Bloomington's Gallery Walk!

 Friday, Oct. 1


Tropical Hilltop

5 - 8 p.m.

Check out the art in nine galleries all within walking distance of each other.

"Tropical Hilltop," a watercolor I did at Hilltop Garden's 2008 Tribute to the Tropics, is on display at Gallery North. Also hanging there is "Rising Sunflower," a watercolor on masa paper that gives a batik-like effect.

Full circle: Teaching

 

My first real job was substitute teaching, and last week I returned to that job title when my good friend Jeanne Dutton asked me to sub for her at Ivy Tech's Beginning Watercolor classes at the Waldron.

I'm glad to report that Jeanne is healthy again and back in her classroom and that subbing as an art teacher for adults is worlds apart from that first subbing job in a junior high! The whole experience of teaching for Jeanne confirmed my decision to offer beginning watercolor classes at my studio.

Next month, I will be offering beginning watercolor instruction Monday mornings from 9:30 to Noon. The goal is "Fearless Painting." It's only paper, water and paint, after all. Students will produce a painting in each class session.

Oct. 4: Getting comfortable with your materials and supplies

Students will learn what materials and supplies they need. Using materials provided, they will produce a geometric painting that familiarizes them with the feel of the paint, brushes and paper.

Oct. 11: Painting in one color

Everyone will practice flat and graded washes, paint a value scale in a chosen color, and then use that knowledge to produce a painting of a single object.

Oct. 18: Putting it together

The class will introduce masking as a way to save the white of the paper, wet-in-wet painting as a background, and finally wet-on-dry painting to complete a floral painting.

Oct. 25: Painting the season

The final class will honor the season's falling leaves as students practice mixing colors on paper instead of the palette and experiment with positive/negative technique in a leaf painting.

If you or someone you know has ever looked at a watercolor painting and wondered how it was created, this is your chance to find out. Call me at 812-327-2535 and I'll reserve a space. (And if the class schedule just doesn't fit your calendar, call me anyway and we can arrange private lessons.)

Friday: In three acts

Act One: Packing insecurities

Just how hard can it be to pack a painting to be hand-delivered to an art show?

More so than I thought!

I had planned to deliver the "Sunflower Trio" to Indianapolis before the end of August, but that plan went down the tubes when none of my Cheap Joe's boxes were as big as I had thought. Lesson learned: Always, always measure! So I spent half a day shopping the office supplies stores and UPS store for the appropriate box size before deciding online shopping would be quicker in the long run. Within 5 days, two 30x36x6 inch cardboard cartons were dropped at my doorstep.

Referring to the WSI's shipping instructions, I noticed for the first time that the letter referred to "crate," not box. Oh dear, surely I do not need to build a wooden crate, I thought. My mind couldn't even go there, so I brushed that word aside (and am still hoping "crate" applies to containers being actually shipped instead of hand delivered).

The next challenge:  Keeping at bay my worries about "What will they think?" They wouldn't reject the painting at the last minute because it arrived in a carboard box instead of a crate, would they? And what will they think when they see the interior packing? (The bubble wrap needed to be supplemented with styrofoam that had formerly protected a computer monitor. And when even more cushioning was needed, I took Meredith's old cardboard bricks -- you know the preschool variety that come in red, yellow, blue and green -- and tucked them in the bottom and both ends.) When the Watercolor Society of Indiana folks open the box, they will either be horrified by my unprofessionalism (if that's a word) or give me extra credit for creative reuse of unorthodox packing materials. How's that for a prize category?

Shelley Cannon Frederick's work at A2Z

Act Two: Quick right turn

Having delivered the painting to the WSI office, I headed east on 96th Street toward Allisonville Road where I planned to shop at Prizm Art Supplies. I was amused by how much the area had changed since I lived in Indy a lifetime ago; nothing was familiar. And then I saw the A2Z sign! I know that place. It's where Shelley Cannon Frederick is showing her paintings. So I made a quick right and snaked my way back through a parking lot to A2Z. The paintings are beautiful, and the restaurant serves breakfast all day -- my kind of place.

All the pretty colors

Act Three:  Feeding my addiction

My last Indy stop was Prizm, where I could blissfully shop for art supplies without having to worry about meeting someone at a particular time or keeping someone else entertained while I browsed. It was heaven. I started just to the right of the door with the books and worked my way aisle by aisle through the store. I listened to other shoppers and the store clerks talk about this weekend's Penrod and T.C. Steele Paintout as I considered several paints and brushes. I ended up buying liquid frisket and nib, aquabord, plastic paint cups with lids and  Drawing from the Mind Painting from the Heart by Annette Carroll Compton. I don't think I've ever left an art store empty-handed. It was 30 miles down SR37 before I realized I had forgotten the one item I had gone in for specifically: acetate envelopes. Oh well, it was a great day anyway.

To paraphrase Sally Field, "They like me!"

Sunflower Trio

I know the actress was much derided for expressing this sentiment in her 1984 Oscar acceptance speech, but I honestly heard it echo as I read that the Watercolor Society of Indiana had accepted my "Sunflower Trio" into its Juried Exhibit. The show runs at the Indianapolis Museum of Art Oct. 17 to Dec. 5.

The opening reception is at the IMA's DeBoest Auditorium Oct. 17 at 2 p.m. I'll be there because I am so excited to have my work in a museum. The facts that "Sunflower Trio" will be at the IMA for a short while and that it's part of a group show doesn't dampen my enthusiasm. The museum thing has been a goal/dream/aspiration for years.

Down a notch

Don't worry that success has gone to my head. The following day I received a rejection from another juried competition I had entered. It was easier to stomach, given the preceding day's news. 

Tombi

Santa Fe Chapel

Nos. 2 and 3

Last Friday, I received an e-mail from Tom Poole of Bowling Green, Ky., that two of my paintings had been juried into the Kentucky Watercolor Society's Aquaventure 2010 show. Suddenly 2010 is looking pretty good.

"Tombi" and "Santa Fe Chapel" will be hanging at the Kentucky Museum on the Western Kentucky University campus in Bowling Green from Sept. 18 to Oct. 17. The opening reception is Sept. 18 (but I won't be there -- atoning trumps art that day).

Juggling logistics

So this week I had to figure out how to most efficiently deliver these paintings. I first had to reframe "Tombi" because its frame was splitting. This sounds simple enough, but because I needed to get the KWS paintings to Louisville by Thursday morning I had to throw myself on the Framemakers clerk's mercy. After hearing how I'd have to drive all the way to Bowling Green (about 8 hours roundtrip) if I couldn't deliver the paintings by Thursday, he agreed to put a RUSH on the job. He delivered on the promise, too. Thank you, Framemakers!

Then I arranged to drive to Louisville Wednesday night, stay with my in-laws, and hand-off the paintings sometime that night or Thursday morning to Jean Jansen. I took the Garmin GPS so I would be able to find Jean's in the dark, but that wasn't necessary. Jean pulled up in front of my in-laws' home at 10:40 p.m., and we packed them into the back of her car -- the paintings, not the in-laws. One mission accomplished, with a giant assist from Jean!

Now, next week I will drive to northside of Indy to deliver the Sunflower Trio.

Right now, it seems my creative time is being consumed by driving time. But I am NOT complaining.

Q: Why write a blog?

A: I blame the Rule of Threes -- and no, I am not referring to the compositional device of dividing the width and length of a page into thirds. I'm talking about that phenomenon of happenings coming in trios:

• Two celebrities die within days of each other and people start guessing who will be next. (Most recently, it was Gary Coleman, Dennis Hopper and Rue McClanahan although I've always considered Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison the supreme trio of celebrity deaths.)
• Catastrophes happen in threes. Case in point: Icelandic volcano, BP oil spill and Nashville floods within weeks of each other.
• Or on a more positive note, we think the third time's a charm.

Admittedly, the argument is statistically shaky, yet I have found the Rule of Threes to be a useful guide of sorts. When an idea or name crops up a third time in a short period, I snap to attention. Sometimes, I even take action.
So here's the provenance of DavisMetz Studio blog:

1. This summer I read Julie and Julia, Julie Powell's account of cooking her way through Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking, a feat she documented on a BLOG.
2. I spent an afternoon with my good friend Jeanne, who taught me how to post the Bloomington Watercolor Society's newsletter on the organization's BLOG.
3. The Kentucky Watercolor Society offered a workshop that promised attendees would leave with a BLOG installed.

Three BLOG opportunities in quick succession equal this DavisMetz Studio blog.

What'll be in it for you?
I hope you'll find inspiration, some helpful info and some friends.

What's in it for me?
Sure, it'll be a platform for self-promotion. But it will also provide some structure for my art interests, connect me with fellow artists and teach me a thing or two.

I'll be back in a few days. Hope to see you here.