Friday's Finds

Today's post, the first of a weekly feature, lists stuff that has caught my attention in the last few days. It may be a Web site, book, practical tip, local art news, quote, image or anything else that has recently amused me. So here goes:

No. 1 State parks during the week
Anyone who has been a little anxious about painting outside should check this out. Grab a friend or two and head out to a nearby state park any week day. You will probably have it to yourselves. No worries about curious people looking over your shoulder or concerns about blocking a path with your painting chair. The Beginning Watercolor class met last Monday in a Spring Mill shelterhouse and painted uninterrupted for nearly three hours. McCormick's Creek and Brown County state parks also offer tons of inspiration and short drive times.

No. 2 Art Institute of Chicago's "My Collections" feature on its Web site
I stumbled across this one while looking for examples of John Marin's paintings for my  Nov. 1 class (The topic is brushwork and, in my opinion, Marin is the master of modern watercolor brushwork.) On the Art Institute's Web site, you can create your own cyber collection of art. Go to http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/personalcollections/about and you'll find instructions for browsing the Art Institute of Chicago's extensive holdings and selecting pieces for your own collections. You can even add your own commentary. I entertained myself for several hours on this one -- and actually learned a thing or two without even trying.

No. 3 Free shipping at http://www.danielsmith.com
You don't even have to have a big order. Just enter the promo code WETREATU in the promotional code box in the bottom left of the Order Recap screen. But hurry. The offer expires  Nov. 1 at 11:59 p.m. PDT. BTW: Several watercolor brands are currently discounted in the Winter Sale.

Come back next week for Friday's Finds.

Let's keep this going

"Beginning Watercolor: Give It a Try" continues with four more sessions in November.

Nov. 1: Brushwork. Practice mark making with rounds, flats and other painting utensils.
Nov. 8: Composition. Learn some basics that will improve your pictures.
Nov. 15: Color schemes. Develop color plans to make your paintings expressive.
Nov. 22: Underpainting. Provide a unifying framework for your images.

The class will meet Monday 9:30 a.m. to Noon and costs $75. To register, call Nancy at 812-327-2535.

Spring Mill Paintout

Students in the October session spent their final class at Spring Mill working on leaf paintings. We pretty much had the park to ourselves, and for two and a half hours we worked on painting positive and negative  shapes. We "veined" leaves by impressing

the paper surface with orange sticks and by lifting paint. We mixed colors on the paper and glazed layers of color. We worked wet-in-wet and wet-on-dry. We added burnt sienna to our three primaries (permanent rose, cobalt blue and winsor yellow). It isn't the best fall palette, but we continue to surprise ourselves with the range of colors produced from only four colors.

Last week's barn paintings

Peggy and Lee brought their barn paintings they had started in last week's class. Lee's painting is ready for matting and framing; Peggy plans to put in darker shadows to better define the barn's side. Next week I hope to add Wilma's and Joyce's paintings.


by Peggy Myers



by Lee Collins



Time flies -- when you're having fun!



Lee prepares to transfer his drawing to the watercolor paper.





Joyce and Peggy sketch the barn for their paintings.





















  



I can't believe next Monday is the last session of "Beginning Watercolor: Give It a Try."



Joyce, Lee, Peggy and Wilma have accomplished so much in a short time. And in preparing for the classes, I have learned a lot along the way. (The flat wash prepared as an example for class No. 2 was my best ever!)

Take a look at the work produced in this first two sessions of "Beginning Watercolor."



by Jo Davis



by Joyce Stumpf






by Lee Collins

  Getting the feel of the paint, paper and water

by Peggy Myers

We spent most of the first class discovering the different ways to apply paint to paper, how much water is needed for different effects, the differences between mixing colors on the palette and on the paper. In class, students divided a watercolor sheet into geometric shapes and painted in the sections using various techniques and colors -- all mixed from the triad of permanent rose, cobalt blue and winsor yellow. Their homework was to draw a single object such as a cup, pitcher, vase, etc., and then draw a big loopy line through the painting to create numerous sections. Then, each artist experimented with different ways to apply the paint to the paper.





by Joyce Stumpf



by Peggy Myers



Limiting yourself to one color

by Lee Collins

The second class opened with practicing flat washes, graded washes and dry brush before moving into a demonstration of how values create the illusion of three dimensions. Students did 5-value charts of either permanent rose or cobalt blue.Each artist then examined the black-and-white photocopies of the single object they had selected, matching the light and dark areas to the five values on the chart they had just painted. Their homework was to finish the painting, using only the one-color. Everyone credited the value chart as the key to success. We all agree with whoever said, "Value does all the work; color gets all the credit."



by Jo Davis



 

Painting a picture



Yesterday we ventured into color by first painting a color wheel of the three primaries we've been working with and then starting a barn painting. The color wheel included primary, mixed secondary and mixed neutral colors, so everyone had an idea of how to achieve the various colors in the barn picture. We drew a rough outline of the picture on sketch paper and then used graphite paper to transfer it to watercolor paper. We got the sky and barn started, and I demonstrated how to approach the other parts of the picture.



Come back next week to see the gallery of barns Joyce, Lee, Peggy and Wilma create.

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.