Blog

Hard (again!) to believe that another month has passed! I've been busy with other spring things, as well as painting and drawing. You can see some of my new paintings in the Gallery under "What's New?"

For the month of May I enrolled in a Classical Drawing course and spent 2 hours a week in the company of Renoir, Vermeer (the first week I did a drawing of "The Girl with the Peark Earring"!) and other classical artists and sculptors. It was fantastic to improve my drawing of faces and figures and get some wonderful instruction. Any people in my paintings are going to be rendered more accurately I'm sure!

Thought you'd like to see a couple of the drawings I've done in the last month:

From the sculpture of a Greek athlete--the discus thrower.

OK, not a classical sculpture but a birthday present for my husband who some people think resembles a moose!

I can see I have a few lines to erase from learning the "blocking in" technique for accurate drawing. The antlers kind of threw me off--in some way's it's easier to block in a person--unless their arms & legs are outstretched that is!

It was great to be instructed in the classical methods of drawing and framing in your subjects, getting the features or limbs accurately sized and placed and learning the underlying structures of the body that give the form to people.

Nice to finish this painting off too, it was an exercise in creating texture and using limited colours. I kept finding more branches and little details--I'm sure it could be worked on for a lot longer but I get impatient and want to move on to the next painting. I have another painting coming that uses similar methods but with more colour--leaves, berries all intertwined. It's coming along--every week I find some more detail to pick out in that too!

Another thing I've really been enjoying as an artist and member of art clubs is seeing some wonderful artists demonstrate their painting. I was especially inspired by now local oil painter Leanne Christie who is very passionate about her art. I'm not usually a fan of oils however her impressionistic landscapes capture the beauty of the Vancouver area so well that I was intrigued to see her demo for the Port Moody Art Association a couple of weeks ago. She spent the day sketching in charcoal down at the head of Burrard Inlet, just behind the centre where we meet, and came in and captured the mood of a very gloomy day so well in 2 hours. While she was painting she spoke very articulately (which was impressive in its own merits as I find I can't paint and talk at the same time!) about her stand to devote 40 hours per week and paint full time. Me, I'm more about fitting the painting around the rest of my busy life and it had me stop and re-think my strategy. Sometimes that less-conscious attitude has the time for painting squeezed out, sidelined, or put on the back burner. A lesson for me, to keep it in the forefront and be looking for beautiful ideas for

painting wherever I go.

So, that's it for this edition--I'll leave you with my citizenship plant painting which I also recently finished. The beautiful fine blossom of the grevillia plant is so intricate--great fun to paint! See you again next time!

.