In The Galleries

I had a wonderful time as the Artist in Residence du Jour of the Worcester Art Museum. yesterday. I had hoped the museum would have done some advertising about the event, though truthfully, the weather was so gorgeous there were very few visitors to the museum all day. Next time, I'll arrange for a rainy day. A big thank you to friends and a family who braved a trip to the wilds of Central Massachusetts. I really appreciated your support.

Since I only had the one day and was expected to have a finished or nearly finished piece at the end of the day, I had planned on using Tim Rollins and K.O.S. The Scarlet Letter VI as my inspiration. Instead of doing an illuminated initial, I wanted to do some sort of an altered book sculpture. I put out a call to family and friends to see if anyone had an old copy of Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter and came up with nothing. At the last minute, I was searching for a used copy and found a 1970 copy of a Penguin Classic. Big deal, right? Except the cover was a portrait painting of Mrs. Elizabeth Freake and her daughter, Baby Mary. The portrait just happens to hang in the American Gallery of, you guessed it, the Worcester Art Museum. Was that fate or what?

I have to say I really liked having the museum all to myself. Sitting and sketching was very relaxing. I can see the advantage of having a studio outside of one's home. No distractions to take your mind off your work. No one asking about lost items, and no guilt about ignoring the siren call of dirty dishes in the sink.

 First stop was to the 20th. c. gallery where I played with the letter A

Then I paid a visit to the Freakes. 

And then on the balcony of The Renaissance Court, I sketched a really cool, bas relief coat of arms with a dragon for a crest. 

Next stop, the studio, but I'll bore tell you about the rest of the process on Thursday.

My Bag is Packed

I'll be spending Thursday through Sunday in Boston with The Young One. She'll be manning the WPI IMGD booth at PAX-East, she and her teammates put together as part of their IQP (individual qualifying project, one of the 3 project requirements to graduate) I get to tag along because the school isn't going to reimburse the team for their hotel rooms. The Young One didn't have enough money for the room, and the hotel requires an individual to be over 21 in order to book a room.

While The Young One is busy at the booth and hobnobbing with the Gamer Geeks at the Con, I'll be having my own private, artist retreat. My new, blue bag holds my art journal, a box of 12 Derwent Inktense watersoluable ink pencils, a tool bag with  few toys (assorted pens, eraser, pencil, lead pointer, and a waterbrush). There's also plenty of room for the iPad.

If you're in Boston this weekend to attend the Con, stop by the WPI IMGD booth and say "hi" to the team, collect the swag they are giving out, and play the games WPI students are working on. Also tell them they did a great job on their booth. They put a lot of time and effort into it.

If you're in Boston to see the sites or to shop, and you see a woman with a cobalt blue bag roaming around, that will be me.

Opposites

The February Sktechbook Challenge theme was Opposites. I thought of night and day.

Day sky colored with washable crayon and water soluble oil pastel. Night sky painted with some inks I found when I reorganized a drawer. Higgins Blue, Purple, an a bottle of Scriveners which was given to me after a friend took a trip to England. The black ink isn't good for writing, but it worked nicely as paint. dot from a Pilot Gold marker were used as a resist. A picture of a full moon was printed out, cut in half glued with matte mediim and colored with oil pastels. The other half of the picture was used as a template to draw a sun on a scrap of 90# Arches watercolor. This was also glued with matte medium and colored with the oil pastels.

While searching for day/night or sun/moon quotes I came across: "We are sun and moon, dear friend; we are sea and land. It is not our purpose to become each other; it is to recognize each other; to learn to see the other and honor him for what he is: each other's opposite and complement" - Hermann Hesse. Done with FW acrylic black and Ziller Winter White, Nikko G nib.

What do you think of when you think of opposites?

Picasso Cats

From Drawing Lab for Mixed Media Artists by Carla Sonheim. Lab 19 Picasso Dogs. I'm not much of a dog person but prefer cats. So that's what I did because I can color outside the lines and break the rules.

Was a fun and relaxing exercise. Draw an element and then turn your page 90 degrees clockwise. Connect the lines and color in. Give it a try drawing dog, cat or whatever critter you love best.

Upper left is Mitty, the cat we had before Ink ( lower right)

Sketchbook Exercise

I needed something to do where I didn't have to have a high degree of concentration. I came across this little exercise. Begin with a line drawing. Don't think about the line or where it's going. Just move your drawing tool across your page.  When you're done with the line drawing, look at the drawing at what you "see", similar to looking for objects in clouds.

I used a black Sharpie marker to make the line drawing. Then the fun part, looking for things and coloring them in with Sharpie markers. You can use whatever media you like to add color: watercolor pencils, colored pencils, water colors, markers, crayons... I like the vibrant colors of the Sharpie markers.


For those of you who read the Highlights magazine as a kid, this exercise reminded me of trying to find the hidden objects.

I don't know whether to be amused or frightened that these things live inside my head. Some of the things I saw were influenced by what was going on the day I did the drawing.

Can you find the:

Manicured hand with the tarty red nail polish - Facebook friends were talking about having manicures and pedicures

the sock - I did a load of laundry

the swan - Didn't see any on the frozen lake as I took The Eldest to work. There are dozens of swans and they must be hibernating.


the bunny

Gort's head (the robot from the 1951 movie The Day the Earth Stood Still - AMC ran the movie Friday night in honor of the 60th anniversary of the movie.)

the flamingo

the Punch and Judy looking witch with a green wart on the end of her nose

the shy girl

the skull

the leg with the fishnet stocking

the mermaid (I have a mermaid mural over the sink in the bathroom so I see this image countless times during the day)

the guitar

the fish

the smiling whale (though The Young One thought it was a smiling tube sock. Everyone's a critic)

Ink, my black cat though not rendered true to life or we'd never see his muzzle

the mouse - living in the woods, a little visitor or two has been known to come in and sometimes falls down a lally column in the basement. Usually the little critter doesn't make it out. I usually hear scratching coming from the column and Ink usually sits beside the column if there's a guest (or snack) No noises and Ink hasn't been standing guard duty.

the dog - a new friend adopted my friend, Iowa

the maraschino cherry

the bird

the hedgehog

the angry plesiosaur or dinosaur - I got some news I was not happy about

the fish - The Eldest has a betta fish and I'm wondering about its transport back to college on Monday

Did you like finding the hidden objects game when you were a kid? Do you see any other objects I might have missed?

Highly Prized

Highly Prized is the theme for this month's sketchbook challenge. I wasn't sure what I was going to do. Then I saw a Dover clipart of a cat sitting on a pile of books. I love books. As a kid I spent every Saturday at the library. I usually have a book with me in the car for all the wait times. My cat, Ink, is fond of sitting on papers or on my book when I'm trying to read so I copied the drawing. Drew Ink from the back and added my new toy, Nook. Now I can carry my library with me wherever I go.

Sketched in with pencil and then went over the line with a Pigma pen. Colored pencils, Gilded book edges painted with Schminke Gold Perl watercolor,

What's your highly prized?

M.A.H.O.D.

Another study of hands. I found the left hand exceedingly difficult to draw. Just couldn't "see" the shapes and get my head and pencil to go around them. Barbie says, "drawing hands is hard." I'll set it aside and come back to it later.

Have you found a task difficult to comprehend and execute? Do you just plow through it or, do you set it aside for a later time?

M.A.H.O.D.

Another view of MAHAND. Anybody but me remember the ventriloquist from The Ed Sullivan Show? He had a face painted on his hand, moved his thumb up and down to make the face talk. He rested his hand on a wood stand with a little suit. I thought it was hysterically funny so of course I painted my hand with a little face and made it talk.

Anybody else do this as a kid? Anybody still do it?

In case  you were too young to remember The Ed Sullivan Show, you can see a clip of Señor Wences on YouTube

M.A.H.O.D

Today's M.A.H.O.D. is MAHAND. LOL I just slay me!

Color me surprised. Usually I have trouble drawing hands that look like hands. I'm quite adept at drawing a hand that looks like a mitten, or a cartoony hand with four fingers, but not a real hand. Still have to draw my hand in two other positions to complete this assignment.

What's your take on puns? Love 'em? Leave 'em?

M.A.H.O.D.

Found a leaf on my walk. While waiting in the car, I sketched some leaves. At home, outlined them with Pigma pen and filled in with watercolor pencils. Added some detail with colored pencils.

What do you do while you wait in the car?

Counting Blessings

Oh, the luxury of having 120 colored pencils.  Four trays of pencils nestled in a tin. Nice and neat, especially if I remember to put my toys away.

Do you put your toys away?

M.A.H.O.D.

Armed with my sketchbook, I visited the Roman gallery at the Worcester Art Museum. I thought I would try to sketch the statue of Venus. I felt awkward, all by my lone, in the gallery. A bit disconcerting having the busts of several Roman emperors staring at me from across the room. I nearly jumped out of my skin when the security guard making his rounds came into the gallery.


Statues have always fascinated me. Amazing how the sculptor can shape the hard stone giving it the soft roundness of flesh, or the cascading drape of clothing.  The statue is dated between the 1st. and 2nd centuries A.D. I should have paid more attention to the description to find out why she is headless and one arm is broken. I wonder what her face looked like?

As I sketched, I wondered why plus size women's clothing is called Goddess size. This Venus was every inch a goddess, but hardly plus size. She appears to be a very lush size 8 or 10 tops. I'd love to have her curvaceous shape, though at my age, I don't think certain parts would drift North., at least not without the help of a roll or two of Duct tape.

M.A.H.O.D.

The rose bushes didn't do so hot this year. What the hail storm didn't destroy, the beetles did. I was thinking of digging the bush up. Roses are so fussy. No amount of dusting/soaping/spraying keeps the beetles and bugs away.The year we put out a beetle trap, we must have attracted every beetle from three counties. I was very surprised to find a rose and a rosebud on the bush. Clipped the rose and put it in a glass vase. This drawing done with watercolor pencils.

Any late roses blooming in your garden?

M.A.H.O.D.

The school the Young One attends is a tech school, and the techies do love their acronyms. I was surprised to find acronyms had evaded her art class when she told me she had to work on her M.A.H.O.D. Make A Habit of Drawing. The instructor compared art to sports or music. Athletes and musicians practice every day to improve their skill. She told her students artists should do the same.

The instructor gave the students a list of things she wanted them to draw: a comic panel, tree, their foot, hands in various positions. I decided to play along too as I can use the practice, especially when it comes to drawing hands (I make mittens)

This exercise is an example of Ukiyo-e. Japanese wood block prints. The illustration was taken from Kendo master, Miyamoto Musashi's (c. 1584 - 1645) philosophical text and life's work, The Book of Five Rings.

My samurai looks tipsy. Perhaps, he's a master in the Drunken Master technique, a style comprised of unpredictable movements and surprise attacks. That's my story, and I'm sticking with it. Rent the movie The Legend of the Drunken Master starring Jackie Chan to see a master in action. Good movie.

If you're involved in an artistic or athletic pursuit, do you practice every day?

Open House

Friday night the Worcester Art Museum held the annual Fall Open House. It's a chance for prospective students to meet the faculty, watch demonstrations, nosh on light refreshments, and sign up for classes.

I worked on a couple of exemplars (this is the better of the 2 I did). Done with walnut ink, a Speedball C-1 nib (what beginning students in class will use) and for fun, I dropped in some Schminke Gold watercolor.  The scan doesn't show  the shine of the gold very well. Looks awesome, if I do say so myself.

I had fun chatting to people while I worked. Makes me laugh when I hear "Oh, I couldn't do calligraphy."  "I'm left-handed so if I can do this, you'll have no problem." LOL

During the lull, I ran up to the lobby to chat and check out the new Strathmore Visual Journal, Andy Fish and his fiancee, Veronica were demonstrating. Was fun looking at Andy's illustrations. The journals are wire bound so they lie flat when opened. The paper is 90 lb vellum. and the journals come in a range of sizes.

C. C. Lowell kindly supplied the faculty with a goody bag of art supplies and a small (3.5" x 5") Strathmore Visual Journal was included. I have an idea for a small journal so spent the weekend happily preparing pages so when the urge to journal happens, I'll be ready to go. The paper is really nice. Takes wet media well and doesn't buckle.

If you're interested in keeping an art journal, but not sure where to begin or want to learn different techniques, Strathmore is offering a series of FREE online workshops! Visual Journal Online Workshop Series Check it out!

Road Trip

You can read about the Road Trip here

Have you ever tried to do a good deed, and then questioned your sanity?

Silence is Golden

What do you do when you feel you are standing still and others are flying by you? How do you stop that voice that says you aren't good or aren't good enough?

"Silence is golden. Duct tape is silver."

Light Up the Darkness

"Light up the darkness." Heard this quote while watching I Am Legend. The quote is attributed to Bob Marley. I liked the quote and wrote it in my quote book.

This is one of those experiments that looked better in my head than it does on paper. A gold leafing pen acted as a resist to the sumi ink and wash used for the background. I like how the gold shimmers with light. I thought I would like the black writing on the black background, but it's hard to read in places. I'll be revisiting this quote soon.

Have you worked on something, thought the effect was meh and then went back to it at a later time? Were you pleased with your efforts?

The Friday Five

Once a month, usually around the 15th of the month, my PC bogs down when trying to boot up. It's as if the machine is performing a disk defrag. I can't for the life of me find out what update it's magically doing. I've turned off all auto updates and perform them manually overnight instead of updating when the machine boots. Yesterday, a few days into the beginning of a new month, the computer just decided to take it's sweet time to boot. I'm talking over 30 minutes. It's frustrating to say the least. So, five things I do while waiting for the machine to boot up:

1. Cuss, swear, or speak in tongues.

2. Doodle

3. Read a chapter or two of a calligraphy or web design reference book

4. Make a cup of tea (sometimes done in conjunction with #3)

5. Perform some percussive maintenance. This technique used to work great on televisions in the olden days. Doesn't seem to do much now except it makes me feel better.

What do you do to keep your blood pressure from soaring while you're waiting?

More Time

I have an incredibly busy week coming up. This is Graduation Week for The Young One. Rehearsals at the church for the Baccalaureate Mass Tues. evening. A final graduation rehearsal. The Senior breakfast and graduation assembly with the entire school. The assembly is where school scholarships are awarded. Graduation  is Thurs. evening at the convention center. In between I have to get some pictures of The Young One in her white cap and gown with her gold National Honor Society hood and gold tassel. (Shameless bragging!) and I have to prepare for my class on Wed. night. My dragon piece should be ready to be picked up from the framer. And then there are the routine household chores like doing the laundry, cooking, and cleaning.

So what did I do? I wished I had more time. And then I thought, does anyone wish they had less time? Duh! I also found myself with my journal doing a page because procrastinating is way more fun than housework. The background was done using a white plastic eraser and a Colorbox rainbow stamp pad. This idea came from the Alphabeas Calligraphy Guild March meeting. From the guild photos, it looked like erasers were painted and then stamped on paper for a colorful background. Too lazy to get out my watercolors, I decided to use the stamp pad and then I could rubber stamp the illustrations. The hand used is based on Palm's Graffiti used to write on the Palm PDA. I always thought this would be fun to do with a pointed pen and ink.

What's on your to do list this week and how do you procrastinate?