Wednesday, September 30, 2020

Building a Desk for Teaching Art Online

After the start of Covid, in order to get me up and running we quickly set up the garage as woodshop.

Let me just say it pays for an artist to marry someone who is great with admin and also great with tools. Milton basically set up a folding table to get me going as my college courses were suddenly online. He watched me for a few weeks much like a scientist watches his subject in its natural habitat. He saw as I fumbled with the (as I like to call them) wires and became increasingly frustrated. He saw that I needed more space for a still life box that I have at the end of the desk and that I was using Iphone clamps like they were going out of style. Hence he designed the desk to have edges everywhere that were "clampable".


The desk also had to have slots for my Ipad Pro, my Wacom tablet and my planner. All things I need to grab quickly and be able to put away easily. 


The edge of the desk allows for me to clamp lights and iphone holders for when I do videos. He bought the wood at Home Depot and used whatever was cheapest. This desk is meant to get paint on it so there is no use to get fancy. I am am typing right now at my lovely desk.

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Memory Drawing with Michael Klein and Studio Visit

This Fall I took a class with artist Michael Klein on memory drawing and painting with the figure.  When Daniel and I saw this new course offered on GCA's schedule we jumped at the chance to take it. Daniel knew of the benefits of practicing memory drawing from his experience working with murals while I knew of its importance from taking a class with Sam Wisneski. Sam opened my eyes to it a while ago when he would have us work on exercises such as drawing the figure backwards, drawing only the gesture from the model than the rest from memory and so on. We learned a lot from Michael and are thankful we had the opportunity. It's the kind of course that doesn't come around often. Below are examples of artists throughout history utilizing aspects of memory drawing.

Leonardo da vinci, Group of riders in the Battle of Anghiari

Whistler Nocturne Blue And Silver

Leonardo da vinci, Study of battles on horseback and on foot

Michael's sketchbook      

The day after the last day of the class we went to see some of Michael's latest paintings at his studio in the city before he shipped them out for a show in Texas. He shares a studio with artist Joshua LaRock.  Here are some paintings we saw at the studio.

Floral Painting by Michael Klein
"Beauty Veiled" by Michael Klein
"Studio Table with Flower and Glasses" By Michael Klein
Rodrigo Mateo, Michael Klein, Brandon Beckstrom, Charlie Mostow, Jessica Artman, Leeanna Chipana, Joshua LaRock, Tom LaRock.

A Glimpse of the 2013 Hudson River Fellowship

Diana's Bath

Diana's Bath

Diana's Bath

Emerald Pool

Lost Lake

View from top of Mt. Washington

Jackson Falls

Tom Kegler painting

Tom Kegler's Palette

Finished painting demo by Tom Kegler for his workshop participants.

Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Week Two at the Hudson River Fellowship

Recently I had the opportunity to watch Tom Kegler, Ted Minoff and Erik Koeppel paint some of the beautiful scenes here at the White Mountains, N.H.  In an effort to document my studies as well as share with fellow artists I will be posting what I learned from my trip here:

  • After creating an under painting Tom moves around the canvas starting with the background light coming through the distant trees then paints in the background trees in a light grey tones. He then works into the main subject and foreground using average tones. Take a look at some of these progress shots.


I will have to break this blog down into parts as I have to work with the wifi hours on the local cafe here in town and I still have lots of painting to do today before our show. I will be back to post more images and info on my notes here in a few days.

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Hudson River Fellowship 2013 / July 15 - August 3

The past week and a half has been amazing. I had the great opportunity to meet artists from across the globe.  Some attending the Florence Academy, Charles H. Cecil Studios in Florence, the Russian Academy and the Jeffrey Mims studio. Those in attendance were: Olena Babak, Brandon Beckstrom, Challen Berg, Alex Berrios, Sarah Bird, Terra Chapman, Hamborg Chapman, Leeanna Chipana, Daniel daSilva, Zoe Dufour, Sarah Gibson, Robin Kappy, Rodrigo Mateo, James Morren, Charlie Mostow, Rachel Personett, Mark Popple, Savannah Tate Cuff, and Matt Weigle. After checking everyone in we started our adventure on Monday by going Jackson Falls to sketch and paint with artists Erik Koeppel and Lauren Sansaricq. Later that day Erik took us to Emerald Pool. I painted with my easel and feet in the water to keep cool. The first week of the fellowship we stepped into an unusual heat wave in the area. That's my easel on the right edge.
Fellows at Emerald Pool in the White Mountains of N.H.
At the Wild Cat Tavern.
On Tuesday July 16th we all went to the Wild Cat Tavern for dinner to celebrate my birthday. What a treat! Sorry for the bad cell phone shot.