My Two Sons and Gallery 5!

This past weekend I completed a drawing that I have wanted to do for some. A portrait of our sons. This graphite drawing is on a full sheet, 22x30 Lenox Drawing paper.

The image is a compilation of both sons at the time of their Senior year in High School. I'm pretty happy with the outcome. I plan on using this image as an image transfer for a Christmas present. I will print it on fine watercolor paper and mount it on a birch panel.

 I also found out this week that all four of my entries into the MAEA show at Gallery 5 in Leweston were accepted into our juried show! Yeeha! This is what I entered.

What I do with all my time!

This time of year is nearly impossible to get in to my room and work! School is especially difficult this year due to many changes. I decided that I would try to connect my school activity to my professional blog - my way of showing that Im not just slacking off!


Check out what is going on in my class room by visiting the class blog. There are some cool links on the recent post. There is a slide show on the right for our 2011 Camp Sunshine pumpkin installation but you can also go here for the still shots.


For my artist friends, you might enjoy the AP / STUDIO art page. Students will be doing some assemblage collage art with inspiration from Joseph Cornell. This page is the actual lesson that they will work from. Check out the interactive links provided for instruction. Students will also be using some form of image transfer system in this piece. I have a youtube folder with tutorials for them to self direct with.


So - THIS is what I do with my time!
Enjoy!

The Magic of Haystack

 Two weekends ago I got to have one of my dreams come true. I was honored to have the opportunity to teach fellow artists and teachers. I had 15 fantastic artist / educators in my workshop at Haystack Mountain School and, had the time of my life.

Teaching a group of highly creative and motivated people is like being on some kind of drug. The energy is contagious and the work output is nothing short of spectacular! People worked until after midnight and got up early to work more. One participant even got up at 4am to get to the studio! The whole weekend was magic, even more magic than it always is.

 My mother and two aunts came up to see what I rave about so much. They got to see prints being pulled in the print studio, clay being thrown in the ceramics studio, freshly cast molds in the wood shop, beautiful pastel paintings in the brand new artists studio, movies being created in Gateway and a blacksmith demo in the hot shop.

I was not nervous during my slide show (click here) presentation. It felt great to be there with such inspiring people in such an inspiring place. Check back soon for images. I will be asking my participants to send me at least one photo of work they did in my workshop. This experience will be hard to beat! Thank you Haystack and thank you for the opportunity M.A.E.A. Take a look at the movie (click here) that my Co Worker put together! There is a sound track but for some reason it does not play - we are trying to figure that out!

Summer Work 2011

 Allan and I took short day trips this summer. We explored Lands End on Bailey Island. No luck fishing but the weather was beautiful and we had never been there before. The crib stone bridge is quite a sight and the only one in the US. This is a small pastel that I did for the day.

We took several day trip together this summer. Much enjoyed after the summer spent in the hospital last year. One trip was a particularly beautiful afternoon at Winslow Park in Freeport - again, no fish, but, the light and scenery was fabulous. This is one of our favorite camp spots.

6x9 on Wallis Paper, looking towards the camp sites from the NEW stone pier.

The next outing was a glorious day painting with Pastel Painters of Maine. The weather looked awesome but it was a very hot day. The things I learned that day were amazing and made me long for more time to paint with this group. They are fantastic teachers and very giving. I long for the days when I can join them MOST of the time.

both 6x9 on Wallis Paper, looking out across the water on the bridge before the farm.

The last piece is something I have wanted to do for my self for some time now. This drawing is not complete. It is about 80% done. It is a composite of our sons about the time of graduation. I still have some fine tuning to do and some personality to add but I'm pretty happy with the progress. Have to go for now! First REAL week of school starts tomorrow.

Step by Step Quote Series

Step 4 Quote Commission / Collaboration
This is a step by step documentation, creating a Quote Panel

- another layer of violet washes
- addition of some iridescent pearl acyclic color
- the digital images have been varnished and adhered to the surface
- the quote is printed on vellum, varnished and adhered to the surface
- in this photo, self leveling clear gel is allowed to sit in droplets on the surface....tomorrow, these will retain the circle shape and round dome so that I can add color rings

More later.

Step by Step Quote Series

Even though I am on step three of this commission quote panel I thought I should post the process. When I teach, I can use these posts to support teaching and learning. This work involves two images on the same panel, violet colors and a motherhood quote by Abraham Lincoln.

1. prepare and prime the support by sanding and then coating both sides with gesso
2. print out the images, seal them with varnish and coat the support with requested acrylic medium...in this case, acrylic fiber paste (Golden's video library, the fiber paste video is in the second row down)
3. apply the first layer of color using flow release and acrylic colors / the flow release allows the color to really run around fast, just like it does on wet watercolor paper

Watercolor is actually a great medium to learning painting techniques. Many of the same processes used to create a watercolor are used in other kinds of painting processes. This layer has wet into wet, controlled bleeding and a water spritz for added drama. This is just the under layer. More later.

Summer Moves So Fast!

After two weeks of cleaning my class room, getting it ready for floor scrubbing and a new school year, I could officially start my "Summer Break"

It took a week to complete the MAEA Fall conference at Haystack registration packets. If you click on the link you can see the studio space that I will be teaching Acrylics in for this conference! I'm very excited about this opportunity and already have some products donated by Golden. Fun fun FUN!!!

Next - a photographer pal of mine, Pam Davis asked me if I would be interested in being in the local Community Days. She got a booth and I said sure! Good practice! I prepared 6 new quote series and 8 small (6x9) pastels to have in my booth. I now have fine art card reproductions available and I also got a display tree that I had seen to display my work. Fair booths take a whole lot of work! It ended up being the hottest weekend of the summer! I had a great time and now I know how much I can fit in my car. All in all a good experience. No buyers but lots of interest and many cards passed out. We shall see. Below is a small sample of new work. I tried to keep things $100.00 or under. To see all of the new work click here.