"Sandhill Crane"

"Walking Sandhill Crane" was created for my upcoming demonstration scheduled December 21st at the Moorings in Vero Beach. It will be for only an hour so I had to keep it simple. If you would like to attempt this sweet little painting, below are the instructions and pattern. 

Materials:
11" x 14" or 12" x 16" stretched canvas or canvas board, graphite paper, pencil, tape, paper towels, water container
Paints: titanium white, yellow ochre, cadmium orange, cadmium red light, alizarin crimson, dioxazene purple (or any purple), sap green, burnt sienna, burnt umber, raw umber, Payne's gray
Brushes: #4 #6 & #10 Filbert, #2 Round, #6 flat. Basic, but this painting can be painted with others.

CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE

Send the below image to your printer and enlarge it to suit your substrate. Enjoy!

          Stay tuned ... more to come!

Regards,

Judy Burgarella

 

"Emergence"

"Emergence" 18"x24" Acrylic on Gallery-Wrapped Canvas

"Emergence" 18" x 24", Acrylic on Gallery-wrapped canvas, was created in August 2022 for the Vero Beach Museum of Art's Abstract show. It was an evolution of sorts. Not that there's a great connection with the image of this abstract and emerging from the pandemic we'd all been through, but the word has been on my mind. And although I am a representational artist, this was really fun and refreshing for me. Other than the face, the rest was lively and loose, almost like a dance. My very senior art friend from Connecticut asked me how I did it, and so I worked up instructions for her to try it, which can be found on www.burgarellaarttipsandtricks.blogspot.com.  

Painting "En Plein Air"

 Classes at the Vero Beach Museum of Art

Just finished up two separate 5-week courses at the Museum, and it's time for a little break.  They were both fun and rewarding for me, and I hope very informative to my students. A lot of artsy learning was crammed into those 3-hour classes each week. One was "Photorealism" in multi-medias, and the other was Plein Air (painting outdoors). 

The Hearst Corporation funded supplies for the classes, which made it so nice for the students. We ordered sketching kits, technical tools, drawing & painting paper and Derwent pastel pencils, all of which they got to keep. We also provided stools and easels.  Most of the students continued using the pastels for all five weeks, although they were invited to use their medium of choice.  I demonstrated a different medium each week: pastel pencils, watercolor, acrylic, oil paints, and pastel sticks, which covered whatever medium was in their comfort zone. All but one had never painted out of doors, and luckily the weather was perfect. Except for the last day on the boardwalk near the Museum when the skies opened up for just five minutes. I throw a tarp over my setup and the rest ran for cover under a lovely pavilion. The view was spectacular as you can see below.

Judy Burgarella painting at a Boardwalk over the Indian River Lagoon

Artists set up  within view of my composition and watched as they painted along with me. It's a great way to learn, as they see the instructor (me!) make mistakes and correct them, have happy accidents, make best use of the weather, changing light, inconvenience, etc. But they also witness the joy I project in my painting process ... especially the joy of painting out of doors. We saw many birds, porpoises rolling in the water, fish jumping and fishermen fishing as the beautiful puffy clouds rolled by. There were tall mangroves to the left of me shading where they all sat and sketched with their pastel pencils.  We painted at five different locations, all very interesting, natural and beautiful.

I had hoped to finish at least one painting to bring to last class, but alas, life got in the way and I was too busy painting for several shows. It's a rich life here in Indian River county if you're in the arts! So many artsy things going on, and I try my best to do them all!

As for the Photorealism class, that one I also demonstrated different mediums each week, to cover the variety of mediums of my students. And I also did not finish one painting. However, I brought a couple of my finished realistic paintings for them to examine each week. This class's supplies were also funded by the Hearst Corporation, and subject matter was mostly also of nature. 

Some Recent New Paintings

"EMERGENCE"

T\he painting below was exhibited in the Patten Gallery of the Vero Beach Museum of Art. The show was at the invitation of the Museum to members of the Cultural Council of Indian River County. The theme was "Abstract," and boy did everyone bring their "A" Game!  It was a beautiful and exciting array of abstract work. Mine, of course, had to have a face in it. Just can't stop myself. Abstract was a stretch for me, but I ended up having such fun with it. Can't wait to do it again. There is even a secret message within the abstract background. Can you see it?

"Emergence" 24"x18" Acrylic by Judy Burgarella

"STILL LIFE WITH GREEN ONIONS"

This sweet little pastel piece I had actually started years ago, but I recently came upon it in my flat file just waiting to be finished. I was probably having trouble with it at the time, but it is amazing how much better you get with each passing year. I had no trouble finishing it, other than dozing off and smudging it with my arm while painting too late into the night. Happened twice. Had to repair it twice. I finally went to bed and finished with fresh eyes the next morning. 

"Still Life with Green Onions" Pastel 14"x17" by Judy Burgarella

STILL LIFE WITH ORANGES

An oldie but a goodie. This poor pastel has been schlepped around to so many shows, and I wonder why it hasn't sold yet. So I reframed it and cut a nice fillet (small silver bar against the mat) for it, and I think it looks so much better. It actually was my first attempt at pastel many years ago. I have used this painting so many times as a staging piece, which my daughter Robin Burgarella offers as a service to her real estate clients. Another outlet for my creative side, like playing with doll houses it is. Redesigning rooms, adding lamps, runners, flowers, rugs, curtains, etc., which we shop for at our own storage unit. The "Befores" and "Afters" are amazing, and the houses tend to sell fast because of our "beautification" skills. It's an honor working with my daughter, and now with my daughter's daughter! At 11 years old, Salem is better at the computer work than I am, and is gaining on me with her staging skills! 

"Still Life with Oranges" Pastel, 22"x26" by Judy Burgarella

Well, that's all for today. I hope you enjoyed or were inspired by my postings, and maybe enough that you'll pick up the brush yourself!

Judy Burgarella

Blogger

Three New 12" x 12" x 1-1/2" Acrylics!

 I whipped these up for the Environmental Learning Center's "Little Things" show.  All entries had to be 12" x 12" x 1-1/2", and nature-related.  Not having the required pieces, I was forced to paint them. Maximum entries for one price was three, so that's why I painted three.

First one I did was an Eagle. For this show, the title is, "Symbol of Hope." I named it that because of all the political chaos and bad decisions being made by our leaders as of late which is very concerning for America's future, and I was looking for something that would give us hope. 

"Symbol of Hope," Acrylic, 12"x12"x1-1/2" by Judy Burgarella

I had been wanting to paint a hummingbird lately.  These "flying flowers" often visit one of my flowering bushes in the yard, but I have yet to get a photograph of them.  This is a combination of several photos from a bird book of mine.  The clouds were from a snapshot I took just today from the Wabasso Bridge. Pink Hibiscus were from my garden.

"Hummingbird's Delight," Acrylic, 12"x12"x1-1/2" by Judy Burgarella

"On The Hunt" was a combination of photos of a Florida panther, however the scene is from a vacant lot down on my street that always intrigued me as it has an interesting little opening where you can peer into the dark underbrush.  On my walks with the dog many times I have taken photos of it, hoping that I could use it in a painting someday.

"On The Hunt," Acrylic, 12"x12"x1-1/2" by Judy Burgarella

Delivery due later today.  Enjoy the view!

Judy Burgarella

Blogger

Portrait of Mary

 A pretty woman, a fuzzy picture.  I was given a commission for a portrait to create from an old photograph, taken when "Mary" was much younger.  Her husband, Ray wanted it as a surprise for a future event.  I did the best I could, not having even met Mary, and using a very small, old, fuzzy faded photograph.  It got rave reviews and the customer was very happy and proud.  Mary is still very beautiful, as is her younger version shown below.

"Portrait of Mary" Oil, by Judy Burgarella

Aside from the difficulties of an image without a lot of information contained within it, the strange lighting and shadows also posed some problems.  What colors to use? How much contrast? What were the actual values?  And some forms and details happen to be missing within the photograph.

The customer asked me to frame it with a gilded frame, which I happened to have on hand, and I believe it was the best choice for this portrait.

What a joy it is to paint a portrait and get to know a person's face inch-by-inch, and have the challenge especially of bringing it to life again decades later in the future.  Yes, a joy and a challenge, but exhausting and I'm relieved it came out ok and it's finished.

Judy Burgarella
Portrait Blogger

 

Some More Recent Works ~ 

"Blue Heron and Orchids" is a watercolor rendition of a painting of the same name in Acrylics.  The Acrylic one was recently sold during my show at the Environmental Learning Center.  It was created for an upcoming workshop for the Orchid Island Art Club in March.  Two totally different mediums, but a lovely painting nonetheless.

"Blue Heron and Orchids" Watercolor
14"x11" Unframed, 23"x19" Frame by Judy Burgarella

"Blue Heron in the Reeds" was created in a pastel workshop at Orchid Island.  We all painted something different, and this image was snapped by me at the canal in my backyard.  When I put it in the oval mat it looked just perfect!  

"Blue Heron in the Reeds" Watercolor 14"x11" unframed, 20"x16" framed
By Judy Burgarella

Enjoy!

Judy Burgarella

Blogger

 What can an artist do??

"KATERYNA"

As the date to do this portrait in acrylics class drew near I was moved to design something to go along with our world in crisis, mainly the Ukraine.  After researching facial features of Ukrainian women a face gradually emerged from my pencil of a woman in Ukrainian native dress and wearing a floral garland.  All designs were taken from historical photos on the internet and so are truly based on authentic Ukrainian attire.

The name "Kateryna" according to a list of Ukrainian names means "Pure." Pure and innocent are those who are being killed, maimed and driven from their free country.  The atrocities that Putin has inflicted upon the Ukrainian people will be revisited by all those who survived for the rest of their lives.

So what could an older, powerless, not-so-well-off artist do to help?  Well one was to recognize the Ukrainian people's plight by designing a work of art to represent their people.  And gradually I came up with the idea of donating the proceeds of this painting to them also.  And so the idea was born.  But wait--I thought, "How can I expand upon that idea?"  So then I came up with publishing it on the internet in hopes that other artists see it, paint it, sell it, and donate the proceeds.

So here is beautiful Kateryna, with instructions below it.  Feel free to improve it, change it, or be inspired by it to do something yourself that will help the people in the Ukraine.  

(Click on Kateryna to enlarge)

Note - Keep mind that these instructions were drafted for a classroom where I explained various techniques of painting in acrylics. Please look up on the internet "scumbling" as that was a common technique used in the final skin layers.  This portrait can also be created in oil, watercolor, pastels, colored pencils, etc.  I used a limited palette and did not name the actual colors as I provided all the supplies and some people in class are not familiar with the actual names of the colors. But following are colors I used or suggest: titanium white, cadmium yellow, cadmium orange, cadmium red light, alizarin crimson, dioxazene purple, ultramarine blue, permanent green light, sap green, burnt umber, burnt sienna, ivory black.

Also, I considered "Kateryna" finished enough for my class, however not finished enough to sell.  In spite of that a student insisted on purchasing it from the class "as is."  So the proceeds will be donated to:

                            Samaritan's Purse

                            P.O. Box 3000

                           Boone, North Carolina 28607

                          Phone - 828-262-1980

If you do decide to paint it yourself, I hope you will donate at least something to either Samaritan's Purse or another charity that is helping the Ukrainian people in their struggle to protect their citizens, help those who have survivied, or help them in their fight for their freedom.

(Click on the below instructions to enlarge)

Visit again soon, as I will be uploading more paintings for you to try!

Judy Burgarella

Blogger