Fun Workshop

 I took an eye opening workshop this weekend 

at North River Arts Society 

with Page Railsback. 

Painting abstractly is pretty foreign to me,

 so this was an adventure.  

We did a series of exercises 

geared to help us let go and"play"!   

Value Study starting with three lines  

A Color Study 

The Color Study cut-up!  

Painted upside down from a photo

All very unexpected and weird

and I had a ball. 

NOTE: 

Page is an excellent instructor! 

Last Collage Class and Other News

We created greeting cards for our last collage class 

at Linden Ponds this week.

Once again, the results were so fun. 

The group was so entusiastic about this class

we have decided to do another one in the fall. 

Stay tuned! 

OTHER NEWS:

This is my donation to the 

Copley Society Fresh Paint Auction 

that will be closing at a reception on 

Thursday May 3 

6:30 - 8:30 pm. 

"Open Car"

12 x 12 oil 

This is a wonderful event featuring many 

Boston themed paintings by Co So artists. 

You can bid on line up until May 3! 

Composition

Our assignment this week was to create a composition 

where the primary interst is in the top 1/3rd of the painting. 

"Private Beach" 

16 x 16 acrylic 

After the class critique, I changed this in Procreate 

to see how it would look if the 

spaces were horizontal, instead of angled. 

I think this is better resolved and feels less awkward.  

It is amazing and fascinating to see other student's work on line. 

The weekly critiques offer valuable insights and make it even more fun! 

NOTE: 

Mark Daniel Nelson's on line composition class;

"Look Here, Don't Look There". 

Collage Class with Seniors

We celebrated "spring" this week by using flowers 

for our collage inspiraion.  

We had fresh flowers and images of floral paintings available,
and some brought in their own images. 

This has turned out to be one of the most 

joyful experiences of my life. 

These woman are bright, funny, and incredibly talented. 

Happy Spring! 

The Procreate Tool

"The Blue Section"

16 x 16 

acrylic on paper 

This is where the painting was on the first pass. 

I realized that the large blue shape on the left 

was keeping the viewer

from moving in. 

 So I put the image in Procreate on my I Pad 

and added some stripes to see if that would 

solve the problem. 

And warmed up the sand color. 

This is a great way "try out"
different solutions while away from the easel.  

NOTE:

Stay tuned! 

I will be teaching a figure class 

at NRAS during the summer session! 

Tuesdays 9:30 - 12:30 am

Edges

Working on edges lately.

"Seating Plan"

16 x 16 acrylic on paper 

Similar subject

from last year. 

"Sea Level Seating"

14 x 14 oil 

SOLD 

Mass Art Auction

The journey continues. 

Composition Considerations

I started this in the 

Mark Daniel Nelson workshop last winter 

and it just caught my eye 

so I worked on it today. 

"Crossroads"

12 x 9 oil 

As I think about relationship of shapes 

and colors in my compositions,

I'm noticing that I tend to make all my 

shapes the same size. 

Not very exciting.  

This one began with that in mind, 

but somehow it still happened. 

NOTE: 

To see the video I posted

yesterday, 

you need to click on link to the

actual blog page in the email.

Procreate Feature

I recently took an I Pad class on the 

Procreate app with Nancy Gruskin 

at Concord Art.

She showed us how to make a time lapse video

of an I Pad Painting in progress! 

(I hope you can see this.

I've never attached a video to my blog before) 

I put an image of an old painting in the app,

then played with the colors.

All without touching the original painting. 

Then I did another painting from the I pad image. 

The original painting. 

The new painting. 

This app is great for seeing how things will look,

without loosing the original idea. 

As in

"What would happen if I made the sweater 

pink instead of yellow? "