Critique workshop

Here are some examples of "failed" paintings before and after being worked on by everyone. We all agreed there were changes. If the change was for the better or not is up to the viewer!

Katherine's "failed" painting before

After

My before "failed" painting

After

Ann's before "failed" painting

After

Some photos of our critique group work shop July 30th to August 2nd.

Our spacious studio
Lunch on the patio
Ann's birthday cake from Barbara
The birthday girl
Using a handful of markers exercise
A photo from the other side of the room
Our exercise painting on plywood

Last week for four days my critique group held a self led abstract painting workshop at one member's spacious art studio. We had a great time painting together and we all learned new things from each other.

Monday Nikki had us draw a different type of composition from a bucket. We were to use a triad of primary colors plus black and white. Afterwards we all tried to guess which composition they were using. Our guessing was fairly close.

Monday afternoon Katherine set up stations in the room for each of us to try in order to get our creative juices flowing. We did Sumi sketches with Asian brushes and Sumi ink, drew with a fist full of pens, did small Notan sketches, and experimented with an analogous color wheel which is different from any traditional color wheel. Katherine brought several examples of pastel paintings using several of the analogous schemes.

Katherine (and Ann) had hand outs which sure supplemented my sketchy notes.

Other practices to get creativity flowing from Katherine: Sketch or doodle while watching TV, pick a word and sketch it, sketch to unfamiliar music, look at other artist's blogs, begin an idea book, look at books and magazines and read about artists we admire. The two main things that are very helpful are to be bold and fearless plus SHOW UP to the work.

Several of us brought books we especially liked and I see some time spent on Amazon very soon.

Tuesday morning I did a class on how to gild using composition gold leaf. Mainly use a glue that stays tacky and seal with a solvent based spray so the leaf won't tarnish.

Wednesday morning Collin brought several pieces of cut up plywood for us to work on with her technique. Wet down the board with a very wet sponge and using acrylic paint sort of tint various parts and wipe off with the sponge and keep going from very light to darker. Can finish with oil pastels. In the afternoon Bonnie requested we each bring a "failed" painting and let each of us work on them. I planned on being very organized and show the various stages and the changes on everyone's pieces. That would be six paintings changed by five artists. I've posted some photos at the top of this post but it won't be every piece and every change. We had fun working with abandon at the beginning. As time went on we became more cautious and some of us stopped sooner since we liked what had been done previously and didn't feel we could improve it too much. We had a great time and saw new possibilities in what others had done to our paintings.

Thursday morning Ann showed us her process using texture and pattern. Ann likes to concentrate on ways to do layers with color and texture. She had many examples and had made up pieces of various textures for us to experiment on using various colors. I especially liked the veiling one can do with Winsor and Newton clear gesso. It works especially well on a dark background and Ann had some samples on black board for us to use.

We all learned so much from each other! We brought our lunches and ate on the back

patio. Katherine's neighbor Barbara baked a beautiful chocolate cake for us which lasted for two lunches. She is now officially known as the Pastry Goddess.

The main thing we took away was the rare luxury of working together and spending several hours at a time together over the four days. Usually we meet once a month for three or four hours.

Abstract art at the Saatchi gallery

Here is a short video of people looking at abstract art at the Saatchi gallery in London.

Some are students who are sketching and taking photos. Others just look tired or bemused. It appears they might be asking themselves which gallery, museum or country they're today.

Business of art class

I took a class last Saturday from Bob and Kate Burridge called mARTketing-the business of selling your art. It was from 10 to 4 with an hour for lunch. They had previously taught three days of art classes in the same place and were driving home after this class. Bob and Kate are a good team and both taught with Kate teaching most of the time. She is very organized, kept everything on task and watched the clock. They have a book about the class for $25 which is the text they used. There were a few newer handouts too. They teach this class at an art school near where they live and it is an eight to 10 week class so this time on Saturday was not an in depth class. But there is the book to refer to later.

Some of the topics I knew about from prior study and other things were new to me. So I think I'll cover the new to me stuff and tell about the things they didn't cover instead of giving a full report.

Bob does all the photography using an SLR camera with film in bright sun light. They had a couple of techniques that made this workable and rather than try to explain all of it without being able to draw a picture I'll just have to refer you to the book. He firmly believes judging should return to the use of slides. Mainly because of questions about how long digital media really lasts and because people can tweak the photos of their work using digital. I'm sure this is all true but I really hope we don't go back to slides!

They handed out a fairly long agenda at the start of the class. The topics they either didn't cover or didn't cover except for a brief mention were: How does a website help in marketing art? Donations of art work--what can be deducted from our taxes? What's the best way to frame artwork? 

Much of what they taught is exactly what they do in their art business and they had several good examples of what they use to make their business run well. They both have day timers with the same things entered in each one. Kate carries two or three 5X7 prints of Bob's work to show people when they ask what sort of work he does. She can also give them one of the prints to keep and of course it has all their contact information and details about the piece. 

It was generally a well run class and both presenters were prepared, funny and energetic. It's main benefit for me was being around artists and talking about art. I think some or most of the information was new to most of the audience.

Painting progress & reunion

I was gone for a few days to a school reunion. We were near Shady Cove Oregon on a classmate's ranch. The school mascot is below---Grizzlies.  Makes a good cup holder, huh?

A view of the ranch.

I'm working on the paintings I posted last time. They aren't quite ready for progress photos or far enough along to show any real changes. I'm at the place where it's easy to go over the top or over do it. Thank heavens for alcohol. No, not for me to drink although there are times when I'm not painting that some alcohol would probably be helpful. I spray 70% isopropyl rubbing alcohol on the painting and wait a few seconds and scrub (gently) with a stiff brush, spray with water and wipe clean. If the paint is thick it may take several times with this treatment. Guess you can tell I've over done it in the past!

Also go take a look at Casey Klahn's blog The Colorist. His last two posts have been about moral courage and art. Interesting topic.