10 min Sketches

I tried to draw the children at the preschool in 5 min. sketches but they turned into 10 min. sketches and missed up my schedule and plan. My son said "we didn't do much in art today" but then he was sketching me at the breakfast table this morning, so I believe the class was a success. Does anybody remember the children's show that used to come on t.v. with a man drawing a story as he told it? I loved that show, I learned to draw eyes quickly from him.

Digital Number 2

My son said she looked sad. I am glad he said that because the young lady and I were listening to a speaker talk about the state of Haiti and world hunger when I did the sketch. Sketching actually helps me listen.

art articles

I got this email and went to the link and thought it was interesting trends, I have heard of some of them but hadn't seen them all in one place. My name is Emma, and I write articles for Accreditedonlinecolleges.com I thought of you after publishing our recent post, “10 Emerging Art Genres You’ve Probably Never Heard Of” and wanted to see what you think about it. Your readers might be interested on weighing in on the topic too: if you’d like to share or mention the post on your blog, let us know how it turns out!


Thanks,
Emma Taylor

I got this email and went to the link and thought it presented interesting trends, I have heard of some of them but hadn't seen them all in one place. But what I was really excited to find was the list of books to read if you love art history. I love reading biographies of artists and knowing more about them and their circumstances.

Joseph Cornell boxes

I wanted my last art project with the preschoolers to be extra special and it was so much fun. The innate creative genius of children never ceases to amaze and delight me. I showed the children the work of Joseph Cornell, an American artist who brought assemblage to the forefront as an art form through his work done in the 1940s and 50s. We cut and tore magazine pictures the first week and then the second week the children brought in "treasures" from home to glue in their boxes. It is hard to not show a picture of all of them, I loved them all.











Joseph Cornell on the web: http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/cornell/

New Digital Art

We are in the process of moving and getting settled will probably take all summer. If we get the house that we are intending, the long term plan is to build my studio in the loft of the barn on the property. It will be paradise one day. But to work towards the goal, I am looking for a graphic design job. My baby is going to kindergarten next year, so it is a good time. I love the school we believe he will be going to, it is centered around the arts. He will love it and if I was homeschooling, it is just how I would want to teach. There is also an engineering club perfect for my older son.

So while the "studio" is in boxes, it is a good time to do some digital art. I am influenced by Jose Merello's work in this first digital painting. For my graduate thesis, I compared the process of painting to the process of working digitally, so in my mind I am writing my thesis all over again. For my next chapter, I would compare how using a nearly monochromatic photograph as a layer in Photoshop is similar to acrylic glazing for it's unifying effects. Blah, blah, blah ; )

New inspiration

http://www.merello.com/

Jose Manuel Merello, this artist is all of my favorites rolled into one: Odilon Redon, Chagall, Matisse, Picasso and Kandinsky. He is all of those at once. I can't read Spanish but I think he is deceased. Love him, the end. I can't wait to start fresh.

Cups in the Cupboard

One of my goals in painting has always been to achieve a messy, loose style of painting. This is a conscience counter to the tight illustrative work I did for textbooks. I think I am getting some messy meshing of the paint here by applying the colors mostly all in one sitting and letting them blend into each other. This is a way of painting that comes pretty naturally for oil painters but takes some foresight with fast drying acrylics.

I do miss the transparent layering I was doing in the large "water reflection" paintings. I am not sure how to achieve this in painting solid masses. I can easily see the layering in reflected water: there is below the water surface, the water surface and then the reflections floating on top but not quite sure how to translate that to an apple. Maybe think of the back and insides of the apple?

Layering on Wood

I like the way this painting has large areas of color with little bits of many colors showing around the edges. This is a departure from paintings I did last year with many patterned shapes of color covering the composition. They looked kind of like stained glass. I like the contrast of big areas of color to small areas of color in this painting. I wonder if I can do it again? I had given up on this painting and started scrubbing in areas of color and then it started to work.

More drinks anyone?

I am thinking about layering paint with these. What colors, textures and values should come first and what colors, textures and values should be on top and what should transition the two? These paintings generated new ideas for this type of layering that I want to test. I am working from photographs for these and I really miss working from my sketches. Working from my sketches frees me to be more creative by separating me from the realistic representation.

MT's Chop House

I am definitely being influenced by the recent work of my friend, Catalina Rankin, on this one. Hope that she doesn't mind. I was thinking of doing a new series of restaurant themed paintings to leave and sell through the Chop House. I have shown my work there for a number of years.

Recently Sold Paintings:

Spring Arts

I thought that the morning light coming into the tent early Saturday morning was pretty. A calm before the crowds. The energy Saturday was electric, you can sense when people are really considering buying and that is exciting. Sunday, I felt people were just out taking a stroll to enjoy themselves.

I thought all you Harn docents might be interested in what I taught the preschoolers with inspiration from the African Textile exhibit.

Spring Arts

I am in Spring Arts this weekend! Really excited to be accepted into this show: http://springartsfestival.com/

I hope I am ready, things have been so hectic lately I don't know which end is up.

Open Air Arts

Here are two of the three paintings I did this weekend during Melrose's Open Air Arts. I did them in true plein air fashion and sat among the cypress trees staring into the water almost all weekend. I think it will be a special memory I'll take with me as I leave Florida. The weather, scenery and company of great artists and friends couldn't have been better.

Kites for Spring

The preschool where I teach had a kite theme so I wanted to introduce the Chinese tradition of kites to the children. It was with some trepidation I ventured into kites. Three dimension construction is not my forte. In college, I remember having fits constructing a complex box kite from thin dowel rods for a sculpture class only to have it crushed flat between heavy doors carrying it to the dining hall. My older son and I did not work together smoothly making a kite for a scout den meeting which was an embarrassing public display. But when I picked out a children's book at the library explaining the history of Chinese kites and thus the Chinese New Year, I got an idea to make the dragon kite using paper plates. This was a managable and easy medium and I think the results are quite impressive. I can see making the individual plates more elaborate perhaps with cloth or tissue paper and making some spectacular looking kites. Getting them to fly would take some engineering skills I don't possess but I feel it could be done. The only real problem I had was when hanging the plates on the ceiling. I had knots tied in the yarn to hold the plates in place along the string but the weight of the plates slid all the plates to the bottom of the string and pulled the knots too tight to hold the plates. The head of the dragon is made from a milk jug. The children were to draw wishes on the plates but many focused on animal kites and symbols they saw in the book. They really loved the book, Kites: Magic Wishes That Fly Up to the Sky by Demi.

Thinking About Paint

Another small and Woods and Water painting. My goal for the upcoming painting outside event, Open Air Arts, is to paint with abandon. Make the paintings as much about the paint itself as about the landscape. I have to really fight my graphic design training to do this and my plans always seem harder to accomplish during the event. But that is my goal and desire. There are some painters that I really admire participating, I can't wait to see what is produced. Artists coming to OAA.

Woods and Water Abstractions

I did these four little abstractions based on the water section from the large "Red Reflections" painting that I did last week. Now I am wondering if I should make one of these bigger?





My preschool glass made some pseudo stain glass for the school's window last week. Everyone loved the results.

Reflections of Red

Another attempt at water reflections from a sketch in town after the rains last week. It doesn't have the quick wet brush strokes of the last two paintings. Those strokes went well with the water subject. Quick wet strokes are pretty tough to pull off in acrylics because the media is fast drying. I have to be sure of the plan and I changed my plan on this painting a couple of times before I got an interesting surface and composition. I did enjoy the layering and acrylic is great for that. I also used a bigger canvas than usual which makes working wet harder. I don't know why I have this eternal optimism that the next painting is going to be great, so much so that I go out and buy a big canvas. Otherwise I wouldn't keep trying I guess. I wonder if I should use this painting as a study to make a more abstract version?

New Direction in Reflections?

Reflections on the Santa Fe River

This is a bit of a different approach for me. I always struggle with getting a full series or body of work but perhaps this direction will be different. I am thinking I want to do many of these very quickly. Usually I really exhaust one painting at a time, doing two to three paintings on one canvas, painting over and over and over it. So wish me luck with this new attempt. I was inspired to paint these from our last canoe trip on the Santa Fe. The water was so dark, glassy and still. Yesterday I did sketches of the rain puddles around town.

Van Gogh

We are exploring Van Gogh's work in my preschool art class. Has their ever been an artist so universally loved by all levels of artists? From novice to professional everyone loves Van Gogh. I read a biography of Van Gogh and he had several causes for his mental illness. He seemed to experience emotions so intensely and that energy comes across in his paintings. He experienced very little acknowledgement, only selling one painting in his short lifetime but he had the unfailing support of his brother to sustain his painting. He wanted so badly to connect with people: first trying to be a pastor, then with women that didn't love him and fellow artist Gauguin. Now he connects with people through his art, wish he could have known that when he was living.
In class, I just told the children that Van Gogh had sunny days and rainy "sad" days. When making the flowers we talked about texture, opaque, transparent and recycling.