These are my posts to the Thirty Paintings in 30 Days at http://www.saetastudio.com/30-in-30-blog



To view all of my previous work go back one page to the Artists Portfolios.

Day one. Walking Out. Are those her purse and her keys, or her purse and a gun?

Day two. Reading Model.

Day three. Light House.

Day four. Fogfall.

Day five. The Darker Cavern.

Day six. FDR 91.

Day seven. Opposite Hand. Colored felt tip pens on sketch paper. This was
entirely created with my non-dominant hand. (I am left-handed so this was done with
my right hand.) The idea of arms and hands in a highly abstracted composition is clear.
Much of the design concepts used here have been a longstanding part of my art for the
last 40 years, including most of my realist landscapes. Broken or shuttered lights and
darks create the figural elements, like tree limbs that pass light fleetingly as the
atmosphere changes around them.

Day eight. Sand Bars. I am reminded of the rolling dunes that are under water,
and then the dry dunes and architectural structures of the beach house found at
Kohler-Andrea State Park, Sheboygan, Wisconsin. My earliest and fondest memories are
of my family's property on the beach a mile north of that area.

Day nine. FDR 94 5.

Day ten. FDR 92 3.

Day eleven. FDR 94 4.

Day twelve. Nymphic.

Day thirteen. FDR 96 3.

Day fourteen. Halloween on Ice. I did not like acrylic when I first started
experimenting with it years ago. Now I would find it difficult to go back to oil.
My favorite passage in this piece is the snowy eaves of the roof with the violet
chimney above and the translucent shadows below. Then is the strange reflections in
the ice pond. I want to put on my figure skates again!

Day fifteen. FDR 93 2. A five minute sketch.

My works from the model are almost always studies from
www.OnAirVideo.com/croquis-cafe.html

Every week's model poses for five one minute sketches, four two minute
sketches, and one five minute sketch. I am learning how to be quick and to
skip everything but the essentials. Later on I may go back and embellish
or clean up a sketch I particularly liked. I did not do that here.

These quick sketches from the model are getting easier and I am getting more
fluid in my lines. This is the middle of the month for the September
30 in 30 challenge. I've made it halfway! Since we are at the weekend I
should be able to catch up on some more serious work for the next half of
the month. This has been forcing me to work more regularly and consistently.
Now lets see what the next fifteen days can do!

Day sixteen. Insurreption D.
This is a digitally modified version of an acrylic piece by the same title I
completed this month. After taking the image into Photoshop to correct some
of the camera distortions and light problems I decided I liked this image better than
the original. That is not my usual way of preparing my art for online reproduction,
but it worked nicely here. Not like most traditional artists, I absolutely believe that
digitally based media are, like photography, capable of producing very high end art.
We only need one digital Ansel Adams to prove it.

Day seventeen. FDR 94 1.
The quick simplicity of the line is what I like about this piece.

Day eightteen. Anchored.

Day nineteen. Social Web.

Day twenty. Rosie's Dahlias.

Day twenty-one. Purple Loostrife.

Day twenty-two. Beach Bums 4.
Friday and Saturday, September 22 and 23 were the hottest days this summer.
I took 400 photos at Bradford Beach for reference material. This is a small sketch
I did tonight based on one of those photos. Four young men on the beach with a
volleyball. I used black felt tip pen for the darkest darks. Lot of fun!

Day twenty-three. Woman on Beach.

Day twenty-four. FDR 101 Tamara2.
Third one minute pose. Created in Sketchbook Pro
and modified in Photoshop.

Day twenty-five. FDR 101 Tamara.
A pretty terrible work. Badly balanced. Created in Sketchbook Pro
and modified in Photoshop.

Day twenty-six. FDR 101 Tamara1.
Second one minute pose. Created in Sketchbook Pro
and modified in Photoshop.

Day twenty-seven. Desert Skies.
Digitally created in Sketchbook Pro
and modified in Photoshop.

Day twenty-eight. Storm Warning.
Digitally created in Sketchbook Pro
and modified in Photoshop.

Day twenty-nine. FDR 101 Tamara13.
Digitally created in Sketchbook Pro and modified in Photoshop.
I have done thirteen studies of Tamara this month. With this piece I feel like I
have finally done the model justice. This has been one of the most difficult figure
studies I have done so far. I have learned an amazing amount of digital-technique-oriented
stuff from this long series of drawings. I think I finally might have graduated from
terrible to acceptably novice (just above crap).

Day thirty. Walking In.
Watercolor, pencil and acrylic, 9x12. This completes the theme of figure studies
that dominates my approach to the thirty paintings in 30 days of September 2017.

I began this challenge with a female figure walking out of a door, apparently
armed with an AK-47. The theme was intentionally scary and maybe even vindictive.
I am ending the 30 day challenge with another armed woman, this time, walking in.

I have played with several themes in this piece, some of them are cultural, but most
are religious or spiritual. Do you see them?

The flaming sword. The cross. The halo over her. She appears and disappears. Is she human
or a spiritual being? Is fire around her, or is it her very essence? Is she angelic
or a deciever? How does the Bible she carries challenge your ideas about her?

Why a woman? Why a woman of color? Why does she appear victorious? Happy? Why is she
clothed, after I have offered so many nude models over the last thirty days? Why
is the figure dressed in a sweater and blue jeans even though she is so obviously
characterized as a mythic symbol? Is she classically determined or a modern woman?

From a technical standpoint, is it possible for an artist to legitimately depict
the essence of the human being if he has not acknowledged the nude figure?
Should Christian people ever contemplate the nude figure? Are there deeper aspects
of philosophy, ethics and theology that the nude is serenely capable of answering?

I leave the answers to the viewer. I am now challenging you.