Providence Art Club Little Picture Show

Providence Art Club's holiday Little Picture Show opens tomorrow, Sunday, December 22 with opening reception 12-4 p.m. The gallery will be open Mondays-Wednesday & Fridays 12-5 p.m.; Thursdays 12-6 p.m. and weekends 12-4 p.m. View hundreds of small pieces of artwork by members all priced at $250 or less. This is a nice opportunity to buy some great art. I am showing my orchid colored pencil pieces.

The Shells are Finished

I had fun with this piece but the sanded surface made the whole piece come out a little more textured than I anticipated so I am trying another similar piece, this time on RTistx board. This one will kind of be my study for the next drawing which is larger. This one is hanging in a gallery and I always like hearing the comments from people. So far so good!

Tuscany Farmhouse

I've completed one of the pastels I started in Tuscany. The bottom photo shows my view and my watercolor underpainting. I use Wallis paper mounted on museum board so it doesn't warp when I apply the washes. When that dries, I apply the pastel. This is a simple farmhouse in the country, the field in front is growing grapes for a local winery. I was enticed by the rows leading up and down the hill as well as the tall cypress trees. I also love the warm stone colors of the buildings and tile roofs. They lend themselves to such bright color. One finished .... four more to go!

American Artists Professional League Exhibit

"Judy's Glass #2" will be shown at

American Artists Professional League

81st Grand National Exhibition

November 3rd - 13th

Salmagundi Club

NYC

Happy Halloween!

Last week I picked up some really beautifully colored fall leaves and they became the subject matter for my classes. This illustration is done in watercolor pencil with some colored pencil on top. The yellow spots are where the watercolor ran when I wet it with a spray bottle (I was experimenting). They are not that noticeable on the original, for some reason my scanner really accentuates yellow. Surface we used was Crescent illustration board which I would not recommend when using a lot of water and many layers on pencil on the wet, the top layer starts to peel off.

Happy Halloween! Happy Fall!

Pink Shells Progressing

Putting the pastels aside this week in order to finish this piece and hang it at Spring Bull Gallery. I'm working the colored pencil with solvent and applying it almost like paint. I put down an initial layer of colored pencil, then brush solvent onto the area. I work small areas at a time because the solvent dries quickly. While it is still wet, I work more pencil into the area, sometimes using 2 or 3 colors simultaneously. The solvent strengthens the intensity of the pigment. My next step will be to knock down the intensity of the indigo blue shadows and also the dark red leaf in the bottom third of picture.

I ran off to Italy

I just returned from spending 10 days in Italy; 3 days in Florence and a week at a villa just outside of Siena. The Florence art and architecture is amazing. Michelangelo will never cease to amaze me with his painting and sculpture. "David" is incredible, the sculpture takes your breath away, every muscle, every angle is perfect.

While in the country, I did 5 plein aire pastel pieces which I am trying to finish up in my studio. I have discovered that trying to work from the photos I took is really difficult. Not only are the values flattened, but the photos seem to be condensed vertically. Its going to take some creativity on my part to keep my pastel work lifelike. Here is one small drawing I worked on while visiting a small town called Bagno Vignoni. Its on terra cotta colored Sennelier LaCarte paper.

Shells on Pink in Progress

I'm working all around the piece, I've decided to put the colored shells in first and then add the background pieces that are in shadow or in shades of grays. The color is more fun to work with. I like the subtle softness of the shells in the first layer of pencil before I add the solvent and deepen the color. I plan to try a similar drawing of shells on another surface in which I won't use solvent, just pencil and let it be very subtle. I've started working with the solvent and colored pencil in the upper right and you can see how bold the colors become.

Drawing shoes

Last week for my morning class, I had them draw shoes for their assignment. I brought in all my shoes and let them pick one or more to draw. The surface we worked on is mylar. It doesn't take a lot of layers but can be worked on back and front. It was a great drawing exercise as well as for applying color. They all did a wonderful job, here are samples of a few that were finished and brought back today. In the top picture, the blue satin slip-on shoe was drawn by Cheryl who portrayed the sparkly beading very realistically. Rayne drew the brown lace-up shoe and gave it a beautiful design. Mary Lou worked with black and dark shades of other color to render the black patent leather and used Gold Prismacolor for the inside. The gold worked really well on the mylar. The bottom picture is of Cherry holding her lovely composition and drawing of three shoes. Didn't they do an unbelievable job?!

SO Rhode Island Magazine

I have been very fortunate because a writer from SO RI magazine, Marylou Butler, came into Spring Bull Gallery in Newport with a friend and saw my work. Marylou contacted me and asked if she could feature me as the artist of the month in the October issue. I was delighted to oblige! The magazine is about people and places in southern RI, or South County and has lots of good info from cover to cover.