Studies and impressions

Apples on white cloth. 16"x12". Oil on linen panel. 2011

I have two pieces of studio news to share today.

• First, my website now offers high-resolution images under Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial license – just click on any image in any gallery to see it better and, if you wish, download for your own non-commercial enjoyment.
• Secondly, I have begun offering a subset of my works, which I call "Studies from life", or "Impressions" on DailyPaintWorks.com. This blog now has a gadget showing the contents of my gallery there (above is one of the works currently auctioning).

What is it, exactly, that will be, offered via Daily Paintworks, and how does this body of work differ from the rest of my paintings? 

First of all, they are, of course, done from life, without conscious intervention from memory or imagination: it is just a still-life set-up or a view en plein air, a particular moment in time with its particular light and mood, and me with my canvases and brushes submerged in this moment, and in what I see before me, as deeply as I can. In contrast to this, most of my other works, even if done from life, involve a conscious intent beyond this pure seeing and painting. 

This might not be always obvious to a viewer, since neither of these studies are realistic in the usual sense of the world; but for me, inside this process, I truthfully paint what I see. What intervenes between the "reality" and the resulting work is but my own sense of vision and my emotional state at the moment. And since this process itself almost invariably fills me with joy of life, this turns out to be the core message of these works, whatever their specific subject matter. In a sense, this body of work is as close as I get to the original essence of Impressionism (hence "Impressions" as the alternative name).

This practice is an essential, core part not only of my studio practice per say, but also of my life as a whole: as necessary for being alive as sleep, bread, water, walks, books. I want to share them with you for as low a price as seems remotely reasonable – because I don't want them to be a "luxury item"; they won't be comfortable in this role at all. 

As of now, I am trying to do this with the help of DPW auctions with very low initial prices, and with a bit higher "buy now" price offered in each auction's description (since the "Buy now" option is not formally supported on DPW, you would need to contact me for that, so I could take the work off the auction). I'll see how it goes in the future, and maybe make some adjustments to the process.

If you want to be notified of these auctions without following me on DailyPaintWorks.com, there are three options:

• I will mention newly listed paintings here, in my weekly post on Mondays – so if you follow this blog, you will receive this information weekly.
• If you are on Google+, you can leave me a comment on any post there, and I will add you to the circle where I give the links to auctions as I list the paintings (I don't send out notifications, just make these announcements visible only to those who expressed their interest). 
• If you are on Twitter, I also try to share all these links there (@LenaLevin_paint). 

And that's basically it, till next Monday!