I went to Marco Island and I saw....

a really cool bug. what is it?



beautiful shells.

brown pelicans. 

peaceful sunsets on the Gulf of Mexico.

On a side note and a sad note, before we left we had to say goodbye to an old friend.  Little Kitty was with us for 18 years.  Here she is with her new pal Larry.  Larry has been acting oddly since she left, animals really do know, don't they?

1. an ice storm 2. a snow storm 3. a dead computer

1.  Sunday night an ice storm hit Ohio.  From Sunday night until Wednesday morning we didn't

 have power.   Despite the inconvenience of not having electricity, there were bright spots too. Sitting by the fire at night, reading by flashlight/candlelight.  We have a generator, so we had one lamp and two space heaters running. And of course coffee too, unplug the space heater, plug in the coffee.

The real gift was the day after the ice storm when the sun came out.  Magic.  My students said it looked like Narnia.  Trees covered in ice, fleshing them out as if they had grown white foliage.  Incredible.  The ice stayed for days, beautiful the whole time.

Snow Storm Painting

Oil on canvas

36 x 48

2.  Last night (Thursday) a snow storm blew through Ohio.  Still blowin' now.  The plus is a snow day!  The downside of that is it's our 7th calamity day this year, which means we have to make up days missed as we're over the limit.  I started this painting a few weeks ago, finished it today, or almost finished it.  The snow is blowing hard out there with intermittent calm spells. 

What I enjoyed about painting this was painting snow, which I rarely do. The variety of grays, blues, yellows, pinks, purples, violets.  hmmmm. yum.  All in muted grays. A beautiful challenge.

3. Our laptop died last week.  I'm working on an old laptop of my daughter's. (Thanks, Ali)   I adjusted the value and colors of the painting a little bit, but I don't think this photo does the painting justice.  I like it better in real life.  But maybe this laptop isn't showing me a good image?  I just took another picture of the painting and made some adjustments and it looks better. Plus I took some closed ups showing the lovely grays.  But...this laptop isn't cooperating and I can't upload the image!  Oh, well. maybe another time.

I hope we can revive our laptop enough so I can recover pictures and music I have stored on it!  I have some things backed up, but unfortunately not everything.

Dabbling with abstraction...Paintovers

Well, it had been so darn cold and snowy here for such a long time that it was...just sapping our energy. 

While it was cold, I had the desire to paint but no particular subject in mind.  But there were colors all jumbled up inside my head.  I took some old landscapes and did a few paintovers.

oil on canvas

12 x 16

love the colors here, the shapes too.

oil on canvas

16 x 20

I left some landscape elements in this one.  When I started this, the colors were driven by a new color I bought, Van Gogh, Azo Red Light.

 Oil on Canvas

20 x 20

Not sure about this one.  I plan to draw into it more, might change some color.  Might paint the entire painting over!  Who knows? 





Figure Unit

It's that time of year again, when I spend a week or so with the AP students drawing and painting the figure.  I love this unit!  I forget how much I enjoy drawing/painting people until I sit down with the kids and draw.

So here's a sampling of my figure studies:

Lesson two.

Double portrait.  Emphasis on contour line using waterbased marker, then value/form emphasis by adding water to the marker lines plus watercolor washes.

Lesson four.

Acrylic washes to lay in values, then worked into with oil pastels.

Lesson two.

Water based marker, contour line drawing, watercolor washes for values/form.

                                                                               

           Lesson three.

Broad washes with watercolors on yupo paper (nice hard polypropylene paper, very smooth finish; leading to real cool effects with the watercolors) laying in lights and darks, then working in the details as needed.  The students came up with some beautiful results on this one.

For lesson one we spent the classtime (about an hour and 15 min) exploring gesture drawings using charcoal and conte crayon; we moved from quick gestural studies to longer poses. 

Finally, just for fun...this picture of Larry, who says hello!

Hi, it's me...here's something new

Ok, so it's been ages since I posted and I bet everyone has been chomping at the bit.  Waiting. And waiting.
I flatter myself...hmmm. 
I have been reading other blogs, gaining insights, laughs and good ideas. (Hallie, you are my laugh place, you make my day and mood lighter)  Just laying low, taking a time out, I guess.  Reading. Resting in the winter quiet. It is comforting and soothing to nestle into the dark and cold winter nights with a good book or a movie.  Popcorn, hot tea. 

I have been working on a few paintings and have this one image to post, the others are in different stages of done or not done or going to the paint over pile.

This painting is derived from a photo I took this summer of a row of trees that intrique me.  Every time I drive by, I look at them. Year round. I'm not sure what kind of trees they are; I think they're some type of poplar or willow.  I took artistic license with how they really look and put my own spin on things.  I was going for the light around and behind the trees, which is what grabs me whenever I see these trees.

With a nod and a thank you to Iona, who mentioned "Singing Trees" as a name for my last painting that I posted, I'm calling this "All Singing".

Larry loves Snow and so do I!

It looks like snow is on the way.  Will you put on your red boots?  Let's go out and play.

This is great!  Tail up!

I love SNOW!

                                                                                

                                                                              Masked!

No Name Yet

Oil on Canvas

 30 x 40

I love snow because I got a day off.  I got to play with Larry and finish this painting.  Well, I think it's finished.  It might get a little tweaking here and there.

and What?

This image wouldn't come up for the last post so it's flying solo.

This started as a demo with my AP Studio Art for a media play day using acrylics.  I added some newspaper, inda ink, and oil pastels.  Some areas of the surface are textured with gesso and then parts are scraped away.  All to get the kids to loosen up and play!  Experience the media.  It worked, the students produced some nice, loose images--no preconceived ideas or expectations.