Jolie Guillebeau

One of the best things about this project is learning about your stories. That’s how I felt painting Jane’s mom. Jane wrote me with the story of her mom, and her words tell the story best.

“This is my sweet mother who died from Alzheimer’s a few months ago. She had an incredible journey from China to America and survived some serious trials and was able to raise 4 daughters who are doing well because of her sacrifice, determination and selfless love.”

Thank you, Jane.

This face is one I know pretty well. Caesar Wages is the quirkiest dog I know. He lives with my sister Tera and her husband Wes. He loves watching The Office and eating things that aren’t good for him. Like Tera’s clothes.

Tera is a photographer, so I had lots of shots to choose from. I picked this one, because I love how Caesar seems perplexed and bemused at the same time.

I’ve been looking forward to painting this face for awhile.Gena sent over this photo of her rescue dog, Buddy, who looks so happy on the beach in Hawaii.

I love that she captured this moment of such fun and I love that I got to paint it.

Today I realized something important. When I’m painting faces, I have a completely different process. As you might know, my normal work is still life– and I like those paintings to be very clean and tight. When I’m working on something like this, then I’m inspired by artists like these two.

But when I’m painting faces, I have an entirely different finished product in mind. Something about the expression and life of a face makes me want to paint with a bit more freedom. I look at this work (Karen’s work actually inspired the whole idea of 100 faces)or this and think, “Now that’s a face.”

And perhaps reconciling these two ideas is part of this project. Which brings us to face number 27. This face asked to remain  anonymous, but I hope she enjoys seeing herself smiling across the screen this morning.

Meet Sara’s grandmother.

Sara sent me an old black and white photo– it’s so beautiful. Her grandma’s smile beams from the picture. I was so excited to paint it.

This is a significant week. First, one year ago this week, I started my first daily painting project. It’s amazing to think of all I’ve learned about painting since then. And I’m so grateful that you’re here to celebrate with me!

Also, I’ve painted 25 faces as of today. That’s something I never thought I’d do. A few years ago, someone told me that I wasn’t good at faces and I’d be better off painting still life. I listened to that voice for too long. I’m glad I started ignoring it, though!

Or I’d never gotten to paint Sammy.

In case you haven’t noticed, I’m pretty big on memories. I can wax nostalgic for hours. It makes people around me crazy, because I have a story for almost everything.

So I thought I’d play with a few faces in my memory. This one is my memory of my 2nd grade teacher, who was perhaps the grumpiest person I’ve ever encountered. I always remember her with a scowl on her face. She was determined to make me right-handed, but she failed. I used my left hand to paint this memory of her face.

Things have been pretty crazy around here for the past couple of weeks. It’s a long story, but a good one. Though I’ll spare you the details right now, trust me when I say my life has been upside down for the past several days.

So I was pretty proud of myself that I had managed to keep up with my face paintings in the midst of all this chaos. Yay me! I still painted everyday, and sent them out to my newsletter every weekday morning  just as planned.

I had noticed that I was getting less feedback on them than normal though, and felt a little discouraged. Maybe you guys didn’t like them quite as much lately?  I had decided that obviously I wasn’t doing as well as I thought I was and got a little bummed out.

My life has finally begun to settle in to one place over the past couple of days and last night I realized that while I’ve managed to send out the newsletter everyday, I had forgotten to upload the paintings to the blog! Suddenly, I felt pretty silly. Here I am worried that no one likes my paintings, when actually many of you hadn’t even seen them!

So there are two lessons here.

The lesson for me: Don’t assume that everyone hates your work, maybe there’s a problem that you haven’t expected.

The lesson for you: Sign up for the newsletter if you don’t want to miss anything! You’re dealing with an absent-minded artist here!

Enjoy the new paintings, and stay tuned for a few pictures of some of my other projects next week!

Two for one today!

Heather sent me this picture of herself and her college roomate and best friend. They’re one the ferris wheel at the Navy Pier in Chicago and I love how happy they are.
I’m going to confess that I put this face off for a little while, because I was intimidated. First of all, you should know that painting teeth is pretty hard. Also, glasses are kind of tricky. And this painting had both!

But ultimately, their smiles drew me in, and I had to paint it. So I stopped procrastinating and got out my brushes.

5×7 Oil on Masonite. Sold.

This face was a joy to paint, but I enjoyed the background almost as much. It’s my gray Pacific coast, and I love it. The orange coat stood out so perfectly– I have an orange rainjacket too, which made it even more fun.

I think my favorite part of this painting is the way the light from the orange jacket reflects on the face. I was kind of proud of myself when I got that just right.

6×6 Oil on Masonite Block. $95 Email for details.

If you’re just joining us, here’s a video explaining the project. And send me your faces! I’d love to paint them!