It has been several months since I have been painting 6 days a week. Before this new schedule, I had been painting 5 days a week. All the days have one thing in common—Painting from life.
After so many years of painting and painting, I am not tired of it.
On this post, I present to you 3 of my recent portraits. Two of these were completed from the same spot, and the head portrait was painted from a different location but from the same pose.
It has been a turbulent weeks of strange news. And, the price of eggs has gone up outrageously. Nevertheless, my days continue without missing a beat—Painting every day…
12 x 9 inches
Painting a small color study is so essential to starting a bigger painting. I really have embraced this process. The only times that I would skip painting a color study or a composition study when I am so sure of what needs to be done and because I need all the days that I have with the model.
Another good reason for small study is that it gives me time to plan for an appropriate painting surface. I usually have a few different canvases or panels ready to go, but sometimes I may need a few days to prepare one.
Sharon Sprung 2025 Student
Salon opens on Tuesday, January 21st!
It’s that time of the year where all the students of Sharon Sprung get to showcase a few of their paintings from this school year.
Gallery Hours
Monday – Friday: 10 am – 9 pm
Saturday: 10 am – 3 pm
Sunday: Closed
PHYLLIS HARRIMAN MASON GALLERY
215 West 57th Street
New York, NY 10019
Sharon Sprung, artist who painted Michelle Obama, working on Yellen’s portrait – Reuters – January 12, 2025
Besides painting each day, I read about artists from the past. There are many ways to improve one’s painting; one way is to study how artists lived and read what they wrote.
John left us a few hundred oil paintings for the living. He also wrote extensively and much of his writing is now accessible freely thanks to the internet.
For those of you that are interested in learning more about John Singer Sargent, I am listing a number of references that I have found on this post and update it as needed.
After years of painting, I am happy, grateful, and excited to paint every day. There are many ways to measure success—for me is to paint as much as I can.
My yardstick for measuring success is the square footage of painting surface that I covered with oil paint.
Life can be perceived simple when looking at a simple painting like this one, but surrounding this is a ‘complex’ election year. There are many important topics that are being weighed: the border control, guns, wars, the legality of abortion, truth and lies.
Oil on Canvas, 30 inches x 20 inches
This world would have been a boring place if nobody bother to create music, paint beautiful things, or dance to songs.
The following color study was completed about 10 days ago, in preparation for the final painting above.
Here is the same portrait after about 2 days, roughly 6 hours, of painting from a live model. This is one of My favorite stage of any portrait sitting—everything is super loose, I am not committed to anything, but just seeing and painting.
And, then follows a slower—but lovely—stage of looking and painting until the portrait is completed, or the time with the model ends.
This is a painting of a candy seller and her daughter, but their faces are a collection of many portraits.
Sometime ago, there were only a few migrants with young children wrapped around on their backs, selling candy from one New York City subway station to another. Then, the migrants arrived in thousands. Just in 2023, more than 100,000 migrants have arrived in New York City, and more to other cities. Unable to find legitimate work, migrants are struggling.
Why did they leave everything behind and crossed the southern border? Faced with undeniable danger or the fantasies of utopia hidden beneath the complicated U.S. policies and politics, migrants have risked everything and traveled the dangerous path to cross the U.S. southern border.
Today, securing the U.S. border is prioritized among other world crises. Many Americans don’t agree on securing the border. Some welcome the migrants, some don’t. Caught between these two ideas are real people who have become political pawns as the 2024 presidential election looms.
Sharon Sprung 2024 Student
Salon opens on Monday, April 15th!
It’s that time of the year where all the students of Sharon Sprung get to showcase a few of their paintings from this school year.
Gallery Hours
Monday – Friday: 10 am – 9 pm
Saturday: 10 am – 3 pm
Sunday: Closed
PHYLLIS HARRIMAN MASON GALLERY
215 West 57th Street
New York, NY 10019
