Another painting in the "Wise Women" series is
"The Pottress." This is a portrait of a ceramicist who works with her hands to create works of art that are many times functional as well as beautiful.
I painted her in her studio surrounded by shelves of pots and supplies, throwing her clay on a spinning potters wheel.
It's a messy art, but I wanted to portray the supple clay changing under her skilled hands – the center focus of this painting. I painted her looking down at her work. Finally, I cut and stitched my own black apron to her and added splashes of paint to look like the messiness of creating art.
"In this painting, I want the viewer to feel the clay and witness the intensity of the artist creating her bowl. There is a controlled spontaneity throwing on the wheel, but it is an intensely creative process."
The background
A ceramics studio is always a study is raw creative messiness. Stacks of pots ready to be fired, sacks of clay waiting to be used, clay tools and clay dust everywhere. To capture this, I underpainted the background in quadricine red oxide to give the darkened areas warmth when overpainted.
Painting the drama
Darkening the background with Paynes gray painted heavily on the left side of the canvas to establish a directional light source on the right side, the background begins to frame the pottress's face. I also refined her hands, focusing on the delicate fingers shaping the clay while being covered in it as well.
Adding complementary color
To create excitement, I painted the figure's shirt in a bright red/rose in contrat to the blue/gray background. I knew I was going to sew a real black apron to the canvas, so I wanted to keep the lighter, brighter areas of her face and hands. I softened her face with a more muted skin tone and focused on her downward-looking eyes.
Finishing the details
This photo is of the apron pinned to the canvas as I cut and fitted it to her figure - always an interesting step while the oil paint is still somewhat wet. I also finished her hair, painting white and gray strands over the darker gray/black underpainting.