Summer Art: Boys, Cars, and Experimental Ceramics

"Little Boy in Summer" oil paint by Katherine Lehr,  2016

I had hoped to complete a few paintings this summer, mainly focusing on a large canvas painting of each of my twin boys and then going from there. As some travel and the aforementioned boys (now both 15 months old and getting into and on top of everything) took up plenty of my summer break, I ended up only completing one painting of M. I've outlined the second painting of Q, but given that it's also a relatively large canvas and the new school year has started I don't foresee that being completed any time soon. 

About the painting:  This is oils on a 20x28 canvas. We went to a birthday party for M and Q's friend who was turning one. In the yard Milo discovered this little plastic car and played with it for almost the entire party. He was obsessed! I snapped a photo of him with the car and looking at it later gave me a nostalgic feeling for my childhood summers. So I decided to use the photo as a reference for this painting. I'm not well practiced in portraiture, especially children, so this was a challenge for me, but hopefully I'll improve as I do more.

And then, the ceramics......

                             a close-up of the ear

I also took a ceramics class over the summer. This is definitely not my medium of choice as I tend to struggle with getting the outcomes I envision when working with clay. However, I did have a fun time doing a Raku firing with this creepy looking, vaguely Salvador Daliesque head that I created. I haven't done this type of firing before and was pleasantly surprised by the unique, metallic glaze effects. I used Pale Aqua and White Crackle Raku glazes. You can see a photo taken after the Raku firing process was finished and we began to uncover the pieces (my piece is the bottom center) at the end of this post. 

Additionally, I made a few functional pieces. I liked how this triangular dish with fern texture on the bottom (not Raku fired) turned out.

bottom of dish

 

top of dish