It's been awhile since I've been on my blog. Everything seems to take so much time. Being retired, y ou'd think I had time on my hands, but not so. There is always something to do, someone to talk to , a project to complete, a grandchild to see, always something. Time is wonderful. I"m here to enjoy it, and there have been times that being here was not a certainty.
Sat. was a busy day. As always I taught a couple of children's class. This particular class was working on their portfolois. I give every child their own drawing book, and we go through and pick out things to put in their portfolio, and my husband takes photos of all their paintings, also to go into their portfolios.
The big emphasis this time was "Let's be creative in the way we matt and present our work. I gave each one sissors, glue, colored paper, and paper to matt their work on. Anyone can do the obvious, so we strive to be different, unique, individualistic. If you are matting your pastel apples, try drawing more apples on the paper, use a different color paper next to the apple, cut apples out of paper and glue it around your work, cut out the apples, use a sharpie and draw around the apple, bringing the line on into another drawing...whatever you can think of. How about some leaves with your apples, maybe a small worm working its way out of the apple, MAKE people see it and want to smile. You're telling a story, not just showing a dead apple.
For their portfolio, we use 11x17 colored paper and mount their drawings and photos, then they go into a nice see through sleeve. The sleeve is large enough to fold over and paste down, leaving about 1" creating a nice enclosed space for their work. we put three holes in the sleeve, apply reinforcements to each side of each hole and put it in their portfolio. I've had matt board cut to the correct size, adding 2" around and use rings to hold everything together and that is the "binding" for the portfolio. They love it. Simple, but elegant in their eyes. It's black and we use a gold pen to put their names on it. At any rate, each kiddo had about five to seven drawings to matt, plus several photos, and everyone was trying to out do the next.
The last fifteen minutes of every class is drawing me. Sometimes I wear crazy hats, or wigs, and they love it. I'll tell them to draw me as an angel, which of courses I am, or a devil, or we're doing Picasso's for the next month. I bought a clown costume and had a friend dress up. Only then did I discover that a lot of kids are afraid of clowns! I'll try to get pictures to show you, but right now have none, they just took them all home.
We really get wild when they do a contour drawing of me. That's where they look at me and not their paper. The idea is to train your eye to go around the shape, and your hand to work slowly, putting down what the eye sees. Some of those stinkers have gotten pretty good at it.
Then of courses, it was the same thing all over again in the 4-6 class. These kids are a little older, so a little more opiniated about what they will or will not do. I've got a couple of kids who are really good.
I've been doing this off and own for 40 years. The last five years I have had two graduate from college and are teaching and four out of five students qualified for special art high school. YEA, I love it!
It's been a long day, If my post is full of typing mistakes, please excuse. My left hand is very weak and hard to controll....it does its' own thing with lots of e,r,and s. I've tried to clean it up, but so be it.
Don't forget to go to my Etsy site and see my work. It's under joellenart.
Have a great night.
Monday, November 8, 2010
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Finishing yesterday's blog
I really wasn't ready to post yesterday's blog, must have hit the wrong key, but thought I was saving it to work on later.
I was talking about different things that motivate me as an artists. It's one of those strange feelings when you just know you have to portray your thoughts, and colors. I go to my studio, put on my music and get lost in my own little world. I like my world, it's comforting, quite and full of pictures floating in my mind, it's just me, and that's nice.
After you decide what you think you want to paint, the next thought is, what size, is it oil, or is it watercolor? It's wonderful to have choices, but does complicate things. Frequently I do the same painting in both medias and marvel at the difference.
Because I have such a vivid imagination, often a painting is only half finished before my mind is on to the next one, interest is lost and I move on to the next thing. After working for a few hours or days, it's back to the first painting and new interest and thus completing it. I make it a rule never to work over two hours on one subject. It causes me to lose perspective, and get tired, so it's time for a break. My favorite break is a candy bar. Used to drink gallons of coffee, but because of a bad heart have had to put a stop to that. Actually I really didn't drink that much as I'd sip on it, go pull out a photograph, sketch, set of colors and get involved with something else. Guess you might say that my personality would be TYPE A.
If you will go to etsy, joellenart, you will see a selection of my work. Just put one of poinsettas on today. It's quite large 30"x40". I bought three different colors of plants and decided to put them all together in a dramatic way instead of common still life with vases etc. Well, this painting gave me fits, it just didn't look like it had any energy, or got a person involved in it. The painting was put in time out, faced the wall for three or four months.Finally one day my husband brought it to the studio and looked perplexed asking "what's the problem?" It sat in the studio for a few weeks, my seeing it every day. One morning as I woke up, the completed painting popped into my mind, and I knew instantly what to do. The answer...use a pallett knife on the background and remove that tight conservative look around the flowers, and be free with color. What fun that was! I put Elvis on, sang with him to the top of my voice and painted like crazy with a pallett knife, applying thick heavy color, getting another color and blending, mixing, working away. I felt like a dancer, moving from colors to painting and stepping back to admire or critize what I'd just done and bringing my arms up and down in very definite ways hitting the canvas with a heavy stroke, or gently caressing and blending edges. One thing with oil paint is nothing happens unless you cause it to. Every stroke is your thought, your movement causes it.
With watercolor, things just happen sometimes, the paint flows and mingles causing backwash, or beautiful blending. One of my adult strudents who has been with me for three years now and works in both medias finally came to the conclusion that she likes watercolor. She says painting with oil is like pushing mud around. It can certainly look like mud if you don't study your color theory, and techniques.
Speaking of color theory, let me tell you this little story. My first painting with a teacher was Mt. Ranier and reflection lake. It took me four months to do a simple 16x20, studying 3 hours a week. My teacher kept saying "JoEllen, add red to your green." The thing is she never told me why, or how much, or what it was suppose to do to the beautiful trees. My trees weren't beautiful, but I was quite certain I'd never seen red in the evergreen trees of Wash. Finally one day she sat with me (I think she was totally tired of me!) explained the color wheel, complimentary colors, etc., and all of a sudden I was on a roll. What beautiful trees. You didn't need viridian green, or green earth, or whatever green you bought. You simply needed the primary colors, red, blue, yellow and white. Of course 35 years later, I'm back to tubed colors as it's easier.
When I teach, it's hard to make a student do a color wheel, or color studies. Adults simply don't want to take the time. That's a mistake, and a big one! If you're studying art, get a book on color theory and work everything they say do. If you want to study lessons from me, let me know. I'll be glad help you. I still do a lot of color studies and have a notebook full of different studies of primary colors. Painting is relaxing and fun but you must learn the basics, learn your trade. It's like being a good cook, you must learn the recipes. At one time I would get paint chip cards from the hardware store, give each person a few and have them make a chart of what it took to make that color. They actually learned to enjoy those sessions. They always looked at each others colors, and got into heavy discussions about them.
Today is my studio time and I'm completing a painting taken from a vacation photo several years back, and only recently deciding to paint it. Because I've been to busy to paint for a month, I'll start with painting a couple of apples. I try to do a few a week. They look simple, but getting roundness, depth, lost and found lines and interesting brushstroke, backgrounds and colors, it's not all that easy. I tell my students to do one a week, but they don't. At least they don't have to put eyes, ears, etc in the right place, plus acquire all the other things. Everyone wants to paint a portrait!
Have a great day, let me hear from you. Tell me how you go about painting, and why.
I was talking about different things that motivate me as an artists. It's one of those strange feelings when you just know you have to portray your thoughts, and colors. I go to my studio, put on my music and get lost in my own little world. I like my world, it's comforting, quite and full of pictures floating in my mind, it's just me, and that's nice.
After you decide what you think you want to paint, the next thought is, what size, is it oil, or is it watercolor? It's wonderful to have choices, but does complicate things. Frequently I do the same painting in both medias and marvel at the difference.
Because I have such a vivid imagination, often a painting is only half finished before my mind is on to the next one, interest is lost and I move on to the next thing. After working for a few hours or days, it's back to the first painting and new interest and thus completing it. I make it a rule never to work over two hours on one subject. It causes me to lose perspective, and get tired, so it's time for a break. My favorite break is a candy bar. Used to drink gallons of coffee, but because of a bad heart have had to put a stop to that. Actually I really didn't drink that much as I'd sip on it, go pull out a photograph, sketch, set of colors and get involved with something else. Guess you might say that my personality would be TYPE A.
If you will go to etsy, joellenart, you will see a selection of my work. Just put one of poinsettas on today. It's quite large 30"x40". I bought three different colors of plants and decided to put them all together in a dramatic way instead of common still life with vases etc. Well, this painting gave me fits, it just didn't look like it had any energy, or got a person involved in it. The painting was put in time out, faced the wall for three or four months.Finally one day my husband brought it to the studio and looked perplexed asking "what's the problem?" It sat in the studio for a few weeks, my seeing it every day. One morning as I woke up, the completed painting popped into my mind, and I knew instantly what to do. The answer...use a pallett knife on the background and remove that tight conservative look around the flowers, and be free with color. What fun that was! I put Elvis on, sang with him to the top of my voice and painted like crazy with a pallett knife, applying thick heavy color, getting another color and blending, mixing, working away. I felt like a dancer, moving from colors to painting and stepping back to admire or critize what I'd just done and bringing my arms up and down in very definite ways hitting the canvas with a heavy stroke, or gently caressing and blending edges. One thing with oil paint is nothing happens unless you cause it to. Every stroke is your thought, your movement causes it.
With watercolor, things just happen sometimes, the paint flows and mingles causing backwash, or beautiful blending. One of my adult strudents who has been with me for three years now and works in both medias finally came to the conclusion that she likes watercolor. She says painting with oil is like pushing mud around. It can certainly look like mud if you don't study your color theory, and techniques.
Speaking of color theory, let me tell you this little story. My first painting with a teacher was Mt. Ranier and reflection lake. It took me four months to do a simple 16x20, studying 3 hours a week. My teacher kept saying "JoEllen, add red to your green." The thing is she never told me why, or how much, or what it was suppose to do to the beautiful trees. My trees weren't beautiful, but I was quite certain I'd never seen red in the evergreen trees of Wash. Finally one day she sat with me (I think she was totally tired of me!) explained the color wheel, complimentary colors, etc., and all of a sudden I was on a roll. What beautiful trees. You didn't need viridian green, or green earth, or whatever green you bought. You simply needed the primary colors, red, blue, yellow and white. Of course 35 years later, I'm back to tubed colors as it's easier.
When I teach, it's hard to make a student do a color wheel, or color studies. Adults simply don't want to take the time. That's a mistake, and a big one! If you're studying art, get a book on color theory and work everything they say do. If you want to study lessons from me, let me know. I'll be glad help you. I still do a lot of color studies and have a notebook full of different studies of primary colors. Painting is relaxing and fun but you must learn the basics, learn your trade. It's like being a good cook, you must learn the recipes. At one time I would get paint chip cards from the hardware store, give each person a few and have them make a chart of what it took to make that color. They actually learned to enjoy those sessions. They always looked at each others colors, and got into heavy discussions about them.
Today is my studio time and I'm completing a painting taken from a vacation photo several years back, and only recently deciding to paint it. Because I've been to busy to paint for a month, I'll start with painting a couple of apples. I try to do a few a week. They look simple, but getting roundness, depth, lost and found lines and interesting brushstroke, backgrounds and colors, it's not all that easy. I tell my students to do one a week, but they don't. At least they don't have to put eyes, ears, etc in the right place, plus acquire all the other things. Everyone wants to paint a portrait!
Have a great day, let me hear from you. Tell me how you go about painting, and why.
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Art is my love
I would like for you to look forward to seeing my work (when I learn how to put it on the blog), and be a part of the excitement I feel when discovering my next painting. About the time I think there is nothing else to paint, up pops a beautiful scene, a bright piece of fruit, coloroful flowers, a picture in my mind, something with lots of texture, a childs comment, or a ride in the country, an intriguing shadow, or perhaps simply the feelings of colors blending together, making a statement.
My first painting was done out of boredom. We had just moved from Washington State to Dallas Texas and I knew no one except the lady across the street. I met her because my oldest boy insisted on climbing her mimosa tree. She insisted he didn't, so thus I became involved in the convesrsation. We soon discovsered we had something in common....both our husband were always at work, and we both wanted to paint.
My first painting was done out of boredom. We had just moved from Washington State to Dallas Texas and I knew no one except the lady across the street. I met her because my oldest boy insisted on climbing her mimosa tree. She insisted he didn't, so thus I became involved in the convesrsation. We soon discovsered we had something in common....both our husband were always at work, and we both wanted to paint.
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