Thanks for the Article

Recently, Charles Spillar wrote an article about the Tucson Artist Colony for the online Tucson Citizen. Charlie writes a weekly art blog called Artistic Tucson. It was a wonderful surprise to find that others view our little piece of Tucson as we do.
An Artist Shangi la in Tucson

Paintings from my men

The first one is by William. That's his painting this week. "Mustard and Ketchup". Maybe we'll get him to do the lettering on the ketchup bottle. And the second one is by Greg. This is from a photo I took as we were driving into Seattle on that unbelievable journey in our big green bus. We had been on the road for awhile and we were anxious to see the family in Seattle and everything around us was exciting. That was my point of view. Greg remembers it slightly differently. We had just a few days before bounced off the side of a mountain on highway 1 and now he was about to enter some hair raising traffice. So he has entitled this "White Knuckles"

Another day of oil painting class

This is as far as I took the dog before class on Saturday. And I'll just stop here for now. It's not about a finished painting to frame and hang but about what I'm learning. And I know that I've taken this one as far as I can. I probably should have tried the paws again...but now it's too dry. I like painting wet into wet and that's what I want to learn to do well. Got home today without any canvas so I won't paint again until tomorrow. Really do need to work on taxes anyway....

Life Drawing Class with Robert Goldman

Monday a new adventure starts. I am enrolled in Robert Goldman's Life Drawing class. So for 3 weeks I'll have 2 classes a week. Looks like I might need to start painting the things I'm drawing in Robert's class. I'm excited but nervous about this new class. I am in over my head there. I am in awe of his paintings. He is a painter's painter. Like Sorolla or Bongart. And the class is full of accomplished artists. But I am not the only beginner. It will just push me to draw better. We will draw from models every week. This will really be a challenge. I have no idea how to even start. There are some artists enrolled that I really admire. Stephanie Birdsall being one of them. And then there will be little ol' me....struggling beginner. But Robert assures me his class is geared for all different levels. Greg is currently attending Robert's painting class and so I've gotten glimpses of Robert's teaching style and I think I'll be okay. He just doesn't know what a temper I have and how mad with myself I can get. But as usual I'll reserve that for our little dining room studio at home where I work out my artistic frustrations.

Just Blocking in

I'm working on the block in for another homework piece for Brenda - is she sounding like a slave driver?? If your reading this, Brenda, (first I'll be flattered) some of us NEED slave drivers or we'd procrastinate. I admit I feel some pressure to have my assignments done for the next class. The first thing we do is share with the whole class what we did that week. This is a good thing or I might find excuses everyday to avoid the challenge. Brenda does not let you take the easy way out. But that's what makes her a good teacher.

I will finish blocking in some values and then I will get rid of some hard lines between some of them and then I think I will just develop the eye area and the highlights in the muscles around them. I'm not having much success with the paws without making them look too prominant so I might just ignore them for now. By looking at the photo I can easier see how the whole right side is in shadow and so tonight I'll make that one dark shape. That will be a good move towards finishing the block in.

Struggling Art Student

I have had a tough and unproductive week in oil painting. I'm not sure Brenda will believe me but I really have painted every day for atleast an hour - usually 2 - except for yesterday when I just blew everything off. I took most of the day to cook with my 8 year old son - subject for a different blog - but it was the stuff the good life is made of...
Tonight I decided if I didn't make some visible progress in painting then I might as well hang it up for a while. One thing I knew I couldn't face again was that danged black and grey paint. If you've ever been into any spaces I inhabit/work in you know I am all about the color of life. The relationships of colors to light and spaces and the emotions they evoke. I look back at my kitten painting and have decided to name it "Shades of Death - Kitten". The lifeless blue that the black becomes when mixed with the white overwhelmingly reminds me of death and just flat out depresses me.
So the little rebel in me used a burnt sienna tonight. And once again I had fun. All week before this I had drawn with the deathly grey paint and wiped it off, drawn again....cried a bit...drank a little wine....wiped it off...it never felt right.
And once again my drawing in sienna is off - but I don't care. It felt right this time. I'm too old to spend my evenings suffering over ugly paint. Next week we are suppossed to get to break out the tubes of color. YIPPEE!

Super Bowl Portrait Demo with Romel dela Torre

Super Bowl Sunday at The Tucson Artist Colony was a big hit. Romel dela Torre was our guest artist. He put on a wonderful demo session with the help of Stephanie Birdsall and her accomplished daughter as the model. We watched Romel paint the portrait wet into wet from beginning to end. The entire session was around 4 hours with a few short breaks. Romel shared valuable insight with us down to the nitty gritty of brush selection palette layout. Even as a beginning art student I learned a great deal yesterday watching the drawing and block in and I was particularly interested in when and how Romel put in his darkest darks.

If anyone is interested in a workshop with Romel contact Stephanie or me (Susan). It would be great to have him here in Tucson for more than a few hours.

Homework assignments for Brenda Semanick's Class

I'm not asking for critiques - I live with "The Critic" and I am an extremely harsh critic also. I know, I got the drawing wrong and it fell apart there. But I want to share anyway because the thing I'm really proud of in this picture is that I did it. My first 3 attempts turned into little temper tantrums and I told Greg I wasn't going back to class and that this was "stupid". He settled me down with a glass of wine - what a good husband he is....and I started again. Ironically, I think the drawings of the first 3 attempts were more accurate but the paint was a muddy mess. I also highly recommend the book Brushwork Essentials by Weber. As I read it I realized he was repeating almost verbatim ideas that Brenda had stressed in class. It was good to hear it again. Today I am working on a kitten. I am slow and so I won't have much to show for class, but I am learning. And I think our family is bonding with us all having this oil paint bug together. I still smile everytime I see the palettes in the freezer.

Palettes in the freezer - Oil painting classes at the Tucson Artist Colony

Do you know what it means when your're trying to make dinner and you have to take 4 palettes out of the freezer to get to the peas??
Well, I've found it is the secret to happiness :-)
Recently, Maggie Maye and I have started art classes at the Tucson Artist Colony. Our first session was beginning drawing with Brenda Semanick and now we are taking Beginning Oil Painting, also with Brenda. The homework assignment is challenging enough to require me to paint daily. Just what I need. At the same time Greg is taking a painting class with Robert Goldman and he is obsessively painting every morning - in breaks during the day - and late into the night. And William seems to have caught the bug. Two days in a row he has come home from school, opened his paint box and worked on a desert scene he is painting. It must be quite a picture to outsiders. ...our dining area lost in easels, paint boxes and reference pictures. But to me it is a scene fit for Better Homes and Gardens.
Downside - I can't spell anymore - Brenda said that might happen when the right brain really starts to work and the left brain has to be quiet. I think I've gotten most of the blatant spelling errors corrected in this ditty - forgive the rest - I have a kitten to block in.