Places and times

Fire Place oil on canvatex 16 x 20 in.

Star Light oil on canvatex 20 x 16 in.

Corner in the Fog oil on canvas 10 x 10 in.

Moon oil on canvas 10 x 10 in.

I've always considered the 19th Century to be the spiritual home of my way of working. Most of my favorite artists are from that time period:  Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Edouard Manet, and Edward Burne-Jones. I'm also drawn to architecture from that period, with the feeling of substance, romance and a connection to the past which I like to incorporate into my paintings.
However, sometimes I move into the 20th Century, at least. Airstream trailers and neon lights have an undeniable appeal. Fire Place and Star Light depict a bar in San Francisco called Swank which is the epitome of Mid Century Modern Style.

What It's All About

Foreign Cinema oil on canvas 10 x 10 in.

Two Trees oil on canvas 10 x 10 in.

Not much to report:  tomorrow is the last day of the show at City Art, and today "Impulse" at Arc Studios & Gallery ended - that one goes up quickly after an in-person selection process, and comes down even more quickly. The ArtSpan fundraiser, which I never miss donating to, is on March 29 this year. . .  other than that I'm on my own!

Remember I said I didn't get Pinterest? Totally hooked now. Go to my Pinterest page and the Inspiration for paintings board to see What It Is All About. I wouldn't paint directly from other people's photos - those amazing photographers really deserve to be credited - but they could be a resource for palette or composition.

This year I hope to paint more animals, more children, and more little fires. I think I will do some small paintings of trees, which just sounds like nothing, but may be a simple and useful exercise. I took some photos of trees on a moonlight walk home one time - actually, many of my paintings are from photos I took on my way home.

Last Chance

Over the window at City Art

My musician paintings will be up at City Art through January 25. This is my final show after seven years in this cooperative gallery. I've put a lot into it and enjoyed having small wall spaces to curate regularly, but it's time to try other things. As at the beginning of every year, I have a lot of ideas! Thank you, everyone, for your support in 2013.

One Minute Tutorial

Halloween 2013, oil on canvas 24 x 32 in.

The current show at City Art will remain up until January 25 2014, and will include a group of my oil paintings of musicians. I have wanted to show this group of paintings together there practically since I started in 2007! Please don't forget to go, and when inside, look above the front windows.

I was recently asked about giving painting lessons. I think it would take about 5 minutes to explain my technique, but part of it is rules to work by and here are a few of mine:
I start by placing the heads in the composition, then adding the line of the shoulders and plane of the torso.
In the end, if the faces look weird, the whole painting will.
I don't use paint straight out of the tube: most colors need to be mixed.
I don't use every color in the rainbow in a painting:  if you leave out part of the spectrum, even one color, the painting will have atmosphere.
A few years ago I took a workshop with Stanley Goldstein and he gave us his own set of rules to work by - it changed my life! One was that pure white paint may very well only need to appear on a painting when representing the light source (such as light bulbs or flames).
And. . . get your artwork professionally photographed (unlike what I have done here).

The City Art Postcard!

Open studios was a success and I'm so grateful to everyone who visited and my friends who helped out. Still exhausted from it. Tonight was an opening at City Art:  another month, another show. I was flattered that they used the image of my painting for the postcard. A lot of my new paintings are there now for my Day of the Dead (and one Halloween) theme. We went to visit my mom this week and she said (about my painting and showing) that I'm relentless, and I liked that.

SAN FRANCISCO OPEN STUDIOS 2013

Please visit my art studio in the stable building at:
THE ALLIED BOX FACTORY
2169 Folsom St. (between 17th & 18th)
Studio S-107 (gate at north end of complex)

Saturday & Sunday October 26 - 27
11am - 6pm

With the stunning photography of Sean Vallely: bluefortyseven.com

Previews on the ArtSpan website:
Hadley Northrop
Sean Vallely

hadleyseanart(at)earthlink.net

Open Studios is at the end of this month, so I should be finishing paintings in progress

My wall at City Art, October 2013

Yesterday, instead of the precarious work of saving difficult areas of paintings while not destroying those I like, and having it all hold together (it is so much more fun starting art than completing it), I took out a very old painting and began reworking it. My early paintings tend to be less saturated in color, as I believe I used to begin drawing in black with white, bringing in grays (nowadays I usually start with white, then yellow, then orange). The finish was usually matte, but often with the texture of previous even older paintings showing through, and my style was bold and loose in a way that I do miss now. The drawing was strong too, but I didn't go beyond the photographic source to really flatter the subjects and create a little world like I do now. So, I started by adding red lipstick to the women in the old, unsold painting and just like in real life, it livened them up. I couldn't stop there. Looking at my Pinterest page of favorite paintings, I see the common themes of people and a black-white-red-violet palette, so I want to see if I can make this painting into one of  those. I will also have to restretch it to address the compositional awkwardness, and frame it to hide the rewrapped edges.