Art of the Dog: Dawn Secord: Dubuque, Iowa

Monday, June 7, 2010

Dubuque, Iowa

We have been progressing across the Country nicely. My grandparents were all from Dubuque, Iowa. It was decided in route to deviate from our scheduled route and head to Dubuque. We went through some quaint little towns. Actually, there was one town with a posted population of 24. Considering we live outside Los Angeles and I grew up in Dallas, a population of 24 is less than what I see in the market at any given time. How can a town have 24?? It sounds wonderful to some degree.

As children, my maternal grandfather would routinely take my brothers and me to the Julian Dubuque memorial. Of course our grandfather, Bapoo, would never tell us what it was. He told us it was Bat Man's secret entrance to the Bat Cave. I'd stand at the bars in the front of the stone structure and try to figure out how the heck Bat Man got in there. It was an amazing situation for a 5 year old.

So, while in Dubuque I had to go to the memorial. The front of the memorial faces the great Mississippi River up on a bluff. From the rear of the memorial all you can see is the stone structure. As I walked around the structure I saw a mom, a dad and a four"ish" year old blond haired girl with her tiny hands on the bars looking inside the memorial. My heart warmed as I understood her mesmerized state standing in front of Bat Man's secret entrance. It was great to visit. It would have been nice to spend a little more time exploring and reminiscing.

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Pastel Painting in Progress - French Bulldog

Here is a painting in progress. The pastel paintings are done very much in the same way an oil painting is done. I start with a base color. Usually I work with a precolored surface. With oil painting I would lay in a foundation color so the white canvas wouldn't show through. So this is the same basis. Since I am right handed I work from left to right unless it is a landscape or still life in which case the entire surface is worked uniformly. With pet portraits, so I don't damage an area that is completed, the surface is worked from left to right. While working an area of the subject I lay in mid tone values first - then work light to dark. With pastels an artist can "fill the tooth" of the surface so it is important not to over work any areas. Once the entire subject is painted I go back and reinforce the lightest lights and darkest darks. My greatest area of interest is the eyes. If the eyes aren't right the entire painting will look odd. If the painting is about a sleeping animal it is important to convey the comfort of the animal.

Oil Painting in Process

The following pictures show an Oil Painting in process. The first images show my beginning sketch. I use a common pencil, ruler and an eraser. Once the beginning sketch is satisfactory the sketch is secured with a layer of black oil paint. When the first layer is dried I apply a base color over the entire canvas. I love working on a burnt sienna foundation. There are paintings where I start just working directly on the white canvas and there is no base layer or foundation. It really depends on the painting. From the base foundation I start layering colors. It is a slow process due to drying time. This is where it really becomes fun. I should really make a recording of my husband saying, "You're done - stop messing with it!" Thanks for taking a peek. This painting is of a cat named Lynxy!