Still doing Portraits from Life

Hi guys,
I haven't come back to painting yet. But I am still very much in love with sketching my family members from Life. The self portrait was done with help of a little mirror. yours
Eckhardt

Sketches and a New Sketchbook

Hi guys!

Couple of weeks ago I planned to go out and paint but it was not meant to be so. I got quite sick and struggled with my health. Having not much energy to go out with all my gear I decided to sketch some more. I found a gorgeous sketchbook, leather bound with handmade paper, in our little town. The sketch of the trees and the fence is the first one I did in the new book. The other drawings are done of my son while he is watching a film. This is his usual position when he sits for me. We put up all the pillows behind him and he is sitting on his bed and I sketch him.

The drawings were made on photocopy paper with pan pastel and charcoal. A4 format.

cheers
Eckhardt

Charcoal commission

Here is my latest portrait. A commission of a little girl in charcoal.
Cheers
Eckhardt

No! I am not crazy!

Hi everyone,

Oh boy, the self portrait looks like I am nuts or have a mental health issue. But I can assure you all that this is not the case! I am healthy and a very friendly guy.

I learned something interesting doing the portrait. Using a mirror I had to turn it a bit to get my face into the frame, the result gave me a nose up look. And drawing myself life from the mirror gave me these concentrated staring eyes.

While reading art history I saw several paintings and sketches like these. Here the author of the books said that the pose of the artists shows confidence and pride of their achievements. They called it the mature phase of the artist life.

Well, I don't know about that. Maybe they too had too small mirrors and had to change the angle to fit their faces in. I wonder about all these funny smiling portraits, these relaxed looking artists if they where in truth not painted from photos. I feel sorry for my models that they have to suffer these crazy eyes starring at them. ;-)

I am still into sketching people around me and enjoy the ride big time. I am learning a lot. I hope that next week I will be able to pick up the paintbrush again. The last weeks where crazy because we where waiting for a new family member which arrived last Tuesday. A little girl born to my daughter! Here are some of my sketches.

Fear and Development in Art

here comes a little addition to my last post. A friend of mine send me a link to a great video I like to share with you about fear and development as an artist. Great stuff check it out.
cheers
Eckhardt

Milton Glaser – on the fear of failure. from Berghs' Exhibition '11 on Vimeo.

Yes! and No!

Hi everyone!

Yes, finally I dared to ask people to sit for me as a model!  

I had a dream and I had a problem. The dream was to be able to ask someone who is not a member of my family to sit for me as a model.  

I wanted to draw people around me,  not sketching them in secret but asking them if they could sit for me. 

I really wanted it but didn’t dare to step out, there was a power in me which didn’t want me to leave the comfort zone.  I was afraid to fail, was afraid that the model would be disappointed with my drawing. 

I waited and waited for the freedom to pull me along, allowing me for what I was longing for.

This day of freedom never came. I waited and waited…

Now some weeks ago, I decided that if I want to do it I do it now and I don’t care what happens. 

I didn’t allow my feelings and thoughts to stop me but ask the first person to be my model.  The first portraits took me about 25minutes.  In the beginning I was asking if they would sit for a limited time. Then later I skipped that question as it too was born out of fear. I wanted to put the drawing first and not to worry about anything.  I had only one agenda and that was asking a person to sit for me and to finish his portrait, good or bad. 

What I learned is this:

It’s only our ego with its fears hindering us from the things we really want. How is it otherwise possible that I know what I want to do but don’t do it? 

It’s because an identity in me (the ego) wants to stop me doing just what I want.  When I ignore its negative babbling I was free and could step out into the freedom.  

Today I simply dare to ask anyone to sit for me.  The ego doesn’t give us freedom, we have to take it. That is if you want to do what you really want to do. 

Yours

Eckhardt

Anders Zorn Part 5

Hi everyone!
today I will show you the last pictures I have from my trip to Mora. I recommend warmly a visit to the Zorn museum and to his house called "Zorngarden". The guided tour there was very good and gave me a clear picture how Anders and Emma lived.

Next week I hope I will be back in full swing of production and be able to show you more of my own  paintings.

Until then, happy painting!
yours

Eckhardt

Anders Zorn Part 4

Today I am going to show you some of Zorns "en plein air" sketches. Please click in the picture to size it up even more. Then, if a magnify glass shows up  in your browser click another time to size it up even more. Like I said before, my camera is very bad and todays sketches where shot through a glass window. These small paintings where done I guess "en plein air" from Anders.

I am pretty sure that he used blue in his palette, what do you think?  I don't believe you get this kind of blue through greys only!

PS  There are lots of great Zorn pictures in very high resolution at Artos Art! Check it out here!

Enjoy!
yours
Eckhardt

Anders Zorn Part 3

Ok, here are some more close ups of the girl in white.  The entire painting you can see in my blog post called Anders Zorn Part 1. Again if you click in the paintings you will get a much higher resolution. After you click on the picture you might see a magnify glass in your browser, if you click again the painting might even fill your screen. Have fun with Anders and the way he painted edges!

Here is his studio!

Anders Zorn Part 2

Before I started my travel to Mora I decided to concentrate my studies mainly on his brushwork and the way he worked with his edges. I was concerned that I would be overwhelmed with information seeing everything and in the end nothing. I was happy to notice that one was allowed for personal use to shoot photos without using a flash.  The trouble was that I only have a lousy small camera and she didn't manage to make good pictures. From the over 200 shots I took most where a total loss. So guys, if you come to Sweden, bring a very good camera with you, you will be allowed to use it but without a flash.

Here is a shot I took of his brushes and his painting knife. In the right side of the picture I believe I see cobalt blue and ultramarine blue on his palette. If I am not mistaken I too saw a tube of cobalt blue in his painting box.
Anyhow the sign on the wall said that he used only zinc white, ivory black, light ochre, cinnabar and emerald green.

Here are some detail shots from the portraits I showed you in Zorn Part 1. If you click on each of the pictures you can see them much bigger and study the edges.

Have fun!
Cheers
Eckhardt

Anders Zorn Part 1

Hi everyone!

I just came back from a visit to Mora. I spend two days with my painting hero Anders Zorn, studied his work, his life and looked around in his home called Zorngården.

I am still deeply moved by the power of his portraits.

                                         I never before experienced that a painting was talking to me and yet it happened, it seemed that after hundred of years, the people he painted, are still alive and looking back at me, thinking, having feelings!

I came to Mora to study his technique but what impressed me most was the spirit in the paintings I found.
What I am happy about is that I now learned to see and judge a portrait. I will measure it by the voice it has. If the painting is not talking and the person portrayed has no life of its own it will not have worth to me, never mind how fancy it is painted.

I really learned this lesson after seeing Anders Zorns work. This will be my standard and I will know now when a portrait is talking or not.
 

Cheers
Eckhardt

Art Prints of my Studio Paintings

Now it is possible to buy  high quality prints of my studio works!

I added a black button called "Imagekind", to my blog from where you are able to enter my on-line gallery any-time you want.

• In the print-gallery you can have  a look around at my paintings in a very high resolution.
• You can even order high quality prints on paper or canvas.

(This painting is sold)

The old farmhouse

Today's "plein air" effort was again the old farmhouse in the middle of our village. I painted the house some weeks earlier but nature had changed the scene so much that I wanted to paint the farm again. This time I choose a bigger view to include some of the sky. I was happy that mother nature placed some rather nice looking yellow bushes into the scene too.

Cheers
 E.Milz

The old farmhouse

Size: 10.5 x 7.5 inch
         27 x 19cm
        Oil on Panel

Price:  170 Euro

The shot was taken from my painting buddy Carlos after I finished working on the scene.

My first floral portrait!

Hi
today I played a little Monet and went into my garden in search for a motive. I never painted flowers before and thought to challenge myself. I was never drawn to paint flowers, I always thought that this kind of job belongs to a group of old lady weekend painters. But I was in for a big surprise, I really like that kind of thing.
The only annoying interruption I had came from  a bunch of horseflies biting me in the back.

Wintertime when Sweden is loaded with snow and ice I plan to return to the studio and do some more flower still live paintings.

yours
Eckhardt

Pink peonies
Size: 12 x 9 inch
        31 x 22cm
        Oil on Canvas
Price:  465 Euro

If you want to have a closer look at the brush strokes, click on the image!

Painting a cabin in the woods and then came the old guy!

Hi everyone!

I just came home with a painting. Boy I was lucky that it survived the curiosity of a senior citizens attack.
While I was painting the historic cabin, which the local museum had build up in the woods, an elderly man came over to me shouting for his wife to come over and to have a look at the artist and his painting.

She only gave a muffled sound of discontent and then she marched in the opposite direction.  Meanwhile he got real existed about the painting. Told me that he approves of my work and that I am a real artist because he really could see what I am painting.

He found it so funny that I painted all the rubbish on the left side of the cabin. He was hammering with his big finger on the wet canvas telling me that it was him putting all the old tools near the cabin....here....pointing on the canvas.....on the left side of the cabin. And the stuff......here....pointing.....are old fishing tools....here....pointing on the canvas again.

I got real busy lifting the painting a bit but he followed me talking all the time and popping his fingers on the canvas. I thought I would faint but luckily nothing happens to the fresh paint. It must be a miracle that nothing happened to the painting as the old man was not shy at all telling his stories with a lot of gusto and animation.

Cheers
E.Milz

Swedish Cabin
Size: 16 x11 inch
        40.5 x 28 cm
        Oil on Panel
Price: 525 Euro


If you want to have a closer look at the brush strokes, click on the image!

Lucky me! The 1870 gave me a Kiss!

I believe that being an artist in 1870 had its advantages. Monet had a gardener and people fixing his food, so did Renoir. Not to mention Meissonier who had a whole staff attending to his needs. Think about it, only painting and the rest is taken care off.

Well, lucky me I got a glim's of that kind of Life today. My painting buddy L. took a day off but still followed along to share my painting day with me. He fixed a fire and the outdoors kitchen, while I, the "artist", did the painting. ;-)

It was a day of changes, rain, sun, misty air, clouds all changing within minutes. Sometime I had three hills in front of me and then 5 minutes later none. Everything was covered in a misty rainy air. At one time was the lake like a mirror and next time I looked over my shoulders I saw not a mirror but waves.

I started painting facing the lake, then after 20 minutes a stormy rain hit us and I moved into the little shelter. The trouble was that I could not face the lake, I needed light to see my canvas. So I turned my back to the scene to get more light on the canvas but I am sure that the fisherman watching us from the other side of the lake thought that I am nuts painting the inside of a shelter.

Happy painting!
E.Milz

Meditation

Size: 10.5 x 7.5 inch
         27 x 19cm
        Oil on Panel

Price:  170 Euro

If you want to have a closer look at the brush strokes, click on the image!