We Kid You Not Childfree Forums

Last year, one of the instructors was talking to another student in class about the importance of quality work. In that discussion he said that "It doesn't matter what subject you paint. If you do quality work there WILL be a market for it. I don't care if you paint clowns in their underwear......if it's good there will be someone out there that will want to buy it."

Of course, a group of us overheard the conversation and as immature college students (yes, despite the fact that I'm now 41 years old I consider myself to be just that) we immediately thought that clowns in their underwear would be a GREAT subject for a show and set about making it happen.

I wanted to portray everyday people in clown makeup to kind of show the secret lives of people. My husband was my first model (I tell him that as the spouse of an artist it's his duty to be my model but I think he secretly loves it) and I'm still working on that painting because it's quite large and is a grisaille technique that seems to take FOREVER. I had a second painting in mind and actually knew exactly who I wanted to paint but I was reluctant to ask her as she's one of our clients at the vet clinic where I work.

I FINALLY got the nerve to ask. I explained to her in an email that it involved clown makeup and posing in her underwear and that if she wasn't comfortable with it I understood. She replied that she would LOVE to do that for me. I was floored!

The day of the photoshoot I got there and put on her clown makeup after that she asked what I wanted her to wear! I stumbled a little and asked her if she'd actually read my email and she explained she'd only glanced at it. I told her it was meant to be in her underwear and she said "Oh, no problem at all". Whew! Then I explained that I wanted to show her smoking because I know that she has a secret smoking habit and she was fine with that too.....HUGE sigh of relief! After the photo shoot she said she had so much fun that if I EVER needed a model again for anything just to let her know!

The show was a huge success and as a result of the show I was able to get a gallery interested in my work. This is so far the largest painting I've done to date (30" x 40" gessobord) and I decided to give it an "artsy" name so I called it "Repose of an Established Habit".

I've submitted it to two juried shows since the clown show and was SHOCKED that it was accepted to both of them. I was shocked because it's just not the type of artwork most people like around here and in fact I fully expected it to be rejected from both shows. The show this spring it actually took BEST IN SHOW and although it didn't win anything at the second show I got a lot of GREAT compliments.

I'm actually looking forward to hanging this on my livingroom wall (the first painting I've liked enough to want to hang in my home)!

Here it is - detail of face:


detail of the dog:


and the full painting:

Wow!!! It's fabulous!!

I am dying to know what the model thinks! Did you show her? I love it!

That's amazing. You have incredible talent!

It's gorgeous. You have such a way with light and shadow. I can definitely tell your style now.

I think you have such an ease with it that you could probably make a very good living from commissions in the future, in addition to having lots of gallery shows. In any medium, I've found that there are three kinds of artists: those that can only do what they feel, if they try to do something for someone else, it doesn't work because their heart and mind aren't into it; those that are very commercial and kind of lack the desire or ability to do anything else; and those that can easily do both, and do both very well. You fall into that last group, and unfortunately for me, I'm only in the first group in terms of my photography. In terms of graphic design, I fall mostly in the second group.

I have a friend who is a full-time painter, she never studied it in school, so she just started painting one day on a whim. She's not as detailed as you, and she never paints anything controversial or deep or conceptual, probably because she never was an art student so she was never pushed by those kinds of assignments. She paints only landscapes and still-lifes and she does pets for commission, but her style is what draws people to her work, she has her own unique style. It's interesting how different people can make a living in different ways in art. For the past several years, she's been doing one small square painting a day on canvas panels, and they sell like hotcakes from her website. Because she can really only do landscapes and still-lifes and pets, she's kind of run out of subjects and now her small square paintings are things like plates stacked up in her kitchen cabinet, an apple she just bought at the market, really mundane and mind-numbing stuff, but they still sell immediately because people just love her style and her palette.

You're different, it looks like you can do just about anything, in any medium, and make it your own with this really cool confrontational feel. From your goose painting (can't remember if it was a duck or a goose) to this clown painting, your subjects confront the observer in a way that says, to me, "I dare you not to see me!" Which is awesome. I guess what I'm saying is, your work is fantastic enough that you can make a living whether you want to do deep conceptual pieces or someone wants you to just do a straight up painting of their cat, because your style is that unique and your abilities are that flexible. I hope that makes sense!

Stunning! I love the theme, I love that she was willing to do it and I love the art! Absolutely beautiful.

Thanks guys!

Jo, she said she loved it though she wished I'd painted her thinner. I explained to her it wouldn't be as interesting with all the lumps and bumps!

CNK, thanks dear!

Anastasia, conceptual stuff is really kind of like pulling teeth for me, but this piece was easy. I had an idea of what I wanted to do and it just worked out. My final semester of art school I took an Advanced Painting class (I wound up minoring in painting) and it was hell for me. The class was ALL about concept and I don't work the way they wanted me to work. I like to put things that interest me together and more than meaning, what is important to me is composition and execution. In the class they wanted us to come up with a concept and then figure out how to paint it in a meaningful way. I come up with visual images and then have to come up with some sort of meaning (though I PREFER to not give ANY meaning) so it was tough. I wound up painting two large, VERY complex paintings for that class and for both of them I only knew I wanted to paint these two older people I knew. The second one (of the husband) isn't quite finished but the first one is hanging in the Muskegon Museum of Art for the summer. I wanted to paint Helen sitting at her table and at first I wanted to fill her table with food (because she insists on feeding everyone who visits). Then I needed something active and was going to add her dog, but decided to use a pink poodle instead and thought maybe if I made it a poodle lunging viciously at the viewer it might be interesting. THEN I figured I'd change the food to cakes because it would go with the colors in her housedress and the poodle better and if I changed the colors of the kitchen to that of a 50's style kitchen it would all go together even better! I also decided to put a bunch of sparrows flying around and suddenly the lunging poodle didn't work so I painted him out and painted him cowering under the table. My references were from all over and with my limited time I had time to only make the perspective semi-believable so it's nowhere near perfect, but I like the odd feel of it. The decisions were NOT based on concept, but in the end I have what others consider to be a conceptual piece. This is what it became:


Details of my favorite parts:

Sorry to be late, but better late then never. Your paintings are gorgeous. And I wish I lived close to you so you could paint me.
I would be happy to be a model for you too.
And I am so happy that your model was a BBW.
Its important for the world to accept the fact that being BIG is NOT a sin! It may be unhealthy for some, but its no sin. And the cake idea was GREAT! I love Cake, I just can never eat it again (diabetes)
So Kudos to you ForMyACD's and many congrats on all of your success with your paintings. They are all fantastic!

I love this!

Don't tell any art critics your thought process! They all have a ridiculous need to assume artists have lofty intellectual intentions, when really it's usually a very organic process that happens as you go along. Years ago, not long after Andy Warhol died, a book of his diaries was published and I read it, and I remember reading a review of the book written by an art critic who had his world shattered when he learned the thought process behind some of Andy's decisions were not so lofty or genius after all. At some point someone asks what he wanted to do with a particular painting series, and Andy said something along the lines of, "Oh, I don't know. Throw diamond dust on them or something," and so that series of paintings has diamond dust on them. But the reviewer seemed to be crushed that no more thought than that went into it, and it must mean that Andy wasn't the genius everyone thought he was after all.

But as I have created art, and as my fellow art friends have, nearly everything happened organically, as a process, as the piece comes together. You start off with an idea, usually vague, and you see how it goes. Heck, there's even a Picasso in Chicago that you can see changed quite a bit during the painting process, you can see the former shapes when you view it from the side. A reviewer can attach all the meaning and concept he or she wants, but it doesn't usually mean much. Sometimes it's interesting to think you know what the artist was thinking on a subconscious level, but without the artist there doing a narration, the reviewer has to make it up.

Holy crap! I LOVE that painting of Helen with the poodle and sparrows! It's amazing! The details and color choices are great. Do you have a website where I can see more of your work?

Yes, ma'am......though it needs MUCH updating right now.

http://LisaAmbroseStudios.com

Your artwork is absolutely fabulous! I just love it. Great job on everything!

Very late to party -- do not know how I missed this -- but holy crap on a cracker! These are fab and wow do you have a gift. Thanks so much for sharing it with us!

I love your work on your site! you have such an eye!!