Thursday, May 20, 2010

Class with Romel @ Palette and Chisel



O.K...I told myself I would drive into Chicago early...get a parking spot close by and not be hurried and over anxious. I got there an hour and a half early! Then people started showing up...and a model came (which I thought this would possibly be still life?!!@#%) and she posed and everyone started painting. I was perplexed as Romel hadn't shown up yet and I was feeling a little lost. I started drawing the model on canvas. I thought I would just do her head to keep it simple..lol!!! Everyone there as I said is so good I can't believe they are taking classes...so I am as always intimidated...and I told myself I wouldn't get nervous...because when I'm nervous I just can't function at all. I got nervous...anyway Romel showed up 30minuets later and I begged for some direction as I wasn't even sure of what I was doing...(like I've never painted before!#$^&**) Talk about a mouse of a person and insecure...I have learned more about myself taking these classes then I have in a long time. When I left that night my painting looked so bad the next day I tried to remember seeing her and tried to fix it up. One thing I've learned is that not all canvas is created equally. The canvas I had kept repelling the paint..it took getting several layers on before it went down the way I wanted it to. Yes, it was primed...
The next class...same routine...model came and we did the same pose which was good for damage control...and Romel showed up 30 minuets late again. I think he must be coming from work . Once again I begged for help...and I feel like he thinks I am a total idiot. He did help me with the lightest highlights...apparently I'm not bold enough..and told me to soften my edges which I know I need to do but I need someone with a stick standing behind me reminding me to break my bad habits..yes...I hear you...we are not children anymore and we need to do these things on our own! Yes, I'm working on that.
This Monday is my last class as I have to fly to Denver for a week.I'm going up to our cabin in the mountains around Taos and spread my parents ashes around the cabin. The fun part of this trip will be going to the Boulder Fest in Boulder and spending time with two brothers and my sister in law.
Back to this class...I sometimes wonder why we pay to go paint somewhere with other people and get maybe 20 minuets worth of instruction. The 20 minuets is also questionable and your paying 1-$200.00+. Maybe it's me...because I'm so serious about it that I want a lot of direction on what I'm doing wrong...and I know it's wrong...but can't quite figure it out, and I'm feeling like nothing is being said. I get frustrated...I need to en joy the process and remember it's not life or death!

Monday, May 10, 2010



Tonight I start my class at the Palette and Chisel on edges, color, etc. I don't look forward to getting home at 11 p.m., but I need the class. I hope I don't have any problems as I'm getting carpel tunnel from painting too much I guess...what else do I do??

I don't know what it is but I feel like I am losing progress instead of gaining it. I actually liked my drawings and thought they were much better about 20 years ago. At times I think I'll just throw in the towel.
But then I remind myself that this is my personal journey and I said I wouldn't give up. I won't be a quitter. I recently read a comment from an artist that I admire that she felt discouraged as well. If she can get through these moments of frustration and disappointment, then I can too.
The sketch is a sketch on a 30 minuet pose. yes, I see things here too that need to be worked on. I have no pride!

I must say....I'm not sure I'm a traditional artist...I'm starting to feel some rebellion from all the academics, or maybe it could be because I've always walked to a different beat than most people.
Just wait till you see what I've done with a painting I had. You will really understand the rebellion attitude when you see it. That'll be my next post.
See you then....

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

ART CHICAGO



Monday was a good day to go through Art Chicago at the Mart. We bypassed the major crowds!
Started at 11:30a.m. and went till closing at 4p.m. and still didn't see it all!

My observation was that artists get on kicks too. Like a reoccurring theme was for the artist to take something old (like the Old Masters paintings) and make them new again..adding a twist. I like what most of them did...but some of it was so obvious it became redundant and I started thinking....did they all have the same art instructor that told them all the same thing or is it by word of mouth through the artist community that this is the thing to do?

Suzanne Unrein which is represented by the Boltax Gallery in New York did a wonderful job with this idea. I applaud her creative approach. It was so well done at first I thought it was just an abstract with beautiful colors until things started forming before my eyes, and then...woo la! You saw the actual painting of an old master redone!

VICTOR WANG is one artist I totally fell in love with! He painted very large canvases with figures mostly of women that usually always incorporates sun flowers. He uses sun flowers because when he lived in Northeast China near the Russian border he grew up around sunflowers and then during the Chinese Cultural Revolution, the sunflower became a political symbol. Because sunflowers follow the sun, they were used to symbolize Mao, expressing that the people must follow Mao. After High School he was sent to a farm to do hard labor for 2 years and 8 months. It was called Reeducation through labor and because of the cultural revolution everyone who graduated from school had to do it. So he worked in sunflower fields.
His paintings were done with very, very thick oil paint. He would let the oil pain sit on newspaper for several days to let the oil be absorbed into the paper making the paint less fluid.

The portrait is a portioin of a painting by Victor Wang and the other is a small portion of the painting from Suzanne Unreins painting.

Saturday, May 1, 2010

Cawain of Paris

To all those who have enquired about Cawain the artist I met in Paris awhile back on an older post, I must say that the post card he sent me with his e-mail or web site wasn't working...also I have googled him and have come up with nothing. For someone who is so talented he is not making himself available which is odd. He has such talent and could probably go farther than he's going if he would only make it easier for people to get a hold of him....

Well, I guess this means we'll have to take another trip to Paris!