Happy 2012!!
01 Jan 2012 Leave a Comment
in My drawings Tags: Art, Drawing, Painting Class, Pencil
My wish is that hope and love send us all into this new year with great optimism and the energy and inspiration to create beauty in this world.
(Someone sent some photos of lions to me. His friend had gone on a lion walk in Zambia.)
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Soup
27 Dec 2011 1 Comment
in My drawings Tags: Art, Drawing, Painting Class, Pencil
My sister made onion and garlic soup for Christmas dinner.
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Too many lines
25 Dec 2011 1 Comment
in My drawings Tags: Art, Artists, Painting Class, Pencil
For our next assignment, we were to spend some time copying a drawing by Alphonse Mucha. Although I do appreciate the skill and beauty demonstrated in Mucha’s artwork, I can’t say that I enjoyed this assignment. I would rather draw what I see in real life rather than copy someone else’s drawing.
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Modern-Day Russian Impressionist
25 Dec 2011 3 Comments
in Inspirations Tags: Art, Artists, Inspiration, Oil
I was surfing the web to find out more about Russian impressionism, and I found these absolutely beautiful paintings by Konstatin Razumov (born in 1974). His ability to depict such shimmering, vibrant, dancing light in his paintings amazes me. The paintings glow with beautiful color and softness. I especially love the softness and smoothness of the images. Here are a couple of his paintings:
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Dreaming of a Summer Christmas
23 Dec 2011 4 Comments
in My Paintings Tags: Art, Oil
I have been home sick today and tried to paint, but I didn’t get very far. I like to paint water.
I hope I can finish this one soon.
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All senses portrait
20 Dec 2011 3 Comments
in Inspirations Tags: Art, Art History, Artists, Painting
I was looking though an old magazine someone threw away, and I found the oil painting, “Wife’s Protrait” by the Russian Impressionist, Andrey Mochalov. There was no date on it. I tried to google the artist, but came up empty handed. The photo was an ad by Overland Gallery in Arizona. I didn’t see any information on their website either.
Looking at this painting, I imagine that the woman’s voice is a bit sweet, that she moves smoothly and a little quick, and that her skin is soft and kind of cushy. I can smell the tea and the pears. What an inviting painting! I love the color and how softly everything blends. The artist seems to know this woman well.
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Blind hands
20 Dec 2011 4 Comments
in My drawings Tags: Art, Drawing, Painting Class, Pen, Pencil
I bought a pen to do sketches and realized that each stroke would be recorded. Yikes! The next assignment was to draw my hand without looking at my paper. I can do that in pen. So I was semi-brave here.
….looks like alien parts. For these next set of “drawings,” I could look at the paper every once in a while. They are still weird.
For this last one, I could look at the paper, but I lost my bravery and went back to pencil.
I like the “unthought out” feel of the lines in the first two sets of drawings versus this last drawing, but the last one looks more like a hand than an alien appendage.
I was a bad model; I kept moving my hand or moving my eyes so I got different perspectives. I’m also convinced that I need to start wearing gloves when I wash dishes!
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Rose
18 Dec 2011 3 Comments
in My drawings Tags: Art, Drawing, Painting Class, Pencil
This is a Cinco de Mayo rose from my garden. I’m trying to get faster. So this is it for today.
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Portraits
18 Dec 2011 1 Comment
in Inspirations Tags: Art, Art History, Artists, Inspiration, Oil, Painting
This beautiful portrait is of Maria Callas, one of the most renowned opera singers of the 20th century. It was painted by Henry Koerner in 1956. Koerner was born in Austria but moved to Pittsburgh. His portraits of celebrities like Maria Callas and John F. Kennedy appeared on the covers of Time magazine. I love the color and movement in this oil painting. I could stare at it for hours and hours. On a sad note, Koerner died at age 75 years when he was hit by a car while bicycling with his wife in Austria.
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Divine stillness
17 Dec 2011 1 Comment
in Inspirations Tags: Art, Art History, Artists, Inspiration, Oil, Painting
December 17, 2011
Vanessa Bell painted this oil on canvas, “Interior with a Table, St Tropez” in 1921. It feels very serene to me. I think it is because of the colors or the roundness of many of the shapes. I like the blue reflections.
Daylilies
15 Dec 2011 1 Comment
in Inspirations Tags: Art, Art History, Inspiration, Oil, Painting
I found this print of Claude Monet’s “Daylilies,” oils on canvas, 1914-17. I like all the movement in the painting. Someone said that Monet thought abstract art was abhorrent. No one ever accused Monet of not being artist just because he painted flowers : )
Reflecting
14 Dec 2011 2 Comments
in My drawings Tags: Art, Drawing, Painting Class, Pencil
Assignment: Self portrait. This is the first self-portrait I have drawn. I’m not sure if it looks like me. I’ll have to check it in the morning.
This morning I can see that my nose is a little shorter and my eyelids are more droopy than the real me. My girlfriend said that this self-portrait looks much older than I look. Bless her!
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Dreams
12 Dec 2011 Leave a Comment
in Inspirations Tags: Art, Artists, Oil, Painting
I found the beautiful and dream-like artwork of Katie Hoffman (one of our bloggers). She starts out with an abstract painting and finds the story.
To the edges
08 Dec 2011 Leave a Comment
in My drawings Tags: Art, Drawing, mass drawing, Pencil
Assignment: Draw a room scene that goes to the edges of the paper. I should probably try this again, because it is more of a close up than a room. The faint scribbling is from the yellow highlighter from the mass drawing. I just saved this photo as a black and white photo. I’m thinking that maybe I should just stick to a line drawing and not try any shading….looks a bit messy.
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Something Small
07 Dec 2011 1 Comment
in My drawings Tags: Art, Drawing, mass drawing, Painting Class, Pencil
Assignment 1: I drew a small glass salt shaker. I used Merrill Kazanjianm’s mass drawing method. First, I quickly blocked out the shape with a highlighter, then I made the drawing with a pencil, correcting the shape as I drew. The only thing with the mass drawing method is that all my drawings will be highlighted in yellow. Maybe I can save it as a black and white photo and get rid of the yellow. The last pic is what the salt shaker really looks like. I had to move it to take the photo, so the lighting is different. I’m really going to have to get better at this photographing.
The Sparks
06 Dec 2011 Leave a Comment
in Inspirations, My Paintings, Thoughts Tags: Abstract, Acrylic, Art Therapy, Artists, Drawing, Inspiration, Knife Painting, Oil, Painting Class, Pencil
Focus
27 Nov 2011 Leave a Comment
in Thoughts Tags: Art, Painting Class
1. Observe. Drawings and paintings
2. Invent. Things I imagine.
3. Document the path. Collecting studies.
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