration of the background into the foreground. With my own series I was attempting to work from Neri's paintings with the intention of portraying my figure as expressive, feminine, and gestural. I wanted to play around with the concept of having blocks of color in the background leak into the boundaries of the figure. However as I began painting and after a discussion with a professor, I realized that the background and foreground were compteing and it was not obvious what the focus of the painting was. I am satisfied with the first painting, and hope that the next two continue to resemble and mimic this painting to complete the series.
Some other artists that I discovered while researching my series were Alberto Giacometti and Nathan Oliviera. Both work with both abstract, realistic, and expressive styles. I really enjoyed looking at Nathan Oliviera's work because he is also a printmaker. As I work with both medias it is interesting to see how Oliviera does as well.

My relationship with art is like no other....
it is different from relationships with friends,
family, or a lover.
Art brings me emotions that most humans cannot;
both negative and positive
Sometimes our relationship is beautiful,
and other times I want to forget about it, break up with it,
and move on.......

I completed this painting while researching Degas and his painting/drawing techniques. Degas was a superb draftsman and a wonderful colorist. I specifically studied his nude series and it was amazing. I struggle drawing figures especially with scale and position so I really admire his work. I hope to improve my figure drawing/painting skills next semester. I would like to make this a main theme for my next line of work. Not only are the realistic drawings of Dega's women accurate, but the poses are intriguing and force the viewer to feel the portrayed emotions