Yesterday, my husband and I got a bit lost in the wilds of Virginia after taking my cousin to the airport. (We’re Marylanders — Virginia is terra incognito to us!) While we meandered toward home, I doodled an imaginary Fall landscape, using the ArtRage chalk tool to capture the beautiful colors we saw.
Fall Fantasy
Here are some other doodles, made last week while trying to dip a toe into the watercolor tool. As you can tell, I’m not ‘swimming’ yet. Ick.
I’ve got 3 weeks down and 7 to go in the Intro to iPad Art class I’m teaching at the Yellow Barn Studio. We have covered some of the most basic how-to information about the ArtRage app and are now exploring/practicing various tools.
In the last week, at the suggestion of Walt Bartman, I tried simulating a traditional oil painting technique – making a monochrome value-study by rubbing out highlights in a toned canvas and then adding color at the value levels developed in the preliminary study. In the iPad framework, I used the paint roller to make a solid underpainting and then used a soft eraser to ‘rub out’ the lighter passages and then added a few darker areas using the chalk tool to capture the darks.
Here are the two stages of the first work I did with this method, painted from our lovely live model Kuniko. First, the study:
With art buddy, Eneida Somarriba, I’m going to teach a 10 week class on making art on the iPad — at the Yellow Barn Studio, Glen Echo, MD, 4 to 6:30 pm on Thursdays, starting September 20, 2012.
If you haven’t tried this fun and revelatory form of finger-painting, you’ve got to do it! David Hockney, a modern master, has focused on the iPad for several years, exhibiting his digital pictures at UK’s Royal Academy and elsewhere.
Arrival of Spring in Worldgate 1, a Hockney iPad Image from Royal Academy Show
After declining a request to paint a portrait of Queen Elizabeth, he changed his mind on the occasion of her recent Jubilee, presenting her an iPad picture of her aboard the Royal Barge during the festive event.
Jubilee Pageant on the Thames: The End of the Regatta
So, whether you want to make colorful stick figures, high art, or anything in between, don’t miss this opportunity to learn iPad art in a structured environment.
In tomorrow’s post I’ll give you a virtual tour of my living room, painted over a couple of weeks as I worked nightly on what I could see from the vantage of my sofa.
The Kensington Armory/Town Hall is the site of my third show over Labor Day weekend. The hours are noon to 4 pm Saturday and Sunday, and 9:30 am to 4:30 pm on Labor Day. There will be a public reception Saturday evening from 6:00-7:30 pm.
For this exhibit, I plan to hang four framed paintings and show 10-12 matted originals and possibly prints of recent iPad images in a nearby rack. The slide show below gives a sense of these works — but they look much better ‘in person’. Come see them!
No disrespect intended! Walt Bartman had promised us a cowboy and his horse. What we got was a grizzled, droll, and patient farmer . . . and his bull. Of course, both were way more fun to paint than a horse and cowboy would have been.
Walt, painting the 'bull boy'
My perspective on the bull and rider.
This was my vantage point.
And my gouache sketch. It’s not great — I spent most of my time watching Walt’s gouache techniques, trying to learn more about this unfamiliar medium.
Oh well . . .
A word about the gouache: Walt had encouraged us to use this easy-to-tote medium, rather than haul oil painting gear all over Cuba. This was good advice in view of the strict weight limit and our plan to bring giveaway items. But NOT so good for painting quality, in my case anyway. I’ll brief you ‘later’ on the painful months spent acquainting myself with gouache in advance of our trip.
Potomac Patch's Photo of Yellow Barn's "Paint the Park Green" competition
This past weekend the Yellow Barn, situated on the lovely Glen Echo Park grounds, held a two-day plein air competition, featuring environmentally sensitive techniques for painting in oils, acrylics and watercolors. The setting was magical and the camaraderie was warm, as we fanned out around the park to develop our paintings for the Sunday evening competition.
Oil painting of Glen Echo's Art Deco 'arcade' sign and courtyard
This is what I accomplished on Saturday. I was up on the second floor balcony looking down over the ‘arcade’ sign into the courtyard. A two-day Cajun and Zydeco music festival was also in full swing over the weekend, so I was at least able to boogie while making a dull painting!
Walt Bartman, excellent, indefatigable artist-teacher-mentor and director/founder of the Yellow Barn Studio, is my most recent teacher. I had to wait awhile to build up the courage to face his scrutiny! He’s been great, though. Too bad I waited so long!
Glen Kessler is another Yellow Barn teacher from whom I’ve learned a lot. Trained as a classical figurative artist at New York Academy of Art, Glen has a profound knowledge of the human figure in art. Glen teaches at Maryland Institute College of Art, as well as Yellow Barn. He draws high praise for his patience and his ability to coax improvement from his students, no matter how experienced or inexperienced.
Here is one of Glen’s many wonderful pet portraits:
Guinness & Ripley, oil on canvas, 36x24"
I’ve already posted the first two paintings I did in Glen’s ‘Painting Through the Lens’ class (Even the Skies Cry for Jody and Chef Chaouen’s Red Sea). Here’s a detail from a figurative painting I did from a live model in another class with Glen:
