In Memoriam to My Muse - Cosmo

Cosmo, fresco, 2012

My beloved muse, and best friend, Cosmo, died November 16th. I painted this November 25th. He was only six.  Making art is the best therapy. More pieces to come...

Sappho, encaustic, mixed media, 2012

Here is my latest piece...starting to head in the right direction.

Butterflies in My Head

"Butterflies in My Head", encaustic, mixed media, 2012

This is my latest painting, which incorporates a bit of lichen found hanging in the oak trees here in California.

Frescoes at the Spinster Sisters

If you happen to be passing through Santa Rosa, CA in the next few months swing by the new wine bar and restaurant the Spinster Sisters. Art exhibits are held every two months. The food and wine selection is excellent!  I've got a bunch of portable frescoes hanging there, most of which I painted this summer.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Spinster-Sisters/242956329103180

 

 

Frescoes to Visit in San Francisco & the Northbay

Detail of a mural by Diego Rivera, City College, San Francisco

If you are in California it's worth a pilgrimage to the St. Seraphim church in Santa Rosa where you can see the creation of large scale frescoes, which are still in the process of being painted. Another place to visit is the fabulous Diego Rivera fresco at City College in San Francisco. Not many people know about it. Most people go to the San Francisco Art Institute to view his other fresco but the painting at City College is much grander in scale.

Mural by Diego Rivera, SF Art Institute, San Francisco

Detail of a mural by Diego Rivera, City College, San Francisco

Detail of a mural by Diego Rivera, City College, San Francisco

The Fresco Process

Detail of a larger fresco in the Museo Nationale Romano

 I love the loose, sketchy imagery you can find in the background of ancient Roman frescoes like the detail above shot in Rome.

If you are curious about the process of painting a fresco take a look at the development of this painting.  When I paint a fresco I only do the last step which is called the intonaco. If you are painting a large scale fresco on a wall you will need to do many more steps.

Encaustic Portraits

Self-Portrait, 1998

I've been painting with encaustic since 1998 when I did this self-portrait. At the time, I didn't know how to paint with wax. It was an oil sketch with wax on top.

Once I discovered how to handle the medium I put aside my oils. Encaustic allows me to easily build texture. It handles much like watercolor with the color intensity of oil. I can embed my photos, and other objects, and create transfers on the surface and carve into the painting. I wish I'd discovered this medium 20 years ago but no one was teaching it at the time. 

Study of Jean, 2011

One of my goals with this blog is to promote fresco and encaustic painting, two techniques that are rarely taught in high schools or colleges. Encaustic classes have started springing up all over the country in the form of workshops but there aren't many fresco painting classes.  This past year I developed a course and taught high school students these ancient techniques. The next step is to teach a workshop for adults.

Study of Jean, 2011

Maisha, 2000

Allia Potestas, 2011

This text is copied from the actual tombstone of Allia Potestas, which can be found in the Epigraphic Museum in Rome.

Up Close to a Mummy Portrait!

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© The Trustees of the British Museum

Last Monday I had the special opportunity to view an ancient mummy portrait up close (like the one above from the British Museum) at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles with conservator, Marie Svobada, a curator, chemist and artist, Sylvana Barrett who specializes in ancient techniques. (This is the portrait.) http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artObjectDetails?artobj=7654  

These mummy portraits were found in ancient Egypt attached to coffins and were painted during the Roman empire. There are over a thousand scattered in museums throughout the world. Some are painted by highly skilled artists and some of the paintings are much more naive in style. They are painted on very thin wood panels with beeswax. Marie Svoboda is doing a study on the portraits trying to determine how they were painted and whether something was mixed with the wax. Most of the paintings are very textural and have a lot of dimension.

I always get excited when I can get up close or touch an artifact from the past that is thousands of years old! I was also able to view the paintings in an interesting program called RTI, http://culturalheritageimaging.org/Technologies/RTI/. This program allows you to see every brush stroke of a painting and how it was executed in a way that you could never see with the naked eye...especially under the dark lighting conditions of a museum.

Part of my research at the Getty is for my upcoming book on the ancient techniques that I've been teaching. Next month I'll be in NYC at the MET researching frescoes, encaustics and mosaics.

Flemish Painting Palette

Pondering, 2012

Goat, 2012

 I've been playing with different color palettes lately and think I've stumbled onto one that I want continue with. The 17th century Flemish palette. It's melancholy and romantic.

Fox, 2012

I've been working on a book on the art program I established 11years ago at Sonoma Academy and it's finally finished and hot off the press. There are some pages devoted to fresco painting. I plan on creating another book on the Lost Techniques class I'm teaching in the next year. Take a peak:

The Visual Arts at Sonoma Academy by Hillary Younglove | Make Your Own Book

Creatures at Twilight

Pygmy Owl, 2012

This painting was based off a photo I took of a tiny owl at the bird sanctuary in Santa Rosa. The jack rabbit fresco inspired me to work on more images of creatures at twilight.

Cat, 2012

Painting the jack rabbit fresco.

Waxy Tree Frogs

This is a fresco based on a photo I took of some waxy tree frogs from the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. They were the perfect subject because they don't move! Once in a while they blink. I like how they all pile up on one another.

Two More Experiments with Color

The Perch, 2012

The jack rabbit fresco has some uneven spots where it seems that there was more lime than sand so it resisted the pigment and the surface got some fissures. I like this effect. The mortar was just mixed and more wet than the last batch of mortar I mixed. I think I'll try some more like this. As I look at the image it reminds me of the book cover from the Velveteen Rabbit, an imaged etched in my brain from childhood.

Gull with Mini Rabbit, 2012

One More for the Series

Woodpecker, 2012

The Artist's Grid - A Device Used for Millenia

Gridded Sketch for Senemut, ca. 1473-1458 B.C.

I found this small artist's sketch wandering through the Egyptian collection at the MET. It's ink on limestone. Pieces of limestone or pottery were used as paper when papyrus was too expensive. These are known as ostraka.

A Renewed Interest in Fresco Painting

Jester, 1996

Duck Lady, 1996

16 years ago I took a fresco painting class in Florence. It was taught in Italian before I knew any Italian so I'm sure that I missed a lot in translation. I painted a series of 20 images based on characters from the Carnival in Viareggio.

This summer after receiving a grant to develop the course, Lost Techniques of the Ancients, I decided that I needed a refresher course in the technique. To my surprise I found a course an hour away from my home! This three-day workshop taught by George O'Hanlon of Natural Pigments totally charged me and renewed my passion for the art of fresco painting.

Painting done in the workshop: A copy of a detail from Popaea's Villa. Ancient Rome

George is a master at explaining the makeup of pigments and the chemistry behind painting, something that had never been taught to me in art school. Since July, I've been trying to paint one fresco a month and learn from my mistakes in preparation for teaching it to high school students in May. For whatever reason I decided on the theme, Birds with Attitude.  Here are a few examples of my experiments.

Cockatiel, 2011

Raven, 2011

Owl, 2011

Pelican, 2012

Rooster, 2012

Blue Heron, 2012