I had not painted outside in two years, so this was quite a challenge. It was one of those paintings I had to improve upon in the studio. It was exhilarating to be outside in beautiful weather, painting with my friends.
Carmen
https://carmensart.etsy.com
If you cross Highway 60 in Central Florida you will often see a scene like this, with dark storm clouds approaching and sun on the pasture in the foreground. I love this kind of light. This scene reminds me of my childhood in "Old Florida".
Carmen
In the spirit of Brevard Rocks Florida, we had a rock-painting session this week. We are going to place them at "The Loom" installation in the Eau Gallie Square Park. The structure was an Eagle Scout project, an art installation featuring objects from nature.
I saw a paper mâché doll on a children's craft site and I was inspired to make one of my own. A toilet paper roll and a styrofoam ball are the basis for this. I found the hair and the fascinator in a craft supply store. When I was done, the name popped into my head.
Carmen
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I had my sketchbook handy during a slow time at the Robot Love exhibit and doodled a few ideas and have just been using those to play around with different media. But, more importantly, to force myself to use my new laptop and all the newest versions of Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator.
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| Just a few ideas for our challenge... |
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| First one I tried watercolor with Elegant Writer Pen |
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| Second try with Micron Pen and Markers |
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| Third try with my CS6 Adobe Illustrator (it's going to be hard to give it up!) |
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| Fourth try, channeling Peter Max in the newest CC version of Illustrator playing with it's new gradient options. |
The challenge for the Pieces of 8 for January of 2021 is "CMYK" suggested by member Jean Thomas. Jean left that wide open to interpretation so here are the results!
Kathy's response to the challenge:
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| Small 6x7 inch mixed media (postage stamp, micron pen, colored pencil, watercolor) on 140 lb hahnemuele sample paper from Ralph's Art Supply. |
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| Small 6x7 inch mixed media (postage stamp, micron pen, colored pencil, watercolor) on 140 lb hahnemuele sample paper from Ralph's Art Supply. |
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| 10x10 inch acrylic on wood board |
I had a little fun just playing with only three colors and black in each painting above.
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Carmen's response to the challenge:
Several of
you have expressed an interest in finding out about the recent class I took on
Comic Poetry with David Laskey, a former student of mine at McLean High School.
Portfolio: http://www.laskycomics.com/ Comics and Art for sale: http://www.etsy.com/shop/LaskyArt
Wikipedia
defines Comic Poetry as a hybrid
creative form that combines aspects of comics and poetry. It draws from the syntax of comics, images, panels, speech balloons, and so on,
in order to produce a literary or
artistic experience akin to that of traditional poetry.
In
other words, almost anything goes. Try googling “Comic poetry definition” and
then go to “images.”
Well,
if you are like me, you are still confused. David made it really easy to
understand, so I will share some of the examples and assignments he gave us.
With David’s direction, we did several exercises using either a simple traditional poetry or an original poem which we wrote. Start easy. David supplied stimulating inspirational visuals and further explanation about them.
The whales sleep standing up for about two hours at a time. They then surface and resume their lives until it is time to sleep again.
The
first original poem I tried to make into a comic poem was based on the photo
and an article about sleeping whales.
Joy to the World
Our Pieces of Eight Challenge for December was to paint something that gives us joy!
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Carmen Beecher’s Painting
Since having a health crisis in November, I have not been able to paint. My recovery will take a while, so I am posting one of my favorites from the 1990s, when I was doing magazine cover illustrations. Our dog starred in this one.
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Kathy Garvey's Response to the Challenge:
I haven't painted this month because I am busy prepping all my tiny polymer clay robots for the Robot Love exhibit at the Foosenar Gallery starting January 16, 2021. One of The Pieces of 8, Fay Picardi, encouraged me to contact the sponsoring group, about my several hundred "zip-robots" I've been making ever since my daughter took a temporary job as a baggage handler at the Melbourne Airport in 2018. So I sent them some photos. I was excited and surprised that they want all 250. (Thank you, Fay.) For more information on the Robot Love exhibit and events, check it out here at https://www.facebook.com/RobotLoveArt/.
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| Just a few of the miniature zip-robots I've been making this month. They are so fun to make that they bring me Joy! Each one is inspired by a lost zipper pull recovered from our own MLB airport and doomed for the dustbin. |
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Donna Vines Response to the Challenge:
I have felt satisfaction, relief, happiness, pride and many other things when I have finished certain paintings but joy is a whole different feeling. I think I have only felt that a few times and one of them is when I did a collage for my niece when she was expecting her first baby. It had been a long, hard fought, painful and emotional battle for her and her husband but it was finally happening. I wanted to do something for the baby's room and I had had some wonderful photos of our pet sheep with their lambs. I smiled the whole time I worked on this little collage for Josiah.
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| Lucy and Max for Josiah |
For the holidays, I tried a different creative approach. These are origami and not quite origami trees I made for Christmas cards. It all starts with a square, with folds and cuts. I ended up making an entire forest!
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Happy New Year! Let’s hope 2021 will have more joy for us!The goal of the Pieces of 8 challenge for November is to paint something hyper-realistic. And oh, there are so many definitions of what that could mean! Is it something that looks totally real, like you could pick it up off the paper? Or something that looks real but has an added dimension? As the term has many definitions, it's up to each artist to determine what "hyper-realistic" means to them and paint accordingly.
Carmen Beecher's Challenge Entry
Kathy Garvey's Challenge Entry
I totally love, follow and admire the works of great hyper-realistic artists like Marcello Barenghi. Accomplishing that level of realism eludes me. But, I'm practicing for this challenge. Here's my progress so far...
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| First attempt: I tried to recreate my eraser in my sketchbook (before I realized I had zero interest in hand drawing text). |
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| Second attempt: That's a real Oak leaf on right top. A real pond snail shell is on the left bottom. My attempts at realism are opposite each. |
The results here make me realize I stop myself before going dark enough. Since this is watercolor, I need to be patient and add another 10 or so layers of color to match reality. Patience is not a virtue of mine, but maybe, I'll keep at it for this challenge. If I improve, I'll post it below.
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"ELIZABETH'S KITCHEN"
by Denette Schweikert
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Donna Vines
Rocky
Realism is so not my thing but I do have one painting that fits the category. My brother-in-law has always had cats and when I was visiting once I took some photos of the majestic "Rocky". I decided that I would surprise him with a portrait for his birthday. He really treasured this painting not because I painted it but because he really loved Rocky.
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Herb Series I
A few weeks ago I decided I wanted to try watercolor again and especially with a collaged background. I used a special water paper ground to prepare the paper on which I had already collaged artificially aged pages from a book about the use of herbs in the Middle Ages. Quite an enlightening book. Now all I had to do was make some art, in this case, Basil.
Herb Series I by Fay Picardi
Well, this is it: the most realistic you are going to get from me. Not Surrealistic, hyper-realistic or even Photo-realistic, but lots of fun. I will be redoing this painting because the background is too light and the movement of the watercolor is not to my liking.
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by Kathy Garvey
I have been busy working on projects unrelated to art and in wanting to get back to it, explored my old online portfolios. I was surprised how many fish there were. I haven't done a fish in ages. Here are a few, all from 2010.
I just noticed that they are all facing right! I also noticed they are all done in Photoshop and Illustrator which I have been trying to wean myself off of because of the monthly cost. But, these make me remember how much fun I have with them.
I hear Procreate is a much more affordable creative tool and it works on an Ipad. I've downloaded it and just need to learn it. And when I do, I could maybe point one to the left and see what happens! Perhaps there are more fish in my future.
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| "Doodling in the Time of Covid" 10x3 inch Watercolor on 140 lb Cold Press Paper |
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| "Hide and Seek" 10x3 inch Watercolor on 140 lb Cold Press Paper www.snailflower.etsy.com |
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| This is a 10x3 Watercolor of the beach view from my window. |
I had not painted outside in two years, so this was quite a challenge. It was one of those paintings I had to improve upon in the studio. ...
