Mid Year Report

Happy Canada Day Everyone!

Here we are at mid-year and I have to wonder how you are all doing at keeping your New Year's resolutions. I called them New Beginnings this year and had three of them on my list. I'm not doing so well with the weight loss and tidying but I'm certainly having a great time keeping the third one. That's all about furthering my art.

I have gone out of my way to make sure I learn new things this year. As I've told you I took a course through Sketchbook Skool called Drawing Without Talent and really enjoyed it. I was so pleased to see a definite improvement in just a month's time.

Then I got involved with a group that met at our local library once a month. I was introduced to a lot of new mediums while we set about creating an art project for Canada's sesquicentennial. The work was all photographed and printed on shipping labels that were then stuck onto a map of Canada in a way that corresponded to the regions. The map was unveiled this past weekend with just some of us in attendance.

In the meantime, I took on a five-week course at Sketchbook Skool that, among other things, had me go sit in a public place and draw what was in front of me. I had never done that before and I thought it was great fun. It will be my new summer pastime. In fact, I just got invited to join a local group that would be doing just that each and every week throughout the summer months. A year ago I never would have considered accepting such an invitation but the Sketchbook Skool courses have given me the confidence to jump in with both feet.

I stopped by the Sketchbook Skool closed Facebook page to tell them about it. I was excited by this new opportunity and wanted to thank them.  They put out a weekly bulletin in video format for the students and they even mentioned me in that (from about the 1:20 to the 2-minute mark). While Dean of Students, Morgan Green, managed to put her own spin on things what she said rang truer after I actually experienced my first session with this group.

We met in a local park where there are all sorts of sights worth drawing. I expected everyone to gravitate toward something of interest to them, but they all clustered around two picnic tables. I stayed close to them but sat off to the side where I had a better view of a suitable subject.
I like to draw in pen and then apply a watercolour wash. I forgot my watercolours at home but did have my watercolour pencils with me, and a water brush, so I used those. One young gentleman was interested in this process so I showed him how it worked. Me! Not only was I exposing my scribbles to a known artist, but actually showing him how to do something! I'd certainly call that progress, wouldn't you?

Now, if I could just do so well with the tidying and weight loss...... Maybe another new beginning is needed for the second half of this year.

What have you accomplished so far this year? Or do you need to begin again too?

Art School Fair

This past weekend I attended the first ever Art School Fair in Ottawa. It was an art materials trade show, but it was great fun.  The vendors were from the manufacturers themselves, so they all knew their products well. They were able to demonstrate and answer questions, and in many cases you had the opportunity to try the products before making the decision to buy.  Some of the vendors even handed out samples.  What they were really good at was getting you inspired to try new things.

The admission price was just five dollars, which was waived if you signed up for one of the many courses available.  I didn't do that this year, mainly because the ones I was most interested in were fully booked by the time I found out about the show.  The event was a great success though, so I hope I can get in on at least one of the classes next year.

As this is the first year for the Art School Fair and because it went so well, hopefully they will find ways to expand it in coming years. I am very sure they will do it again, and I am also sure I will attend.

I certainly came home with more than my entrance fee in samples.  I got a PITT Artist Pen, some watercolour dip dots from Daniel Smith, a nice little bag with 6 products from Golden, plus a beautiful t-shirt I will be proud to wear. I also purchased a new journal in support of the Ottawa Art School for another $5.  It is divided into right brain and left brain sections. A quiz inside tells me I'm definitely Left Brained, which kind of confirms my theory that I'm not all that creative.

Did this trade show do it's job? Yes, indeed. I came out of there knowing about products I had never heard of before, and plans to try them.  I want a water soluble graphite pencil. More than that, I want some Daniel Smith Watercolours. They have granules in them that create interesting textural effects and I'm already dreaming up ways to use them.  I also am very interested in the Mixed Media products by Pébéo.  Yes, I'll go again next year, and every other chance I get.  Great show!

Artistic Challenges Are Always Good

As I said earlier this year, I'm trying to push myself a little further into the world of art, and hopefully improve as I go along.

This month I discovered a forum called Florals and Botanical on Wet Canvas. They host something called the Plant Parade. Each month they put forth some photos of a specific plant, and everyone paints that plant, either from those photo references, or one of their own. Then, on a specific date, everyone reveals their painting.  Any medium can be used, and all sorts of artistic license is taken. On the reveal date, everyone posts their finished work, for the rest of us to see.  I'm glad I didn't look at the posted pictures before I uploaded my painting as I may have chickened out. Some of them were amazing. This past year I have painted a couple of flowers in acrylic, but this particular project was a Parrot Tulip, and I just felt I'd have more fun trying it in watercolour.  I don't normally paint this quickly, or under a deadline either, so I wasn't sure if it was going to be finished on time, or how it would turn out.  It does seem to have been well received by the group there though, and also on Paintings I Love, where I often post what I've been working on.  I don't know if I'll have time next month to take part again, but I will certainly be back to play with these people again sometime soon.

Art Journal

I have friends who do art journals, so I thought maybe I'd give it a try myself. I don't do it every day, but when something catches my interest, or I want to try something new, I now have a place to play where there is no pressure to succeed. 

I didn't have a proper journal when I started, so I just took a strip of good watercolour paper, and folded it accordion style. This was my first entry. The birds were borrowed from a photograph by Chris Cochems.

When I did get a proper journal, I wasn't sure what the pages cold handle, so I started with a watercolour wash, and then switched to the water soluable pencils. 

Watercolour pencils are fun, and you can take them, and a journal anywhere.  I drew this girl in front of the TV.

Hmmmm.....the scans are showing up things that aren't as obvious in real life.  Oh well, like I said, this is just play.

I've never been very good at drawing freehand, but I took a little webinar recently that had me draw from a grid. I did much better at that.

The journal has other things in it too, like when I got some molding paste, I messed around with it to give texture to an entry. Today I tried my first acrylic transfer. I'm not sure if I succeeded or not, and I'm not sure I'm finished with it.  This Christmas I noticed that several of the envelopes were decorated with various images, so I tore them off and arranged them on a page to make a little collage. 

There is no great art here, but I'm learning lots of new techniques and I'm doing something artistic almost every day now, instead of just once a week.  That's bound to help me progress eventually.

Hats and Hosta updates

You may remember that during the summer I got invited to sit and paint in a  beautiful hosta garden as part of a fund raiser. People who would also be going for a lovely tea in a local church basement toured the garden throughout the afternoon.  I had never tried to paint in public before, and decided, since acrylics dry much too fast for me outdoors, that I'd work in watercolour.  Well, I didn't think it would be very interesting to have others watching paint dry, so I got three different hosta paintings started before I arrived, and then worked on which ever ones were dry enough to proceed.  It was an interesting day for me, and I hope those wandering through enjoyed it too. 

I never would have had the courage though, if it had not been for the fact that we were supposed to wear hats, since the event was called Hats and Hostas.  I have a hat that I thought would get more attention than anything I was painting, so that gave me courage. 

Summer is over, but I thought I should share those paintings, now that they are finished.  Tell me, do you like one better than the rest? 

Taking Another Step Forward

The local United Church was going to hold a fund raiser they decided to call Hats & Hostas.  There is a  man in this village that grows over 100 different kinds of hostas, and he said that visitors could come and view his garden.  He would sit in the shade and play his keyboard and various local artists would sit in the garden and paint.  There would be a lovely tea held in the church hall, and the public could go there either before or after visiting the garden. 

I was asked if I'd like to sit in the garden and paint.  I thought they had to be kidding.  I live in a village full of artists, but I'm certainly don't consider myself to be one of them.  I have been taking painting classes for numerous years though, and my instructor encouraged me to take part.  No one else in the class would accept this challenge though. 

My first question was, "Will there be members of the local arts guild involved in this project?"  The answer was no. I felt somewhat better about that, as I certainly wouldn't feel comfortable working among them. I mean, I'm just not at that level, and I had no wish to totally embarrass myself. 

Then someone asked me if I had a hat, as you were supposed to wear one while sitting among the hostas.  The event was called, "Hats & Hostas" after all.  Well, hey, I have a hat!  I have a hat that is so grand, I'll likely never get a place to wear it.  I mean, where could I ever wear this thing?  If I wore it to a wedding, I'd outshine the bride!  So, I said I'd do it.  Nobody would ever notice what I was painting as they would all be so fascinated with the hat, they wouldn't be looking at what I was doing.  I decided to do it.

The event took place this past Saturday.  It was great fun actually.  It was very peaceful sitting among the hostas, painting hostas (of course).  I was working in watercolour, and since I didn't want to have to sit around waiting for paint to dry all afternoon, I got 3 underway before the event started.  I thought it would be more interesting for the people who came early in the day  not to find us all with blank paper.  My  instructor also thought that was a good idea and got hers started ahead of time too.
Mostly, I think the people were more interested in the hostas than in us, but we each had a few people comment on what we were doing.  One lady noticed I was using frisket, and said she always had difficulty with that.  The variegated hosta with the white around the edge required me to use that though, as the lines are too thin for me to have been sure I could preserve them any other way.  Since I was working on more than one painting at a time, none of them are anywhere near finished yet. 

It was an entirely new experience for me, and I think I've taken a step forward by doing this.  Would I do it again?  Sure, if someone had enough confidence in me to ask.

Exploring the Arts One Baby Step at a Time

One of the greatest things about my latest art teacher is that she introduces us to new things, and encourages us to try them.  While we are working on our own little projects, she sits quietly and works on something herself. I often like to check on what she's doing. One week she was tracing around the cut out shape of a cow, over and over again, so that they covered the paper and over lapped.  Then she coloured them in and that's not as easy as it sounds. The trick is to not have two the same touching.  I decided to try that with cats.

Then there was the week when one of the ladies was trying to draw faces, and the instructor thought that understanding the structure of the face would help her draw it better. So she brought in some Plasticine, and we all learned how to sculpt faces.  I tried that again a few days later with some sculpting clay I got at the dollar store, just to reinforce what I learned. Of course, I forgot a step or two, but still, it came out better than I would have expected a week earlier.

Another day she showed us some contour drawings that she had coloured in.  She likes bright colours and had turned these strange looking images into genuine works of art. I have to admit it took a bit more coaxing to get me to do that, and my results aren't worth sharing...yet.  I liked the outlines alright, but I didn't like the results after I coloured them in. I'll keep trying until I find a way to do it that pleases me.  So far I've tried coloured pencils, and watercolour pencils.   I like the watercolour pencil results better, but I think I'll try again using regular watercolours, or maybe just rouge the image with a bit of oil paint and see if I like that better. 

The watercolour pencils are also new to me, and we all worked on our first painting using them 2 weeks ago. Now, this is something I didn't expect to enjoy as much as I did. Actually, I'm hooked and have already gone out and bought a couple more pencils, and expect to get more and more over time.  They are easy to carry with you when you go somewhere, and you only need one brush and very little water.  I will always love to paint with watercolours, but working with these pencils is also very relaxing.

Today it was suggested that we take part in an upcoming event where we would work on our art outside, where people could see what we are doing.  Oh my goodness!  I went so far as to ask if she wasn't afraid we would embarrass her.  She didn't seem worried about that at all.  So, when I got home, I went outdoors and sat down and tried to capture a hosta with my watercolour pencils.  I got the shapes okay, I think, but I found that perhaps I didn't have the right colours, and I wasn't sure about shading.  It's not the same as working from a 2 dimensional photograph.  But it is another step forward.  I'll take this one in to show her, and see if she will tell me what needs fixing and how to go about it.  And whether or not I take part in that event, I will go outside and try this process again.....soon.

What's Stopping You?

Once upon a time I belonged to an arts guild. I was the only photographer in the group, and several of the painters there kept saying I needed to learn to paint. Actually that mostly happened if I turned my camera towards them, which means they didn't like that much, I guess. Anyway, I never could draw and I told them that. They insisted, as artists always do, that you don't need to be able to draw to paint.

One day, when I was home alone, I decided to paint something, just to prove them wrong.  The problem was, I ended up surprising myself, and the resulting painting was more recognizable than I expected. So, I looked around for someone who could teach me how to work with brushes and I found a decorative artist within walking distance of my house.

I painted patterns from books with acrylics, and every once in a while I would bring in a photograph, and try to copy it.  The paintings never turned out the way I intended, so I'd say, "not yet" and go back to the patterns and the instructions in the books.  As time went on though, I did notice some improvement.

Then one day I was  introduced to watercolour and my world changed.  I still tried to trace around what I wanted to paint, but my paintings had more freedom. I was no longer trying to make the paintings look like the photographs. 

 Recently I decided to try painting without drawing any lines on the paper first.  Once again, I amazed myself.  You just never know what you can do until you quit worrying about failing and just try. 

I'm still no great artist, but I do love to paint, and I know I've come a long way.