November 8th

Pine Tree With Snow

We don't have snow yet, but my Thursday class wants to be prepared.  This is a small demo on Arches  cold press paper.  I think it would be more effective if the pattern of lights and darks had been broken up a little, but I'm happy with the combination of hard and soft edges and the shadows.

I haven't done any snow paintings in a couple of years.  Maybe I'll do some this winter.  There will be plenty of time  -  we have months of snow here.  I think it enhances our lives to really pay attention to our surroundings, record in a sketchbook what's happening,  mix some colors we see around us, and watch things change with the light of day or the seasons.  Maybe it's a form of gratitude.  

November 7th

Working from Photos in Class

I keep telling my class (nagging them) that they should work from their own photographs. not those of someone else.  You need to know WHY you are doing the painting, and if it is someone else's picture, you just don't have a good enough reason.  You didn't feel the subject, smell it, investigate it.

So here I am, working from a photo that isn't mine.  And really, as much as I liked it, I just couldn't connect.  I had worked on some thumbnail sketches, and in the middle of the night (right after having a dream about discussing Anais Nin with someone  -  where did THAT come from?) I had the bright idea that a vertical format would work better than horizontal.

What I had really wanted to demonstrate in class was how I would do the white flowers on the left side of the photo.  And a little bit of the stone texture of the walls.  The flower demo didn't photograph well, and I didn't get the vertical thumbnail started yet, and the stone texture demo is not worth showing.

By the way,  I really know nothing about Anais Nin, so please don't hold me responsible if she offends you.

Let's all go do some thumbnail sketches now.

November 4th

Some Autumn Demonstrations

I'm usually not too crazy about painting fall colors, but the small painting at the top was really fun to do.   Someone in class had asked about painting fall leaves without getting muddy or spotty looking.  I painted clear water around the white structure, and then started dropping in the color.

The leaves are all gone now, and everything is very brown and bare.  That gives us a great view across the Bay, so I'm not complaining.

Because I have nothing else to say, I'm going to talk about food now.  A couple of days ago for lunch I had a roasted veggie pizza, at a downtown restaurant, with a balsamic reduction sauce.  Fabulous. I make roasted veggie pizzas all the time but have never done one with balsamic vinegar.  Come to think of it, there was no tomato/pizza sauce on it.  I have to give this a try.  I'll let you know how it goes, and maybe even do a quick sketch.

How was your weekend.  What's ahead in the next week for you?  Some sketching?

November 2nd

Tiny White Pumpkins

These were a demonstration in class one day.  

I spent the day being much less productive than I had planned, but it seems as if every day is like that.  I messed around updating my bio, and felt I ended up back at square one.  I had intended to start some thumb nail sketches for a painting I want to do for class next week  -  that didn't happen.  I've been trying to feel good about the things that I do get done, instead of feeling frustrated about the things that don't get done.  I think we all have a warped sense of time when it comes to our to-do lists.   So I am feelin' pretty darn good about taking a shower and going to the grocery store.

How about you?  How did your day go?

Small Shape Demo

 These Little Paintings are Each About 2.5" X 4"

This week in class I handed out very small black and white images of simple building shapes  -  houses, sheds, and barns. The assignment was to choose one of the shapes and put it in a very simple setting.  First we did a very light shape in a very dark setting, and then a very dark shape in a light setting.  The challenge is to have enough contrast without the shape looking pasted on.

The third part of the exercise was to do the whole painting in a middle value, and then do some very simple contrasts to bring out the focal point.  We didn't really have enough time to do it justice, but we'll work on that next week when we get into composing some "serious" paintings.

The idea of these very small paintings was to do them in a "brainstorming" mindset  -  not worrying about what was right or wrong, but just doing it, and seeing what worked and what didn't.  If we work out our compositions in a very small format, and they take up very little time or space, it is easy to move on.

As so often happens to me in the fall, I have a million things on my mind that I want to spend some time on  -  painting, writing, blogging, journaling, cooking  .  .  . and the list goes on.  Do I give one thing at a time my undivided attention, or do I do a little of everything?

We've had some cold rain, sleet, and day-time temperatures in the 40s.  It's time to settle in for the winter (!) and start on some of those things on my list.  What's on your list?

Painting with a Triad

Demonstrations from Today's Class

A triad is a variation of the three primaries  -  red, blue, and yellow.  For this demo I used quinacridone red, ultramarine blue, and hansa yellow.  We were just trying out different ways of getting the paint on the paper.

The little peppers are sooo cute  -  very small (about an inch and a half) and very bright.  They say they are sweet, but I haven't tasted them yet.  So  -  if these very small peppers are sweet, what happens with the rule "the smaller the pepper, the hotter pepper"?  I know very little about peppers, and I liked that rule.  It seemed simple enough, but now  .   .   .

Are you sketching today?

From the Workshop

Looking Back on Late Summer Classes and Workshops

 On our second day of the book binding workshop we painted in the journals, and the page on the right shows some examples of pens and pencils we were trying out.

I was going to do a demonstration page of a few pens and pencils, but then a friend brought me several pencils from the Derwent factory in Britain.  Now I want to try them all.  I don't know how anyone thought up that many pencils  -  colorsoft, charcoal, sketching, graphic, drawing .  .   .

Tomorrow my fall classes begin.  I haven't done any classes since the 11th of September, and I'll be glad to get back at it.  I have some beautiful, tiny sweet peppers for the classes to paint.  I made a trip out to the farm market today, and realized soon it will have just pumpkins and squash, and then just Christmas trees.

The leaves are really changing color here.  We have definitely switched to a new season.  

Gazebo at the Boyne City Park

A Watercolor Sketch Done During 

a Book  Binding Journaling Workshop

Our book binding/journal painting workshops have finished up, and now I guess I am back into my "off-season" mode  -  mid-September until early June.  I have scheduled my regular weekly watercolor classes to begin the first week in October.  This morning it's dark and getting cooler by the minute.

 I still have art supplies covering every surface in my studio/classroom.  In my "little studio" (a small room between our back entry and my classroom) is so full of stuff that I can't get to the drawers and shelves to put it away.  I think it is time to pull everything out and start over.

The sketch, above, was a continuous line demonstration, and about painting the negative shapes to give us the positive object. This only took a few minutes. It was a beautiful day to paint in the park.

Now I think I will see how quickly I can clean off these tables.  How hard can it be?

A Perfect Summer Afternoon

A Watercolor Sketch in my Journal

on an Absolutely Perfect Summer Afternoon

The sun was spotlighting these flowers in front of a very dark background of foliage.  Too good to pass up.  It's a sketch  -  keep it simple.  I reminded myself I didn't have to do the tree to the edge of the paper, I didn't have to show any detail of the cottage, and I didn't have to show any more dark background  -  it was all about the flowers in the sun.  Everything else just supports that.

We were talking about sketchbooks in class this morning.  What happens in your sketchbook, stays in your sketchbook.  It is your own private space for experimenting, learning, note taking, making little masterpieces or NOT.

What do you use your sketchbook for?

Beverly's Gate

A Journal Class Demonstration in my Sketchbook

This was done in one of my favorite gardens.  Whatever the season, what ever is growing on it at any given time, I love this gate!

I don't have any classes today, and I am home, catching up on paper work.  My studio/classroom opens on three sides to the breeze and summer air, so it is very pleasant in here.  Filing and going through notes after several busy weeks of classes is kind of like cleaning up after a party - taking my time, savoring the memories, recapping some of the workshops .  .  .  It's not over, but this seems to be a good place in time to catch up a little.

It is so quiet in the neighborhood today.  Why can't it be like this all night?  It comes alive after dark  -   dogs, people, cars, wild animals, music, firetrucks.  While our daughter was visiting a couple of weeks ago, she heard people walking in the street in the middle of the night, and the guy says, "Babe?"  The girl says, "Yeah?" The guy says, "I have to go to jail on Friday."  The girl freaked out, and they walked on out of earshot.  What the heck  -  this is not the inner city.  This is a quiet little neighborhood (maybe not) in a quiet little resort town, on the banks of a beautiful bright blue bay.

We are still wondering what that wild animal screeching was in the middle of the night.  And that bird flying over this morning at dawn that sounded like a cross between a Canada goose and a loon.  And I'm wondering how Babe is getting along while her boyfriend is in jail.

Terrace Inn Afternoon Tea

Demonstration in my Sketchbook

Friday was my 3rd annual Afternoon Tea and Sketchbook Journaling at the Terrace Inn in Bay View.  The Terrace Inn is a quaint, old, Victorian Inn in the middle of an association of quaint, old, Victorian cottages on Little Traverse Bay in Northern Michigan.

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We were served tomato and bacon bruschetta, chicken salad sandwiches, fruit with Devonshire cream,  and lemon scones, and of course, tea.

Everyone did a great job of painting in their journals! And everyone looked so cute in their "girlie" summer outfits.

I always look forward to the tea  -  it is such fun to get together with old and new friends, and it wraps up a very busy stretch of classes for me.  I still have classes going on this summer and book binding workshops coming up, but the schedule is a little less hectic.

Thanks to everyone who attended, and thanks to the great staff that served us.  I hope everyone will continue to take their sketchbooks to tea, lunch, or dinner.  I hope all of you reading this will too.

I am writing this with three grandkids talking to me and drumming zucchini on the table.  I have no idea what I just wrote.

Sketchbook Demonstrations

A demonstration of negative spaces  -  gingerbread, porch railings,white pots, hydrangeas

A "blob and smoosh" demonstration.

 The watercolor journal class I just finished was a bunch of very talented people painting up a storm.  They were great!  The last day it rained and we spent the afternoon with our sketchbooks on a porch, catching up on things we wanted to be sure and get in before the class ended.

While we were painting and talking, we discovered that in a class of a dozen women, three of us had honeymooned in Quebec City, two of us in the same year, at the same hotel. I love things like that!

Right now I am getting ready for another busy week of classes.  I have seven class "events", capping them off with my third annual Afternoon Tea at the Terrace Inn on Friday. When things slow down, I am going to be a little lost, but I couldn't keep up this pace all year.  It is fun though!

Catching Up

This is a demonstration showing how I would paint a mound of lavender, and also show white lavender growing in the middle of the purple mounds.  The page on the right is a demo of climbing roses. We had a couple of fantastic mornings out at the lavender farm.

The octagon cottage in Bay View  -  a demo showing how I would choose a starting point and move on with a continuous line drawing, showing only the part of the cottage that really interests me.

A beautiful day on Stephens Lane.  There is a nice garden at the top of the hill with huge white daisies against a very dark green background of evergreens.

On the first day of the first Bay View journal class of the season, we painted the bright flowers in the large pots in front of one of the halls on campus.

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The summer is moving along so quickly, and I am blogging so slowly.  Here I am, still in my jammies, sitting on the porch, catching up a little.  No classes today.  Everyone has gone to the beach. I have been here long enough to have switched from hot coffee to iced coffee.

Last weekend we went to Ann Arbor where the temperature was well over 100!!!  It hasn't been that hot up here, and it has been a perfect summer week  -  sand on the bathroom floor, bathing suits on the line, the kids playing card games on the porch after dinner, and our daughter here for the week from California.


We've been having a wonderful time with the California grandkids!  They have been here since the first part of June. One of them leaves tomorrow, and one will stay for awhile longer.

Next week I will be teaching three morning classes and four afternoon classes. While it is quiet here, I should get things together for next week's classes.  Who knows what might be going on over the weekend, and I don't want to miss anything.

Are you sketching?  Are you keeping cool?

Summer Kick-Off

Watermelon Demo in my Sketchbook

Friday June 15th was my Summer Kick-Off Journal Workshop.  We had about ten very talented participants.  And for the first time ever, the weather was consistent and nice  -  a little hot, but not bad.

I have been busy with family fun the past couple of weeks.  The California grandkids are here, and we have been making the most of every minute.  We've done cousin get-togethers, Aunt and Uncle get-togethers, graduation parties, birthday parties ETC!!!

This week  I have two 8-week watercolor sessions starting, and four afternoons of watercolor journal.  Summer is officially underway, and I'm lovin' it!

What have you been sketching.  What are your summer sketching plans?

Simplified Patterns and Designs

Watercolor Demonstration

In classes this week we were, once again, talking about simplifying. For me, it all comes down to simplifying.  I don't like doing detail  -  I really like things left a little to the imagination.  I think what this really means is "why am I painting this?".  If it is actually about rendering an object, that's another matter, but if the painting isn't ABOUT the pattern or the lettering, for example, then it is best to keep it simple.


Everyone in class seemed to have a lot of fun with these three objects.  They felt freed up from perfection and did a great job.

Think how much more individual your paintings are when you don't worry about detail.  You are free to express your own version of the object instead of a photographic rendering.

Sometimes I think it helps to do a few little studies of a subject for a painting.  The painting itself is not always the place to experiment or figure out how to do a previously untried technique.  There is something to be said for spontaneity, of course, but working out some problems or questions before starting the actual painting can save a lot of grief.

It's Friday.  I have a long to-do list, and there are some pretty fun things on it.  How does your weekend look?   Where are you taking your sketchbook this weekend?

Cottages Along the Lane

A Cluster of Cottage Rooftops

This is a small demo from a recent class; another demonstration promoting simplicity.  Everyone always teases me about the "technical terms" I use.  In this lesson I was stressing "swooping"  -  as in " just swoop through with a medium blue for the sky, trees, and shadows, and then go back and green things up and get in a little detail.  Done."

I have a few things I'm working on as I  gear up for summer.  I have some deadlines, promotion for summer classes, house projects  .  .  .   I like to think of it as gearing up  -  not panicking.  Why does it all feel so immediate?  If it's on the calendar, it has a place in time, so what's the big deal?

The sun is shining today, and it is up to 50 degrees.  Maybe I'll just shuffle some stuff around on my calendar and do some outdoor work.  Nothing is written in stone.  That's the problem  -  too much shuffling.

Hope you're all having a good weekend!  Whatever you are doing, do you have your sketchbook with you?

First Class of a New Session

Watercolor Demo

This was a quick little watercolor sketch done in class this morning.  It's about 6.5 X 5.  I'm working on a summer cottage theme, using a porch from one cottage, a screen door from another etc.  The painting is more or less a sketch to see how my colors will balance.

In the top right corner is a thumbnail sketch that I was working from.  My students really fight the thumbnail sketch idea.  I keep telling them that once they have the composition and darks and lights planned out, the painting will just fall off their brushes.  The thumbnail should be no more than two inches and take no more than two minutes.  Easy, huh?  Of course, sometimes I have to do a million thumbnails before I can get to the painting.

It has been cold, rainy, snowy  -  yuck.  But the trees are beginning to bloom, the grass is very green, and the birds are singing.  We'll be okay.

We've been painting the quirky floor in our living room.  The whole house was completely disrupted by the stuff from that room being shoved into every available space all over the house.  Isn't it amazing how much stuff you can have in one room?!  I really got to liking my favorite chair in the kitchen.  I was beginning to feel like we were on an episode of the Hoarders.  We had a little corner of the dining room table to eat on, we could sit on the couch if we squeezed between stacks of stuff,  and if I sat in my comfy chair displaced to the kitchen, I had no place to put my feet.  Yesterday morning I was beginning to feel a little dazed and displaced myself.  In fact, when my husband left for work, instead of his usual "Love ya. See you tonight", he said, "Don't operate any heavy equipment."   The house is back together now, and so am I.

Blogger has changed its format, and the photo editing site I have used for years is going away tomorrow.  I'm cool with all that.  I can handle change. It'll be fine.  I don't care.

Blob and Smush

Blob and Smush Demo

I haven't been practicing what I preach; I haven't been letting my life inspire my art, and my art inspire my life.  I have been "grubbing" through things and painting walls, woodwork and trim.  That's about it.

This painting is a small demo done in class today.  Blob and smush (sounds like push) is all about softening the edges.  You "blob" on the color, and then "smush" it down by drawing a damp brush just under the color.  It keeps flowers from looking too much like "cut and paste"  I paint the bright color of the flowers first, soften the color down the paper a bit (smush), and then add some green  -  being careful not to let too much of the green run up into the red (a little red is okay to run into the green).

Now I think I'll go out into the world.  The sun is shining, but it is cold  -  41 degrees.  The grass is very green, the forsythia is blooming, and the Bay is very blue.  Nice. If I go out into the world, I should take my sketchbook  -  it hasn't been out in awhile.

Hope all is well with all of you.  Have you been painting?

Azalea

Azalea Watercolor Sketches

The top watercolor sketch, in my journal, was done last week.  My class this morning wanted to do some more with the azalea plant, because they were determined to keep it simple.  The bottom two are demonstrations I did for that class.  I know not everyone is interested in keeping it this simple, but I, personally, don't care for detail.  I don't like doing it, and I'm not crazy about seeing it.  I do appreciate the talent of  people who render a detailed painting, but it isn't my thing.

 Sometimes we think we ought to do that  - we aren't real artists unless we paint photographic realism.  And sometimes we just get caught up in the details of an object and don't know how to let go.  I think knowing what the object or subject is saying to us, knowing what we want to say about the subject, and using a large (no smaller than a #12 round) brush will all go a long way toward keeping it simple.

These were very quick little paintings zooming in, cropping, and trying to capture just what it was that caught my attention  -  in this case it was the straight bottom edge of the plant.

There are creepy noises in the house this afternoon.  Yesterday when I went to put on my boots,  I found about a half cup of cat food in one of them!  Do we have a critter lurking here???!!!

More Thumbnail Sketches

 Camellia Leaves

In class this week, we were doing thumbnail sketches, trying to pick up on what it is that attracts us to a subject.  I think we paint a subject  -  object or scene  -  not just for the subject itself, but because of something ABOUT the subject that attracts us.   It might be the shape, or the colors, or the way the light falls on it, or any number of reasons.  We have to recognize the reason and build on it.  

When I said it was the color of the camellia leaves that attracted me,  the class wanted to see how I would get that very dark, shiny green.  We experimented with a few different applications, such as mixing on the palette, mixing on the paper, a combination of  mixing on the paper and on the palette.  We tried different techniques for the highlights  -  lifting while the paint was still wet and painting around the highlight area, leaving the white of the paper.

Now I think I'll go play around a bit with some more thumbnail sketches.  I am intrigued by the very flat, horizontal bottom of an azalea plant I have.  I don't care for the color, and I'm not crazy about the floofy blossoms, but I really like the shape.  I had better get to it before Rudy the cat changes the shape of it.  Yesterday he ingested some of the leaves, and they seemed to give him super powers. He managed to open the basement door and almost opened the back doors into the garden (snow).  That's not possible for him without the use of the "azalea drug".  I googled it and it said it was mildly toxic and might make cats a little lethargic.  Rudy has re-written the book on all toxic plant ingestion. Yes, I put the plant where he can't get to it.  He's sleeping it off today.  He sleeps something off everyday.  How do you know when a cat is lethargic?