The Beginnings of an Art Club

I'm excited and a wee bit nervous to meet a couple of new students this afternoon that are signed up to join me on our first meeting of the MVCS A-Club.  I made this poster to hang on our door helping parents and staff know where we are.   My plan is to just do a lot of drawing in this session and use the book written by Kathryn Temple called "Art for Kids Drawing" as a guide to our drawing discussions.  It is a great book that covers all the basics.  

 Today's lessons plan:  I hope we can get this all covered during the one hour allotted me.

* Talk about the importance of the Artistic Journal- I have sketchbooks to give them that they can use and decorate  

* Stress these points from page 9 of the book    
       ~There is no right way to draw    
       ~Don't compare your artwork to others    
       ~There is really no messing up    
       ~Practice and then practice some more    
       ~Don't stress about showing your art to people  

*I'm going to then show them my favorite drawing and sketching materials-Pen, Pencils, Prismacolor Pencils and my Tombow Markers I have created a zentangle pattern work sheet to practice from and a blank sheet that they can fill with their own created zentangle patterns.

*Finally, I have prepared a blank art page that has nothing more than a circle drawn on it from which we are going to start our own zentangle artwork.  I will post pictures as we progress through the next eight weeks.  I'm hopefully to find areas around the school and venues away from campus that we can display the art we create.  I pray to encourage their creativity and passion for art and at the same time, lay a strong foundation of sketching basics.  

All Good Things Must Eventually Come to an End

We are now heading into the last week and a half of our vacation and I have to say, "When can we do this again?"  There has just been something about not having constant demands on your time that just free one to be more creative.  Also having only about 160 sq feet of space to keep clean means I'm not really  overwhelmed with housework like I am at home in my 2000 sq foot house.

I love this Ely, Nevada area.  I might not have that same opinion during their very cold winter months but the summer temperatures have been amazing.  We have also experienced a lot of inspiring scenery and wildlife during our 2.5 weeks here and that does wonders for your creativity.  The one animal that I haven't gotten to view up close yet is an elk. This area is home to many elk and I'm told by the locals that during the summer they are high up in the mountains but come the cooler weather of fall they will again be seen more frequently.  

Sketch of an Elk

I had to rely on reference photos to draw this colored pencil sketch of an elk. I'm sorry that I have to post cell phone pictures of my artwork but my scanner and home computer just wouldn't fit in the camper and I forgot to pack the chip reader for the good camera so that I could have access to the photo on my laptop.  

The one thing that is different about this sketch is that I usually don't include all the background, but only focus on the main elements of the composition. Probably because I'm a tad bit lazy but this time I tried my hand at penciling the whole scene.  I think it turned out pretty well and I am pleased with it.  This process of creating a rendering helps me for the time when I'm ready to actually create a painting.  I feel that I am much better prepared and have a better understanding of what it is that I'm going to paint.

We got to walk around the downtown area Saturday, August 6th and take in the annual "Art in the Park" event that I have been looking forward to since we first visited in June.  As I suspected, the area was full of vendors but I saw a lot booths that had more crafts than fine art.  As a matter of fact, I only saw one traditional artist tent there.  His name was Randy Morris of Salt Lake City and he had beautiful work and told us that he has come for several years.  I hope he did well because outdoor art festivals are in my experience a whole lot of work with very little reward.  It was still fun and we showed our self-discipline by walking right past all those funnel cake and Indian taco vendors to come home to a healthy lunch prepared by yours truly.

Great Horned Owl- 10 x 20 Acrylic

In previous posts this week,  I have shown some sketches and a progress picture of the great horned owl painting I have been working on.  This piece is getting very close to being complete.  I have several minor details to work out and a few more highlights and then I will be adding my signature and calling my feathered friend here finished.  He is going to look really great when I add that coat of varnish to him. That always brings out the colors and adds a nice shine to the piece.

I'm also very excited about a new opportunity that may be coming my way as an artist.  It seems very likely that I will be teaching an after school art club at a local private school that I have associations with.  I'm both excited and a bit nervous.  I'm sure once I get a few weeks under my belt I will be just fine.

In planning for this club I want the first 8 week  session to be focused with drawing.  Shapes, shading and creating depth will be a good starting point for the club that will range from 3rd - 12th grade.  I have been adding some sketch ideas in my own sketchbook and going crazy with my newest social media love, PINTEREST!  What a wealth of ideas there are there.  I just can't stop adding pens to my boards.  

Here is one of the fun little sketchs I did this week and it may be the example for my first art club project.  There is just something about drawing lines that I find relaxing and therapeutic.   I just love taking a simple line and by adding a curve here or  a shadow there, you can create such amazing and complex composition. I decided I had to add an element of mystery to the design so I added some little eyes peering out from a black void in the wrappings.  Elsewhere you can see ripples and creases that I think give the drawing more interest and spark imagination.  Now will the kids enjoy drawing something like this as much as I do?

 For more information about this art club that I'm calling "A-Club" you can go to my website.  I was pretty excited that being the non-technical person that I am, that I was able to set up a registration and payment tab on my Weebly website so parents can register easily. Check it out at: A-Club information.  I was pretty proud of myself for figuring this all out.

 

2016- The Art Year

I have several times spoken about the influence that artist Tim Gagnon had on me in regards to starting my art journey. I thought, on this last day of 2015,  I would just remind everyone of his contribution and how his online lessons helped restore my confidence and enabled me to pick up a paint brush after nearly 30 years.

It was back in 2010 and I had just taken a drawing 101 course at the local community college with my youngest son.  I wanted to keep that momentum going by taking a painting course.  I stumbled upon Tim's 12-week online painting lesson while searching for alternative options to taking a painting class at the college.  My interest has always been with landscape painting and I figured that in a traditional college setting I might not be able to learn techniques needed to paint in the style I was interested in.  Not to mention the travel and time involved with attending classes.  Tim's online landscape lessons were perfect and I have been a fan of his work ever since.

Today, I saw that he was declaring 2016 The Art Year and was starting a new blog just for that purpose. He was saying exactly what I have been thinking in my own pursuit of art.  I have been doing a lot of questioning about where I want to be and how am I going to get there.  I've been doing a great of thinking about co-op galleries, art licensing and self-promotion.  What is been effective in advancing my art and what are actually distracting me from pushing myself towards my goals?

 I believe that I too am going to take up Tim's challenge to make this year MY ART YEAR and spend more time pursuing creativity and personal change in my life.  This blog that I have been contributing to since early 2011 will also be getting a complete makeover.  I encourage you comment about what 2016 is going to bring for you and to follow this blog.  Be sure to check out Tim's new blog at Tim Gagnon.

Confessions of a Recovering Accountant

These are a couple of small watercolors and ink pieces I have done this week.  Colorful and expressive, they both have a personal meaning to me and were just plan fun to create.  I have been sketching in volume with pen and ink for quite some time now but I am new to using watercolors to add color to my drawings.  I'm quickly falling in love with the look and freedom that this medium gives me.

This is a little watercolor I painted on Wednesday that I'm calling "Right Brain vs Left Brain". It symbolizes to me the struggle the exists inside of me as detail, analytic person that actually is an artist deep inside. I went years, 27 as a matter of fact, working for an organization as their accountant and business manager and it wasn't until the last 2 years that anyone even knew I could draw or paint. There just didn't seem to be enough time. I'm so blessed because my time requirements have reversed so that I am now free to create art whenever I want and do taxes and some bookkeeping in my spare time.

Right Brain vs Left Brain

This piece I am calling "Right Brain vs Left Brain" and it symbolizes the struggle that I felt for years as I was consumed by deadlines, financial reports and board meetings.  These demands sucked the creativity right out of me and I used it as an excuse to push aside my desire to let the creativity inside of me out.  

Coloring My World

This one I am calling "Coloring My World".  If you look closely at the black and white drips you will notice they are actually full of numbers and mathematical symbols. They have become so swollen that the bulging drips have ruptured and spilled numbers all over.  The colorful drips of paint and the paint brush symbolize my new focus.  You can never remove the accountant in me, but I can sure make my life more colorful by filling it with art! 

I am blessed that I am now able to dedicate my time to creating art and still do taxes and some bookkeeping in my SPARE time.  I already have an idea for a 3rd composition in this series that I am tongue and cheek calling "Confessions of a Recovering Accountant".  I think these might make an excellent greeting cards but I'm not sure of that. 

Clawing Your Way Back to Creativity

There are many things in this life that want to suck the creativity right out of you and this past two weeks a family trauma has done just that.  I'm reminded of that commercial for Progressive Insurance where these people are throwing themselves on to cars and they are call RATE SUCKERS.   I get that same mental picture when I think of the heavy emotion of grief and what it does in your life.  Grief is is a huge black cloud that surrounds you and sucks so much out of you, especially in the area of creativity. 

Two weeks have come and gone and I haven't so much as picked up a paint brush and I keep telling myself to go in there and at least lay out fresh paint.  Recently, my theme has been gold prospectors and so I have a partially completed piece on the easel of an old prospector that is in real need of finishing.  Should I take a hike in the mountains, lay on the beach or just grab my sketchbook to try to begin the process of rekindling that desire to sit back down at my easel?  

I have for the past two years that I have been seriously painting, always taken my completed pieces with me when we would visit my shut-in mother-in-law.  I felt that this was something that she enjoyed seeing and each time she would comment on the piece as if it was the very first time she had seen my work.  Her recent passing has left a hole in my heart and a lump in my throat.  As soon as I can find the strength, I'm going to have to paint something especially in her honor but first I need to get this old prospector off my easel.

Current work in progress that needs my creativity to return so that I can finish this 16 x 20 Acrylic piece.  I'm planning to include a Winchester rifle leaning against the fallen tree and his bedroll and belongings hanging further up the shore. 

Recent piece that I'm calling "Taking a Break" that shows a hardworking prospector enjoying a simply cup of coffee, a warm fire and a plate of beans.

A sketch I started last week of old prospector that could multitask by enjoying his pipe and working his pan at the same time.