Playing Catch Up With Small Details - To finish up a couple older Plein Air pieces.

"Andre's Garden" a Plein Air Study, 5" X 7" Colored Pencil on Ampersand Pastelboard

The delays that life brings to an artist's schedule have kept me from posting new work and updates on my Blog.  I hate to just post a picture and not let you know about the process, inspiration and possible difficulties in the completing of artwork.  Rest assured that my absence has not been due to inactivity but on the contrary.  I have been working on a colored pencil piece which I will reveal soon, along with photos in progress, as my entry into the 2016 International CPSA (Colored Pencil Society of America) show.   Stay tuned.  

The small plein air works in this post were started on a previous plein air outing season and set aside since they needed a few last minute tweaks and touches before I could call them complete.  They can be seen or purchased, currently at Crossroads Art Center in my exhibit space.   The first, "Andre's Garden" above, is the home of popular nurseryman and national call in talk radio personality Andre Viette, a local icon known for his gardening expertise, in Fishersville, VA.  My intrepid Plein Air partner in crime Kathy, and I ventured there while out on a painting weekend and we found the gardens to be a pleasure.  Finding it hard to position ourselves in one spot as there were so many to choose from.  We eventually were rained out that day, thus the delay in finishing. Andre Viette's Garden.  

"Lazare Pond" a Plein Air Study, 8 X 6" Colored Pencil on Ampersand Pastelboard

The above small plein air works were started on a previous plein air outing season and set aside since they needed a few last minute tweaks and touches before I could call them complete.   The first, "Andre's Garden" was at a popular home of nurseryman and national call in radio persise in Fishersville, VA.  My intrepid Plein Air partner in crime Kathy, and I ventured there while on a painting weekend and we found the gardens to be a pleasure.  Finding it hard to position ourselves in one spot as there were so many to choose from.  We eventually were rained out that day, thus the delay in finishing.  Andre Viette's Garden 

The second piece, "Lazare Pond" was from a great Plein Air paint out with several Moscow School of Painting masters who schooled us in Russian oil painting techniques when working in the fresh air.  Located and hosted by Lazare Gallery in Charles City, VA.  If you haven't enjoyed the works of Russian contemporary painter's you really must look them up.  You can find their website here: http://www.lazaregallery.com/gallery/welcome.html

Kathy and John Wurdeman's gallery and home are on the scenic banks of the James River and do not disappoint.  Lazare Gallery is beautifully decorated and the wonderful collection of Russian painter's they represent here are a must see if your in VA.  Their son Jonathan is one of the Russian painter's who demonstrated his style and technique that day, and he acted as translator for us for the others Russian artists.  Experiencing the gorgeous lighting in the paintings of these Russian master's at the gallery brought warmth to the cold November Day we were painting in.  

Now at the time I had not started painting in water miscible oils, so I was working in "crayons de couleur" (the French term for CP), which is what they used when referring to my media.  All of the Russian masters looked and commented with a nodding head as they reviewed my in-progress work, not speaking very much English.  And I had to wonder what their impression was of my working in colored pencil..  

You see at the Moscow school of painting, children to teens work for 4 or more years copying and drawing only, not painting when they enter the school.  First mastering their rendering skills.  So I think they thought I was a newbie and student.  Not realizing I use this as my final media when working Plein Air.  They also seemed interested in the fact I was using my trimmed off bristle brushes to blend and fill the sanded surface of my Ampersand Pastelboard.  Well they we partly right as aren't we all life long students LOL ;))

It was a cold windy day so blending the wax of my Prismacolors was not easy.  Usually in warmer weather the wax blends easily and with little effort.  Which is one of the perks of doing Plein air work in colored pencils in my southern state of Virginia.  Use this link above to see Lazare's website and read about the fabulous work of the Moscow School of Painting as well as to see beautiful examples of their work.   

I hoping to post a little more frequently as life permit's, check back in for views of my current piece on the drawing board.  

Waiting for Spring's colors,

Gloria

Colored Pencil Demo and a recent workshop.

Last weekend I did a great workshop with members of the Old Dominion Decorative Painters in Richmond.  This is a great bunch of ladies who are accomplished in many differing media and who know how to enjoy a workshop.  What a lunch they put out!  YUM!  We started the Two Day workshop in Colored Pencil on Friday with the basics of CP on paper and finished Saturday with colored pencil on Travertine Stone Tile.  

The Trio of Cherries #3 (5" X 7") is a small little still life I used to teach transferring the image, stroke, blending and burnishing of CP onto Stonehenge paper.  It's a great little piece that combines bright colors, lighting effects with shadow, and enjoying the process with like minded artists.  I worked up a YouTube video for the artists who participated and have attached it below:

                                        

If you can't access the video directly click on the link below.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXgYzxeKkd8

If you stop by YouTube give me a thumbs up so I know to continue making videos.

Here are their cherries, didn't they do great!

One of the best things about doing what you love is being able to share it with others.  Although several of these lovely ladies are current on going students of mine, I met many more new artists and friends.  They were open to learning a new media and two new surfaces.  We colored pencil artists know this is not a fast media but working on stone is faster than on paper.

My Celtic Green Man example on Travertine 8" X 8"tile, and my demoing the piece for the group.  A "green man" is a Celtic symbol of the "Man of the Woods".  I like to think of them as the male version of mother nature.  I like them so much I collect them, so if you visited my home gardens you would see my collection.

My demo piece on Travertine Tile (no it's not a flipped photo I did it this time in reverse)

Travertine only takes about 4-5 light layers.  When you have completed your first pass of all colors on the entire piece and a spray of workable fixative allows for minor tweaks for deepening the color saturation of the CP.  (Adding an additional light layer.)  Prismacolor pencils and their wax based color work well on the travertine.  Blending is accomplished with the pencil layers and stroke, but a paper stump will move things around a bit to blend also. 

Here are a few tips for working on travertine tile: 

1.  It needs to be unglazed, unpolished stone tile.  Look for the terms "Honed and Filled" when looking at tile stores.  Often they have sample tiles for sale, buying a small one will give you a good idea if there is enough tooth.  I used tumbled for the workshop, doing so will lesson the tooth but give you rounded edges on the tile which makes for easier handling.  Keep your hands free of lotion and use a slip sheet to keep hand oils off the tile. (I use tracing paper.)

2.  One always learns from teaching and although I purchased samples and tested them, the heavy cases of 24, I purchased were not the exact same as the samples I bought.  Shock!  So in order for the CP to grip the tile, meant I had to fill some of natures wholes and sand the tile with a wet fine toothed sanding block.  I used sand-less off white grout to fill the wholes.  Nature gives each stone a unique surface and the minerals in the locality give various colors to the stone.  Working on the lightest colored stone will be easiest for working with transparent Cps. 

3.  When your finished 2-3 light sprays of the workable fixative and then 2-3 coats of UV acrylic varnish will seal and protect your tile.  Display it on a table easel for all to enjoy.  It can also be framed in a floater frame.  I'll do an example of this in a future post.  

 NOTE:  This tile can not be used as a trivet for hot pots or dishes as they are not glazed but varnished.  Varnish will melt if a hot pot is placed on it, ruining your artwork.      

 I have plans for other travertine stone pieces, (I'm currently working on a large 18 X 18" tile) so stay tuned for future posts.  And as always is your interested in my doing a workshop for your group contact me here or on my website:  www.gloriacallahan.com  

And as always do something colorful today!

Gloria

Workshops and Motivation To Do What We Love - Paint!

Workshops and Motivation To Do What We Love - Paint! 

OR

 In other words:  Conquering doubt and the pains of stretching in your skill set.

"Late Summer -  Plein Air Study" - Oil on Gessoed Hardboard 9" X 12"

The above oil painting is from my most recent plein air outing at Powhatan State Park along the James River this week.  All but the clouds were done on site since they seemed to be everywhere except over the field I was painting.  And my goal was for this to be a sky painting!   I haven't done many with the Cobra water miscible paints but I'm happy with this one.  

But I digress from the reason for this post. Note this is a long blog post sorry;((

It’s funny how ending one large time consuming project in your life - leads to self examination and sometimes an inability to get back to the art you love.  If your like me, you channel yourself in household chores that we may have left for “the project”.  Or you keep yourself busy with the "office to do’s" in an artists life.  Computer work, website updates and getting caught up on the accounting of your business, can provide necessary distraction..... Errr Umm procrastinations.....  All the while dabbling in but not really completing any of the works you have on your easel.  

Knowing this about myself I had signed up for a wonderful workshop from an artist who’s use of color is inspiring, clean and just plain makes you happy.  And HAPPY is what I needed to get much more of lately.  Her name is Dreama Tolle Perry and you can find her joyful paintings and workshop info  HERE.  

Dreama'a 3 Day Workshop in Paris KY, is in oil and for me this was the first workshop I’ve actually done in oil.  Even though I have studied with other wonderful accomplished oil painters -  Charlotte Wharton, (who’s plein air insightful workshop I did in pastel) and Barbara Nuss (who’s plein air workshop I did in my usual colored pencil). (Click on their names for links)

Out of my comfort zone and into the fire was how I felt.  After all I had only completed one oil plein air sketch to date before I went on this adventure.  Dreama’s lovely loose brushwork is much different than the tight style I’m known for.  Her easy going start to her casual paintings is completely opposite from my controlled composition and exacting line drawing whether “en Plein Air” or in the studio.  Oh and did I say her expressive brushwork is just short of gobsmacking!

All of this coupled by her enthusiastic “joyful” demeanor was contagious.  So on Day One - I laid out her translucent color palette in my water miscible oils, picked up a brush too big for my comfort zone and started on this lovely image provided by Dreama. I was thinking, learning to use her format of working thru a painting "alla prima” (fresh - wet on wet) shouldn’t be hard, since I had only tried 2 other paintings in the oils before. After all I had no bad habits to unlearn, and Dreama made it look so easy.  However day one provided a big challenge for this detail oriented mind.  But I love her joyful use of color and I was determined to “Get” this new media. 

Day Two - Da Dun Dahhhhhh (Cue: doom and gloom sound effects)  Let’s just say day two enabled me to have a refresher course on what it was like to start a new media, no matter how experienced you are in other media.  

Humbled and grappling with how to control my brush and this new oil media left me frustrated and feeling defeated.  I was trying to channel Dreama’s style and failing big time!  I looked around and saw 17 other artists enjoying the day and their paintings and wondered what was wrong with me?  Even my supportive friend Kathy Scott, oil painter and roommate for this trip, was having a great time.  Day Two's painting was a complete “wiper”.  Or at least one that will never see the light of day!  I went back to the hotel whipped and feeling defeated.  It took more than one glass of wine Kathy so wonderfully provided before I felt better.

That night I had to dig deep and think about the “why” and the “how” I was going to recover from Day 2, and get thru Day 3.  We had some really good artists in the group from all over the US and one from Israel!  And they could do it.  Then it dawned on me……Cue: Light bulb symbol…... What I realized was that all of the other artists were working with Dreama’s palette but in a style they were comfortable with, their own.  I was not.  This was no failing with Dreama’s teaching, it was I believe, a result of the inner conflict I’ve been having with where my art is going.  After all I was new to oil, I didn’t have “a style” in this media yet.  

So Day Three - Paint from our own reference.  I needed a new outlook.  And Dreama’s words of wisdom on that very Day, helped me realize "I needed to fill myself with the joy to create and work in my own style and however that developed would be just right for me”.  (Paraphrasing here but she said something like that).

Sometimes what we need to hear, comes at just the right time to be heeded in all areas of your life. And for me this was truly one of those times.  (Cue: angelic singing) 

"Fleurs"  Oil on gessoed hardboard 5" X 7"

My piece for Day 3 came out much better than I had thought it could have on Day 2.  More importantly I learned how using transparent colors keep your colors clean and bright.  Dreama's approach is truly a great start to my oil painting future, from her palate to her infectious optimism.  I may bring forth more detail because that’s what I love, and it’s OK, but I will heed her words as I find my future in my art.   

If you can't see it below, Here’s a link to Dreama’s video of our workshop. HERE

Thank you Dreama Tolle Perry for being an inspiring teacher, artist and the voice of "what I needed to hear when I was ready to hear it" at your very special workshop.  Oh and for exposing me to Paris, KY! ;)))  

Gloria

All Stacked Up - Colored Pencil On Ampersand Pastelboard 16 X 12

 

"All Stacked Up" 16 X 12 - Colored Pencil On Ampersand Pastelbord is finally complete.  The Teapot shown here is one we inherited from my sweet husband's Grandma Treida and the various teacups came from my mother, and mother in law.  The blue glass creamer is from my Nana.  And no proper tea party would be complete without sugar cubes (or so my Granddaughters think).   

This CP Painting will be waiting for delivery to my Nov. /Dec. One Woman Show at Uptown Gallery, Richmond, VA in late Oct.   I'm still tossing around titles for my show so if anyone has ideas let me know.  I'm hoping to convey all the possible surfaces and subjects that Colored Pencil Paintings can be presented in.   

This summer has been a time of change, new beginnings and creations both here at home, in the studio and in my life.  And after a bout with Lyme's disease I'm finally feeling like I can make some real decisions in my life and art.  The best thing is we are expecting a new grandchild via my youngest son David and his lovely wife Angela in Jan.  2016.  I love babies and miss that sweet baby smell.  

I have been working on the details of my Colored Pencil Workshop for the Old Dominion Decorative Painters Assoc. here in Richmond for Sept.,  as well as taking a workshop in Oils which I will post about next.   Don't get me wrong I'm not abandoning colored pencil, just adding a little something new to shake things up.  As much as I love the pencil point and detail I'm missing the ability to spread paint about with a brush.  So not to worry I will still be working like crazy in CP since I have my show coming up in Nov.  

My studio mate, Bacio wants to say Hi ;)) and he's given his approval on the completion of the above piece.  Which usually means he looks at me and then the piece I'm showing him and then proceeds to jump into my lap.  Saying, "OK your done now, pet me!"  I admit it's a little self serving on his part, but sometimes I need someone else to say "Back away and quit fiddling, it's done."  
                                                                                                        Oh, he wants you to know he's just celebrated his First Birthday!