May 2013 Trip, Part II--Teaching Art on a Cruise

The most fun part of teaching an art class on a cruise is meeting interesting people. However, there are  some limiting factors to teaching on a ship. The class runs about one hour and is held in a room with plenty of seating, but small round tables. (Both cruises I've been on have held the classes in a large lounge.) Also, participants run from total beginners to quite experienced artists, so the project has to have some sophistication, yet be adaptable to the simpler activity of learning to use paints.

After my first experience of teaching watercolor classes on my cruise to Alaska last May, I realized I could help participants have a much better experience with some organizational changes. It also improved my experience because everything ran so smoothly!

• The best "new thing" was using my iPad which had 2 to 4 minute demonstrations of each project. I simply connected the iPad to the ship's digital projector and "viola" the entire project, start to finish, was projected on a large screen.
• Because of the limited time and the fact that many people have difficulty doing a drawing, I had each landscape and floral project lightly sketched on watercolor paper. 
• I was prepared for 50 students (which is what the ship requires) and knew ahead how things would be shared and what type of brushes would work best for any given project.

The first project was Paint a Card. I suggested that people choose one word to paint by charging in one color to the next, then decorate the rest of the card with "confetti" type brushmarks. You can see how creative people got with this one.

 

This photo gives you a view of the workspace in the Pyramid lounge. 

This group concentrated on their work.

Everyone found success with a mosaic project.

Gentlemen can paint!

I loved the adventurous colors used by this fellow.

It was fun to have a diverse age group.

Even Landscapes were a breeze for this group.

                               

                             

I really enjoyed the family groups who came to the classes.

The final project was the one I was most concerned about. Painting a floral, and a poinsettia in particular, might be challenging for some beginners, but these participants dove into the painting and came up smiling.

I was so happy to see Paul and Gina ( my new British BFF's) show up for my last class. After sharing so many stories and laughs each night at our dining table, I was glad they came to paint.

        

"And miles to go before I sleep."

 

Margaret M. Williams

(1916-2013)

After living with Alzheimer's disease for more than a decade, my mother died earlier this month. She dedicated her life to her family, which flourished, leaving behind 47 living descendants. (A daughter and grandson predeceased her.)

She was a a survivor and a role model for those who knew her. She taught me the meaning of unconditional love and the importance of giving support and encouragement to those around you. Her life was about "putting one foot in front of the other" in bad times, adapting when necessary, and loving, laughing, and giving as much as possible. She never gave up. 

She put in her miles. Her time to sleep has come.

A Stamped Start--Another Workshop Piece

 

This may look like quite a mess, but in Mary Ann Beckwith,s workshop we learned a method of taking this start to an abstract finish. 

Step one was to stamp and texture the piece with everything from rolling paint over a garlic bag to laying down a string of beads and spraying over it. There is no right or wrong to this step. This needs to be completely dry before working on it.

Step two is choosing an abstract design. I used a method also taught by Mary Ann which involved cutting a small window (2" x 3" inch or so) out of white paper. Next we looked for a piece of interest from a magazine, or a combination of several pieces to create a small abstract to inspire the large painting. By placing clear tape over the whole piece, the combined design holds together. (Most of this small design was from an ad for a power tool.)

 

The next step is to paint over the stamped piece of watercolor paper following the design created in the little window.  Surprisingly, the underpainting shows through. This process also takes the patience of letting the first layers dry and painting over the new design 2 or 3 times. Each layer adds depth and richness. And, yes, the stamping keeps coming through.

The final step is the most fun for a painter like me--adding the caligraphic marks, stamping on the top of the piece, and other mark making. See the finished painting below. I've titled it "Elephant Trunks," can you see why?

 

Elephant Trunks, aquamedia
30 x 22 inches

Finishing is 90% of the Painting Process

I've just returned home from the Watercolor Society of Oregon Convention which happened last weekend, followed by the WSO workshop which was this past week. Our instructor Mary Ann Beckwith made the statement that 10% of the effort put into a painting was the beginning and 90% was (or should be) put into the finishing. This was just one of the many instructive comments our instructor made during this workshop that I stored away. Mary Ann generously shared these incredibly vivid liquid watercolors she uses, which provided the wonderful colors in the kites. I had a lot of fun coming up with the concept of this piece, using kite shapes and tape to save areas of color and spraying over the top with a white paint to create the background. You can see that the white paint was just a film, letting the original color come through, making the background more interesting. Nice isn't it? However this is only the 10%.

 

Another workshop participant and talented artist, Linda Rothchild-Ollis, looked at the piece and said, "let's take it to the next level." Mary Ann Beckwith uses more neutral layers over a piece like this to icrease focus and interest, and Linda offered to help me use Photoshop to do the same with this piece. The following morning, Linda took the picture you see above and loaded it on to her laptop. We could then play with the added layering ideas and also add some more line work. Below is the computer version.

 

Linda next emailed me the photos which I opened with my ipad. I then could use this Photoshopped image to work on the acutal piece. I felt like some computer genius with my ipad helping me develop this piece to completion. In reality, my friend Linda did all the computer work, but I am inspired now to learn how to use Photoshop to edit paintings like this.

As you can see, the 90% of finishing started with Linda encouraging me to add the layers. I did indeed spend quite a bit of time finishing this painting after first envisioning it with the help of the computer. If you scroll up to the beginning and compare it to the finished piece below, I think you will see the difference between just a nice painting amd a really interesting and more evocative piece. At least that's how I feel about it.

 

Windy Day, 20 x 26
Watercolor on Yupo

I Like to Find Thick Envelopes in My Mail

This past week I expected to hear from two exhibitions I'd sent entries to. (An artist is given a mailing date for the notification from an art competition.) When I pull the responses out of the mailbox, I know right away whether it's an acceptance or rejection. The acceptances are thick envelopes with all the information the artist needs to frame, label and ship the painting to the exhibition. The rejections come in an envelope with a single page letting you know your painting will stay in it's drawer for awhile longer.

Expressions West 2013 at the Coos Art Museum accepted my painting "Convocation I." The juror for this event is John Hewitt and the exhibit is at the Coos Art Museum in Coos Bay, OR. I've had other work at that venue, and the museum is really lovely. 

 

And today I received a rejection letter from the Emerald Art Center's National Show. My "Yosemite Trickster" did not make the cut. 

 

Frankly, I like to get the thick envelopes!

Painting For a Fund Raiser

 

Bigelow Rapid
11 x 14

I was asked to donate a painting to a local scholarship fundraiser--The Doug Dunbar Scholarship.

I decided that an interpretation of a spot on the McKenzie River would appeal to a wide audience around here and consequently raise more money. I worked from a couple of photos taken on one of Mike and my little summer afternoon raft trips.

Because of the art path I've been travelling, it's a challenge to just paint something that "is." However, it turns out I can go back to my roots in transparent watercolor (with a touch of gouache) and paint a pretty landscape.

Orange Juice or More Lemons? You Be the Judge

You are no doubt familiar with the old saying "If life hands you a bunch of lemons, make lemonade." My 11 year-old recently shared a slightly different version,"If life hands you a bunch of lemons, make orange juice and let people wonder how you did it." So today's blog and art is inspired by that new version.

In November I was messing around with surface texture using rice paper applied with gesso and thick gesso which was scraped around with my toothed credit card. On top of that I used acrylics, watercolors, inks, watercolor pencil, etc. In the end, I had a failed painting, in the sense that it was not pleasing to the eye. On the other hand, I learned a heck of a lot.

 

I pulled it out of my flat files the other day, and decided to continue my experimenting. I'm not sure how the idea came to me, but I decided to cover all but two somewhat nice water areas with rice paper. This created a couple of windows into the river scene.

 

Once this simple act was done, I started seeing ways to respond to what was left. I first painted the rice paper with a gold/orange and looked at that for a few days. I could see that I needed to connect the two windows which I did by applying a larger square shaped line on the rice paper part with molding paste. I painted that with just a slightly darker gold orange making the connection. And then I was off on an adventure. I stamped, applied self-colored tissue and rice papers. I created a cruciform (cross-shaped) design. I moved white water across the paper horizontally with white ink and acrylic paint. Mostly I just had fun following my instincts and trusting my eye to see how to weave this all together. And "weave" is the thought that brought me the title well before it was done.

"River Tapestry," really mixed media, 15 x 21 inches. Orange Juice or More Lemons? You Be the Judge.