Thursday, February 3, 2011

I put in a fence all by myself!






  
You need an opening into your art work...
to lead the viewer into your world.



You can see the photo I took on location at the bottom of this picture.  The fence goes all the way across the page. 
I wanted to have an opening into the painting - so I found a reference book with fences in it.  I then cut up some artist tape to test out my new opening 
on the dry painting I had been working on.

Here you can see the tape I was testing to see if I liked the placement.



Next I outlined the tape with a white charcoal pencil.

Then I was able to paint a fence without alot of messing around.
 Putting in a new fence  
all by myself 
was not too hard at all!

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Begin It Now!

This is a painting I did for a class. I had to copy the newspaper photo the teacher assigned me.  It was the statue from Michaleangelo's Pieta.  In less than two years Michelangelo carved from a single slab of marble, one of the most magnificent sculptures ever created. His interpretation of the Pieta was far different than ones previously created by other artists. Michelangelo decided to create a youthful, serene and celestial Virgin Mary instead of a broken hearted and somewhat older woman.   This reminds me of the quote below.   What if Michelangelo did not try?
  Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness, concerning all acts of initiative (and creation). There is an elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and  material assistance which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. 
Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now.

-Often attributed to Goethe, but is mostly taken from text by William Hutchinson Murray, Scottish mountaineer, 1913-1996 – with a nod to John Anster (how about that for a convoluted attribution!)

*Nice quote from my online class...http://www.artbizcoach.com/

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Art Research with Students


I love doing research for Art....
this was our field trip to China Town. 
Nothing like the real place to get great reference photos for her upcoming paintings.
Now we are set to go to the studio and work on 3 paintings!