Friday, December 29, 2017

Happy New year

Wishing you all a happy and creative New Year!  

I'm teaching a two day work shop
and a five week
"Intuitive Painting"
class at North River Arts Society 
in January.

It would be a great way to kick off 2018!





"This class is designed for the painter who is interested in creating 
more intuitive, bold, and exciting paintings. 
We will learn how to take a less representational, analytical approach to painting
 by allowing our intuition to lead us.
 Each week we will challenge ourselves to “think less and do more!” 
Through a series of quick, fun exercises, we will learn 
how to use color, shape, space, and line 
to express an idea or statement. 
We will be working from still life and/or photos 
and all painting mediums are welcome.
 Cut paper collage will be introduced along the way. 
Materials list to follow. "

Click HERE for more information. 

There a few spots open! 


Tuesday, December 19, 2017

Abstract "Postcards"

I recently watched a demo by Jane Davies
 on YouTube where she made "abstract postcards" 
 by collaging different papers, crayons, etc. 
on a 8 1/2  x 11 sheet of media board.
Then she cuts them in fours to get a wonderful 
mix of patterns and textures. 




I ended up doing four of them in different colors
and had them framed together. 




(Sorry for the glare. 
I didn't photo them before having them framed!)  


I loved them so much, I kept them
 and hung them in our sitting room! 





Monday, December 11, 2017

Making It Up

In my quest to become "less literal"
I am learning to make things up.  
Here, I made up the figure first,
then chose a composition that would
move the eye around the painting 
using color temperature. 


Night Beach 
20 x 16 
oil 

Letting the colors and shapes tell the story.
Fun!  







Friday, December 8, 2017

Featured Artist at J Crew

I am going to be the "featured Artist" 
at the Derby Street J Crew this Friday 
from 10 - 2. 
Please come by if you're in the area! 


"End of Season"
16 x 20 oil 

I'll be featuring a few larger oil paintings
and many affordable 
Mini- Collages
3 x 3 matted and framed 
to 8 x 8 




Using Color Temperature


Working on the 
"Push/Pull" of using colors. 
warm /cool 
light /dark 
intense /dull 
a la Hans Hoffman. 


I painted over this painting 
that had been hanging around the studio for weeks. 



Now I wish I had kept the original! 
Oh well. A good lesson.

NOTE: 
Here are some I Pad 
experiments I did during the process. 






Sunday, December 3, 2017

Collage Informs Painting


Working with cut paper collage
let's me play with color and design.
In many ways,
I think it is beginning to inform my paintings.
It's a great way to simplify.



Gordon's Pond 
9 x 10 
collage 


NOTE: 
I went to an wonderful demo by
  at Concord Art this week.
She showed us many different ways to 
"paint" papers for use in collage.  
 I was enthralled. 



She showed us how to make "stamps" 
using adhesive craft foam 
attached to foam board. 
Oh boy. 
There is no end to what you can do with it!   

Thursday, November 30, 2017

Inventive Color


Experimenting with intense colors
to see how they work with each other.

I used a black and white image
that forced me to invent colors.


Work in Progress
14  x 12 

NOTE:
  I recently primed assorted sizes of white surfaces 
with mid value acrylic paint.  


  Bring on winter and those long uninterrupted
hours in the studio.
I'm ready!  

  


Wednesday, November 29, 2017

High Key Painting



The last lesson for the Melinda Cootsona 
"Know Your Colors" 
e-class is to do a high key painting.

I experimented with the techniques
she uses in the demo which include 
using muted colors, palette knife, and half tones. 
I somewhat lost the idea of 
a low key value plan, 
but learned a lot.  



I'm going to keep working on this one.
(The head is too small and shadow shape is too dark.) 

"If a painting isn't working,
it means it needs more work".







Friday, November 24, 2017

Analogous Color Pallet

Lesson #4 (Melinda Cootsona E-course) 
is using 4 Analogous Colors.

For this I used 
Red-Orange, Red, Red-Violet and Violet


It was difficult to get the
"cools" for the background! 


I used a previously done gouache 
of the Wine Country as a reference. 



Note: 
I had great fun doing this on this on the I Pad. 
I put analogous colors 
directly on an image of a landscape with my pinky! 






Monday, November 20, 2017

Upcoming Classes

I'm excited to announce to my followers
that I will be teaching both, 
a two day workshop
 and
a five week class 
at North River Arts
 this January!
(Brochure will be coming soon
for more information.)

2 day workshop

“Intuitive Painting”
Think Less, Do More!

North River Arts Society
January 13, 14 2018


This workshop is geared for the painter who is interested
 in creating more intuitive, bold, and exciting paintings.  
Through a series of quick, fun exercises,
 we will learn how to think less and do more, 
by allowing our intuition to lead us. 
We’ll discover ways to use color, shape, space, 
and line to express an idea. 
We will be working from still life and/or photos
 and all painting mediums are welcome. 
Cut paper collage will be introduced on day two. 
Materials list to follow. 
"Summer Dreams" 
18 x 18 oil 


5 week class

“Intuitive Painting”
Think Less, Do More!

North River Arts Society
Tuesday’s 9:30 – 12:30
January 9, 16, 23, Feb, 6,13
(no class Jan 30)  

This class is designed for the painter who is interested
 in creating more intuitive, bold, and exciting paintings. 
We will learn how to take a less representational,
 analytical approach to painting by allowing our intuition to lead us. 
 Each week we will challenge ourselves to “think less and do more!” 
Through a series of quick, fun exercises, we will learn how 
to use color, shape, space, and line to express an idea or statement. 
We will be working from still life and/or photos 
and all painting mediums are welcome.
 Cut paper collage will be introduced along the way. 
Materials list to follow.  


"Ultra Marine"
16 x 16 oil 



Thursday, November 16, 2017

Push and Pull of Color

In the e-class I am taking with
"Own Your Own Colors"
we are working on 
the push and pull of color temperature. 
(a la Hans Hoffman) 


For mine, I painted over the painting below,
focussing on manipulating the blocks of color.  


This painting had gone through so many stages, 
I figured I had nothing to lose. 

(Melinda liked the before better than the after. 
Oh well) 

NOTE: 
Here are just a few of the I pad sketches I did
 along the way, 
while playing with color shapes. 





Well, I guess it's true. 
It's all about the process,
not the product!  




Monday, November 13, 2017

Thinking Less


Here I played with varying 
the size of the shapes and patterns
 and using cools and warms. 


"Fire Pit"
8 x 6 collage

I began with the dark blue pattern at the bottom
and the rest just happened. 
 
Working with collage is 
helping me think less. 


NOTE:

My good friend Sally Dean 
asked me how I got the yellow in last post, 
referring to complementary colors. 
(Blue and orange)

OOPS! 
I forgot to mention that
 in the exercise we were allowed 
to add one more color as an accent in the end. 
I added Indian yellow! 





Sunday, November 12, 2017

Complementary Colors

For this lesson I used two complementary colors 
plus black and white. 
I chose Phtalo Turquoise and Cadmium scarlet.


"Summer Dreams" 
14 x 14 oil 

The range of colors you can get is amazing. 
And the neutrals are so harmonious
 when you limit the palette like that! 


Friday, November 10, 2017

On-line painting class

I'm taking an on-line painting class called 
"Own Your Colors" 

One of the assignments was to invent colors  
using a black and white image as a reference,
making sure the values stay the same.  
It teaches you how to see value in color. 
This is more difficult than it looks.  

"Ironing Hankies" 
20 x 16 oil 

Here is my reference photo 
and a Black and white image of the painting.

It's fun to how close you can get. 
And it helps you see the big shapes of value. 

NOTE: 
This is right up my alley. 
She gives you the whole course 
at once and everyone goes at their own pace. 
We post and comment in a private group on FB
 and there are artists from all over the world in the class. 
She is extremely organized and helpful. 
  



Drawing Circles and Ellipses

In order to get everyone more relaxed when drawing
we did an exercise called 
"running the track".  

I had them draw an organic shape, 
a geometric shape
and an abstract shape. 

Then they were to "run" their pencil along the lines
over and over again, using different grips.   


Then we practiced drawing circles and ellipses
on sheets I found on the internet. 
This is much harder than it looks! 


A great way to practice hand / eye control! 

As always, it's a true joy to work with these 
smart, engaging and eager folks!  



Monday, November 6, 2017

Ken Kewley workshop

I am completly enthralled after 
taking a three day 
Abstract Landscape Collage workshop 
at Concord Art this weekend.
He is an amazingly organized and generous instructor
and we all did an incredible amount of work!

We painted our own papers
and produced hundreds of small 
abstract landscapes. 
(without thinking too much) 



Here, I used just geometric shapes:


"Harbor Town"
4 x 4 


Here are my two "unrestricted" landscapes
done on Sunday


"Fall" 
6 x 6 




"Harbor" 
6 x 6 


On Sunday we created three D
structures using cardboard and paint. 
Then we collaged them from four different angles! 



This was by far one of the most exciting and 
engaging workshops I have ever taken.
I can't wait to see where it takes me! 

Wednesday, November 1, 2017

Teaching Value in Drawing

We did a five value scale
in pencil this week in our  
drawing class at Linden Ponds. 

I then set up a simple object under a 
strong light source.
They were to draw an outline of the obvious shapes
 of different values
and assign one to each section.



I'm continually amazed at how quickly 
(and willingly) 
these total beginners work. 
It's a gift to see them discover the 
joy of seeing. 






Monday, October 30, 2017

Abstract Exercises

Still working my way through 
the exercises in Jane Davie's 
"Abstract Painting" book. 

For this one, we were to use one shape
(circle, square, rectangle, cone etc) 
to make a composition using 5 different 
versions of that shape. 


This is harder than it sounds. 

NOTE: 
I'm gearing up for 
I'm taking at Concord Art 
this weekend; 
"A Thousand Collages and the Landscape".



We will be exploring abstraction in landscape 
through collage. 

"All along we will share a path away from copying and rendering, 
toward a more exciting and ultimately more real 
picture of what we find beautiful in the world."

It sounds just right for where I'm heading.