Welcome

Welcome
is this week's theme over at Illustration Friday. This fairly recent painting seems to fit the bill.

I started painting this in a white-hot fit of inspiration, then suddenly...stopped. Six months later it is still unfinished, and I can't seem to muster up the aesthetic energy needed to bring it to conclusion. Yet, I feel it kind of has something good going, and I am not quite ready to abandon it. Maybe some help is needed? Any constructive criticism would be very welcome!

In the Doorway, oil on canvas, 24 x 30 inches, 2009, Nancy Bea Miller

BABY
is the theme at Illustration Friday this week. What fun, I love painting babies! I was one of those little maternal girls with a family of dolls I lovingly tended, and I still like to draw babies whenever I get the chance. Very rarely does anyone ever commission a painting of a baby however...I guess because they change so dramatically in such a short span of time. Often there is only a faint resemblance between an adult's face and his or her baby face, but there is usually some likeness between a child's face and an adult's. Personally I love the face morph time. I love doing teenage portraits as well, again, a time period only rarely commissioned.

Well whatever, this challenge has made me realize that I have only ever painted five or six portraits of babies (!) and I'd like to do more. So maybe I'll just do some for fun. If you live near me (Philadelphia) and have a cute baby, send me an email!

I was shocked to realize it has been several months since I last participated in IF! I have been busy preparing for my first one person show in New York; it's called Still Moments and I just delivered all the paintings on Tuesday. Now comes the nerve-wracking period before the opening, where I worry about the work and its presentation even though at this point there is little to do except try and find a nice dress for the reception. If you're in Chelsea on June 7th, please stop in Sherry French Gallery and say Hi! And if you say Hi Baby I'll know you got there from IF ;->

Nya and Katina, oil on canvas, 28 x 24 inches

CHOOSING
is the theme this week at Illustration Friday. I am using a painting I did several years ago...but it was a big leap forward for me at the time. Taken me quite a long time to catch back up with myself, if you know what I mean? Anyway, it's about having to choose. Taking one thing, then looking again at what you left behind and thinking "Hmmm..." Concept embodied by a small boy eating cupcakes!

Desire, oil on wood, 16 x 8 inches

P.S. Penelope may be too modest to mention her interview in the latest issue of Artful Blogging magazine. I was thrilled to be one of several artists whose images were used as visuals for the article. For more about this, see here!

MOMENTUM
is the theme this week at Illustration Friday. I've noticed lots of the regular participants apologize if they put anything old up in response to a theme. I've never understood that, and I am not going to apologize for this being done several years ago. It's a rarity for me, an action image, as I seem to specialize in stillness.

This is one of my young sons (even younger when I did this) galloping down a hill in a local park. This park is situated right up next to a high school, and to me there was something very poignant about the wild, golden freedom of the young child, contrasting with the strictures of society's expectations and duty (as evidenced by the school building off to the left) looming in the future.

It also seems very appropriate to this Back-to-School week!

Springtime, oil on canvas, 24 x 36 inches

DISCOVERY
is the topic for the week over at Illustration Friday. This painting leapt to mind. It is fascinating to watch children discovering the world, all its riches and surprises. A table laden with still-life objects can be an enchanted island brimming with allegory and possibilities to a four-year-old. I still feel that way myself.

Hugh at the Table oil on canvas 28 x 44 inches

GEEKY
is this week's theme at Illustration Friday. One of the definitions of geek is "A person who is interested in technology, especially computing and new media." -Wikipedia. I decided I did not want to do the stereotype of thick glasses, buck teeth and mismatched plaid: it's a dead horse. Very few people still sport that Poindexter look from the 1950's, and I am amazed how pervasively it has lingered in our collective cultural memory. Most of the geeky guys I personally know wear tee shirts, jeans and sneakers. They often have beards, and sometimes glasses but not always. They just look regular which is not very visually exciting. Instead, I found this drawing I did of kids having fun on the computer, and colored it up in Photoshop. Geeklings!

Personally I am not a technology geek. I take no particular interest in the technological aspects of the tools I use, my computer, camera etc. I value them but just as a means to an end. In fact, I only learned how to turn off my cell phone last week at a bar-mitzvah when they made a general request for this courtesy and I had to ask the man sitting next to me for help. He shot me a look that read Are you kidding me?" then quickly realized I wasn't and showed me how. Duh, right? (In my defense, it is a new phone!)

Confession: it all seems like magic to me and I am content to let it be so!

Pen and ink on paper, scanned and colored in Photoshop

SUIT
is the theme of this week's Illustration Friday. I was initally stumped. I don't have a lot to do with suits as a general rule, business suits that is. Then my mind relaxed and my thoughts widened and I realized Oh yeah: suits of armor, lawsuits, suits of cards and... bathing suits! And I had done this piece just days before. How I enjoyed painting the red stripes on the little guy's bathing suit!

Some back story: I'm in a group of local artists that meets once a month for mutual encouragement and critique. The last meeting was a few days ago, and I decided to bring in a print-out of this piece and a couple of others like it. As soon as I stood up and cheerfully announced "I'm doing some illustration now!" I realized I'd made a big mistake. The pieces circulated to awkward silence. Finally someone cleared their throat and asked "Why are you doing this?" People then started chiming in with suggestions for alternate ways for me to make money: teaching, web design etc. ANYTHING, it seemed, except illustration! I was taken aback, didn't say much, and resumed my seat quickly.

Later I spoke with a friend who is in the group. "Is the work really THAT bad?" My friend said "No no! You've got it all wrong. It wasn't the quality of the work the others were objecting to: it was the fact that you used the dread word Illustration!" Her insight shocked me, but mulling it over, I suspect she is right. I myself don't think that way: fine art v. commercial art. It is ALL just art to me! So it never occurred to me that other artists would have any issue with it either. But these, apparently, did.

Before the art group debacle, I'd queried a little children's magazine and yesterday I got back an e-mail from the art director telling me they love my work and are going to find an article for me to illustrate in an upcoming issue! It is not a sure thing, or even that big of a thing, but I'm thrilled. The praise felt like balm to my wounded confidence! Has anyone else ever run into similar peer issues working in both "fine" and "commercial" art? It just seems so silly to me...!

Little Lake, micron ink pen, watercolor, Photoshop "neatening".

PRIDE OF OWNERSHIP
Last week's Illustration Friday theme was Car. I groaned when I saw that, and since I was busy with the big holiday weekend, I made no attempt to try it. I am notoriously uninterested in automotive subjects. My sons love to tease me by asking me the make and model of various cars we've just seen. They want to hear me say "Um, I think it was a blue one. Right?"

But then just a few days ago I looked out my window and there was my little two-year-old neighbor going for a drive down the sidewalk in his shiny new pedal car. I raced outside with camera in hand. "Hey, honey, what kind of car is that?" I asked, snapping away. Little guy replied "Mine!"

Micron pen on paper, with watercolor, and photoshop "neatening"

SIGNS
is the the theme of Illustration Friday this week. For whatever reason, upon seeing the theme, protest signs flew into my head and had to be exorcised by being drawn out. I am still digitally semi-illiterate: this is pen on paper, colored with Prismacolor pencil, and then scanned in and cleaned up a bit in Photoshop. My color penciling scans terribly: it looks like moth-eaten tweed! I'm getting better at fixing it in Photoshop, but any ideas on how to correct this in the scanning stage are very welcome.

Micron pen on paper, Prismacolor pencil, Photoshop "neatening"

BIRD GIRL
Illustration Friday's theme is "I Spy" and I thought this girl and her parakeet, part of a project I am working on, might fit the bill. Now that the image is posted I can see that I am going to have to get a scanner, mostly to keep the tones even on the paper. Any recommendations?

Ink pen and colored pencil.