Return from reunionville

These past few weeks I took a break from the rainy, rainy, (did I say rainy?) weather we've been having in Boston to attend my 25th college reunion at Miami University in Ohio, and to attend a family reunion at Bethany Beach, Delaware. To my delight, the weather was sunny and hot in both places.

My college reunion included a tour of the art school. Since I don't have any new paintings to share, I thought I would post some of the photos from the tour. The building above is where I spent many days and nights in the studio. To my surprise, many of the same easels, stools, and "props" were the same as they were 25 years ago. I guess that's comforting. This is a photo of our tour guide (an art history professor) in the new painting studio.
When looking through some college photos to share with my friends, I came across this photo of my painting class. Don't you love the looks on our faces? Such self searching souls we were-HA!

And look-here is one of those same stools. Still in use after 25 years.Last night I had a dream that our house was sinking into the mud from all the rain. I better go make sure that isn't coming true....

3-2-1... Veggies!

3-2-1 Veggies

Oil with palette knife on canvas paper

9" x 9"

$200 framed

This is my entry into this week's Different Strokes From Different Folks challenge. I was feeling that these beautiful vegetables needed to be organized so that I could give each it's own special attention. The size is 9" by 9" on canvas paper. Here is a close up on one of the onions.
Don't you just love summer?

Mind blogging

I just found this term from urbandictionary.com. I feel that it is fitting for what I have been up to lately.

Mind Blogging When you've not posted anything on your blog in a while, but you've been thinking about many topics to write about. 

Example

person1: Hey, where have you been? What you been up to? I've been watching your blog, but you're not even writing. 

person2: Yeah - I've been mind blogging, but I just haven't had a chance to post anything lately.

I do find myself thinking about art and topics to post about all the time. I keep a running list (of course-being the list maker that I am) of ideas and art pieces that I want to blog about. Now, if I can only find the time...

Anticipation

Wow-I think that was the longest I've gone without posting anything new since I started this blog. Not quite sure what happened. I think I must been distracted by all things summer; yard projects, house projects, kids home from college, etc... The blog has gotten a bit dusty-just like the deck looks right now with the layer of yellow pollen on it!

Anticipation

12" by 9"

Oil with a palette knife on canvas

SOLD

Anyway-here is a new painting to help keep the dust off. I worked on this in Thursday night painting class from a reference photo that Nancy picked out for me. Kim calls it cute but we're thinking it might need a little glazing over the peach colored blanket so it doesn't blend in so much with the skin tones. I'm thinking it might also need a pattern as well. Kim showed me how to glaze with the sand/cement painting I did awhile back. I'll report back with more on that soon.

What a wonderful town

It's A Wonderful Town

Oil with a palette knife on canvas

12" by 6"

SOLD

This is my entry into this week's Different Strokes From Different Folks challenge. I was just in NYC last week so I was really looking forward to painting this one. I love New York. It is truly a wonderful town. That's why in my painting the sky is a beautiful blue. I found painting the taxis came quickly, the buildings...well I sruggled a bit with those. Getting straight enough lines with the palette knife is a bit difficult. You can check out Karin's reference photo here.

En plein air in Walpole

Last weekend, our art instructor Kim Morin Weineck arranged a painting workshop in Walpole center. We all met at the revitalized fountain that was completed last year. We were hoping that the water would be flowing, but alas there are a few leaks to repair first so no spouting turtles to paint. Ah well. 

Here is Polo busy working on his painting using acrylics. You can see Nancy in the background working on her painting.

And here is Kim working on a wonderful pastel. Check out the cool gadget she has to hold her pastel in place.

This was the first time I painted really large with a palette knife. It was an interesting experience, a little intimidating and frustrating because I wanted to cover more ground faster than I was able to. I should have brought the bigger palette knives I just bought recently-d'oh. Here is my painting at the end of the day. Still needs some work, but eventually got it to a point that I liked what was happening. 

Here is a photo from where I was painting. I'll need to use this as I work to finish my painting.

And finally, here is photo of everyone's paintings at critique time. A wonderful variety of compositions and styles.

It was a great day. Thanks Kim. We had a little bit of everything weather-wise and onlooker-wise but all in all a great day and surprisingly exhausting. 

Momma Me-a

As a tribute to my mother on mother's day, I wanted to post some paintings I did from old photos I had of her.

My mother's side of the family had a farm in Ohio, and this first image is of my mother, probably in her early 20's, standing in front of the barn. I loved her red plain dress and the glasses.

My mother also was an avid golfer. This second painting was a composite of several images I found from a trip she, my father, and some friends took to Spain.

I think the man on the left was their caddy. I'd like to be there right now, wouldn't you? (TIP: speaking from experience, Mother's Day is a great day to get a tee time on the golf course! You will practically have the course to yourself.)

Have a great day and I hope you are doing something you enjoy.

Life with Vermeer

Sunday was the third and final part of our RISD art history lecture series. The subject, Vermeer!

There is very little record of Johannes (Jan) Vermeer's life, but here is what we do know. He lived in Delft, in The Netherlands (1632-1675) and had 11 children, 8 survived. He only produced about 30 paintings in his short lifetime, about 2-3 a year, which was significantly less than most artists of that time. He married into wealth and even though he was an art dealer by trade, he seemed uninterested in selling his own work. The book and movie The Girl With The Pearl Earring obviously raised recent interest in his life and work, but his paintings of everyday life have made him a popular artist for many years.

Like other artists of the time, he started with religious subject matter. Here is one of his early paintings.

Then he started painting images from his everyday life. Below is a view of Delft and was the only panoramic scene he painted. Apparently, if you went to Delft today, this scene would still look very similar. I find this painting mesmorizing and would love to see it in person some day.
This next painting is called The Little Street and it shows Vermeer's house. Isn't there something kind of Norman Rockwell about this?
Then he moved inside for his subject matter and stayed there. The painting below is called the The Concert and was the one of the paintings that was stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner museum here in Boston in 1990. What is so appalling is that the thieves actually sliced the painting right out of it's frame. Ahhhh-so tragic! Hopefully some day it will be recovered so we can all admire it again.
Vermeer was quite the set decorator. Everything was positioned to create the most dynamic composition with the light source almost always coming from that same window at the left. I particularly appreciate the intricate floor patterns he creates and his use of negative spaces to aid in his composition. It is believed that he also used the camera obscura to help him with his compositions and to maintain consistency with repeated sittings of the models. His use of highlight (such as on that famous pearl earring) is also an indication of some kind of camera-like effect. In addition, he used the scenery to give hints about what was going. For instance, when you look at his work, take notice of the paintings hanging on the wall. He was known to have quite a sense of humor.

I noticed, even though the lecturer didn't mention it, that in his later paintings, he focused in more on the people instead of the entire scene. This was one of my favorites.
Check out that red feather hat. Amazing! The book, Vermeer by Lawrence Gowing was recommended for those wanting a good read about his life. And if you've never read Tracy Chevalier's book , it is one of my favorites.

I'm married to a famous artist!

My husband's latest show at the Moose Hill Massachusetts Audobon Society Gallery has received some great media coverage. He's been too busy to brag and blog about it so I'm going to do it for him. His picture and articles have appeared on the cover of this week's Sharon Advocate, The Walpole Times as well as the MetroWest Daily News. There is also a You Tube video that one of the reporters posted. I am SO PROUD!

Here are the links:

You Tube video

The Sharon Advocate

The Walpole Times

MetroWest Daily News

And few more images from the show:

DSFDF Challenge-Drawing!

This is my entry for the latest Different Strokes From Different Folks challenge. It is from Karin's reference photo of a sculpture called A Companion of Diana. The marble sculpture was done by Jean-Louse Lemoyne and is in the National Gallery of Art in DC. The nymph depicted in this sculpture with her hound, was a companion of Diana, the goddess of the moon and the hunt.

I first sketched out the entire thing to make sure I had the proportions right, then I used the "roundy-roundy" shading technique I learned in the botanical illustration class to finish it. Here was my sketch.
The image above that I submitted was done as a color scan. The one below was done using the black and white setting. The difference is interesting. I think you can see the detail better in the black and white scan but I thought the warm tone of the paper came through nicely in the one I submitted. This challenge reminded me of all the reasons I love to draw:

1. It makes you see details you wouldn't otherwise notice

2. You can sketch anywhere-on the train, on the couch, on a bench in the park (I did all 3 of these to finish this challenge).

3. It is great practice of the basics. It's the first class you take in art school.

4. It can be quick and gestural, or highly detailed.

5. You can erase!

I've known I wanted to do something with art pretty much all my life (except for that brief period where I thought I wanted to be a mailman because I thought driving around in those little post office trucks with the driver's seat on the other side looked like fun). I used to draw a lot as a kid, mostly interiors that included our cat, Hercules.

If you haven't yet checked out the book, An Illustrated Life by Danny Gregory, do it ASAP.
He has collected images of 50 artist's sketchbooks and compiled it into one amazing book. I swear it will immediately inspire you to want to start journaling your life with drawing.

Happy sketching.

Botanical illustration class Day 3

On the final day of class, I remembered to take some photographs with the iPhone. Here is Sarah giving us a demonstration on how to paint the leaves.
Remember we had started with a wash of lemon yellow nickel titanium and now we she is adding the layers of green. Sarah always has 2 brushes ready-one is your paint brush and the other is your water brush. The advantage of this is that you can paint the color with one brush and the soften the edges using the other brush. She demonstrated this by by touching the painted edge with the water brush and "pulling" it out. A wash of the lemon yellow nickel titanium is also applied as a final step which helps to hold the color together on the leaves.

Here is a photo of our class. That's Diana, Alexis, and Sarah. It was held at the Copley Society of Art gallery (thus all of the wonderful artwork on the wall)

Towards the end of class, we moved on to start painting the pansy flowers. Again, lots of layering, always following our tonal study, and adding more and more detail as you go along. Here is my pansy painting as of the end of class.
Sarah showed us one of her pansy paintings on vellum that she has been working on for 5 years. Whew, if it takes her that long, I can't even imagine how long this will take me to finish!

Botanical illustration class Day 2

In the second class with botanical artist, Sarah Roche, we focused on creating a final composition based on our pansy plants. It is important to render the various growth stages of your plant and all of the varied leaf structures. One way to think about it is that if someone was looking for that plant, they could bring your drawing to a nursery and be able to identify it. Therefore, your drawing needs to be informative and as accurate as possible.
At the top of the sketch paper you will see the order of the stages you need to create your sketch-Scale, Proportion, Shape, and Detail. You want to first make sure you establish your scale by lightly mapping out the main parts and their relationship to one another. Then, you want to make sure your proportions are correct. At this point you are really just drawing very light lines to establish the dimensions. Then you start sketching in the basic shapes, and it's only once those things have been established that you should start to add detail.

We used tracing paper to transfer our drawing onto the watercolor paper. After tracing our drawings, we flipped it over and retraced the lines again. To transfer our sketch onto the watercolor paper, we flipped it over again and traced it using a colored pencil. The reason you use a colored pencil is so that you can keep track of what lines you have already drawn. After the transfer, you can then add back in the detail to your drawing, making sure to keep the lines very light. Here is the handout she gave us that explains this process.
We used our tracing paper sketch to start establishing the tonal study for each leaf (remember the football diagram from my last post?) In our last few minutes of class-the time just flew by-we gave each leaf a quick wash of Lemon Yellow Nickel Titanium that represents the tonal areas we had just determined. I learned that botanical illustration is about layering, layering, and more layering, building up the colors very slowly.

More about that in my next post-Day 3!

Botanical illustration class Day 1

For the last three Monday mornings, I have been taking a wonderful class with botanical artist Sarah Roche. There was so much information to learn and share that I think I'll need to do a few separate posts.

The first day we focused on shading from dark to light. I thought I would show you how she sharpens the pencils (we used HB and F). Using an exacto or utility knife, she widdles the wood off the lead so that about 1/4" to 1/2" of the lead is exposed. This then allows you to sharpen the point by rubbing on the sandpaper .
Sarah had us practice a tonal rendering technique she likes to call "roundy-roundy". You are really just caressing the paper with small circles that are overlapping and slowly build up as you go from dark to light. This was the first shape we had us render.
As a second practice exercise, she had us draw several strips that were overlapping one another on our paper. Here is my "fetticini" rendering.
For this exercise, you want to make the strips in back the darkest and the strips in the front the lightest shades. If I was going to shade these before taking this class, I would probably use a combination of lines, cross hatching, and smudging with my finger. I found this roundy-roundy technique very relaxing and it forced me to take my time and really get in the zone.

In botanical drawing, traditionally the light comes from the left. She showed us this "football" diagram and said that all leaves can be rendered with this shading once you see how the light is hitting it.
Then, she gave each of us a purple pansy plant and we discussed the different types of leaves we could see, the varied growth stages of the flower, and the parts of the plant itself. She had us pick one leaf from the plant and, using this chart, we tried to identify it's outline, tip, base, etc.
Here is my rendered pansy leaf.
For homework practice, she had us shade each of these shapes. She says that most plants are made up of these different shapes, so knowing how to render them is critical. Note the scale at the top going from 1 to 7. You never want to have too much of one of these shades. It should be a smooth transition from dark to light.
Next up-Day 2.

Setting up the show

Wow-setting up an art show is a lot of work! Today, we went to the Moose Hill Gallery in Sharon to set up my husband Polo's art show, "Untamed Strokes of Nature" that opens this Thursday. It is amazing how much preparation work goes into the show and then how tiring the arranging, hammering, screwing, wiring, hanging, and straightening to set up the actual show can be. Thanks to show curator, Jan Goba, the results are stunning. We hope you can stop by the reception this Sunday from 1-4.

Here are a few shots from today.


Polo's sketchbooks and palettes will be also on display.


The proud artist, ready for a beer!

Easter Dresses

Easter Dresses

10" by 10" by 1.5"

Oil with a palette knife on cradled canvas

SOLD

This painting was another commissioned piece painted from a family photograph. I'm not sure if this was actually Easter, but I thought it was appropriate to post for Easter time. That's Julie's mom, Dolly, and her girls all dressed up in matching dresses. How cute is that? It is painted on a 10" by 10" artist board with my palette knife family.

Happy Easter weekend everybody!