Art Class Shows work at the Library

Yesterday I went to the Metuchen Public Library and hung my students art work. They had all brought me a stack of work they wanted to show, and there was a lot to choose from.

But, the exhibition space was rather limited, so I had to pick out a few pieces, and hung them in themes. There was a lot of good work that I unfortunately had to leave out, but I think it still gives a good idea of what we have worked with the past 12 weeks.

The art work will be on display in the Library until Dec. 14th. 2008

# 12 Art Class - Acrylic on Canvas

It was our last week this semester. Unfortunately only two students were able to make it for this class. It was time to paint on a stretched canvas - acrylic on canvas. Last week I asked if they would prefer to paint from their imagination or look at a still life. Still life was the clear answer, so I made a little arrangement with a vase w/ dry yellow flowers, a book, a pomegranate and a (lit) candle.

The atmosphere was very calm and focused, it was cold and dark outside and very cosy inside. Both boys worked concentrated - I really tried to force them to LOOK at the arrangement, not just assume. To use their pencil to measure the different objects to each other, and also pay attention to light and shadow. They took their time, changed detail when they realized it wasn’t right. A lot of work and very little giggle! The two hours were spent well, we had perfect time to finish the pieces, talk about each one afterward, and we even had time to play with Playdoh the dog, who was not happy about being placed in the basement while the class was going on. He came up to say hello!

Later this week or early next week, the student’s work will be on display at the Metuchen Library.

I will offer two make up classes in the beginning of December, I will post into on the themes at a later date.

# 11 Art Class - Still Life

This week was an “open week”. I wanted to keep one week available to add a sudden idea for a project or a surprise. I had asked the students if there was something they would be interested in doing in particular... A few mentioned that they like to finish up older pieces from previous weeks, but none of them actually brought anything along when Tuesday came along. I had a feeling this would happen, so I prepared a Still Life class, using color pencils combined with water color.

I have noticed that they like working with Still Life - they enjoy having an object/arrangement to look at, rather than making something up. I think that is great; they have to look and observe - great for bettering their drawing skills, as well as their focus.

I made a very traditional set up with a bowl of fruit and one of my personal treasures: a Royal Copenhagen Jug. I gave them a sheet of water color paper and they started drawing the arrangement. When the drawing was done, they added a bit of color with the color pencils and as the last step, they put water color on top. This created an interesting effect. We talked about how the two materials affected each other, how the pencils were great for shadow and the watercolor worked wall for the lighter part of the painting.

As always the results were very different, they each approached the subject as well as the materials very differently.

We only have one week left of the entire semester. Next week is a painting on a stretched canvas. After Thanksgiving I am having two make up classes.

# 10 Art Class

This past Tuesday was Election Night, which meant that a couple of my students were away for the week. So, on this dark (and later history changing!) fall Tuesday only two kids came for art class!

According to my lesson plan were were going to draw faces, and we started out talking about proportions of the face, and they did a couple of drawings of each other... But pretty soon it became clear that it was hard to do with only two people that kept on drawing each other. (I was planning that they would take turns, all drawing one person at a time, just like in the figure drawing class.) So, we decided to change the plan a little - I had a big pumpkin outside my door that I broad inside, along with a handful of beautiful orange/brown leaves that covered the ground outside my house. Initially I wanted them to draw faces with pastels - so we stuck with that medium ( -which we had not actually used yet- ) and the drawings were very vibrant - we talked a bit about complementary colors, and they tried to make oranges and browns pop, by surrounding them with ‘opposite’ colors.

# 9 Art Class - Egg Tempera

It was time for the (among my students) most anticipated week - egg tempera! They just couldn’t wait to mix the paint! Almost every week, someone would ask me: ”When are we doing the egg thing??” I decided to give them each a primary color (unfortunately one student couldn’t make it, so we were only three). They each got a tile and a piece of marble to turn a color pastel into powder. It was a pretty tough process - breaking the pastel turned out to be more difficult than expected. They mixed the fine powder with egg yolks, and it turned into some very clear and vibrant colors.

They each painted a small painting with the tempera, it was very different than regular paint; sticky and very transparent. They could still mix the colors, lighten the red and blue (-or green as the egg yolk changed it into). After making one painting they were more interested in mixing more paint, than actually using it for painting! We had a bit of time before everyone was being piked up, and one of the students suggested that they spent the time drawing each other - like they did in week # 3. I thought it was a great idea - we are going to draw faces next week, and this was a good exercise to return to, before next week. So I quickly found paper and charcoal and they worked on figure drawing until they got picked up.

Dronninglund Kunstcenter

This year for the first time, I applied to participate in the Censured December Exhibition at Dronninglund Kunstcenter, North Jutland, DK. I brought back some new work this summer, and thought it would be interesting to give it a try. I submitted five pieces and I was lucky - two of those got accepted! The official opening of the show is this Sunday, Nov. 2nd at 11 am.

# 8 Art Class - Self Portrait

This week it was time for self portraits. We started out looking at Frida Kahlo, She was the perfect artist to study for this weeks’ class. We talked about what a self portrait is, or can be. I wanted them to tell about themselves in the picture, not only focus on glasses, long hair and eye color, but also what they like to do, where they are from and who they are. That’s another reason Frida Kahlo was such an obvious choice; all the stories she tells about herself through her work.

The medium was basically the same as last week: a mix of collage and paint, this time on a canvas board. The results were very interesting (and I believe I learned a lot about my students this week!) and what always strike me is how differently they all started and completed the assignment.

Some painted the figure, cutting out nose and eyes from magazines - others painted the whole figure, and only used collage in the background. Looking back at their work, they are all really very consistent in their styles, even across mediums.

My First Studio

Recently I was looking through some old pictures. I came across these couple of images from Tacoma, WA. They sent me back in time, made me think about this space again... It was in fact my first real studio. It was in an old apartment building in the Stadium district, we lived there for two years and loved it. We had talked to the manager when we moved in, asking if it was possible to pay a little extra for this room, on top of the rent. It wasn’t really a room, rather a small naked space in between two apartments, but it was perfect as a place to paint. It was full of old appliances and various old junk, collected for (probably) centuries. Kevin and I emptied the space ourselves, it took a long weekend and some sore backs and muscles.

(Turned out) the room had a small window, looking over the bay (Pudget Sound) as well as the Stadium High School which look a bit like a german castle. Not bad for a view! It had a high ceiling and an improvised wood floor; I could be as messy as I wanted to, it was made for this purpose. We put up some boards on the walls for both pictures and insulation.

Looking at these photos, I know exactly which paintings I did in this room, which shows I had in mind and was preparing for. I remember the pictures I hung on the wall for inspiration, how cold the winters were in there, and the little broken glass in one of the small window panes...

This studio was its’ own chapter, and it holds a lot of nostalgia. While still living in Tacoma we moved to a house in the north end, and I got my own little room there too. A very different place; a small cozy “log cabin” of a room with a window overlooking our cute flower garden. A different place, and some different work. At this moment I have a tiny room with french doors, green walls and bamboo flooring. Looking over a parking lot. I have loved all my studios - not sure you can work in them if you don’t?

To me whey become separate chapters, and I am excited having to move once in a while and change space. Good for moving and changing the direction of the mind!

# 7 Art Class - Abstract Collage

On Tuesday it was time for abstract art! I wanted to combine the abstract with the collage, and it worked out well. I started out by talking about Paula Rego, a portuguese artist living in London. She is an interesting (and very skilled) painter with many different styles. In the 1960s she made some beautiful big abstract pieces in mixed media. We looked at some of her work and talked about form and color, as well as the different materials used. They all had very different ideas about what it was supposed to be. I thought it was interesting that it had to be something; a monster behind a tree, an old woman with flowers - it could not, not be something!

As oppose to our weeks of various still life, this time our conversation was all about shapes and colors - the students had to focus on the overall look and feel of the piece, rather than the right proportions. I sensed that they enjoyed this change of pace, and they created some interesting pieces. I think they did really well in cutting out odd (and what seemed random) magazine pictures, gluing them around the cardboard, and then connecting the images with paint as the last step. They clearly worked very spontaneously and that gave some good results. I was truly impressed! Next week we will continue the collage, but in the shape of self portraits...

Playdoh on Go-Cards

The Danish postcard company Go-Card is currently publishing a series of my images, entitled Playdoh Greetings and they all feature my Boston terrier Playdoh.

Three of them are already out; Get well Soon, Happy Valentines Day and Bon Voyage. And I have just received a message that the forth one (Happy Halloween) now is out as well.

That means it can be picked up for free (between Oct. 9-16) in 400 cafes around Denmark, as well as in all McDonalds throughout the country (except for Herning).

This is the second Playdoh series published by Go-card, the first one Playdoh the Muse, came out last year. Back in 2002 I had my very first series published on Go-card, it was five images and text pieces, taken from Life of Young Ursula Winther.

For more information, or to send an e-card, please visit there their website www.Go-Card.dk