Getting ready for a Duo Exhibit - And starting a new series.

Peaceful Sky - Poppies
12 X 24
 WS Oil on Canvas

     Two Media - One Series                    
                               

Peaceful Sky - Poppy Collection, 18 X 24, Colored Pencil on Ampersand Pastelboard

                                       

For a while now I've been MIA from my blog and I'm sorry about that.  I really appreciate my readers and hate to have disappointed anyone with the lack of posting.  I wonder how many of you have the same issue as I do?  Finding it hard to multitask as well as I used to.  I seem to be dropping balls more so lately.  

Getting enough work accomplished for a solo or duo show can be daunting when you have had only 10 months between shows.  Especially when combining that with the slower medium of colored pencil painting and representational oils.  My solo show last November required 17 paintings, my Duo show opening September 1 required 23-24 for each artist.  My friend, oil painter Kathy Scott and I titled our duo show at For Arts Sake Gallery "Friends, A Collaborative Exhibition", by artists Gloria Callahan and Kathy Scott. Opening reception is on Friday, September 9, 2016, 5-8pm. Free and Open to the public. Exhibit runs August 29, 2016 through October 3, 2016. 

Me demoing the CP Poppies at a local art event in Richmond

Since I have been working in two media (my beloved colored pencil and water miscall oils) in the last year and a half, I wanted to combine them for this show.  And I felt they would blend well with my co-exhibitors work.  An important consideration when your doing a duo show.  I also had a specific style and series in mind for this show.  I've termed it Peaceful Sky but eventually some Stormy Skies may show up in the series.  Stay tuned.  

As you can see from the vertical piece above on the left, the poppies are in oil and on canvas.  And the Poppy Collection (on the right) are in CP and on Ampersand Pastelboard.  I do not enjoy working on canvas when oil painting, I think it's the bounce of the surface and the texture of canvas.  But I knew I needed some larger pieces and could not find board in the dimensions I wanted.  I much prefer working on board no matter the medium!

Backlit Poppy  5 X 7 Colored Pencil
 on Ampersand Pastelboard

Two of my favorite things - Skies and Flowers. I love Poppies, always have, they remind me of the ones my grandmother grew back home which originated in her hometown in Italy.  Brought to America by seed and nurtured thru the years by she and my mother.  In PA they always bloomed around Memorial Day.  Here in VA, the heat and humidity seem to challenge them to growing for more than an annual.  So planting them in my art seemed to be a splendid idea!



The Backlit Poppy was done as an study for whether the poppies would look good on a dark or light background.  As much as I do love backlighting, and I may explore this more, I wanted to combine the sky and flowers instead for my larger pieces.

Developing the Poppy Collection

If your me, somedays it's hard to pay attention when driving when the sky is so fascinating!  I wanted to capture the clouds in volume and lighting.  I wanted the lit backsides to shine and glow as well as capture the softness and sometimes crisp edges.  Placing the flowers on such a sky in a view from underneath, looking up was exactly what I had in mind.  Almost as a child looks up thru a flower field.  Innocence and bright color.  






There is one more Oil Peaceful Sky piece in the works, but alas the drying time of my Cobra Water miscible oils 
has me on a learning curve, so it did not make the show deadline for turning in.  Check back as it's a big one!

Colored Pencil classes moved in June from my home studio to For Arts Sake Gallery   804-740-1400, 9770 Gayton Road, Richmond, Va  23238  www.forartssakegallery.com  and will continue in an ongoing monthly schedule for Thursdays, in two sessions 9:30 - 12:30 & 1:00 - 4:00.  Please contact Diana at the gallery if you are interested.  

In the show are Plein Air Paintings in Colored pencil and in Oil, as well as several Studio still lives and other work, I will highlight more in my next post.  

Enjoy the last of summer and stop to look up and enjoy the summer sky!

Gloria

Triple D Game Farm - Montana, Incredible Photos

                Exploring Dora - Siberian Lynx  10 X 8 Colored Pencil on Suede Mat Board

At the end of August I had a simply awesome experience at The Triple D Game Farm and Preserve in Kalispell, MT.  The photography and animal portrait workshop with Gemma Gylling, CPSA, a great colored pencil artist known for very moving animal portraits, didn't disappoint.  For more of her work go to:
Glassgems Studio

Triple D Game Farm is a great photographers resource for shooting wild animals in their natural setting, free of leashes, and cages.  And the young ladies who are their handlers Heather and Lindsy are so very capable, brave and knowledgeable.  Not only knowledgeable of these wonderful animals but of lighting, placement and just plain ole' "What makes a great photo"!

Day One:  I had the most incredible first day, photographing an endangered Amur Leopard named Kupalo, and a shy female Siberian Lynx - Dora.   Had someone told me I could shoot 965 photos in less than 3 hours with these animals I'd have laughed.  We were at times within 6 ft of Kupalo, a 2 year old male about 90 lbs. of pure energy and developing predatory skills.  Amur Leopards are as few as 30-40 in the wild and 300 in captivity.   Heather who raised Kupalo from a cub, worked with him so gently and skillfully, allowing him to be the playful young man he is, providing us with some wonderful photos like the one below.

                                                         "KUPALO" - Amur Leopard

Dora was shy and so very elegant in comparison to Kupalo's raw energy and male curiosity.  The finished CP portrait shown at the beginning of this post, was accomplished from a zoomed in photo I had taken on Day one.  In the afternoons we worked with Gemma on the techniques she uses on suede mat board for capturing the fur on her project of a Mountain Lion.  On day 3 we had the choice of following on with her project or moving to one of our own.  I chose the later.  And the above cp painting is the result.  Once I'm sure it's finished I will spray it with fixative and then frame behind glass.  Something I've been trying to get away with (framing behind glass) but needed for this surface.  My hopes are that I will be able to create the same soft fur textures on my favorite Ampersand Pastelboard.  So stay tuned for my further adventures in wildlife art.

I concluded the Montana experience with a couple days exploring Glacier National Park with my sister and her husband along with my hubby before moving on to Helena for a few days.  And many many more landscape photos for future cp paintings.  This is truly a wonderful area of the country and colorful too!

Sanded Surfaces Workshop

                                                           Reflections Of Sea Life SOLD
                                                                      8.5 X 12
                                                   Colored Pencil on Uart Sanded Paper

My summer workshop for sanded surfaces ended on Saturday and a good time was had by all.  I love when students are so eager to learn and do so well on the new surface.  The class worked on the above seashell piece to gain experience on the Uart paper as their first sanded surface.  Uart is a pastel paper that comes in many grits from 400-800 and we worked on the 800 grit for this piece.  They learned how layering is different from normal CP papers and how to blend on this surface.  I start them out on Uart as it is a tough surface and takes CP very well with layers and layers to be added to make the rich colors and textures of these shells.  I hope to add a photo demo to my website soon on this piece.

They then made the change to Ampersand Pastelboard, a hard board primed with marble dust in the primer.  Using their own references for the 5 X 7 piece of white board.  Ampersand acts similar to other sanded surfaces but the hard board gives a different feel.  It enables one, upon completion to spray with fixative and then to preserve with several layers of sprayed Archival varnish to be framed without matting or glazing.  Just like an oil or acrylic painting!  This is my favorite surface to work on.

It was a lot to cover in 3 full days but they were troopers and I enjoyed having them in my home studio.

I hope you try a sanded surface and let me know what you think.  I'll be getting ready for the CPSA convention next week in Brea, CA, where my Harley piece was accepted.  While in CA there are workshops to be enjoyed, new techniques learned and a whole lot of great art and friends to catch up with.  While the hubby and my trusty canine hold down the fort here at home.

I just posted on my website the new classes for Fall so have a look and maybe you too can learn this wonderful medium.  Rest assured I'll be checking email if you want info or have a comment.

Stay cool and enjoy some color this week.

Gloria

Car Show and Wine Festival - New Work

                     1954 MG TF Landscape  12 X 16 Colored Pencil on Ampersand Pastelboard

I finished this piece last Wednesday just in time to get it photographed, varnished and framed for our local British Car Club Car Show at New Kent Winery this past weekend.  We have and arts and craft area in which I show my art.  My husband and I are members of the club but currently our 1953 MG TD is in many parts and pieces as it undergoes a total renovation.  So until it's completely done and road worthy I draw other great cars from our club.  This one is our club president's car and it certainly is a beauty.  (our TD is much the same style)

Creating this work involved a few changes to the original photo so I thought I'd show you what I had to work from.  The day the photo was taken in Aug. 2011 was very sunny and a typical VA warm humid one.  The meeting was during the mid day when sun was not the best for photos.

I removed the large white tent behind the car on the right and added more of the vineyards like on the upper left.  I chose to create a more fall-ish coloring starting on the trees since our show is a fall show and also to add some warmth to all the greens in the reference.  The photo made the car look so much blacker of a green than it really is, due to the lighting on this day.  Working on the sanded surface helped me quickly create the gravel surface, by just skimming over the surface with Prismacolor sticks and using some stippling with CP's.  I went for a warmer gravel than in the photo to keep color harmony in my work.  Being a slave to the photo is not always a good thing, so remember to compose your piece to make a better painting than photo.   As you can see the sky was a complete wash out in the photo so I made this one up from all of my observations of skies and clouds.  Mental photographs are a great resource and you always have them in your head.  All you have to do is take the time to really see some of the great skies we take for granted.

The show was a great success with over 250 classic European cars.  And I made some great contacts for Car Portraits!  Which is really just a still life in a landscape.  Enjoy your colorful day and next on to a new piece from my Provence Trip.

   

Pre-Plein Air trip to France Carry Ons for a Colored Pencil Artist

Here's what my large carry on bag looks like packed with my takings for the Plein Air Painters trip to Provence, France.  And if you notice the time of this posting you'll realize I'm having one of those sleepless pre trip nights.  So I got right to starting my trip Blog with a "Here's what I'm taking for colored pencil art".


Carry On Luggage to France has to be an exact measurement (which I won't boar you with here) but suffice it to say, my laptop/camera backpack meets that and bags also can weigh no more than 26 lbs.  Fully loaded it is 18.8lbs. so far, but I will add my ziplock bag of liquids (via TSA requirements) and maybe an additional treat for the trip.  The laptop part holds my notebook easily and the padding protects my Prismacolors.  And since they can't be purchased in Europe I need them safe.

The camera is missing as I'm using it for the photo, but you'll see my hot pink camera bag with sd cards, extra battery with charger and a bigger lens next to it.  This all fits in the camera location of the bottom of the bag along with some power bars, Garmin (loaded with Europe Maps) and it's cords, card reader, and French power converter.

My Prismacolor CP pencils are in a 120 count leather organizer, and working clockwise around the table top is:
A few scrap sheets of UART in very small sizes;
Several 5 X 7 ampersand pastelboards and (2) 6  X 12 ones;
My little notebook (for blogging to you all and sending much needed responses to home that I'm doing fine);
A 5 X 8 multimedia sketch journal, with envelope glued to the back inside cover for ephemera from the trip;
A few loose sheets of watercolor scraps to use as a palette for the watercolor cp's;
In the black organizer, a set of 40 Caran d'Ache Supracolor wc cps (I'm trying these out since they wet nicely and also layer dry nicely too!);
Some dry cloths for blending;
Michelin map of Provence, France;
Small bundle of brushes for blending;
Extra Prismas in my favorite colors;
Battery eraser;
Extra batteries for my last Panasonic battery sharpener;
Scotch purple tape for lifting color and watercolor tape for taping down drawing paper;
Small kit with stumps, eraser, mounting putty and 2 Caran d'Ache Neocolor water soluble crayons; Garmin;
Bug wipes and Wetwipes and more Power bars.
Oh and a nifty little hat behind the green kit that stuffs into itself and can clip onto my pack.

If your wondering I have an assortment of papers and a small drawing board in my large check in bag.  I'll add sunscreen from my ziplock bag of liquids when we get there.

And for my personal items (see left hand upper corner) I'll carry my hip slung mini purse loaded with a watercolor cp mini set in the small pencil tin with water brush and larger travel brush for washes, mini journal book, sunglasses, passport, Intrn'l Driver's License, tissues and a few personal items.

In my Italian large bag (on the right) will fit my small mini purse, Paris travel book, hand sharpener so I don't wake sleeping passengers, ziplock bag for pencil shavings, vitamins, business cards ( you never want to miss a chance for a connection) purse size toothbrushes for a fresh mouth during the long 9 hour flight, mini hair clip and 4 X 6 multimedia journal for on plane journaling. 

There you have it, no kitchen sink but enough to keep me busy, drawing, and manageable.  I haven't shown you a few personal items in the big bag but then again a girl has to keep a few things to herself.

Until I sign on in France to tell you about our trips beginning, have a colorful day!
Gloria



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