Jane Ellefson: Hunter

May 9, 2011

An Emerging Young Artist

Hunter is ten years old and has been painting since last summer. He comes to my house and we explore the basement, talk about BB guns, rummage through the drawers in my studio, and then we paint for awhile.

He likes Jackson Pollack, so he did his own version of a "Jack the Dripper" painting. One afternoon we went through a Richard Diebenkorn book. Another day he brought a huge coffee table tome on Van Gogh, and he wanted to show me Starry Night on the Rhone. He thought he'd like to paint that. And we did. It's hanging in his bedroom now. He and I had made a cradled panel a few months ago. He gessoed it himself. It sat for awhile waiting for an idea. I've rekindled an interest in birds recently and am trying to get him hooked as well, so I did an under drawing of a Rainbow Bird and sealed it. He put a red ochre imprimatura on it and during the week I developed the under painting in whites and umbers. During the last ten days this ten-year-old has done a remarkable job patiently laying in color. I tighten up the detail between sessions, but the color glazing is Hunter's work.

Hunter, Rainbow Bird, 2011, oil on panel, 6" x 6"

Next we want to do a master study of a painting attributed to Granacci, Portrait of a Man in Armour, c. 1505 (National Gallery, London). Our version will feature Hunter as the man in armour.

May 14, 2011

Hunter's Still Life

Today's art lesson in Hunter's words:

This still life has lots of details that I put in and got help from Aunt Jane. We used blue and orange, red and green. That makes a tetrad. We worked on this for over an hour. We put in a limoncello bottle, a candle and candle holder and an old feed sack stencil that belonged to G. L. Locke. He is Aunt Jane's great grandpa.

This is me in front of my still life.

Progress as of March 31, 2012

August 5, 2011

Transformed: Granacci's "Portrait of a Man in Armour"

I promised Hunter that we would paint him as Granacci's Portrait of a Man in Armour (National Gallery, London). I've finished the under-painting and it is ready for Hunter to start glazing. Happy 11th birthday, Hunter!