Friday, October 31, 2014

Final Post-Easton and More to Come

Finally, the post Easton Workshop painting tweaked a bit more.  Biggest change was the olive oil bottle and pushing it to green than blue (duh, it is olive oil!).  Also added more orange to the front left persimmon (my fav - glazing some bits) and dulled the light on the "perp" in the bowl to shift the focus to the front right persimmon - a Fuyu - who even knows what that is?  Lovely still life object - hot, luscious, plump. Google it if you must know - I do not, and okay with that  :D  I saw it in person and absolutely had to paint it!

Overall, I am thrilled with this piece - bought a frame and hung it in my home until there's a call for art or gallery that wants to show it, or someone who has to have it (email me).  What do you think?

Persimmons and Pears

Before Preview
















I am loving the "bits" learned from the Easton workshop and know it is each artist's goal to knit those bits together into what you create as an individual.    One of my artist friends (GL she knows who she is), uses the term "bits" and I rather like it.  She is very creative, profound, and a phenomenal artist!

Lastly, leaping into deep space, I signed up for a class that starts next week with a young, crazy-cat so I can only imagine will have a few more bits!    SRLY, he graduated from art school in 2012!  Have no fear, bring it on!

More bits to come. . . .

Thanks for taking the time to read my blog.

 Enjoy - life is joy we make one moment at a time,

Thursday, October 16, 2014

Post Workshop Mash Up - Dance On

Finally got the nerve to combine my recent workshop techniques with my regular painting (small, hard panels).  What a joy to go back to the familiar, but another challenge combining the two processes.  Amazing how every tweak makes for yet another challenge!  I have no idea when all this will become routine - although pretty much guessing NEVER!

I wanted this painting to be very loose and include the workshop instruction to go abstract.  It seems to have an "air" and looks ready to embrace the change of seasons.  Me not so much - I love summer, period.  I will admit, the changing seasons help me appreciate the summer even more (happy/sad face) . . . .

The workshop focused on creating a dark, muted, abstract "stage" in the background to make the star of the show stand out even more.  The workshop artist used color, contrast, sharp edges, soft edges, light vs. dark, thick vs. thin paint and every other striking combo to give the foreground diva her moment!   I hope the persimmon stands out as that was the goal.  

Before my time, but maybe this painting should be called Fred and Ginger. Two in lockstep - doesn't it look like they are dancing? One of Ginger's quotes was - "The most important thing in anyone's life is to be giving something". . .  Great advice - so here's my gift today.  


Persimmon and Pear
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Enjoy - life is joy we make one moment at a time,

Thanks for stopping by. 

Johnna

Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Easton Workshop   

Somehow, another month has zoomed by and I don't have much to show for it, but I've learned a lot.  In early September, I attended Qiang Huang's workshop in Easton MD.  What a wonderful town!  It is on the eastern shore and specializes in great food, art/artists and quaint shopping.  I am still raving about the amazing food and had so much fun with my fellow artist who recently moved there (KR you know who you are!).   

This blog is kinda long, so I'm going to start with the end and work my way back to the start 'cause I want to show you what I'm learning.

Here's my first solo run with the workshop process after returning home.  It's a big thing for me to put together a set up as I believe it is an art form in itself.  I had one art teacher say she spent more time putting the setup together than actually painting it.  Uh, oh, probably more to learn there too.   This painting features two types of persimmons - regular "flat" ones and a stunning orange "long" one called a Fuyu.  Google it if you need more info - I just liked how orange and plump it looked.  Kinda makes the regular persimmons a bit bland though.  Bottle on the right was from our wonderful trip to Spain with an incredible olive oil.  Bought it for the bottle, but the oil is astounding.   Personally I can't believe I painted something with seven items in it!!!  Would love any and all comments. The technique is to have one highlighted item and blur the rest.  So in this one, the fat Fuyu is the highlight.  You decide, kinda complicated!

Pears and Persimmons
Okay back to the start of this adventure. . . . .

It's true that the ridiculously scary Chesapeake Bay bridge wasn't as bad as expected (as in expect THE absolute worst)!  You be the judge, here's how wiki describes it, "Because of its height, the narrowness of the spans (there are no hard shoulders), the low guardrails, and the frequency of high winds, it is known as one of the scariest bridges not only in the USA but in the world." Huh?  Seriously?  On top of that, I can't even begin to describe driving on the left-hand span facing oncoming traffic with NO barrier.  This is a little trick they use to manage the volume of traffic headed to the eastern shore.  Survived it twice and willing to do so again 'cause Easton is so wonderful ;-) 

Here's a pic of the beast.










Qiang has a five step "method" and complicated set ups, but it got me back into painting on canvas and working with a lot of different dimensions in the same painting.  On the second day, Qiang demoed his first stage then we would try it out on our own setups, then demoed stage 2 - we try - repeat to stage 5.  An excellent way to learn his method and wish we had more time to practice and get his personal guidance.  Here's his demo and my run at the process.  Hmmmm. . . . more to learn.

Qiang Huang - Easton Demo Day 2





My stab at it - Inspired, so hoping to paint more - maybe a combo of my former daily painting and this more complicated, yet intriguing venue!











Enjoy, life is joy we make one moment at a time,

Johnna