Abbie Rabinowitz blog, artwork, painting process, writing, teaching, events

Contrast and Values

by Abbie Rabinowitz | Sep 15, 2020 | Blog

In addition to painting, I love to write. I’m part of a local writing group where we meet once a week and free-write from a prompt. The prompt can be a word, a phrase, or a sentence. Members of the group toss out a prompt and we give ourselves 10 – 20 minutes to write freely on the subject, or about anything that comes up for us. Afterward, we take turns reading out loud to the group. Recently a prompt inspired me to write about values and contrast.

The Ineptness of Light is Better than Dark

Contrast and values are the name of the game. It’s what life is about after all, the entire gamut of love and light, sadness and grief, all of that happening simultaneously. Wouldn’t one get bored with just light alone? It wouldn’t offer the variety and depth of the human experience… the challenges that create character.

I tend to paint in the mid-tones. Not too dark. Not too light. Subtle changes in value is where my strength lies, and it is also my weakness. My paintings often beg for more contrast.

As an artist, it’s good to know where to focus and how we can grow. Might this also be a metaphor for life?
Embrace more contrast. Choose your darkest darks and the lightest lights. The edge between light and dark is where excitement and the unexpected occurs. A sudden jump or a smooth transition? How do these changes help move the eyes through a composition?

It’s all about values. When you nail the right values everything clicks into place. Light, dark and everything in between.

Values in Painting
The following two images are from a portrait I painted recently. One is viewed in full-color and the other is a grayscale image of the same painting. A good painting will hold together even when the color is stripped out and just the values remain. By looking at just the grayscale image I’d say that the painting needs more contrast. What do you think?

Pandemic Paintings

by Abbie Rabinowitz | Sep 8, 2020 | Blog

Certainly the pandemic has affected all of our lives, although my everyday experience has not actually changed all that much. Being a painter, I am already used to spending many solitary hours in my studio or painting landscapes outdoors ‘en pleinair’.
I was fortunate and grateful to receive not just one, but two commissions in the last few months. One request was from a local collector on the Big Island who wanted one of my Red Road tree tunnel paintings. Specifically, he wanted a large size canvas with lots of details. My natural style is to paint expressively and painterly, so I had to shift my style to incorporate a more defined landscape. The result is Ke ala ʻula (Red or Flaming Road), 20″ x 48″, oil on canvas.

Ke ala ʻula, 20″ x 48″, oil on canvas

While I was outside painting Ke ala ʻula, a jeep pulled up beside me one day. I was so busy painting I barely took notice as two young women got out of the jeep to see what I was painting. They both loved my painting! However, I was so engrossed I barely engaged with them nor gave them my card, which I usually do.

Several weeks later I was quite surprised to get an email from them out of the blue. They were so excited to have tracked me down and they requested an original landscape painting of the Red Road tree tunnel, just like the one they had seen me painting.

It’s important to note that commissions are a double-edged sword. On one hand, I’m thrilled to be paid for a painting even before I begin. On the other hand, I am painting to please my client(s), not just myself. Fortunately, I was delighted by both my pandemic painting commissions. Observing the view twice from the same spot, I deepened my appreciation for this particular stretch of the Red Road. The large Kamani trees that formed the tunnel, the large branches, and leaves, as well as the patterns of sunlight and shadows, are now engraved in my vision and spirit.

Though I repeated the same view and used the same size canvas, my second commission is unique. I can’t paint the exact same painting twice, nor would I want to. The second painting I called Mau lālā he Nui (Many Branches). My clients and I were all pleased with the final pieces.

Mau Mau lālā he Nui, 20″ x 48″, oil on canvas

Beautiful, giclee prints of my paintings on canvas are available for purchase. For prices and more info please contact me.

Fronds in Moonlight

by Abbie Rabinowitz | Sep 1, 2020 | Blog

Last night the moon lit up the sky as I awoke from my slumber. The night was very still with only a few coquis singing in a small chorus, so I decided to seize the night, as it were. I grabbed my iPhone and slipped outside to see if I could capture the tropical night sky as the light of the moon glowed behind and through banana leaves and palm fronds.

Hawaii Painting Retreat 2020 (Pre-Covid)

by Abbie Rabinowitz | Aug 30, 2020 | Blog

Group photo at Hawaii Painting Retreat 2020

On the coast with painting student

Group painting Hawaiian coast art retreat photo

Susan painting palm trees on Hawaii art retreat

Painting in Hawaiian woods art retreat photo

Watercolor palette

Catherine close up watercolor painting during

Susan painting outside

Marsha painting from memory watercolor art retreat

Robin catering meal during retreat

Hawaii Painting Retreat in Hawaii, 2020

Painting inspiration, shared meals, creative growth, support, and fun. A magical time was had by all.

Here it is late August and I realize I have not posted a single blog post this year(!) Thus goes life in the time of a pandemic.
Pre-COVID I held the most wonderful art retreat here on the Big Island of Hawaii. A fantastic group of women traveled from across the United States to join in a week of creativity, nature and bonding. We met daily for pleinair painting sessions along the coast on the famous Red Road, just minutes from my home. We ventured out on excursions to local hotspots, ate healthy catered meals together, and shared in critiques. The final evening we drove into Hilo to attend an opening of a juried show of pleinair painting at the Wailoa Art Center, where I had five of my paintings on display. Indeed, the retreat was a success for all who attended.

I had already scheduled more art retreats in Hawaii for the summer and fall, but then Covid happened and everything changed.
These photos are from the 2020 Tropical Painting Retreat and Winter Getaway, 2020.
See details: 2024 Tropical Painting Retreat

Portrait of Princess

by Abbie Rabinowitz | Dec 26, 2019 | Blog, portraits

It was a pleasure to present Princess with my finished oil portrait and the other paintings and prints by other members in my drawing group. I had seen Princess bartending at Uncle Robert’s Awa night market for some time and had been inspired by her classic and beautiful Hawaiian features. When I finally got the courage to ask her to pose for us she graciously accepted the invitation and came to pose for us not just one, but several times. It’s rare to be able to paint from the same model and pose over a long duration. It’s the closest I have come to painting true royalty.

Princess portrait

Phases – reflecting while refilling palettes

by Abbie Rabinowitz | Dec 10, 2019 | Blog

Phases
Like the moon, each one of us is in a specific phase.
Do we know which phase we are in? Are we in a phase of our own choosing?
If I was a lunar phase which one would I be? Waxing? Waning? A full moon or a new moon?
Perhaps we go through cycles where there is no end or beginning, but rather an ongoing flow in this space time continuum.
Today however, I paused in the cycle.
Coming to the close of my 30 paintings in 30 day challenge, I took time to reflect back and set a new intention on what’s next in my path as artist. Contemplating colors while I refilled the wells in my paint palette, I picked out new tubes of colors to try while I cleaned out older colors. I felt a gentle shift while I set up for a new painting phase.
I also refilled the watercolor palettes my students will use. I teach art regularly now.
Sharing and supporting others is a form of pay back and a way to pay it forward.
They say that teachers aren’t in it for the income, bur rather the outcome.
Holding this new intention I will see where this new phase leads me.

Drawing from the Right Side of the Brain™

by Abbie Rabinowitz | Sep 19, 2019 | art workshop, Blog

Using the Picture Plane to draw and see more accurately.
In this week’s drawing workshop we continued exercises from Betty Edward’s book Drawing from the Right Side of the Brain™*. I had ordered some acetate “picture planes” from her site that we used to trace our hands in foreshortened view. Afterward we used the picture plane drawings as guides to help us drawing directly from our hands. Foreshortened views of the hand are challenging for artists at all levels. My students were able to focus their attention for over an hour as they completed their drawings. I’m excited to see how they expand their seeing and drawing abilities as a result of these workshops.

Join us! The next class is scheduled for October 13th, 2019 in Seaview Estates, Pahoa Register
*Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain™ is a book by Betty Edwards that since 1979 has been helping individuals learn to draw by tapping into the power of their own “right brains.

Drawing and Painting Workshop

by Abbie Rabinowitz | Jul 16, 2019 | Blog

The focus of my most recent drawing workshop was about how to draw and paint more accurately.

We warmed up with right brain exercises which helps the mind let go of the thinking side and move toward the intuitive side. I had my students get get their paper and pencil ready to draw, but and then asked them to turn their heads to look away at their other hand. They were then asked to draw blind contour drawings of their hands. They could not look at their drawings until they were done.

Then we shifted to drawing using direct observation to study some beautiful orchids I had just gotten at the orchid show in Hilo last week. I had the students start with pencil line and do drawings of the flowers as accurately as possible. Afterward they could add watercolor wash over the pencil drawing to augment the drawings with color. My students created some beautiful studious artwork that I’m very happy to share.

Kahilu Theater Juried Show

by Abbie Rabinowitz | Apr 3, 2019 | Exhibits

Abbie with Fissure 8 painting
Waimea, Hawaii
On March 14th, I was present at the art opening for the Kahilu Theater’s 4th annual juried exhibition. I was honored to have my painting “Transmutation” selected to be part of this fabulous juried show and hung in a beautiful venue.

I was inspired by the daily view from the street where I lived in Hawaii, just 3 miles from the flow. The view was the gigantic plume from Fissure 8 that towered upward and filled the night sky each day with it’s fiery glow. It flowed for several months while I was on island.

Amazing heartfelt artwork was on display by artists who shared artistic interpretations of transformative destruction/creation experiences in their lives, many who were displaced by the volcanic eruption and many who lost their homes.

The show is free and open to the public Mon-Fri 9am-1pm and during all performances. It will be on display at the Kahilu Theater until April 27th.

Alcohol Inks – An exercise in Surrender

by Abbie Rabinowitz | Mar 14, 2019 | Abstract art, art workshop, Blog

I finally did it. I took the plunge and decided to explore alcohol ink.
Since joining instagram two years ago I discovered and started following my favorite artists using alcohol inks. The fluidity, globular, diaphanous, featherlike, dripping, vibrant, and windblown qualities of alcohol inks were just too compelling. So I spent the last few weeks weeks studying Youtube how-to videos, learned some techniques and decided to offer a workshop using them.
The class was well attended and luckily for my students and myself, we found there’s almost no way to go wrong.
That is to say, you can go WRONG if you try to CONTROL them. Believe me… I have tried!
Using alcohol inks offers the ultimate opportunity of letting go and remaining non-attached to outcome. One really has to stop trying to control the outcome and allow the medium to express itself. Results are beautiful, unexpected and best when we just let alcohol ink do what it does without forcing it. One has to let it flow, expand, bloom, merge, drip, dry and do what the medium does, without fussing or trying to make it do something specific. It’s harder to control than watercolor at the level of experience I have now, but I suspect it will always lend itself to the truly unpredictable.
That’s why it’s so fun. The vibrancy of the colors are also exciting. I am challenged to explore alcohol ink further and perhaps take it beyond making just another pretty abstract painting.