Friday, December 31, 2010

Candy Apples & Salmagundi Club Exhibition

I'm burning the midnight oil tonight, even the dog is looking at me as if to say "can we go to bed now?" I had a tiring day with helping my elderly dad and needed to unwind when I got home. Mostly frustrating with my dad because he doesn't want assistance to help him walk and my heart skipped a beat each he slipped on ice today and refused my hand. So here I am unwinding, trying to portray luscious red apples on Pastelbord. This is a portion of my drawing that would fit on my scanner bed. The scanner has darkened the top white area so its not quite accurate. Yesterday I was having trouble achieving the smooth, shiny texture of the apples. Today I added solvent to the colored pencil and them more colored pencil on top of the solvent. I was very pleased with the ease in which the solvent dissolves the first layer of pencil without streaks and in some areas I didn't even need to add any more pencil. I still don't know what I'm going to do about all the red flecks all over my white Pastelbord but I have to finish the drawing before I have to worry about that.

Below are my two colored pencil pieces "Golden Glow" and "Cherries on China" which have been accepted into Special President's Exhibitions; Photography and Graphics Exhibition at the Salmagundi Club. The exhibit runs January 10 - February 11, 2011 and I am honored to have two pieces of my work selected for the exhibition by the president herself, Claudia Seymour.

Happy New Year everyone and thank you for following or visiting my blog! I really appreciate the support & encouragement!




Monday, December 27, 2010

Candy Apples on Pastelboard

I'm spending some time working on some new candy apple pieces because my others have sold, which is a good thing. More money for art supplies : ) This piece is for Bristol Art Gallery and will be used in the gallery's advertisement in American Art Collector magazine. For the surface, I am trying Ampersand Pastelbord for the first time. I chose white pastelbord because much of the background is going to stay white. Here are my observations; the pastelbord takes many layers but Prismacolor pencil flakes easily. My white background has red flecks all over it so I may have to add white acrylic paint at the end. The surface is rough and I'm having a bit of trouble getting very smooth pencil to portray the shiny red candy. So I will need to add either harder type of pencils on top layer or use solvent with the Prismacolors so they go on like paint.

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Candy Apples on Richeson Board

This is an interesting surface to work on. It eats the pencils like crazy and they flake off a little but I found I could really get some intense color with this surface. I could also layer light over dark and the dark would still show through underneath. Some of the areas are one color and others are several colors layered so I had the option. I also was able to use mineral spirits successfully on this board to dissolve the pencil for the background and foreground and achieve even layers of the white and grays.

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Newspaper Feature


I have been lucky to have been featured this week on the cover and inside Newport Mercury Newspaper. The editor came into the Newport gallery where my work is shown and liked my colored pencil work. She emailed me back in September and asked if they could write a feature story on me and my art. Its a really nice article that not only features my art but also a little about my battle with cancer several years ago. Here is the link: http://www.newportmercury.com/ You will have to click on the side bar to read the story because as of tomorrow the next issue will be highlighted on the cover page.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Candy Apples on Richeson

I've started working on another drawing of candy apples because I have to get several done for our colored pencil exhibit at the Wellesley, MA library in March. This time I'm trying a new surface, its Richeson Unison Premium Pastel Surface which is on gator foam and the color is terra cotta. The surface works beautifully with pencils, the pencils apply so evenly that I may not have to use mineral spirits to make them flow. I'm checking with the company to see if I'm able to use mineral spirits on this surface. Because its applied to gator foam, the surface seems to be a little more flexible than hardboard and the pencils feel better as they are applied. If that makes any sense!

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Late Winter Beach

While looking through my photos for ideas, I found this quiet scene that I decided to draw. It attracted me because preparations the holidays seem to get so busy and rushed that my artwork gets put aside and I didn't want to let that happen. I found working on this serene view of Second Beach in Middletown calmed my spirits. The most difficult part was the fencing but old weathered fencing doesn't have to be perfectly straight so it wasn't that much of an issue. I worked on Strathmore vellum bristol board which doesn't take a lot of layers but enough and the surface fairly smooth. The piece is 7x10" so I was able to finish it quickly.

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Holiday Open Studio

Come to our holiday open studio today if you're in the area! We're excited about our new artist members since our last open studio: Felicia Touhey, H. Hadley, Kathy Morton and Kim Kirby. We have a great group of talented artists in the studios with classes and workshops available.