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! 

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! 

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!  

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. 

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

 Suzanne Siegle

  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!   

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!  

  

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".

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! 

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 

Push and Pull of Color

In the e-class I am taking with

Melinda Cootsona

"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!  

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! 

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! 

On-line painting class

I'm taking an on-line painting class called 

"Own Your Colors" 

with Melinda Cootsona.

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!  

Ken Kewley workshop

I am completly enthralled after 

taking a three day 

Abstract Landscape Collage workshop 

with Ken Kewley

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! 

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. 

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 

a three day Ken Kewley workshop 

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.