Filed under: Drawing, painting, travel | Tags: art, artist, Museum of Modern Art, New York City, Robert Rauschenberg, still life, Willem de Kooning, Wyeth
The birthday planning for my son’s 4th birthday party has given me several more gray hairs. Today, during his bathtime, he was mad at me and told me that I was NOT to come to the party. I was to stay home and feel awful. Sheesh. Who taught him such nasty mind games? Do I say stuff like that? I hope not…I might have been more subtle and not stipulated that the other person “feel bad”. He’ll learn such subtlety in time…
I am attempting to keep this a fairly DIY party. No, I’m not hand-making artisanal balloons or anything. BUT, I’m making the cake, have baked cookies to go with the favors, and have scribbled together the decor. The theme: construction site. A week after deciding this theme, my son decided it should be pirates. Too bad, I said. That brought on another barrage of vitrol from him.
So, here is one of my scribbly signs for the party:
Isn’t it cute? Just say it is to humor me. Actually, you’re probably wondering when I’m going to stop blabbering about this party, and talk about de Kooning instead. All in good time…
This is probably the last year that I can do anything DIY for a party. Next year, he’ll want lazer tag with spiderman and Doc Octopus. Ummm…yeah, I can’t do that with cardboard and markers. I’d have to be some kind of hybrid between Martha Stewart and Stan Lee. Hmm…disturbing.
The ornament situation in our house has gotten worse:
I have completely given up.
Okay, enough about my preschool-centric universe. So, this past Saturday…I had the WHOLE day to myself. No, I don’t just mean from around 11 am when my husband is done with his marathon bike ride, until 5 pm, when I’m needed to relieve him from being “on duty” with our son. I mean the ENTIRE day. What did I do? I went to NYC for several hours! Okay…for my friends who are in NY…PLEASE DON’T BE MAD. I had to do a tactical strike. I was on a mission to go to MOMA and see the de Kooning exhibit, which is only open until January 9. I can do a social visit another time.
It was AMAZING. So brilliant. That man just oozes talent. Or, I guess that would be oozed. Seriously. I loved his lines, his enormous swaths of color, his manipulation of the human form…
and this:
de Kooning, Untitled – 1961
and this:
Sigh. You must see this show, if possible. You won’t believe the scale of some of these pieces…their textures…their energy…so amazing.
When I was rushing through the rest of MOMA, I saw a crowd gathered around something. Naturally…I was curious. WHAT was it?
Really! So interesting. I am not a fan of Dali, but it was really fascinating to see what was a “celebrity”. I just like other stuff…I nearly plowed through several people when my eyes locked with THIS from across the room:
Rauschenberg, Bed – 1955
Yes, I nearly became a linebacker in order to look at this old quilt with paint on it. LOVE IT. As the old adage goes…it was smaller in real life. (no, not that it tastes like chicken…pay attention). Really. If I hadn’t spent so much time mooning over de Kooning (!), I may have had more time to see everything else. One other piece struck me:
Wyeth, Christina’s World – 1948
Okay. This is a VERY familiar painting. Right? I’m not savvy in the least, but this has to be one of Wyeth’s most famous paintings. Anyway…it always seemed to me a very “romantic” picture…I mean the romance of the agrarian. WELL. I had a VERY different feeling when I was actually looking at the painting firsthand (which, by the way, was stuck in a corner next to an elevator vestible and a cafe). First of all…her hair is not the lustrous brunette of youth…but actually a harried mix of grey and brown. This is not a young woman at all! She’s probably in her late 30s / early 40s…you know…way over the hill, like me. In addition…her body is neither youthful, nor supple. She actually appears frail…weak…half-starved. If you look more carefully, her bent arm in the foreground is very thin…(and not in a Marie Claire sort of way). She seems to be struggling to raise herself. In addtion, her dress and shoes are not fresh and new…her shoes in particular struck me as very worn and old. So ultimately, this painting had a desperate, bleak air to it. WELL, if my art history class in college had covered anything within the past 300 years, then I MIGHT have known that:
Okay..am I the only person in the world who had an entirely different impression of this painting than is actually the case??? This long-winded story is basically remarking on how important it is to actually SEE artwork in person…not on a screen…not in a magazine…not on some crazy person’s blog…(are you still reading? amazing!)
As a result of all of this art viewing / party planning…I have not gotten much work done. Sigh. I have one drawing to show:
closer:
No, I’m not done with this “line of exploration” yet. If you get tired of my subject matter, please bear with me. I’m trying to focus and stay on a path, and not flit around from project to project.
Wish me luck with the party extravaganza on Saturday! I’m sure that I’ll be crying with frustration and relief at the end of it, and will be sent home in order to have a nap.
Filed under: Drawing, painting | Tags: abstract, art, artist, drawing, painting, Pencil, still life
Okay. I know that I was going to TRY to focus only on black and white drawings, but I still have a couple of painting classes left…so the color is not dead yet. Here is the painting that I did today:
Talk about less is not more! I know. As soon as I get a paintbrush in my hand, I lose all sense of editing and moderation. Is there a color that I didn’t use? I don’t think so. The little “painting-within-a-painting” was my teacher’s idea. I kind of like it. It must be so hard to be a minimalist painter…the temptation to just go crazy with colors and marks is tough to ignore. Maybe minimalist painters get that out of their system by age 5 or so. Not me. Not yet!
I am still working on my drawings. I’m going to now try to slow down and spend more time on them. I’m also experimenting with new papers/surfaces. This drawing was on plate bristol:
I am happy with this. I really need an easel, though. I just try propping that whole drawing board up on either my knee, or the handle of my luggage cart for my acrylic paints. Clearly, this is not how Picasso probably worked. I also have decided that I need a little clip on light for my drawing board, as it’s sometimes difficult to see the first pencil lines that I put down. Here is a close up:
I have to work on my technique some more. I think getting an easel might help, as I won’t be wrestling to balance the silly drawing board while I’m trying to create poetic and ethereal cross hatching.
My son keeps asking for the little clock/CD player that I took out of his room after he kept squawking about the music that I put on. I have it at my desk in the basement. Now I don’t want to give it back! I keep listening to “A Charlie Brown Christmas”. It’s the only classical/jazz cd that I have that isn’t stashed away in the attic somewhere. It’s amazing how I can keep listening to that and not get tired of it. Maybe I won’t feel that way by Dec. 25, but right now…it’s music to work by. I just have to keep changing the subject whenever the topic of that little CD player comes up. I hope that this doesn’t make me a bad mom. Maybe I’ll have to get him his own little CD player for Christmas…along with some Lego monstrosity…because you can never have too much Lego, right?
Filed under: Fleeting thoughts..., painting, printmaking | Tags: abstract, art, artist, drypoint, painting, printmaking
So, this week’s portrait class was fun…we did drypoint prints of the model. A drypoint print is made by taking a plate (copper, plexi, etc.), and using a sharp steel tool to “draw”, or gouge, the lines into the plate. Then, the plate is wiped with ink so that the ink stays in the gouges…and then we print it! We were using plexiglass. The most difficult part of this is that you can’t really see your drawing very well. You have to keep tilting the plexi under the light to see where the lines are, as they are so faint and hard to see. Again, we have the model who looks like Alanis Morrisette:
She was reading her book. I was pretty happy with how this turned out. Here is the second one:
I’m not happy with that one. Sigh! We only have one more class, after Thanksgiving. I may take another stab at doing a drypoint (just a little printmaking humor…).
I’ve done more work on my vise drawing series. I haven’t photographed the drawings, so I’ll have to show you them later. As one of my infinite diversions, I was playing around with a few small, gouache paintings. Here is the first one:
I like doing these messy, crazy things. It started out somewhat realistic, with the blue sky…but then it took a turn for the weird at some point. The next one:
Garish, right? I like garish. Last one:
I don’t know where I’m going with these. I just like doing them.
Any comments? Helpful suggestions?
Does it matter that no one may like these, as long as I like to do them?
Does it matter that I clearly am not interested in “editing”?
Does it matter that I often like to use practically every color that is out there?
Metallics…I don’t have any metallic paint yet…
Filed under: Drawing, painting, printmaking | Tags: art, artist, charcoal, drawing, painting, portrait, woodblock printing
So, a bit of good news!!! I submitted three pieces of work to the upcoming show at the Arlington Center for the Arts…and all three were accepted! I was pretty excited, as I had no idea what to expect. The work is all abstract, but varied: one woodblock print, one monotype, and one acrylic painting. Exciting! The show, titled “Regeneration”, runs from November 21 through January 27. The opening is December 2 at 7:30 pm…I hope that I can go! Here’s what was selected:
and:
and:
So exciting!
On another front, I wanted to highlight the work of a local artist, Regina Valluzzi. She is uber smart, and combines her scientific background with her artistic vision to create amazing works. This is one of her paintings, titled, “Vacuum Energy”:
“Vacuum Energy” by Regina Valluzzi
Amazing, right? I wish that I could begin to understand the influences in her work, but as I am lacking a doctorate in physics, I can only talk about how I really love what she does…Please check out both her website and her blog. Here is another of her paintings, titled, “Emergent Order”:
“Emergent Order” by Regina Valluzzi
I’m such a fan of the colors, layering and complexity…She has two works that are going to be in an exhibit in Boston’s Hynes Convention Center from January 4 – 7. In addition, two of her drawings will also be in the aforementioned upcoming show at the Arlington Center for the Arts! Congrats, Regina!
I’ve been working on a WIDE variety of stuff, as per usual. In my portrait class, we worked with that same model that you’ve seen me draw in past blog posts. This time, however, instead of drawing….we did linoleum prints! Here’s mine:
Kind of interesting…in a Durer-esque sort of way. I wasn’t really finished with it, but I printed it anyway, as we were running out of time. Lots of stuff that I’d do different next time, but my first linoleum print from a model. The model looks like a brunette Gwen Stefani to me.
I also did a couple more woodblock prints. These are just using the blocks that I already carved before:
I actually did several, but that one is just an example of the colors that I was using. I also made ghost prints as well:
I’m not totally sure about the colors. It was good to play around with these blocks again, though!
I’ve been continuing to work on my vise study/series. I’m enjoying these drawings, as they are rather quick and messy (charcoal!). I am forcing myself just to do them, without over-analyzing the whole thing. I love using charcoal…it’s soooo tactile. I mean, you can draw a thin line…a fat line…a really WIDE line with the side of the stick…you can smudge it…lift it…amazing! I’m going to end up with black lung by the time this is over. I need a drawing-vac to suck up all of the charcoal dust. Again, does wonders for the laundry area where the vise is situated…But, I digress…here is one from last week:
I started to play with the anthropomorphic qualities of the vise…one from this week:
and one from today:
I really like that one. I’m not sure if I’m finished with it. I think that I should just leave it, so that I don’t “over-work” it. That’s what my painting teacher is always threatening us about. I am a virtuoso at over-working…both in my art and my life…but I’m trying to fix that in both too!
Speaking of painting, my recent painting from that class turned out…hmmm. Here it is:
Hmm…I was trying to do a self-portrait…but from memory. No photo or mirror. Once I got home, and looked in the mirror…I saw TONS of stuff that was off. It will be obvious to those who know me that this is only marginally a likeness. I think that I might try it again. Detail:
I really don’t think that my painting teacher liked it. I think that he was concerned that I looked so depressed! He asked us to do a painting inspired by writing/literature. I was working from Shakespeare’s sonnet #159, which I had to memorize in high school. DID I MENTION THAT I CAN STILL RECITE IT???? Scary! Anyway, thinking of all of that generated this painting. Once again…I got sucked into “realism”. I just love painting faces, though, so I like to do it. Next time, however, I’m going to really try to stay with abstraction, as I prefer that kind of art generally. Well…just as my high school field hockey coach would yell with her Dutch accent…”PUUUUSH YOURSELF!” Thanks, Anneke!!!
Filed under: Collage, Drawing, painting | Tags: Abstract art, acrylic, art, artist, charcoal, Collage, drawing, Paint, Realism (arts), vise
The snow has long melted away, and now we’ve got a gray day with rain. I’m not complaining, as it was almost 70 degrees and sunny on Tuesday. Typical November in New England.
My painting class went pretty well this week! However, no matter how hard I try…I seem to keep getting sucked back into “realism”. Trust me, I’m not implying that my work has any photographic realism to it, but it becomes more and more representational, which I’m always trying to avoid. Here is the painting from this week:
If you can’t discern…it’s a still life of gardening gloves and a binder clip. Don’t ask me what that melange means. Anyway, I was trying to keep it fairly abstract, but my teacher kept prompting me to “fix” it so that it looked more “correct”. I guess my abstraction wasn’t capturing the essence of the forms as much as when I just caved in and tried to paint the objects, albeit in a messy way. The majority of this painting was done with a small paintbrush, like the flat kind that you get in a hardware store to paint the trim on your door or something. I like the marks that this kind of brush gives. I’m generally happy with it, although I’m still scratching my head how as to be more “abstract”. Why, you ask, am I trying that? I just like abstract art over realistic art. I’m naturally wow-ed by anyone who can paint in a photographic manner. But, I don’t like that kind of art, really. I like abstraction. Thus, I am continuously attempting to move in that direction.
My other art class never strays from the “non-representational” world. We had to do two collages this week from the paintings that we made LAST week. Here are my collages:
and:
Okay, here’s an odd thing. The first one felt easy to do and took very little time. The second one was like digging my own grave with a toothpick. I have no idea why it was so difficult, and took me so long. It’s so odd how one’s brain gets stuck. Why? WHYYY? I don’t want to say that it was a waste of a good hour doing that one, but when I finished…I was exhausted and somewhat defeated by that little 5″x7″ rectangle of paper. I was also surrounded by an explosion of paper scraps from failed attempts at that second composition. I know…some people are brain surgeons, and I’m stumped by sticking paper down. Hmph.
We also did colorful ink blot paintings in this class. I think that maybe this is a project that I’ll see if my son wants to do:
and:
What do you see? Don’t say “a general mess”. I had fun doing this, but I would have loved to have had my tar gel medium to do some squiggly drips.
I’m also meeting once a week with Adria Arch, a local artist who’s work has been shown all over the place. She just had a show finish at the Bromfield Gallery in the South End. Impressive! Anyway, she’s helping me set some direction with what I’m doing. Because we both liked my previous “drill press” print (see my post titled, “Last Cambridge Print Studio…Boo Hoo!), we decided that I should continue this tool exploration. So, I’m to do ten, 18″x24” drawings of 30 min. each on the subject of tools. I’ve started with a vice that we have in our meager basement workshop:
Please excuse the generally poor quality of the photos in this post. As the post title states, it’s a drippy mess outside, and I had to take all of my pictures indoors. So, this first drawing is a pretty straightforward charcoal drawing of the vise. Next:
Then, I zoomed in on one area. Hmm! Next:
This was me initially trying to do a “blind contour” drawing, but I started looking. So, if the whole vise looks “wonky”, that’s why. I kind of liked the general messiness of this drawing, so I did another one:
That’s an odd combination of fussy drawing and scribble drawing. Hmm. Blech. Next:
That time, I tried to draw the vise with only tones, and not too many lines. Very messy! Hmm! Now, what can I do with the next five that I have to do? EGADS. This one was kind of fun because of the general messiness of it all. I love that I’m scrubbing away with black charcoal in our laundry area while I look at this vise. Doesn’t everyone dream of a laundry area with fine dusting of black charcoal on everything? I know…not very Martha Stewart of me.
In looking at these drawings, it’s kind of odd. I almost like the wonky one the best. I guess that the other ones are so straightforward, that they are almost boring. What do you think? Hello, out there!?!
Filed under: painting, printmaking | Tags: abstract, acrylic, art, artist, painting, printmaker. visual arts, printmaking, woodblock print, woodcut print
Okay. Remember how I was complaining about the “dusting” of snow the other week? WELL. As those of you in the Northeast well know, now we had something to really cry about. Yes, snow…lots of it…before Halloween. I am lucky to be writing this email at all, as there are many people who are STILL without power. Can you imagine? Not good. Think, “The Shining” but with more, yet likely smaller, houses. Really not good. The scene of our backyard:
Looks worse than that last photo I posted, right? Now, I grew up in upstate New York for my elementary school years. Their snow makes our snow look plain silly. BUT…I do not recall EVER having snow in upstate New York before Halloween. It’s just not right.
I’ll stop whining now.
My son’s halloween costume, which he refused to wear trick or treating but was happy to wear at home in order to help dad with the mail:
No, I did not make that costume. I gave up for two reasons: 1. a crocodile was too complicated to make, and 2. I had a strong suspicion that he would not wear the costume in the first place. Don’t even get me started about the costume that I slaved over last year that he also did not wear. My child finds halloween too stressful. Hmm.
Art-wise…I think that this was a pretty successful week. I had a GREAT printmaking workshop with Catherine Kernan over the weekend. SOOOO GREAT. She does all sorts of crazy things with woodblock prints. I found her to be such a good teacher and very inspiring. Here are my prints from the weekend:
I like it! Next:
It’s odd how different the background paper looks, even though it was the same for all of the prints ( I mean the white area at the perimeter).
I saved that one above from being a muddy mess. Nice!
Catherine really liked that one above. It looks better in real life. Last print:
You can tell if you have a good teacher when the quality of your work really improves. I felt that this was true at this workshop. It was a lot of fun! All of those prints are made from just two blocks.
I also had some success with painting. Here it is:
My teacher really liked it. He had some helpful comments along the way. It also didn’t feel hard to do. I’m wondering if the fact that I was actually in a bit of pain at the time of doing it (think: big headache), somehow helped. Because of that, I wasn’t totally focused. My thoughts kept getting interrupted by my discomfort. This sort of quieted down any inner discussion about judging the work as it progressed, as my mind was preoccupied. Not that I’d like to be in pain when I paint, but I am wondering somehow if it actually was a help! Sound crazy? Perhaps so.
I like the painting anyway. Comments? Everyone have a good halloween? I think that I’ve consumed enough candy to last me until 2013 at least…not that I’m letting that stop me from munching on more “fun size” calorie bombs.
Filed under: Drawing, painting, printmaking | Tags: abstract, acrylic, art, artist, colored pencil, etching press, klimt, painting, portrait, profile, Stencil
Today, my car said it was 32 degrees. That’s cold. I know…talk to me in February…that will seem balmy. Still, I feel like I was wearing sandals just yesterday. Not only is it cold…but it SNOWED last night. Here’s what is left on our yard:
Look at that sad little water table in the background! It can be a skating rink for squirrels.
This week, I definitely made some odd stuff. I decided to dabble again with figurative work. I started by “copying” a face from a Klimt painting:
Klimt’s painting is, of course, stunning. I was just trying to study his way of rendering the face. Then, I did this one:
A little blurry…think of it as a “fuzzy filter” to improve the appearance. Hmm! Then the next one:
Strangely enough, that one looks a little like me. Not on a good day, of course. I showed these to my painting teacher. He said that they were “postmodern”. Hmm. I guess that means anything that isn’t “modern” pretty much. He likes modern painters, like Pollock and De Kooning. So…I think that he prefers much more loose and “painterly” paintings. That means more apparent brushstrokes, etc. As a result, I tried in his class to invent a figure painting that was more painterly:
I know. The red is a bit much. I think that I’ll try again, but with a more neutral color for the figure. It’s hard for me to paint a figure without one in front of me to look at! I know…practice, practice, practice. Detail:
He had some positive things to say…but this might have been to encourage me. He did not like the red, though. Hmm!
In my other painting class, we worked on an long 18″ x 48″ painting. We were told to pick three colors inspired by “regeneration”. Then, we had to mix the colors, and choose one for the background. The shapes were made with stencils that we cut out of paper which were insipred by shapes from green/red peppers. Interesting! The teacher, Adria Arch, is wonderful. I highly recommend taking one of her classes. The outcome:
It was fun to do. I’d flatter myself to think that it looked a bit Marimekko.
In my portrait class, we used colored pencils. I asked why colored pencils never seem to be in “high art”, only commercial art. Who knows??? Somehow, it’s just not seen as a fine art medium. Does anyone out there know of an artist who uses colored pencils? What do you think of his/her work? Here is my profile portrait:
I was really happy with how this turned out. This isn’t a great photo, but I think that I got a good resemblance and the coloring was decent. Maybe I should do portraiture? Only because I enjoy it so much…
Okay…the BIG surprise of this week is….
I have a small etching press!!!!!!!
CHECK. IT. OUT!!!!
Yes, it’s small. But it has a press bed of around 13″ w x 20″ l. This will take some typical sized plates and paper: 8×10 plate…9×12 plate. Ideally, I would have a bigger press. BUT…a bigger press is big $$$$. This little press was being sold by a lovely gentleman in Newburyport. It was his wife’s. I hope that he felt that it was going to a good home. I’m worried that the shoddy desk will collapse under it’s weight. I hope not. I haven’t printed with it yet…CAN’T WAIT!!!!
This was a week of artistic randomness. Portrait? Abstract painting? Woodcut? You name it. I have time now to get back into my classes, now that open studios are over.
My portrait class was last night. Our teacher had the model wear two different hats, which was a challenge. Here is the first one:
The model liked it so much that she took a picture of it with her phone. Most of the time, models aren’t at all interested in what we draw. She was interested and involved in all of our discussions in class. Our teacher was taught to do portraits under Conger Metcalf. His portraits were RIDICULOUS. Anyway, he had lots of sayings that we are all beginning to repeat like mantras…”No raisins!” (in reference to nostrils)…”Pin the ears!” (ouch). I suggested that we have a seance to try to reach Conger for his thoughts on how things were going in class.
Here is the other pose…with a BC Eagles visor, no less. I left out the emblem. (I had to draw the line somewhere…pls excuse the art humor…)
The model decided to read her book, and we drew her. Usually, I stand when drawing…but this time, I had to sit down or her whole face would be obscured by the visor. I’m not sure if I’m keen on drawing hats. Detail:
In my painting class, I was annoyed with my last painting. I wanted to get away from realism. So, I experimented with colors and marks:
If the photo looks odd somehow…it’s because I accidentally took the photo with the painting upside down. Now, it’s right side up. I know. How do I know? It just is. I had a watercolor teacher in grad school who was an old-school classicist architect. We were doing housing as a project in studio, and every week he’d ask, “So, how many units this week?” Meaning: how many housing units, Meaning-meaning: You crazy contemporary architects don’t even have a sensible design process. Thus, the idea that this painting has an orientation would probably be hilarous to him. The other one from that class:
My teacher felt that this one was very “busy”. What do you expect? I’M BUSY. I guess my paintings don’t convey a sort of “zen” feel to them. Go figure.
I did some small canvases to play around.
I photographed them at an angle, so that you can see the sides a little.
Now a portrait that I TRIED to keep somewhat loose and messy:
And an odd bit of squiggle:
I like the fact that I can completely paint over any of these if I so desire. Acrylics are great in that way. They are all just sitting on my desk…wondering when their time is up and I obliterate them with a new picture.
In a different painting class we did “blind contour drawings/paintings”. This is basically when you try not to look at your paper much, and you try to trace the edges and forms that you see. Our teacher brought in some natural objects to paint…shells, seed pods, bones, etc. In these next two drawings, we actually had a paint brush in each hand at the same time…it was surprisingly fun…
I was looking at a vertebra. I thought that it turned out surprisingly well, all things considered. And a shell:
We also worked on negative space paintings. Here are two of the vertebra:
Any comments? Suggestions? Artists that I should look at? We often look at Alice Neel’s work in my portrait class. She does really colorful, eccentric portraits. I just orderd a book of her art, so I hope to get it in the next week or so. Please check out her link…so inspiring…
Arlington Open Studios was this weekend. WHEW! I am TIRED! It was a great experience, albeit exhausting. I really enjoyed talking to the people who stopped by to see my work. It felt good when someone wanted to look through every print that I had. It felt even better when someone wanted to buy a print! I mostly sold greeting cards that were hand printed. This makes perfect sense, as they are much more affordable than an actual print. I did sell a few prints…but mostly to my friends. 🙂 (thank you!) Thanks also to all of you who stopped by to say “hi”! I really appreciated it! This was the first time that I have had a good chunk of my work all together. Granted, this was only my printmaking work. I wonder how it would have gone if I had incorporated my drawings? Hmm…
So, I have a relief print of the local theater in Arlington. You can see it on the table in the picture below. It was a very popular print for people to stop and look at, as it’s a local icon. No one purchased it, though, as it is hand printed and an edition of only 3. Thus, the price for each is over $100. I’m thinking that perhaps I should make computer prints of this image, as I’m sure that a more inexpensive option would have sold. Maybe even T-shirts and mugs? Hmmm. I was trying to keep this fairly “art” focused, not “commodity” focused. I mean that I was selling originals, not reproductions. Any comments out there on this idea???? I noticed that an artist who has watercolors was selling reproductions of his originals. They were still over $100 each, so I wonder how well they sold. Hmmm…thoughts?
Here are some images of my set-up:
another:
last one:
I’m pretty happy about the set-up. I was trying to be really frugal, and not spend more than I needed to. Most of the cost was spent on packaging the prints. Unlike paintings, you can’t just hang bare prints up. They are too delicate and likely to get creased or marked. So, that was an expense packaging them. Other than that…the baskets I already owned…the table was borrowed…the boards in the back were rotting in our garage, and I “repurposed” them as part of my display, etc. Not bad, right? Next time, I’m going to make my display taller. When we had a meeting before the open studios, the artists behind me were concerned that my display would block people’s views to them past me. WELL…look at the enormous set up behind me! Next year, I know not to worry about that kind of thing, as no one else seemed to let that hinder them.
Beyond the open studios, my classes have been going well. I really enjoyed my portrait class last week, as we were working in a “subtractive” way of drawing. This means that the paper was made darker by a coating of powdered graphite. Then, in order to get highlights…I erased the graphite and exposed the white paper. Here is the drawing:
I was happy with this. A close up:
It’s a nice way of working, as the midtones are already there for you. I might have to pick up some of that powdered graphite.
My painting classes are a bit of a mixed bag. In one of the classes, we had a model to paint from. This is what I did:
Please excuse her face. I need to rework that IMMEDIATELY. Anyway, my teacher liked this, but I wasn’t so sure. I liked the charcoal drawings that were in the background. I painted over them and incorporated them into the painting. I’d like to be a bit more abstract with what I do. It’s hard for me not to try to draw the model, as I did in the portraits above.
My other painting class was fun and messy:
That was really fun to make. Not so rigid, right?
My prints from my printmaking class were not stellar:
The color palette was not good. Any time that I see yellow and red together, I can only think of McDonalds. Grrr. I have a new block, which is the fine, squiggly lines. I’m not sure if I’m crazy about it. I need to play with it a bit more to see. It might be too “even” for my taste.
So, has anyone out there participated in an open studio? How did it go for you, and what did you learn from it? I learned that having lots of lower priced items will help sales. I also learned that some people are receptive when you say “hello!”, and others want to be left alone to look. It’s a challenge trying to gauge which approach to use with a person. My favorite was when someone grabbed some candy as they walked by my table and were looking at the display across from me. Seriously! I think that if you are going to help yourself to the candy that someone is offering, you at least owe the person a smile and some eye contact. Right? A FASCINATING weekend of studying human nature…Thanks to everyone who stopped by and did chat with me!
Filed under: painting | Tags: acrylic, art, artist, Paint, painting, portrait, self portrait, still life, visual art
My painting teacher asked us to bring in an object to paint, or “present”, in his words. I didn’t know what that meant, but it sounded intimidating. He brought over a Rauchenberg book to show me an example of what he meant when I asked him about it. Hmmm. No pressure. Setting the bar astronomically high…okay. Have I already mentioned that I love Rauchenberg’s work? I probably should have just crawled under my easel at that point, but I didn’t. Maybe if I had a stuffed goat and a tire, I might be able to sort of get within the same solar system as Rauchenberg’s work. Maybe not.
Anyway, I picked a small elephant toy that I’ve had since I was a kid. My childhood friend, Anita, gave it to me. Her dad was from India, and they went there on vacation. So, here is my little elephant…in pretty good shape if you consider how old it is…
Cute, right? He doesn’t stand up well, and tends to tip forward. I think that either his trunk puts him off balance, or his front legs are a little too short. I empathize.
So, here is my painting of this little guy:
I’m happy with it. I mean…it’s no Rauchenberg. I know. Trust me. This is what happens when you don’t crawl under your easel. I’ve always thought that still life painting was kind of…ummm…not so exciting. I gravitate towards abstract and messy art, so still lifes are so…well, still. Maybe I need to try it again? My teacher said nice things about it. Again, I know. He has to walk that delicate line of being somewhat frank, but not completely squelching me with reality. It’s only my third class, so I think that he’s still trying not to scare/offend anyone. He mentioned that three people left one of the other classes that he teaches, so perhaps he was worried about making the beginners in the class, like myself, run as well. Comments?
So, I’m still not done with this odd/icky self portrait. I know. Just paint over the whole thing and start again. My teacher suggested some abstract colored blobs to break it up a bit:
I don’t know. I’d like to help it somehow, but it might bother me too much to keep working on it. This is one of those painful confrontations with reality. I need to go out and buy a lot more titanium white to fix this thing. Maybe just getting a large tub of gesso and a paint gun would do the trick…I think that I get points for even posting it though, right? Maybe not. Sigh.
slightly wonky 