Wow, midterm came fast!

It feels like this semester is just flying by-which is good and bad. It's good because it means we're getting through the year, bad because I haven't even started to accomplish what I really want to this semester.  I can definitely tell I'm starting to make progress on my drawings again, just seems much slower than last semester.  I need to spend some time sitting down next week and going through all of my stuff, maybe i'll be more impressed with myself after I see everything laid out... then again, maybe not.  I've been doing a lot more research and trying to compile styles that i'm interested in.  Lately I've been really impressed with Gretchen Kelly's work.  Let me introduce you to her:

Kelly is a figurative artist working out of New York, NY.  She does daily figurative paintings of the human body.  Her paintings are distinctive; gestural and vibrant. 

Kelly paints from a model posing from one to forty-five minutes.  She strives to exhibit the beauty of the human body within a single moment using gestures and color.  She is a figurative painter and works quickly and definitively.  She focuses on the present and what’s in front of her.  She only goes back to add in the background of her pieces. 

Kelly also dabbles in other depictions such as scenes of barns, fields, lakes, and mountain scapes.  She also paints portraits, aquatic nudes, and small town scenery.  

I was very drawn to Kelly’s figurative drawings and paintings.   I especially admire her minute poses. Being in life drawing II right now,  I can really appreciate her line quality and how she understands the human figure. Her gestural approach is refreshing and very energetic.  I often get so stuck on my gestures being proportional that I often forget about the moment of the body.  Even though all of Kelly’s models are posing you can “feel” the movement and stretching that the model is doing.  I think a lot of the reason there is so much emotion in her paintings is because of the vibrant colors she uses.  Her hues are eye catching and energetic. The wide haphazard brush strokes are gestural and add to the aesthetic of the poses. 

Compared to my own work, Kelly’s is much more abstract and gestural.  I would like to explore a more vibrant color palette after seeing her work.  I would also like to focus on capturing the movement of the body.  I know that I have the concept and understanding of the human structure and I think it would be interesting to step away from that.  Kelly also works on a small scale, usually on 8x10” or 11x13” pieces of paper.  I like this approach and often keep my work at a smaller scale.  I feel that working small makes me appreciate the things that I create more.