Through the Eyes of a Beginner

Helping seniors learn to paint

Last week I began volunteering at an assisted living center near my home. They have tons of activities but only one activity director who relies on volunteers – a lot. When I first met the director, she handed me an 11"x17" calendar showing all the programs and asked if I saw anything that caught my interest.

I was overwhelmed and said, "Well, I am an artist if that helps." Bingo! Her art class was about to be cancelled due to her lack of time, so now I am to be there Tuesday afternoons to help people enjoy painting.

The residents at the assisted living center where I volunteer use
small trays of watercolor like the ones we used in elementary school.

Of the five ladies that showed up, one just wanted to watch, one was a fairly accomplished painter, one was really excited about learning to paint better, another wanted to paint inside the lines on a pre-printed drawing and the last was a total beginner.

The beginner had a hard time seeing, but with the ONLY big brush we had and a little guidance, she painted an impressionistic painting of a robin sitting on a golden branch of flowers.

Since she had no previous knowledge, she had no reason to question what I told her. I asked her to look at the photo she was working from, find the big shapes, notice how dark or light they looked to her and put the paint on the paper to show that.

Since her eyesight was poor, she asked me what color would work best. When she was unsure about what to do with the background, I told her to define the shape of the bird by painting around him with the color of the background.

I was pretty excited about what she was able to create with no past experience in painting and an open mind. She had already learned about values, colors and negative shapes in less than an hour even though she doesn't realize that yet!

I hope all the ladies come back next week and bring a friend. But we really do need more paint and some BIGGER brushes!

The activity director told me I could request more supplies–
one order of brushes and supersize that please!

Did you go to school for Art?

This is a question that people ask painters, including other painters.

Did I go to school for art? Well, I thought I did but I didn't find much. Thanks to the fact that I chose design as my major, I found good beginnings in color, design, and drawing. As for painting, I did not learn much. Illustration was a part of our program, but a very weak link with an instructor who had a narrow view of what illustration should be. People who had a strong start in a good high school art program did well, but I lacked that too!

I wanted to paint realistically which just wasn't in favor at that time. In my art history class I discovered paintings by artists whom I admired and I knew where I wanted to focus but I didn't know how to get there. I was drawn to Vermeer, Hieronymus Bosch, Pieter Bruegel and most of all, Edgar Degas. I have different favorites now, but Degas is still top of my list.

To learn to paint the way I wanted to, I "took art" from anyone who would give it to me. I took recreation center classes from local artists, Alice Bess and Dot Nowell, who gave generously of all that they had learned and encouraged me with no limits. This is where I learned basics about materials, how to mix color, find the light source in the painting, and to keep trying. They also gave me the courage and taught me how to enter shows, frame my work, display my work at art shows and, again, to keep trying. Don't give up if you are rejected from a show - just keep painting until you get good enough and you will be accepted. 

Later on I took workshops from nationally and internationally known artists, who often told me things I wasn't ready to understand. I kept hearing the same things over and over from many wonderful artists and eventually I was ready to hear them and it clicked.

Susan Lyon - a fantastic artist and great teacher - with whom I have been fortunate enough to study, taught more than I could absorb at once. I think I'll need a refresher course with her!
Here are some photos of demo by Susan and the still life set up we worked from.

Now I understand more than I used to, but have to keep reminding myself to make use of the things I have learned, which is pretty difficult. I am still learning and don't intend to ever stop going to school for art! You can learn so much in a week long workshop - way more than you can absorb in that amount of time. Then the hard part comes; go home and paint, paint paint til you perfect it.

Drawing with Friends

Several times a week I have an opportunity to meet with friends and draw.  I usually don't attend more than one of these sessions per week, but it is a great way to connect with other artists and share ideas while practicing one of the most essential art skills.

One weekly event started as something called a Drawing Circle. I began drawing with these folks over 10 years ago and have been joining them off and on ever since. At the drawing circle we sat in a circle with sketch books and drew each other drawing. Nowadays, the artists take turns sitting still and posing while the rest of the group draws them, which is much easier. The people are interesting to talk to - I usually come away with a book or movie recommendation or some information I didn't have when I got there, which I always welcome.

Saturday I attended the drawing circle and had such a great time that I thought I would share some of my work with my blog readers.

 

You might want to consider starting your own group. You can meet at a coffee shop or gallery for a couple of hours a week and you'll soon be amazed at the improvement you see in your drawings. It's a good idea to time the poses - we do 15 or 20 minutes, depending upon the model's stamina. It's also a great way to get friends and family involved - they can accompany you and serve as models. No competition, just draw. If you don't want to show anyone your work, close the sketchbook when you've finished. But I bet soon you'll want to share your progress with your fellow drawers.

Happy drawing!

North Carolina Snowshine

After a couple of weeks of rain, rain, rain we had a beautiful snowfall when we awoke Friday here in the North Carolina Piedmont. I was so glad to see the sun and the snow reflecting that gorgeous light of morning that I had to put on my boots and go take a photo before the sun got any higher. I am pretty wimpy when it comes to plein air painting in the cold but I did make an attempt to do a snow painting through my window.

 

This was an exercise in chasing the sun so I decided to try another snow painting from one of the photos I had taken. I liked the peachy glow that seemed to be coming through some of the branches  against the bluish purple shadows under the trees so that's what I focused on. This took just a little over and hour to get started and then I left it alone over night and went back to work on it for about another hour or so today just to add some definition and tie it together.

This is my first finished painting of the new year, a 9x12 oil entitled First Snow.  I think it will be one of my 2 small pieces for the Small Art, Big Heart show at Hampton House Gallery opening Friday, February 8th. The show will benefit Aids Care Services of Winston-Salem, NC.

Starting the New Year

I feel like I haven't painted for a long, long time. Spent lots of time with my family over Christmas and New Years; cooked, ate, laughed and watched a lot of movies, but not much art was created here at my house. My daughters Jill and Jessica were at home long enough to settle in and relax – we just hung out together which was great.

This week I began work on a scene that I had wanted to paint for a few years.

I had taken many pictures of these young musicians, chose the best shots and combined them into this scene. The next step will be an underpainting on sanded pastel paper using watercolor or pastel and gamsol – haven't decided yet!  Got to get back to it now.
Happy Painting in the New Year!

Tis the Season for busy-ness

Becoming too busy to paint can be very frustrating and this is definitely the season when that situation occurs.

On top of holiday plans, show applications are popping up daily on emails and plans are being made for upcoming art events. I noticed that all of these deadlines for entries seem to be falling in early January. The pressure of finding time to prepare for all of these things is quite real!

As a result, concentrating on painting will be very difficult. I have decided to admit that not much will appear on the easel until 2013 and spend what time I can find catching up on marketing tasks, cleaning up and winding down 2012, Applying to the shows that I would like to enter probably won't happen until January either, but maybe I can analyze what I might want to enter in which show so I can get the applications in on time.

Happy Holidays to everyone and Best of Luck in the new year!

Being Honest with Yourself

As I was preparing to frame my work for the Germanton Gallery Miniature Show, which will open next week, I went to their site and took a peek at the preview of the show.  I could have sent my images for inclusion in the preview, but I had procrastinated. I had pieces that I had been working on for weeks but just didn't feel satisfied with them. After seeing the wonderful work that would be in the show, I was forced to step back and be objective about my efforts. Clearly these were not my best.

Walking down the hall to my studio, I was struck by the glow of golden leaves on the maple tree outside the window. I grabbed my camera, shot some closeups of the leaves and went straight to the studio to begin a new pastel.  I was so excited about the subject that the painting was effortless.

8"x10" pastel Final Performance.

Feeling like I was on a roll, I searched through photos I had taken at farm we visited in Pennsylvania. I had always loved the feeling of this image so I decided to do a pastel of the sheep family. Once again, something I loved at first sight made a good painting.

8"x10" pastel Family Time

Now I can deliver these to the gallery, relax and enjoy Thanksgiving with my family. The show will open next Friday, November 30 with a reception from 5:00-8:00 pm at Germanton Gallery in Germanton, NC. Please join us!  (Click to see directions and preview of show.)