Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Grit and Glamor

Untitled 20" x 20" oil on canvas

Recently I've been painting cowboys, but I've also been doing several more glamorous, elegant subjects. Such as this woman above -- and I have a confession to make -- I am a formal junkie.

I purchase these formal dresses at garage sales or thrift stores, to dress models in them for painting reference. After a couple of years of collecting (and vintage dresses also), I'm finally getting a chance to start using them. We had some bright sunny days a few weeks ago (I love the strong shadows) and I was able to get some reference pictures outside without freezing the model to death. So the recent work on my easel has been flipping back and forth between the glamor of these women with the luscious dresses, and my rugged, gorgeous cowboys.

I have hit one unexpected stumbling block. My brain seems dead when it comes to thinking up titles for these gals. So if any reader has suggestions, I'd be delighted to hear them. I am not looking for a melancholy or sad angle, that's not what these women are about.

Drop me a line if you wish to know which art gallery these paintings are going to, but I won't be making that decision for a few weeks yet.

13 comments:

Jacquelyn Frank said...

CRUSHED

ObsidianBlade31 said...

Boys are Dumb.

Unknown said...

My very first thought was "Blue Dreams" (twist on "daydreams")

It's a beautiful painting :-)

(found from twitter post by Katie)

kirsten said...

Beautiful Despair, After the Dance, Evening is Over,

What feeling are you aiming for?
Also found by Katie's twitter post...

kirsten said...

Dancing Dreams, Dream Dresses (could be a series, Glamorous Dreams, Dreaming, :) I'll keep thinking...

I like Jennifer's Blue Dreams.

Anonymous said...

"Against deep blue"
"Nocturne"
"Study in Sapphire"
"Beguiled"
"We met when we were young"

Anonymous said...

I like "Grit and Glamour" as a title for the painting to be honest. I also like the suggestion of "Blue Dreams" made by Jennifer but that could perhaps be interpreted as melancholic.

What are these women about for you? Do you have any other paintings we could see in the series?

A Shade of Glamor. Reflective Beauty. Formal in Nature.

I think it's a lovely painting. You & Katie are a very talented pair.

Wexford Area Moms said...

Pensive Dance

Melody said...

All Dress Up, No Place To GO!

Amy said...

I first thought she was resting. I thought about the interesting concept of sleeping in a formal dress outside. With a little thought, I came up with
"Formal Intermission".

Karen McClelland said...

I'm blown away by the many wonderful suggestions!! I've written them all down for other paintings, since she can only have one title. Which I made as a combination of a couple of suggestions. So, her new name is:

Azure Dreams

Not everything gets posted on my blog -- but all the paintings eventually make it to my website, karenmcclelland.com so all the glamorous ladies will show up there once they're signed, and I get a chance to load them up.

Thanks again for all your wonderful suggestions!!

Anonymous said...

My first thought was "The Last Dance" Its a beautiful painting.

Unknown said...

Hynogogia The hypnogogic state is that kind of intermediate place between sleeping and waking (where I always get a lot processed). To me it looks like she just decided to rest a moment, closed her eyes, and went to a dream state where she can either manifest the evening to come or reflect on the evening that just happened.