Archive for February, 2011
Paint Your Passion Class
Last Wednesday I started a new class entitled, “Paint Your Passion”. It is being taught by Shirley Blake, the same teacher I had for the previous class. Acrylics are the medium of choice.
Some of the students took paintings they had just completed or on which they were working. I took some oil paintings about which I had questions. We looked at all those paintings then answered two questions: 1) when you look at paintings, what draws you to them? and 2) If you could paint anything, what would it be? Answering these questions reveals something perhaps very surprising about yourself.
Studying Turner
London is home to some of the most highly regarded art museums. During my study abroad program in London, I made sure to take an art history course that brought us to many of these museums. Part of the course involved each student presenting on a particular artist. The artist I was assigned was Joseph Mallord William Turner, one of the most beloved British artists.
JMW Turner was a master of watercolor landscape painting. He is known as the painter of light and his work is regarded as a preface to Impressionism. Of the Turner landscape paintings I had to choose from, I decided to feature Chinchester’s Canal and The Shipwreck of the Minotaur. The way light is depicted in these two paintings is simply breathtaking.
Plein Air Painting
Today, Thelma and I decided to go plein air painting. We didn’t feel up to going very far, so decided to paint one of the palm trees near the pool. We just put all our stuff in our carts, wheeled them over, and set up our easels.
I don’t know what kind of palm tree it is, but it has 10 trunks, each about 4” or 5” in diameter and with rings around each trunk spaced about 4” apart. It is a lovely tree and I enjoyed painting it.
By the way, I will not be able to post blogs for the rest of the week. My site company, iePlexus, has scheduled a maintenance server upgrade for those 3 days. So, have a good week and I’ll see you on Monday!
Framing My Paintings
Before I started my previous abstract art class, I went to Home Depot and bought a piece of masonite. A worker cut the 4’ x 8’ piece into as many 18” squares as possible for me and I took them home and gessoed them. They are a very inexpensive support for painting in oils or acrylics.
Two weeks ago I ordered metal frames from http://www.webpictureframes.com/wpfshoppingcart.html . I was able to buy them in very odd sizes like 5” x 18” and 5” x 12”, little pieces left over from the cut masonite board. They were inexpensive and fit each painting perfectly. I did have one problem and that was that the spacers to be used to hold the masonite to the front of the frame were too wide – probably made for glass. However, I had something that would accomplish the same purpose left over from previous framing experiences which I used. So I’m happy to say that all those paintings are now framed!
My Last Assignment
The last assignment in our abstract art class was to create a painting using the Meandering format. It would have wandering lines to unite the colors and move the eye around the painting.
I planned to paint the upper 2/3 in a light yellow color and the rest in blue. but I started painting and put blue in the middle, even going over it several times to get enough blue to stay. When I finished, I looked at what I had done, and I had 1/3 bright yellow, 1/3 dark blue and 1/3 red! I had completely lost track of my plan! It was so “in your face” that I put a light coat of white over it all and started again. Sometimes the only thing to do is trash it and start afresh!
My next class is “Paint your Passion” with the same teacher beginning Wednesday. I would really like to get this one finished so I can take it for critique.
Finishing a Painting
At our last abstract art class, Teacher instructed us how to finish an acrylic painting. I was glad to learn this because I am an oil painter and quite a novice with acrylics.
This is her method for finishing an acrylic painting: Use a mixture of ½ gloss medium and varnish and ½ matt medium and varnish. Mix together. When applying, she used a brush 1.5” – 2” wide on her small 8” x 10” examples. Brush only one way, say left to right. When I did this with my 20” x 20” paintings, I had to go back, sometimes in the middle of a stroke, for more varnish. Go over it all again to be sure it is totally covered. When dry, rotate a ¼ turn and repeat. That ensures that all is covered. And the colors of the painting are nicely enhanced!
Teacher
My teacher for the abstract art class I just finished was Shirley Blake. Her art can be found at www.shirleyblake.com and she does abstract art as well as traditional paintings in acrylic.
All of her paintings are colorful and happy. Even the traditional paintings have much more color that most others that I have seen. Her abstracts are subtle, in a variety of colors, and with small items of interest scattered throughout the painting.
Shirley is an experienced artist and teacher. Her teaching included handouts explaining some of the basics of art for those who missed them earlier in life. She also did demonstrations to illustrate the point of each lesson and made wonderful suggestions at the two critiques each day. Her teaching was very organized and helpful to me. I learned much and loved each day of her class!
The Marinatown Show
Marinatown in North Fort Myers is an area consisting of a large parking lot surrounded by 4 restaurants with dining by the water and many boats docked within an easy walk. Thelma and I learned about this show about a week ago. It was put together somewhat at the last minute and we were lucky to be able to be a part of it.
There were 14 vendors in our group, selling everything from chocolates to Tupperware, jewelry and skin lotion. We were the only ones with colorful abstract art which a few people did enjoy. The day turned out to be lovely, sunny and warm after a crisp beginning, so we had a good time, even though we didn’t sell a thing. The group will do this again the 3rd Sundays of March and April, so we have time to try again!
Gail Boyajian Paintings
Endicott College is currently displaying the works of Gail Boyajian. Her artwork blends classic technique and symbolic themes in beautiful landscape oil paintings. The collection was created over the past eight years and addresses the themes of emigration, migration, vacation, and exploration.
The artist’s landscape oil paintings are rich in color and draw the viewer in to find the hidden elements within each panel. Scale is played with in most pieces through the use of humans, creatures, and birds. In a press release the artist said, “I have come to see landscapes and cities as characters, created by the voices and ghosts of present and past inhabitants, artistic efforts, religious beliefs, geologic formations and life forms other than human, in dialogue with each other.”
The Last Abstract Art Class
We had the most wonderful abstract art class today! There were only 6 students present – small is good! We began as usual with a critique of paintings we had finished at home. Some students brought works that were stunning! Others received suggestions as to what to include in the finished painting.
Then Teacher showed us examples of the Meander Format for making an abstract painting. All involved employing lines in the painting in a variety of ways. Sometimes the lines just meandered among a multicolored background, sometimes the lines formed the boundaries of colors, sometimes the lines were parallel over a particular color. We were then challenged to make our own painting using the meander format.
At our final critique, we were given suggestions for finishing our paintings. We all realized how much we had enjoyed the class and having new friends. We exchanged cards and emails, and promised to meet again next year!