Celebrating One Year of Blogging!

Today is the day! It's been one whole year!
I Thank You All for the support, the tears and laughs through this past year. I look at the thoughtful comments and statistics page, and see people from all over the world are reading. I had no idea that would happen, and I often wonder what I have to offer you. I'm a painter from a little town in Kentucky, U.S. I have Autism, I'm 14 years clean and sober, and I'm a cancer survivor. There have been more failures than successes in this life, and I would not change a single thing...... Don't you see? My life wasn't supposed to be this good. smiles. Thank you!
 I hope that you've found reason to smile, seen the value in simply being you, and have had opportunity to be still now and then. I hope you've had cause to see beauty in life, moments of gratitude and a few laughs. I hope you've seen the acceptance and love we all look for in your own eyes, and I hope you've had the chance to love others just because it feels good to be the love that you are.
  I don't know where we're going in the comming year, but as long as people like you are beside me, I'm ready. smiles. So, here's to more paintings, more decadance, more insights into a world of my often misunderstanding, more passion, more gratitude, and another precious day at a time to simply be.

   Toward friendships, old and new, I can only give you what I have. Here are some photo steps of my latest portrait. A video featuring these photos, and much more can be seen at my youtube channel here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQDwRcr1Wxo

Canvas in grey (black an white gesso) Grid in White Charcoal. Laying in features in Black Acrylic.

Using Black with much medium, laying in shadows.

Shadows on the whites of the eyes and contour.

White brings out facial topography, indicates moisture in the eyes and on the lips.

"Conchi"
portrait of a friend
16x20"
Acrylic on Canvas

 Many blessings, and in this moment..... live! smiles.
tina jones

L'Etoile De La Matin

    Like all of us, I have layers. What is at first seen is me, and what is seen after time and upclose is me too. Glances at people reveal instant impressions, yet when savored.....looked at through eyes who have experienced the person, what is revealed can often be the beauty of time. Scars, wrinkles, marks of life show life lived, sometimes hard and sometimes peacefully.
   I hope today I can see beyond first impressions, beyond the stories of life's lines, through the glisten of an eye and into the universe of the soul. Therein, lives beauty all else merely tries to reflect.
   For today, I wish you a timeless moment, where you may catch your glance or get caught in the eternity of another's being, and see the most beautiful of things. You.

"L'Etoile De La Matin"

(Morning Star)

Self Portait

18x24

Acrylic on canvas

For a step by step photo montage of this painting, please visit my youtube channel.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFIlA1vrq0k

tina jones

p.s. Title given by an anonymous soul who has loved me beyond comprehension.

   

The Dark Side of Beauty

The earliest records of painting on cave walls record the kill of hunt. Caravaggio presented his bodiless head on canvas to a pope, and Frieda Kahlo painted herself skewered by a rod through her abdomen depicting the most painful moment of life to her at the time. Then perhaps most gripping was "The Scream" by Edvard Munch.

 Beauty is sometimes in the countrysides, sunsets and billowing impressionistic parasols...

Othertimes it reaches into taboo, those things we'd alternately rather not think about, or we think about them when no one is watching....

"Kneeling Nude (The Prayer)"
11x14
Acrylic on Canvas

Horse Painting Tutorial

Following the same steps as my Dog Painting Tutorial, here is a slighly more advanced horse.
First, a word about your reference photos. I'm not the best of photographers, but I don't find it to be a great problem when working loosely in painting. The odd blurred photo can make the best painting reference. Here, I'm using a photo that has very dark shadow and very little detail, and I could have painted (for instance) the bulk of the neck in solid black as is shown in the photo. If it's believable in the photo, it is believable in paint. If more detail is wanted, online searches for anatomy of your subject or reference photos for artists can be searched and studied, but again, your photo is going to be of great value and help to you. Spend time with it. Offer it more than a passing glance. I'll often live with a photo, even three or more copies of it in my house to look at in the living room, kitchen, studio, etc. for a few days before I ever pick up a pencil or a brush. I want that photo imprinted in my mind.

My printed and gridded reference photo



The grid of squares on a grey painted canvas,  and a carefully drawn basic image in white charcoal pencil.




Laying in lights and darks broadly




Refining lights darks and midtones and double checking shapes






Laying in the background and glazing (using a very transparent layer of paint to cover the horse and unify it. The transparent layer (glaze) is made of very, very little black paint, and a lot of medium) Highlights were then added.

 


Finished Piece
"Big Black Horse"
11x14"
Acrylic on Canvas