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| AM. Warm up. Two little heads well placed on a 9 x 12 canvas; twenty minutes each. Look at the corners where the tape masked the canvas. They should be white, but they translated blue in this computer reproduction; the rest of the colors are as they are in the original drawing. An example of white is blue. |
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| AM, one head on 9 x 12 canvas sheet, twenty minutes. |
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| AM. One head on 9 x 12 sheet, forty minutes. A red film was placed over the spot light. |
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| AM. Pastel demonstration stressing palette selection based on values. |
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| PM two hour portrait with a blue film placed over the spotlight. |
I'm sold on workshops. They are worth every penny, every ache and pain, every moan. Vianna Szabo was the best. Kim, Nina, Kathryn, Randy, Ruth,Sara, Sharon, Sharon, Pete and myself all agree. The woman was passionate about art and teaching.
I came a long way in just four, intense days. I will do this again. Tomorrow? No. I need a day to absorb--let it all sink in. I am going to watch the Morning Show on television and drink coffee while I paint with my pastels, the best medium to train oneself in how to recognize the values is the way Vianna tells it and shows it. I'm a believer--who needs to shampoo her brushes and catch my breath.
Erin, as I left her on my easel. After my week that was, where do you think she'll go from here?
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| Erin, as I left her in progress, before running off and expanding my viewpoint. |
Oh-oh, this workshop has created a portrait-monster!!! :)
ReplyDeleteAnd one tired cookie. Just got out of a hot bath and strapped on the ice packs. Tomorrow pastels and television. My chair will have cushions and a back. I definitely benefited from my OPE seminar and can't wait to try it out.
DeleteYou're getting better with every painting you do, Linda!! There's no stopping you now!!
ReplyDeleteI should hope so. The first three that I trashed were shameful. I really did think I'd left my abilities home on the breakfast room table. But then I noticed everybody else did too. Kim, one gal out of nine gals and one guy, was the only one who had brought her professionalism with her. My failure that day was black had never been on my palette EVER. I was thrown for a loop AND out of my safe haven. And yet, there it was along with white. Two blues and not another hue to warm them up. It was disconcerting. Oddly enough on the last day, black was as major a player as white along with cerulean, cad yellow medium and cad red med--albeit the primaries. Cerulean added to black, made black blacker. A limited palette was recommended as the way to really develop a sense of the values. I like it. Limiting the palette pushes the envelop on color mixing, lightens the paint box when venturing out of the studio, lowers the cost of supplies.
DeleteAhhh, Linda, I thoroughly enjoyed reading about your workshop and seeing your progress. In the tidbits you shared is contained a wealth of information for me. I always learn something coming here! Thanks for sharing your frustrations and your joys:-)
ReplyDeleteI'm glad I could be of service. Workshops, classes--art centers--are not everywhere. Portland we all know is overflowing with art centers, but the Detroit area is not. The BBAA is it from what I could gather. One gal stayed in a hotel for three nights, the drive home was so far.(talk about cost). Two others came across the city in rush hour traffic making a six and a half hour session an eight and a half hour session or longer.There's drawing in the galleries at the museum, (which is a very fine one and will be finer now that the millage has passed)--and a wonderful art college a block away that I will investigate for an extra curricula program for wandering, lonely artists looking for live models and some interaction with people who speak their language.
DeleteI really think you improved on the way. The two paintings that used the colored filter on the light source is lovely and the sketches are very good. Well done.
ReplyDeleteI do too. Thank you. The last day, it all clicked. I have a lot of work to do with nailing down values a bit faster than I do, but that'll come. I'm going to take Vianna's pastel painting workshop in October(3 hours a session for six weeks and not so hard on my legs). It's still lifes, which are not my favorite--indeed sent me running from art classes years ago--but the subject really is reading the values. The workshop will help me speed up the process.
DeleteThe cost of these workshops amounts to twenty three dollars per. Put that way, the cost isn't too bad. The big cost is if you do as I did and buy the supply list. Looking back, I could have knocked down the expense. While I am short on oil colors, I do have a whole bolt of 100% cotton canvas down in the studio I could have divided up and made my own pads, which I will now do. the brushes I favored were the brushes I used for that very first portrait. I like the slanted brights; they give you both fine line and broad stroke. I owned those and only needed one filbert for filling in the grounds. As usual, I over did.
But then I have a knack for that.
For the physical effort was an enterprise
ReplyDeleteheroic! But the result was worth it.
Now your strength in the paint
As will expand...more and more strong!
The physical effort was taxing. Standing on cement for that amount of time is a killer for even the youngest legs--leads to varicose vein problems from the strain. It doesn't matter how cushy or supportive your shoes are. I had the same problems when I modeled at trunk showings on the floor of department stores and I was in my twenties.But I recovered and yes, the new knowledge I took away with me was worth it AFTER a whirlpool bath and several icing sessions. What I liked about this woman of tremendous talent is that she too takes workshops--partakes in ongoing education courses--to finely tune her professionalism. I had to do it in the residential design/build business, why would the business of art be any different?
DeleteEverything flows and changes as it flows.
DeletePanta rei (as said the ancient Greeks)
You can not bathe twice in the same river ...
So the change and flow are important in every human activity.
It's nice to get to several tens of years of life and be also ready to discover that there is space for the new, for the change, and the dynamics of everything that was already inside of us, but is reorganized in a more powerful way!SEI FORTE,LINDA!!!
Constant change and growth is the way of life and why we cannot discard any of our work at the moment of completion, which itself is questionable. "Things will look differently in the morning" is true, whether it's the next morning or a month or two of mornings. SEI FORTE to you too RITA. Survivors are us.
DeleteI am glad, but not surprised, that you ended up loving this. Yay for you and your teacher!
ReplyDeleteYay for OPE courses. I'm making this mandatory once a year. It was when I was a designer, why not now that I'm an artist? I was impressed with Vianna, a marvelously talented and passion young woman, taking an oil painting class (when she is fabulous) and a watercolor class. She understands that life is an ongoing education if you want to stay on top of your game.
DeleteThe speed that you produce these beginnings that shape the value, tonality and temperature of final pieces is very impressive.
ReplyDeleteIt was amazing to me too Mick. The last piece could have been a little stronger. I was still uncertain what the paints on my palette could do. For the first time in my life, I was using black. For the first time in my life I was only allowed to select three primaries based upon the lighting situation. I chose cerulean blue, cad red med, cad yellow med, black (a blue) and white (a blue)--then sneaked in Veridian and a tad of rosa something-or-other, I'd have to look. Try it: no lips, no nose, no eyes, no features to get hung up on, just shadow and highlight shapes.
DeleteShe sounds amazing Linda. I'm so glad you loved the workshop (bad workshops are such a waste of time after all) :-D
ReplyDeleteThen you don't stay. The cement floors will kill you for nothing in return.
DeleteCongratulations Linda! The portraits are beautiful!
ReplyDelete(you made me think about workshops in a whole different perspective)
Warm regards.
I wanted to share my experience. This was a costly thing I did; I am a very lucky duck. One woman in the class candidly said the workshop was her Christmas present. Everyone is not as fortunate as I am; in spite of the shite economy now, I can still write a check due to the good economy prior to 2008. Also, after BC (breast cancer, 2008) and all that that entailed(s), I want to see what kind of artist I can be. The blog and blogging got me started January, 2010, (2009 was a lost year. I was recovering from the shock of chemo and radiation. The Summer After is my painting about that). Celeste Bergin ,a fabulous painter in oils,(see side bar for Celeste's url), and her very active art life pushed me to explore the art community around my parts of the country. I found it. I liked it. I strongly advise readers to explore their local art communities and if there isn't one,find another artist on your block, in your building, around the corner and start one. Co-mingle with your peers. One of the greatest things I learned from my peers over the last four days was what to use to get oil paint out of clothes, off furniture and especially, primarily, paint brushes: Totally Awesome. In the US, you get it at the dollar store. It's on my list. --They didn't know if it works on acrylics, the bitch of paints to remove from fabrics. But I'm going to give it a try. Communicating with people who speak art fluently is as important as making it regularly.
DeleteExperience shared vividly and, on my behalf, received with appreciation!
DeleteIt's admirable that you look around and value what you have; a thing that people conveniently avoid to do, unless they are themselves up against problems of any sort.
About art communities though, I have to admit I feel quite timid. After all, I'm still crawling here and I don't want to be discouraged before I even make my first step. But, you did gave something to think about-see what you did now, you threw me in the thinking bucket... :)
xx
Hi Linda.
ReplyDeleteI like your series of portraits. especially this one, all excellent Linda. well done.
All the best.
Vic.
Thanks Vic. Improvement was my objective. Day one, I thought I'd lost it!
DeleteMay I add my compliments? Especially Erin at the last.
ReplyDeleteGreat. Love Erin's portrait, especially her eyes :).
ReplyDelete