This is a small oil paint study of a pastel i painted awhile ago. This was done quickly on Wallis paper.

Crimson Clover

The semester is well underway and i am taking 4 classes! Anthro, English, Painting and Sculpture. All good so far...but there is lots to do. Here is one of the first things i did in painting class. Painting on Kitty Wallis paper, no gesso, small...trying impressionistic style.

This is a watercolour of a photo from a nature magazine, blatantly copied - of Bright Blue Pleasing Fungus Beetles (Gibbifer californicus). i just love them, so i painted them with my new Winsor&Newton watercolour set! Painted a few weeks ago in early Jan.

Here is the finished piece, more realist than usual, but i like it. Matt took the photo and was struck by the bright winter sun making such distinct shadows on the house.

New painting, begun Jan 3.

Allium painting progression

so cheap and juicey!

so cheap & juicey

Last night i drew this of two clementines on one of the plates i made. Am beginning to paint it today.

i didn't think the portrait came out that well, so, since i love Francis Bacon...

Last day.

This is the third day.

Today i am posting about our portrait lesson in painting class. We had a model for about 4 classes. This is the first one.

Painting on top is now officially done!
This is called "Hiding". Painted at home, but not quite finished. Need to work just a bit more on it. Palette is blues/violets and yellows/oranges. i made the juicer in ceramics last summer. It works!

i finished this last week. Title is "yoghurt".

Beginning of my gray palette painting.

My project for painting this semester is "limited palette". For still lifes, sp, landscapes, abstracts and this is my study in blues.

This is the finished painting. Took the photo today...it is not exactly photo correct for now. Someday i will take pictures of all my work and keep them organized.

This is the painting before the beginning of fall
semester.

My project this semester will be using a limited color
palette. i am beginning with a still life, using a range
of blues. Will publish the photo later.

i started this spring semester. it is based on a photograph from Iceland, i think (i just tore it from a magazine).

project

another idea is to use only one color scheme:
my favorites are - green, purple, orange

Making a Mark: smARThistory - an online resource with a difference

Making a Mark: smARThistory - an online resource with a difference
(this is an interesting Art History website that i will be exploring)

Well, UAS will be starting on Sept 3 and i am taking History of World Art II and Advanced Painting - both with my mentor, Jane Terzis. Looking forward to both classes.

i have to have a project for Painting class. The main thing i want to do is just ..paint paint paint... to get some oil(mostly) - pastel - acrylic, whatever - on the "canvas". Haven't been able to do much this summer with all the house stuff going on and traveling and doing ceramics (which i LOVE).

Have some ideas...finishing gift paintings, doing a new gift painting....not sure what this project will be called. Maybe "tying up loose ends"... experimenting with styles, collage, collaboration. AND getting ready for the March show with Timi and Carol!!!

i have a title for a painting "So you want a Rothko" ... see what happens ...

I will be taking Beginning Ceramics during June. Hope to take some photos of those creations. Am excited to try a totally new medium.

This little pastel is done on Pastel Card and the gray is the rough raw surface. The tomato was sitting on my laptop. Title is "tomato on an apple".

This is the final Cape Perpetua oil painting, done with palette knife and brushes on masonite. It got chosen along with two other paintings for the UAS Juried Student Art Show going on now at the Juneau Arts and Culture Center (JACC).

I have not been good about blogging....mostly because our computer died. But now i have a new one :)   Am still painting. Will show a couple paintings done this spring '09 semester. This is a painting from a photo taken by my cousin, Tim Srofe, of Cape Perpetua on the Oregon Coast. This isn't actually the finished painting. i will take a picture of the final work and post it here, too....for comparison. This was done part palette knife and part brush - oil on board.

First painting on panel

This is my first photo of a portrait study of our model Alex, using oil paint on panel. He posed for three sessions. Interesting to paint on "wood" panel, it is kind of slick with the first coat.




This is the finished piece and i
pretty much like the way it turned
out.

Finished Lamby

This is the finished painting....to see from the beginning go down the blog. Wish i knew more about how to work this blog!

After sky - 3

After sky - 2

Here is the second stage.

Assignment after sky

To learn more about mixing oils and painting texture, we were to bring in a stuffed animal to include in a still life, or however you wanted to paint it. i chose my "lamby" from childhood. She got her tonsils out when i did. Here is the first step in that painting....got the shadows in and color on the canvas.

Painting class

As beginning painters, we have assignments to help learn basic painting techniques. After our color chart, we painted sky and now we are painting a stuffed animal. My sky is almost out of our atmosphere, you can see outer space! I will put the sky painting here as I think it is nearly finished.

Returning to UAS classes!

UAS (University of Alaska-Southeast) classes started August 28. I am taking the History of Modern Art and Beginning Painting, both taught by Artist/Professor Jane Terzis.

First thing we did in painting was a color chart - so great for getting back (after a 38 year break) to mixing oils to see what happens.

Our next assignment is to "paint sky" which is sometimes very calming and in the next moment very frustrating.

Added this sketch, too, for Hannah.

Field Sketching and Nature Drawing Class

I am posting two scanned sketches to see how they look. I did the birch tree sketch in Wisconsin, while visiting Matt. This was an assignment "Trees" for my UAS Field Sketching and Nature Drawing class taught by Kathy Hocker. Sketch was done with graphite and pastel pencil. This class is really fun and i am learning so much. Experimenting with watercolor and pen! The Thimbleberry sketch is just that! My first watercolor.

"Amazed Pears" is a pastel done fall 2007 during my "food drawing using pastels" project in Jane Terzis' UAS drawing class. i love the colors... but i didn't like it at first. i figure that was because i still am relatively a beginner using color. Pastels are so great!

Yesterday i went to the Pastels workshop taught by Barbara Craver, wonderful artist in Juneau. It was fun fun fun and i learned about "supports" for the pastel medium....that is, the paper, board or whatever you paint on. Tried out different types of pastels and different methods of preparing the support. It was a blast! I think the best tip from the class for me was that you can use Turpenoid or alcohol to make a wash or underpainting for your piece. Thanks Barbara!!

UAS Student Art Show

I was honored to be included into the UAS (University of Alaska SouthEast) Juried Student Art show with two pieces. Jim Fowler juried the show and out of over 100 pieces, about 50 were chosen for the show. One of my pieces that made it into the show was "Angular Honalee" (see below March 2) that i scanned (from a sketch made at the Ruby Room Life Drawing session) and constructed in the digital art class. My other piece was "Amazed Pears", a pastel that i made last semester while in my drawing class with Jane Terzis. Tonight was the opening of the UAS Student Art Show at the Juneau Arts and Cultural Center (old armory building). It was an amazing show with many varied art styles and mediums.

Last class

Saturday was our last Art & Technology class. We all made art cards and "traded" them. Wonderful to see (and have) everyone's creations. John asked us what we enjoyed about class. Most everyone appreciated John's teaching style; which was patient, kind, and with an artist's viewpoint to getting going with Photoshop and Painter.... and did i mention patient? We all had questions we had to ask at least twice because of the nature and enormity of Photoshop. It was a great class. I learned a ton and hope to do more in Photoshop and especially Corel Painter. I have a print that i will enter in the UAS Juried Student Art Show. We also will possibly be forming an art card group and hold trading sessions every now and then. Alex B will be heading that up. Thanks Alex!

Working away

We did some review today and got our art cards ready for printing. I also worked in Painter in watercolors. See original and finished below.

Computer Lab

Began learning how to do the Toy Camera Effect (Eiffel Tower) and Patterns (Pink Petals) in Photoshop (following printed directions!!) More to come after class tomorrow.

Today i came in to work on Toy Camera and never got to it or to the pattern practice. i hope to do that on Friday. Here are some practice pieces.

Animation class fun

Am writing this from class at UAS today! We are working on learning the animation program in Painter. Will download a rotoscope movie here for all to see. 

Wacom tablets!!

Today we learned how to use the Wacom pad in Corel Painter. OMG! i loaded a scanned line drawing onto Painter and began working with it .... it is really fun. See work (Snettisham) on right. Got out a bit early today because it's a gorgeous day here. Barbara C and i went to the State Museum to see the Garry Kaulitz exhibit, there until 29th of March. His work is beautiful - in both design and colors....very much his story (history) of 64 years of life as told by his 15 x 22-inch, and the 30 x 59-inch monoprints. I loved it....go! Kaulitz's work is titled Sankofa, an Akan (African) word that means, "We must go back and reclaim our past so we can move forward; so we understand why and how we came to be who we are today."

Extra lab

Finally got my collage scans on-blog....hard to see tho'.... Now, on to more projects!
Thanks John!

Feb 16 - missed class :(

Sadly, i was sick for class today and since i couldn't download my collage photo on my PC, i haven't made much headway on it and don't have it pictured on my blog yet....rats! i am planning on going to the open lab on Friday (22nd) and do more scanning and more work.

Re: 3rd ArtnTech class Feb 2 - Collage +

In spite of the fact i forgot a media storage device and borrowed Dan's for my collage scan (thanks Dan!) - i had a great time in class.

Making our collages from magazines was amazingly fun, opening my brain even further... i hope. i do feel lost and confused at times and if i can just use my McGyver approach more often and not be afraid of doing something wrong (and break the computer) all the time, i just might get this Photoshop thing! i didn't get to try the digital collage and i would like to do that.

i really enjoyed watching the youtube videos and i thought they ALL were art! Performance art, and engineering marvels are very much art...to me. i believe the question of whether or not something is art is entirely a personal opinion. We have also been discussing "cheating" and i thought, what if the idea comes from another piece of art? Is that cheating? Where do ideas come from? All of our art talk and sharing opinions is what makes the world go 'round and broadens the mind.

Listening to my classmates voice their opinions makes me wonder about each of your philosophy of art and how would you actually voice/write that. i am still developing my "philosophy of art" and at some point will write it down....but it seems to me that even before i write it, that it will change as i expand my "art knowledge". Below is a first try to describe my concept of "art":

Art, to me, is an expression/representation of the way a being (yes, even an elephant...they are very intelligent) "views...senses" (this is hard!) the world or universe or dream or unknown. And expresses it the method they desire, or possess, or are able(genetic gift)/skilled/trained.

How many methods of art expression can you list?....singing, dancing, acting, photography, painting, cooking, writing, keyboarding/clicking and dragging, sculpting, carving, constructing.....they are myriad....infinite?

Ok, that is my blog after a thought-provoking couple of classes!