Sketches, Appliances and more

A quiet day with no rain, golf or outings. TV football and golf in the background as I sketched. Golf was interesting with Tiger one stroke behind going into tomorrow. Texas Aggies vs Fresno State is the best game of the afternoon on TV so far. The Aggies won in the third overtime. Weird.

For Scavenger Hunt 54 I sketched in the NY sketchbook with a Micron 005 pen. Ink, no pre-sketching and for the challenge, still in order. This is hard for me as I like to take the lazy way out and sketch what is handy. I didn't add the challenge until I finished the list, so I didn't pick the order.

#10 A small repair kit. A jewelry repair kit in plastic box, about 20 minutes.

#11 Sculpture. A metal butterfly sculpture on a wooden stand about 20 inches high. The sculpture is even and flowing, not like my drawing. Colored with colored pencil. About 10 minutes to draw and 5 to color.

#12 Small Appliance. The latte machine, about 35 minutes.

#13 Large Appliance. Drawn with the non dominant hand, my left. About 10 minutes. I don't think pencil lines would have helped this. :)

Sketches and More ...

I'm not sure how I started reading Anna Sellers blog, I think she commented on my blog or I saw her on wetcanvas.com. She is amazing in her dedication and work to realize her desire to be an artist. She recently joined in the Scavenger Hunts with us so I imagine her blog will feature more Scavenger Hunt posts. She has been working on copying and learning from an Aachen painting starting in July. Here is her start. She is at the finishing stage now and is letting the paint dry. :) She did an incredible drawing in graphite and is developing it into an oil painting. On her post of September 7, she has a link to a fantasy artist, Jonathon Earl Bowser, (take note Leslie) that is very interesting. He has some landscapes to die for. He is in Calgary and many of the landscapes are from beautiful British Columbia.

Anna's method is a great way to learn. I'm learning a great deal by following along with her. As you all know, I am way to impatient to work hours on a drawing. Maybe I should, but I just can't. I have done pen and ink drawings with a pencil sketch to start and I enjoy it, maybe I'll do one when we get home to Bastrop. Not now of course. Ha. I even drew individual Christmas Cards the first year we were in Bolivia. I did about 60 cards with a pencil drawing of a llama by a church and finished it with ink. The next year I drew a card and had them printed. It was with the old lead, wood cut style so the ink stood up in relief. Pretty nifty. Would have cost a fortune in the old U.S. of A.

Jeanne Grant, one of the Scavenger Hunt artists, asked Katherine Tyrrell at Making a Mark how she develops her sketches into paintings or finished drawings. You can take a look at Katherine's post today. As I have said many times, Katherine is my working art encyclopedia. I am always astounded at how much research she does on a regular basis. It is more amazing as she has time to sketch, draw and paint as well.

For my part, here are a few sketches that I did on our trip to Truth or Consequences at the B & B, the Black Range Lodge in Kingston, New Mexico. I thought my children might enjoy the first one I did.

It is Gene sitting by the front of the lodge working on his journal. No cell phone service there, but they had wireless internet. :) This and the next also fit in with my tree sketching, right?

There is one of the entrance wagon wheel and trees.

A sketch of our dresser and window in our room.

Another room with an arch. This window looked into the banana greenhouse room.

For the Scavenger Hunt #54 that I am hosting, here is number 9, a rug. this is one of the rugs in the living room here in the rent house. I have a plastic cloth over the end table and a cover over the rest of the rug with my easel set up for pastel. It is in the generic sketchbook about 6 x 9 inches with a Micron 005 pen, about 35 minutes. There are only two more days, it's not looking good for me to get many more done. :(

Jo's Art Business?

The last few years, I have been at a sort of cross roads and needed to decide if I was going to be a true full time artist or do it as a hobby. This is really an "I" am thinking out loud post. If I put it in writing, then I will be more responsible in following through with plans and goals. After considering working at being a full time artist, I will continue on with a half way plan. I do not plan on pursuing the life of a full time artist. I'm not really sure I ever fully considered it because I do not care to be on schedules and deadlines and work full time at this time in our lives. Gene is retired and we have a great time traveling and enjoying life. I can keep my internet presence and hopefully my connection with Peppers Art Gallery in my hometown of Magdalena, New Mexico. I plan on teaching a class/workshop in Bastrop in the winter. I will keep my membership in the Austin Pastel Society and take part in as many of their activities as possible. I fully intend to keep growing in my artistic ability and do the most professional job I can.

I would like to have a public studio/gallery. Lea Cundy, friend and potter in Bastrop, and I keep tossing around ideas of how to accomplish that with our schedules. We both have problems with the summer. I am away from Bastrop and she is a foster mother, so her summer is full of teenagers. We shared a studio a few years ago, but with just the two of us, we could not keep it open full time. I enjoy the atmosphere of having an open studio and so does Lea. It would be great to be in downtown Bastrop so you can have walk-ins as well as our regular customers/supporters. Something will come along, right? Any ideas?

I am attending a Bob Rohm Workshop in October at the Bunkhouse in the Hill Country of Texas. It is a plein air workshop for pastels or oils. The workshop still had openings a week or so ago if you are interested. It should be a big help in general to spur my interest and aptitude for plein air. I will be going with Regina. She and I have a great time painting together.

McKinney Roughs, 16 x 20 inches, Pastel on board

We even painted this painting together, worked on it plein air at McKinney Roughs, for our show in June of 2005. (scroll down on that page) We continue to support each other long distance and look forward to the time we can spend together in the winter months. We live 46 miles apart and it takes a little adjusting to get our schedules together.

In working toward improving my art and work ethics, I am joining a small group of on-line artists to work together to critique, support and become friends that work together to grow as artists. This should be a great morale boost for all of us. Rose Welty is gathering the group together. More later as we get organized.

A marketing note: Clint Watson in San Antonio writes a newsletter called Fine Art Views. He writes part of it himself and also gathers other newsletters that he feels are relevant to artists. He picked up one that is interesting. In the archives, read "So You Want to Be an Artist?" first and then read, "Of Course You Want to Be An Artist!". What do you think? Marketing is certainly important and a difficult thing for some artists to accomplish on their own.

Sketches, Scavenger Hunt 54

I need to make up for the days I missed in "my" Scavenger Hunt 54. It is rainy here today, so no golf. I sketched but not ideal conditions for the outside sketches. These sketches are with the Micron 005, blue, pen in the NY Sketchbook. I started sketching in it way back on Hunt 47. I don't use a pencil sketch or rulers, etc. when sketching in pen. If I really look and don't rush, I do better. This is a challenge I have given myself to try to learn to look and then make a correct mark or two.

#4, a fence. This is the iron fence across the street sketched from inside our front door. About 15 minutes.

#5, a garden tool, clippers and #6, a small table, the table here in the study. It has a tile top on iron lumpy legs. I did not take care in the perspective. Color added with colored pencils didn't make it look any better. Perhaps I should have opened the clippers to give them more form, Took about 30 minutes as well. :(

#7, steps. It was wet, but I worked more on the perspective and ignored the wet look. About 20 minutes.

#8, row of something. A black sculpture of elephants. It is about 3 inches high and a foot long, appearing to be made of carved lightweight stone or synthetic stone.

Scavenger Hunt 54 Host, Blue and more

I am the host for the present Scavenger Hunt #54 on wetcanvas.com. The host lists 26 everyday items to sketch. The participants can sketch as many or as few as they want. The Hunt lasts for nine days. I have been in most of the Hunts for the past year. I average about 10 of the 26 items. The most I have done is 16. Maybe I can do more this time. :)

Several of the artists complete the list. There are a variety of artists, skills and styles. We try to encourage each other and comment on the sketches. Some do almost finished drawings, some use color, we had one computer sketch artist, but he hasn't taken part for a while. More about that later. It is a good way to sketch new things that you wouldn't ordinarily pick and it encourages me to sketch almost daily. I have even finished a couple of sketchbooks. Sketching is not my favorite part of art, but it is so good for my painting and to train my "eye" to see and put down strokes in a controlled manner. I have improved my speed and if I pay attention, it has improved my drawing. I am impatient so tend to plow ahead without thinking. For the most part, I am learning to control the excitement and slow down and see the flowers. I usually sketch with a pen so I cannot erase. This should make me look better before I put down a line.

To start this Hunt, the first three sketches are done with the Micron 005, blue, in the NY sketchbook (for newcomers, a sketchbook from the NYMoA (a gift from Regina) about 6 x 8 inches. About 35 minutes, total.


#1, Something Blue, Budweiser bottle, the neck is too squatty. #2, something glass, a glass candle holder.

#3, Towel rack, a paper towel rack in the kitchen.


As I was checking out wetcanvas.com today I found this article about sketching. If you haven't seen it you might enjoy it. You do not have to be a member to read the articles.

The artist that sketches on his computer is Walter Logeman, Thousand Sketches. He is really getting great with his sketches. I especially like his horses and people, skylines .. well, his more representational work. (That is just me.) He does abstract work as well. He has been visiting the States from New Zealand for the past few weeks and set up some gallery representation in New York. Congratulations, Walter!

Tree Study Finale, Pastel Painting, Shade Tree

This pastel study of the big shade tree is bringing my tree studies to completion. It will not be the end of painting trees, of course..

Shade Tree is soft pastel on Amersand Pastelbord, 8 x 10 inches from a photo taken in New Mexico last summer.

I worked on studying trees for the month of August. Maggie Stiefvater instigated the idea. At the time, I was working on cottonwoods and was not happy with the result, I decided to just follow through and investigate trees for the month.

The experience taught me a few things and reminded me of some I already knew.

• Each type of trees have their own structure, just like people or other subjects. A good skeleton will give you a good tree.
• Paint or sketch what you see, don't make Christmas trees or cotton balls. Suggest leaves in masses, don't do each leaf.
• Vary the greens, noticing if the green runs to the yellow or blue side. I like to have the compliment, red, in my trees.
• Take note of the time of day and weather.
• You can shape the tree with your sky or background color with "sky holes". The color in the holes is slightly darker than the sky or land.
• Like other landscape composition, you have to overlap and vary the height. I think this is important, even if in real life the trees make a fairly straight line.

Coincidentally on Friday, I received the Pastel Journal for October containing an article, "5 Takes on Trees". The first, Karen Watson has a very realistic style with strong color. Very appealing to my eye. She says she doesn't get caught up in details and changes the scene to better her composition.

Then Jack Pardue who agrees on accuracy in drawing but uses color to keep it interesting and full of life. Nice trees, I guess that is why they chose him, right?

Sarah Bee, focuses on light and minimizes detail. Exciting color with little true green.

Britani Faulkes says, My pastel paintings are often described as anthropomorphic." She paints the shapes more than details.

Brett Varney simplifies trees and uses unusual color and imagination in his oil pastel paintings.

In the end, each artist interprets trees in their own style and palette. I paint in a realistic way, so I need to keep closer to the actual colors and shapes. Practice and experience will help my paintings to convey my ideas and inspiration to the support and on to the viewer.

My tree study posts.