My Colored Pencil Students' Artwork

I'm very proud of my colored pencil students whom have finished and framed their artwork for the Student/Mentor exhibit at Spring Bull Gallery, Newport, RI. Here are the groupings of the different works in done in class and some on their own. Several were done from still life set ups and a few from photographs. The hats were especially fun to draw and so was the paper bag. One artist even combined colored pencil with Zentangle. They've done some wonderful work and I enjoy teaching the classes.

Handmade Accordion Book for Mentors and Students Exhibit

 During the month of March, my colored pencil students and I are part of an exhibit called Mentors and Students at Spring Bull Gallery in Newport, RI. There are also five additional instructors and students exhibiting in this exhibit in mediums including pottery, drawing, watercolor, pastel, encaustic and acrylic/oil. If you are local and have time to see the exhibit, please stop in. The gallery is open every day from noon to 5 p.m. Our opening reception was so well attended there was barely room to move in the galleries! It is exciting for the mentors to be able to share our talents with students and see our students work progress as they learn the different mediums. I am planning to stop in the gallery when it is less crowded so I can take photos of the artwork and post them.

For the Mentors and Students exhibit, I put together an accordion book filled with my small drawings. I worked on these drawings in my classes along with my students to help them see how I would approach the subjects they were working on in terms of form, value and color. In the classes we were experimenting with different surfaces and colored backgrounds.

To create the book, I cut out and glued together small sheets of heavy weight drawing paper to which I glued my small drawings, some individually on each page and some collaged together. Each little page measures 7x7" and the book is folded and tied into a neat little package. Above are photos of the book stretched out in my studio.


Exhibitng Mentors include: Gail Armstrong, Charlene Capazano, Jane Austin, Felicia Touhey, Susan Shaw and me.

Exhibiting Students include: Elisabeth Wagner, Christine Witkos, Maggie Ramey, Sherry Italiano, Suzann Andrews, Jane Berriman, Mary Jennings, Akiko Omori, Laurence Lavagne, Lara Pilla, Susan Wermuth, Lara Pilla, Norma Burnell, Carol Normandin, Adrienne Ranelli, Rayne Baer, Marisol Lagares, Libby Gilpatric, Cheery Hall, Maureen Cunningham, Patty MacLeish, Jan Goldstein, Elizabeth Sullivan, Brenda Langlais, Craig Masten, Marie Fontaine, Nina Ackmann, Sheila Turner, Diane Crane, Madeline Beaudry, Phil McAllister, Deborah Grant, Sharlie Sudduth, Ara Sadanientz, Michael Manni and Jean Patiky.

Tye's Dog Portrait Finished

Here is Tye's finished portrait, size 12x12". His owner Matt took the nicest picture of Tye sitting in the snow and looking upward. I worked this piece in Prismacolor pencil on Stonehenge paper. I used a small flat bristle brush to burnish the pencil where I wanted solid areas of the fur with no texture from the paper showing through.

I created the shadows in the snow by using cool blues over warm blues and purples, then another warm blue over the top. Experiment layering warm-cool-warm-cool (or vice versa) to make colors sing.