by Barbara Downs | Jan 30, 2012
I’ve been working on some large-scale pieces lately with my painting group. We’ve been working on 6’x9′ unstretched cotton canvas, stapled to the wall. I’m using primarily acrylic paint and gesso, along with various drawing materials. The...
by Barbara Downs | Nov 30, 2011
Pentimenti – “A painter’s term for the evidence in a work that the original composition has been changed. Often the opaque pigment with which the artist covered a mistake or unwanted beginnings will, with time or injudicious cleaning, become...
by Barbara Downs | Nov 5, 2011
At Open Studios, someone asked me why I don’t paint faces on my figures, which caused me to pause and question myself, “Do I paint faces?” Of course I do! They stare down at me from the paintings on my walls. My figures–and faces–have...
by Barbara Downs | Oct 14, 2011
One more weekend of Open Studios, October 15&16, 11am-5pm. I try to not work in my studio between the two weekends of Open Studios because I make such a mess, but I couldn’t resist. I started (and may possibly finish) a small sculpture, horsehair and steel,...
by Barbara Downs | Aug 17, 2011
On to Caravaggio. I’m a great admirer, but I know he has his detractors. “Too theatrical!”. “Painted in front of a backdrop, no sense of defining place”. Ok, ok, perhaps true, but perhaps that theatricality is what I like so much...
by Barbara Downs | Aug 12, 2011
What I love about Tintoretto are all those moving, writhing figures. Everyone in the picture plane is twisted in one direction or another, foreshortened to some degree. Figures grab and hold onto each other. There is drama and intrigue and narrative. This painting,...
