WIP Stage 2, Contest Entry, Studio Dog, Focal Point or Not

WIP Stage Two

Notice how I have decided to make dark the dominant value, with mid tone the secondary and light for the accent.


Today's Entry comes from Tom Eckert, wonderful painter and nice guy.

CHICKEN SUPREME (serves 4 people)

6 medium chicken breast (skinned but with ribs)
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 pkg. fresh mushrooms (sliced)
1/2 cup golden sherry
1 stick margarine

Flower, salt and pepper lightly, chicken breast (put ingredients in a plastic bag and shake well)
Place in a roaster or baking dish.
Cover with melted margarine.
Bake, uncovered for 1 hour at 350 degrees.

Mix soup, mushrooms and sherry together and pour over browned chicken. (you may want to put a little water in bottom of pan to prevent sticking)
Return to oven, COVER, and bake at 300 degrees for 1 hour until meat is tender.

Serve on a dish of rice and garnish with parsley.

Enjoy! (and left overs are good cold or warmed)

Keep those contest recipes coming!!!




Studio Dog is asleep on the job.

I think it's time to catch you up on Henry (studio Dog). He is 6 months old now. He is getting his big boy teeth now and weighs in at 13 1/2 pounds. He was 9 pounds when I got him. He is growing into a beautiful dog and I love him to pieces. he is still a puppy with puppy ways, but he is learning to be a good dog. He has learned to go for walks with me each day and walk nicely on his leash. In fact, for you puppy parents out there; the walk is the key to management. When I finish my coffee in the morning, we set out for our daily walk. We walk for about a mile and come back to the studio. This burns some energy and makes him more manageable. It is of course good for both of us because we go along at a good clip. For the rest of the day, whenever he gets overactive, out the door we go for a walk out to the end of the driveway and back, more than once if needed. It really helps.

He is now learning to sit and stay when I put his bowl down and to sit and stay when we come to doors. It is an ongoing process. I will enroll him in stage two of dog school in January as sort of a refresher course. He will be older and more settled then and that is a slow time of year for me. My trainer warned me that he would go through the "middle school/teen aged" stage and that started this week. It seems he has forgotten how to do everything and ignores commands, has started having accident again and so forth. Patience is the key I think. She said it would not last too long and by some miracle, he will reach maturity at about a year old. MARCH!!!

I would not trade him for the world but after having gone through raising a puppy, I expect that if I lose Henry to old age, I will definitely be getting an adult dog. Raising a puppy is like having a toddler, a full time frustrating job. It takes more youth and energy than I have to give. We are almost through it and I have no regrets, but I would not want to do it again with a busy career.



Studio Dog considers his next installation art project.



Must you have a focal point to your painting?

I hear this argument frequently with both sides adamant about their view. My view is no. I don't think you have to have a focal point in all paintings. A lot depends on the scene and your interest. Some paintings are fairly narrative and so that would require some focus. Others are emotive or descriptive. Some scenes have an obvious area of interest, which naturally pulls the viewer to an object of interest, like buildings, figures,animals or other strong objects. Man made objects or figures always command attention, so if you don't want them to be the center of interest, you must find a way to minimize their impact, such as placement, lack of color saturation, softening the edge work, somehow pushing them back into the scene without giving them undo interest.

Some views just don't have an area of interest, such as a forest with multiples of trees. You can certainly select an area in that sort of scene to focus on, but you may not want to. There are also more subtle ways to create an area of interest without the target method of creating a center of interest. All focal points in a painting do not have to have a neon flashing sign which says "Look Here!!" They can be quite subtle with just a bit more color or refined texture where you wish the eye to stop.

When you decide on a scene to paint, stop and work out these issues before you begin. Never overwork one area of the painting. Move around the painting as you go refining here and there. Give yourself time to develop the painting, because it rarely goes along as it is initially planned. If you give it some time, it will lead you along where it wishes to go.