Espresso & Pastry

After a week of house guests and July 4th festivities, I really needed to get back to drawing. I was craving my colored pencils and some quiet time in my studio! The lesson for my Tuesday morning class was to work on a small still life set up of a coffee cup, a spoon and a cookie. While they worked, I worked. I finished this small drawing in a few hours and it felt like therapy to pick up those pencils again. One of my students asked how was I going to render a black cup while I prefer not to use a black colored pencil? Good question. I prefer to mix darks instead of using a black pencil because black by itself seems to look flat. So I decided to challenge myself and use the black pencil, in which I laid down first for my darkest areas on the cup. To the black, I then added indigo blue, true blue, black grape, terra cotta and cool gray 90%, 70% & 50% to give the cup depth and reflections. Looking at the drawing now that it is scanned into the computer, I see that I need to pick up the pencils again and fix the hard line under the saucer.

Providence Art Club opening

Here are photos of my art exhibit opening at Providence Art Club in the Maxwell Mays Gallery. My work is being shown with oil painter Jim Kubiatowicz so we titled our exhibit "Paint and Pencil". We had a successful opening and both had sales of artwork! Come see the exhibit if you get to Providence, it is showing until Friday, July 10.

Yellow Lily - Class Lesson

For my Tuesday colored pencil classes, I had everyone work on a small still life of a yellow lily from my garden in a small glass jar. I had them draw this on Terra Cotta Canford paper to experience drawing on a colored paper. The Canford paper is relatively smooth so it doesn't take a lot of pencil layers. We found the best way to apply color was to juxtapose, lay colors side by side. Rendering the soft yellows was also a challenge on the red paper, but at the end everyone had a nice drawing. I worked along with the class and here is my drawing.

Fun with Childrens' Art Classes

My studio partner, Judy, and I have been holding children's art classes since May and having such fun. We've been working on art projects with 7 girls who love art. Judy gives the students painting lessons and I work with them on drawing. Here are a few photos. Notice the colored pencils ...... Today we gave them each a square on our floor and had them paint a picture to decorate our floor. Here are some of the works of art they created. All are doing an incredible job of mixing paint and learning how to draw.

Providence Art Club art exhibit

I've been working so hard finishing up my work and switching work out of galleries in order to have everything ready for my Providence Art Club exhibit which is now on display. Phew! I brought 25 pieces to be hung in the show and I haven't seen it yet. My work is in the Maxwell Mays Gallery with Jim Kubiatowicz' oil paintings. In the adjacent Moite Gallery hangs watercolors by Brian Larkin. Our opening reception is on Sunday, June 28 from 2-4 p.m. Everyone is invited! The exhibit runs until July 10 and the Art Club is open Mon-Fri, noon to 4 and Sat-Sun, 2-4 pm. Closed on July 4th.

I am looking forward to getting back to work and starting some new pieces!

Drawing Colorful Leaves

Yesterday my colored pencil class drew colorful Coleus plants on dark burgundy Canson Mi Teintes paper. The class really did beautifully and I should have taken a picture of all the pieces. The dark background really lent itself to the greens and pinks in the leaves. At first the drawing exercise seemed a little difficult for them but we took it "leaf by leaf" and color by color and they all worked a fantastic drawing!

Boats at dock - its finished!

I put this piece on an easel in my studio and looked at it for a while. I needed to darken and work the water around the boats, it was too light. Its finally finished and going to be framed tomorrow!

Sunday's garden tour

It was an absolutely beautiful day for the garden tour and artists in the gardens. I think the top picture is the pool and sculpture garden at the late Anthony Quinn's house. My friend took this picture. The second picture is of the two toned pink peonies growing in the garden of the house I was working at and the third picture is my friend, Sheila, and I posing in front of the peonies. The last picture is of my iris drawing in pastels ... not finished of course.

Ann Kullberg's new book

Today I received my copy of Ann Kullberg's newest book titled "Colored Pencil Secrets for Success". Ann had asked me to send her an image of my piece "Patti's New Bowl" for her book and I was delighted that she chose to include me in this project. Little did I know that Ann was also wrote about my colored pencil skills and about this piece on the facing page! This absolutely made my day today ... was not having the best day ... attended a party last night that ended very late and then had to work at the gallery today. I was a little grumpy! Thank you Ann for making me smile!

Bristol Garden Tour

On Sunday, June 7, I will be an artist in the garden as part of the Bristol, RI garden tour sponsored by the Bristol Art Museum. I will be working in pastel and colored pencil at 22 Courageous Circle on Poppasquash Point from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Several Bristol homes have opened their gardens and each will have one or two plein air artists working in the gardens on both Saturday and Sunday. We will also have artwork with us that is for sale. Come visit if you are in the area!