Art=Life

Onward!

2012-02-15T19:30:00.000-08:00

Here is the next still life I will be painting. This is a photo of the set up. As you can see, I did indeed go back to raid the local candy store. Couldn't resist the sparkly colors of the sugar crystal candy. This little still life tells a bit of the story of our little town in the present time. At least, as how I see it. I will go into a bit more detail once the painting is done.
I have been so busy just learning how to paint over the past year that my drawing has not been getting as much practice. I decided to add a bit more of it back to my art practice and drew the still life with the intent of transferring it to the canvas before preceding with the painting. I actually prefer to draw with the paint right onto the canvas. When I started painting a lot of things clicked for me. I realized that I can judge relationships and shapes better with shapes and forms than with lines. That said, I still went ahead and drew the set up for good practice. Here is the drawing which was done from the live set up, not a photo:

The drawing of course is from a slightly different angle than the photo. The photo itself is crooked in order to get some kind of good enough lighting to show the pencil. This isn't a full rendering but it has the information I need to proceed. I didn't add all the shadows and there are the "see-through" lines of the teapot behind the candy. There are plenty of things that would still need to be corrected if I was going to do a finished drawing. I would also approach the drawing different if that was my final goal, for example the lines wouldn't be so heavy at this point and the shading would be done with more care for tone. This drawing is the same size that the finished paint will be, 9"x12".
I also wanted to mention the faint composition lines. I usually just mark the center but since I was out of practice, I went ahead and drew a box the same size of the painting and marked the center at the sides as well. There are a couple of plum lines here and there too.
I really do enjoy drawing. Perhaps because I have been drawing a lot longer than I have been painting, I find it more relaxing than painting. Painting is wonderful and I really do love the color and effects that paint produces. I look forward to when I feel as comfortable with painting as I do drawing.
This will be fun. I will also do a crayon painting of this setup for a local fun art show. I have been practicing my crayon work!
Finally, relating to the previous post about art books, another one came to the library for me today, American Light: The Luminist Movement 1850-1875, by John Wilmerding. Should be interesting!
-Renee

Warning: Serious Art Geek Post Ahead!

2012-02-12T10:35:00.000-08:00

There are many in-between times during the day. You would recognize them, those little 10, 20, 30+ minute segments where one thing is finished and you take a moment (I hope!) to breath before jumping into the next. I am in one of those moments this weekend. I have the next still life set up, I need to build a prop to use for a series of paintings I am starting, and I am working on a composition for a very special piece. I am building up my "pipeline" so that I can whittle down a bit of the in-between time. I still need those little breathers though. There is plenty of wonderful things to do after I am finished with the deep breathing, like read and study. I love books. Always have, in fact, before I even started kindergarten I diligently learned to write my name since that was a requirement to have my very own library card! My mom had already taught me how to read.

So, for today's post I thought I would share some of the art-related books I am reading. I read a lot of books on art marketing since I will be living off of what I earn in the future. Currently I have read or am reading Dreama Tolle-Perry's The Artists Toolbox, and Alyson B. Stanfield's, I'd rather be in the studio.


Alyson B. Stanfield: I'd rather be in the studio!

I have just finished reading Studio and Business Practices by Deborah Paris. Many of these books are self published. I have learned a lot from all of them. Studio and Business Practices is a bit advanced for a fledgling artist like me but, I want to know where I need to go and start preparing. I have found her book to be a great tool for me. All of these artists have experience and practice to back them up. They all take different approaches. I like that.

I continue to study art history. I have recently read, Caravaggio: A Life Sacred and Profane,’ by Andrew Graham-Dixon.

Not much is really known about Caravaggio. It was interesting but I ended up skimming most of it since, like many of these books, it becomes the author's opinion and interpretation, even if an educated one, when facts are scarce.

I am in the process of reading A History of American Tonalism: 1880-1920 by David A. Cleveland.

I check the art history books out from the library. I usually walk to our local library as it is not far away. The book was ready for me to pick up yesterday so I walked. I knew the book would probably be oversized but was a bit taken-aback to find it is a huge 15 lb. tome of a book. A beautiful tome at that. I have been looking at the pictures and dipping a bit into the text. The first few dips made my eyes glaze over. I mean, when I read words like "prelapsarian" and "insularity"* I am thinking it is not going to be one of those reads that are hard to put down both figuratively and literally (I have to use a lap desk to prop all 609 pages, 10" x 14" -ish of it and it is a bit of a struggle to get out from under it!). I did find enough exciting text to encourage me to have a closer look.

The last bit of reading that I am going to talk about in this post today is, for me, the most exciting. There is a new online artist magazine called Artists on Art. I subscribed within a few minutes of looking it over and I am so very glad I did! You can either subscribe for the online only version or online and PDF download version. I am impressed with the quality of both the images and the writing. For a fledgling artist like me this is the kind of information I am hungry for.

Well, this is a lot in one post, I know. Needless to say, I don't watch much television, if at all. My screen time is reserved for the internet, the bulk of which is done on the weekends. I mention this because it is just the choice I make for me to get where I want to go and is neither right, wrong, best, or worst.

That is it for this post. I would love to hear what you are reading! I am always on the lookout for books. The reading pipeline I have down pat due to about 45 years or so of experience. I am building that art pipeline...

-Renee

*P.S. Yes, I had to look up prelapsarian although I could guess from the context. Prelapsarian: characteristic of or belonging to the time or state before the fall of humankind.

Insularity I knew but, Insularity: 1 a : of, relating to, or constituting an island b : dwelling or situated on an island *insular residents*

2 : characteristic of an isolated people; especially : being, having, or reflecting a narrow provincial viewpoint. Definitions courtesy of Merriam Webster dictionary.

These words are not part of my vocabulary since they are really not part of my worldview.

A Fortune Teller's Childhood

2012-02-08T16:06:00.000-08:00


A Fortune Teller's Childhood, 6"x6" oil on panel. c. R.L. Delight, 2012

Here is my latest not-so-daily painting! I am getting faster. I finished this one in about 5 1/2 hours. I am trying to get them to no more than three hours long. I want to be able to paint a daily painting and spend the rest of the day working on longer and larger paintings or improving my drawing skills. This one was a lot of fun. We have a cute little candy store in town, like many of these ocean-side villages. The store sells what is called nostalgic candy in addition to lovely chocolates and truffles. It is a tiny store but very well stocked. I can't resist all the bright colors and fun shapes. Included in the painting above are wax lips, a giant jawbreaker and chocolate coins. I was impressed and intrigued by the sculpting of the waxed lips, not bad! I knew I had to paint some waxed lips one day when I spotted a burly biker dude with a gray pony tail and dressed in biker leathers walking down the street with wax lips from the candy store in his face. I had to laugh and I definitely wished I had my camera.
I would have liked to paint this at a different angle with not quite so much of the backdrop. I am limited in the room and equipment I have. I am working on getting that changed.
I love painting the daily paintings. They give me space to play, learn, and experiment.
I plan to spend tomorrow building a very special prop and working on a composition for a deeply personal cause. I will have more about that in the next few weeks.
Off to raid the candy store, -Renee

Making a Mess in the Sunshine

2012-02-05T20:36:00.000-08:00

A wonderful thing happened this week, we got a taste of Spring! When you live in a cool, wet, gray climate, the sun coming out to play for several days in a row is cause for celebration. Don't get me wrong, I love the climate here, but warm sunshine in February is a treat.
It also causes me to drop everything in the studio and head out with my plein air setup. I haven't done a lot of plein air painting. In fact, I could probably count the times I have been out on one hand plus an extra finger or two. I tried to get out more last year but I kept getting too cold. I would get caught up in painting and even though I had warm clothes on, wouldn't realize how cold I was until I finished and disengaged. I would be shivering uncontrollably all the way home. With this warm spell, the cold was not a problem. I headed out to my favorite spot, Hug Point.
Hug Point is a spectacularly beautiful spot where the Pacific Northwest forest meets the sea. The cliffs are water-carved sandstone and basalt. Quite dramatic. The only trick is, the tide has to be right to access it. I got to Hug Point just as it was possible to get around the first point. I had two hours until the tide turned. This particular area of Hug Point is dominated a waterfall cascading to the sand and tower of rock. The sun is lower this time of year and the rock glows golden. I placed my easel where I could see the ocean out of the corner of my eye and get a reasonable angle to paint. I never turn my back on the ocean. Sneaker waves, riptides, and floating trees are notorious around here and can and do take the occasional life.
I decided to concentrate on the color relationships and temperature for this oil sketch. I know that I am not up to painting a plein air masterpiece at this stage of my career! The warm winter sun brought out amazing colors in the rock. I made a glorious mess. I did take photographs so that I can do a few refinements in the studio but here is the mess I made:

Hug Point, plein air, oil on canvas 12"x12"

As you can probably tell, I concentrated mostly on the rock tower. The trees above the cliff I hastily suggested while eyeing the incoming tide. I really didn't want to get trapped there. There is a cave on the far left created by the ocean waves. Not a gentle place when the tide is full. Hug Point has a wonderful and interesting history that would make for a very long post. In short though, a bit further along is a road that was carved into the rock. It used to be the only way to to get to where I live. Even before the road was carved there were (and still are) hand and foothold carved on the cliff by the First Nations people. One had to literally hug the point to cross. Needless to say there are stories of people, horses, and cars that were swept away by rising tides and, I suspect, sneaker waves. The road bed is covered with sea life such as large barnacles. I will post a picture of it another time. Here is a picture taken on a different day when it was gray and misty of the same area as the painting. My husband is standing on the foot of the rock. It gives a sense of scale that is not apparent in the painting.

Hug Point

I was painting from a completely different angle of course!
The final thing I have to show for this week is a sketch from today's life drawing session. I talked them into splitting a 40 minute pose into two 20 minute segments so that we could get a more dynamic pose that the model can hold.

Life Drawing, charcoal on newsprint 18"X24'

I wasn't entirely satisfied with the drawing. I felt it was still a bit too stiff. I admit I am a bit out of practice. I have been working hard on so many other areas. I will get my skills back up to snuff soon.
I have errands and appointments tomorrow then I will be back at it in the studio...unless the sun decides to favor us with another day or two!
-Renee

Cramming More Art Into My Brain

2012-02-01T19:56:00.000-08:00

I love this picture of my studio room. As you can see, there is a lot crammed in there but...it is my room. In this picture you can see the back of my rather large loom on the left, my cello awaiting practice, my beautiful studio dog Twill, and cart, easel, the previous painting in progress and a glimpse of the still life set up. What you can't see is that the set up is on a table which in turn is on a small model stage. the curtain covers art supply storage on one side and still life props on the other. It is a lovely room although a bit cramped. One day I would love to have the loom set up somewhere else and an expanded art studio. Yes, a dream studio would be wonderful. Hopefully in the coming years.
I have the next still life all set up but have taken a bit more care on this one. It doesn't look like much as you will see in a future post. I am taking more time to study up on composition, lighting, and the plain mechanics of painting. I have had to teach myself how to paint and it is still very much a work in progress for me. I must add a note here though. I was fortunate to have a year to study drawing at the Ashland Academy of Art. If I had decided to move to Maui with them, I would have learned how to paint there and would be half way through my third year. I was just starting grisaille when the year ended. That year of drawing was probably the most important chunk of learning I did.
I am also practicing a few paint handling and brush work techniques before starting in. I had planned to sail into the painting today but...the weather is turning warm. Not a usual thing to happen here in February, the middle of winter. Why did that keep me from painting? Well, the warm weather gives me a chance to paint outside, en plein air! This time of the year the light is very intriguing because the sun is so low in the sky. The next few days will be warmish and dry so I will drop the studio work for a few days to take advantage of it.
I have an idea for an exciting series with will fit in neatly with the other work am doing. I spent today getting the work I need to do to make that happen. Painting outside is a big part of that and I needed to be prepared for tomorrow. I am not going to say anymore at the moment. I will unfold it for you as it happens. I am so excited!
There will be more to post about on Sunday. I have been so busy with getting things in place, I haven't gone to life drawing in a couple of weeks. I am planning to go this week so I don't get totally out of practice. Until then, I will be making hay, or in this case, painting while the sun shines!
-Renee

Illuminating Conversations

2012-01-29T17:04:00.000-08:00

Illuminating Conversations, oil on panel, 6"X6" -R.L. Delight

Here is my recent painting! It is as finished as I intend to make it. It took a lot longer than I thought it would and, as I have mentioned in the previous post, I learned a lot along the way. One of the biggest things I learned was more in the nature of a reminder. It reminded me how important drawing is. I didn't start this painting with a drawing, nor do I believe that all my paintings need to start with a drawing. I do believe that with this one I should have. I am going to try an experiment on tomorrow's still life set up. I am going to do a small painting of part of the composition, a larger painting of the total composition, and a crayon drawing of the composition for a show that I agreed to do. I will be talking about the crayon drawings a while later in another post. With the larger composition, I will be doing a drawing and going through a more traditional process. I am going to use the small painting as a kind of warm up to loosen things up as well.
I am still pretty new at this and have a lot to learn!
A little bit about the subject of the painting. I found the light bulb on one of my beach walks last year. It is fairly large and I believe it came off a ship. It still has a bit of seawater in it I was unable to remove. The vintage movie camera I picked up at a thrift store. I liked the idea of old time ways to light our world in the face of the current reality of LEDs, florescent bulbs, Ipods, Ipads, and digital cameras. As I was painting them the objects looked to me like they were having a conversation. I had particularly positioned the camera so that it looked like it was looking toward the viewer. I didn't start out with a big story on this, just the idea.
In other areas of the studio, I asked my mate to build a simple rendition of a photo cube. We got wood dowels and he made some blocks that attach at the ends to form corners. Sort of like a giant Tinker Toy cube. I found a polyester white shower curtain liner at the thrift store and set it up to take the above photo. Here is a picture of the apparatus:

The white liner is peeled back to show the corners. I used two clamp lights outside of the cube at either side with daylight florescent bulbs and put the camera on a tripod. Not perfect but it does work. Space is at a premium so I made it to be able to take it apart and store it neatly. The downside is that I have to set it up every time I need to take a picture. It will do until I can afford a better set up.
With the next painting, I will be moving more toward storytelling. I am working steadily in the studio and that makes me very happy. Until Wednesday, -Renee

What's Your Sentence?

2012-01-25T16:26:00.000-08:00

Newly Borne, oil on canvas 9"X12"-R.L. Delight

Last year I participated in an interesting project conducted by none other than Daniel Pink. He sent a call out to send him a video describing what your purpose is in the world, in one sentence. In other words, tell him what your sentence is. I had read a few of his books including A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future. I thought his project sounded like a good exercise. So, I did it. I thought about what my sentence was, video taped it, toyed with the idea of sending it in, decided to finish the exercise and send it in anyway and then forgot about it. A while later, I got a general e-mail from Daniel Pink saying that the video composition was completed. He received hundreds of submissions and apologized to us and said he was only able to put a handful into the three minute video. Imagine my surprise as I clicked on it to watch it to see myself pop up part way in! My jaw dropped. Well, the sound quality of my video (my video, not theirs) wasn't that great but they subtitled it. Then, there was the matter of my name. They put Renee De La Prade instead of mine. That's OK though. I told them not to worry about having to go back in and change it. It was the exercise that counted for me not getting included in the video. Plus, when I Googled Renee De La Prade it turns out she is a musician, an "accordion playing babe" from San Francisco with hot pink hair (at the time). I believe she does burlesque shows. I thought it was amusing and sort of a nice alter ego. I friended her on Facebook for the heck of it.
Back to my sentence, I said on the video that "She showed the world that the beauty of women, all women, has no boundaries." Not bad at the time but my sentence has changed. It has deepened!
What's my sentence now? It is; "She paints stories about Truth and Beauty." You may have noticed that it is my tagline. I debated about the tagline. Sometimes it sounds kind of cheesy to me. I mean, many artists paint stories about truth and beauty, right? What stops my finger from hitting the delete button is that it is the truth. My truth. My sentence. Below you will find the video but before you watch it, tell me, What is your sentence?
-Renee

Insert Brilliant and Witty Title Here!

2012-01-22T15:16:00.000-08:00

I think I need to create a line of clothing that includes a refillable tablet and pen built into a pocket somewhere. I know a lot of folks have smart phones and iPads for that but I find all the stuff that comes with that tech gets in the way when I really need to write something down, like the clever title for this blog post that I thought of the other day, and then forgot when all the stuff in my poor little brain got in the way! I need to write these things down. So, I figure that maybe I can get away with the above title...once, with your indulgence.
The truth is, I have gone from busy to super busy, crazy, can't-sleep-at-night excitement. I am learning so much and my head is exploding with thoughts, ideas, and must-do lists. In spite of all that, I have been getting into the studio to paint and work hard everyday. I honestly need a couple of lifetimes to learn the many things I want to learn.
I have made progress on my current painting. I have also learned a couple of things along the way. First, the painting:

Still life oil in progress

I still have about another week of work to finish the painting, I think. Hopefully less. This little painting has presented a rather large and somewhat painful learning curve to me. I am actually grateful though. Learning is good.
Lessons Learned So Far: With this painting I realized that I need to do some more drawing practice. A couple of quick sketches before starting would not have been a waste of time for me. I also mentioned that the composition might be a bit too complicated for me to paint this as a fast "daily" style painting. I would simplify it, maybe just paint the giant light bulb resting on the block. I find as well that I am still thinking in terms of studies and being a student. I think I need to keep that frame of mind somewhat, I will always be a student, but I also need to think in terms of telling the story I want to tell in its entirety. This composition falls somewhere in the middle. There is a story, which I will tell when the painting is finished but I also set it up like an exercise. I hope that makes sense. There is a subtle difference between the two ideas.
I am going to work on painting a lot looser with the next painting. I think I am trying to put in too much detail for what the painting is supposed to be. I love to paint that way but I think it would work better for me to do that in a slightly larger format.
I can go on for a few more paragraphs but you probably get the idea. I ended the week on Friday tired and a bit discouraged. I really want to move on. After a day or two, I am feeling a lot better about the whole thing. I know that my skills improve with every drawing and painting I do. Speed and accuracy will come with practice. I am having a lot of fun with color.
I have put a lot of things into motion this week and things will start to settle in a bit more over the next couple of weeks.
I will be back on Wednesday. My new web site is up and running, please go to
R.L Delight.com to check it out. If you are on Facebook, I have a page there too, please "like" it to keep posted. I have a Facebook badge on the side bar. Click on it to link.
Thanks! Next post I have a question to pose!
-Renee

I Geek Creativity

2012-01-17T21:59:00.000-08:00

I am posting this a bit early as we have the first official hurricane-force wind warning for the Oregon coast since 2007. The storm is due to hit in the wee hours and I am not sure if we will have power tomorrow. I wanted to honor my new commitment to posting on this blog twice a week. Winter has definitely decided it was time to show up. We had 2" of snow on the beach yesterday morning! Twill and I took the camera along on our morning sunrise walk:

Twill is my dear goofy dog. She is the best studio companion!
I have a lot of exciting things going on in my art world. In spite of that, I am putting in time in the studio. First up, I have a website built! My website can be found at rldelight.com. On it you will find pictures of my art, my artist statement, and bio. Oh, and the Delight? That is my last name, really!
Second, every spare minute I have has gone into listening and learning about art and art marketing. My latest and best find so far has been this fantastic podcast with Dreama Tolle Perry and Leslie Saeta. They have put out quite a few of them so it will take a while to hear them all. I have learned so much! They put in good research and produce quite an informative podcast, not to mention they are fun to listen to. I would highly recommend the podcast to anyone who is getting started in marketing their art or craft (weavers take note, most of their information would apply to a weaving business too!)
Finally, I love to read and study the art and science of creativity. I have been doing this for years so I have quite a list of books I have read and websites I have investigated. I rarely learn anything really new but I do find most of them inspiring, and some not as inspiring. One common thread that nearly all, if not all, have is this simple message:
Do The Work!!!
Do It Now.
Sometimes it is put in different terms like show up at the page/easel/loom. Notice I used every highlight device I have at my disposal on the phrase. I bet you already know this in your heart and head. Sometimes it can take a bit to get it into your body. That's OK, as long as it gets there! My body is starting to get that and dances up to the studio, climbs into the loom, and sits down with the cello with regularity. I am finding it very joyful.
I will put the podcast and artist links in the side bar too. Go listen to the podcast. I subscribed through iTunes and listen to it (and others) while I do dishes and clean house. I have even caught myself doing chores that I would otherwise put off because I know I get to listen to the podcast! Hint: have a notepad and pen handy.
Now I am off to batten down the hatches. I will have a progress report on my painting on Sunday.
-Renee

Disciplinary Action

2012-01-15T14:33:00.000-08:00

I now have my own definition for disciplinary action which is simply: the act of regularly showing up and doing the work! Not that I am completely undisciplined, but I am returning from the holiday break with a renewed determination and purpose. It has been quite a week for me and I am scrambling to keep up with everything I am learning and getting into place. But, first things first! I did make sure I painted everyday. I am starting to get back into the swing of things again but progress is slow. I am looking forward when I can work faster. I know it will come with time and practice. Here is where I am at this week on this little painting. A warning though, it is still at the ugly in-between stage.

The background fabric is really interesting. It looked fairly neutral when I chose it but it has all kinds of strange colors in it. They are providing a lovely challenge for me that I am really enjoying even though it slows the process. I was also very distracted (I will get to that in a moment). The other day when I was painting and nothing seemed to be in the right place and I was struggling to make things work. I eventually realized that I forgot to turn on one of the lights I am using! Oh dear, as I said, it takes a bit to get back into the groove after even a short absence.
This week has been very exciting, and rather distracting, for me as I am continuing to make important changes. Ah! One of those changes is to post to this blog twice a week instead of one longish post once a week. So, more about those changes and their results in a couple of days!
I am curious, have you been making changes, big or small, in how you work? I would love to read about them in the comments or on your own blog!
I will be back on Wednesday with more.
-Renee

Back in the Studio

2012-01-07T20:55:00.000-08:00

The studio is still being put to rights but I knew I needed to get back to the easel so I started up again. It has been a couple of weeks. I needed to take that time to re-arrange and be ready for a new productive year but, UGH! I forgot how hard it is to start back up after a longish absence. Everything feels clumsy and I feel rather dull and awkward trying to paint. I am gritting my teeth and keep working in spite of the voices of doubt and disparagement in my head and through what I know as Resistance, with a capital "R". I am starting to get back in the groove but not without a struggle. I think next time I will do my best to not take so much time off.
I am very new to daily painting. For that matter, I am fairly new to painting period! I am realizing that it isn't just my lack of skill that is contributing to the length of time it takes to make one small painting, but I have also been trying to paint too complicated of a composition. I am going to finish the current painting in progress and then simplify, simplify, simplify. Deep breath and keep going. Here is my progress so far with about 5 hours (most daily paintings are 1-3 hours) and more to go:

Oh yeah, I am aware of all the things that need to be corrected and I am just in the blocking in phase. I will fill in the history of the objects when the painting is finished.
To finish up this post, I have been inspired by two wonderful women this week. One is actually a young girl and her story is both uplifting and so very sad. Jessica Joy Reece was 12 years old and had two brain tumors with no cure. She chose to spend her time not only fighting the disease but spreading joy to other kids through making "joy jars" to give to kids fighting cancer. I had "liked" her page on Facebook, something that I don't always do. Over the months I came to admire her courage and positive loving outlook on life. She started a foundation called NEGU (never, ever, give up). She did so much, and touched so many people in such a short time. She seemed to be hanging in there but the other day took a turn for the worse and suddenly passed away. I realized when I read the news (with a bit of swearing and many tears) how much this brave young girl really touched me. How can I give up on trying to be anything but my best now? I can't, so NEGU is now my motto too.
The other inspiration is someone I had posted links to before. She is an artist I greatly admire and is painting in a manner that I am striving for myself. Here is a link to Terry Strickland's latest blog post. Take a look at her current painting in progress. It is a contemporary painting of the Three Fates. I, myself, have had sketches for a painting of the Three Fates in my notebooks to paint for a few years now. Being a weaver and spinner as well as an avid reader of books, I have come across descriptions of the three fates many times and love the picture they paint in my head. Mine will be different of course but along the same lines idea-wise. I don't have the painting skills to paint the picture yet but will sometime, in the next year or two. I am looking forward to following her progress with the painting.
That is all for this week. I will be heading over to post on my Renee Weaves! blog now.
-Renee

Happy New Year!

2012-01-01T21:04:00.000-08:00

Welcome to 2012 everyone! I hope one and all had a good holiday. My thoughts and prayers continue to go out to those who are going through challenges and sad times. I know there are a few.

I have some exciting news. I have mentioned that I have been a weaver in the past and many of you who read this blog know me from my weaving days. Well, I spent the time I took off doing a lot of re-evaluation of my life and where I want it to go. The results of that effort is that I am continuing on my journey to become the best artist I can be with renewed dedication and purpose. I am also bringing back weaving into my life. It will fill a different place than in the past but it will definitely be firmly in place. To that end, I have re-built my rather serious loom. Here it is:

I have all the details of the move and the re-building on my weaving blog Renee Weaves! My painting studio has been moved to another room in our house along with the loom and it is set up and ready to go for tomorrow morning. The loom still has a few things to finish and I still have to get things put away in the studio but it will be up and weaving soon. All things weaving will be posted on my weaving blog and the art will continue on this blog.

I had always intended to get back to weaving. I intend to sell my handwoven items in addition to my daily paintings. My thoughts are that the weaving will take a bit of the pressure off the art making and allow me a bit of growing room for my art skills. We shall see how it all works out!

So this is my life for 2012; art, weaving, music, with good homemade whole foods meals, beach walks and a few good books to read. Life is good.

Here is to a year of growth. I believe we are all in for some rather interesting times in the coming years. Hang on to your loved ones, brushes, pencils, and shuttles and lets all look after one another.

Cheers!

-Renee

P.S. This is my 100th blog post for this blog!

Living a Life of Richness Can be Painful

2011-12-14T20:39:00.000-08:00

December sunset on the northern Oregon coast

It has been a sad week for me and my dear ones. Within the space of a week friends and family of mine have had news of two tragic deaths of loved ones. I was not close to the two who have passed on but I hurt so for my friends and family who now must stumble through the pain and tragedy of it all. Losing loved ones is never easy but this time of the year it just plain sucks. That said, we are greatly enriched by having these beautiful people in our lives even when their untimely passing causes such pain. I think of how I was when I was young and death touched me relatively lightly. I wouldn't trade places with my younger self. Life has such richness and experiencing loss and pain is part of that growth.
I have been taking the opportunity and realization that comes with these heart-wrenching events and the end of one year and beginning of another to get my life and art practice reorganized around the now clear goals that I have come to understand. Wrapping up a year and starting a new one is always a good time but this year feels different. Do you feel the graveness in the world? Do you feel the richness? There is a startling urgency in the air to realign our priorities with the reality of our home planet. Great change is in the air. Change can be scary and perilous but it can also be a gateway to wonderous transformation and opportunity.
I will be taking a brief absence from posting while I get things in order and gear up for the coming year. Next post is my 100th post for this blog. Only fitting for it to be the beginning of a new year, new life, and new and continuing journey.
I will wrap up with a wonderful quote I read on Lori McNee's Fine Art Tips blog :

“All life’s problems can be solved by more paint or painting more.” -Donna Zagotta.

It certainly helps! I would also add making music in addition to painting.

I wish one and all a heartfelt, nurturing, healing, peaceful holiday season. I will see you all here in a couple of weeks, in 2012!
Peace and joy, -Renee

Figure Sketching Interlude

2011-12-04T14:48:00.000-08:00

Well, no daily paintings to show this week. I had a few unexpected interruptions and decided to use the odd bits of time I had left getting a few things set up, rearranged and ready to go. I have also been tweaking a few things around the studio to make it more efficient. One of those weeks. I will be reporting on some of the rearrangements in a future post.
In the meantime, I wanted to share a figure sketch I did last week. This is a 30 minute pose. The sketch is a bit distorted by the camera angle making her head look different from the actual drawing, but the general sense of the drawing is there. The reason why I wanted to share it is that I really resonated with this model. She has an unusual and subtle beauty that I found artistically intriguing. She has many tattoos, some of which are artfully positioned on her face but they add to her overall beauty rather than detract. I would like to paint this young woman's portrait.

30 minute Figure Sketch, charcoal on newsprint

Speaking of portraits, I will be stepping up to portrait studies this year. That is one of the things I was getting in place last week. So much fun to have all this wonderful art and challenging growth to work on!
Monday is an appointment and errand day for me and then back to work in the studio. I have the next daily painting set up and ready to go.
-Renee

And Then There Were Two

2011-11-28T21:03:00.000-08:00


"And Then There Were Two", Oil on Gessobord, 6"X6", R.L. Delight

Here is the finished "daily painting". I realized when I finished that I hadn't really planned ahead as to where to sign it. I will have to remember that. I just used my initials as my name would not fit. As I mentioned in the previous post, I am having a lot of fun painting these and so far several ideas for compositions have presented themselves. My next painting will not be of fruits and vegetables but will be a still life.
We had a wonderful model at the life drawing session yesterday. She has a very unconventional beauty and is the first model I have drawn that I felt I would like to paint a portrait of. Please don't misunderstand, all the models both male and female that I have had the privilege of drawing have beauty! One of the joys of life drawing is the realization that the human form is quite beautiful in all of its variety. Yesterday's model just had that special something that clicked with me. I hope I get a chance to paint her one day soon.
Now, I wonder how many daily paintings I will get done this week?
-Renee

Daily Painting-Sort of

2011-11-24T13:05:00.000-08:00

I was planning to post this a bit sooner but still had to take the following pictures. Unfortunately, a big storm rolled through and stayed for a few days. I was unable get good enough lighting to take the pictures nor bring them outside due to the gale force winds and pounding rain not to mention the thunder and lightning. I was finally able to take some pictures yesterday during a short break in the weather.
In the previous post I explained why I decided to try my hand at daily painting. I have given it a try and have decided that... it is totally fun! I am thinking it will be a great way to improve and develop my skills in both painting and drawing. At the moment, it takes me more than a day to paint them. The idea is to spend 1-3 hours painting them. I work that long before moving on to my next scheduled task for the day but so far they haven't been finished in that amount of time. I figure I will get faster as my skills improve. So here is the first painting that I posted the set-up picture of. I haven't named it yet.


Oil- 6"x6"

Both the first and following paintings use pumpkins and squash from our local CSA (community supported agriculture) They are quite beautiful and I couldn't resist painting them. Here is the next painting I did called "Pumpkin Sage":


"Pumpkin Sage", Oil, 6"x6"

The final one is actually almost finished but I took a picture early in the process so this is in progress. The title will be "And Then There Were Two" in honor of my very first drawing teacher. I couldn't resist these beautiful pomegranates when I saw them at the local grocery store.

The background is a lovely rich color. I still have a tiny bit of readjustment to make and then it will be through. I will finish it tomorrow and post it this weekend. My plan is to start selling these paintings starting in the new year. I want to get a few under my belt first. They add up quickly and I have a few compositions lined up. They won't all be paintings of food I promise!
Speaking of food, I wish all of the folks in the U.S a Happy Thanksgiving today and wish all the rest a beautiful and plentiful day.
-Renee

Home Art School Evaluation

2011-11-13T16:35:00.000-08:00

It has been a while. I have been caught up in the perfect storm of studies that are really not interesting enough to post, the performance of a reader's theater play that my husband has been directing, and wonderful visitors. I have hardly had time to catch a breath until now. I spent what precious time I had in the studio, much to my content. I have now been through a full four weeks of my self-created art school schedule and it is time to sit down and evaluate what worked...and what didn't work.
The verdict? Well, parts of it worked. I have realized that there are differences beyond just a lack of a teacher (other than myself of course!). The most obvious is that a school program is tailored for many students. I am in a class of my own. That means I only have to meet my own needs. One would think that would be obvious but I must confess, it didn't really occur to me. I guess because I was just concerned with a getting a structured study going and the school model is what I know.
So, I am changing things around again. I have no problem with that as not only is it an interesting journey, I want to find what actually works for me, not what should work.
I am always studying and researching, like most artists I know. The other week I got a link to a workshop that is being conducted at WIFAS, where I had my last workshop. The workshop is sold out and I had no intention of attending but I was intrigued. I looked up the teaching artist who is Carol Marine. Not only is she a "daily painter" but her workshops are sold out for the next two years! Wow! I was so intrigued with her process that I decided that painting a 6"x6" painting a day would be a great way to get some study in. Since, in theory, the painting takes 45 minutes to 3 hours, there would still be time for other studies such as drawing and working on larger compositions. She sells her paintings on a daily painting auction website here. I like the idea of the possibility of earning while I learn as even at 6"x6", the paintings would stack up over the year.
So, amidst the plays, appointments, and visitors I started my first daily painting. I could only get an hour in here and there so it is not technically a daily painting. I am also finding that I need to work a lot faster and not obsess over detail, which is probably a good thing at this point. Here is a picture of the still life set up I am painting.

The pumpkin and squash come from our local CSA (community supported agriculture) box. I will be doing a couple of paintings based on the contents of the box because they are fun and the veggies are beautiful. The painting is not yet finished but is close. I have already learned a lot. I think working through so many paintings will be a good way to get some skill with the medium, specially since I am still so new to oil paint.
So, the schedule is going to be refined and tweaked. I am working on both long and short-term goals which will also add to the refinement. That is pretty much it for now. I will have at least one painting to post next week, probably more. I will leave you with a picture of the bounty we received in our final season's CSA box of glorious abundance.

Until next post!
-Renee

Crazy Good

2011-10-25T09:18:00.000-07:00

It has been a bit longer than I like since my last posting. I am in the in-between awkward stage of my studies and didn't think they had anything of particular interest to show. I continue to work. I have scheduled in time to work on original compositions in my home art-school schedule and I am getting excited about finally starting to get some of the ideas and visions on canvas. It will be slow going at first as I want to take each painting through a formal process of sketches, charcoal drawings, grisaille, then finally the color. That process will continue to build my skills. I will probably switch my posts to documenting this work and not showing so many studies.
In the meantime life has been joyfully busy. In addition to working in the studio I have been enjoying getting outdoors as much as possible (in spite of injuries which is another post in and of itself) getting back to music making, and participating in our local community in general. So here are a couple of pictures. The first one is just one of our tomato harvests. Who says you can't grow tomatoes on the northern Oregon coast?!

We actually had several harvests. The past two days, however, have been clear and cold and the tomato plants have passed on. I had two plants in a large pot. The nice thing about that was I was able to put it in the warmest sunniest spot in the yard. Considering the climate and the beautiful trees that abound here, I am quite pleased.
By now most of us in the U.S. have heard about the Occupy Wall Street movement. Whatever your opinion and thoughts of the movement it is bringing about conversation and the seeds of change. Our tiny little town has not been left out. We have our own little Occupy movement going on every Saturday afternoon. I was only able to make the first one so far. We marched down (and then back up) the only main street in town stopping traffic chanting and startling the tourist in town. Here was my sign which reads, "We the People are too big to fail." I feel we should remember that whatever our differences, we the people of this country have the power to change things. We are the majority after all. It will take work and attention though.

At this particular Occupy movement, most of us are over the age of 40! It will take all of us not just the younger folks.
So life is crazy good at the moment.
I want to finish up the post by sharing a contemporary artist whose work I admire. Her name is Anna Youngers and you can view her website here. It is well worth checking out. Here is a sample of her beautiful work:

Anna Youngers: http://www.annayoungers.com

I will also be adding her link to my "Artists Who Inspire" list. I found her work on the "Women Painting Women" blog site which is also on my list.
That is all for this post. I will see how the progress is going for next week. Hopefully I will have a bit more of my own work to share.
-Renee

Elizabeth Jane Gardner Bouguereau and Home Art School-Week 1

2011-10-10T19:57:00.000-07:00

Philomena And Procne. Oil 24.49" X 31 1/2 ", Elizabeth Jane Gardner Bouguereau

One of my favorite art blogs is Matthew Innis' Underpaintings.When you have a bit of time I heartily recommend you check his blog out. I can easily spend hours looking at and thinking about all the art and links and information he puts up on his blog. The following information, however, doesn't come from his blog but was a link from his Facebook wall. It was a link to an article on The Forgotten Female Artists of the 19th Century, written in Epoch Times. The first name mentioned caught my eye as her husband William Adolphe Bouguereau's work is quite popular at this time. She is none other than Elizabeth Jane Gardner Bouguereau and an accomplished artist in her own right. Her work is definitely in the same manner as her husbands but has differences that are her own. To be honest, from what I have seen of her work, I prefer her paintings over her husband's. A bit more information on her can be found with the link I attached to her name. Some images of her work can also be viewed either by googling her name and clicking on "Images" or at the Art Renewal Center website here.
Her history, what is accounted for, is a bit colorful as is many women artists of the past. Perhaps the particular challenges and difficulties that these women have had to face requires a certain strength of mind and willingness to bend conventions.
Elizabeth Jane Gardner Bouguereau had quite a few accomplishments in her own right but definitely stands in the shadow of her famous husband, with pride, I might add. She appeared to have embraced that criticism. With her accomplishments in what would today be considered art marketing, one has to wonder about her influence on her husbands career!
The painting at the beginning of this post is a wonderful sample of her work. I obtained the picture from the Art Renewal Center website linked above.
The first week of the third year of my own humble education went well. I spent a bit more time than I had anticipated getting things set up and in place but I did manage to keep to the schedule I made. It felt good. Still a bit daunting but I am thinking that it will work nicely. I worked on a color study and took a picture of the beginning color stage:

It has moved beyond this point as I took this at the beginning of the week. I also worked on my first self-portrait, in graphite on drawing paper. Yikes! It was a bit startling to me to study-with-the-intent-to-draw my own middle-aged face. I wasn't critical of the way I look, it was just that taking note of the changes that have happened over time was a bit disconcerting at first. I guess I really don't spend a lot of time looking at my face. I now have the beginnings of a recognizable self image looking back at me from the paper. Perhaps I will get used to it in time as I will be using myself as a model for portrait work to get the basics down before luring others into my studio.
I also enjoyed working on a personal composition. I am in the planning and sketching stage. There are quite a few I would like to do but I am starting with a painting that includes a self portrait for some of the same reasons I have mentioned before. I figured I can always revisit the work when my skills improve and I will have the same model (albeit a bit older!). The painting will also require another plein air trip just up the road so hopefully the weather and tides will cooperate soon.
Week 2 will be a busy one and hopefully will get a bit more done now that things are set up and in place. Thanks to the folks that have left comments, they are appreciated. Blogger still will not let me respond to them in each post and I have not had any response from Blogger to my inquiries.
On to week 2! -Renee

Home Schooling and Hug Point

2011-10-01T10:44:00.000-07:00

After last week's post, I did indeed do what I came to the conclusion that I needed to do. I sat down and wrote it all out (with a cup of tea and a treat by my side). The final outcome was a schedule of schooling. Earlier this summer I had half jokingly printed up a sign and stuck it in my studio that reads: Atelier Manzanita. I decided that since I was bemoaning the loss of the structure and instruction that school provided, I would create that for myself. The instruction will be a bit challenging though.
I am taking it in quarters or in about 8-10 week chunks with breaks in between. The weekly schedule at the moment is experimental. I have alternated days of color studies and cast drawing with figure drawing and days of working on composition and my own personal work.
It will require a bit of self discipline. I think I will feel less frustrated on my own if I am at least working on skills and improvement with regularity and dedication and not just jabbing here and there.
So, the new quarter of school at Atelier Manzanita starts Monday. I have been getting some of the tasks of daily living; yard work, preparing for the stormy season, cleaning, etc. done in preparation for being "back" at school.
We have had wonderful fall weather so far with one incredibly perfect day last week. The tides and weather cooperated so I went plein air painting on Wednesday. It was sunny blue skies and warm, with no breeze, which is not usual. The tides were a bit higher than I realized so I wasn't able to get to the area I had wanted to paint until it was too late. I wanted that warm golden afternoon light on the rocks around the caves. Here is Hug Point, one of my all-time favorite spots just a five minute drive up the road from us.

Hug Point gets its name from this particular spot. The beach was the easiest path of travel down the coast in early years. "Easiest" is relative though! The native people had carved hand holds in the soft sandstone rock and, at low tide, you traversed around the point by "hugging" the rock and using the hand and foot holds. Note the darker stained rock at the bottom? That is from the sea and is how high the water gets. If only you could see the rocks just below the road and the cold water with its wicked tides and floating logs, you would understand even more what an act of courage that was. Later they blasted a crude road in the rock which is still there. It also hugs the point and is not available during high tide as it will be underwater. Many people, cars (think model T), and alas, horses, have been washed off the road in the past.
There is a waterfall the spills onto the beach from the forest. It is a beautiful spot in a spectacularly beautiful area.
I am hoping I will get another chance this fall to paint at Hug Point. This week though the forecast says we have several storms lined up with the jet stream pointed right at us. Good indoor painting weather!
Next week, a report from my first week of school.
-Renee

Getting Unstuck

2011-09-26T10:12:00.000-07:00

I have been struggling a bit these past few weeks. Not struggling with ideas but struggling more with how to proceed. There are many reasons why I wish I was able to continue with school. One of the blessings of being at school was the issue of how to proceed was pretty much laid out for students. I am finding that sort of guidance was a luxury! Fortunately for me, I was old enough to realize that while I was in school and took advantage of it. I also took notice of what the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th year students were working on knowing that I would have to do this on my own.
I am starting in on my third year, the second without formal instruction, and I am sort of stuck with how to proceed. Oh, I know that I need to continue to work on life drawing, color studies, and what little cast drawing I am able to do. I would like to start in on portrait painting and am not sure how to get on with that. I also want to start working on my own compositions.
Well, perhaps I just outlined how to proceed!
I believe I will do something that I don't usually do. I am thinking that I need to spend a little time writing this out with more detail and setting down some specifics on paper. Not a lot of time, but perhaps an afternoon. If you all will indulge me, I will report on the outcome of this on my next post. In the meantime, I certainly am open to suggestions. So many of you have been generous in that way and it is much appreciated. I will definitely pay that forward when I am able.
Timing can be pretty amazing. I have to give a shout out for a post that artist Crystal Cook posted not too long ago. I follow her on Facebook and thought I had her blog on my blog roll and link in my list. I was surprised to find I didn't! I am going to remedy that after posting. Her post is titled: Ten Hard Earned Truths Every Artist Must Learn. Click on the title to go to her post. I had to agree with every one of them, specially number 5!
Finally, here is a sketch from yesterday's life drawing group:


"Sophia" 20 minute sketch. Conte pencil on prepared watercolor paper.

Sundays have turned into wonderfully busy days with life drawing in the morning and attending a musical jam session with my husband in the evening. I am getting my long neglected cello back on line and also playing the bodhran.
I am going to go to my favorite cafe in our little town here and do that writing I just assigned myself this very afternoon. It is a perfect windy, rainy, fall day to just that.
Until next post, -Renee

Changing a Challenging Challenge

2011-09-12T09:19:00.000-07:00

Ahem... A while ago I put up a challenge for my 50th birthday coming in the year 2012. At the time, I had just started painting with oil and was intrigued with the "painting a day" idea. I thought I would challenge myself to paint 50 paintings. Well, I have decided to revise that challenge! I picked the number 50 for obvious reasons. I actually could paint 50 quick paintings but I want them to be paintings that not only have meaning to me but represent my best effort at the time. At this stage in my development, I don't have the speed and skill to paint 50 with that criteria in mind. I have decided that painting my best is more important to me than painting 50 paintings. I don't regret throwing that number out there though! I am still thinking that I would like to have a showing of some sort but I believe I will make it local and invite my artist friends to participate. I would also like to have a portion of the proceeds go to a worthy organization such as our local United Paws of Tillamook.
I am thinking over if I want to add a number of paintings to the challenge. I could do 5 paintings, one for each decade. Perhaps I will just not focus on a certain number but focus instead on joyful meaningful work. I must admit I like that better. Any thoughts?
After taking a couple of days off to rest and sort of catch up on the work of everyday living, I got back to the studio and finished my seal painting. I have named it "Newly Borne" and here it is:

Newly Borne (oil, 9X12)

This is my first formal painting of the sea. I am still learning how to paint the ocean and I am fascinated with it. I used my own photo reference to paint the newborn seal and an oil sketch I did that day as a reference for the waves and color. I was glad I did the grisaille first as I would have been lost without the tones already mapped out. I am pleased with the learning experience I had from painting this piece.
Life drawing yesterday was quite interesting. I am still processing the recent workshop I attended. I definitely see its influence in my work.
I would like to take a moment to thank all of you who commented on my recent posts during the workshop. I am going to try to update the Blogger and see if that will allow me to comment on my own posts again!
-Renee

Liberace Workshop-Day 5 and Final Day

2011-09-02T20:58:00.000-07:00

Well, it is amazing how fast a five day workshop goes by. As I anticipated, today was a struggle. I would say it was the hardest day for me as I was sailing off into completely new territory. If I had more time I probably would have had better results but ironically, sometimes it can be better to not have more time. Here is my final painting:

This is not a finished piece even though I am through working on it. Some people not only finished but did two. That's OK, everyone is at different skill levels and I took my time so I could learn. The proportions are off but the instructor said I did a good job on the shadows and lights. Other students had better painting techniques but struggled with their shadows and lights so everyone had a learning curve or area of challenge of some sort!
I am still pretty new to oil painting and have never mixed skin tones. The little paint spots on the right are tests of color. I filled up the side and wiped it clean several times.
I put up work like this on my blog for a reason. My intent on starting my blog was to show that people with determination and willingness to work very hard (good teachers help too) can become a skilled artist. I still have a ways to go and as you can see from above I sometime make a mess. It is a glorious mess that represents perseverance in the face of frustration and a willingness to fail beautifully, not just once but over and over again.
We decided to head home a day early instead of staying an extra day as originally planned. I will take a few days off to catch up on the house-holdy stuff and rest a bit before heading back to the studio. I have some art research to do and new things to try. I plan to be back to post the Sunday after Labor Day here in the U.S.
Finally, thank you Mena for the wonderful comment and the encouragement. A link to Mena's work has been on the sidebar in the 'Artist's who inspire' section for a while now. Check it out!
Looking forward to being by the wild and beautiful sea tomorrow.
-Renee

Liberace Workshop-Day 3 and 4

2011-09-01T21:04:00.000-07:00

We all had a wonderful relaxing dinner hosted by Cary and her husband of WIFAS last night. I think my favorite moment is when dark fell and many of us were sitting around a bonfire. I looked across the fire and saw a weary or pensive teacher staring into the fire with his two young daughters sitting on each knee. It would make a lovely picture!
I will start with the two oil sketches from yesterday. The first was about 45 minutes (in 15 minute segments). This is really the first time I have tried to do a formal grisaille in oil of the human figure.

The second one was done in the 3 hour afternoon session. It was a bit challenging as I was on the side and the cloth the model was sitting on that had the position taped to kept slipping around so that the model's position kept changing. I loved this particular gesture so I nailed it there even though the model's position changed. Not the model's fault.

Today we all changed positions and switched models. We will be doing this same pose tomorrow too. I am hoping I will get a chance to paint it in color as I have never done that. I might just focus on the pose and technique and stick to the same colors as above. I am painting on a gesso board that has been toned medium gray. It is smaller than I am used to and the surface is fairly smooth, something I am not used to either. I did pick up a few techniques on working on this support though so it is worth trying out in this circumstance. Here is today's work:

I am making rather a mess out of the paint. It is streaky and a bit busy. I am hoping I will be able to correct that tomorrow. The paint is just burnt umber with a touch of burnt sienna. The light part is just the areas with the paint removed or rubbed out. This is a challenging pose for the model to hold as it is very tiring. Toward the end of the day, he would sit down during the break and doze off. He has been a very patient and obliging model.
In between and during us painting, Rob Liberace was painting a couple of demos. The last one is a portrait on copper. It is looking really interesting and I think I might want to try that myself sometime. We are able to see how he handles the challenges of working on copper. That is a bit of a bonus as it wasn't in the workshop description.
One of many things I really like about Robert Liberace as a teacher is that he has a wonderful curiosity and willingness to explore. He is generous about sharing the knowledge he gains. I would say the workshop is worth every penny it costs on just that alone. Of course, we also get good instruction and some feedback. I think all of my workshop mates would agree that we can't get enough feedback but that is because there are so many of us and only one of him. His classes and workshops are in high demand. I was lucky to get in which is why I signed up months ahead of time. I can understand why they enroll as many people in the workshop as they can.
Tomorrow is the last day of the workshop. I will have more to post of course.
I am not able to answer comments for some reason. I am still having trouble with Blogger. I will answer Theresa's question here about taking photos for reference. There is an understandable policy that no photos of the models are allowed. Even if we would never post them online, you never know if your computer might get stolen or the info falls into the wrong hands. If I were a model, I would not want any photos taken either. Photo references have their drawbacks too but that is a topic for another post. Theresa, thanks for asking! And thanks to everyone for their interest.
-Renee

Liberace Workshop-Day 2

2011-08-30T20:49:00.000-07:00

It looks like I have a chance to post today's workshop results so I am going for it. Today we used Faber-Castell Pitt Pastel pencils and Conte pencils to experiment with. I must confess here, I do not quite have all the right materials for the workshop. I live in an area that has a one hour drive, one way, to get to a decent art supply store and I need a certain lead time to purchase materials. The same lead time is needed with online art supplies. On the drive up to the workshop, I stopped in Seattle at a wonderful art supply store but alas, they were out of the very pencils and colors I needed. My paper is different as the recommended paper contains animal products such as gelatin and, as posted about in the past, I do not use art supplies that contain animal products. So, I have to work with what I have which is different than what everyone else is working with. What does all that mean? It means my paper is too rough and the pencils aren't quite the right colors. Fortunately I did have Conte pencils in the correct color so I was able to do a my final drawing with the Conte.
Here is today's drawing:

This is the Conte pencil on toned paper.
When we got started today we all had to move six easels over so that everyone had a chance at a better spot to draw from. Today I was the second to the end but I didn't mind a bit as all views are interesting as well as having their challenges.
Whenever I use a new-to-me medium, I tend to not like it and the Conte was no exception. I started to get a feel for it toward the second half of the drawing session though so I will probably try this again. I liked the Verithin pencil technique we used yesterday better.
Both before and while we working on our drawing the instructor was working on a demo, as well as guiding and instructing us of course. Here he is in action:

Tomorrow we start in with painting. I have not done a lot of painting so it should be an interesting challenge. Fortunately, I do have all the correct materials for that part! We also have a treat later that evening. The owner of WIFAS is generously hosting a dinner for the workshop participants and our spouses/partners. That will be quite a crowd! Given the schedule of events, I might not have time to post tomorrow but will do so as soon as I am able.
-Renee

Liberace Workshop - Day 1

2011-08-29T20:01:00.000-07:00

Wow! It has been quite a day. We arrived on Whidbey Island yesterday evening and are now ensconced in a funky little cabin overlooking the ferry route on Puget Sound. There are twenty or so attendees at the workshop which is hosted by WIFAS. The first half of the day was a demo given by our instructor. Rob Liberace is a wonderful instructor and amusing speaker. He is also able to do a drawing demo while talking which I find impressive. After his drawing demonstration we got set up to start our own drawing and then stopped for lunch. The rest of the day was spent drawing and working on what we had learned and saw.
I am hoping this blog will be coherent! Even though I am not as tired as I thought I would be (yay green smoothies!) my mind is on overload with all I have seen and did today. Before I continue, here is my work for the day:

The materials are Prismacolor Verithin colored pencil in terracotta on paper toned with water color and sealed with shellac. The purpose of the finish is to push the pencil into behaving more like red chalk. The Verithin pencil gives a very sharp thin line when properly sharpened.
This drawing was done in a four hour time period, and boy did it go fast! The emphasis was on the torso so the head, at least in my drawing, and the legs and feet have little detail. There were a few people who had more skill and experience than I have who were able to add more detail to the face and limbs. Their drawings were quite lovely and gave me encouragement.
Our models are quite wonderful. During one of the breaks they dressed and then demonstrated a kind of acrobatic yoga that was amazing to behold. It would be pretty fantastic to draw those poses but alas, they could only be held for a very short time.
I am learning a lot of wonderful things and am doing my best to take it all in. It is great to have instruction and feedback again. I really do miss it.
Tomorrow we have another day of drawing and then the last three days will be painting.
We have friends to visit with tomorrow after class so I am not sure if I will get online to post. More to follow though, never fear!
-Renee

Women and the Call of the Sea

2011-08-21T21:43:00.000-07:00

I am in the awkward stages of the paintings and drawings I am currently working on so I decided to dedicate this blog to two contemporary women painters who have chosen to paint one of my favorite subjects, the sea. First, I need to thank and acknowledge one of my all time favorite blogs about marine oil painting, Jeronimus at Marine Oil Paintings. His blog has been listed in my "Artists who Inspire" list (found on the sidebar) for a while now. He is very good at searching out and posting the paintings of marine artists both past and present. I tried to do my own searching for female artists who paint seascapes but didn't turn up much. Fortunately, I found quite a few in the Marine Oil Paintings blog!
I have pretty much lived by the Pacific Ocean for most of my life. Currently, I live a mere 5 minute walk to the beach. Lest you have pictured in your head images of lithe tan bodies stretched out on the sand, I should mention I live in the Pacific Northwest, where the beaches are cold and often rough and wild, not to mention downright treacherous. I love the wildness here. It takes my breath away and has taken up residence in my heart and soul.
Naturally, I want to, have to paint my environment. As I am still acquiring the skills to do just that, it will be a few years before I reach the skill level of the two artists I am about to introduce you to.
The first artist is Katherine B. Young and you can see her work here. What intrigued me about her work is that she paints her marine paintings over metal leaf. That is something I would like to try myself one day. I would love to post a sample of her work however, sometimes a site (understandably so) will not let me copy an image. When I do, I always credit and link the image to the original site. Take my word and click on the link to her site and look at her work. Here is her artist statement:

“Places for Reflection” depicts images of vast oceans and skies. These oil paintings speak to my love of the ocean, and the importance of the ocean environment in our lives, mentally and physically. I have always been drawn to the ocean, and it is the place I go whenever I need to see beauty, find inspiration, or reflect upon life. I was inspired early on by the painters Frederic Church and William Trost Richards, and more recently by contemporary artists Gerhard Richter and April Gornik.

The works in this series are all painted on top of metal leaf. This reiterates the idea of reflection and symbolizes the sublime that I believe exists underneath it all.

These paintings have helped me realize how important it is to preserve this treasured resource. To this effect, I have pledged to donate a portion of my sales to organizations that help preserve the integrity of our marine environment."

I pretty much feel the same way about the ocean and have the same intention to donate a portion of my proceeds when I start selling my own work.

The next artist is April Gornik, who is mentioned as one of the artists who inspires Young.

Here is an example of one of her marine paintings.


Storm Sea Light, 2009, Oil on linen, 74" x 77" http://www.aprilgornik.com/index.html

This picture can be found on her website along with her other wonderful work here.
Her biography and resume are worth reading as well. I was particularly intrigued by her artist's statement which I will share here:
"I am an artist that values, above all, the ability of art to move me emotionally and psychically. I make art that makes me question, that derives its power from being vulnerable to interpretation, that is intuitive, that is beautiful."
-April Gornik

That gives me a lot to think about.
Finally, as a bonus, I have to give another mention of an artist I have in my "Artists Who Inspire" list, and that is Katherine Kean. I have mentioned her before and I continue to admire her work. The link on my list will take you to her blog. Her website can be found here.
Next week brings an exciting adventure. I will be heading up to Whidbey Island for a workshop with Robert Librace. Stay tuned for posts!
-Renee

Summer Days

2011-08-14T21:29:00.000-07:00

We have had a wonderful run of lovely summer weather the past couple of weeks. I have been busy getting yard work done and soaking up the sunshine for those long dark winter days ahead in addition to the usual daily chores. I have been working in the studio too but I haven't been spending a lot of time online.
I am still attending life drawing and, after adjusting my expectations and process a bit, have found a way to make it work for me. I just don't want to give up my only source at this time for live models.
In the studio, I am currently trying a new-to-me technique or process. I am using a combination of photo references and oil sketches to paint a more formal beachscape. The photos are those I took when helping to watch over a newborn seal on the beach. The seal still had its umbilical cord attached! It is important to keep a distance from the newborn so that it will have a chance at reuniting with its mother as the tide comes back in. I took pictures with my largest lens attached. I cropped the picture quite a bit to compose the painting. I wanted to convey both the vulnerability of the newborn seal and the incredible strength and resilience these wild creatures have. I printed the photo in black and white and did a few thumbnail sketches in oil before starting on a grisaille. I am glad I did the grisaille before moving to the color as studying the tones also helped in my study of the waves. Here is the grisaille so far:

I still have a tiny bit to adjust and much detail, such as foam patterns and water sparkles, is left out at this stage intentionally. I will make a few corrections tomorrow and then move onto color using my oil sketch as a color reference. The canvas is 9"X12" and was toned with yellow ochre. In addition to taking many pictures, I made an oil sketch when I was helping to watch over the newborn seal. That is the sketch I will be using for my color reference. It was posted on the blog a while ago.
We were there about six hours or so before the tide came in far enough for the seal to swim away. It was a wonderful way to pass the time and quite a magical event for me. I have since signed up for the stranded marine mammal volunteer group that has formed with guidance from the Oregon Marine Mammal Stranding Network . I attended an informational meeting and learned quite a bit about the sea mammals in our area and the people who work to protect them.
I haven't taken the time to research my next featured woman artist but promise I will for my next post. I am getting excited as I have the workshop with Robert Librace coming up at the end of this month. I am looking forward to that with both excitement and a little anxiety. It will be a challenging workshop for me. A bit of time before that takes place though. We have more company coming and events to attend before we go.
Until next week,
-Renee

Mother and Child

2011-08-01T09:18:00.000-07:00

Summer has arrived on the wild northern Pacific coast. Suddenly cars and windows need to be washed and gardens need tending to not to mention just spending a warm sunny afternoon reading amidst the flowers! I have been working but not spending a lot of time online so am a bit behind on posting. There has been several small art events to attend in town which have been fun to look at.
We had a treat in Life Drawing yesterday. We had been enjoying drawing a model throughout her pregnancy. The last time she modeled for us she was very near her delivery time and in fact, did indeed give birth to a bouncing baby boy a few days after our last session with her!
Yesterday she came back to model for us with her beautiful 4 week old baby boy. We didn't time each pose as the poses were dependent on the mother and baby being comfortable. Some they were able to hold for quite a while and others they were not. Seeing the expression of the young mother and baby gazing into each others eyes was magical and touching. Here are the sketches I did:

The last picture had quite a bit of foreshortening. The model is a calm and patient mother which bodes well for her baby as well as being a treat for us to draw. Needless to say we all doted on the baby during the breaks. On a side note, it was also interesting to observe that the skin tones of mother and child matched perfectly.
So I couldn't resist featuring none other than Mary Cassatt for my next woman artist in the series. Mary Cassatt is well known for her Mother and Child themes in her paintings. When asked to name women artist, Cassatt's name is usually one of the first to be listed. Cassatt studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia in 1861 and continued her studies in Paris four years later. Much is written and well known about Cassatt so I am not going to go into a lot of detail here. It seems like she was fortunate to be in a time and place where her skills were nurtured and appreciated. It would be wonderful if that was not a rarity in the history of women artists. Here is a good website to check out http://www.marycassatt.org. I will wrap up this post with one of her beautiful mother and child paintings in the spirit of our life drawing session yesterday.

I should add, I have been having problems with posting comments on my own blog in response to comments that are made. I will follow up on any comments in my next post. Comments are greatly appreciated and enjoyed!
-Renee

First Portrait Attempt

2011-07-17T16:24:00.000-07:00

Here is my first portrait attempt! I used charcoal on Strathmore charcoal paper that I toned with charcoal dust before I started. This is a six hour session done in 50 minute or so chunks of time spread out over a week or two. The subject is my handsome husband. I haven't done a full scale charcoal drawing in a while and I found I was a bit out of practice. To my eye, it shows. There are plenty of mistakes but, for a first attempt, I am pleased.
Life drawing today wasn't so great. I have come to the realization that it might not be the best use for my time and money due to the nature of life drawing with a diverse group of people who all have different needs as to artistic direction. I am going to pull back for a while and rethink the situation. I must add, this decision has nothing to do with the wonderful group of artists who come to life drawing. It has more to do with my own needs and resources. I do miss being part of a group with a common artistic goal.
This is a short post this week as I want to get a few more things in place today so I can hit the studio hard next week.
-Renee

Introducing Clara Peeters

2011-07-10T21:47:00.000-07:00

Need I say that I am learning about some wonderful women artists as much as anyone reading this blog?! Let me introduce Clara Peeters:

Vanitas painting;it is plausible that the woman in the painting is Clara Peeters (1594-c1657. More in general this is to be considered a Personification or Allegory of Vanitas

1613 - 1620

http://www.csupomona.edu/~plin/women/peeters.html
Most sources consider this a self portrait.

According to my trusty book; 50 Women Artists You Should Know (Weidemann, Larass, Klier, Prestel Publishing, N.Y, 2008), Not a whole lot is known about this artist. She was born in the Netherlands about 1594. She is credited as one of the founders of still-life painting with her first known work at age 14! Like so many women in the history of the world, not much is recorded. It is surmised that she was under the guidance of a studio or apprenticed to a master. There are about 80 known paintings of hers that have survived, she had signed at least 30 of them. Her final painting was dated 1657, and is now lost. The circumstances of her death are unknown. Some of the images of her paintings that I have seen show beautiful and rich detail. Unfortunately, they don't show up as well here but I will try it anyway. Her still-lifes are exquisite with incredible attention to detail. One of her most famous is Still-Life with Fish and Cat.

Clara Peeters, "Still Life of Fish and Cat," n.d, Oil on panek, 13 1/2 x 18 1/2 in.
Source: http://womeninthearts.wordpress.com/page/3/
I searched for a good image but was not able to find one of good enough quality to do it justice. The descriptions on various websites and the picture I have in the book show beautiful and skillful work.I find it rather frustrating that so much of her work is spread so thin and details about the paintings seem to be rather sketchy. I would love to see a major exhibition of her work.
So, after checking Clara out, here is a bit of my humble work. All I have to show this week is a 30 minute life drawing sketch. While I am grateful for still life sessions here in our little town and only 4 blocks from my house, I must confess, I do miss so very much 18 and 24 hour poses. Here is my sketch which was done with earth brown pencil on drawing paper.


30 minute sketch, brown pencil on paper. July 10, 2011

The next couple of weeks I am going to be painting like mad to see if I can get a couple done for two local group art shows. I am continuing to work on the charcoal portrait of my husband.

Should be an interesting and busy week!

-Renee
P.S. For some reason Blogger is playing games with my font and size. Sorry for the weird reduction and change.

Ah Summer

2011-07-03T20:24:00.000-07:00

It looks like we are going to have a sunny and warm Fourth of July here on the northern Oregon coast. I have been itching to get outside to paint. I could but....I am feeling a bit overwhelmed this weekend. Our little town of 700 hearty full time souls has swelled by several thousand people to partake in the festivities. Every house has several cars, the streets are crawling with people and their dogs and herds of small shrieking children. The beach is crowded with people burning the beautiful driftwood logs and, in one case, a tourist knocked down a street sign and threw it on the fire (he was fined). Even though there are signs all over the place forbidding fireworks on pain of citation and fine, there are fireworks all over the place. We don't have a large police force, as one would guess for such a tiny town.
It is funny how fast we claim ownership of a place. We have such a wonderful local culture of sustainability and recycling, and love, gratitude, and respect for the incredible natural beauty of the area. It is a bit hard to see people come in, shatter the peace and drown out the sound of the ocean with their music, disrespect the laws, and leave trash on our beaches. Specially, for me, thousands of people (someone told me 10,000!) Well, all this has made me feel a bit reluctant to go out and paint until the holiday is over and most of the people go home.
So, with that rant out of the way (if you are still with me, I appreciate you hanging in there) I will move on. I have started a charcoal portrait of my husband. It is my first attempt at a portrait. I have been reading and viewing videos and figured it is time to just do it, and make mistakes, and do it some more. I am also working on my first ocean painting using an oil sketch I did on the beach and a few photo references. I will have more on that later. I have a color study all set up. A simple color study this time! Life drawing continues and all the work feels good.
Of course, we have had well loved visitors with more to come and now the holiday weekend but thankfully summer days are long. Love it!
No pictures of my work this time but I want to wrap up with another woman artist from the past. I plan to look up more on this incredible woman, Rosa Bonheur 1822-1899. She lived an unconventional life starting with her upbringing. She was allowed to follow her tomboy nature and was the daughter of a drawing master. She was sent to a boy's school with her brothers! She blossomed as an artist early in life with encouragement from her father. She was a master painter of animals. Here is one of her most well known pieces:

The Horse Fair, 1853–55
Rosa Bonheur (French, 1822–1899)
Oil on canvas

96 1/4 x 199 1/2 in. (244.5 x 506.7 cm)
Signed and dated (lower right): Rosa Bonheur 1853.5
Gift of Cornelius Vanderbilt, 1887 (87.25)

On view: Gallery 812 Last Updated June 29, 2011

Source: Rosa Bonheur: The Horse Fair (87.25) | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art

This painting is 8 ft by 16ft! Here is another beautiful one:


Rosa Bonheur, Sheep by the Sea, 1865; Oil on panel; National Museum of Women in the Arts

Source: http://www.nmwa.org/collection/detail.asp?WorkID=476
The picture above does not do it any kind of justice. Looking at a photo of the painting in 50 Women Artists You Should Know, the colors are rich and the detail and lighting is exquisite. Google her name and a lot of information comes up. It is wonderful to read about a woman who was a successful artist on her own terms and was accepted as such, more or less. It wasn't all smooth sailing, One critic wrote "Mademoiselle Rosa paints almost like a man." (50 Women Artists You Should Know, pg. 63) I mean, really!
The life and work of Rosa Bonheur is well worth checking out.
I will add her name and link to my artists who inspire list for sure.
For those of you in the USA, have a happy and safe Independence Day. And, to our neighbors up north, happy Canada Day.
-Renee

Finished Study Painting!

2011-06-26T16:52:00.000-07:00

It has been a couple of weeks since the last post. Summer arrived, well sort of, and all of a sudden things got busy. I was still working in the studio just in odd snatches of time here and there. I finally, FINALLY, finished this still life study. Well, I could continue working on it for a while longer but I decided it was time to stop. I spent a lot of time experimenting with different ways of painting and a couple of mediums. As a result, it isn't a smoothly finished piece of work but that is OK, it wasn't intended to be. Before I continue, here it is:

Not the best photo as I am still working on finding a way that works well, without spending a chunk of money at this time.
One of the mediums I tried was Gamblin's Galkyd. I have to say, I really didn't like it. I didn't like the smell and I am not too sure I like the results either. This was a great learning piece, after all it is only my second painting, but I made it too complicated and it took too long. It was with great relief that I took down the still life set up and cleaned the studio. I will be doing several short color studies, and continue to work on drawing and figure studies. I also plan to start a series of ocean paintings or seascapes. I go out with my easel to do painting en plein air when I get the chance but the weather here is so variable it can be a challenge.
My life study group was canceled the past two weeks but we met today with a model we have drawn before. She is within a couple weeks of delivering her baby. It has been really fun drawing her during her pregnancy. It is amazing to observe how the body changes in every way when pregnant. Here is a 30 minute drawing of her.

Finally, I was trying to decide whether or not to alternate a contemporary female artist with a past female artist for my women artists portion. I had thought to feature Artemisia Gentileschi then I read a wonderful blog post by Terry Strickland. Her link is in my side bar but you should check out her post here. I love this idea and am filing it away to use one of these days when I have built my portrait skills. She has a wiki link about Artemisia as well that is worth checking out. Women had a lot more stacked against them in the past. Things have improved but we still have a long way to go.
It feels good to be moving on and will be posting on the progress next week.
Until then,
-Renee

Eva Gonzales and a Beachscape

2011-06-06T20:56:00.000-07:00

This will be the first post of I hope a number of posts about women artists, both past and present. I would like to introduce you, or perhaps reintroduce you, to Eva Gonzales. There should be an accent over the last "e" in Gonzales. Eva Gonzales was a Parisian artist born in 1849 and died at the early age of 34 due to what is believed to be puerperal fever after the birth of her son. Before I continue, here is one of her beautiful paintings,

I have seen two different titles for this one. One is Early Wakening the other is Morning Awakening. Either way it is beautiful. Like so many women artists in the past that I have read about, Eva faced the obstacles of gender bias and just plain not being taken seriously (?!!). She was the only student, after achieving wonderful proficiency as a student of the portraitist Charles Chaplin, of Edouard Manet. She studied with him for three years and, as was often the case, became his model as well as his pupil. She was unfortunately overshadowed by Manet, and was not always taken seriously as an artist. Some of her paintings had stylistic elements of Impressionism but she never really belonged to that group. She had some success and recognition toward the end of her short life. I imagine like so many painters who have had their lives cut short, her work would have continued to grow in recognition and development.*
I admire Manet's paintings but when looking at Eva's next to his, I feel that Eva Gonzales had a more refined and delicate touch that I find much more appealing. That is my personal opinion of course!
Now for my own humble work. We had one incredibly beautiful and warm day on Saturday. I took advantage of it to go down to the beach in the evening to paint Neahkahnie Mountain where it reaches into the sea. This is my favorite area of our beach. Our town is nestled at the foot of this beautiful mountain. The views from the top of it are breathtaking. This is an oil sketch I did in two hours. I was a bit frustrated as I didn't take a small enough brush with me to capture some of the detail I wanted to get but I am not displeased with the sketch.

As I was packing up when the light changed too much, a mist came up and became a fiery haze as the sun set. I want to go back when I have the chance and try to capture those colors and effects. Of course, being on the coast, when the inland area becomes warm it generates mist and fog here at the beach so we don't usually get several days of clear sunny weather here in the summer. I was going after some of the afternoon light effects on the cliffside. I was intrigued by the way the shadows kept changing. I didn't spend a lot of time on the water and sky. I will be painting this mountain many times.
With any luck, I will have another chance at plein air painting this week. Work continues on the still life.
Until next week,
-Renee

*Most of my information on Eva Gonzales comes from the book 50 Women Artists You Should Know by Weidemann, Larass, and Klier. I did a bit of online searching too but found the best info in the book.

Progress and "Herstory"

2011-05-30T17:20:00.000-07:00

I have been working away, honestly! I just didn't post last week. As I have mentioned before, this is taking me longer than I thought it would and it has been a true learning experience. I thought about posting my progress last week but the painting was in a very awkward spot. So, here is the last picture I posted of the painting's progress:

And here is the latest:

I have got the first layer of color in on the whole painting. I am doing a little experimenting now and also going back over and refining forms and color. I would like to think that I will be stopping once I have done another go through. This is supposed to be a study, not a masterpiece. I really am anxious to move on. It has allowed me time to think things through though. I have been thinking how to continue my studies and what direction I want to go. I do have a final goal. I want to acquire the level of skills I need to be able to paint anything I want to depict. The skills will always be added to even when I am satisfied that I have reached my goal.

I am not going to say anything more at this time. I will wrap up my thoughts when the final picture is posted on this painting.

In the meantime, I came across an interesting comment on an article about women artists and why they are not proportionally represented in our society compared to male artists. It isn't for lack of female artists as many articles report that the number of women graduating from art programs are greater than the number of men, yet only a small percentage are represented in galleries, art shows, and museums. I would add trade magazines and books to that list! I am not going to talk about the actual numbers here as there are more informed resources out there. The comment that caught my eye was actually a challenge. It pointed out that even female artists who blog often have long lists of male artists they admire and few, if any, female artists. The comment is a challenge for us women to start finding and exposing others to the many female artists both past and present that are out there.

I have been thinking along those lines for quite a while, even before I started this blog. There is a huge gap in our art history courses when it comes to women artists. As the documentary "Who Does She Think She Is?" mentions, the person on the street is hard pressed to name even five women artists. I have been studying on my own and am starting to find more and more remarkable and overlooked women in the arts in our history. I decided to add a little variety to my blog by featuring a female artist, if not every post, frequently. I am going to start out with women from our past history, or herstory. As this post is plenty long, I will be starting these posts next week. In the meantime, in the "Artists Who Inspire" sidebar on this blog, you will also find many links to contemporary female artists. Yes, there are a few men too!

Finally, today is Memorial Day here in the U.S.A. I want to send thoughts of gratitude to the women and men of our armed forces and their families. I also want to acknowledge all the wonderful service and rescue animals who are also heroes in their own right.

-Renee

Slow but Steady

2011-05-15T16:50:00.000-07:00

Progress has been slow but steady on my still life painting. I finally got all the color in but need to make a few more readjustments on the small pitcher before taking an update photo of it. I need to wrap up the painting as I am itching to move on to several quick color studies. This has been a good lesson for me. That said, I am working out a composition for one of the paintings I have been wanting to do for quite a while.
In the meantime, it is plenty busy around here. In the past, I always enjoyed seeing the baby cows and sheep in my neighborhood. Now, I get to see baby seals and seabirds! The other day I was walking Twill on the beach when I came upon a marked off area with people stationed at various points routing folks around. It was right down from my house too. Turns out a baby seal had been born that morning and would be on the beach until the tide came up enough for it to rejoin its mother. I ran home and grabbed the camera then, after taking a couple of pictures, ran home and grabbed my painting gear and loaded it into the bike trailer I made. I grabbed a quick bite of lunch and rode down to the beach to join the seal warders and paint. I stayed until the newborn seal pup got back into the water around 5pm. Hopefully the mother was waiting for it somewhere in the waves. A representative from the local park ranger was busy shooing people away as the baby swam south in the surfline. Here are a couple of pictures. It was such an interesting day.

The middle picture is of my bike and trailer at rest of course. This was the first chance I had to test out the trailer and it worked just great! Twill was only there a few minutes as she came down with my husband. We were stationed at a good distance. I had the biggest telephoto lens we own on our camera. The mother seal will abandon her baby if people get too close. Hopefully this one didn't.
This beautiful area continues to inspire and amaze me. Next week I plan to have an update, perhaps the final one, on my still life.
-Renee

Letting Go

2011-05-01T19:09:00.000-07:00

I missed posting last week. Last Saturday the weather was nice so we decided it was time to go through the remaining bins that were stored in the garage. Some of those bins have not been opened in over two years as we have been moving around. It took us two days to go through everything. When we first put our house up for sale I had a weaving studio. The plan at that time was to go to the University of Oregon to get a MFA in fiber art. To make a long story short several things happened that caused a huge re-evaluation of life and I ended up changing directions and going to the Ashland Academy of Art (now Atelier Maui). Amazingly enough, once the decision to pursue painting instead of fiber was made, and we made that commitment, the house sold and we moved to Ashland. The plan was to be in Ashland for at least four years. Isn't there a quote about God laughing when you tell him your plans? Well, most of you know, the school decided to move to Maui and we decided not to follow. So, those bins, they have been moving around unopened until last weekend. Oh my. Needless to say, some of the stuff we packed in those bins no longer fits in our life. We ended up letting go of about half of the stuff. Some of it we will sell but most of it went to the thrift store and to other homes. It feels great! The stuff we kept needed to be put away in the house to be used which has taken more time than I invisioned.
Unfortunately, all of this has cut into my time in the studio, much to my frustration. Well, that is part of the reason. The other part is more letting go. I have had time to struggle a bit with being on my own before I had planned to. I will admit it is at times a bit hard to see all growth and the beautiful, wonderful work my former fellow students are doing in Maui and not occasionally wish I had made a different decision. I have had to let that go too. Don't get me wrong! I in no way regret the decision to move here instead of Maui and feel it is the right one. Letting go of all that will allow me to move forward, afterall, there are many wonderful artists who have learned on their own.
So, that is what I have been up to in addition to attending local emergency preparedness fairs, general living, and riding my bike on the beach when possible. I do have two pictures of last week's life drawing session which was such a treat. We had a beautiful young pregnant woman pose for us. This is the first chance I have had to draw a pregnant woman in the nude and I found it fascinating. It was interesting to see how the growing baby changes the balance and stance of the body and how the body shifts and changes. It was also a joy to see the beauty of the mother to be. The following two photos are of drawing and painting I did while experimenting with the different mediums. Sorry for the creases on the charcoal and conte crayon drawing! The drawing is about 20 minutes and the painting is 30 minutes.

The studio is cleaned up and ready to continue working in. The weather is supposed to be nice a few days this week so I am hoping to get in a bit of plein air painting. A heads up for any fiber enthusiasts, I will have some handwoven fabric, purses, yarns and fibers to give away and sell coming up soon. I will announce it here and put it on my sleeping weaving blog. So, onward! I am excited and ready to get back to work.
-Renee

New Experiences in Life Drawing

2011-04-17T21:52:00.000-07:00

I have been trying a new-to-me medium and technique in life drawing. Due to the small room and problems that solvents can produce, we are asked to not use them. Understandably so. I wanted to try sketching the figure from life in oils so I ordered a few tubes of a water-mixable oil paint. Royal Talens Cobra paints to be specific. I ordered a tube of burnt sienna, ultramarine blue, and white. Here is my second attempt using the paints.

This is painted on Fabriano water color paper that I gessoed with three layers and then added an acrylic grey tone to. I am struggling with three things at once here, working with an unfamiliar medium, an unfamiliar technique, and of course the ever present building of figure drawing skills. It can seem overwhelming at times but actually, it is a heck of a lot of fun! The paint really does seem to be in between an acrylic and oil paint. It certainly doesn't glide like oil. It feels sticky to me. It dries faster than oil and slower than acrylic. I think I will be able to adapt to it with a little bit of practice though.
This oil sketch was done over a one hour period.
Here are two ten-minute gesture sketches. One has more detail than the other as I focused on different goals for each one.

With this one (above) I was really focusing more on getting the nuances of the gesture than on proportion. There were so many interesting things going on in this pose.

I worked to get the gesture on this one too but I also wanted to get a bit of the form in and the interesting angle of the head. The model is reclining against a wall with his right arm crooked over a pillow.
I am slowly working on my still life. I really would like to get it finished as I want to spend some time painting quick color studies. It is taking longer than I thought but then, I made it more complicated than I had intended. All part of the learning.
The sun came out today and is supposed to visit with us for a few days but it is still very chilly. Too chilly for my fingers to be out plein air painting even though I can't wait to get out with some frequency.
We shall see if spring decides to stay awhile this next week as there will be several minus tides (neap tides) and therefore tidepools to explore...
-Renee

Contributing to Beauty and Wisdom

2011-04-11T15:40:00.000-07:00

We had a whirlwind of a week with both expected and surprise visitors. The weather went from constant pouring rain to a day and a half of sunshine then back to pouring rain. Between the wonderful visits and the day and a half of sunshine after not having seen the sun in ever-so-long, I did not spend much time in the studio. I did get to life drawing on Sunday and today will get a couple of hours in. I will settle back into studio practice now that I have caught up on the life necessities.
I do have some exciting news though! A bit of back-story first.
The little village I live in does not have home delivery of the mail so us local townspeople all have PO boxes at the post office. I walk the two blocks daily to pick up our mail. I have to laugh, as this is the closest our mail box has been to our house in 25 years. It used to be half a mile up a gravel road, or, more recently, across the town of Ashland.
Today my husband and I walked to the library and then the post office to pick up books and mail. I am expecting a couple of books in the mail and sure enough, we had a few packages. When we got home, I wondered which book came, the art book or the running book? Much to my surprise, it was neither. Instead it was a new book by Patti Digh, What I Wish for You.

This is a very special book because, I didn't order this copy. I received it because I am one of several contributors to it! I had sort of forgotten about the book so was surprised when I opened it. Let me explain how I ended up contributing to it.
I had come across the wonderful website and books of Patti Digh at 37 days. I find her work beautiful and inspiring. I follow her blog and website and one time she put out a personal call to gather wisdom and advice from her readers to give to her daughter who was graduating from high school and entering into a new phase of her life. I thought that was so beautiful but didn't really think much more about it until one day, not long after, I was doing something completely unrelated when I had a powerful thought and connection around Patti's call. I suddenly found I did had something to say/contribute. I never had a daughter but if I did this was something I would want her to know. I submitted it even though I was moved by how profound the writing that others had submitted was. I felt mine was pretty simple and humble but it was from the heart.
It turned out Patti's publisher was also reading what people were contributing and they decided to put it all in a book. I, along with the others, was sent a form to give permission for consideration to put what we contributed into a book. I must confess, I almost didn't send it in. Funny how our minds work. I was thinking that what I wrote was so simple, surely they wouldn't want to include it. Then I realized how silly that was. I had given the words as a gift and it wasn't up to me to make that decision. I sent in the permission, and they decided to use it. My contribution is on page 95, exactly as I had written it.
This has been such a gift, not only to her daughter but to me and many others as well. In addition, I learned an interesting lesson about giving. Patti's work has always moved me and I keep her books where I can grab them when I need a shot of beauty and inspiration.
So here is what I wrote, which is now on pg. 95 of What I Wish for You by Patti Digh,

"Find the beauty.
It is everywhere and in nearly everything.
It is in truth and in places least expected.
It is right in front of us where we sometimes cannot see.
Find the beauty.
It is always worth living for." -R.L. Delight

The book is filled with stories, insights, and beautiful art. A sweet and lovely little book worthy of gifting to someone you love, or yourself!
Now, back to the studio!
-Renee

Interlude

2011-04-04T14:48:00.000-07:00

This will be a short post this week. We are enjoying our dear friends who will be off for home tomorrow. The weather has kept us all pretty much cozied up in the house but it has been wonderful to catch up and enjoy laughter and serious talks.
My early birthday present did arrive and here it is!

As you can tell by the pictures it is a beach bike. It is a lovely cherry red with flames on it no less! We live on the north end of a seven mile long beach. A round trip walk down to the south end would be a fourteen mile hike. One of the reasons I wanted a bike to ride on the beach was so I could get my sketchbook and easel down to the south end where there is a jetty that occasionally plays host to seals. There are also many beautiful spots to paint on the way down. The bike works well as a seat to sit and sketch from. Needless to say it will also be a wonderful way to get some exercise.
Here are a few fifteen minute to thirty minute gesture sketches from the last few life drawing sessions.

I will be getting back to work this week on my painting and figure drawing so I will be posting those next time. I wish I could say that I will be able to get outside to do some painting but the weather forecast still looks pretty grim. The upside is that it doesn't tempt me outside when I need to be in the studio.
Here's hoping the sun will visit soon!
-Renee

Let the Color Begin

2011-03-27T20:01:00.000-07:00

The color is slowly trickling into the painting. I am having a lot of fun too! I do love to experiment and I enjoyed spending time playing with every combination of every red and blue on my palette to get the colors in the fabric. Well, almost every combination. I did try to keep the color temperatures separate so that I had a nice range of cool purples and warm purples to play with. I am slowly darkening the background and am still getting the first layer of color over the entire painting.
I must admit this painting is a little more involved than I had intended. In addition, the progress has been slow because I also work on studies both in painting and drawing to continue to build my skills. I will be working on several short color study/still lifes that are much simpler. The studies are pretty mundane but I will post a few of them next week as part of my purpose with this blog is to show the progression of a beginning artist. I want to show that an artist must build skills as much as any other profession. So many people I talk to assume that art is a talent that one is born with. Ha! Talk to a well established, seasoned, successful artist and they will be the first to tell you that it takes blood, sweat, and tears, not to mention endless practice. Of course, all of that work is deeply joyful and highly satisfying. It has been so far for me.
The studies I do such as gesture sketches over and over are like practicing scales on a piano or any other musical instrument. Not glamorous but necessary for true mastery.
Today I spent a dark and stormy morning at the local life drawing session. Not a bad way to pass the time!
We have some beloved guests coming on Friday to spend a few days with us. I am hoping to have my friend hold a few poses that I can recreate with my manikin in addition to a few quick gesture sketches. I am also expecting an early birthday present that will be a big help in getting around with my plein air easel and sketchbook. If it arrives in time, I will have some fun pictures to show.
Here is hoping that Spring will show her beautiful warm face soon!
-Renee

Final Grisaille and Animal-Free Art Materials

2011-03-20T20:11:00.000-07:00

I was planning to post some of this information last week but was interrupted by the need to write about our experience with the tsunami and being prepared. So, to start with here is the previous picture of the grisaille and the most recent one (bottom).

Basically I continued to balance out the tone and "pushed" the tall pitcher further into the back. I also continued to refine shapes. I decided that I am going to go into color at this point. I realized I was starting to get too detailed and fussy and it is too early to do that at this stage. I haven't done this for very long so I am still learning how far to take a grisaille along with all the other skills. I am having a lot of fun though! By the way, the second picture was taken outside (between rainstorms) on a bright cloudy diffused day. Thanks to Karen Martin Sampson for reminding me of the technique.
I have been doing a bit of research along the way into animal-free art supplies. I thought I had done a pretty good job at avoiding art materials that contain animal byproducts but found a few surprises when I started doing a bit of research. There are several artists who have gone before me but most of what I found on various blogs were materials I pretty much knew about. Supplies such as paint brushes of course, certain colors of paint, rabbit hide sizing in some canvas preparations, etc. The main thing that caught me by surprise was the amount of art papers that use gelatin in their sizing process. It turns out that one of the papers that was on my school supply list is one of these. I had been using Canson's Mi Tientes for charcoal drawing. This paper uses gelatin. I will be finding a different paper for charcoal drawing.
So I jumped into research, looking specifically at the art supplies I use. There are a few wonderful companies out there that are quite open with the ingredients they use. I use Gamblin oil paints and solvents for that, and a few other reasons. I use their chromatic black instead of ivory black. Not that I use black a lot, but ivory black contains animal bone. Information about the ingredients of each color is at their website. Fabriano Artistico papers states on their website that their papers are animal-free as does Strathmore. Derwent colored-pencils also state that they are animal-free. A few companies I contacted for more information. I got a response from Prismacolor that their Verithin colored pencils are animal-free. I contacted Legion Papers to inquire about their Stonehenge paper but haven't had a response at this time.
Some of the products I looked into are on my supply list for the Rob Liberace workshop I will take in August. We need to prepare papers a special way to be able to achieve certain effects with the Verithin colored pencils. The list calls for a watercolor wash on watercolor paper and topped with diluted shellac. Many water colors contain ox-gall but Holbien brand does not. The same issue with certain colors in oil paints apply to watercolor paints.
The paper that was recommended was Twinrocker which is handmade in the U.S. but it is sized in gelatin. I will try the Fabriano. Instead of shellac, which contains animal byproducts, I am going to try Gamlin's PVA size. I love to experiment so it is a fun challenge for me to come up with a good working alternative and hopefully achieve the same effect. I will keep you posted on the progress.
While looking around at various blogs, websites, and art forums, I came across another lovely blog, Katherine Kean. I also listed her in my links list. Please do take a look! She paints stunning pictures of our natural world. Her skies and marine paintings are inspiring. She also strives to use animal-free art materials to produce her work. So many wonderful artists and so little time to read everything.
Happy Equinox to all. Spring is here at last!
-Renee

In Case of an Emergency, Grab Your Go Bag!

2011-03-14T21:20:00.000-07:00

By now most, if not all have heard the tragic news out of Japan. The images are rather gut-wrenching to watch and it will be a long road for the people of Japan to recovery. While the disaster seems to be ongoing with aftershocks on the level of what we would consider severe earthquakes, continued tsunami warnings, and of course the worsening nuclear reactor situation, a bit of attention has turned to just how prepared we, as a country are. Personally, I have also been looking at how prepared we ourselves, and our neighbors and fellow citizens are.
We had our own test with the same tsunami that devastated parts of Japan. At 2:00 am Friday, we were awakened by our neighbor, who is the emergency block captain, pounding on our front door. That was the first news we had of the earthquake in Japan and the tsunami which was now headed our way. Now, I wish I could say we were 100% prepared for an emergency evacuation but to be honest. we were only partially prepared. Fortunately for us, we had a lot of warning. I had the car packed with emergency supplies for us and our dog within an hour.
We live four blocks from the ocean but the area we live in is mountainous. We are up a hill. Our house is on the very edge of the inundation zone. We would only have to go a short block or two uphill to be in what is considered a safe area. Not all towns on the Oregon coast are in hilly areas so we are fortunate. The town has emergency plans and my husband had just completed training for the local C.E.R.T. (community emergency response team). He made sure I was OK and had a plan while he went to the meeting place to help with evacuation. He left at 4:30 am after helping our block captain notify the neighbors and the first tsunami siren went off at 5:00 am. We have heard the siren tests every month. Hearing the siren for real in the dark was eerie.
I had the television on while I was packing and loading the car and was able to watch the tsunami hit Hawaii, where my family live. They always show the area that is a few blocks down the street from where my mother lives so I would be able to see, live, what is happening to her neighborhood. I relaxed when the event was over and knew then that we would be OK staying at home, and indeed they downgraded the evacuation to voluntary instead of mandatory. Folks in the zone closer to the ocean did continue to evacuate.
While I was getting things packed up, my poor dog, who I swear is telepathic at times, was highly stressed. She was at my heels panting away and looking worried. I made a point to slow down, speak calmly, and take breaks (when I knew I had the luxury) to get her to relax a bit. The shelters don't officially take pets which is why we packed the car. If we had to go to the shelter our dog would be snug in the car. We might not always have that option but we did this time. Later I heard that people did indeed bring their dogs and cats to the shelter. Honestly, most pet owners I know would never leave their beloved pets behind. I think it is a bit unrealistic to expect people to do so.
My husband arrived back from his duties well before the first wave was due to hit. We would have had plenty of time to get to shelter if we needed to go. We stayed put and watched the waves hit the local area on TV. We were told to stay off the beaches for the rest of the day. I did go down a few blocks later in the afternoon to look at the ocean from a safe distance. It was a weird brown color with many rip tides.
All of this excitement has been a good opportunity for us to evaluate our preparedness. I would give us a C grade at this time. We would be OK given the circumstances we experienced. If we were hit with something like Japan got hit with, which our officials tell us could very well happen, we would be a bit more at risk. That is something we will be working on.
Up until Friday, I had been working hard in the studio. I made a lot of progress on the grisaille, and have been working on some color studies and, ironically given the news, wave studies. I plan to do a lot more plein air when the weather warms up a bit. We have been pretty tired with all the excitement and sleep disruption. Changing over to daylight savings and some rather stormy nights here haven't helped matters. I spent the weekend and today trying to catch up. Tomorrow should find me back in the studio hard at work.
So, I will leave you with the promise of pictures and progress to be posted next week as well as information on art supplies that do not use animal byproducts.
In addition, I urge everyone to take this horrible tragedy and learn what we can from it, including how to be prepared for an emergency. Here is a great (USA government) website to start: http://www.ready.gov/america/getakit/. Googling "emergency preparedness" will also give you a wealth of information. The trick is then to actually get all of this together. I have been making lists based on my own recent experience.
Thoughts and prayers go out to the people of Japan.
Until next week, -Renee

A Tiny Bit of Progress

2011-03-06T17:38:00.000-08:00

First I have to say, I know this is not a good photo of the painting. I had a heck of a time getting a decent shot. I will eventually have to get some sort of set up to take decent photos of my paintings. There is quite a bit of glare and I tried taking it in all kinds of light at all kinds of angles, etc. I even tried to play with it a bit in Photoshop but to no avail. The general idea is there. Things are in place and, in spite of what it looks like in the photo, the general tones are almost balanced. In fact, now that I look at it again, the photo has distorted the tonal balance quite a bit. The two pitchers are darker in the painting. The bit of white in the mix really reflects the light. Well, I guess you all will have to trust me on that.
Last post I was trying to decide whether or not to continue on to color on this one. I decided to go ahead. I am going to set up a better and simpler color study this week though. After looking at the float set up for a while I decided it did not fit the kind of study I was looking for so I will take it down. The floats will be used in future pictures.
So, I have finalized my plans on the workshop I hinted at last week. I will be taking a workshop from Rob Liberace on The Dynamic Figure: A Classical Approach. The workshop will be held in late August on Whidbey Island, Washington at Whidbey Island Fine Art Studio (WIFAS). The link to the workshop and venue is here. I will also post a link to the art studio in my links page as well as the web site for Rob Liberace. Needless to say, I am very excited about the workshop and I have my work cut out for me getting my skills to the best they can be going into it.
A bit about my thoughts on workshops. I don't take them very often. I think workshops are great for improving skills one already has, for learning new approaches for these skills, or to sample new mediums and techniques. I don't think workshops are the best place to learn completely new skills. Classes and longer term instruction are best for that. It can be easy to become a workshop junkie (or it would be if they weren't so expensive!). I think most people would agree that it takes consistent work behind the easel to develop skills. That said, I am looking forward to adding to my figure drawing skills. I feel I am ready for a bit more knowledge and instruction.
Whidbey Island is near where I lived, before moving to Oregon, for 23 years or so. It is a beautiful place and we have many friends in the area that I hope to be able to see in between class times. I also hope to do a little plein air painting of one of my favorite spots (it is around the Ebey Landing area for those who know the island). I have a story to tell about a certain spot there and this will be my chance to get some oil sketches in, weather permitting. I will have an extra day there outside of the workshop to do this. The weather is also usually quite lovely that time of the year too.
Speaking of Whidbey Island, I have added a new link to a wonderful artist who lives there. Please check out the art work of Sandy Byers. I have to fix the link on my side bar but will do that right away. She is doing what I will be doing with my work, using her work to support animal causes. I found her blog and web site very inspiring.
I am all set to work hard this week. I am changing a few things around to organize my study time in the studio. Until then, here is hoping spring will give us a peek soon!
-Renee

Snow Days and Decision Making

2011-02-27T20:16:00.000-08:00

I have been working slow and steady on the grisaille. I finally got finished with a very tricky part. I am trying to decide whether or not to just finish the grisaille and move on or to continue into color as I had originally planned. I really want to get to some small color studies done as I feel I really need the exercises. I guess I can make that decision when I finish the grisaille but the decision will also determine the amount of information I put into it.
I have been following the progress of my former school, Ashland Academy of Art (now Atelier Maui) through my former classmates who continued on to Maui on Facebook. Now Atelier Maui has a blog and you can find it here, I will also put it in my art links. It is just getting started but it is a wonderful look at what goes on inside this kind of a art school.
Reading it not only makes me miss my school friends but also the first class instruction. I have been a bit frustrated lately working on my own. I decided that I needed something of a carrot to work through the challenges so I signed up for a wonderful workshop to go to this summer. I am going to leave you all with a teaser on this as I am still awaiting confirmation and everything but if all goes well, it will be a grand reward for working hard. Hopefully I will have more information and will fill you in by next week.
Finally, it has been a rather wild weather week for our area. Here are a couple of pictures that pretty much tell the story:

And of course this one may look familiar to some with a tiny difference:

We woke up earlier this week to 2" of snow on the ground which is not typical by the ocean even here. After a couple of record breaking, very cold days we finally got our usual winter weather back today. Rain and lots of wind. Needless to say I, like so many people, am ready for spring.
Next week should bring news, and a few changes.
-Renee

Drawing from Life

2011-02-22T16:15:00.000-08:00

Meet one of my all time favorite models. This gentleman drives down from southwest Washington state over an hour to pose for us. Well, of course we pay him but he doesn't really make much when you take into account the gas money and probably a meal. What makes him my favorite is that through much experience he really knows how to model. So many people think that it can't be that hard, just hold still. Set your timer for three minutes and hold a pose. Unless you are laying on your bed, it isn't always easy. Now imagine holding a pose for 45 minutes, without a break!
Of course, there is more to modeling than holding still. This man knows how to move gracefully and seems to instinctively understand how to make even a simple pose interesting to the artists. The pose above was a 15 minute pose (charcoal on newsprint), as you can tell, there is not much detail or muscle structure. I was really focusing on getting the gesture. I knew this model was going to be here that day so I brought along my nice charcoal drawing paper and my good charcoal as well and got a nice drawing in on the final pose, which was 45 minutes.
I think I have mentioned it before but one of the things I miss the most about school (besides my teachers and fellow students of course) is the access to frequent live model sessions. Three hours, two times a month is just not enough!
I am still working bit by bit on the still life paintings. I will show those when there is enough progress to show. It has been going a bit slower lately as I have had to turn my attention to a few life matters.
I am a couple days late with this post as Sunday was filled with life drawing and then a cast party for a readers theater group that my husband has become involved with. Yesterday I went north to Astoria to stock up the pantry. We have a snowstorm bearing down upon us. They are calling for 1-2" here on the beach (needless to say, sea level), and about 18" on all the passes that we would have to cross to leave the coast. We should be snug and warm. I am hoping I will be able to get some pictures of the snow on the beach.
Off to catch up on reading some of the wonderful blogs on my list!
-Renee

In Between the Showy Stuff

2011-02-15T20:58:00.000-08:00

It is one of those weeks where the work in the studio goes slowly and, while progress is great, there isn't a lot yet to show for it. I am slowly getting the details on my grisaille refined before moving into color. I have also started getting an hour of gesture sketching in everyday. It isn't quite a habit yet as I haven't been doing it long enough but I hope to make it one.
Before you ask, I am not using a live model. I am using poses from Pose Space. I figure for gesture sketching a live model isn't quite as crucial. I have purchased about five poses plus two additional free poses which I put in into an iPhoto album. I then set it to a random slide show full screen. Each pose has photos taken from several angles, for example one pose has 28 pictures giving 28 different views of the same pose. This makes for a lot of random photos for the slide show. I can set the time to 1 minute, 2 minutes, etc. I get a good range of gestures this way. So far it seems to work fine.
There is a life drawing session here in town which I attend but, while I am grateful for the opportunity to have inexpensive access to a live model, it has its drawbacks. Most of the artist, all but one in fact, are not interested in doing gesture sketches. They don't see the value in them so we often only spend the first ten minutes doing gesture sketches. However, I understand why people want to get to the longer poses. I guess I just got used to the way things were when I was in school. So, I do my own gesture sketching. One of these days, I will to be able to hire my own models to work with!
In the meantime, here is the second still life set up:

This is a fun set up for me. After a storm, there is often a lot of stuff washed up on the beach. These floats pop up now and then. I have been able to find a few since we have been here. I picked the most colorful ones that I have and put them in what is hopefully a somewhat simple set up.
All around town people hang these found floats in their yards. I love looking at all the colors and hope I can find a few more on the beach in my favorite colorways.
I am not sure how long it will take until the grisaille is ready for the next major step but will publish the progress made in the next post. I haven't started on the above set up but when I need to wait for paint to dry on the first one or need a break from it, I will.
A final note, in school we used a wonderful charcoal from France called Nitram Fusians. The man who made the charcoal retired and it has no longer been available for a time. There is good news though, A Canadian man bought the business and equipment and is now manufacturing the charcoal again. The drawing charcoal was wonderful to use. I have just ordered some of the new charcoal and hope that it is indeed up to the previous standard. It is not cheap but after having to use other charcoal on the market and even made my own, it will be worth it. I should have a review of the new charcoal when it comes. In the meantime the charcoal can be found at Nitram Charcoal.
That is it for this week. Hope everyone stays warm and dry!
-Renee

Grisaille in Progress

2011-02-06T21:09:00.000-08:00

Here is my progress for this week. This is very much still in the rough and beginning stages. I am getting the canvas covered and all the elements in place. I am just beginning to refine not only the shapes but the tone. There is not much detail at this point either and that is pretty much what it is supposed to be.
Once the grisaille is completed, which means the shapes, proportions and tone is working right, I will start in on the color. I am using this method of working mainly because this is what was being taught in my school. I might not always paint in this manner but for now, and for a time to come, I will.
I am also slowly but surely getting a routine going. I have a certain amount of hours I want to put in the studio a day. I also want to have a balanced healthy life which for me means getting enough sleep, eating well, exercise, meditation and play time. I have been keeping a time journal, much like keeping a food journal. I document what I do in roughly half hour increments. I am sure I don't have to tell anyone how easy it is for a huge chunk of time to disappear with little to show for it! Television and now, the internet, are huge time gobblers. I would have to add books in my case. I could spend all day curled up with a good book or a few new art magazines!
Today I took a much needed day off and tomorrow will be an errand and chore day. It will be good to be away from the painting for a couple of days and come back to it with a fresh eye. I also have another still life set up which is much more simple. I will start on that when I need a break from the one above.
Slow and steady progress, which reminds me about something I read in Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers known as the "10,000 hours rule". Gladwell claims that the key to success in any field is, to a large extent, a matter of practicing a specific task for a total of around 10,000 hours. Doing the math, and depending on the number of hours one puts in a week, that would mean it would take about 6-8 years to become a really accomplished painter. That is basically the number my teacher told me as well. Just for fun, since I am keeping a time journal anyway, I started a 10,000 hour countdown. The fun thing about that number is after the first hour you lose a digit. So, after the past couple of days, my count stands at 9,985 hours to go...
One last thing to mention, speaking of time sinks, Google has a new project called The Art Project. It is like Google Earth for art museums. It is a fun site so check it out, when you have a bit of time!
More progress to report next week!
-Renee

Growing Into a Palette

2011-01-30T21:57:00.000-08:00

I am going to take a small side path here for this post. The still life set up I showed last week is winding up. I did a monochromatic thumbnail oil sketch of the set up and then decided to do a full size graphite sketch before starting the painting. The thumbnail only took an hour and it was approximately 5"x7". It gave me a sense of the lights and darks , proportions, and angles of the set up. After doing the oil sketch I felt I needed to do the graphite sketch as well to help me get the proportions right. The set up is more complex than I am used to doing. The sketch is not intended to be finished at all. It is a process tool for me. I will be moving on to the actual painting this coming week.
Last post Theresa commented on the placement of the lemon. I realized a bit later that I forgot to mention that I did not take the photo from the same vantage point that I will be painting. I had to use a tripod for the camera to take the picture and could not get it in the same place where I will be standing to paint. I appreciated the comment though. It made me take another look from a different viewpoint. The lemon stays where it is, which looks closer to the other objects from my viewpoint.
I have also set up a very much simpler still life to work on which I will talk about next post. This will allow me to trade off between the two paintings and give my poor mind and eye a break from the more complex one.
So, a bit about my paint palette. I am using the paint color list that my former school has us use. As you can see in the following picture, there are a lot of colors (the ones positioned around the left and top edges):

For some reason this is the only picture I have on hand so sorry for the mess in the middle. At this time I use Gamblin paints, mediums, and solvents with a couple of exceptions. I also have Windsor and Newton Permanent Rose, Bloxx's Capucine Yellow (an absolutely seductive transparent goldy pink that I wouldn't mind having for a lipgloss, and I don't wear lipgloss!), and Williamsburg Courbet Green. I mostly use Gamblin's Flake White Replacement but also have Titanium White. I have Gamblin's Chromatic Black but haven't really found the need to use it. I like the life in the blacks that I mix on my own better than what comes out of the tube.
I should mention at this point, I love color. For those of you who have read my Renee Weaves! blog (currently in mothballs but can still read archives) you know I love color and had a great time playing with Earthues Dyes one fine summer.
There are different schools of thought on how many colors one should have on one's palette. There are some who feel a limited palette is the best to start with and stay with. Personally, no matter how skilled the artist or how wonderful the painting, I just don't like the looks of a painting done with a limited palette, and I can always tell. I am at a slight disadvantage from my former classmates as I didn't get to the color part of my education before the school moved. Fortunately, I do know a lot about color and color theory from working in textiles and playing with dyes. Some of that carries over nicely.
I love having all these colors. I enjoy playing with different mixtures and problem solving. Does it always work out? Heck no! However, I learn a lot. At this point, because I have so much to learn, it takes me a bit longer to work than it will eventually. I hope!
The actual palette itself is made of wood. I might be changing that sometime in the future. I keep it in a Masterson's Palette keeper and store it, well wrapped, in the freezer to extend the life of the paint.
While I am at it I might as well touch on the brushes I currently use. I ordered a handful of brushes in the same size and shape from different companies. I find I really like Silver's Black Pearl which is synthetic. I should mention that all my brushes are synthetic fiber due to my personal beliefs. I also like Royal Langnickle's Bourdeaux and Isabey Isacryl. I will try a few others as my budget allows and welcome any suggestions.
As the title of the post suggests, I am still experimenting and learning what will work for me and my eventual subjects and style. I have already made some minor changes and noticed that I have dipped into every color on the palette but I definitely use some more than others.
OK, I am sure some of you are starting to glaze over and nod off so I will stop here. Next week should bring some progress on the still life painting.
-Renee

Still Life and Slow Life

2011-01-23T20:43:00.000-08:00

It has been a quiet week in Manzanita, to borrow the opening phrase from Garrison Keillor and adding a local twist. It feels like I have been slogging through mud in the studio. I decided that my first formal challenge painting would be a still life. It makes sense as it is winter and getting out to paint en plein air is iffy. I have at least two goals when setting a still life up. I need to make it something that will push my learning. I also need to make it something that may potentially sell as that is part of the challenge too. Not always the best combination as sometimes a learning still life isn't terribly exciting. I gave this set up a lot of thought and am working with what I have. I am acquiring an interesting collection of still life objects and have a good starter selection. As space is a consideration, most of the objects have to have some sort of meaning. So, here is what I set up:

The lighting is not quite so bright on the plaster cast in reality but the general idea is there. I quickly ran into to studio challenges. I just cannot cram this set up in on the smaller canvases I have. I decided to order larger ones, 18"x24" to be exact. I realized that this is the size we used to do our charcoal drawings so that is probably why it feels more comfortable to me than a 9x12" canvas. It is a lot of canvas to cover though and rather large for what I would consider a study. It will be a good challenge.
The other issue I ran into was lighting. I lit the still life and really liked what I saw. The problem was I hadn't lit my easel. No matter where I put the easel light it affected the lighting on the still life in a way I didn't like. After trying a few different light bulbs with different light specs, I finally settled on a full spectrum bulb from Ott light. I had to pin a fabric drape and put a piece of foam core behind my easel to prevent as much of the light as possible from washing out the still life. The new canvas, which I got on sale from Dick Blick came yesterday so I am finally ready to start painting...on Tuesday . Tomorrow I have appointments and errands to run. I might be able to get in and do a thumbnail painting of the still life but I kind of doubt it. I do plan to do a thumbnail or two before starting.
All of this fussing around sort of reminds me when I put my first warp on my big AVL loom. I had never made a warp before and it took a few days to get it on and it was full of errors. After putting on and weaving off several warps, I had it down to a few hours (I like fine warps) with an error showing up on only an occasional warp. I have a feeling that this will be like that. By the end of the challenge year I hope it will be a much smoother, and quicker process. After my summer of dyeing all day every day (see my Renee Weaves! blog archives) a couple of years ago I could get a dyepot going in about two minutes flat from scratch. There is hope!
Speaking of hope, the weather forecast for this week shows that we will be having a couple of warm sunny days. Could get as high as 60 degrees F! That means, if the tides are right, I will be able to get out and do some more plein air. Have to make hay, or paint, while the sun shines here. Actually, I have seen some incredibly beautiful paintings done on overcast or foggy days but I don't think I can take the cold at this time of the year.
I did get to enjoy a life drawing session today. I really, really miss that part of school. Frequent access to models, and the high quality instruction and standard, were quite a luxury. I am hoping to eventually make enough money through various enterprises to be able to hire my own models.
Well, I will have progress to show next week so please stay tuned!
-Renee

Plein Air Interlude

2011-01-16T20:29:00.000-08:00

The title almost sounds like a song played on the clarinet! We had a brief and very cold break in the weather last week. I could not resist the gorgeous light and little to no wind. I have been wanting to paint this house that sits on the road looking over the ocean. We call it the "birdhouse" because, well, it looks like a giant bird house. Wait, I will show you:

The road is between the house and the dune grasses. This house faces the ocean, which out here, is due west. That hill behind it means that it mainly gets afternoon light. That is fine with me as I love the afternoon light. The challenge is that this time of the year the afternoon light is really brief this far north. Still, I have been wanting to paint this since I first saw it on my daily walks.
I now have my plein air gear in a special pack pretty much ready to go. I still need to get paint tubes to keep in the pack too but that is a pricey proposition at this time so I "share" the paint between my studio and the plein air pack. I grabbed my gear, bundled up and went out to about this spot on the beach. Now before you look, I have to remind you that this is only my second attempt at plein air. As the weather improves and the days lengthen, I will be getting more in. Here was the result after about an hour and a half of painting:

The tide was just at its lowest point so I had plenty of room to move back and not worry about turning my back on the ocean. The sneaker or rogue waves here are startling at times, they travel quite a distance from the surf line. I have had to occasionally run all out to avoid being drenched.
I plan to go back several times and paint this. I would like to turn this into a studio piece. I am still fumbling for the colors and since time is of the essence, I don't always get them right. I had to exaggerate a few to get them to read properly. I guess that is part of the process. I didn't have time to get the dune grasses in properly but was able to hint at the driftwood logs on the beach.
So far people have been respectful and have kept their distance from me when I am painting. I am grateful for that at this point! As I get more comfortable with the process it will be easier for me to interact with any curious onlookers. On thing I definitely learned, it is really easy to get into that zone where you are not aware of time passing or what is going on around you. After the hour and a half, I suddenly realized that the light was gone and I was painfully cold! I haven't been that cold in a while. I could barely get my gear packed up. It was a good thing to observe. I really need to make sure the ocean can't reach me when I do these paintings and take precautions! Normally I am quite aware and even if I am not looking can tell by the change in sound when a sneaker wave is coming.
When I got home I spent the evening cozied up to the fire sipping hot cider and tea. As I mentioned, I want to do a few more plein air paintings of this house and then use the sketches as reference to paint a formal piece in the studio. That will be a fun addition to the challenge!
Finally, I am going to leave you with an important piece of my vision board. A tiny bit of background first. Years before I became a weaver and now a painter, I knew(sort of) what I wanted to do and started the journey to get here. Long before it was feasible to do this, I found this picture in a magazine that summed up what I wanted my life and house to look like. I kept it all these years and had forgotten about it. It recently resurfaced in a file when I was cleaning out stuff. I put it on my vision board. I was surprised to see that I have come a long way toward achieving this. I am not quite there yet but very, very close. Weavers, note the loom in the background. That is still part of my vision even though I currently don't have the room to set up my big loom.

It looks lie this studio is facing southwest. I would definitely want west facing windows but would also want large north facing windows for that beautiful cool north light and blackout curtains for when I need them on the west windows. But, I love this picture. I had no idea when I saved it I would be making my life like this picture. The power of visions! Now it is up on my vision board where I see it daily. I have to say, I believe I have a better loom and easel than what is in the picture but, this is what I want in my life, painting, weaving, and a beautiful studio by the sea...
-Renee

Sketchbook Project Bonus Companion Video!

2011-01-12T22:03:00.000-08:00

On a beach by the Pacific Ocean, how much garbage can a person collect in 10 minutes?

I finished the video! It is up on YouTube as well as on the side bar of the blog. This is a bonus companion video to my Sketchbook.

Going Beyond the Challenge Boundaries

2011-01-09T22:12:00.000-08:00

The first week of the new year has been a very interesting week. I completed my sketchbook for The Sketchbook Project. The cover picture might look a little familiar. I used a cropped version of my "Root" painting for the front cover. After getting the sketchbook finished and sent off I spent a bit of time putting together a nice slide show with music and all and getting my pictures posted here and there. Unfortunately the really nice slide show I put together did not have very good resolution once I got it on youtube. I put together another one that is now on the side-bar of the blog. You can also view pictures of the pages here. The video I made to go along with the sketchbook will be coming soon.
I have a profile page on the Sketchbook Project website as well and it can be viewed here. To be honest though, you will be able to see a lot more here on the blog.
My theme for my sketchbook (we were able to pick from several themes) is "Down Your Street." I planned to paint oil sketches of the ocean which is just down my street, about four blocks. The more I thought about it the more I realized that the sea is down everyone's street, even if they live in the middle of the continent. What happens to the ocean, happens to us, all of us, whether we realize it or not. I have always loved the sea and have always been involved one way or another in environmental causes since I was a small child. What started out as a simple sketchbook of small paintings of the sea turned into something a bit more...
I walk or run on the beach daily, no matter what the weather. It is different everyday which utterly fascinates me. It is always breathtakingly beautiful. However there are also things that are not beautiful. A lot of plastic pollution washes up with the tide. I started researching this. I honestly didn't think that all the pollution was from visitors to the beach. Much of the plastic is in tiny little pieces and some of the garbage is obviously not from beach lovers. Turns out I was right. The pollution is from all of us! My sketchbook evolved into showing the beauty of the beach and sea that thrills me juxtaposed against photos of the plastic pollution that alarms me. It went beyond the boundaries that I foresaw. The book contains just a couple of resources and some quotes. I wanted the pictures and paintings to speak for themselves.
I am not going to go into the alarming state of our oceans here on this blog. If you are curious and would like more info check out the Plastic Pollution Coalition and Jean-Michel Cousteau's Ocean Futures Society. There are also wonderful talks on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch at ted.com.
One of the valuable things I learned from participating in this project was the strong desire I have to link my work to causes that are important to me. These causes focus on women, animal rights and protection, and our environment, particularly our oceans. These are the areas that I will be donating a portion of the proceeds from any sale of my work. I also plan to become involved in other ways as well but again, that is for another post.
So it has been a good project. Not only did it give me a chance to experiment and improve my skills but gave me much more than I envisioned to think about and grow. It also gave me new friends! I have met three other wonderful and interesting women here locally who also are participating in this project.
Now, onto the next challenge. I got the studio cleaned, reorganized, and ready to go for my Mid-Century Challenge starting tomorrow. For fun, I put a countdown gadget in the sidebar of the blog. It seems like a long time doesn't it? I am sure this time next year I will be moaning about how fast the time went.
I wonder where this challenge will take me?
Deep breath. Here...we...go...
-Renee

Visual Words and Wordy Visions

2011-01-02T16:32:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year everyone! As I have said before, I believe 2011 will be an outstanding year. I just have a feeling... Of course, that doesn't mean I won't have to work really, really hard to make that happen. The past three or four years have been ones of great change for me personally. I believe the only major life stress I didn't experience was, by some miracle, divorce! So when asked what my "word" for 2011 was by several people, I searched my mind and heart and easily came up with 'Root." I knew we would like it here in our little beach town as the ocean is in my blood going back several generations. I have to say though, we love it here. I in particular have fallen quite hard for this area. It is the first place I have lived in all my adult life that feels like home. It isn't an easy place to live in but the beauty of the area and the wonderful, colorful people that make up this village community are incomparable. Here is where I want to put down roots. So, on that level root is a good word. It is also a word that branches out, so to speak!
When I gave my word for 2011 to Dr. Robyn McKay, she upped the ante by daring us to express that visually. I had already been toying with that idea so I took the dare and painted my word. That is the picture above. It was a larger painting than I should probably do at this point as it is roughly 14"X18". I recycled an older canvas that someone didn't want to keep. It took a bit longer than I had intended because I have been finishing up the Sketchbook Project which is nearly done.
I am also working on a vision board this year. I usually like to do it sometime between the Solstice and the New Year. This year, due to a couple of projects, and a new challenge, I am a little late but it will be done soon. I decided to spare you the wordy visions and will just post a visual, with a few words, when it is finished.
Finally, I have a surprise, which was very much a surprise to me too! One of the many authors I read and highly recommend is Daniel Pink. He has written Drive and A Whole New Mind. One of the exercises in Drive was to create a sentence that sums up what you have brought, or want to bring, to this world. He put a challenge out to make a video of that exercise and send it to him. Weeeelll, I thought it a good exercise and made my video but almost didn't send it. It is a little out of my comfort zone to do that. But, because it is a little out of my comfort zone to to that, I did it. He had hundreds of submissions and could only pick a few to put into this video. I had forgotten about it. Imagine my surprise the other day when the video was sent out and I found myself staring at me in the video! There was a problem with my name though. It isn't correct but that is actually ok with me. A sort of pen name, or perhaps I should say, screen name. Here it is! My first attempt at adding a video to my blog.

Next week I will be in the next challenge and will have the Sketchbook Project pictures and hopefully video to go with that too!
So, dear people, what is your sentence?
-Renee

Year's End-What is your Challenge/Vision?

2010-12-26T15:42:00.000-08:00

It seems appropriate that I am finishing up one challenge, the Sketchbook Project, and launching a new one, my Mid-Century Challenge at this time. This is my final post for 2010, unless something wildly exciting happens between now and Saturday. You never know...
Here are two oil sketches from my Sketchbook Project. I have two left to go and might even get a bonus two in before the week is out.

In between painting the sketches, I am working on my vision board for 2011. I have some big visions to put up!
If you have been reading these posts, you have probably seen the personal challenge I put up in the previous post. I have a few better ideas to add to phase 2 but I will mention those later.
I would like to ask all of you, What is your personal challenge for 2011? I would love to hear about it, big or small. If you got a challenge going, or are thinking of getting one going, please mention it in the comments section.
I would also love to see any vision boards you are willing to share. Please post a link in the comments section as well. I will be posting mine here to share with others.
One final note on the Sketchbook Project, I plan to put a slideshow of the pages on this blog. It will also be touring the country with the other entries. I will have more info on that later. I am also going to try to get a video, related to my sketchbook up, weather permitting. I haven't posted a slideshow or video on my blog before so we shall see how it works.
Have a wonderful and safe New Year! 2011 is going to be amazing (hopefully amazingly good), I just feel it in my bones.
See you all next year and don't be shy about sharing your challenges and visions!
-Renee

Mid-Century Challenge

2010-12-22T13:15:00.000-08:00

Well, as promised, this is my post about my personal challenge over the next 15 months. We had a busy Winter Solstice day in which the clothes dryer decided to have a melt-down just to keep things jolly. It has been dealt with, the feast has been made and appreciatively eaten and now it is back to work before the next wave of holiday making overtakes us.

So, in the photo above is one of my favorite art quotes. Unfortunately, I have yet to find who to attribute the quote to. If anyone knows, I would appreciate the information. Behind the quote are several blank canvases. I thought my cast drawing study set-up in the background rounded out the picture nicely!

Here , therefore, is the first phase of my challenge. In 15 months (starting with January) I will be having my 50th birthday. I know, I know, you are shocked. What is that? You think I only look 30-ish? You are so kind! Like many who reach such a milestone birthday, I wanted to do something special, something that would challenge me, add to the celebration, and enrich the lives of other beings. I would also add bring world peace and heal the environment but I have to save something for my 100th birthday! I have recently started running but I think running a marathon, while quite an accomplishment, has been done a few times. I am not particularly brave enough to jump out of a plane or go bungie jumping and those things don't really meet the "enriching lives beyond my own"criteria.

As you probably have already guessed, I decided to push myself a bit with an art challenge. I have decided to paint 50 pictures. Not just 50 crank-them-out-to-meet-the-numbers, but 50 paintings to the best of my ability at this time. Now, 50 is an arbitrary number so if I don't quite make it or, even better, paint more I won't be devastated. I know that the moment you announce any kind of challenge that is for the purpose of bettering oneself or the world, all kinds of monsters rise up to stop you cold. I already know there are a few lurking along the way as I can see them from here.

I am sure you can see how this challenge will enrich myself, but other beings? I am planning to sell the paintings with a portion of the proceeds from each painting going to one or two causes, to be announced, that are important to me and the world. That is, proceeds from 49 of the paintings. The 5oth, which will be the best one of the lot (perhaps put that to a vote?) will be raffled off with all of the proceeds going to a cause. I am researching those causes now and will be announcing them when the decision is made.

Now for phase two, the one that actually scares me the most not being the most social person in the world. I would like to have a party in Portland, Oregon to not only celebrate the completion of the challenge (and my 50th birthday) but to bring all the paintings together in a show of sorts and hopefully raise more money and awareness for the causes. Oh, and did I mention I would like to invite anyone who is willing to come? Now, before you all rush out and buy some party clothes, I have to be honest. I am fairly certain I can pull off phase one and not at all sure I can pull off phase two.

With that admission, I am open to suggestions and even advice! I am thinking of selling the pieces online as well so that anyone who couldn't make it to Portland would have a chance to contribute to a good cause and get a piece of art too.

That is the challenge in a nutshell. 15 months is both a long time and not much time, so I am sure that things will morph and change along the way. There is also a few petty details to take care of, such as finding a way to make an income and still continue to work on art. I will continue to study and create art. After all, I have turned my life, and that of my husband and dog, completely upside down to get this far and I can't stop now.

I am starting with small canvases, 9"X12", and a little bigger. I am aiming for 4 completed paintings a month plus getting in art study time. I know that some folks do the painting-a-day challenge but I want time to study and I am new at this. I could bang out a painting a day even at this point but it wouldn't be my best effort. I want to learn and grow too.

There will be more details to come in future posts. The challenge starts in less than two weeks! Gotta go finish up the Sketchbook Project!

See you all on Sunday,

-Renee

Sketchbook Project

2010-12-19T17:19:00.000-08:00

The end of the year is fast approaching as is the deadline for the Sketchbook Project! For those not familiar with the Sketchbook Project you can find out about it here or click on the Sketchbook Project logo further on down the page. I have set my own personal deadline to be finished by the end of December. Before I get going about that and what is coming next here is one of my sketchbook pages.

This is a small oil sketch from a photo I took on one of my beach walks. Actually I guess one could say I used the photo for reference as much is not included and I changed a few things. When I first signed up for the project a couple of months ago I was very keen on moving onto color in oils as I hadn't got that far when I was in school. I took a bit of time upon receiving my sketchbook to experiment with what medium I was going to use and decided to fill my sketchbook with small oil sketches. I mean, why not combine my oil painting attempts with my sketchbook project?
Having little to no experience with oil painting at the time, I didn't realize how long even a small (about 5x8) painting would take. Some days I can only get one done and others about 3 (rarely). That is on the days I work on the project. Other days I work on my art studies.
It has been a good learning experience and, a heck of a lot of fun! I decided that I am going to combine the oil sketches (hope to have about 20 total) with some photography, quotes, and information.
We were allowed to pick a theme for our sketchbook, out of many. I decided to go with "Down Your Street." I interpreted that as down my street. Down my street (and everyone's really) lies the sea. The ocean is about 4 blocks down my street and a big presence in my life at this time. I walk on the beach daily, no matter what the weather. OK, sometimes I only walk about 50 feet but sand and rain being blown in my face at 50 mph hurts! The ocean is different every day. There is always something new to see. I often stand watching the shapes of the waves, the play of light and shadow, and try to describe the color of the ocean at that moment. The color fascinates me as it changes from moment to moment. Mornings on the beach when the sun comes out are breathtakingly beautiful.
There is a lot that breaks the heart too. I always encounter dead sea birds and other marine life. There is also a lot of plastic pollution. The garbage patch in the Pacific Ocean is now the size of Canada. Yes, that is what I said, Canada. I have that info from a Fabien Cousteau presentation given at TED.
I love the ocean as it is in my blood going several generations back. I was born by the sea and spent part of my childhood there. I have come full circle with our move to our current place. I do plan to use my future work to promote the cleanup and protection of our oceans. Our "one and only life support system."
I am learning how to paint seascapes or marine paintings. Since I prefer to draw and paint from life, I am also learning plein air painting. And, as promised, here is a picture of my first attempt completely unedited!

First, I have to add that I only had about 2 hours of daylight as this was in the afternoon and the tides were low enough. This was painted at the north end of Short Sands beach, which is just a very short drive up the road. Did I mention that this is my very first attempt, ever? That means I am working with new equipment and conditions as well. The painting is of one of the waterfalls that cascade onto the beach. I put this up here unedited for a couple of reasons. The first being that it shows my starting place. I know without a doubt that I am going to be improving quite a bit. Secondly, I want to show that we don't always start out as genius artists. It takes a lot of hard work. I figure that I will have the skills I want after about 4 more years of hard, consistent, daily, work. The work to build skill and growth will last the rest of my life.
I have a lot of work to do yet. I am still building my figure drawing skills so that I can paint the portraits of women I want to paint. I am not much into painting still life. I do love to look at still life paintings. However, it has its place in skill building so, I will be painting still life for study purposes.
That brings me to my final mention. I wrote a mention about a personal challenge in my last post. I will be posting on that in a few days, at the winter solstice, in a special post.
This is long enough. Sometimes it seems that I can't get everything in I want to say!
Look for my special post on Tuesday or Wednesday.
-Renee

Winding Up the Year

2010-12-12T20:52:00.000-08:00

Ah, Blogger is working again so I can get this post going!
I finished my first color study, at least as far as I plan to take it at this point. Here it is:

Again, I am having challenges getting a good digital picture with the correct color balance. I am not surprised when I realized that my camera is now 8 plus years old. My poor camera only has 3.2 mp and is literally falling apart bit by bit ( I have had to resort to glue a couple of times). It has been a good camera but I think I will need to replace it soon. I did do a little playing around with the lights and darks in Photoshop to get the photo to read more like the actual set up but I didn't tinker with any color correction although I probably should have. You get the general idea of the painting from here and, at this point, that is all that is needed. I would like to add that the paint that has white mixed into it reflects weirdly, and not true to color.
While I am saving up for a decent camera, I will use my husband's. He says it is "ours" but I found that only one person at a time can take pictures during those wonderful photo moments! We also have different photography needs, not to mention that we look at the world in different ways...
I have a couple of more oil sketches and my first plein air attempt which I will be sharing next week as well as a fun little side project.
As we are coming to the end of the year I, like many of you, will be taking a bit of time to reflect on the past year and think about what I want to accomplish in the next. I am putting together a personal challenge. I will be posting the details soon in a special post but here is a bit of the background for the challenge: In 2012 I will have my 50th birthday (if the world does decide to end that year it will be extremely ironic!). I decided that I wanted to create a personal challenge for my 50th and have it benefit one or more of my favorite causes as well. I did the math and realized that starting this January, I will only have 15 months to complete said challenge! I will have to get busy!
That is all I am going to say on that now as I want to carefully think over the details before I put them out there publicly. I am hoping to get input and encouragement from all my friends as I think I am going to need it. Sometimes your friends have a way of taking things to a wonderful new level.
I had a wonderful morning at my local life drawing session. It is always a pleasure to spend time drawing with other artists. I want to finish up by mentioning a couple of new links in the "artists who inspire" section of my blog. First is Karen Martin Sampson who is from Vancouver Island, B.C. Her work is beautiful and inspiring. If you click on the Links on her web site you can find her blog. She is generous with her knowledge as well. Thank you Karen! A second link I would like to mention is for another artist I admire, Terry Strickland. Her blog posts often include video clips of her process. I hope to do that one day myself. I also have two other links that are important to me, Women Drawing Women, and Women Painting Women. I probably don't have to tell you that women artists are very much under-represented in our galleries and museums, not to mention history. I love to see how women interpret the female body and person. I find it is very different from the male perspective (anyone surprised?). I will be sharing more artists on my blog now and then in future posts.
Finally, a couple more changes I made to my blog. I have been on FaceBook for a while now and have just joined Twitter. If you use these social media platforms, please do look me up. Mention Art=Life in the message line of FaceBook to let me know who you are and I will be happy to add you as a friend.There are links to both FaceBook and Twitter in the side bar.
I would love to read your comments if you wish to use the comment link at the bottom of this post and you can also share the post on FaceBook and Twitter using the links below.
We have been having very wet and stormy weather here lately which will continue for the week. Perfect for working in the studio.
-Renee

December? What happend to June?

2010-12-05T19:10:00.000-08:00

As always, December sneaks up on me. I know it is coming. I realize it will be here right after November but then BAM! Not only is it here, it flies by too. Well, December plays havoc with my schedule and I know I am not the only one it happens to. I am still working in the studio, it just gets weird in the hours around that time.
I did get to work one day on my color study. I still have a tiny bit left to do before I am ready to move on to another one. One of the variables that has made the time go wonky is the weather. The weather has been beautiful these past few days. Add that to minus tides and the fact that I now have my plein air setup all ready to go and I find my schedule getting kind of spontaneous. To catch the low tides which expose cliffs, caves, and beaches, and the lovely afternoon light, I found myself grabbing my easel and paints and heading out about 2 o'clock Friday afternoon to paint at a beach about 5 minutes up the road. I am not going to post the results of my very first plein air painting just yet. I think I will leave it for the next one. Hopefully I will have a bit more to show on that topic by then.
The bulk of my painting this week was working on oil sketches for the Sketchbook Project.
Here is a shot of one part of it.

These are sketches in oil. I am still basically a rank beginner but I must admit, I love it even more than I thought I would. Here is a close-up of one sketch which is roughly 5 X 8".

All of these were done from digital photos I took and then display on my computer screen. Not my favorite way of working which is why I am starting to go out to paint plein air. I really like working from life. The atmospheric effect of the light in this area is a bit tricky to catch. I am learning and studying so I will be improving.
I also attended the life drawing session this week. I really liked the model we had. He was tall and thin which made for rather graceful poses at times. This was my favorite one. This was a 30 minute pose and I wanted to get it as much info as possible because I liked the pose so much. Normally I hold myself back to work on gesture and proportions, angles and shapes before getting so much into tone and details.

Life drawing is a joy and one of the things I really miss from school is being able to do so much of it.
Finally, for my next color study I wanted to simplify the still life. I know my fellow students started out painting colored blocks. I finally was able to score a huge bag of cardboard blocks from the thrift store for $5. I am going to paint a few of them solid colors and use them in the next set up. Not terribly exciting but a a good exercise.

It will continue to be crazy busy for most of us in the next couple of weeks I am sure and my holidays tend to be more mellower than many folks. I will have more on the Sketchbook Project and my first plein air attempts next week.
-Renee

Stopping for Thanks

2010-11-28T17:00:00.000-08:00

Now here is a picture that will make you run indoors to snuggle by the fire with your favorite hot beverage! This is a picture I took last week of a pile snowy kelp on the beach. The weather is finally warming up a bit but it was a bit exciting to get a little snow here so early.
Not as many days in the studio this week due to the Thanksgiving holiday here in the U. S. Our Thanksgiving was nice and quiet. I made a lovely intimate vegan feast for two. Not too much food but hearty and rich, as holiday food often is. We also spent the day yesterday in Portland visiting family and doing a couple of errands. Had a bit of a nerve-wracking time getting through the Coastal Mountain range due to snow and ice on the way home but we made it back safe and sound.
Due to the holiday this week, I decided to concentrate on the shorter studies. I did a couple of quick oil paint sketches for the Sketchbook project I am working on and a bit of drawing and sketching. That Sketchbook project will be ramping up quite a bit in December as I need to be pretty much finished with the sketches by the end of the month. I will have a picture to post on what I have so far next week.
Since I don't have a lot to share this week, I thought I would call attention to some of the new links I added to my lists. In the Art/Creativity list I have added Dr. Robyn McKay. I met her on Facebook. We share the same favorite quote! She has a fascinating background in creativity and intelligence and gives several workshops on those subjects. I study and read a lot about creativity on my own. I can never get enough on this topic and encourage everyone to study what they can. Her website is worth checking out.
I also study the business of art, as well as art making, as that is where I am heading and I know it isn't easy. There are many wonderful books and websites on this topic but the one I have recently added is The Art of Non-Conformity. Chris Guillebeau had created an interesting life style and approach to marketing that I find fascinating. Check out his blog and unconventional guides (click on the "more about this site" link for a comprehensive look at what he does). He also has a few PDF downloads that are interesting and informative to read too.
The third new link in this category is White Hot Truth by Danielle Laporte. She is a very inspirational woman with a lot of thought-provoking reading on her website. A note to the delicate, she is straightforward and blunt and her language sometimes reflects that.
All of the above links deal with creativity in one way or another and are of interest to artists and other creatives alike.
I have also added a couple of links to the "artists who inspire". I will get into more detail on these on another post but, in the meantime, please check them out.
I will be getting back to work now!
-Renee

One Day I Will Laugh!

2010-11-21T20:14:00.000-08:00

You have to let yourself giggle at your first attempts at just about anything. There are exceptions of course but when creating or learning anything new, a sense of humor is necessary. So, what am I chortling about lately? My very first attempt to paint with color. Here it is, still in progress:

Is it going well? Well, it isn't a total disaster. Am I learning a lot? You better believe it! The colors are close but not spot on. I took this picture in a totally different light situation than what I am using to paint with so it would be very hard to tell from this picture exactly what is going on but the general idea is there. I am enjoying myself tremendously, even when I get tangled up in frustration. I know I will get to where I want to go. I will be keeping this study. I want to pull it out one day a few years from now so I can see just how far I have gone. What I want to paint is so very complex compared to this but the simplification is necessary at this point. In fact, this needs to be simplified even more as I am still learning how to put the paint on the canvas let alone the color and all the other complex stuff. I am so very glad I have spent the past year drawing intensively.
I am still drawing, both figure drawing and cast drawing. I have set up a cast to work on in fact, and here it is along with a view of a cramped studio. It is cramped but it works just fine. I can move around almost as much as I need to and I can leave things set up.

I am working on the mouth of David. I have been alternating between a day of painting and a day of drawing. So far it seems to be working just fine.

Yesterday we had a break between storms and the day was wonderfully sunny but chilly. We decided to drive 5 minutes up the road to the state park on the north end of our town and hiked a short path in to Short Sands Beach. It is a local surfing spot and breathtakingly beautiful. My husband took a picture of me, with our faithful dog Twill, sketching waves.

Twill is actually lying on a blanket over flat rocks. We were there at high tide so there wasn't much sand but the beach got bigger as the tide went out. The sun felt wonderful and I was eventually able to take my coat off.

This week we will be taking a day off to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday here in the U.S. I have a lot to be thankful for and will be enjoying a modest meal with my loved ones in quiet celebration.

So what am I thankful for? I am thankful for good health, the abundance in my life, family, friends, and the freedom to choose.

Wishing everyone the same,

-Renee

Another Small Step

2010-11-14T16:53:00.000-08:00

It is a misty wet day today on the Pacific Northwest Coast. A perfect day for life drawing, cleaning, and other general indoor pursuits. There have been a few walks too. I need to get outside a few times a day. Thankfully my dog feels the same way.
I have been busy in the studio this week. Still not in the studio as much as I would like to be but getting there. I finished the grisaille for my color study, at least, as far as I want to go since it is a color study. I have set it aside to dry a bit and will be starting in on the color part this week. Can't wait! Here it is so far:

The angle of the view in the picture is different from my painting point of view because I wanted to be able to get both painting and still life set up in the same frame. Speaking of frames and photography, I really am going to have to do something different. I have just been essentially taking what amounts to snapshots of my work, usually hand held. Using the flash does not work with oil paint, at least, not my flash. I get a glare as you will see in the next set of pictures. I do have a tripod and will get it out for next week's post. Eventually I would like to get a simple photography set up.
Hopefully I can get that photography set up sooner than later as I have another place to post pictures. I finally set up my own website! It is still in the process of being built. At the moment, it is a very simple website. My computer programming skills are extremely rusty but I hope to be able to work on it myself for now. Perhaps sometime in the future I can get a bit of professional help there. I will have the website address for you on the next post as there have been a few kinks to iron out with the web hosting service.
Several weeks ago I joined the Sketchbook Project. There is a link to that project on my sidebar or you can check it out here. In one of those funny synchronistic moments that somehow happen in life, I met Susan at a local writer's event here in town and she happened to be participating in the project as well. In fact, there are four of us from this little tiny town participating!
I have been trying out a few different ideas and mediums but decided to fill my sketchbook with oil sketches. This will be in keeping with my studies and give me a bit of structured play with oil painting. Here is one of the sketches toward the end of completion (it is a sketch after all):

Again, had a challenge with the photography. Here is the same picture with a flash:

So, I will be using a tripod next week and also would appreciate any other suggestions for taking photographs of oil paintings. In case you are wondering, the sketch is of some of the bull kelp that washes ashore quite often. I love the translucence of the kelp. I will get a better picture up next week.
I have also been continuing my color studies in between the other work. I need to get one of my casts out to do a bit of cast drawing too. I certainly have enough to study.
If all goes well, I will be getting my full week in the studio in next week. We shall see what I can get done.
Stay warm!
-Renee

The Struggles

2010-11-07T20:04:00.000-08:00

Oh yeah, I've been here before. The Struggles. It is part of the cycle is it not? I finished the charcoal drawing of my husband. As soon as I sprayed the fixative my darling dearest said to me, " I didn't want to mention this before but..." Now, in no way do I feel it is his responsibility to bring up any issues he sees in my drawing, even though I asked him to. Sometimes it is easier for someone other than yourself to spot things that can be off. I would have loved it if he had said that before I sprayed the fixative! None of this changes the fact that my proportions were just a teeny bit off. Not much, but that is all it takes. It isn't a bad drawing but the proportions being a line width off reminds me what our teacher always was saying. "Ask questions!"
I have committed myself to being honest in this blog, sharing not only the triumphs but the trials too. I will be honest here now, there was a point in the drawing process that something was nagging at me that it didn't quite look right. Now I know, without a teacher to point that out to me, that is my cue to stop, ask questions, look at the whole and the relationships, and figure out what is wrong before preceding. Lesson learned (I hope!).
On to the next task. I set up a simple still life for a color study. It is my first one and I am doing it on my own. Not exactly sure what I am doing but I am taking a deep breath, relaxing, and having fun with it. After all, it isn't like I am having to perform surgery on someone! Here is the set up and about two hours into the grisaille.

Kind of hard to see the top of the bowl in the painting so it looks squished in the photo. I also learned I shouldn't start a grisaille when I don't have a good chunk of time to work on it. This is an open grisaille. It dried surprisingly fast so I will have to move to a closed grisaille before I start in with color. The lighting washes out the nice bright colors in the set up but the picture gives the general idea.
I also continue to squeeze in a straight color study when I can. This allows me to play with the paint and see how the colors interact. Here is shot of another color study, mixing with burnt umber on the top two and raw sienna on the bottom row.

I am starting out with quite a large palette of colors. I know there are different views on how to do this, some prefer to start out with a limited palette. Personally, I love color and while I admire many paintings made with a limited palette, I am usually not completely satisfied with them. Eventually, with time and experience, I will settle on a palette that works for me.
Today I went to the life drawing session at the art center in town. I am learning how to utilize the session to meet my own learning needs, which is a good thing as I was getting frustrated with the way the session was working.
This week I will be turning some of my attention to working on The Sketchbook Project. I have a bit of an outline but I need to get going on that. I will have more on that in a later post. I should have started laying in the color by the next post and will hopefully have some progress to show on that.
The learning continues!
I will leave you with a final picture of my studio assistant with her nose on one of the books I was reading during my break.
-Renee

Digging In

2010-10-31T15:53:00.000-07:00

Things are starting to get settled and I am starting to dig in to work. This month of October I have been working on a charcoal drawing of my husband. He has been a great model, very patient, and seems to know how to get right back into the pose. The drawing is nearly finished. I still have to adjust that background and do any final adjustment to the drawing to balance it all out. I am not putting the full drawing here which is revealing enough. For some reason it seems a bit different to post a full nude drawing of my husband verses a model that was hired. I guess it just feels a bit too personal. Anyway, here is the drawing. I found it a bit challenging to get a good picture that didn't make it look washed out. Another thing I have to work on!

This is the first charcoal drawing I have done on my own. I have my final student charcoal drawing hanging on the wall. I find it helps me to remember what I need to be doing and looking for. Every drawing has been a bit better than the last, which is encouraging. This one has some improvements, it is smoother, the transitions are better and I have been carefully considered my edges. Still have plenty of room for improvement never fear!
I have also been playing with oil paint. Since I was supposed to be going to school for another three years, we hadn't started in with painting with color, concentrating on drawing instead. I feel this is a really good way to go as drawing is the foundation for painting in realism. Unfortunately, that means I have to learn on my own at the moment. The first step is to get the colors out, get them on the palette, and start playing with them. I will be setting up a color still life this week but in the meantime, I have been making color charts. I don't have to think too much, just play with the color and get a feel for the paint and how it works. I have also been trying out a few different brushes. My favorite brush, by a long shot so far, is a Silver-Black Pearl synthetic. It holds a nice amount of paint and has the right amount of stiffness and spring. Here is the first color chart. It is not as tidy as the other ones will be. The original tube colors are in the top row of squares with the 3 rows beneath being mixed with increasing amounts of the same color throughout. In this chart it is Burnt Sienna (first color on the top left).

The colors that don't have mixtures under them are either one of a kind (such as Gamblin's Torrit Grey) or colors already on the chart but are different paint brands. I am trying out one or two different paint brands too.
As may be deduced, I am in the experimental beginning stage. I also mixed a few colors together at random to see what I would get and how they behaved. That is what is in the little square piece up top.
It looks pretty in person. I am already learning a lot just by doing such a simple exercise.
Next week I will be finishing up the charcoal drawing, working on still life in color, pencil drawing, and sketching. Plenty to keep me busy learning.
Happy Halloween and Samhain blessings.
-Renee

To Tell a Story...

2010-10-24T20:26:00.000-07:00

I would like to introduce you to my "new" studio. It is one of the bedrooms in the house we are renting but is quite lovely and also a luxury to have such a nice space to work in. The manikin in the corner is named Tilly, after "Terrible Tilly", a lighthouse off the coast here that has quite a story behind it. Google "terrible tilly" to see images and read the history behind the Tillamook Rock lighthouse. It is a wonderful piece of lore and she is still out there.
The manikin will be a stand in only. She will also be able to model drapery for me to draw. She is not a replacement for a live model. I do find her handy to take the same pose as the model I am sketching when she is not available.
To the left, not in the picture, is my model stand. A very modest affair that has some shelf space too behind the curtain. Not very big but it works just fine. At the moment I am still working on a charcoal drawing of my husband and doing some color studies in oil paint. I have also been collecting enough gear to be able to do some plein air painting.
I often get asked what kind of painting I do. Well, I am still working on the painting part but I know what kind of painting I intend to do. It would be called narrative realism. I want to paint stories. Specifically, I want to paint the beauty and stories of women 50 years of age and older. I want to paint women in nature or landscapes. I have so very many stories of incredible women to tell through my painting, most of whom I have been fortunate to have known and been mentored by. They might not be well known household names but they are powerful and influential nonetheless. Then, there are also women of the past to paint, such as the Fates and other women from mythology that speak to me.
I don't think I will be running out of stories to paint anytime soon. I will probably run out of time before I do the stories! I have very specific goals for my work and a way to go before I have acquired the skills I need to fulfill those goals.
So, this is the long answer to the question, "What do you paint?". The short answer? Simply this:
I paint stories.

Retrospective-A Year at the Ashland Academy of Art

2010-10-17T21:19:00.000-07:00

Well, it has been a while since the last post. We have been busy getting settled in. It always surprises me how much time that takes. We are more or less all unpacked, registered, addresses changed, new library cards, Co-op memberships, etc. We are slowly finding where everything is, meeting people, and attending community events. So far the verdict is: I love it here!
I am not going to be getting into a post about our new home town just now. It will trickle in between the lines of the future posts. Right now I am going to post a retrospective of my school year. I narrowed it down in twelve photos. That was kind of tough to do but it is enough to give a good idea of the growth of skill. The pictures don't even come close to telling the whole story but gives a general picture.
The next post I will be talking about the great number of changes, both for the blog and for my art life. I know what direction I will be heading in and will be sharing it soon. In the meantime, here is where I just been!

Next week I will be talking about my new studio, what I am working on now, and where I will be going from here.
See you next time!
-Renee

Of Endings and Beginnings

2010-09-05T21:53:00.000-07:00

Well the time has finally come. I knew it would go fast but, sheesh! Thursday morning was our final class meeting. The founder/director/and master teacher Semyon Bilmes, gave a final talk, which I must say, was not only informative but closed the year perfectly. There was also a critique which was also very educational even though I didn't have any of my work with me. My work was all packed and loaded on our truck, but wait, I will get to that part soon!
Most of the students brought a selection of work that showed their progress from start to finish. It was interesting to see that we all more or less start about the same skill level, at least, that is what it looks like. It is wonderful to see the concrete evidence of increasing skill. I had planned to post my own retrospective on this blog and will be doing that for the next post.
So, here is my very last drawing which happens to be a figure drawing in charcoal.

Considering where I started, I am quite pleased with what I have learned this year. It has been an amazing and wonderful journey. I am very sad that I am not able to continue for another three years at this time. In case you have missed previous posts, the school, Ashland Academy of Art, is moving to Maui and is now known as Atelier Maui. There are a few students that will continue on in Maui and I couldn't be more happy and excited for them. They have all become friends who I will miss tremendously.
After the morning class I got back to our temporary apartment and did the final clean up and loading and, at 2 pm, we headed out of Ashland for the final time. We have moved to the other end of the state, by the northern sea. We arrived home about 9:30 or 10:00pm. I cannot say for sure as it was a long day and drive. We were happy to fall asleep to the sound of the ocean waves.
It has been a busy weekend for us as we have been unpacking, putting away things, and building shelves and other items for office and, yes, my studio room. We are almost there. Once the house is all in order I am going to take a short break and explore our new town a bit more thoroughly before getting back to the work of art/study. There are beach walks and mountain hikes to be taken. I will be noting areas to return to with paints, pencils, and paper. Fall is the best time here weather-wise. I intend to take the utmost advantage of it and paint as much en plein air as possible. It will be a new technique for me. I also have friends coming to visit who will pose for me to keep my figure drawing skills from sliding backward. Once the weather shuts us in, I will be turning to indoor studies such as still life, cast drawing, and, when I can get a model, figure drawing. I still have so much to learn and so many skills to gain and hone.
So I will leave you with two pictures of our new neighborhood. They are sunset pictures as I am so very busy getting the house put to rights. I visit the beach in short snatches of time.

The funny object in the bottom picture is of my mischief dog Twill. She started to joyfully roll in the wet sand as I was snapping the picture. She is upside down with paw and tail sticking up. I had to run over and command her to get up (UP!) which she ignored until she was completely covered with wet sand. Sigh. She got a bucket of warm water dumped over her when we got home to rinse her off. At least she didn't roll on a dead bird. She will try that if you aren't paying attention or, if like me, you distracted by the beauty of the place.
Well, that is the ending of one journey and, as you can tell by the longish post above, the beginning of another. I really don't know where this one will take me. I am ready to stay put for at least a year or two though!
Next post will be a retrospective of my year in school
Until then, Happy Labor Day (here in the U.S.)!
-Renee

One

2010-08-29T14:30:00.000-07:00

My oh my! Here we are at the final week already. It has been a strange and crazy week. Fire in Ashland, and then a few days later, fire right behind our apartment complex! Thankfully the fire department, who are amazing and wonderful by the way, got the fire out before it caused any damage. I must admit I was making evacuation plans in my head as I was running back to the apartment with Twill after hearing and seeing the fire break out.
This time next week we will be home on the north coast of Oregon. The school is looking empty these days as they have been packing up around us. We have had the occasional goodbyes to say before the final one on Thursday. Tuesday is our last working day. As it is, last Friday was the final day of working on cast drawing and, in my case, painting too. The casts are all packed up so Tuesday will be an all model drawing day. I don't mind that as I really do enjoy model drawing.
So, I have the final cast drawings to share. I will put a picture of the actual cast up first and then the painting or drawing. The pictures aren't always from the same viewpoint as I did the painting/drawing from so there will be differences. Friday morning I worked on cast painting and here are the results:

It is challenging to take a good photo of the painting as the flash from the camera is too glaring to use and even the natural light produces a glare. So, I felt I could have used more time on this one. Mainly to get the tones right and balanced. The teacher thought, and I agree (of course!), that there needed to be more contrast in tone between the upper head and the face.
That said, I am new to painting and am still wrestling a bit with the medium itself. Charcoal was like that in the beginning for me too. I am sure it will get easier as I get more practice in.
Here is the final cast drawing:

I am pretty happy with this one. I still have a lot to learn and, practice with pencil has fallen off since the introduction of charcoal and paint. I need to work on my pencil techniques a bit. The teacher did a few tiny refinements (that make a big difference) to show me the next step. Lovely. I am looking forward to getting a few casts of my own. It will take a while to acquire a collection as they are a bit pricey.
So, what next?
When I started this journey I had anticipated spending at least four years as a formal art student. At the moment, I will be setting up a studio space of my own to continue my studies. My husband and I need a bit of time to regroup from so many huge life changes compressed into so little time. I think the only major life change we haven't had is divorce!
I hope to either find another teacher/mentor or make it over to Maui someday. Until then, the journey certainly continues, just on a different path.
I will have one final post of school work next week as we finish up. I will also be posting from our new home!

-Renee

Two

2010-08-21T20:39:00.000-07:00

We have been working on longer projects which is why I don't always have a lot of new things to post. However, I did bring my camera to school Friday so that I could get a few pictures of the work in progress. These will be finished at the end of school, which is coming up so very fast.
The school is looking a bit bare these days as they are busy packing up for the move. My sole remaining first year classmate told me he was done so I am now the last one standing, in my class that is. There is only a handful or so of us students left. I am busy cramming as much knowledge and guided practice in as I can. I must admit, part of me is very restless to get going but, because the school and teacher is excellent, I stay.
Here is the cast I am painting. It is a grisaille of an anatomical cast. Not a pretty cast but educational.

Still have a ways to go and time is running out.
Next are a couple of pictures of a cast drawing that I started at the beginning of the term. We have one more Friday to work on it. This is the first one I have taken to this stage of completion. The teacher did a few slight demos for me on it. Mainly he showed how to define certain lines on the drawing to make it look more three dimensional. The marks are so tiny yet they make a nice difference.

There are still hair details to add and a bit more tweaking of the tone and shade.
Thinking about where we started at the beginning of the year, I must admit, I had no idea that I would get this far. However, there is still so much more to learn.
Two more weeks! Tomorrow we are all getting together for a final social gathering. We actually have one full week next week and a final full class on the following Tuesday. Thursday, the final day will be a critique and lecture. As most of my things are up north, I won't have much to critique.
We are working on a model drawing too. I will have that finished the final week.
Next post will be a bit bare but I will have the final version of the cast drawing to show.
Until then,
-Renee

Three

2010-08-16T20:24:00.000-07:00

Three weeks to go, oh my! We are back from our final round trip to the coast. Next time we head up there for good. We went up there to clean, unpack, cool down, and get to know the town and it's people a bit. Our dog Twill got to march in the Muttzanita (Manzanita being the name of the town) parade to the beach. Here she is looking a bit puzzled as to why 50 some odd dogs and their people are walking en masse down the middle of the main street of town to the beach:

I decorated her leash with flowers from the yard and stuck them on with my handy blue tape. Best we could do under the circumstances. The dog she is turning to look at had a whole wreath around her neck but we suspect they were fake...
As promised, here is the completed picture of the grisaille:

If this was meant to be a finished painting instead of a study, there would still be a lot more to do. The purpose of this particular study is to get the shapes and proportions correct. I more or less achieved that but, as always, there is room for improvement which will come with practice, practice, and more practice.
Sure enough, with all of the distractions of our weekend, I forgot to take a picture of the last model drawing. Rats! Well, it will just have to wait until I move three weeks from now. We are currently working on another cast and model. They are coming along. I am still enjoying the model drawing tremendously. In fact, I am growing to like it more and more. I must admit I am surprised at that. I really didn't expect to relate to model drawing any more than say still life or cast drawing. I knew each would be different but, hmmm, it is hard to explain. I will just say that drawing the beautiful human form from life has an energy and challenge that I can't seem to get enough of.
There is one form of painting I want to do that I have yet to try and that is plein aire. With all the beauty of the coast awaiting me and my love of the outdoors, I don't think I will be able to resist. So much to look forward to! I will leave this post with two more pictures from this weekend. Both taken as the sun was going down.
-Renee

This is where we will live...by the sea.

The End is Near

2010-08-07T16:20:00.000-07:00

It has been a while I know. We have been so very busy transitioning to the coast and I am still in school for another month. Last weekend we made the big move and moved just about all of our household goods up to the North Coast of Oregon. We are presently camping out in a little apartment in Talent, Oregon just a few miles up the road from Ashland. This time next month I will be blogging from Manzanita. Hooray!
The move has been quite tiring. We go up again next weekend to do a bit more unpacking and escape from the heat. Our poor dog Twill is a bit bewildered with all this moving around but we still go see her friends at the dog park.
School has been amazing. If it was anything less than excellent, we would have been long gone. As I mentioned before, me and the only other student in my first year class are painting casts in grizialle. Here is a picture on the last one in progress.

It is finished, that is, we are through working on it and I have to bring the final result from school to photograph it. I also have a completed model drawing to share but I just realized that it is at the other end of the state at the moment. I will try to remember to photograph it on our next trip.
The best part of school for me is that as soon as we shifted to painting and the techniques required to paint in this manner a door opened. Suddenly I can see what I need to see much better and my drawing and painting accuracy has improved by leaps and bounds. The shift from line to shapes/mass was profound for me. That is very exciting!
So we are in the final month of school now. The atmosphere is still intense but there is also a sense of reaching out to the future and letting go of the past. We are all getting ready to go in different directions, some to continue on to Maui, some to go elsewhere, and some to stay here a while.
I have a saying posted above my desk, well, I had a saying. It stated, "Let go of the Ledge"
I must admit that seems quite appropriate at the moment. When I arrived here, I was confident that I would be spending four years here studying to be an artist. Now I am moving in a slight tangent and I am not as sure of where I will be three years from now. I know that I will continue my studies and have set up the time and space to do just that. I just am not as sure as to where they will lead (are we ever really sure?)! So, I guess I will just have to "Let go to the Ledge" and see where I land.
I will have more to post as school winds down. At the moment I will leave you all with a picture of our new hometown area. This is what I see when I walk four blocks west from our new house!
Stay cool!
-Renee

Final Term Begins

2010-07-11T21:06:00.000-07:00

Well, I am back to work for the final term. This is going to fly by awfully fast, in fact, it already is flying by. In addition to school I am busy clearing out and packing up to move most of our household up to the house we are renting on the coast. We will spend the month of August just up the road in Talent, Oregon. We have rented a small apartment which will save us a little money in the long run. I will have a bit longer commute to school but it will be worth it.
This term I will be focusing on figure and portrait drawing. That is, I will be starting to learn the basics of portrait drawing. The time is just too short! I say I and not we because most of the time, I am the only one in my class. There is another student but he isn't always there. Being in such a small class has its good points and it also has a few drawbacks. The good points far outweigh the drawbacks though.
So, my mornings are devoted to cast drawing, or in my case, drawing with paint. I started another grisaille. Painting is coming a little bit easier but I still need to practice with the medium. Here is a picture after the first two sessions:

I took the picture with the cast in the background so you can get a general idea of the set up. I am still working on the shapes and angles of the light and dark areas. I will be working on this one for a bit, although have made the image a bit too big on the canvas which will cause me a few difficulties.
For the first time this year, Fridays no longer have gesture drawing in the morning. I must admit I am going to miss it as I really liked gesture drawing. We spend the day cast drawing instead. It is good practice which is something I definitely need. It does make for a rather tiring day at the end of the week.
This is all I have so far. This weekend we had a moving sale. It was quite successful in that I got rid of a lot of stuff. It was ghastly hot, at least for me it was. We have been having 100 degree temps or close to. I know we are not alone as it seems like much of North America is broiling.
It has been a long and tiring weekend. I can't believe it is almost the middle of the month.
I should have more progress to post next week.
-Renee

Ongoing Fiber Sale

2010-07-03T22:02:00.000-07:00

Just added a few more items and took off the items that sold to my weaving blog.
School starts up again on Tuesday. In the meantime, Happy 4th of July for all of us USA folks!
To see the fiber sale, go to ReneeWeaves!

FIBER MOVING SALE!!!!

2010-06-30T17:04:00.000-07:00

To all my fiber friends who may be interested. I am cleaning out for moving. Please see the details listed on my weaving blog here.
School starts up next week so stay tuned for the final term!
-Renee

Third Term Finished!

2010-06-21T21:33:00.000-07:00

Well, that went fast. It was a very interesting and transitional term for me. Before I get started on that and what is next here are the final two pieces from the term:

This was a 36 hour figure study done in charcoal on Canson Mi Tientes paper in sky blue. I am enjoying figure drawing tremendously. It is very challenging and demanding but also very satisfying. There is something about the energy of a live being that is much more fascinating than an inanimate object. However, that said, I do understand the need for drawing and painting beautiful objects too. So, here the final grisaille. It was my first one so the learning curve was steep yet again. I have never used oils and, even though I was using them in a manner very similar to charcoal, it still was a new medium to get used to.

It is far from finished but I accomplished the learning goals on this study. More will be coming for next term.
Even though the term whizzed by, it was strenuous. I had my share of struggles and growth. That is always a good sign. I feel like I have come a long way in my understanding in the last few weeks of the term. That is priceless. We have a two week break before the fourth and final term. I am certain that it will fly by at a terrifying pace. There is so very much I still need to learn! What I will be learning is part of my homework for the break. I will be sitting down with my design journals and revisiting the ideas I have recorded there. I will be clarifying the direction I will be going in. I know what I want and where I want to go so I will be focusing and sharpening that. When the final term starts up on July 6th, I will know what I need learn for the final push. This is such an incredible opportunity for me. Even though it wasn't as long as I had hoped or planned, I am so grateful for what I have received and achieved.
At the moment, I am with my husband and dog, Twill, in our future hometown of Manzanita, Oregon. We are here partly on business but also to relax, celebrate our 26th wedding anniversary, and start to get to know our town more intimately. Sunday morning I enjoyed participating in a Life Drawing session at the local art center. I met some wonderful women who are passionate about art and working at the study of art. Here is a rather delightful picture of the exterior of where the life drawing was held. Folks here have a good sense of humor:

The building is on the main street of town so all who drive by can see. The evening before this we went to a book reading across the street. We are definitely smitten by this little town and can hardly wait to be settled in. That will be happening the first week of September. Here is a final picture of the town, actually, the ocean at the end of the street!

This is where we will be come September. We will get settled in and I will take a small rest break and then I will get to work. What will I be doing? I will be continuing my art studies on my own. In addition to that, I will be taking up my jewelry making again to hopefully fund my art making. There will be plenty to blog about in addition to pictures and reports of this beautiful little village snuggled on the northern Oregon coast...
We will be heading back to Ashland soon and the final term of school. Stay tuned!
-Renee

First Grisaille

2010-06-12T12:01:00.000-07:00

As you can tell by the time between my posts, my assignments are taking longer and longer to complete. I finally got to start grisaille painting! This is a picture of the work in progress. I have two more sessions before I will stop. I have never painted in oil paint before so not only am I learning a new process but I am dealing with a new, to me, medium. It is getting easier though!
For those of you who do not know what a grisaille painting is, here is what Wikipedia has to say about it:
"Grisaille (grɪʼzaɪ, -ʼzeɪl; French: gris, grey, French pronunciation: /ɡʁi.zaj/) is a term for painting executed entirely in monochrome or near-monochrome, usually in shades of grey.A grisaille may be executed for its own sake, as underpainting for an oil painting (in preparation for glazing layers of colour over it), or as a model for an engraver to work from."
As you can see by the picture my grisaille is not grey but earthtoned.
School has become quite intense. At the moment, I am the only one in my first year class. All but one other student has departed. The other student is visiting family at this time. In fact, as the school year heads to the final term, the remaining students are mostly those who will be going on to study in Maui. As a result, the atmosphere in the school has become more serious and intense, in a good way. All of us are aware how little time we have left here. It goes by so fast. We have one more week of school before break and then on to the final term.
I will be visiting my future home town over the break and will post a few pictures from there. I will have a few things to say about the town artistically as well as I will be participating in a life drawing session up there. I definitely feel the need for a break. Not only is the atmosphere intense but there is so much learning going on for me personally that it is a bit overwhelming at times.
So, I will have the finished grisaille to post as well as another figure drawing next week. I will have a few things to post over the break as well, then, on to the home stretch!
-Renee

Shifting Paradigms

2010-05-23T16:38:00.000-07:00

I did not post last week as the school work was still in progress. It also had been one of the hardest weeks I have had in school. The thing I know for sure about weeks when you feel like you are going backwards is that they usually indicate a large leap in learning. Honestly, it was the only thing that comforted me a bit. The offending study is this one:

This is a drawing of a cast of Moses and he is quite large. We used a full sheet of paper instead of our previous half sheets. That uses quite a bit of charcoal. I am still using my homemade charcoal here and, if the weather will cooperate, I hope to perfect it as it isn't quite up to the standard I was used to in drawing charcoal. I went absolutely backward one day and my drawing got quite out of control. A few sweaty hours later I had managed to gain the upper hand, barely. It was a huge learning experience and one that makes me grateful I have a skilled teacher to give me a boost.
We are still spending afternoons with figure drawing. This last session was 6 sessions or 18 hours. We were drawing my favorite female model and it was a pleasure but still challenging. Here she is:

Considering this is my first year in school, I am quite please with how close the likeness was. You will have to take my word for it as I will not be taking pictures of the live models to post. I really like figure drawing even more than I though I would. There is just something about working with a live person that adds an extra element to the creation. It also adds difficulty as the model moves, a lot. I am learning to deal with that too.
The paradigm shift? That was the words the master teacher used when telling me how my work was coming along. I have definitely noticed a difference in my work and how much I understand. I am not sure that I have had a paradigm shift as it seems like quite a strong statement. I do know my level of understanding has increased. Perhaps it is one of those things that a teacher can see better than the student. In any case, I am grateful for the learning and also humbled by just how much there is yet to learn. I certainly won't be able to learn everything in a year or two.
That leads me to my future. We have a place to rent in Manzanita and are very excited about it. We will be moving our belongings up north starting in July. It will be nice to escape the heat once a month and spend a long weekend at the cooler coast. Of course, the heat hasn't made it here yet but I know it will come. I will be posting pictures of our new town now and again. I also have been making plans to continue my studies. That will be a topic for another post in the near future.
We will be starting a new drawing, or maybe even painting (I hope) next week and have already started a new figure drawing. Less than a month to go until our two week break!
-Renee

Pain Can Be a Good Teacher....Uh Huh!

2010-05-07T21:12:00.000-07:00

We have had a couple of busy weeks lately so I missed posting last weekend. We took an unexpected trip up north to Manzanita, OR. Manzanita is a lovely little town on the north coast of Oregon and is soon to be our future home town.
It really is a good thing I like to juggle as it seems I have been doing a lot of juggling of tasks lately. In addition to daily life and working hard at school, I am reaching out a bit into the future to find a place to rent in the fall. Usually that is not such a problem but Manzanita is a tiny town of less than 800 souls and with a large number of short term vacation rentals but not many long term ones.
I have been occasionally checking Craigslist even though we are still a few months out and, much to my amazement, I found the perfect house. It has everything I clearly stated, out-loud and in writing, that I wanted. To make a long story short, we took a spur-of-the-moment trip up north and took a look. We submitted our application this week and are waiting to hear back from the landlady, who amazingly enough, lives here in Ashland! So, at the moment, we are keeping our fingers crossed.
In the meantime, there has been a lot of growth in the learning department for me at school. Alas, I wish I could take a picture and point out all the areas of growth. I also wish I could tell you that it was a lovely joyful journey but we all know that just isn't the way it works!
One of my fellow art students is a gentleman in his 70's (I think) who told me that all his friends tell him how lucky he is since he just gets to relax, lounge around, and learn art. He laughs and says, "if they only knew how painful it is!" Painful indeed. Relaxing? More like blood, sweat, and tears (sometimes lots of tears)! Lest I get carried away and unintentionally scare someone away from putting in the time to learn art, the rewards for your toils are beyond imagining!
Yesterday I started out to work on my charcoal drawing and, after three hours of painful confusion, I made it worse! My drawing seized control from my tenuous grasp and merrily ran all over me. Yes, it really is possible! It sort of felt like opening an old fashioned wind-up watch case only to have all the springs sproing out all over the room. Finally, at the end of those three sweaty hours, I managed to coral it back in place where hopefully it will be docilely waiting for me on Tuesday.
The rewards for all that pain? My knowledge and skill took a giant leap forward! No worries though, I know very well that I will be taking a few steps back too. I managed to pull myself together during lunch (and after a phone call to my husband to lament, OK, whinge, a bit) so that I was able to take a few baby steps forward during our long-pose figure drawing session.
So, what do I have to show you this week? Well, the drawings from last week that I didn't get a chance to post. Here they are, the first is a photo of the actual cast, the second the final drawing, after 12 hours. It was a shorter session so the drawing is not as finished as the longer ones.

This guy is a true block head. We are currently working on another cast, the one that beat me up yesterday, and the long pose figure drawing. I will take a few pictures in progress but not the whole progression for next week. In the meantime, the weather is really trying hard to warm up and be, well, spring. I am aslo enjoying my walks to school through the lovely town of Ashland. Hope to have good news to report on the house statues next week. Until then, -Renee

Finishing up the Figure Sessions

2010-04-25T19:44:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in the previous post, this particular figure drawing was a four session drawing. That is four, three hour sessions for a total of 12 hours. We finished up our first long pose model drawing session Thursday afternoon. The first picture was taken after session three. We had to stop an hour early as the model was too tired to go on. We spent the last hour taking turns posing for our classmates and sketching.

The final picture is after the fourth and final session. The changes are very subtle. I was focusing mainly on getting the contours of the body right.

For some reason, the model kept moving around more than usual. I guess that goes with the territory. I believe our next model session will be longer. We are also working on a charcoal drawing of a plaster cast. I will have the pictures of that process for the next post as we have one more session to go on that one.
It is warming up weather-wise. My walks to school are quite pleasant at this time. When it gets hot I might be in a bit of trouble though as I don't take the heat very well! I can't believe we will only be here another five months. It goes by so very fast. We are already looking for a place to rent in Manzanita, OR. I will be continuing my studies on my own. I had planned to be in school for at least four years so I will take that same time to truly study and work before launching myself into the art world. I have very definite plans of what I want to paint and that will take quite a bit of skill. More than I have at the moment, so I am working hard!
Until next week, -Renee

Another New Week

2010-04-18T16:17:00.000-07:00

This week was different from our first week as well. We are working on another bust with charcoal drawing. I don't have pictures of the drawing yet but it is a four session drawing. We have only had one session so far and I will take a picture of that before working on it again so I can show the progression. I do have pictures of the afternoon figure drawing sessions. It too is a four session drawing and we have done two sessions so far. Here is the first one:

An interesting young man. As you might be able to tell, his head is shaved except for a forelock. He also has several piercings and many tatoos. I must say he is very interesting to draw and seems like a sweet person. It is challenging to draw longer poses as the model takes a break every 20 minutes and a few days pass in between sessions. That means things move, sometimes a lot. I new challenge to learn for me.
Here is the second session. I should add here that each session is 3 hours long.

Things have changed a bit including some of my technique as that is a learning curve too. Input from the instructors can also make you change tactics. I have not drawn the stool he is sitting on yet but if you look close, you can see the beginnings of the foot rest. You might also notice I made his head bigger as it was definitely too small in the first session drawing. For addtional interest, I took a picture of our set-up during the break. This is sort of what it looks like when we work.

I am at the far end of this curve and you cannot see my easel. All of us students are working on this one from us first years to the fourth and beyond years so you will see different levels of skill and techniques. It is a wonderful way to work and I am going to miss it when we are finished this year.
At the moment, I am making more charcoal and enjoying the warm spring weather we are having. More to come next week, -Renee

Figure Drawing

2010-04-11T18:02:00.000-07:00

This has been a very busy week. I am back at school and we started figure drawing. It feels good to be standing at an easel and moving around instead of sitting. We are doing mostly short poses this week to warm us up and get into the rhythm. Figure drawing is a progression. We start with short one minute poses, move to 2, 3, and 5 minute poses and then a couple of 10 minute poses. Thursday afternoon we did a 2 1/2 hour pose ( the model poses for 20 minutes at a time before taking a short 5 minute break so a 2 1/2 hour pose is broken up into 20 minute segments with the model taking the same pose after each break). So here is what a one minute pose/sketch looks like:

The most important factor that must be found first is the gesture. Without a good depiction of the gesture, perfect proportions and detail would not be relevant. You would have a pretty picture but it would look stiff and not realistic. As one can imagine, we work hard at capturing gesture and it isn't easy, at least, not for me at this point!
Here is a 3 minute pose:

At this time, we are working with charcoal on newsprint. This next pose is a 5 minute pose and I am starting to put in shadow:

This final pose is in charcoal on Canson Mi Tientes charcoal paper and is the 2 1/2 hour pose. Notice there is still very little detail as at this time I was also working on getting the proportions right. That is still a challenge for me, specially with the human figure.

Friday afternoon we were back to construction drawing but now of plaster busts. A challenging and exciting week all around. I really do like figure drawing so far.
On the home front, I have a new easel and have had to make room in my little room for it. I have been going through boxes and bins cleaning out and shifting things around. Today I managed to convince my husband to pose for me over an hour to get a bit more figure sketching in, and try out the new easel of course! Next week will be interesting, exciting, and challenging too. Until then, -Renee

Evolution of a Charcoal Study- Final Day and Done!

2010-03-19T20:40:00.000-07:00

Well, here she is. This is what I was able to achieve after 36 hours of work. Is it done? Not really but, as this is a study, the purpose has been achieved. The purpose is for learning of course! Learning to draw proportion, shapes, form. Learning to use charcoal and to work with tone. Learning a bit about the human form which we will be jumping into next term. Today was the last day of the second term. The school year is half over! It seems like I am just getting started and now I have to cram in as much as possible since instead of four years, I only have one. So very much I have yet to learn.
I am truly appreciative for what schooling I can get. At the moment our plan is to move to the North Coast of Oregon where I will study on my own. We are hoping to be able to regroup and get to Maui in a couple of years. I would like to go for at least another year to finish up. Studying on my own will be a tremendous challenge. I am using much of my free time this year researching and getting that set up. The upside is I will save on tuition! What I save will be spent on art supplies, studio set up, and learning tools.
The area we are moving to has a large art community. I am hoping to find mentors, peers, and new art friends there.
Well, I have a two week (plus a few days) break. I will be doing a bit of drawing and experimenting with charcoal and charcoal making, but I also will be catching up on other areas of my life. Posting will probably be a bit sporadic. Next term should be interesting as there will be more figure drawing.
I do have a note of warning, our female models are nude so the drawings will be too. The male models have the genital area covered so they will not be completely nude (don't get me started on the double standard there!). If you find nude art drawing offensive consider yourselves warned! I can honestly say that I enjoy drawing the beauty and wonder of the human form. I have learned to appreciate that beauty so much more by drawing it in all its various shapes and forms. I wish life drawing were in our schools, I think the incredibly narrow definition of human beauty in our society would be redefined.
Until next month! -Renee

Evolution of a Charcoal Study - Day 5

2010-03-16T20:46:00.000-07:00

Well, here is the drawing after today's work. We have one more day, six more hours, to finish the study. Finishing the study doesn't necessarily mean that the drawing is finished though. These are studies after all. This has been quite the challenge so far. The good thing about that is challenge = learning. That is what I am here for! I will post the completed study next time. -Renee

Evolution of a Charcoal Study- Day 4

2010-03-12T20:25:00.000-08:00

I have to apologize for the quality of this picture. Unfortunately I was distracted and in a hurry when I took it and wasn't as careful at making sure I got a decent shot. As you can see, I am slowly building up the tones. I still have details to correct and get working but they will be adjusted as I build up the layers. I have to remind myself that this is an exercise, a learning tool. This is the first time I have tried to draw something like this. It shows how important proper training is! I know I could not have done this as easily the first week of school. We four more sessions to work on this next week. I can honestly say I have learned an incredible amount in this one lesson. I am excited that we will be studying figure drawing next term. Hopefully I won't be pulling my hair out. Some days drawing is hard, very hard. When I got home yesterday I was so very tired. I felt like I had been climbing mountains all day. Even at its hardest and most frustrating, I still love doing this. I can't think of anything else I would rather do.
I am not sure where the next few years will take me. I thought it was all arranged not too long ago but, as most of you know, life is full of change, unexpected and otherwise. I would like to get to Maui to get what schooling I can, but I don't see that in the near future. After a lot of research, I still haven't found another school I would like to go to. It is a bit hard to change the learning structure and every school is different.
Well, I have rambled on enough. I will have more to post next week as the charcoal study comes to an end. -Renee

Evolution of a Charcoal Study - Day 3

2010-03-10T14:23:00.000-08:00

Well, finally a little progress to show. I still had a time getting her head and face working. It is amazing how much a millimeter or fraction of an inch can completely change the character of a face. I am starting to move into three tones and getting the lights and darks balanced. Here is a closeup of the drawing.

There is still much to do but at the end of this day we had put in 18 hours and we have 18 more hours to go over this week and next. Tomorrow's session should see even more dramatic difference. For reference, I am adding a shot of the actual cast we are drawing from, here:

I must add that we draw from a fixed spot. Once we have settled in we try not to move our position. The pictures are not taken from the same perspective as my view while drawing so there will be some differences.
Spring is trying to arrive here. One day we had spring in the morning and winter at lunch. Nevertheless, with the longer daylight hours and acceptable weather, I have started walking to school. It is about 2 miles and takes me through a mixed country neighborhood and a historical neighborhood which is quite lovely. Trees and flowers are in bloom and I enjoy greeting the various cats, dogs, sheep, and horses along the way. The occasional person too! I like getting in my exercise and enjoy the 40 minute walk to think and take the sights in.
Tomorrow is another school day and back to work. I will be posting with the next installment soon.
-Renee

Evolution of a Charcoal Study- Day 2

2010-03-05T19:47:00.000-08:00

I know what you are thinking, "this looks like day one!" Right? Well, I assure you, it is day two. I spent the entire six hours getting the proportions of the face, head, and upper torso working right. It just isn't as easy as moving a line out here or a line in there. When ever you make a correction the whole drawing needs to be re-adjusted. I just about have it ready to go to the next stage which is to add one more tone so that I have a light, medium, and dark value. Once that is working I go to 5 and then full tones. I have to stop and check that everything, including the drawing, is still working before moving on. It is amazing how fast the drawing goes awry when your back is turned.

Today, as usual for a Friday, was model sketching and construction drawing. I will post the construction drawing in another post as I haven't had a chance to take a picture of it yet. I came home from school and then left with my husband for the first Friday Art Walk and Chocolate Festival. An irresistible combination. We made a date of it and had dinner out too. It has been a very productive and enjoyable day.

Tuesday is the next school day we will be working another session on our study. Should have more dramatic changes for you all to see then. -Renee

Evolution of a Charcoal Study-Day 1

2010-03-02T20:58:00.000-08:00

I thought I would do something a bit different this time. We have three more weeks left in this term and this is what we will be working on for the remainder. I thought I would post a day-by-day progression. This is the first day out of six days over the remaining term. Each day consists of two 3 hour solid sessions. This is near the end of a total of six hours! As you can see, it does not go fast. When I left today I made a note to myself to adjust the proportions of the face as they are slightly off. It only takes a millimeter for things to start looking funny. When you have several shapes with many sides that means many opportunities for things to go wrong. Over all I am happy with my start. This is the first bust or human head cast we have done. It is one of my favorites to look at but very challenging to draw! In spite of the challenge, I am enjoying the process tremendously.

I took this picture so you can see the actual cast and lighting set up. Future pictures will be a close-up of the drawing and the final day I will do both a close-up and a picture of the cast.

In the meantime, still researching where to go next! -Renee

Surprises

2010-02-28T21:02:00.000-08:00

Here is the latest charcoal study. What is unusual about this one is that I used my own home-made charcoal in it! I am enjoying using charcoal more and more. I think that is human nature, we tend to enjoy things more when they go smoothly than when they give us trouble.

We have another major change at the art school. Earlier this year they had announced that the school would be moving to Portland. Well, sometimes life throws a curve ball (it seems to be happening with alarming regularity these days). The school will not be moving to Portland but, due to health concerns of the founder and master teacher of the school, they will be moving to Maui. Yes, you saw it right, Maui, part of that chain of islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The very chain that experience tsunami waves yesterday. Thankfully the waves turned out to be small as my mother and brother live in Honolulu (Hi Mom!).

Well, after a few days of feverish research as to the feasibility of us moving to Maui too, we have decided that it would not be feasible at this time due to several factors. We will be finishing out the school year, which goes until the middle of September, here in Ashland and then... well, I will have to continue my education on my own. So now our research is turning to where we will move to next. Ashland is a lovely town but I miss the north. At the moment we are considering the north coast of Oregon where we had such an enjoyable summer.

In the meantime, I will be working harder to get as much as I can out of the time remaining in school.

One final note, yesterday I spent the afternoon teaching a young fellow art student how to spin! Always trying to add to the fiber ranks! -Renee

Making Drawing Charcoal

2010-02-20T20:54:00.000-08:00

The drawing charcoal that we have been using in art school was handmade in France. Well, the maker has retired and there is no more of this charcoal to be had. I got curious and started researching charcoal and how to make it. After a bit of research, and a trip to the Goodwill store here in Ashland where I scored an old roasting pan with a top vent, I made charcoal today!
I asked my ever-willing husband to cut up a bit of maple scrap wood into small strips.

I put some heavy duty foil in the bottom of the pan to keep the bottom cleaner. I put the pan on my tripod propane burner which I had used quite a bit for dyeing. After about 5 minutes the first smoke appeared.

The next step might be a bit startling but I am using what is called a retort method of charcoal making. After about 10 minutes there was enough smoke and gasses coming out of the vent that I was able to light it on fire.

This can be directed to flow underneath the container if you have it set up for that and the flames can be used to continue to heat it. The flaming gasses help to keep the oxygen away from the wood so it does not burn. It also serves as a guide to tell you when the charcoal is ready! When the flames went out, I turned the propane burner off and let the pan cool. When I opened it, this is what I saw:

Finished drawing charcoal! I tested the charcoal out on charcoal paper and it works beautifully. It is a bit soft so I will need to cook the next batch a bit longer. It also curled a bit as you can see in the final two pictures.

I plan to do a bit more experimenting. I used my documenting skills I acquired when dyeing fiber so I will have an idea how to proceed. The whole process from start to holding the finished charcoal took all of one hour. I had to take a shower afterward as I smelled like a campfire!

A final note on charcoal making. I did a lot of research, I have a lot of experience with using propane burners, I had safety equipment standing by. If you choose to try this at home you do so at your own risk!

On the school front, we started another charcoal drawing this week. The teacher told us we will be starting figure drawing in earnest next term! In a few weeks we will be half way through the first year. Wow! Time flies when you are having way too much fun (and working hard too).

Until next week, -Renee