"Under a Willow Tree" (oil on linen; 8" x 10") sold

"Under a Willow Tree"
sold

"Morning Garden" (oil, 8" x 10")

"Summer Garden" (the improved version; oil, 10" x 10")
sold

"Capitol Hill in Summertime" (oil, 15" x 8")
sold

"Capitol View from the US Botanic Garden" (oil, 15" x 8")

Paintings are like your children.  You nurture them; you pour your heart out; you even lose sleep over them.  Once you do all you can, you wish them well.  You want them to shine--get into juried shows, receive awards of excellence, and admired by the public.  Whether you keep them in your private collection or sell them to collectors, you want them to be loved.

Alas, paintings do not always turn out well.  Unlike children, however, there are things you can do to improve paintings.  After they sit around in my studio for a while, I seem to gain certain detachment.  I can see things that I didn't see before.  Composition can be tweaked; drawing can be corrected; values can be strengthened; colors can be made richer.  Or, they may be retired so that I can get on with my life. 

In this positive spirit, I am working on a series of old paintings to see if I can make them better. Why not?  After all, all paintings are just a playing ground to grow as an artist, aren't they?  Paints and canvas may be transformed into an exquisite work of beauty that transcends everyday experience.  If it doesn't, well, no harm was done.  Nobody died in the process.  Ha!

"Capitol View from the US Botanic Garden" (oil on linen; 15" x 8") sold

"Capitol View from the US Botanic Garden"
sold

"Capitol View" (pen and watercolor sketch; 9" x 4")

Reference photo

I recently started a new collection, called "Washington Landmarks."  The decision was prompted by two client contacts from my website (www.kimstenberg.com) within a couple of weeks about my paintings of Bishop's Garden and Iwo Jima Memorial.  Boy, I didn't realize that I have been sitting on a gold mine!  Time to paint some Washington scenes.  "Capitol View from the US Botanic Garden" is the second new painting for this new series.  Lots more to come.  How exciting!

Everybody has seen the Capitol, either in person or on TV.  As the saying goes, familiarity breeds contempt, but I didn't want my baby to be despised.  My mission was to find a new, different angle.  So I went to the National Mall on a hot day last week.  I walked around to find an eye-catching view of the Capitol and found one from the US Botanic Garden, which is by the way the oldest botanic garden in the country (from the mid-19th century!).  To work out the unusual composition, I did a pen and watercolor sketch.  The rest may not be history, but I am pleased with the painting.

"Bishop's Garden, National Cathedral" (oil, 8" x 10")
sold

"Iwo Jima Memorial" (oil, 11" x 14")

Anyhow, the moral of my story is this: if you are an artist without a website, please get one immediately. If you set it up, people will find you.  I am constantly amazed by the power of the Internet.  We live in a brave new world of the world wide web.  Let's all take advantage of and profit from it!

"Iwo Jima Memorial" (oil on linen, 11" x 14")

A friend of mine wanted to paint Iwo Jima Memorial.  She went there twice just to draw and several more times to paint it in the course of two weeks.  Impressive!  Tuesday last week I was supposed to meet her there, but somehow missed the exit off Arlington Boulevard and ended up in Washington, DC.  Oops.  Yesterday I followed another friend's car not to get lost again.  I don't know what the story says about me: my stubbornness or poor driving skills.

Anyhow I made it this time and was impressed by the memorial.  I have seen it many times driving by, but never actually visited it to pay my respect to the people who died during the terrible battle fought on Iwo Jima in 1945 during World War Two--20,000 Japanese and many American soldiers as well.  The weather could not have been better after the last several steamy summer days of Washington.  Four of us settled in a shade to paint the view undistrupted.

The biggest challenge of painting "Iwo Jima Memorial", of course, was drawing, since it involved the sculpture of five men.  You don't have much margin of error in drawing human anatomy.  The sculture doesn't move, but the shadows do.  When I started the drawing, the memorial was backlit; by the time I started painting it was sidelit.  This worked in my favor, but the shadow/light shapes had to be adjusted accordingly.

I used to have a tendency of getting into a slight panic mode whenever I painted outside.  The pressure of limited time, the sun's movement, clouds moving in and out, and so on made me hurry and do a sloppy drawing to get going with painting.  Now I usually sit down to paint, which is less tiring to my lower back and somehow inducive to a more calm attitude.  If I nail the drawing at the outset, the painting takes less time and becomes less belabored.  Each brushstroke is deliberate and there isn't much blending going on (or, at least, that is the goal).  Richard Schmid is my saint patron; I read his book, Alla Prima, in rapture.  These days I try to channel his spirit whenever I paint.  I cheated, however, with one thing.  The flag was painted at home from a photo.  Am I bad?

The painting was juried into The Art League show in Alexandria, VA in June, 2011.