Today’s Work

Older Lemons

acrylic paint

6”x6"

Daily Studies

Now that my long term sub is done and the holidays with all their blessed craziness are also in the rear view mirror, it is back into the studio...

Leftover Lemons

6”x6” 

watercolor

Old Orange

6”x6”

watercolor

West Coast Rocks

6”x6”

watercolor

Teaching vs Creating

I just had the best most exhausting December, ever...

Me after work everyday this month...

Personal Note: For those of you who don’t know... as much as I love love art,  I would go crazy if I only worked in my studio or gallery.  My first art career was as a public school art teacher and while I adored it I could not handle the insane amount of time required after my own kiddos came on the scene.  On top of the regular teaching and grading, with teaching art extra time is needed for material ordering, prepping, clean up, and exhibiting.  
Yet I truly miss being around all that energy and curiosity as well as being a part of a caring staff working together to inspire students to develop into the best they can be.  So these days I try to find ways to balance studio time with getting back into the classroom without those crazy long hours that only a public school art teacher can relate too.  

Hence I now do something I would have scoffed at 20 years ago (never say never, right?)  

I substitute teach.  

But not this kind...

         



this kind...

So I just spent the last month with an adorable class of kindergarteners while their teacher took longer to recuperate from knee surgery than previously planned.  

I feel very fortunate that I am able to use my skills from teaching to truly help others out when it is really needed.  

I don’t get all the negative PR with substitute teaching.   If you ever want to feel like a Santa Claus/Rock Star walk into the door of just about any school to sub.  And here is the most awesomesauce part...you can leave right after the kids...no faculty meetings, staff development workshops or extra mandated projects.  This is why I keep my teaching certificate up.


But now that it is done I am raring to get back into the studio!!

Inch by Inch...

This is where the image of the week idea meets the road...I got a call to teach at the last minute.  So I did not have that much time in the studio.  

So I just went ahead and blocked in three substrates...paper, block and clapboard.  

This will tee me up for lots of painting tonight! 

Image Week #1 COLOR

Now it’s Tuesday and I am moving from tones and proportions to adding color...


Working in dry media first...  a color map sketch with color pencils to decide my palette.

Now my “coloring book” stage.  Applying flat washes in local color.  Decided to use yellow as an under layer for the grass

Starting to figure out more about my composition as I get to this stage...such as my strategies for showing space both physically and emotionally in my subject matters.  I am taking notes about it in my sketchbook laying nearby.   I added the faintest of washes in the background to change the spatial feel of the entire composition.  I washed my brush out twice to get that faintest of Payne’s Gray wash in the background.

Using size and spacing of my green grass blobs over the yellow to begin that definition of space...

Now I add in either a stronger pigment or darker the flat first color to add depth.  

So finished for today.  As I am running around doing those exciting domestic things like laundry, paying bills, walking the dogs and cooking, in the back of my mind I will be kicking around the techniques and strategies I came up with today and yesterday as I created these

Which will help me make the next big decision, what media to work with.  To stay with watercolors or move to acrylic and/or oils....

Image of the Week #1

Always looking for new ways to jazz up my studio practice.

This idea is courtesy of my new artist friend Nadya Warthen-Gibson.

Drum roll please....

In the spirit of my Hot 100 series of past yore, I am now working on an image of the week, for only that week, and posting (hopefully) daily progress here, with weekly updates on FB.

Tahhh-daah!


Here is this week’s reference photo...my half pint muse at my goddaughter’s wedding...

“ Hmmmm, I wonder if they will like the designer toaster I got them..."

And now a sketch I have made of it today...

Moving onto a 5 step value scale study  to see if spaces and shapes will work out.

just the faintest wash first, barely able to see the highlights...

bringing in the value scale as a reference guide...

no details wanted here, just rendering major shapes and groupings...

pushing to the far end of the value scale to give a sense of space.

This monochromatic study and sketch will both be a big help when I start to work with color tomorrow.

Little Man Hits Abstract Beach & Art Roulette 4+3=1

So okay,  I may not be posting...but I am painting! The culmination of my Waiting for the Next Wave series.  Trying to balance realism with abstraction in this one...

Little Man in the Sand  

Acrylic paint

22”x34” approx.  

2014

And also...

The images of my art collaboration with Team #13

From the Art Roulette Collaboration  of area RVA and beyond artists

4 (artists) + 3 (panels) = 1 (finished piece)

4+3=1

Acrylic paint, string, tape and metal on board

24”x78” approx.

Kathy Calhoun, Noelle Gray, Matt Ritchie and Henry Stindt

2014

These will be raffled off with 24 other pieces done by over 90 artists this Friday at Artspace Gallery.  Tickets available through me or the gallery website.