Art School: Week 22 - February 18-22, 2008

Art Centre - Week Twenty-Two

Week three of semester two of year one - three days of classes this week. Short and sweet!

Monday Printmaking and Ceramics

Family Day and no classes.

Tuesday – Design

We submitted the assignment, a table showing bar shadows, cross hatching and stipple. Now we are drawing an object (of our choosing) using all three methods of shading. I’m drawing two miniature pieces of pottery. Not more than an hour for class today as we joined other classes to see and hear a very inspirational and engaging guest artist, the painter Howard Podeswa (see http://ccc.ca) who showed his slides with both past and current work as he talked about his artistic journey and discoveries along the way. His work can also be seen at the Peak Gallery - http://www.peakgallery.com/artists/howard_podeswa.htm - here's a self-portrait of Howard done in 2005.

Wednesday – Drawing Fundamentals

A bit disappointing that our teacher was away as we were all eager to show off our organic drawings (many still in a state of evolution) and the two part assignment of “something in front of nothing” and “nothing in front of something”. Most of us had a look around at what others had done for this – very different results for sure. These got put away and we worked on the assignment for the day, drawing one or both of the two setups of cones, blocks and spheres. We did at least two thumbnail sketches in our sketch books o start. We were then to draw large versions of these on newsprint using charcoal or conte. Finally we were to do drawings with an x-ray approach using these shapes as the foundation for drawings of other things – for example, a forest, a building. I drew three finalists in a beauty contest with cone-shaped evening gowns and a church with a cone shaped spire.

I found that going back to basics was not as pleasant as the organic drawing or the creative assignment regarding something and nothing. It was like practicing scales on the piano after having learned a pretty little melody you’d rather be playing.

Thursday – Painting.

My oil painting of the Bridgetown woman took most of my time in class today. I began to rework the oval of the Coca-cola sign in the background, the wall behind the woman changed the colour of blue, staying with the same value as previously and I took the shadow out of the woman’s skirt. I worked until I reached a point where the wetness of the paint prevented me from adding certain touches – will have to wait until it dries.

I showed my photo of gourds and the pastel rendering of the picture. I used gouache to paint a version of the picture for my first thumbnail and I will need to explore many variations until I have an interesting abstract composition for my large (30” X 36” canvas. What drew me to this particular picture was the pastel drawing it inspired back in 2001 - it was a piece where I did not try to copy what I saw in the picture realistically but took liberties and explored the use of colour.

Looking ahead

Next week I’ll be printing etchings, building a clay object using the coil method and submitting the renderings of my miniature pottery objects using bar shading, cross hatching and stipple. In drawing fundamentals we’ll share the organic drawings and something-nothing assignment and move on to the next project. In painting I hope to complete the Barbados scene and start on my abstract painting. One more week in February and one in March before the spring break!