ONE WORD WEDNESDAY

First

Photo by Jerry H. Carpenter

A SPRING POEM + THE CHRISTOPHER LEEPER WORKSHOP

The 3-day workshop with Christopher Leeper is over.  Three intense days of trying landscapes and learning about getting a glow in our paintings by painting those colors first and then putting darker and more intense (but less bold) colors on top of that "underpainting".  If you get a chance and are interested in landscapes, then do take a workshop with Chris.  He is a wonderfully giving and fun teacher.

After three days, my brain is tired, my body is tired.  Sweetie asked me what I was going to do today and I replied, "Absolutely nothing."  I lied.  I'm uploading photos to the computer and sorting and resizing and naming them to send to the other workshop participants later this week.  And I'm putting this on the blog.  But other than that, absolutely nothing! ha ha

So here is a spring poem for you all.  We had 2 days of warm, sunny, gorgeous weather (while we were in the workshop) and the trees are blooming out, the hyacinths and daffodils are out, the forsythia is budding up yellow and fresh.  Spring has arrived to my part of the world!

The Daffodils

by William Wordsworth

I wandered lonely as a cloud
   That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
   A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
   And twinkle on the Milky Way,
They stretched in never-ending line
   Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced, but they
   Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A Poet could not but be gay,
   In such a jocund company:
I gazed--and gazed--but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
   In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
   Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

SKYSCAPE

Getting ready for another landscape workshop with Christopher Leeper.  I am the coordinator of this one (and the last one) so will be there every day (3 days) of the workshop.  Perhaps I'll learn even more and it will stick and I will want to go out this spring to do some plein air work.

The workshop is today, Saturday and Sunday.  


Yesterday was a day spent with the grandgirls (they are both having their Spring Break this week).  The weather could be warmer, but what are you gonna do?

I will be gone from blogging for a few days with lots going on this month for me.  But I will return soon!

DAFFODIL - FORCING SPRING

More cold and rain so I'm forcing spring.  Here's a daffodil - there must be some out there somewhere budding up out of the ground.

ONE WORD WEDNESDAY

Peek-a-boo

Photo by Jerry H. Carpenter

NATIONAL POETRY MONTH

Happy National Poetry Month 2013!

It's hard to believe that when the Academy of American Poets launched National Poetry Month in 1996, only a few hundred people participated. Today, it is the largest literary celebration in the world with special events taking place in thousands of schools, libraries, bookstores, and communities nationwide. Here are some ways to participate in National Poetry Month this year: 

Go to the main site at poetry.org to sign up for a Poem-a-Day.  Read a poem, write a poem, illustrate a poem, collage a bit of a poem into your art work.  Enjoy the written word!

DYING EGGS FOR EASTER

I didn't dye the eggs.  I just put some boiled eggs in cold water to cool them and then thought about painting them in the container.  If you leave them white, you can picture them any color you want.  I faked the colors of the background and table, too.  Ah, the artist's life is so free when it comes to painting what you want to see, not what you see :)

SPRING FORWARD TO...MAY?

Here in Kentucky, when the weather is warm and the sun is shining on a bright Sunday, we tend to turn our mind to spring.  And spring in Kentucky means the Kentucky Derby and the "run for the roses" that happens the first Saturday in May :)  We've already had the "Jim Beam Stakes" at Turfway Park - a big too-do and lead-up to the Kentucky Derby.  My BIL, Mac, played the VIP Pavilion and has seen the likes of William Shatner, Ashley Judd, and other stars who love horses and dressing up for the big event.  

I have started following an artist who happens to have the art work for the labels on Woodford Reserve Kentucky Bourbon bottles for the Kentucky Derby this year.  What a cool gig this would be for an artist.  He's not a Kentucky artist, but I like his take on the big race.  

Here's a photo of the bottle.  Woodford Reserve is what they use to make the high-priced mint juleps.  The common folks drink their mint juleps with Early Times.

And here's an article about the bottle, about Woodford Reserve, and about the artist, Eric Bowman.  (I hope he posts something about this on his blog so we learn more about how he was chosen, what he had to do to create the label, etc.  I asked a question in a comment but he's yet to reply.)

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/woodford-bourbon-releases-2013-kentucky-201800199.html


For those wondering what's in a mint julep:
A mix of mint, bourbon, sugar, and water (sometimes with a splash of club soda), the mint julep is a simple Derby-Day favorite.  Of course, there are many new variations being created, but this is the original ingredients.  A sprig of mint adds the final touch.  A few of these and you won't mind losing money on the horse you picked!

SPRING BUNNY

A bit overworked, I wanted to keep it fresh.  My best bet for accomplishing that is no drawing ahead of time - letting the brush do the drawing.  Oh, well...next time.

ISLAND MAN, MR. FORBES

Mr. Forbes and I need to sit down and figure out why I cannot get his face correct in the portrait I'm doing on gessoed paper.  

Perhaps I did not start with a good, exactly proportioned drawing on the paper - always a problem when it comes to the painting stage.  I'm still working on it - putting paint on, taking it off - I'm beginning to sound like an oil painter!  

 I just downloaded the Mary Whyte e-book from NorthLight Books - her work makes me swoon even though it's tighter than I would want to paint.  Perhaps I need to print it out and read through it before trying to make any more changes to Mr. Forbes.  When I wiped back the left side of the background, I saw that I had stamped sea turtles into the gesso in the background - so I touched them with some green - very hard to see them here but there's one diving down just over HIS left shoulder and another to the right of HIS hat.  Can you see them?  I guess I put them there since he's an island man, surrounded by things from the sea.  

Dear Mr. Forbes, why are you giving me such fits?

ONE WORD WEDNESDAY

Charge!

Photo by Jerry H. Carpenter

WACC ANNUAL JURIED EXHIBITION

The 120th Annual Juried Exhibition of the Woman's Art Club of Cincinnati begins next month. 

Artists were allowed to enter 2 paintings on cd with only 1 getting in.  I got one in! 


Which one?





This one!

Now I have to have it matted and framed for delivery on April 1 or 2. 

The show goes on at The Barn 
6980 Cambridge Avenue
Mariemont, OH
from April 5 to April 21 (1-4 each day except Mondays the Barn is closed)
Artist reception/opening 
on April 7 from 1-4.

I can't be at the reception - I'll be at the Christopher Leeper watercolor landscape workshop in Mt. Adams - so I will wander over there on the 10th to see the show.

A FISHY THANK YOU

Saturday, I received a special thank you from Jeanette Jobson in response to my small donation to her Indiegogo plan to raise money for the purchase of a mall printing press.  Jeanette is still making these wonderful hand-pulled gyoku fish prints and I received this "red fish" - although it's not red, I realize red fish is it's name :)  He has a lovely underbite (which I find very sexy!).

In addition, she sent this wonderful thank you card, which is another print!

To find out more about Jeanette's plan, click on this link and see what it's all about.

Remember, we're all in this together!

SUNDAY SHARING

A few more bloggers and artists have begun to follow my blog, so that means its time to start visiting for Sunday Sharing time!  Don't forget to take your calling cards, in case they are not home when you arrive.

1.  Artist Shelley R. Ozbirn says Indulge Your Art Craving in her blog.  She creates beautiful little watercolor pieces and great jewelry from those pieces - take a look and find something you might just fall in love with! 

2.  Rosa Muller takes us to her home of Brazil and shows us the oil landscapes she has been painting.  It took a while to translate the pages but then I could read some of the things she's been doing and the shows she's been entering.  

3.  Eriko Kawamura is a Japanese artist living in Paris and creating some lovely, bright, watercolor sketches of her surroundings and her trips to Japan.  Watercolors and watercolor sketches are her forte and you'll definitely find something lovely to look at if you visit her blog.  I really liked her figure studies - the bold lines of color were something!

4.  The SimplySketch blog of artist, Cecile Samson, contains wonderful sketches and paintings- her creative life; and her second blog holds a life's account of living in Cape Breton in Nova Scotia, Canada with great photos.  Like a tour without leaving your easy chair!

I hope you take a few minutes out of your Sunday to visit these fellow bloggers.  You may just find something you love! 

FLOWER PETALS IN YELLOW

I put some color on the petals of the sunflower painting.  I think this may be as far as I am going with this one. It is just a class demo and experiment for the students and won't be anything more.  So many people paint sunflowers - nothing new here and just a copy of part of a watercolor book painting.

The picture looks a bit fuzzy - I must have moved when I snapped the pic.  The students will be working on their version of this Tuesday morning.


A local Ohio attorney is filing an indictment against Puxatawney (?) Phil, the groundhog, for intentionally committing fraud by saying spring would be early.  It sure isn't around here - cold, windy, snow flurries, brrr....

A TOUCH MORE ON THE SUNFLOWERS

I didn't do much more on the sunflowers painting except darken and change some greens here and there.  Not really in a spring/sunny mood - it's still cold here and windy :(   And, basically, did this to get myself away from the frustration of the Mr. Forbes painting.

Have a wonderful weekend!

STRUGGLING WITH A PORTRAIT

John Singer Sargent is quoted as saying, "Whenever I paint a portrait, I lose a friend."  I think I know what he means.  Of course, he painted most of his portraits in oils and could rework and change and make things right, over time.  The only way we can do this in watercolor is gesso the watercolor paper first, then you can wipe back to white (or close to white).

So I took a painting of Mr. Forbes I had done a few years ago and wiped it back to white (apparently, I had spray sealed it with acrylic spray so had to use the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser to wipe it back but it worked just fine).  Then began again, trying to work slowly and carefully, taking breaks and looking at the features.  

What I see wrong - the white moustache and beard don't look right and I need to figure out how to do this without putting Chinese White on it.  Perhaps a tiny brush to lift off anything that's white, leaving the color around it.  What else I see wrong - I've made his face longer and thinner at the top than it is, plus I've taken years (decades?) off his age.  

So, back to the drawing board for this one.  I need to give it some time to rest and try again with little changes as I go.  And get rid of that Chinese White moustache and beard!

ONE WORD WEDNESDAY

Spring

Photo by Jerry H. Carpenter

First Day of Spring, Spring Equinox, March 20

CLASS WORK SUNFLOWERS 2

I just added the greenery in the second stage of this.  I've decided I will finish it before the next class.  That way, I'll have more time to help the students as they work on their versions of this painting.

The way I see it right now, I think the bottom stem and some of the greenery areas need to be darker in value before I start on the petals.


I just finished the latest book by Jodi Picoult, titled The Storyteller.  I admit, she has been one of my favorite authors for years.  But even so, this book is one of her very best!  I highly recommend it, but warn you to give yourself a long weekend because you won't want to put it down after you start it. 

CLASS WORK SUNFLOWERS

The students showed up and finished the little bit they had to do on their little black cows.  Then didn't have anything else to start so I got out the watercolor books I own and came up with some sunflowers we could try.  

I printed out photos we could trace, reminding them that this is a copy of someone's work so we can't do anything but use this as a study.  Then I made mine vertical and carried the stems down with more sky area to change it from the photo.  

We are going for a dramatic and varied background to just some pretty sunflowers in the foreground.  I took a tip from Shirley Travena and got out my watercolor pencils and scraped some of the points off on sandpaper, letting the "dirt" fall on the paper while it was still damp.  This adds some interesting and varied textures.

I'll do the greenery next but probably save the sunflowers for last to do along with the class so I can help them with their flower petals.  I hope the rest works out as well as the background, which worked out pretty well.