Front Door Colors

It's the end of September and the Girl's' Just Wanna Paint challenge subject this month is "door". Since I  spend an enormous amount of time thinking about, and looking at, front door colors on houses, I just had to paint this one in my new favorite color.

Benjamin Moore: Rose Apple Red
6 x 6  

Sometimes it looks orange, sometimes pink. 

It takes on whatever is going on around it. 

It's very uplifting. 

I highly recommend it. 

Street Art

We just got back from a quick over night trip to Soho in NYC. Saw a lot of art on the streets. Needless to say, there is something out there for everyone!

Poor Marilyn. Why can't they just leave her alone? 

I wonder what kind of bra......oh, never mind

Everyone loves their dog! 

This one is my favorite. He was literally "on the street".

The Art of Letting Go

 I cut this quote out of a American Artist magazine years ago and it just happily re-surfaced, so I thought I'd share it with you.

“The Art of Letting Go”

by Charles Ghigna

"The difference between the artist and the rest of the world is that the artist has learned the art of letting go. He has learned to let go inside. He has learned to follow his natural instincts and trust his sense of wonder. He has learned to savor the joy of each new discovery and to celebrate with all his might. He has learned that he isn’t in search of something greater than himself; that he is the search. He has learned that following the search within and letting it go, so that it can communicate with others in images, words, music or dance, is the greatest gift he can give the world- and to himself."

 FYI: The author is aka "Father Goose". He writes poetry for kids. Check out his blog.

http://charlesghigna.blogspot.com

"A Good Read"
6 x 6

Have a great weekend! 

First Class

I have a terrific group of artists taking my "One Hour Painting" class at the South Shore Art Center this fall. They are all at different levels of experience (and confidence), but have one thing in common. 

They want to loosen up! 

 We spent a lot of time getting know each other in the beginning of the class, so I did this demo in about 20 minutes. I wanted them to get painting! 

5 minutes left. The timer was ticking! 

The happy and loose results! And one of these was done by a total beginner! 

Small Works Season

"And Baby Makes Three"

6 x 6 

$125

'Tis the season to start thinking about all the Small Works shows that are coming up. The Copley Society, the South Shore Art Center and North River Arts all host holiday shows that are so much fun. I bought a bunch of gallery wrapped squares and some long rectangles to do a series of these. 

Summer's not over. At least not in my studio.  

Back to Work

After a great summer of just painting for the fun of it, it's time for me to get back to work. My eight week One Hour Painting class is beginning next Tuesday in Cohasset, MA so I thought I'd better do a practice demo. I started to set up a still life in the studio, but it was brilliantly sunny out, so I set it up in my driveway instead. (I try to soak up as much sun as I can these days because I'll be missing it pretty soon.) Also, I figured the challenge of chasing the noon day sun would keep me on my toes. And that it did!

One Hour Practice Demo 8 x 10
There are a lot of things I can fix in this and the glare is awful.
But you get the idea. 

 Since the class is geared toward getting folks to loosen up and trust themselves, we will mostly be painting simple still lives in controlled light. This one turned out to be a lot more complicated than I thought, especially since the light completely changed within the hour! Every demo teaches me something!  

There are still a few spots left if you are interested! 

 www.ssac.org 

#322     The One Hour Oil Painting 

          Nancy Colella  

This class will explore the practice of creating a painting from start to finish in one hour, teaching students how to think more spontaneously and produce more lively and intuitive work. It will help simplify the process and enable students to “say a lot with little.” Generous, quick, well-placed strokes will help create fresher, simpler, more effective paintings. Each class will begin with a demo followed by a “timed” one hour group painting session. We will work both outdoors en plein air (when the weather permits) and also from still life and photos. An understanding of oil painting materials would be helpful. 

9/21–11/9  Tuesday am 9:30–12:30                                              

$205M  $245NM  8 classes 

All Kids are Artists

Last Sunday we went to the Boston Ahts Festival at Columbus Square in the North End (that's right- that's how they spell it.) They had a long wall that kids could paint on and it was extremely popular! Check out some of these future artists!

The outfit pretty much says it all 

Getting right in to it

These two were very serious 

Old Dog - New Tricks

Have you ever taken a tennis or golf lesson, only to find yourself unable to play at all the next time out? That's because you are thinking too much!  Here are five of the new techniques I was thinking about today as I practiced what I learned at the workshop. I felt like a beginner!  

1. Tone the board a complementary color of the main subject. 

(I always tone my boards a middle grey)  

2. Use view finder to crop subject for more drama 

(I tend to put my subject right in the middle) 

3. Start with the most vulnerable colors ie. any saturated color in danger of getting dirty

 (I've always started with the darkest dark.) 

4. Mix up the correct value, put down a stroke and leave it alone! 

(I tend to go back over it and make mud) 

5. Push the stokes over the "lines", then cut in for softer edges 

(I tend to make my strokes "butt" right up to each other making too many hard edges) 

I kept falling back into my old habits! This old dog will just have to keep at it, until it comes naturally,
I guess. 

Workshops

To have the opportunity to immerse yourself into something that you are passionate about for three full days, with no distractions, is an amazing gift. I'm just back from a painting workshop I took with Carol Marine and I feel like I learned more about painting in those three days than I did in the four years as an art major in college! She is incredibly talented and generous with her knowledge; and is as cute and funny as can be. There is a reason her workshops fill up so fast! Here she is beginning a demo the first day. 

Here are just a couple the exercises she had us do.

 

Making one value dominate 

10 minute studies of the same object 

timed quick color studies of just one object 

Workshops are a great way to shake up things and I can't wait to see where all this new information is going to take me! Stay tuned. 

Die Hards

These two folks were the very last ones to leave the beach yesterday. As the umbrellas were closed up, the chairs put away and trunks loaded for the long ride back to "reality", there was a definite feeling that the "party is over". I like to think of Labor Day weekend as a beginning, not an end. Time to get back to work and get organized! I'll be kicking myself into gear this week by taking a 3 day workshop in Rhode Island with Carol Marine. I can't wait to get back to school! I'll keep you "posted"!  

Beach Chairs

Ever notice that beach chairs tend to come in sets of two? 

"Sets of Two"
8 x 16  

These four ladies are enjoying my favorite sport. Sitting on the beach. Ahhhh, summer.