Experimental Sketchbook Class: Time & Space to Create

Some of my work during the weeklong class.

It was perhaps the best art class I've ever taken at University. 

We were encouraged to experiment.

Push out of our comfortable ways.

I started getting scribbly & messy (not shown here)

so it was a relief to do some minimalist drawings.

Zoom grids became an integral part of my experience.

I wandered out of my familiar box.

I cut up one of my watercolor "still life" grids

and pasted fragments into a booklet.

And then, relief, back to the familiar~ 

except with a bit of a grid.

A grid containing The Tiny Fears of Rita

Les miniscules craintes de Rita

We tried a wax resist/ink wash/charcoal layering technique

that Maine artist, David Lewis, uses.

(His drawings are very sophisticated & refined...) 

We collected shadows by tracing actual shadows.

Some of the students turned their results into imaginative

imagery, unrelated to the original subjects, and then 

turned them into handmade books.

I loved my Swedish Ivy design & didn't transform it,

except to put it into an accordion format.

Last class exercise: Do 20 versions of the same object, 

using various papers & drawing materials.

I got 3 done in our half hour allotment...

But THIS is the idea which I most want to continue

at the moment...20 objects? 50? 100? 

Maybe they would be painted and drawn, then,

hand sewn together into a paper quilt that folds 

into a book. We shall see...

The beautiful thing is that I have SO many wonderful

inspirations & directions with which to continue.

Thanks to my instructors & to the class, composed of

young undergraduates, graduate students,

& some oldsters like me. 

So much inspiration,

& this is only the tip of the iceberg...

What to Do? Sketch!

What to do when you go to a meeting

& no one else shows up?

You could

1. Get angry

2. Feel disappointed

3. Sketch! And feel lucky that you're getting

some bonus sketching time

while waiting to see if anyone comes.

4. Oh, and be glad that you have your

traveling sketch kit with you.

Exploring New Watercolors

My new watercolors are 

much more saturated than the old ones.

Still getting to know them. 

With these new paints

my small sketches are more abstract these days.

(This was a scene in shop of pretty things

here in town.)

Sadness has come into my life recently...

I release it onto paper... 

Life has it's darkness as well as lightness.

Colors change from day to day, month to month...

C'est comme ça.

Sketchers Go to a Beautiful Space

 An initial rough sketch made at 

Beyond the Sea, (Gifts & Books & Café) 

Not great paper in my sketchbook, but it works.

Another field trip with the sketch group.

The owner has created a sunny pastel space 

in the back of the shop, 

looking out to a salt marsh 

on the edge of Lincolnville Beach. 

I had sketched out the window in December,

on a solo visit. 

Today the focus was on my friends.

Tourist season has not yet begun, 

so we each had our own table. 

We chatted lightly, sporadically,

punctuating the space with art tips & experiences. 

The above two images are illustration-sketches 

on watercolor paper,

derived from the roughs in my sketchbook.

They aren't meant to be portraits, nor to capture likenesses.

They are impressions that bring back the afternoon.

They allow me to linger in a pleasant experience...

Art Learning Journal: Studying Masters

More notes from my Art Learning Journal.

From the book, Matisse in the Studio:

A catalogue of an MFA, Boston show that I missed.

There is a great value in sketching works of art,

using books or visiting museums.

I notice so many aspects 

that I miss when I look without drawing.

We public art teachers were guided to teach in the 80's-90's 

by always starting with a lesson on a famous artist, 

 & analysis of reproductions of his/her work. 

Followed by hands on art.

And we made field trips to our art museum,

where students made visual notes, 

went on searches, & answered specific questions.

The book, Teaching Drawing From Art

has many rationals for teaching drawing to young people,

& for integrating fine art into lessons.

It tells us that students need to learn 

by their own experimentation,

& by studying great & varied sources of fine art.

When I taught this way, I gave room for individual invention within a style or medium. 

It wasn't just copying, oh no. 

But do I think ALL lessons should be started with fine art? NO!

An invented scene, after I took visual notes from Matisse's paintings.

If you Google: "Matisse/ Interiors in Nice/ Images"

you'll find an amazing assortment of his paintings, 

in which he integrated objects from his extensive collections

 into complex scenes.

And oh! Note his use of color!

He was a "modernist" which meant he avoided 

the "conventions of modeling, perspective & recession".

(Though I think they are somewhat present.) 

He uses a "shifting space with push & pull 

between the elements".

He thought of his own studio as a theater.

Me, I'm also captivated by the scenes that 

were outside of Matisse's windows. 

                    

And outside windows in my own life. 

(This scene, March 5, 2015. It's similiar to today's view!)

Next for the Art Learning Journal: 

Cartooning: Philosophy & Practice by Ivan Bruneti. 

Sketch Group at the Home Garden Boutique

A cold winter's day at a local home garden shop. 

The proprietor of Brambles welcomed 7 of us sketchers,

& even lent us stools. (I ended up buying mine!)

 

Brambles is one of 

the most artistic and nourishing to the senses shops 

I've ever been in! 

The owner, so friendly, so happy, and no wonder! 

She is surrounded, 

all day long, by gorgeous colors, scents, 

handmade objects that she herself has selected, 

plants that she has grown, 

and by cheerful customers and visiting friends!

Aaah, can you smell the flowers?

This in mid January! Note the contrast!

Outdoors, let it snow (and be monochromatic!)

Brambles will infuse you with happiness 

during any season!

Sketching, Organizing, Collage

Last weekend I went sketching again 

at The Common Ground Fair.

A happy annual ritual.

I've been using existing bits & pieces here in the art room. 

Employing friend M.'s "Use It Up Initiative". 

My paper sun  finally found a new home. 

That's a little cardboard house structure provided by Waterfall Arts 

for a grassroots project on the subject of Home.

Leftover papers are also finding homes.

 In collages ... 

 ...and handmade books for friends.

Made possible because of lots of hours

organizing a new studio space. 

Now I know what I have & where it is!

In the process, lots was given away & tossed.

Weeding, raking, planting seeds for a new season 

& new directions.

...Which include French study after the summer off.

Second Drafts and Responding

Both are 2nd draft sketches, sketches from sketches. The little flap above the flowers is from a 1st draft page that I had removed. The top sketch is from a drawing I did in February while staying at a neighbor's home when I had to evacuate my own home due to repairs. The original was stiff, overworked. It reflected a ton of stress, & also reflected a desire to please my neighbor. No.

The 2nd is a re-make from a heavy, overworked sketch at Friday's Farmer's Market which reflected my tension from not having sketched for 2 months. It did not express my feelings to the burst of color that I encountered.

This sketching is like physical exercise: One "stays in shape" & flows by doing it frequently. I am discovering, that Lightness is a key to my authentic response & expression. Sometimes it must be less about what I specifically see & more about the feeling. Always lessons, yes?