One Artist's Journey

Expressive Drawing 2.3 "Leaves" - Graphite, colored pencil and gesso on paper - $300

There was a variation for this one. We were supposed to start writing and doodling and let the words dictate the lines and drawings, and so on. I started writing and it didn’t suggest ANYTHING. Nothing at all.

I decided to change tactics and started just drawing my long looping landscape lines. I continued that and filled in areas and ended up again – with nothing. I sat down on the floor of the studio and couldn’t figure out what to do.

Then I looked at the negative space between the areas I had filled in. I thought, “Hey, this space looks like a leaf. Oh. This one too. I can fill in two here…” And so on.

So I filled in the spaces with leaves. I really liked how it all turned out.

Expressive Drawing 2.2 "In My Garden" - Graphite, colored pencil and gesso on paper - $300

This one grew naturally into a painting about plants, growing, roots, seeds, leaves. It was fun to work on. At least it wasn’t about castles!

Expressive Drawing 1.1 - 14" x 11" - House Paint on Paper - $300

PAINTINGS COMPLETED TODAY: 4
PAINTINGS COMPLETED TO DATE: 61

I am actually in my studio, blogging from my laptop. It is down here so I can listen to pandora, but I thought, “why don’t I blog while I am actually thinking about art, instead of trying to remember it after the fact…

So, here I am. I am going back to the “Expressive Drawing” book and I am going to go through the exercises. I think I need to loosen up a little bit. Maybe this will help. I have done 6 paintings lately, and I am not really happy with them.

I found a fantastic artist in Redlands who does abstract art. I really  like her stuff. wE have started a dialog, but won’t be able to get together until after the first of the year. She is really busy with art festivals and such.

You can see her art at: http://aidaschneider.com/

I will let you know how my expressive drawing goes.;-)

Me teaching my first art class in a school

Today I taught an art class in my 2nd grader’s class. I had spoken with his teacher during our parent/teacher conference. I mentioned that I was an artist and could teach a class. She took me up on the offer and today I taught my first real school art class.

I did the second exercise in Steve Aimone’s “Expressive Drawing” book. We did some automatic drawing with a little “veiling.” the kids did a great job and I think I blew it when I said “OK kids you have 2 minutes left…” because they just started whiting over everything and scribbling over everything they had just done. There were a few really nice pieces.

I told them their parents just might not understand what they were doing because it wasn’t really a picture of something. So they should just tell their parents it is “Expressive drawing.”

One little girl was crying because she scratched her paper and the teacher wouldn’t let her get a new one. I asked her how she felt and then told her to draw how she felt on the paper. She started scribbling within the lines she had just drawn and it looked really cool.

One boy's "Expressive Drawing. I like the use of color to add a focal point to the drawing.

I will have to try this again if the teacher will have me back!

Sailboats - 16" x 12" - Acrylic and graphite on Masonite - $250

I painted three pictures today before I ran out of boards to paint. I tried painting the abstract landscapes I sketched yesterday and I think they look great. I am starting to develop my own visual vocabulary, which is fun. I will get the images posted this weekend. Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to paint a few more pictures so I don’t get behind.

Bridge - 16" x 12" - Acrylic and graphite on Masonite - $250

After I painted the landscapes, I cut up more boards. This time, I am going a little larger. I am going to try 18 x 14 boards and see if I can fill them well. It seems to take time for me to work up o large sizes. I enjoy painting on large surfaces, but if I am not ready, I do a bunch of junk just to fill the space.

After using the 12 x 16 boards today, I feel I am ready to move up a size.

After I cut the boards, I prepared them with gesso. Last time, I applied the gesso in one direction. When that dried, I brushed another layer perpendicular to the first direction. That gave me a lot of tooth for the paints, but it absolutely ate my pencils up!

This time, I brushed in one direction, then used an old credit card like a putty spatula to make a smooth top layer, filling in the gaps. I will try this and see how it works with the woodless pencils as well as the acrylic paint.

Abstract sketches based on photographs

I was thinking about it and I like doing abstractions. When I start adding too much detial, I get messed up. What if I take a photo of a scene and break it down into its largest groupings and treat them like geometric or abstract shapes?

I have tried painting outside, but have had trouble. I try and add too much detail and it becomes too realistic. I don’t like that. So, maybe this abstraction idea will work.

I tried it with a magazine of photos I have and really liked the results. It is kind of how I draw anyway, so I think it is a good fit. I can sketch the pictures and abstract them out, but I will have to wait till tomorrow to see if I can paint them in practice. Here is an excerpt from my sketchbook.

Abstract #10 - 12” x 16” Acrylic and graphite on Masonite - $200

The idea for this started as a few squares in space. But then I started linking them up and came up with a grid. This isn’t what I wanted, but I have decided to trust myself and go with the flow. I started filling in the boxes and it turned out OK, but I really wanted to cover up some of the lines and when I tried that it just didn’t look or feel right.

I filled everything in and played with the outlines a bit. It turned out OK, but was just the beginning of this exploration.

Initial sketch of boxes

"Abstract #1" - 11" x 14" Acrylic and sumi ink on canvas board - $100

It is Saturday and as such, it is time to report on how things went this week. Today was crazy busy, with 2 boys in soccer and a meeting and THEN date night tonight, I didn’t get a painting done. Soccer season has just started and I hadn’t counted on that. This was probably the busiest Saturday I will have for a while (I hope) but I should be able to get a painting done on Saturdays from here on out.

So I finished five paintings this week on my way to 100. Three in my dwellings series and two abstract pieces that I was able to “fix” last night. Contrary to what most people think, abstract art is difficult. Most people (including myself at one time) thought it is merely a matter of throwing a bunch of paint at a canvas and calling it art. It is much more involved than that. I can’t quite put a finger on it, but it is hard to know how to start and when to finish. I did two abstracts and wasn’t happy with them, but last night I reworked them a bit and now I can say they are finished and I am posting them.

"Abstract #2" - 11" x 14" Acrylic and sumi ink on canvas board - $100

My son and I cut up the Masonite I bought. I gessoed (is that a word?) the boards we cut so I will have them to work with next week. I am getting a lot of ideas of what to paint now that I am thinking artistically again and am excited to get back to work next week.

An interesting note. I listen to Internet radio while I work. I love the blues and and Absolute Radio out of London. Yesterday I listened to a “Classic and Jazz” station from France. It would be interesting to see how different music can change your art. Have any of you found that you need a certain type of music to work by? Or have you found that your work is more aggressive or softer depending on what type of music you are listening to? Please let us know by commenting below. Thanks!

"Dwellings Series #3" - 11" x 14" Acrylic and colored pencil on canvas board - $100

Today is 9/11. I noticed when I was in the dentists office this morning. I wish I had something profound to say about that, but I don’t.

I need to work big so I can work more freely. I can’t do 100 paintings in a large format because it would be cost prohibitive, so I am doing most of the paintings small, but I can draw big on paper. I got a large roll of paper today so I can set up my board and draw to my little heart’s content. These will count and I will post them on the blog.

Finished the third “dwelling” painting. I might be getting the hang of this.