Things are Slowing Down!

At least they appear to be as I only have a few things scheduled for the rest of this month - thank heaven!

I started off the month with a lesson to a small group of ladies who want to learn how to draw. They plan on coming once a week but one already had to miss a class and another will be missing this week. It is hard to figure out how to catch people up on what was missed while the others want to forge ahead.

On October 7, I hosted my final Watercolour Painting Party for the season. I had 5 scheduled to attend and ended up with only two due to cancellations. No matter, we had a great time!

Cheryl and Ed have both attended parties in the past and have also taken some private lessons with me. Both did a super job on their chosen paintings and were very happy with the results. I think they will be back for more lessons once golfing season ends.

Yesterday I attended a one day acrylic workshop with Castlegar artist Mirja Vahala Mirja's Studio. 

The workshop was put on by the Creston Art Club and seemed to involve a ton of emails back and forth between the club's president and me and between me and the participants - much more work than was needed!. However, we all had a good time and I think we all learned stuff too. (the photos are in reverse order)

critique time!

finished pieces ready for critique

watching and listening - what did we do wrong?

more critiques

Linda's piece

Jenny's paintings for the final critique

getting set up

Mirja Vahala

The focus of the class was Colour Contrasts: value, compliments, temperature, intensity, hue and quantity. Until the end we were painting the same still life over and over, each painting building on what we learned in the ones before. I admit there are still a few gaps in my understanding especially with intensity and quantity but I will work on those concepts on my own.

These are my paintings from the class. I am missing either intensity or hue although I can't figure out which one is missing - oh well, more study required. The last two I did were on 'quantity' - can you figure out what it means? These were done on 8 x 10 canvases and I think I will redo the studies onto watercolour paper and reuse the canvases in the future. These are not suitable for selling and paper stores better - lol.

As there is not much on my schedule (except for the drawing classes) for some time I will be relaxing after the busy summer and just puttering in my studio for the next while and enjoying doing not much of anything.

Thanks for stopping by.

Value Workshop part 2

We started the second class on Light with critiques of the still-life paintings that everyone did since the first class. I am happy to say that my painting "More than a Picnic" (see my blog 'Value Workshop') did not receive any negative comments and no suggestions for improvement were offered. I guess I got an A+ - lol.

I actually submitted two pieces for the critiques.

#1018 - Still-life with Oranges - 5 x 7 watercolour

my drawing of Still-life with Oranges

I did this piece mostly as a test for myself. My friends at Art Club were teasing me about my first painting for the workshop because I printed the photo and just transferred the image onto my watercolour paper before painting. I figured it was a class on value not drawing, so why not? But, Wednesday evening I decided I would do a drawing of the still-life from one of the photos on my computer. I was happy with the way it turned out so I painted it and submitted it for critique too. Everyone liked this piece as well and offered no suggestions for changes.

The remainder of the class was about Light and Mood and the instructor shared lots of photos as examples. It was very interesting and the notes will prove useful for future paintings. The instructor tried to show different moods on the still-life set-up by using coloured film over a spot light but the daylight in the room was too bright and the effects were limited.

We finished the class by starting work on another still-life with the new display. I took lots of photos but I also did a sketch.

drawing of still-life #2

 I do my sketches on newsprint in pencil then go over them with a pen. I really don't do enough drawing so working in pencil first is an indication of my lack of confidence. I plan to do a drawing every evening while watching TV to hone my skills and build that confidence. Being able to pause the TV is such a benefit. Here is a sketch I did from a commercial.

Deer sketch - about 6 x 8

This probably only took about 5 minutes to sketch, then another five to add the pen and some extra shading.

I think that the impetus to start sketching is one very special bonus of the  workshop I attended. I may not do many more still-life paintings but I will definitely do more sketching.

Value Workshop

Yesterday I attended a workshop on Value hosted by the Creston Art Club. Every year the club puts on a number of workshops instructed by club members or by other local artists. This workshop was given by a wonderful pastel artist, Carol Schloss - Carol's web page.

Partly because there was so much information to absorb and partly because we had homework, the workshop was split in two and the second half will be held next Friday. Here is my homework.

#1013 - More than a Picnic - 7  x 10 watercolour

'More than a Picnic' is my rendition of the very large still life set-up that was arranged for the class. I made a few changes, switching oranges to apples and adding the drapery in the background. It will be interesting to hear what kind of critique this piece gets next week.

Although I already knew a lot of the information given at the workshop yesterday, some of it was new and the reminder of the usefulness of red plastic film was the best part. For those who do not know, looking at your art through red plastic film turns the piece almost black and white. This makes it easy to check your values which is an important part of a painting.

One aspect of the class yesterday was very disappointing for me. Each participant brought in a painting they were not happy with for critique and suggestions for improvement. When my turn came, the response was unenlightening. Everyone, instructor included, said my painting was lovely even though I thought is was blah!

#426 - Windmills and Water - 7 x 10 watercolour with pen & ink

I wasn't happy with their lack of suggestions and prodded them to offer something. The changes I made are quite subtle but I think they make a difference.

#426a - adjusted painting

Of course, the changes are more evident in person but I am happier with the corrected painting.

In my last blog I shared some photos of the Creston Valley and today, just for fun, I want to share a picture of the same scene. - I will add the other day's photo for comparison.

I always think of Brigadoon when we have fogs like this - lol. The world has disappeared and you can imagine entering a different world when the fog lifts. Isn't imagination grand!

Thanks for stopping by  and please leave a comment.

Teach and Learn

In the last few weeks I had requests to teach things that had me scratching my head and thinking 'how the .... do I do that!'

Near the end of November my friend, Linda, called and asked if I could teach her how to paint abstracts. Now Linda is a wonderful watercolour artist with a deft touch for landscapes and flowers in that medium and when I heard her request I was flabbergasted.  But undaunted, I said "sure I'll do what I can".

Tropical Forest

I really don't know what I am doing when I paint an abstract: I just play with my acrylic paints. Choose the colours, maybe add some mat medium, slap paint on a canvas, spray it with water, push the paint around with a palette knife and it is done! Sometimes I really like what I end up with; other times not so much.

unnamed acrylic abstract

So Linda watched while I started the Tropical Forest painting, then went to town on her own canvases. She kept grinning and saying 'This is fun!" She dropped paint, splashed paint, sprayed and twisted her canvas letting the paint drip and run. At one point she had a mess of dropped paint on the table and went to wipe it up when I stopped her. I grabbed a piece of mat board and turned it down on the paint, twisted and lifted it and ended up with the background for the unnamed painting above - waste not want not - lol.

Here are Linda's paintings - don't they look like she had fun doing them?

It is always great when Linda comes over for a day of painting but better when it makes me think and learn.

The second "how do I do that" was really my own fault. My Tuesday student, Jeannie, wanted to do a still life with fruit. We couldn't find a suitable photo online to use as a reference so I grabbed a few fruits out of the kitchen and put them on a simple plate. But just the plate and the fruit looked unfinished so I draped some fabric around them. Fabric! What was I thinking? Especially white fabric!

I showed the start of our paintings in my last blog and here are the finished pieces.

Jeanie's painting with mat

my painting

Jeannie wanted her painting finished in time for Christmas as she intends to give it as a gift. I demonstrated the technique for the shadows at the end of a class but, because we had a deadline Jeannie did the work at home. The stroke and blend method is not always easy to do, especially for a beginner, and Jeannie was not happy with her background when she arrived at class this week. I showed her how some careful lifting and scrubbing and the use of a bit of white paint could fix the fabric enough that she was satisfied. I was satisfied too - it is so nice to have such a hard working student.

I have always found that I learn something when I teach,especially when I have to figure out how to do something new.

September Challenge Day 1

And the challenge begins! I have entered another 30 Paintings in 30 Days challenge, hosted by Leslie Saeta - http://30paintingsin30days.weebly.com/
Check it out regularly to see the art of over 700 artists from around the world. Or enter and stretch your wings.

For this challenge I decided to stick to working with Pen & Ink because I am a little rusty and it is always good to keep your skills lubricated.

#1 Still-life Bottles

I am going to work exclusively on 5 x 7 cards as they will fit better in my time schedule, take up less room than a full size work, and, hopefully, be saleable.