Unfinished Self-Portrait, Close-ups of Women Series

Self-Portrait, unfinished (the fascinator has a veil that has yet to be painted in), ©Brenda Clews, 2016, 20" x 16" x 1.5", oil on canvas.

About 12 hours later:

The middle one not finished. The fascinator on the one on the right has a veil to come. Night-time photos (not the best). Close-ups of Women. Each painting is 16" x 20"x 1.5", oil on canvas. ©Brenda Clews 2016

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Bänoo's Portrait almost done

Portrait of Bänoo Zan, 2016, 16"x20"x1.5", oil on canvas. ©Brenda Clews 2016. Photo taken inside with room light and colour-corrected (this is not the official photo which I will take when the painting is complete and dry and varnished).

Struggled with this all day and am okay with it now. A few touch-ups to do, but it is essentially done. I don't think it will be dry for Verve on Aug 25th, but... used water-soluble oils, so you never know. I still have two more portraits to do. I wish I hadn't been so busy in the last few weeks, not just with people and events, but with stress from same.

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I'm in VERVE Showcase Thurs Aug 25th Toronto!

Howdy y'all!

I will hit the stage on Thursday, August 25th at Verve Showcase at the Mod Club (720 College St, Toronto, 8pm-1am), as well as have an artist's display upstairs by the bar.


VERVE Showcase is 2 days of live performances, runway shows, live hair and make-up, accessory design and visual art displays! 80+ talented artists involved! RAW Artist's BIGGEST and BOLDEST show yet! One ticket gets you in on both nights! Support local art and come out to see the vast talent that exists in Toronto.

Thursday August 25th, Friday August 26th 2016 at the Mod Club (722 College St.)
8pm-12am (Performances, Runways, Art Displays, etc.)
12am-2am (After Party with music by Tony Smart)

$20 advanced (will count towards my tickets, buy on-line or email or message me to pay cash to buy a ticket from me) http://www.rawartists.org/brendaclews
$25 at door
19+ event
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If you buy an advanced ticket through my website at RAW Artists or from me in person, you get 20% off the 100% cotton raglan tees I will be selling.

*And* you can get 20% off a commissioned graphite portrait, 8.5"x11" on Moleskine Sketchbook paper from me.

I include the floorplan - you can see me listed upstairs on the right by the bar overlooking the stage. Please come hang out with me after you browse the cornucopia of displays of art, photography, jewelry, fashion all over the Mod Club!

And here are some promo pics for the Night to Come. VaVoom!!!

You can buy a ticket through my website there, I hope you do! Whatever you like (I'll still love you either way, but it would help me out if you did and then you can see a Verve for yourself and your clients): http://www.rawartists.org/brendaclews

hugs, Brenda

Promo pics for my stage performance and artist's display at Verve Showcase on Thursday August 25, 2016, buy tickets through my website at RAW Artists: http//www.rawartists.org/brendaclews.

 Will use this as my artist's pic at my new website that is still under construction.

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First photo with 'Tidal Fury'

First photo of my copy of Tidal Fury on July 26th, within hours of 

receiving it by courier from my publisher! Photo by Eugene Styles. 

Thank you Michael Mirolla and Guernica Editions!

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2nd Wash of Oils on Three Close-ups of Women Portraits

Three Close-Up Portraits of Women, works-in-process, 2nd wash of oils, which, when they are dried a bit, will be stretched back onto their canvas stretchers and painted like regular oil paintings. They are each 16" x 20", oils on canvas. © Brenda Clews 2016

They've had two oil washes, and one of them had their paint removed, but they are women, they are ongoing. When they are dry, I'll begin painting. What you see here is mostly scrubby thick brushes and fingers and a washcloth without any delicacy.

Photos taken indoors with daylight fluorescent bulbs.

The last one, a self-portrait based on a photograph from a video that I did in 2013, when I had auburn hair, I am not happy with - been too busy lately, and under a lot of stress, and I realized that I was simply too exhausted to continue to work on it until I got it to a place of leaving. Perhaps it is the hair on the right side, and the shadows on the skin that need work. I don't know when I can come back to it, either. These little paintings have to dry so I can begin working on them. So, I may leave the self-portrait as is and make adjustments later.

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First Wash of Oils on the Three Portraits

Photo later than the video, and it is after a bit of work on the lower right portrait. First Wash of Oils, there is a 2nd wash to go, and then they will be stretched back onto their canvas stretchers and painted like regualr oil paintings. 16" x 20", oils on canvas. © Brenda Clews 2016

direct link: First Wash of Oils

Yeah, well. It's deliberately a small video. It's a bit much, the way my cut-off exercise tights/shorts slipped a bit. I speeded this up to 5000x to get it to fit into a minute though I spent well over an hour getting to this point with these paintings. It was gruelling and I wasn't happy with how they turned out. The second wash will help, I know. Then they will be stretched back onto their stretchers and painted like regular oil paintings. :) The video shows the hardest part of the whole process - beginning.
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Charcoal Sketches of Close-ups of Three Women

      

Looks like I have a spot at Verve, put on by RAW Artists, on Thursday August 25th in Toronto, if, that is, I can sell 20 tickets for the show. I will have a 15 minute Performance Artist spot on stage and will project some videopoems while I perform the poems, as well as about 7.5' of wall to show and sell artwork. My book, Tidal Fury, will be published by then and so I will perform from it as well as have copies to sell.

Naturally, I am doing some new work. These are small (for me!) - 16" x 20" x 1.5". The sketches are charcoal on primed canvas and will be painted in oils. One is a self-portrait, the other two are women I know. I thought to do close-ups of women, and found these in my collection of photographs, so, yes, they are from photographs - but my knowledge of all of us, and earlier drawings I've done, informs the sketches. No idea what will happen when I paint them in oils - I love watercolour, but I had these canvases lying around waiting.
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