Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Exhibit & Awards Dinner

Here are Debbi Friedman and I at the National Arts Club in NYC at the CLWAC dinner with my piece "Samantha". Debbi received the Art Times Award for her colored pencil piece "Lapis Light". We had an enjoyable evening, great food, and met some talented artists from all over the US. Now its back home to start creating again. I'm working on another portrait that I will post soon!

CPSA Signature Showcase Book

I'm on the train to New York City to attend the Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club award dinner this evening. No, I'm not receiving an award but my friend Debbi Friedman is receiving an award for her colored pencil drawing. I am happy to have my artwork "Samantha" included in the CLWAC exhibit. Stay tuned for a photo of Debbi and I on the blog. So as you can see, I've been playing around with redesigning my blog. I am still learning and still can't figure out what Networked Blogs are or how to attach this to FaceBook. Guess that's for the train ride home. Anyway, I'd like to put in a plug for this new Signature Showcase Book compiled by Vera Curnow that features many lovely colored pencil pieces by many talented colored pencil artists who are Signature Members of CPSA. Each artist has also written a little bit about themselves and their art. I received my copy last week and have enjoyed browsing through it and reading the different entries. I strongly suggest this book to anyone who loves colored pencil and it can be ordered from the CPSA.org website. Happily, my candy apples are included!

Tuscan Vista

I entered my pastel into South County Art Association's All Media Open Juried Exhibit II (No. Kingston, RI) and won an honorable mention. That excites me, its my first pastel to receive an award. The exhibit runs from Oct 28 - Nov 13 and the opening reception is Thurs, Oct 28, 7-9 p.m.

Autumn Leaves

Here is the project my colored pencil students worked on in class yesterday and each of their drawings. I gave them black Stonehenge paper and some autumn leaves to draw. Anyone who has used colored pencil on black paper knows it is difficult to get vibrant colors so I had my students work an underpainting in white pencil first. The underpainting is a value study in white (something to you really have to think about!) Lightest values have the most white pencil coverage and darker areas have less white pencil. The first and second photos show some of the white drawings underneath the color. The color on top of the white is very vibrant and the shapes of the leaves against the black make a very interesting composition.

Plums

I was asked to do a 6x12" commission piece of plums for a kitchen wall so this is the composition we came up with. Its colored pencil on the Colourfix primed Gessoboard that I like working on. The customer wanted a gray background and I like the way the background came out. I might not have thought of it myself. Plums are challenging, trying to achieve the light blue tones on the dark colors of the skin without making them look fake.

Just about finished

My piece is finished for the time being although I wonder if I will ever think its complete. Every time I look at the rocks, I see something that can be tweaked because there are so many elements and I'm a perfectionist! I like this piece, there is something calming about it and something that brings me back to that morning on the rocky beach watching the foamy surf making its way over the stones. Ahhh summer!

Skipping along the stones

While I'm working on this piece, I actually feel like I'm moving along the beach and through the stones with my pencils. I start working on one rock and before I know it, I've moved to another and another and pretty soon I'm across the paper. So I'm back and forth adding detail and texture to each different rock. I've pulled out my Derwent Graphitint pencils and am using them along with the regular colored pencil. The Graphitints have a softness when applied and a subtlety to the colors which makes them perfect for rocks. I'm also using the colorless blender or very light gray, cream or white pencils to burnish the smooth rocks. The colorless blender intensifies the colors so it I want them to show reflection or light on the top, I burnish with the lighter colors.