A Bonus for Our Sketching Class

     Our sketching class enjoyed the bonus of a guest teacher in our third session. The change in plans occurred because Charleston, SC artist Margaret (Maggie) Hoybach came to visit our regular teacher, Mary Ann Miller and offered to lead a class. Mary Ann generously invited us to her lovely home for the class, followed by a Provence-style lunch (yummy homemade quiche). You can see other images from that third class as well as our fourth and final class on Mary Ann's blog, too. (I was not able to be in her February class, so scroll down to find the two final January gatherings.)
     
     Maggie, in the red sweater, first showed us some of her gorgeous watercolor paintings and travel sketch/scrap books (which are amazing works of art in themselves). You can treat yourself to Maggie's website here. Then, she provided an interesting and very challenging exercise. Projecting various scenes for just a minute or so, she told us to outline a sketch in pencil and jot down a few notes so that we could further develop the drawing later. We imagined ourselves traveling, perhaps by bus, with limited time to capture an impression of each passing scene. Her method is to quickly place the major lines for the portion of the scene she has chosen to draw: the horizon, a path, building, large tree, or whatever. Then, we were to make a few notes of dominant colors and to indicate values with numbers in the margin (from lightest to darkest: 1 to 5). Since we were using pencil (unlike our other classes, where we sketched in pen), we could later adjust the composition and sketch in other remembered elements. She projected 7 or 8 images for us to outline; than we returned to our tables to revise and color (with watercolor paints) any images we wanted to develop further.


     This could be something fun to try in future travels, and was another helpful way for me to continue practicing drawing. I am still a beginner, but have improved over these helpful lessons. I'll try not to apologize for the efforts I am showing you today. As always, you can click on any photo to see it full size.

     The entire experience at Mary Ann's home (or, La Chambre Jaune Cafe, as she calls her sun room) was delightful. The setting, decorated in the characteristic blue and yellow of Provence in France; the delicious lunch; the shared expertise of our two accomplished artist/teachers; and the lively company of fellow sketchers (many of whom create masterful pictures, quite out of my league)--all of it added up to a day to remember.

     Since I don't plan a separate post on our fourth and final class, I'll throw in a small caricature style sketch from that session. Mary Ann encouraged us to try drawing people--not in any detail or as portraits--but simply to be able to indicate the presence of others in our work. So, I doodled a fellow student immersed in her sketching.

Question of the day: In what small way have you stretched yourself lately?

Sketching Classes--Helpful and Humbling

Some of us at Mimi's (with our amazing server, Shaniqua). That's me, front right.

     I just completed the fourth in a series of sketching classes with children's book illustrator and travel sketchbook author, Mary Ann Miller. Mary Ann is a delightful, encouraging teacher who requires her students to sketch in (gasp!) pen. Even though I have been creating landscape paintings for several years, I know that my drawing skills are very limited and had planned to take a class sometime. I occasionally draw in grey tone pencil or colored pencils, often landscapes or individual elements, such as a particular tree. Small sketches are also invaluable in my planning for any painting to establish a good composition and an effective tonal balance (darks and lights). However, those sketches do not need much development; they are not meant to stand alone (one example, here).

Teacher extraordinaire, Mary Ann Miller, in the plaid.

     So, when I attended a fascinating book talk by Mary Ann Miller and saw her published travel sketchbooks (she travels often and fills a sketchbook on each trip), I knew I had found an excellent teacher. Mary Ann usually sketches with pen and water color; you can see her travel books here. The reason for her insistence that students use pen also is that pencil and eraser enable the student to draw with little forethought or planning (using a pen encourages thoughtfulness) and/or to become fussy trying to perfect a drawing with erasures and corrections. The fussy approach kills the spontaneity and liveliness of sketching. Given my limited skills, using a pen was intimidating. I had to remind myself that the learning process was what mattered and that any "failed" attempts only meant I had learned something, then turn the page and try again.

     We met on four Wednesday mornings from 10 - 12 (plus lunch together if we wished) in a different cafe each week and practiced sketching the objects and people around us. Students often sketched their breakfast, lunch, or beverage, but it is surprising how many other good practice subjects were right around us in each location. 

     These photos show the results of my work in our second class, at a Mimi's cafe nearby. Mary Ann travels with a small blue plastic vase so that she can keep a fresh flower or two in her room or even on her table at an outdoor cafe. The vase makes an appearance in many of her sketches, and several came to each class for our use. For Mary Ann's photos from these classes, see her blog (scroll down past the wonderful photos from a recent opening of their travel art group for the first two classes of our group). My first, small sketch from Mimi's followed Mary Ann's suggestion to include something that sets the piece in the place it was made--here, a Mimi's menu under a few objects. 

     The second, larger sketch shows some decorative pieces on a shelf at the cafe. You can see I took the liberty of moving the messy wine rack out and added another object from nearby in its place as well as "resizing" the urn for more variety. Given that I have never used water colors as an adult, I practiced at home after our session before adding some simple color to the first sketch. The second is still awaiting color, unless I decide to leave it as is. When I asked Mary Ann's advice about the matter this past session, her suggestion--pure genius, I think--was to make a copy of the sketch on art paper (which will fit in our copier) and to try out some color ideas on a copy or two. Will definitely do that.
Question of the day: Do you put yourself "out there" to try new activities and to attempt to learn new skills even if (like me) you hate the feeling of incompetence in the beginning stages of learning?

A Third Painting Class Assignment

     We have had a number of painting class assignments since my last post, from painting a row of trees using a random technique designed to loosen our approach, to painting an accurate image in proper perspective of a stucco ranch home. Each class and homework assignment covered a different range of skills and subject matter. This photo shows my most recent completed assignment . 

     For this class, Anthony Whiting brought in copies of a color photo of the well-known "lone cypress" on the Pacific Coast near Monterrey, CA for us to use as a reference for our homework assignment. In class, we began with sketches to determine our particular composition and interpretation of the scene in the photo. Working on the painting on heavy art paper in acrylics at home, I decided to try an under painting method Anthony had suggested at one point--to paint all or major areas of a planned work with the complementary color of the eventual hue. You can see the somewhat garish results below, which is the actual first stage of the homework painting above. I did not use an under painting for the sky area because I wanted to keep it pale and delicate, as it was in our reference photo. 

     One advantage of the complementary under painting here is that the top layer colors really pop against their opposites (orange and yellow under the blue and purple hues in the ocean; purple and grey-blue under the yellow and orange toned rock). In addition, leaving areas where the under painting shows through in the finished work gives the water more movement and a livelier look than painting it only with blues and purples on white paper would have achieved and creates interesting shadows and hollows in the rock. You can click on the image to enlarge it and to see more detail of the under painting peeking through. The palette for the painting itself included ultramarine blue, Paynes grey, burnt sienna, alizarin crimson, Indian yellow, cadmium yellow light, and Titanium white.

     This series of painting classes has been inspiring and helpful for me. Each new assignment and technique provides a learning opportunity, whether or not it seems logical or is within my comfort zone at first. This particular homework assignment yielded particularly pleasing results, and the complementary under painting is a technique I will use again in the future.

Question of the day: When you view visual art works, how great a factor is color in your preferences and enjoyment? Do you tend to prefer brighter or more subdued hues, contrasting or similar colors in the overall piece?

A Rewarding Painting Workshop Taught by Roger Bansemer

This past weekend, I attended a two-day landscape painting workshop in historic St. Augustine, Florida, taught by the noted painter, Roger Bansemer. The paintings in this post are by Roger, one done as a demonstration each of the two days. (By the way, I am trying to set up this post on the new blogger format and having trouble setting up the post the way I want to. I'm not sure how it will turn out--sorry if it's a little strange.) 


Bansemer's instructional painting television program has recently begun showing on our public tv station, and I took a look at his website after viewing an episode. Lo and behold, he offered a painting workshop over Mother's Day weekend only about a 45 minute drive from our home. I liked his painting style and his easy-going, yet very informative, manner on the television program, so enrolled in the workshop, hoping he would be a compatible teacher for me.

The workshop exceeded my expectations. As regular readers know, I tend to paint slowly and cautiously and to get overly fussy with detail in a detrimental way. Roger Bansemer was the perfect teacher to push me to a bolder, more "painterly" approach and to quash the fussiness right from the start.


Each workshop morning began with a lovely breakfast buffet, provided by the staff and volunteers of the St. Augustine Art Association, where the workshop met. Then Roger began the demonstration painting of the day, based on a photograph. He used acrylic paints, as I do, but welcomed students who were working in oils as well. His instruction covered all aspects of landscape painting, beginning with choosing a scene, then establishing the overall composition, balancing values (lights, darks, and in-between values), using a limited palette of colors, and other basics. As he spoke, he illustrated the method in his demonstration painting and kindly tolerated and answered our wide-ranging questions. 


My photos show each of his two demo paintings in an early stage and then at the end of the day after he had gone beyond the initial demo stage, using his lunch period and other free moments during the day to flesh out the piece. To begin, he rubbed a burnt sienna tone into the board as a mid-tone base. Then, he established the major dark areas, some of the lightest lights, and continued to fill in, working all around the piece in a balanced way. Clicking on any photo will enable you to see it enlarged.


After showing us the basics and answering questions, he turned us loose to work on our own chosen paintings and circulated from one student to the next, guiding each person's work. The workshop was very helpful to me, providing new skills, inspiration, and tips focused on my individual needs as an artist.

Question of the day: Isn't learning and stretching ourselves one of the most enlivening activities we can pursue?

Learning--Blogging and Landscape Painting

Thank you for your positive response to the last post. Today, I am posting a related article, also a repeat of a post from this past May. I hope you enjoy it and promise something brand new next time.

Did you learn something new today? Whether simple facts or complex new abilities, new learnings enrich life, keep us mentally and emotionally young, and just plain add fun to our creative everyday lives. I am a compulsive learner on many levels and love to gain new insights and skills. Some of my most rewarding learnings have followed attempts to understand or do something I assumed I would not do well. Taking that risk is stimulating, sometimes humbling, and always enlivening (at least in the long run), no matter what the result is.

This blog is one example of a personal learning adventure. As a minimally computer-literate person, I faced a steep learning curve in order to begin posting. Those of you who are computer-adept would have found my approach hilarious, involving everything from perusing library books to asking friends to viewing on-line video how-tos. Numerous notes and lists later, I took the heart-pounding dive off the . . . well, so far, what I have done is probably analogous to slicing into the pool from the edge; this is hardly the high dive of blogging. However, it represents an achievement for me, both in learning the basics of blogging and in publishing the thoughts and adventures of an introverted self for y'all readers.

I wonder: If blogging had been simple for me, would it have been as rewarding as it is now? In time, I hope to advance to more variety in format and to including appropriate links for interested readers, and more! (Note: I have learned to insert clickable links since I wrote this--progress!) It's a shame you can't all watch over my shoulder to chuckle (in the nicest possible way, of course) at my ongoing efforts in techno-communication. Truthfully, the process is not always fun for me, but my small triumphs are satisfying--and, hopefully, are also beneficial flexing for my maturing brain.

Oh, about the photo above, you ask? A few years ago, I took a wonderful painting course. Awkwardly wielding an artist's brush for the first time since elementary school, I discovered a whole new source of creative expression and satisfaction. With zero expectation that I would produce anything even worth keeping, I was astonished to like some of the paintings I made in the class. Now, that's a sign of a world-class teacher! I'll describe that learning adventure in future posts. In the meantime, you can view an effort from about a year ago--my response to exploring Big Talbot Island (see a recent post about that unique beach below).

Question of the day: What new learning adventure intrigues you? What fears keep you on the side of that pool? Why not give it a try?

Learning and Growing--Landscape Painting

Being Mary from Michigan (and some other 4 season-places since school years), I am thankful that North Florida has discernible seasons and some cool to moderate weather. Once summer heat sets in, however, I dream about either getting away to a cooler place or spending the entire day in the ocean.

Several years ago, I had saved for a summer getaway but found that my husband did not want to take any vacation time. He said, "You go ahead and do something anyway." Cool, but what to do? I began to picture a idealized week on my own in the mountains of North Georgia or southern North Carolina (somewhere I could easily drive in a day) taking a course in something totally new--unlike anything I had done before. Inspired by various painting shows I had seen on Public TV (don't they make it look easy?), I searched for a way to study painting in a mountain setting. To my delight, I found the John C. Campbell Folk School, the exact sort of setting and learning environment I had been dreaming about. Take a look at folkschool.org for their varied course offerings and reasonable accommodations.

As my May 1 post mentions, I had not picked up a paintbrush since elementary school, and back then, the teachers kindly "admired" my art work, patted me on the head, and allowed as how it was a good thing I had other abilities. I approached the painting class at the Folk School as a way to shake up and refresh my sometimes overly logical, mathematical brain and assumed I would make some colorful messes to throw away as I packed for home. With an excellent and encouraging teacher, I was amazed to make paintings I actually liked. And I'm still painting! My generous mentor, remarkable landscape painter Linda Blondheim, is an invaluable resource. I wish she lived closer than the 75 miles from here to her Gainesville, FL studio--even then, there is no way I could have grown in my art as much as I have without her guidance. You will hear more about her along the way, but for now, see her website and follow links to her delightful blogs and other information.

If any of you are interested, I will tell more of the Folk School learning story another time. For now, I thought you might enjoy seeing a painting inspired by photos from the Timucuan Preserve taken on the kayaking outing I described in my last post (May 4). I tried to capture the feeling of super-calm marsh land under the shimmer of heavy clouds, incredibly still air sizzling with the electric undercurrent of an impending storm.  The second image pictures an earlier stage in the painting process as I tested and balanced the values, from lightest to darkest and the in-between values, as an under-painting and guide.

Question of the day: What do you secretly want to try, even though you feel certain you might do it poorly? Why not just do it?