Oh happy snow day!

Our New England weather has been cold and snowy and I haven't been to the studio to work on Elaina and so I started a new colored pencil piece over the weekend at home. I have some photos of beautiful red and yellow tulips in a glass vase in which I took on a gray day and have been thinking about them for a while. My idea and inspiration is to portray the vase of tulips as vibrant and bright against a quiet blue/gray background of a rainy day. The surface in which I'm working on 18x24" Rtistx board. This photo (above) isn't great, I took it inside in natural light and the brightness of snow out the window is graying everything in the front, however the tulips are still fairly bright enough to get the idea of my start.

The galleries are asking for my colored pencil work not to be framed under glass. The lighting from above reflects on the glass and the piece is difficult to see. So I have to rethink my surfaces. I Chose Rtistx for this piece because it can be varnished but also has less texture than the other boards I work on. I need a softer surface for the delicate petals and leaves, yet still a board that can withstand being varnished afterward.

After reading Paula Pertile's blog entry on colored pencil swatches for the various brands, I decided to give my Lyra Rembrandt pencils a workout on this piece. The Prismas and Coloursofts are softer and crumble a bit and flake off as I layer them. I'm still using them along with the Rembrandts which aren't as crumbly and can be applied a little more evenly. Paula is correct, they do go on like 'buttah'! The Rtistx is also wonderful for layering lights on top of darks and will take many layers of color. The white surface makes the color even more vibrant. I don't like to burnish much on my work, I like the texture of the surface and characteristics of the pencil to show through. If I do decide I need to cover some of the texture and solidify areas of the colored pencil, I will add solvent.
Here is the ad with my artwork that will appear in February issue of American Art Collector magazine. I also found out today that this piece "Red Reflections" was juried into CPSA's Explore This 7 Online Exhibition that will be on the website starting February 1. This is my 4th acceptance into the Explore This exhibitions. I'm also very excited because one of my c.p. students, Cheryl Borbone, had her piece "Cherry Martini" accepted into Explore This 7. While she worked on this piece independently, I am happy to have helped her develop her colored pencil skills over the last few years she has taken classes with me.

Ann Kullberg's new Colored Pencil magazine

Ann Kullberg has published a new colored pencil magazine, titled Colored Pencil, now in printed version and Ann has sent me a copy to share with my students. Just like her previous on-line From My Perspective magazine, this one is chocked full of great information, ideas and artwork. This issue features the work of Sally Ford, the journeys of Gemma Gyling and information about how to render wavy hair and working with Photoshop Elements. I am very fortunate to have my colored pencil drawing of sailboats featured on the "Showcase" page. I included the image to the left under the magazine cover.

Portrait of Elaina

After working on the portrait of my niece, Samantha, I decided to try my luck with a portrait of another niece, Elaina. Elaina is 3 years old in this photo and she lives in Arizona so her skin is always a bit tan. Her olive complexion is unlike Samantha's creamy skin so I find myself using all different pencils. As you can probably tell, I was really intrigued with her hair and began at the top. I think I used every brown plus some warm yellows and purples. For her skin, I began by putting a layer of Prismacolor 939 Peach on her skin. Then Mineral Orange, Rosy Beige, Clay Rose, Blush Pink, Burnt Ocher, Henna, Luminance Manganese Violet, Chestnut, Periwinkle and I'm far from being finished. The biggest challenge I'm finding is to capture her olive skin tones without making her skin look like wood. I am cautiously layering skin tone colors!

Working on Pastelbord

Here is the piece finished. All of the white in the background and between the stripes is the white pastelbord surface. The most difficult part of doing this drawing was the pencil dust flaking all over the area of the pastelbord that I wanted to keep white. As we know, working on a sanded surface creates lots of pencil dust. I solved the problem by dabbing with a kneaded eraser and removing all (or most) of the unwanted color in the white areas. Its really helpful to photograph the piece and look at it on the computer because you can see flaws or areas that could be changed. I just noticed the sticks like faint in value/color compared to the rest of the piece.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

Espresso with Lemon

This is another small piece for the holiday small picture show at DeBlois Gallery. I sold the Chinese Tea on opening night and this is the replacement. This is actually a very tiny tea cup that was part of my mother in law's cup collection in which I inherited. With the sun shining on the espresso it almost looks like tea. This piece was worked on plate bristol board and its a little bit difficult to add many layers to the smooth surface.

Chinese Tea

Here is my second drawing. I loved drawing the tea cup from this unique vantage point and popped the tea bag inside the cup a for more interesting composition. Onto the next.

Good Fortune

I'm working on a series of small drawings (4 1/2 x 4 1/2") for a holiday small picture show. This is the first of four. When you see the next, you can guess my theme! Sometimes its fun to work small and finish a drawing quickly!

High School Art Class Visit

This morning I was fortunate to have two art classes from Cranston East High School in RI visit my studio with their teacher Alice Gebhart to learn more about colored pencil because they are using colored pencils in art class. I explained about my process, how I sometimes combine mediums and showed examples of my artwork. I found the students to be very inspiring, they asked so many really good questions that made ME think about my art and my goals and also to remember when I was a student thinking about college and pursuing a career in art. It also made me wonder if I would have enjoyed teaching art in school. I would love to inspire students and help them find direction in art.