Selia's Second Wind

Art Centre: January 2010

2010-02-14T18:13:00.000-08:00

Central Technical School Art Centre:
Year Three: Weeks Sixteen - Eighteen
January 4 – 22, 2010

Art History - Weeks Sixteen – Eighteen
End Semester One

Conceptualism - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conceptual_Art

Joo Youn Peek

New Realism - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_realism

Chuck Close

Neo-Expressionism - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neo-Expressionism

Keith Haring

Post Modernism - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postmodern_art

William Wegman

Tuesday Week 15: Photography

Completion of the photographs related to sculpting class:
A series of models related to the abstract sculpture.
The urban and rural settings for the abstract sculpture.

Work on the self-portrait project using layers. Here is a rough draft of images to use in the creation of the project, “Big Fish: Going Below the Surface”

Wednesday Week 15: Sculpting

Completion of the social commentary sculpture – a constructivist project.
The image below is missing the final touch – yellow twine binding the folded cardboard in recycle box #2. If any of my neighbours see this piece, I hope they get the message regarding recycling boxes in our building!

Submitted the proposal for the body of work to be done in semester two.

Friday – Weeks 15: Printmaking

Printing and submission of the first two series of prints for the book on Greece:

Chapter One – Thanassi and his family.

Lithograph: Thanassi

Three lino block prints:

Mother in the kitchen

Mother and father in the garden

Mother at the market

Chapter Three – Later Years (Part 1: The Women)

Three dry-point prints on Plexiglas”

Reflection

Shopping

The rose

January 25 – 27: Exam period at the Art Centre.

Classes resume February 4 for Semester 2. However, I will be away from campus on medical leave (total hip replacement) and will not be posting a blog until I return though I do plan to be working in the rehab facility and at home.

Images not taken by me are found at http://images.google.ca

Art Centre - December 14 - 18, 2009

2009-12-19T10:38:00.000-08:00

Central Technical School Art Centre:
Year Three: Week Fifteen
December 14 - 18, 2009

Art History - Week Fifteen

We were treated to a docudrama starring Art Centre teacher Michael Porco in his portrayal of the artist Jackson Pollock.

POP Art - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pop_art

Andy Warhol - Marilyn

Andy Warhol - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_warhol
Roy Lichtenstein - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Lichtenstein

Colour Field Painting - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colour_Field_Painting

Mark Rothko - Red, Orange, Tan and Purple

Mark Rothko - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Rothko
Helen Frankenthaler - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Frankenthaler

Minimal Art - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimal_Art

Frank Stella

Frank Stella - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Stella
Richard Serra - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Serra

Op Art - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Op_Art

Bridget Riley – Blaze 1

Bridget Riley - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bridget_Riley
Victor Vasarely - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Vasarely

Tuesday Week 15: Photography

More about masks using Photoshop as we prepare the sculpting/photography assignment…

Masking Out Difficult Images - http://www.photoshopcafe.com/tutorials/masking/masking.htm
Quick Mask Tutorials –
http://www.graphic-design.com/Photoshop/tutorials/quickmask.html

Mask tutorial - http://www.phong.com/tutorials/mask.tree/

Wednesday Week 15: Sculpting

I worked on the enlarged model of the abstract sculpture project. Time spent constructing my design for the social commentary constructivist sculpture – the next project. Thanks to my neighbours for inspiration – I am hoping to get across the message that their boxes (of all sorts) can be broken down to take less space in our apartment building’s recycle containers.

My inspiration…

Friday – Weeks 15: Printmaking

Lithograph of Thanassi submitted.

Christmas Break until January 4….

Images not taken by me are found at http://images.google.ca

Art Centre - November 30 - December 11, 2009

2009-12-13T10:04:00.000-08:00

Central Technical School Art Centre:
Year Three: Weeks Thirteen and Fourteen
November 30 – December 11, 2009

Art History - Week Thirteen

Dada - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dada n.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dada

Marcel Duchamp. Bride/ Mariée

Marcel Duchamp - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcel_Duchamp
Man-Ray - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_Ray

Surrealism - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surrealism

Rene Magritte. Carte Blanche

Rene Magritte - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RenÃ©_Magritte
Andre Breton - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AndrÃ©_Breton

Art History - Week Fourteen

Visual Arts of the United States - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_arts_of_the_United_States

Mary Cassatt. The Bath

Mary Cassatt - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Cassatt

Georgia O'Keeffe - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_o

Abstract Expressionism - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abstract_expressionism

Robert Motherwell. Two Figures

Jackson Pollock - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackson_Pollock
Robert Motherwell - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Motherwell

Tuesday Week 13 and 14: Photography

Beauty Theme photos reviewed in class.
Also – a demonstration regarding the use of masks in Photoshop.

Masks tutorial -
http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/photoshoptutorialsselect/Working_with_Masks_and_Making_Selections_in_Photoshop.htm
Using Layer Masks CS4 - http://www.viddler.com/explore/mcpactions/videos/26/

Wednesday Weeks 13 & 14 Sculpting

Worked on enlarged model – abstract sculpture. Constructing my design for the social commentary constructivist sculpture – the next project.

Friday – weeks 9 & 10 Printmaking

Plexiglas series of Greek Men commenced. Layout plan for book. Photographs to be used both as inspiration for the 19 prints and as additional illustrations scanned and put into slides. Started etching for the Greek Cat series – the first one is based on the photo of a young cat in a flower pot taken in Monemvasia, a cliffside village on the Mani (Peloponnese).

Images not taken by me are found at http://images.google.ca

Art Centre - November 16-27, 2009

2009-11-28T18:23:00.000-08:00

Central Technical School Art Centre:
Year Three: Weeks Eleven and Twelve
November 16-27, 2009

Art History - Week Eleven

Philip_Absolon - Cassie Thinking About Cubism‎

Cubism - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cubism

Pablo Picasso - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pablo_Picasso
Georges Braque - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Braque
Juan Gris - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Gris

Umberto Boccioni – Self-portrait

Futurism - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Futurism

Giacomo Balla - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giacomo_Balla
Umberto Boccioni - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umberto_Boccioni
Gino Severini - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gino_Severini

Art History - Week Twelve

Kasimir Malovich

Suprematism - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suprematism
Kasimir Malovich - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kasimir_Malevich
Piet Modrian - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piet_Mondrian

Constructivism - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructivism_(art)
Naum Gabo - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naum_Gabo
Vladimir Tatlin - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Tatlin

Bauhaus - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bauhaus
Walter Gropius - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Gropius
Paul Klee - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Klee

Tuesday Weeks 11 and 12: Photography

Beauty Theme photos project continued:

Wednesday Weeks 11 & 12 Sculpting

Worked on enlarged model – abstract sculpture. Sketched design for social commentary constructivist sculpture – the next project.

Friday – Weeks 11 & 12 Printmaking

Plexiglas series of Greek Women series revised. Zinc etching plates are prepared for the Greek Cat series – filed and hard ground was applied to nine plates. Began the filing of the six additional Plexiglas plates.

Images not taken by me are found at http://images.google.ca/

Art Centre - November 2-13, 2009

2009-11-15T16:26:00.000-08:00

Central Technical School Art Centre:
Year Three: Weeks Nine and Ten
November 2 - 13, 2009

Art History - Week Nine

Fauvism - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fauvism
Fauvist Art video 1 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z05H89r8GvM
Fauvist Art video 2 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgPMZ8r98Mg&feature=related

Henri Matisse - Madame Matisse (The Green Line)Date: 1905
Matisse video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5m-B_15icZA

Maurice Vlaminck – Picking Up Deadwood (1906)
Maurice Vlaminck - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_de_Vlaminck

Expressionism - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expressionism

Franz Marc – Yellow Cow
Marc video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEroJSYjDwo

Wassilly Kandinsky - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wassily_Kandinsky

Art History - Week Ten

Class Field trip to McMichael Canadian Art Collection - http://www.mcmichael.com/

Pictured Above: Ningeokuluk Teevee, (b.1963)Cross Current, 2005lithograph56.4 x 66.8 cm Reproduced with the permission of Dorset Fine Arts

I visited the Cape Dorset exhibition - Nunannguaq: In the Likeness of the Earth while the class toured the Group of Seven (I attended that exhibit recently).

We all enjoyed meeting with the artist Ed Bartram to hear about his printmaking – he’s a former printmaking teacher at the Art Centre at Central Technical School.

One of the prints from Ed Bartram: The Eye Within exhibition
Pictured Above:Ed Bartram (b. 1938)O.S.A. Lake Killarney, 1998 mixed media printvariable edition, ed. 10 80 x 120 cmCollection of the Artist

Ed Bartram’s website - http://edbartram.brinkster.net/

Only one other living artist has been exhibited at the McMichael – also a CTS Art Centre teacher – Doris McCarthy - http://www.dorismccarthy.com/

Doris McCarthy: Medicine Lake, 2000, oil on canvas, 36" x 48"

Unrelated to the field trip or to the art history class – a good friend sent along the link to a video that features Vincent VanGogh paintings – there’s one typo near the end of the slide show but the overall effect is worth watching (4:44 minutes) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UFPAZWAUSw&feature=email

Tuesday Week 7: Photography

Beauty Theme explored and shot: Examples of topics - Autumn, Stones, Shells,
Angels, Leaf, Light through glass

Tuesday Week 8: Photography

Beauty Themes Film developed and Contact Sheets prepared, selected photos printed.

Below see three examples of selected photos:

Wednesday Weeks 7 & 8: Sculpting

Urban and Rural Settings for placement of abstract sculpture photographed.
The sculpture will be placed in these settings using Photoshop.

Model for sculpture and settings are shown below.

Friday – weeks 5 & 6 Printmaking

My Lithograph has been printed.
Final version of Greek in-laws in the garden linoblock is completed.
Greek Family series of three linoblocks are being test printed.

Plexiglas series of Greek Women series has been started – one is ready to test.

Zinc etching plates are being prepared for the Greek Cat series.

Images not taken by me are found at http://images.google.ca

Art Centre: October 19-30, 2009

2009-10-31T20:22:00.000-07:00

Central Technical School Art Centre:
Year Three: Weeks Seven and Eight
October 19-30, 2009

Art History: Week Seven

Vase of Flowers – Odilon Redon

Symbolism - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbolism_(arts)
Odilon Redon - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odilon_Redon
Edvard Munch - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edvard_Munch

Alphonse Mucha – White Star

Art Nouveau - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_nouveau
Alphonse Mucha - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfons_Mucha
Gustav Klimt - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustav_Klimt

Art History: Week Eight

Red Maples - Lawren Harris

Group of Seven - http://www.groupofsevenart.com/
McMichael Canadian Group of Seven Collection - http://www.mcmichael.com/collection/seven/index.cfm
Wikipedia: Group of Seven - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_of_Seven_(artists)
Virtual Museum Gallery: Group of Seven - http://www.virtualmuseum.ca/English/Gallery/static/GroupofSeven15082001_page1.html
Group of Seven Videos - http://archives.cbc.ca/arts_entertainment/visual_arts/topics/754/
Lawren Harris - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawren_Harris

Tuesday Week 7: Photography

Beauty themes shot.

Tuesday Week 8: Photography

Beauty Themes Film developed and Contact Sheets prepared.

Wednesday Weeks 7 & 8: Sculpting

New models created and photographed:

Models 1 and 2

Models 3 and 4

Models 5 and 6

Friday – Weeks 7 & 8: Printmaking

Lithography and Linoblocks

Continuing the cutting of the linoblock based on the photograph shown above

I completed the litho portrait again and the first and second etch are done – ready for printing. The paper is torn. My second drawing hasn’t quite captured the original charm as is too often the case when one tries to redo a drawing. I’m eager to see how it turns out in the printing.

Images not taken by me are found at http://images.google.ca/

Art Centre - October 5-16, 2009

2009-10-17T12:36:00.000-07:00

Central Technical School Art Centre:
Year Three: Weeks Five and 6
October 5-16, 2009

Monday Week 5: Art History (Week 6: Thanksgiving)

Shooting sculptures – 10 shots with 3 lenses and various f-stops – film or digital
Beauty Assignment – Black and White – shooting 35 mm film (continuing to clarify what shots I will be taking)
Shot the pictures of my sculpting models in the studio.

Wednesday Weeks 5 & 6: Sculpting

Constructivist Abstract Models according to formula – my formula is a flat isosceles triangle intersected at two points by a curved line. I created a photographic report to hand in and I exhibited my models.

Alas – missing in the instructions (at least for me and for a number of my classmates) was the constraint that not only did we have to use the formula (flat isosceles triangle intersected at two points by a curved line) BUT – the isosceles triangle and the curved line need to be exactly the same size and material in each model – so I went back to the hardware store for more supplies!
Meanwhile – here are the lovely models I created in the interim.

Models 1 and 2

Models 3 and 4

Model 5

Model 5 – another view

Model 6 – two views (Merry Christmas!)

Friday – Weeks 5 & 6 Printmaking

Lithography and Linoblocks

I revised the linoblocks for the first two prints in the Greek Family Series and have started the third one (based on the photograph shown above).

I’ve been etching my stone: a lithograph portrait of Thanassi. I completed the drawing on the stone today and the first chemical treatment was done by my teacher. Somehow some substance got splashed across the portrait and it was ruined and now has to be redone. I’m hoping I can somehow capture the charm and spirit of my favourite Greek once again.

I’m also preparing plexiglass plates for a future series in the Greek Storybook.

Images not taken by me are found at http://images.google.ca/

Art Centre - September 28 - October 2, 2009

2009-10-04T18:30:00.000-07:00

Central Technical School Art Centre:
Year Three: Week Four
September 28-October 2, 2009

Monday: Art History

Ingres

Neo-Classicism - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoclassicism
David - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques-Louis_David
Ingres - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingres

Goya

Romanticism - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanticism
Goya - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goya
Turner - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J.M.W._Turner

Courbet

Realism - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Realism_(arts)
Courbet - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustave_Courbet
Millet - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-FranÃ§ois_Millet

Tuesday: Photography

In class we worked on the assignment about beauty. Each of us discussed 10 images that communicate beauty with the teacher one-to-one.

What is beauty? http://www.philosophytalk.org/pastShows/WhatisBeauty.htm
What is beautiful? http://blogcritics.org/culture/article/what-is-beautiful/

Wednesday: Sculpting

There was a show and tell of each of the five models assigned for abstract constructivist sculpture. Here are two views each of my five models.

Flat planes

Straight line and flat planes

Curved line and flat plane

Curved planes

Curved line and curved plane

The next step is to choose one and build five models on that recipe. I chose curved line and flat plane – my curved line penetrates the flat plane (an isosceles triangle) at two points.

Friday – Printmaking

I began the first etch on my litho stone. We were shown the methods of treating the drawing with chemicals in two stages.

Video of the lithography process - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHw5_1Hopsc

Video on lithography fine art printing - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQQXyFIgENc&feature=fvw

Images not taken by me are found at http://images.google.ca/

Art Centre - September 21-25, 2009

2009-09-26T10:17:00.000-07:00

Central Technical School Art Centre:
Year Three: Week Three
September 21-25, 2009

Monday: Art History

Morning Star III was one of the many watercolour paintings by Georgia O’Keeffe done in the early 1900’s. I continue my research on O’Keeffe.

Year Three Exhibition Plans

On Monday class time was also spent in first discussions regarding our third year class exhibition at the end of the school year. This show is held off campus and the group present likes the idea of having the exhibition at 401 Richmond during the last two weeks of May. The Art Centre’s Open House and Exhibition is the first weekend in June and our class does much of the work of putting this show up as well. A number of our classmates are on a field trip to New York state and New York City so we will discuss this with them on their return.
http://www.401richmond.net/

Tuesday: Photography

In photography class, we received more instructions regarding pictures we are to take of a local sculpture with various F stops and lens. We examined the workings on the Nikon digital camera – the semi-pro D70 and D 80 and the amateur D60 and D5000. I spent time with the D70 and if I had a stash of cash I’d be very tempted to buy one with the appropriate lens. (wide angle, telephoto, and macro)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikon_D70
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikon_D80
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikon_D60
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikon_D5000

Wednesday: Sculpting

Vladimir Tatlin, Model for the 3rd International Tower, 1919-1920 (never built)

I continued working on the five models using foam-core and other bits and pieces to construct our models. 1 is all planes, 2 is with planes and a straight line 3 is planes and a curved line 4 is a curved plane with a straight line, 5 is a curved plane with a curved line. The models are self-supporting with no base with components integral to the design.

Article on constructivism in sculpture - http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0HTZ/is_5_130/ai_81219618/

Vladimir Tatlin – most important sculptor of the constructivist movement.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Tatlin

Constructivism - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructivism_(art)

Friday – Printmaking

I worked on the second of three linocuts of my Greek mother-in-law. I also wrote the proposal for my printmaking projects. Not least – I prepared a plate for etching.

Field trip to New York state and New York City

Here is the itinerary for the trip taken this week. Chaperones were the sculpting teacher and the printmaking teacher. Participating were adult students from all three years of the Art Centre program and grades 9-12 high school students who attend the Art Centre.

Donald Kendall (Pepsico) Sculpture Gardens - http://www.sirpepsi.com/pepsi1.htm

Guggenheim Museum - http://www.guggenheim.org/

Chelsea Art District - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelsea,_Manhattan

Noguchi Garden Museum - http://www.noguchi.org/

Socrates Sculpture Park - http://www.socratessculpturepark.org/

Brooklyn Museum - http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/

New Museum - http://www.newmuseum.org/

Hudson River Art Tour - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hudson_River_School
http://faculty.pittstate.edu/~knichols/arttours.html#hudson

Dia:Beacon - http://www.diaart.org/sites/main/beacon

Storm King Art Centre - http://www.stormking.org/

Metropolitan Museum of Art - http://www.metmuseum.org/

Whitney Museum of American Art - http://whitney.org/index.php

Museum of Modern Art - http://www.moma.org/

Upper Manhatten commercial galleries - http://officialsite.com/index.asp?regionid=30&categoryid=4

Images not taken by me are found at http://images.google.ca

Art Centre - September 8 - 18, 2009

2009-09-18T19:45:00.000-07:00

Central Technical School Art Centre:
Year Three: Weeks One and Two
September 8-18, 2009

Monday: Art History

The first week of school started on a Tuesday so we’ve only had one art history class these two weeks. We’ve been given an overview of the course and our main project will be to report on and present a work of art (preferably a painting) by a contemporary artist. My first impulse was to go with one of the Symbolists, Puvis de Chavannes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Puvis_de_Chavannes) or Odilon Redon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odilon_Redon). Then I realized it was a great opportunity to study one of Georgia O’Keeffe’s works in depth. I’ve got a large print of one of her abstract paintings hanging at the foot of my bed.

I’ve also got three books about her and for years I’ve maintained a list of sites about her - http://astralsite.com/georgia/

When I was applying for admission to the Art Centre program I created a little slide show with some of my favourite artists – so it makes sense that I would focus on one of those! http://astralsite.com/Art/Artists/

We viewed a slide show in class giving an overview of art from the 13th century to the current century.

Tuesday: Photography

It seems I’ll have an opportunity to focus on another favourite artist in this class – we’ll be selecting a contemporary photographer to profile and present and my first choice is Annie Leibovitz!
Annie Liebovitz Wikipedia – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annie_Leibovitz Corcoran Gallery Exhibition – http://www.corcoran.org/exhibitions/previous_results.asp?Exhib_ID=190 Monarchy: Annie Liebowitz (2007) – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcnPicsZ6-A PBS: American Masters Series – http://www.pbs.org/previews/am-leibovitz/

In photography class, one of our first activities this year is to learn how to use the digital camera and interchangeable lens to understand wide angle and telephoto lens. We also will be using metering to get the best light resolutions in our images. Because we have been asked to find a sculpture with human scale (and shoot it with 8 different settings), I have been deciding where to go to shoot. Check this site – Toronto sculptures! http://www.dittwald.com/torontosculpture/

Wednesday: Sculpting

“Changing Form” Doris Chase, 1923-2008

In sculpting class we are concentrating on constructivism and abstract works. Our first task is to create five models and from these to select one that will become a larger scale assemblage. We are using foam-core and other bits and pieces to construct our models. 1 is all planes, 2 is with planes and a straight line 3 is planes and a curved line 4 is a curved plane with a straight line, 5 is a curved plane with a curved line. We’ll choose one of the models and make a series with this design. The models must be self-supporting with no base. All components need to be integral to the design – no parts are decorative.

In class we were treated to three carousels of slides of sculptures to identify works that fall into the category of contemporary non-objective totally abstract constructivist sculptures.

Modern Sculpture definitions - http://www.damonart.com/artist-definitions.html
Abstract Sculpture - http://www.damonart.com/index.html

Friday – Printmaking

a lithograph

We have three projects for printmaking and the first for me is lithography (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithography) so I’ve picked out a stone and I’m grinding it in preparation for my rendering. It is a long involved process and happily we are working in pairs to help each other through the experience. I plan to do a portrait of my favourite Greek on my stone.

For my other two projects, I plan to start on the five series of prints (three in a series) on the theme of life in Greece. Ultimately I want to combine all five into an illustrated book (in Greek and English) that will be published as one of my Photography projects using In Design. Three of the series will be done as my independent work this school year.

I’m a Hellenophile (a hellenophile - one who likes all things hellenic and treasures Hellas, which is what the Greeks call Greece.) – here is my Greek page - http://astralsite.com/learn/greek.html
Also I’m refreshing my knowledge of the language with a Greek course online at http://livemocha.com/

I’ve also signed up for Advanced Printmaking one evening a week to have more time working on the printmaking projects I have planned. Here’s my schedule this fall… http://astralsite.com/Schedule-Fall2009.html

Images found at http://images.google.ca

Art Centre - July 13-17, 2009

2009-07-25T09:59:00.000-07:00

Art Centre Summer School July 13-17, 2009

This summer the Art Centre offered a week of classes and I took a printmaking class.
In the third year at the Art Centre, students select one medium for concentration as they prepare their portfolios and produce a body of work to go into the schools’ end of year open house exhibition as well as to the graduating class exhibition.

Before I started the three year program in the fall of 2007, I had an opportunity to take an evening course in printmaking for nine weeks and there I met printmaker and teacher extraordinaire, Dawn Hemmy. She encouraged my decision to come into the adult program at the Art Centre at the Central Technical School here in Toronto and as it turned out, she was the teacher who interviewed me for admission.

In my first year, I had a year long course in printmaking with Dawn as well as her design class. In my second year, Dawn was on sabbatical however, she was available for an advanced class in printmaking in the fall term in the evening and I was in that class as well as taking printmaking from another instructor in the day program.

In year three, in the fall semester, I’ll have printmaking with Dawn again and she has also agreed to be my guide and support teacher for specializing in printmaking (as my chosen medium). I find that so far, this area gives me the greatest range. I can use my skills in photography to capture subjects for inspiration in printmaking. My drawing skills are used to move from the photographic image to the one I want to express in some way of working – for example, scratching on a zinc plate to etch then transforming the print with water colour or gouache. Or finding an image to cut into lino or wood. These are only a few of the possibilities for rendering my ideas into works of art.

Here are examples from the week-long course this summer….

Serigraph - Silk Screen

These two silk screen prints are of my cat, PeepEye. The top image was drawn on the computer in the Windows program, “Paint” using a mouse and the lower one was taken from a 35mm photo that was scanned and traced. The background is an old T-shirt. The silk screen images are from a screen I created in year one printmaking and revisited.

Relief - Woodblock

This is my first ever woodblock and again the subject is PeepEye. The image is from a photograph that I use as a background image on my computer screen.

This is a print made from the woodblock.

Relief - LinoBlock

This is a 12X 12” lino block print. I’ll be using the lino block again in the fall to experiment with variations in how to print – one will involve covering the flowers to print the leaves and border, then reprinting to make the poppies a different colour.

I also plan to print in a pale colour on a dark background then paint the flowers and leaves in contrasting colours.

Intaglio - Etching

My final project of the week was an etching on a zinc plate. The inspiration was a photo of an Amish quilter taken at a Pennsylvania Dutch fair some years ago. Here is the process so far.

The photo

My drawing from the photo

The zinc plate after the etching is scratched on and the plate cleaned.

Two printings of the plate – the next step is to use watercolour and/or gouache to colour the prints for a varied edition. Aquatint is another option to vary the outcome.

And there you have my summer school accomplishments. For the rest of the summer I will be thinking about subjects for series and types of prints I would like to undertake in the fall.

Toronto Outdoor Art Show July 10-12, 2009

2009-07-22T08:08:00.000-07:00

The Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition that ran from July 10-12 was the usual wonderful experience for me. As is my practice the past few years, I surveyed the website for the show and looked at all of the artists sample pieces. For those I found particularly interesting, I went also to tour their website if they had one. And from this I created a list of those I wanted to see in person and possibly chat with about their work. With over 500 artists and only three days in which I am good for about two hours a day, I have to narrow down my preferences.

Here is the site: http://www.torontooutdoorart.org/ and of the artists I put on my list (29 of them) I managed to see and talk with 17 this year. One of them, a printmaker who was making his first appearance at this annual show, won honorable mention in the Awards given. I bought his book, The Point of the Graver and had a long chat with him about his very specialized craft of engraving on the end grain of certain types of wood. http://www.wesleybates.com/ (image above from Wesley’s site)

I group my list of artists in the section colour where they have a booth. Here is my list in case it is of interest to investigate these artists – especially since I have included their website if they have one. I have marked (*) those with whom I had conversations about their work and found them all quite receptive.

MIxed Media (unless otherwise labeled)

9 White - Alice Vander Vennen - http://www.alicevandervennen.ca/
13 White – George Walker - http://www.george-walker.com/ (printmaker)
19 White - Marjolyn van der Hart - http://www.marjolyn.com/
33 White - Paul Roorda - http://www.paulroorda.com/

*602 Yellow - Danielle Hession- http://www.dannyanddani.blogspot.com/ - wonderful use of colour in her paintings
*603 Yellow – Barbara di Lella – (fabric) lovely integration of fabric, embroidery and silk screen and I met her son Jordan whose paintings were in Student Blue North
*06 Yellow – Debra Tate-Sears http://www.debratatesears.com/ (watercolour) WOW! What an incredibly talented artist she is.
*313 Yellow - Janny Fraser – (sculpture) – always impressive assemblages
*620 Yellow - Erin Vincent - http://www.erinvincent.ca/ - great sense of fun – very appealing work in mixed media
641 Yellow - Rui Pimenta - http://www.ruipimenta.com/
643 Yellow - M.A Tateishi - http://www.matart.ca/
646 Yellow - Julie Bell
*673 Yellow – Brian Harvey - http://www.brianharvey.ca/ (painter) oh for money to buy one of his canvases – quite fine painting and he’s a CTS grad
688 Yellow - Caroline Gagnon - http://www.carolinegagnon.com/gallery.html

107 Pink – Karen Kawarsky - http://www.karenkawarsky.com/
*115 Pink – David Brown - http://www.encausticcollage.com/EncausticCollage/home.html

*413 Orange – Laura Kulic - http://www.lauraculic.com/ (painter)
*421 Orange – Dorion Scott – http://dorionscott.com/ – great to see her latest paintings
*427 Orange – Rudolf Kurz – http://rudolfkurz.etsy.com/ (printmaker) intricate and whimsical prints
*428 Orange – Natalia Laluque http://www.natalialaluque.com/
*430 Orange – Shelly Savor - http://www.shelleysavor.com/ (printmaker) my favourite this year! Super little lino block prints.

323 Green - Pam Lostracco
325 Green - Kayvene McJannet - http://www.kayvenemcjannett.com/
329 Green - Kally Williams
* 331 Green – Todd Munro - http://www.toddmunro.com/ (printmaker)
332 Green – James Robert Durant http://www.jamesrobertdurant.com/
374 Green KateLynDigiulio - http://www.katelyndigiulio.com/
380 Green Karoline Varin-Jarkowski http://www.karolinevarin.com/

*524 T. Silva Barbosa - http://www.tsilvabarbosa.com/portfolio/index.html
*550 Turquoise Lori Richards - http://www.loririchards.ca/
*559 Turquoise – Wesley Bates http://www.wesleybates.com/ (printmaker)

*214 Blue South - Joeng-Kwon Gye (former classmate at CTS)

Art Centre: May 25-29, 2009

2009-05-31T08:17:00.000-07:00

Art Centre: May 25-29, 2009
Central Technical School Art Centre:
Year Two: Week Thirty-three

Monday – Art History

The Metamorphosis Project installed in the school lobby.

West Wall – caterpillar and cocoon

East Wall - butterfly

Wednesday Painting Class

Review of semester’s work. Some pieces selected to be exhibited.

Wednesday Photography Class

Mounted work for exhibition.

Photographers presented this semester:
http://astralsite.com/Art/Photographers-09.pdf

Selected black and white photos for assignments in Photography Class
http://astralsite.com/Art/photos09.html

Thursday Sculpting Class

Cultures with figurative sculpture presented:
http://astralsite.com/Art/SculptingPresentations09.pdf

Completed pieces:

PeepEye

Female figure

Ecouche

Gallery 1313 opening with 3rd Year students’ work

http://astralsite.com/Art/Gallery%201313-2009.pdf

Friday Life Drawing Class

Today in class we were preparing the studio for the Open House and exhibition coming next weekend.

“Reverie” the show for the A.C.E.S. or Art Centre Enrichment Students group show – these are graduating high school artists. The space is located at 918 Bathurst Street and was once a Japanese temple. The atmosphere is quite lovely. Work was set up on easels and sculpture stands all around the room. Tables laden with delicious food was located near the front entryway. Students seemed quite pleased with the positive response to their work.

This is also the venue where Contact 918 was featured - http://www.contact918.com/
I had three photos in this show this month as follows:

Garlic

Beachcombing Booty

Kennedy Lake (at dawn)

Coming Up – End of year Open House and Exhibition

Art Centre - May 18-22, 2009

2009-05-23T13:22:00.000-07:00

Art Centre: May 18-22, 2009
Central Technical School Art Centre:
Year Two: Week Thirty-two

Monday – Art History

We were shown a video on the life of J.M. W. Turner

J.M.W. Turner - http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/turner/

Raku firing outside in the school yard.

Wednesday Painting Class

Submitted collage – made up of these images:
http://www.astralsite.com/Art/Painting/studio1a.html
http://www.astralsite.com/Art/Painting/studio2.html
http://www.astralsite.com/Art/Painting/studio3.html
http://www.astralsite.com/Art/Painting/studio4.html

Wednesday Photography Class

Dry mounting of photographs
http://www.inficad.com/~gstewart/photo_mounting_101.htm
Various mounting techniques - http://www.framedestination.com/picture_frame_mounting.html

Shooting 3d art work – notes and demonstration

How to photograph your art –
http://www.dallasartsrevue.com/resources/How-to-Photo-Art.shtml

Thursday Sculpting Class

Presentation: Egyptian Sculpture

Egyptian Museum: sculpture -http://www.egyptianmuseum.gov.eg/collection_sculpture.html

Contemporary artists influenced by Egyptian sculpture

Henry Moore - http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/moore_henry.html

Barbara Hepworth - http://www.tate.org.uk/stives/hepworth/

Alberto Giacometti - http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ArtistWorks?cgroupid=999999961&artistid=1159&page=1

Jiri Netik - http://netik-art.sweb.cz/aindex.htm

Classical Greek Sculpture

Classical Greek Sculpture - http://library.thinkquest.org/23492/index.htm

Contemporary artists influenced by Greek sculpture

Aristide Maillol - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristide_Maillol

Elie Nadelman - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elie_Nadelman

Paul Manship - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Manship

Arno Breker - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arno_Breker

Robert Graham - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Graham_(sculptor)

Friday Life Drawing Class

This was our last drawing class for the year. The next classes will be devoted to preparing the studio for the exhibition. Today we did 10 2-minute gesture drawings and one 40 minute study (in two 20 minute parts). Focus was on contour and diagonal hatching for tone.

(Images from http://images.google.ca/)

Art Centre: May 11-15, 2009

2009-05-15T16:55:00.000-07:00

Art Centre: May 11-15, 2009
Central Technical School Art Centre:
Year Two: Week Thirty-one

Monday – Art History

Sculpture Garden (http://www.torontosculpturegarden.com/) proposals were shown and discussed.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti, "Proserpine" (1877)

The Pre-Raphaelites - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre_Raphaelite

Romantic Musicians and Writers
Alfred Lord Tennyson - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Lord_Tennyson
William Wordsworth - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Wordsworth
John Keats - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Keats
Percy Bysshe Shelley - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percy_Bysshe_Shelley
William Blake - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_blake
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozart
Joseph Haydn - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haydn
Frederic Chopin - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chopin
Franz Lizst - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lizst
Pyotr IlyichTchaikovsky - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tchaikovsky

Wednesday Painting Class

Critique of more paintings done at home – mine is now finished and entered in the watercolour contest here at school.

Work on new assignment – a painting that illustrates a view of the Art Centre. Here’s my subject…

Wednesday Photography Class

Presentations on photographers - Photographers presented today:

Duane Michals - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duane_Michals

Jerry Uelsmann - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Uelsmann

Thursday Sculpting Class

Websites for sculptors:

Hanneke Beaumont - http://www.hanneke-beaumont.com/
Stepping Forward - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qr6uhjEtSQ0

Juan Munoz - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_MuÃ±oz
The Last Conversation Piece - http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5802081218918376476
Tate Shots - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8xrjA6-0zI

Presentation: African Empires

National Museum of African Art - http://africa.si.edu/exhibits/tradition1.html

Contemporary Sculptors with African influence

Amedeo Modigliani - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amedeo_Modigliani
Pablo Picasso - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pablo_Picasso
Alberto Giacometti - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giacometti
Constantin Brancusi - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brancusi

Worked on ecorche - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ÃcorchÃ©

Friday Life Drawing Class

Albrecht Durer – My Agnes

Cross contour drawing – with a model.
Nine 2-minute gesture drawings, four 5-minute cross contour drawings and one
40-minute cross contour drawing (in two parts)

Links:

What is cross contour drawing - http://drawsketch.about.com/od/drawinglessonsandtips/ss/crosscontour.htm

Cross contour drawings 1-5 - http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/nlewis/drawing/drawwork/xcontour2.html

Cross contour drawing exercise (an apple) on video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7pspVdTvOU

Cross Contour drawing tutorial - http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=463334

Cross Contour Drawing - http://www.paintonmycanvas.com/drawing_lessons/cross_contour_drawing

Cross contour drawings – good examples - http://www.udel.edu/artfoundations/drawing/crosscontour.html

(Images from http://images.google.ca/)

Art Centre: May 4-8, 2009

2009-05-08T18:14:00.000-07:00

Art Centre: May 4-8, 2009
Central Technical School Art Centre:
Year Two: Week Thirty

Monday – Art History

Art History Movements - http://www.huntfor.com/arthistory/
History of Art – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_art

Wednesday Painting Class

Critique of paintings done at home – mine is not finished and work continues.

New assignment – a painting that illustrates a view of the Art Centre.

Wednesday Photography Class

Presentations on photographers – Photographers presented today:

Paul Strand
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Strand
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/pstd/hd_pstd.htm

Ansel Adams
http://www.anseladams.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ansel_Adams

How to shoot art for your portfolio – a demonstration.

Thursday Sculpting Class

Presentations:

Etruscan Art - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etruscans

Oceania Culture - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oceania

Chinese Sculpture - http://arts.cultural-china.com/en/69Arts1814.html
Buddhist Sculpture - http://www.ckchancollection.net/

Friday Life Drawing Class

We had a model and two classes were combined – 10 2-minute gesture drawings, a half dozen 10-minute drawings where the objective was to do constructive drawing showing volume.

(Images from http://images.google.ca/)

Oceania Culture - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oceania

Chinese Sculpture - http://arts.cultural-china.com/en/69Arts1814.html
Buddhist Sculpture - http://www.ckchancollection.net/

Friday Life Drawing Class

We had a model and two classes were combined – 10 2-minute gesture drawings, a half dozen 10-minute drawings where the objective was to do constructive drawing showing volume.

(Images from http://images.google.ca/)

Art Centre: April 27 - May 1, 2009

2009-05-02T15:29:00.000-07:00

Art Centre: April 27-May 1, 2009
Central Technical School Art Centre:
Year Two: Week Twenty-nine

Monday – Art History

Work being done for ongoing projects plus two more culture posters presented. One on Reggae and Rastafarians featured oil drum lid art – wow! I looked around the Web but couldn’t find any examples.

Wednesday Painting Class

Critique of still life of paintbrushes, etc.
Drawing of set up with shape states.

Paintings so far – both unfinished…

Wednesday Photography Class

Presentations on photographers – Photographers presented today:

Alfred Stieglitz
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Stieglitz
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/stieglitz_a.html

Edward Steichen
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Steichen
http://www.staleywise.com/collection/steichen/steichen.html

Man Ray
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_Ray
http://www.manraytrust.com/

Thursday Sculpting Class

Glazes on plaster pieces demonstrated.

Working on musculature - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muscle
http://www.innerbody.com/image/musfov.html

Presentation: African Tribal Art

Kuossi fetish

http://www.vub.ac.be/BIBLIO/nieuwenhuysen/african-art/

Contemporary Artists whose work reflects African sculptural style

Constantin Brancusi - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantin_BrÃ¢ncuÅi

Elizabeth Catlett - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Catlett

Friday Life Drawing Class

We had a model but only two of us in class – 10 2-minute gesture drawings, 2 10-minute drawings and 2 20-minute drawings. Below is one of my 20 minute drawings.

Classmates went to Buffalo to enjoy ART!

The Albright Knox Art Gallery featuring Abstract Impressionism - http://www.albrightknox.org/

Jackson Pollock

The Burchfield-Penney Art Centre –
http://www.yournewburchfieldpenney.com/

Anthony J. Sisti – Frozen Assets

(Images from http://images.google.ca/)

Art Centre: April 20 - 24, 2009

2009-04-26T14:45:00.000-07:00

Art Centre: April 20-24, 2009
Central Technical School Art Centre:
Year Two: Week Twenty-eight

Monday – Art History

The Power of Art series - http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/powerofart/
We watched the episode devoted to the neo-classical artist David with special focus on his painting of the Death of Marat.

Continued work on the Sculpture Garden Project. http://www.torontosculpturegarden.com/

Wednesday Painting Class

Continuing on with still life of paintbrushes, etc.

Wednesday Photography Class

Presentations on photographers – Photographers presented today:

Sebastian Salgado

http://issuu.com/blackog/docs/sebastian_selgado_photos

http://www.masters-of-photography.com/S/salgado/salgado_covers_full.html

Diane Arbus

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diane_Arbus

http://www.artphotogallery.org/02/artphotogallery/photographers/diane_arbus_01.html

Robert Frank

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Frank

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Pimx0_oOM0s
(part 1 of 3)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u89KFNixHkU&feature=related
(part 2 of 3)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=uRcJvLkd9Ng&feature=related
(part 3of 3)

Thursday Sculpting Class

Sculpture Drawings:
http://gemutlichkeit.org/html/sketching_drawing_tutorial/drawing_strategies/sculpture_drawings.htm

Presentation: Ancient Inuit Art

http://www.virtualmuseum.ca/English/Teacher/inuit_history.html

http://www.houston-north-gallery.ns.ca/inuit_art_is_special.htm

http://www.ancientnations.com/arctic.html

http://www.athropolis.com/links/inuit.htm

Artists with figurative sculptures reflecting the Inuit sculptures:

Henry Moore - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Moore

Alexander Archipenko http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Archipenko

Pablo Picasso http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pablo_Picasso

Friday Life Drawing Class

recommended text

Drawing volume (constructive drawing) links:

http://www.amazon.ca/Bridgmans-Life-Drawing-George-Bridgman/dp/0486227103

constructive drawing - http://www.notions2motion.com/index.php?itemid=87

(Images from http://images.google.ca/)

Art Centre: April 13-17, 2009

2009-04-17T19:14:00.000-07:00

Art Centre: April 13-17, 2009

Central Technical School Art Centre:
Year Two: Week Twenty-seven

Monday – Art History Class

Still Life Set Up and more - http://painting.about.com/od/artsupplies/ig/Photos-Artist-Studios/Studio-Cairomum3.htm

Still Life - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Still_life

Wednesday Photography Class

Presentations on photographers – Photographers presented today:

Picasso with Umbrella - Robert Capa

Robert Capa - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Capa

Impact in Black and White - W. Eugene Smith

W. Eugene Smith - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Eugene_Smith

Virginia, Emmett and Jessie - Sally Mann

Sally Mann - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sally_Mann

Thursday Sculpting Class

Presentation: Pacific Northwest Coastal Native Sculpture

History of the Northwest Coast - http://www.hallman.org/indian/.www.html

Northwest Indian Art - http://www.native-languages.org/northwest.htm

Spirit of Haida Guaii - http://www.freespiritgallery.ca/spirithaida.htm

Spirits of the West Coast Gallery - http://www.spiritsofthewestcoast.com/

Artic Raven Gallery - http://www.arcticravengallery.com/northwest/northwest_art.html

Bill Reid - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Reid

Christian White – http://www.spiritwrestler.com/catalog/index.php?artists_id=45

Susan Point - http://www.susanpoint.com/

Two Artists with figurative sculptures reflecting the native sculptures:

Henry Moore - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Moore

Henry Moore at Kew - http://www.kew.org/henry-moore/explore/

Max Ernst - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Ernst

Max Ernst Masterpiece - http://www.maxernstmasterpiece.com/

Friday Life Drawing Class

In class - drawing portraits

How to Draw the Face - http://www.portrait-artist.org/face/index.html

Pencil Portrait Drawing - http://www.artyfactory.com/portraits/

Drawing Portraits - http://www.drawingcoach.com/drawing-portraits.html

Portrait Drawing - http://drawsketch.about.com/od/drawingportraits/Portrait_Drawing_Drawing_Faces.htm

(Images from http://images.google.ca/)

Art Centre: April 6-10, 2009

2009-04-11T13:29:00.000-07:00

Art Centre: April 6-10, 2009
Central Technical School Art Centre:
Year Two: Week Twenty-six

Monday – Art History

Street Art

Art Intervention project – work-in-progress in class

Wikipedia on Art Intervention
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_intervention
Public Art as Social Interventions Symposium - http://hybrid.concordia.ca/~dart_projects/publicart/

Wednesday Painting Class

Still Life Painting

Oil painting of a still life arrangement

Still Life oil painting - http://www.1art.com/still-life.htm
Oil painting videos - http://video.google.ca/videosearch?source=ig&hl=en&rlz=1G1GGLQ_ENCA268&q=oil+painting+still+life&lr=&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=z-PgSYflLYHlnQesocSvCQ&sa=X&oi=video_result_group&resnum=8&ct=title

Wednesday Photography Class

Presentations on photographers – Photographers presented today:

Self-portrait – Margaret Bourke-White

Margaret Bourke-White http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Bourke-White
Margaret Bourke-White Biography - http://www.lkwdpl.org/wihohio/bour-mar.htm

Behind Saint-Lazare Station – Cartier-Bresson

Henri-Cartier-Bresson - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Cartier-Bresson
Foundation Henri Cartier-Bresson - http://www.henricartierbresson.org/index_en.htm

Civil War Soldier– Brady

Matthew Brady - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathew_Brady
Who is Matthew Brady - http://www.mathewbrady.com/

Thursday Sculpting Class

Presentations: Archaic Greek & India

Archaic Greek - http://www.greeklandscapes.com/greece/athens_museum_archaic.html
Greek Art in the Archaic Period - http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/argk/hd_argk.htm
Greek Figure Sculpture - http://www.arthist.umn.edu/aict/html/ancient/grfig.html

India Sculpture at the Victoria and Albert Museum - http://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/asia/galleries/47b/index.html
Sculpture in India - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_sculpture
India’s Sculpture - http://www.asianinfo.org/asianinfo/india/pro-sculpture.htm

No Friday Life Drawing Class (Good Friday)

(Images from http://images.google.ca/)

Art Centre: March 30 – April 3, 2009

2009-04-04T15:10:00.000-07:00

Art Centre: March 30 – April 3, 2009
Central Technical School Art Centre:
Year Two: Week Twenty-five

Monday – Art History

The Swing - Fragonard

Rococo - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rococo

Antoine Watteau - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antoine_Watteau
Francois Boucher - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FranÃ§ois_Boucher
William Hogarth - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Hogarth
Jean-Honore Fragonard - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-HonorÃ©_Fragonard
Thomas Gainsborough - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Gainsborough

Wednesday Painting Class

Discussion and demo: Using vine charcoal, selecting a composition with the still life set up and finding tonal values. Short class – time to sketch out the still life set up and begin to block in paint.

Wednesday Photography Class

Presentations on photographers – Photographers presented today:

Carrousel – Atget

Eugene Atget - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EugÃ¨ne_Atget

Stripper – Weegee

WeeGee - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weegee

Also – created a contact sheet of self-portrait pictures.

Thursday Sculpting Class

No sculpting class this week. These days we are working on a project that requires knowledge of the human body so I went to Science City and bought a model skeleton – unfortunately they were out of musculature charts.

Friday Life Drawing Class

Two classes combined and with no model showing up for either class, the teachers modeled for gesture and for contour drawings.

Gesture Drawing - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gesture_drawing
Gesture Drawing Lesson - http://www.ndoylefineart.com/gesture3.html
What is Gesture Drawing? - http://drawsketch.about.com/od/drawinglessonsandtips/ss/gesturaldrawing.htm

Art Centre: March 23-27, 2009

2009-03-28T11:23:00.000-07:00

Art Centre: March 23-27, 2009
Central Technical School Art Centre:
Year Two: Week Twenty-four

Monday – Art History

The Dutch Masters and Mannerism were covered by Power Point and video.

Links for Dutch Masters:

Franz Hals - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frans_Hals
Jacob Ruisdael - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_Ruisdael
Johannes Vermeer - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vermeer
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rembrandt

Links for Mannerism:

We were also shown a video on public art – “Street Light” and artists who have works in Vancouver were interviewed, their work discussed.

Public Art - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_art
Toronto Public Art - http://www.toronto.ca/culture/public_art.htm

Wednesday Painting Class

Discussion and demo: Shape states and tonal study. Short class – time for one drawing.

Links:

Using light and shade - http://drawsketch.about.com/cs/pencilgraphite/a/tonal_drawing.htm
Shading and tonal values - http://www.everyone-can-draw.com/shading-one.html

Wednesday Photography Class

Picasso by Penn

Presentations on photographers – Photographers presented today:

Irving Penn - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irving_Penn
Hiro - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiro_(photographer)
Helmut Newton - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helmut_Newton
Julia Margaret Cameron - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_Margaret_Cameron
Imogen Cunningham - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imogen_Cunningham

Thursday Sculpting Class

Presentations on Sculpting – Figurative work in various eras and contemporary sculptors whose work reflects those eras – Presented today:

Japanese sculpture - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_sculpture
Medieval Sculpture - http://www.newyorkcarver.com/museum.htm

Friday Life Drawing Class

The focus was on contour. After the teacher posed for twenty minutes, several class members took turns sitting for an average of ten minutes. A critique of drawings was also conducted.

Links:

Line Contour Drawing - http://www.mmwindowtoart.com/foundations/foundationslinecontour.html
Intro to Contour Drawing - http://drawsketch.about.com/cs/drawinglessons/a/contourdrawing.htm

Art Centre: March 9-13, 2009

2009-03-14T19:10:00.000-07:00

Art Centre: March 9-13, 2009
Central Technical School Art Centre:
Year Two: Week Twenty-three

Monday – Art History

Baroque power point dominated the class time. That and examples of the cultural art, music and style poster due soon. Two of us have done exactly the same era – The Sixties, Peter Max and the Beatles. Had discussions about my proposals for the Sculpture Garden and for the Intervention Project (with a partner).

Baroque Links
Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baroque
WebMuseum - http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/glo/baroque/
ArtLex.com - http://www.artlex.com/ArtLex/b/baroque.html
WorldWide Art Resources - http://wwar.com/masters/movements/baroque.html

youtube videos: There are numerous – here are a few….
Baroque Art - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kDg9PZvwXs
Baroque and Rococo Art - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-a-PYpfqV8&feature=related
Essential Baroque - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5HFNvi3ZwU&feature=related
Gianlorenzo Bernini - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GX0KOPcMC3Y&feature=related
Caravaggio - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYstF1ohbA0&feature=PlayList&p=F80178CE16ED989F&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=3

Rembrandt Himself - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKc-EDHwGN8&feature=PlayList&p=F80178CE16ED989F&index=5

Wednesday Painting Class

This is the composition of the setup that I worked on in class. After the break we’ll begin to block in the composition with paint.

Links:
http://emptyeasel.com/art-tutorials/ - painting and drawing tips

We were shown a number of examples by the great Spanish painter, Sarolla.

Joaquin Sarolla - http://www.saint-andre.com/thoughts/sorolla.html
Wikipedia on Sarolla - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JoaquÃn_Sorolla_y_Bastida

Wednesday Photography Class

Presentations on photographers – Photographers presented so far…..

Nadar - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nadar_(photographer)
Eadweard Muybridge - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eadweard_Muybridge
Philippe Halsman - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippe_Halsman
Arnold Newman - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnold_Newman
Robert Doisneau - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Doisneau

Thursday Sculpting Class

Presentations on Sculpting – Figurative work in various eras and contemporary sculptors whose work reflects those eras – Presented so far…

Baroque - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baroque_sculpture
Pre-Columbian - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-Columbian_art
Cycladic - http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/ecyc/hd_ecyc.htm
Celtic - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celtic_art

Here are the notes for putting a base on the hydracal sculpture head and the pictures of the process.
Notes: http://astralsite.com/Art/sculpture-base.pdf
Pictures http://astralsite.com/Art/waste-mold4.html

Friday Life Drawing Class

These are the drawings produced in class.

2 minute gesture drawings

three 20-minute studies

Next week – March Break and the blog will be back the following week.

Art Centre: March 2-6, 2009

2009-03-06T19:02:00.000-08:00

Art Centre: March 2-6, 2009
Central Technical School Art Centre:
Year Two: Week Twenty-two

On Sick Leave this week

Looking for some R&R to combat the winter blahs? Try my SPA.
http://astralsite.com/SPA/index.html

Art Centre: February 27, 2009

2009-02-27T18:54:00.000-08:00

Art Centre: February 23-27, 2009
Central Technical School Art Centre:
Year Two: Week Twenty-two

Tuesday – Art History

Annunciation – Leonardo da Vinci

High Renaissance Resources
http://www.huntfor.com/arthistory/renaissance/highren.htm

Web Gallery of Art: Northern Renaissance – Directory of Artists
http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/bio/r/raphael/biograph.html

Web Museum, Paris: The Italian Renaissance
http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/tl/it-ren/

ThinkQuest: Famous Artists of the Italian Renaissance
http://library.thinkquest.org/2838/artgal.htm

Italian Renaissance Architecture
http://rubens.anu.edu.au/htdocs/surveys/italren/renarch/

Spark Notes on the Renaissance – numerous topics
http://www.sparknotes.com/history/european/renaissance1/summary.html

Wednesday – Painting in the morning

No teacher today so classmates took turns acting the model for drawing.

Wednesday - Photography in the afternoon

Schedule given for Photographer presentations
Tutorial for using Power Point given in the computer lab.

Power Point Tutorials online
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/training/CR100654571033.aspx

Thursday – Sculpting

Mounting the cast head on a stand – demonstration
Hopefully notes and photos of the demo to come.

Friday - Life Drawing

Drawing with a model.

Advice on being an artist’s model
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A593138

Wikipedia on Models
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model_(art)

(Art Images from http://images.google.ca/
Original Graphic by S. Karsten)

Art Centre: February 16-20

2009-02-20T20:33:00.000-08:00

Art Centre: February 16-20, 2009
Central Technical School Art Centre:
Year Two: Week Twenty-one

Tuesday – Art History/Drawing

We were shown a slide show on Early Renaissance as well as a few online video clips.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renaissance

Wednesday – Painting in the morning

This week the focus was on drawing shapes and using values

http://www.wikihow.com/Category:Drawing-Shapes-and-Forms

Wednesday - Photography in the afternoon

I got help from a classmate on my dodging and burning assignment.

Taking better photos in black and white:
http://www.betterphoto.com/exploring/bnw.asp

Thursday – Sculpting

We were given an introduction to anatomy and the skeletal system of humans in preparation for the semester’s projects. There was also a brief demonstration of repairing hydracal models after their removal from the waste mold.

Excellent drawing of bones and muscles taken from artists’ books on anatomy –
http://blog.glimbit.com/2007/07/09/bones-and-muscles/

Friday – Life Drawing

We had a model today and the focus was on construction lines, ellipses to build the shape of the body and contour lines as we did gesture drawings and blind contours.

http://drawsketch.about.com/od/figuredrawing/ss/figurecontour.htm
http://drawsketch.about.com/cs/figuredrawing/a/fig_proportion.htm

(Images from http://images.google.ca/)

Art Centre: February 9-13, 2009

2009-02-14T18:01:00.000-08:00

Art Centre: February 9-13, 2009
Central Technical School Art Centre:
Year Two: Week Twenty

Tuesday – Art History/Drawing

We were shown a video on the Gothic period, “Light in the Darkness” part of a well-done series on art history – not sure of the name of the series. There was time after that to talk with the teacher (and classmates) about the numerous projects in progress.

Wednesday – Painting in the morning

I was impressed with the instruction and guidance given in the class this week. We were drawing simple shapes set up on a platform. We were shown how to place the easel, how to hold the charcoal or conte, and an effective way to move quickly from one object to another capturing spatial relationships.

http://www.learn-to-draw-and-paint.com/drawing-basic-forms.html

Wednesday - Photography in the afternoon

After last week’s long session in the dark room, I didn’t feel inspired to get going on my dodging and burning assignment. I did get suggestions from the teacher as to which shots would likely work well and I was shown some excellent examples.

Thursday – Sculpting

No demonstrations this week allowed everyone time to work on their waste molds. I unwrapped both my classmate head and fusion head and placed them so that when dry, they can be broken up and the clay recycled. I worked on a very small head of my cat. I also had an opportunity to ask questions related to my research on Tribal North American West Coast sculptural art.

I’ve been spending a lot of time looking for 20th Century sculptors. In the process I have discovered a few sites that may be helpful to others working on their research.

PBS series on 72 featured American artists - http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/index.html
Wikipedia American Sculptors - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:American_sculptors
21st C. Briitish Sculptors - http://www.sculpture.org.uk/
9th and 20th C. European sculptors - http://www.sculpture.org.uk/
Masters of 20th Century Figure Sculpture - http://www.ilovefiguresculpture.com/masters/masters20.html

Friday – PD day for teachers – no class

(Images from http://images.google.ca/)

Art Centre: February 2-6, 2009

2009-02-06T19:21:00.000-08:00

Art Centre: February 2-6, 2009
Central Technical School Art Centre:
Year Two: Week Nineteen

Tuesday – Art History/Drawing

We were loaded with assignments and projects for the semester ahead. A power point on Gothic period was shown. The first due date is for the Gothic Aesthetic Project. Here are some links to get started. Our teacher is on Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/people/Dustin-Garnet/506195725

Wikipedia: Gothic Art –
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gothic_art
Metropolitan Museum Timeline - http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/mgot/hd_mgot.htm
Gothic Art and Architecture –
http://history-world.org/gothic_art_and_architecture.htm
Art History Resources on the Web: Gothic Art –
http://witcombe.sbc.edu/ARTHgothic.html
OK Arts: Gothic Painting –
http://ok-arts.blogspot.com/2006/10/gothic-painting.html

Wednesday – Painting in the morning

A short class as there was a lecture given to all art students mid-morning. Our teacher covered supplies needed for drawing which will be the main part of the course and for painting which we will get to now and then. Our teacher has a website gallery - http://www.michaelgerry.ca/

Wednesday - Photography in the afternoon

Happily one of my classmates kindly offered to guide me through the contrast assignment. It took us about two hours to produce an original 4x5 print then three prints with magenta filters and three with yellow filters, matching a section of the original photo in the mid-tone area.

Thursday – Sculpting

A new presentation project was outlined and dates were set for each of these. We were given a demonstration for retrieving the hydracal version of the sculpted head from the mold. Notes are here: http://astralsite.com/Art/breakmold.pdf
Accompanying pictures of the process are here:
http://astralsite.com/Art/waste-mold3.html
Our sculpting teacher has a brief biography online - http://www.cansculpt.org/memberDetails.php?id=92&fn=Richard&ln=McNeill

Friday – Life Drawing

A very challenging setup today – a model of a horse in white plastic was perched on the body of a cello that was placed on an old carpet. Pink fabric was draped around one end of the cello. Our drawing teacher has a website gallery - http://www.lanny.ntcreate.com/

Art Centre: January 26-30, 2009

2009-01-30T18:14:00.000-08:00

Art Centre: January 26-30, 2009
Central Technical School Art Centre:
Year Two: Week Eighteen

This week we had the last of the presentation/exams for the fall semester classes.
Our new term began on Friday the 30th (go figure) with Life Drawing class.

In the new term, we will have classes Tuesday through Friday as follows:
Here are some resources to get me thinking about the work to come…..

Tuesday – Art History/Drawing

Art History – Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_History
Art History Resources - http://arthistory.about.com/
Art History Movements - http://www.huntfor.com/arthistory/
Metropolitan Museum of Fine Art – Timeline - http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/

Wednesday – Painting in the morning

Painting – Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Painting
Learn How to Paint - http://painting.about.com/

Wednesday - Photography in the afternoon

Photography – Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photography
Photography Lessons - http://photography.about.com/

Thursday – Sculpting

Sculpture – Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sculpture
Toronto Sculpture Garden - http://www.torontosculpturegarden.com/

Friday – Life Drawing

Figure Drawing – Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Figure_drawing
Life Drawing Tips and Lessons - http://drawsketch.about.com/od/figuredrawing/Figure_Drawing_Life_Drawing_Tips_and_Lessons.htm

Today in class we were reminded of what few supplies we will need for this class- primarily lots of newprint and 2B conte crayons. We drew first one cardboard box then two cardboard boxes next to each other. The teacher circulated giving constructive criticism.

Studio Time – Ceramics

Although I am not the best at this subject, I am growing to like it better with my teacher’s encouragement. One of my students at OISE (this semester) has just sent me the link to her uncle’s work as a potter – look at his resume! He was at CTS 1970-73 and created his first pieces in Canada in the same studio we work in.
http://www.kayooyoung.com/

We are now halfway through the three year program here at Central Tech….Stay tuned for another exciting semester at the Art Centre…..

(Images from http://images.google.com/)

Art Centre: January 23, 2009

2009-01-23T21:26:00.000-08:00

Art Centre: January 12-16, 2009

2009-01-18T11:46:00.000-08:00

Art Centre: January 12-16, 2009
Central Technical School Art Centre:
Year Two: Week Seventeen

Monday - Ceramics
My two diffusers (for my final project) went into the kiln for the bisque firing and I glazed them. The final firing won’t happen until next semester. Pictured below – one diffuser with oxide only, one with oxide, clear glaze and broken glass. The final firing will be done in February.

Wednesday - Printmaking

In class I printed four prints from a plate. This is a portrait of my long time friend, actress and social activist, Sandi Ross. We are both Americans who became Canadian citizens in the same ceremony some years ago when Americans could be dual citizens.

Thursday – Sculpting
I completed working on the large fusion head, based on the maquette you may have seen in an earlier blog. With the demonstrations regarding the plaster cast, there was very little time to work on it, but this is the last class and so it is done.

These are the notes so far regarding the waste mold to bring the process up to date. Previous notes can be found in earlier blogs. http://astralsite.com/Art/Sculpting-mold2.pdf and photos of the demonstration are here: http://astralsite.com/Art/mold-fill.html

Thursday – Photography
I missed the explanation for burning and dodging but copied the notes from the board and hope it will all make sense when I try the assignment. Last week we got notes for the contrast assignment – and that one looks to be a challenge as well. I intended to create contact sheets for the last two rolls of film I developed but that will have to wait until studio time next week.

Friday – Computers

The school was closed due to a massive power outage in Toronto.
I continued work on the power point slide show assignment for photography.
(Henri Cartier-Bresson)

Art Centre: January 5-9, 2009

2009-01-09T19:12:00.000-08:00

Art Centre: January 5-9, 2009

Central Technical School Art Centre:

Year Two: Week Seventeen

Monday – Ceramics

Remember this? It’s my design for a diffuser (also known as an aroma lamp). Water goes in the cup shape at the top with drops of aromatic oil and the candle underneath warms this to send a fragrance (for aromatherapy) into the room.

I completed this piece on Monday and it has gone to the kiln room along with my wizard’s hat for the “W” book. Both need to be bisque fired so I can glaze them for the final firing.

I am learning more about “wabi sabi” as it may apply to ceramics. I am aiming for my pieces to have that quality. Here are some links that I have found interesting so far.

Robert Compton Pottery –

http://www.robertcomptonpottery.com/Sales-Wabi-Sabi-%20MasterPage.htm

What is Wabi-Sabi? - http://nobleharbor.com/tea/chado/WhatIsWabi-Sabi.htm

Wabi and Sabi: The Aesthetics of Solitude -

http://www.hermitary.com/solitude/aesthetics.html

Still in the Stream - http://www.stillinthestream.com/files/index.htm

Simply wabi-sabi - http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4191/is_/ai_n10044126

Wabi-sabi and Its Influences – http://www.socyberty.com/Philosophy/Wabi-sabi-and-Its-Influences.310663

Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wabi-sabi

wabi-sabi moments on Youtube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDKYOvUIUDo

Wednesday - Printmaking

In class I printed my four-part narrative monotypes. My theme this semester for all of my printmaking has been water in nature. If you scroll back through the blogs you’ll see the first project was a series of three fountains with water issuing from the mouths of an angel, a lion and a medusa head. The second project completed just before the holidays was a series of three collections of seashells.

My final project is inspired by the life cycle of frogs. I painted on acetate and printed on a very thick water colour paper. Here are pictures of the prints as submitted this week.

1. Frog and Eggs, 2. Tadpole

3. Froglets 4. Mature Frog

Thursday – Sculpting

I continue working on the large fusion head, based on the maquette you may have seen in an earlier blog. The head is a synthesis of styles: a head by contemporary sculptress Elizabeth Fring and from an ancient Egyptian head.

I have one more session ahead of me next week in which to complete the piece.

I’ll be submitting a display board that shows the pieces that inspired me along with the resulting fusion head and summarizes the two styles that have been combined.

Thursday – Photography

I had two rolls of film to process – one on an assignment that calls for charting each shot and experimenting with F-stops. The next assignment has to do with a photo essay on “Who We Are” and I am doing mine on those of us who are collectors.

Friday – Computers

I began work on a power point slide show assignment for photography. We selected a photographer from a list and I was fortunate to get one of my preferred choices – Henri Cartier-Bresson. I believe the most difficult aspect of this project will be narrowing down the number of photographs to show – he shot so many very fine pictures in his long lifetime.

Note: This week I had an email from a painter I know, asking me about the images of art work I have put in my blog. It was quite satisfying to be able to have a communication with someone outside of the school who seems genuinely interested and who has asked me questions about what can be seen there. In all of the time I have kept this blog (since September 2007 when I started school) only one person has clicked on “comment” at the foot of a blog entry to send me a message. This was in the fall when a sculptor living in Great Britain wrote to thank me for some of the resources he found in my blog.

Art Centre: December 15-19, 2008

2008-12-19T18:28:00.000-08:00

Art Centre: December 15-19, 2008

Central Technical School Art Centre:

Year Two: Week Sixteen

Aha! Another week, the week before the Christmas break and I attended only on Monday – finished preparing my wizard hat for first firing. Thursday I continued working on the fusion head and showed my revised illustration board design for the fusion head project. I redid my contact sheet in photography and mounted my pinhole pictures (with help from a classmate). I submitted my second project in Printmaking – have a look!

Printmaking Project II:

Seashell Series of Etchings

Project Theme: Water in Nature

Artist Proof: Three Shells

Artist Proof: Shells and Coral

Artist Proof: Many Shells

Varied Edition Prints 1-3/35

Here are the prints – two versions:

Three shells - Shells and Coral - Many Shells

After the Break

I’ve one more project in both ceramics and printmaking; two more assignments in photography, plaster casts to make in sculpting (and the finished fusion head illustration board), and I’m up to date in computers.

I’m getting ready to teach The Holistic Curriculum in the winter term one evening a week at OISE/UT. And as for the holidays, I’ve done nothing so far…just lights around windows and a wreath. I’m still reading final papers for the fall course I taught (Foundations of Curriculum). And I still have a virus that includes a stuffed up head and coughing and not a lot of energy to think about sending cards and buying presents.

I have a website of links on preparing for Christmas: http://astralsite.com/stuff/PrepXmas.html

One Christmas a few years ago, I traveled back to my home state of Arkansas and visited the Majestic Hotel in Hot Springs, where I lived as a kid – my dad was the manager of this resort hotel. On the trip I also enjoyed seeing friends from graduate school days at the Dallas Theater Center and I stayed overnight with one of my sisters, Carmen. Here are three drawings I did along the way. I call them the Christmas chairs.

Ashley’s church chair - Dallas

Jacque’s chair – Dallas

Carmen’s chair – Lake Kiowa

Please check out my links for the New Year.

http://www.astralsite.com/stuff/NewYears2009.html

Happy Holidays!

Art Centre: December 8-12, 2008

2008-12-12T16:15:00.000-08:00

Art Centre: December 8-12, 2008
Central Technical School Art Centre:
Year Two: Week Fifteen

Something Different!
This week, I was sick and so was my main computer. I attended no classes. And at home, when I did feel well enough to be at a computer, I was at my old Windows 98 machine which is somewhat limited to older (but beloved) programs and versions of software. It is not hooked up to my scanner or either of my printers (one laser for black and white, one colour). So my options regarding this blog are limited. If you follow this blog (and you know who you are) you have some interest either in me and my second wind explorations at art school or you are at the school and like it that I often throw in extra resources related to the projects we are doing there.

Today, (a full moon and the news tells me it is this year’s full moon closest to the earth) I will share what I have been up to this week.

This Week's Resources
I’ve gone through two books (available at the Toronto Public Library - http://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/ ) - I can recommend. I’ve put the resources given in the books on web pages so you can easily go to the links of given artists or to resources found in the books.

Artists' Journals and Sketchbooks: Exploring and Creating Personal Pages - Lynne Perrella – Here are links to artists featured who have web pages and to resources:
http://www.astralsite.com/Art/art-supplies.html

Collage SourceBook: Exploring the Art and Techniques of Collage - Quarry Books 2005
http://www.astralsite.com/Art/collage-books.html

I’ve begun compiling my gallery page with some of the works I’ve completed since I began art school in 2007. Not all are here – with no scanner this week, there are some I’ll be adding once I’ve scanned in pictures of the pieces. http://www.astralsite.com/Art/CTS/gallery.html

Artists I Know
I’ve discovered that two artists I know have self-published books on their artwork and this may be an option you’d like to consider one of these days. The publishing company, Blurb, is certainly worth investigating. It is a way to share, promote and market your artwork by selling a book they help you publish in hard or soft cover. It’s an amazing service and even if you aren’t ready to publish now, you can enjoy seeing who has done so and get examples of their work.

Blurb - http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/

The first artist whose book I’ll recommend is Bob Marchessault who has a long and prolific career as a painter. He typically works out of his studio near Barrie, Ontario where he lives with his wife who is also an artist.
Here is his web site –http://www.sentex.net/~bmarche/

On his web site under News, Bob has a link regarding his book ("Harvest of Light") and here also is a link to his wife’s web site - http://www.teresacullen.com/

The second painter is Richard Tiberius, formerly a professor at the University of Toronto who now lives and paints in Florida. He’s a knife painter and what I like a lot about his book is that he shares stories behind each work. If you go to his web site, http://tiberiusart.com/

Richard also has a link to the publisher, Blurb, and if you put his name in the search box at Blurb, that will take you to his book.

Nothing to do with the books but to do with another artist I know, is a site where I saved pictures of works by Soozi Schlanger. I first met Soozi when I took a sculpting course at night at Central Tech several years ago. Soozi was a student at CTS and later assisted in the sculpture studio. These days, Soozi seems to spend much of her time making music, primarily with her group, Swamperella.

Here is a link to Soozi at Swamparella – http://www.swamperella.com/1band.html and to the work I archived for Soozi on astralsite – these images were used in calendars but are reproductions of actual paintings she produced - http://www.astralsite.com/Soozi/

If you are a fellow student at the Art Centre and you want to start compiling your work in a digital archive like a web page, let me know if I can help. I keep space on my domain and am willing to host your page there if we can negotiate an exchange of some sort. For example, I created the site Chateau-Suisse to market the art work of former classmate, Marie-Louise Rennicks. http://astralsite.com/chateau-suisse

And that’s my news for a week away from classes.

Art Centre: December 1-5, 2008

2008-12-05T12:05:00.000-08:00

Central Technical School Art Centre:

Year Two: Week Fourteen

December 1 - 5, 2008

Monday: Ceramics Class

Submitted my proposal for the final project.

Submitted my “W” Book.

The class looked at and discussed all book and proposal submissions.

A short class session as there was a photographic slide show with a South African photographer for the rest of the morning. He showed pictures from the era of Apartheid and the releasing of Mandala in South Africa, from students he works with in New York City and from street people portraits. Here is a link to additional pictures from the South Africa during the era of Apartheid.

http://www.ic-creations.com/SouthAfrica/Pages/southafricapicturegallery.html

Tuesday Evening: Collage and Assemblage

Collage to explore the life cycle of a frog, my project for the narrative monotype for printmaking class.

Wednesday: Printmaking

Printed 12 prints from the three seashell plates. (plates shown last week)

Monotypes using gelatin video instructions and examples of prints:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZgBkBv8y5s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dy0JG-TEWf8&NR=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klM08NAnPZs&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOsnwUMBuBE&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfUkFc8Fmh0&feature=related

My final project will be three narrative monoprints and I plan to try the gelatin process for printing.

Thursday: Sculpting Class

Continued building my fusion head using the maquette as the model.

Demonstration given for removing the plaster cast or waste mold from the head sculpture. Here are my notes:

Mold Making part 3 – Opening the Plaster Cast

Put the mold containing the sculpture in a tub of warm water. Mold walls should be clean all the way around.

Using a wide spatula and a mallet (to hit the spatula) start at the top corner ( not on top where the registration point is – avoid cutting into registration points around the mold as well). Give the spatula a sharp rap with the mallet. Begin to pour water over the crack to soften the clay within. You need the clay to loosen up and to break the suction.

Again, avoid the registration points and keep pouring water into the cracked mold. This can take time – don’t force it or you could break parts of the mold. The ribs on the outside of the mold can act as handles as you work to free up the armature. Use a wooden tool to carefully dig out the clay. Clean it out manually, eventually with a sponge until perfectly clean – you may want to use a paintbrush but be careful not to let the metal holding the bristles scratch the plaster as you work. The clay goes into reclaim.

Thursday: Photography Class

Made a contact sheet from the film developed in Phohtography studio on Wednesday. This is for Project #3 – Buildings. Friday: Computer Class.

I shot buildings in Mirvish Village including Honest Eds.

No Computer Class on Friday – PD Day.

Art Centre: November 24-28, 2008

2008-11-29T18:13:00.000-08:00

Central Technical School Art Centre:

Year Two: Week Thirteen

November 24-28, 2008

Site worth investigating…

http://www.pbs.org/art21/index.html

Art in the 21^st Century – to date;

72 artists are profiled in this PBS program, "Art:21"

Monday: Ceramics Class

My bowls: warning for the future in glazing – I used coloured slips on the greenware then applied a transparent glaze before the second firing. Most slips washed out (coil bowls and canister) and some turned different colours from what was expected or the colour can barely be seen. In future, I plan to use oxides under glazes (as I did with the wizard hat maquette) I include the maquette of the wizard hat to show results of using an oxide instead.

green glass bowl

coil bowl – two views

vertical coil bowl

star bowl

And from last spring – Demeter Earth Goddess Cannister

And not least – the wizard hat maquette

Tuesday Evening: Collage and Assemblage

More students returned this evening, all working on individual projects. I spent the time with my “W” book for ceramics class.

Wednesday: Printmaking

Three etched plates for my seashell series

Thursday: Sculpting Class

Began building my fusion head using the maquette as the model. A sculpting tool salesman came and many dropped into the studio to purchase from him.

Thursday: Photography Class

This site will remind you of the World Press photo exhibit we explored – there are 500 photos you can click through – the latest in the news. http://www.pixcetera.com/news/latest-news-photos

IN Class - Discussion of F-stops and other numbers regarding depth of field in preparation for the assignment on perspective.

Links are plentiful on this topic – here are a few:

Understanding Depth of Field in Photography -

http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/depth-of-field.htm

Depth of Field - http://www.mir.com.my/rb/photography/fototech/htmls/depth.html

Depth of Field Explained –

http://www.ephotozine.com/article/Depth-of-field-explained

Video: The Power of Depth of Field

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzedefUXARE

Video: Understanding Dept of Field

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfOC_Msb1dI

We also had a demonstration on mounting photographs.

Here’s a tutorial on dry mounting at home -

http://www.inficad.com/~gstewart/photo_mounting_101.htm

Friday: Computer Class

Worked on the surreal teacher assignment using Photoshop. The new Macs were operational and we have CS3 version of Photoshop. I completed the project.

Art Centre: November 17-21, 2008

2008-11-23T17:51:00.000-08:00

Central Technical School Art Centre:

Year Two: Week Twelve

November 17-21, 2008

Monday: Ceramics Class

Nothing to show you yet – my bowls weren’t ready to bring to the studio. I worked on the large version of my wizard’s hat for the W Book.

Tuesday Evening: Collage and Assemblage

Only two of us this evening. The assignment was one piece with nature objects and one with man-made objects. We had a list of materials to use including glue, magazines, paint, nails or screws, wire, etc. Here’s what I have so far:

seascape

close-up of seascape

angel-heart

Thursday: Sculpting Class

Demonstration of part two of making a waste (or production) mold for clay sculptures.

See notes: mold2.pdf

Demo images http://astralsite.com/Art/waste-mold2.html

Thursday: Photography Class

With the help of a classmate, made prints of two of my photos from the Composition Assignment.

Friday: Computer Class

Worked on the t-shirt design using Illustrator.

Art Centre: November 10-14, 2008

2008-11-15T20:19:00.000-08:00

Central Technical School Art Centre: Year Two: Week Eleven November 10-14, 2008

Monday: Ceramics Class
This class was spent in the kiln room, glazing my four blows and the wizard hat maquette. Come back to the blog next week to see images of the work after it has been fired.

List of sites for Artists’ Books given to class:
Canadian Book Binders & Book Arts Guild (see article “The Whatness of Books”) - http://www.cbbag.ca/bkarts.html
Librarie Florence Loewy - http://www.florenceloewy.com
Granary Books - http://www.granarycooks.com
Zyarts/Zybooks - http://zyarts.com/zybooks
Emily Martin & Naughty Dog Press - http://www.emilymartin.com
National Art Library – http://www.nal.vam.ac.uk/artbook.html
University of Idaho Gallery – http://www.ets.uidaho.edu/bookarts

Tuesday Evening: Collage and Assemblage
Only three students this evening. Work continued on collage and assemblage.
I added to last weeks piece and created a companion piece for it. And I did a wood assemblage. To see my accumulated work in this class plus he work of other students – go to
http://astralsite.com/Art/collage.html

Wednesday: Printmaking Class (and Advanced Printmaking Class)
More time spent in paper preparation and in designing a 5 part narrative monotype on the 5 Chinese elements.

Thursday: Sculpting Class
Demonstration of part one of making a waste (or production) mold for clay sculptures.

See notes: Sculpting-mold.pdf
Demo images http://astralsite.com/Art/waste-mold.html

Thursday: Photography Class
Contact sheet created from my roll of film for the Composition Project. Focus was on rule of thirds and curved lines. Consulted with teacher about the shots and which were most successful. Handed in notebook for marking.

Friday: Computer Class
Two projects given out – a t-shirt design and the surreal teacher assignment. We did brainstorming mind maps to come up with ideas for both projects.
How to Mind-Map - http://www.peterrussell.com/MindMaps/HowTo.php

Art Centre: November 3-7, 2008

2008-11-08T20:39:00.000-08:00

Central Technical School Art Centre:
Year Two: Week Ten

November 3-7, 2008

Monday: Ceramics Class

The maquette for a Wizard’s hat.

Tuesday Evening: Collage and Assemblage

My collage for the evening. (And the good news came later –

Barack Obama elected 44^th President of the United States.)

Wednesday: Printmaking Class (and Advanced Printmaking Class)

Prepared new paper for printing my lino blocks. Evening class cancelled due to a fire alarm that wouldn’t turn off.

Thursday: Sculpting Class

More finishing work on the head of my classmate – I’ll create a mold for it next week.

Thursday: Photography Class

Developed my latest roll of film then to the Camera Repair shop to leave my camera – the control switch for the settings needs to be reinstalled.

Friday: Computer Class

No class – teacher involved in commencement for high school students.

Creativity – a few You-Tube videos to view

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_w4AfflmeM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjSjZOjNIJg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_hGQuTjI3U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY

Art Centre: October 27-31, 2008

2008-10-31T19:06:00.000-07:00

Central Technical School Art Centre:

Year Two: Week Nine

October 27-31, 2008

Monday: Ceramics Class

Working on my “W” Book project – a book about Women Wizards!

Deepak Chopra says “A wizard exists in all of us. This wizard sees and knows everything. The wizard is beyond opposites of light and dark, good and evil, pleasure and pain. Everything the wizard sees has its roots in the unseen world. Nature reflects the mood of the wizard. The body and the mind may sleep, but the wizard is always awake. The wizard possesses the secret of immortality.”

See his Way of the Wizard Video – (68 minutes)

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3313968958314441665

Tuesday Evening: Collage and Assemblage (did not attend)

Wednesday: Printmaking Class (and Advanced Printmaking Class)

Printed my three fountain blocks – not happy with the results so plan to redo them using a different paper.

Thursday: Sculpting Class

We completed the building the head of a classmate – we’ll create a mold for it next week.

Making a clay mold:

http://www.expertvillage.com/video/42819_clay-sculpturing-dies-importance.htm

I submitted my fusion head maquette for bisque firing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maquette

Thursday: Photography Class

I completed work on the World Press Photo Exhibition project. To see the winning photos in the exhibition – here’s the link –

http://www.worldpressphoto.org/index.php?option=com_photogallery&task=blogsection&id=18&Itemid=187&bandwidth=high

Friday: Computer Class

Photoshop tutorials continue – this week, masks and channels.

Links to tutorials on the Web:

http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/photoshoptutorialsselect/Working_with_Masks_and_Making_Selections_in_Photoshop.htm

http://www.photoshopsupport.com/tutorials/colin/masking-images.html

http://www.graphic-design.com/Photoshop/tutorials/0402-09.html

Art Centre: October 20-24, 2008

2008-10-27T04:49:00.000-07:00

Central Technical School Art Centre:
Year Two: Week Eight
October 20-24, 2008

Monday: Ceramics Class

Glazing: We had a review of the essentials of glazing today. I glazed the goddess canister I created last spring, this being the only bisque fired piece of mine ready for glazing. Next week, my four bowls may be ready for glazing.

Links:

Wikipedia on ceramic glazing - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceramic_glaze

Ceramics Guide - http://www.fantes.com/ceramics.html

Claystation.com’s glaze recipes - http://www.claystation.com/technical/glazestation/glazelinks.html

NationMaster Encyclopedia on Ceramic Glazes -

http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Ceramic-glaze

Youtube Videos on Glazing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1bahCKaqAs&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNNfc60p92c&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQcP5pq11ME&NR=1

There are more videos - these are among the more appealing ones I found.

Tuesday Evening: Collage and Assemblage

Bitterly cold classroom limited the activity. I created two small pieces as we moved into assemblage.

Composition and Collage Design Videos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBZF7KdNAWc&feature=related

How to Create a Collage: Establish a Theme – (watch in high quality)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SD2gM-7GfCg&feature=related

Assemblage Art Videos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLJJRElr_D4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUfhL1IhHo0&feature=related

Wednesday: Printmaking Class (and Advanced Printmaking Class)

Completed the cutting of my three zinc plates on sea shells. Gave them their acid baths (15 minutes total) and tore paper to print this series. Here are my current lino blocks, ready to print.

Thursday: Sculpting Class

We continue building the head of a classmate.

Thursday: Photography Class

Developed my contact sheet at 30 seconds and again at 50 seconds. The second result was the best. My classmates were very supportive and helpful with this and with developing my first print from the negatives associated with this contact sheet.

I continue working on the World Press Photo Exhibition project.

Friday: Computer Class

NO class this week (PD Day) so I collected four more female images to use in the Wizard project I’m working on. Hillary Clinton, Oprah Winfrey, Barbara Walters and Queen Elizabeth.

Art Centre: October 13-17, 2008

2008-10-19T11:17:00.000-07:00

Central Technical School

Art Centre:Year Two: Week Seven

October 13-17, 2008

Monday: Ceramics Class

I finished my fourth and final bowl using a plastic bowl and cheesecloth as the mold. Three of the bowls have been painted with various colours of slip. As soon as they are dry I’ll take the to the kiln room to be fired.
We were given an exciting new project for ceramics – an artists book featuring a letter of the alphabet. The class brainstormed words for each letter drawn to work with. I have the letter W.

Tuesday Evening: Collage and Assemblage

Our third assignment: photo collages. I brought along a a few magazines, an old Yahoo magazine, an Entertainment Special and two Premiere magazines. I developed two collages over the two and a half hours I was in class. The first and largest featured a male diver in a swan dive with a host of various characters witnessing his feat – I call it “Showing Off”. The second had great masses of various types of hair with a centre face in a frozen and fanged scream: “Bad Hair Day”.
Wednesday: Printmaking Class (and Advanced Printmaking Class)

Continued on with my lino blocks for the three fountains series. They have been test printed and require much more cutting and refining. I continued with this through both classes this week.
Block printing is an ancient art – here is a link to woodblock printing:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodblock_printing
and a YouTube video on the art:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNgAS3Wm4E8

Thursday: Sculpting Class

We were introduced to the sculptors – Midardo Rosso and Isamu Noguchi.
http://www.medardorosso.org/
http://www.noguchi.org/
We continue building the head of a classmate. Our skulls were ranked and mine was close to being the least effective.

Thursday: Photography Class

The challenge this week was to first do a test strip to determine the time required for the optimum results for our images. First we cut the negatives into short strips (five photos in a strip) and placed them in a clear plastic sheet with sleeves. This sheet was used with a strip of photo paper in the testing under the enlarger light. The next stage was to develop the contact sheet – my time was determined to be about 30 seconds of exposure however, I was not successful with developing my contact sheet – I’ll have another go at this next week.
We were given our next assignments which includes going to the World Press Photo Exhibition at BCE place. This is the website: http://www.worldpressphoto.org/?bandwidth=high – and we are going to see the winners of the 2008 competition to answer questions.

Friday: Computer Class

In class we did an activity that helped us review what we have learned to date. I began work on my “W” book for ceramics and got a great idea for it from my computer instructor. I located an image of a wizard with a palette and paint brush and had been working to make it a female figure. The suggestion came that I use an iconic artist for the face and I developed an image of the painter Georgia O’Keeffe then moved on to develop one for photographer Annie Leibowitz. I plan to add a few more powerful women figures in the collection of female “wizards”.

Georgia O’Keeffe links - http://astralsite.com/georgia/

Annie Leibowitz links - http://astralsite.com/annie/

Art Centre: October 6-10, 2008

2008-10-12T12:39:00.000-07:00

Central Technical School

Art Centre:Year Two:

Week Six October 6-10, 2008

Monday: Ceramics Class

I made my third bowl using a plastic bowl and cheesecloth to line it. I put in a coiled bottom and built the sides of short coils side by side all the way around. On Thursday in studio, I’ll build my fourth and final bowl using a slab over the outside of a cheesecloth covered plastic bowl. By the end of the week, I’ll have my four bowls with various colours of slip painted on three of them.

Tuesday Evening: Collage and Assemblage

Blues Take Flight

Our second assignment: colour collages. I brought along a collection of paper and ribbon and feathers. The teacher had a large collection of fabric and paper as well. I went with my first inspiration which was to use only blue in my collage and I first assembled everything that was blue, then narrowed it down to those that would serve the theme I chose, “Blues Take Flight”. I spent two hours with this project and was satisfied in the end.

Links for Collage:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collage
http://www.collageart.org/
http://www.artlex.com/ArtLex/c/collage.html
http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Collage
http://www.art-e-zine.co.uk/norcoltut.html
http://www.ehow.com/how_2045517_make-collage.html

Wednesday: Printmaking Class (and Advanced Printmaking Class)

Continued on with my lino blocks for the three fountains series. They are nearly ready for test printing.

In my evening class, Advanced Printmaking, I bought a new 6X6” zinc plate, covered it with hard ground and transferred the image of my actress friend, Sandi Ross to the plate for scratching. I completed scratching the first of the shell plates and it is ready to be inked and printed.

Thursday: Sculpting Class

We were introduced to a another website – this one has the sculptures of California sculptor, Robert Graham

Brooke Shields by Robert Graham

Links for Robert Graham:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Graham_(sculptor)
http://www.robertgrahamsculptor.com/
http://www.artnet.com/artist/634288/robert-graham.html

We continue working with clay, building the head of a classmate. Our lips (after the model taken from the statue of David by Michelangelo) were ranked and I was in a group close to the least effective this time. Next our skulls will be ranked and because I worked only one (not two classes) on this, it may also join the lower echelons of student work.

Thursday: Photography Class

In class this week I was lucky to work with two partners who were very helpful. After our rolls of film were spooled and locked into the canister, we put the film through the various stages of processing. First came the developer, then the stop and next the fix and finally running water. The film was hung in a cabinet to dry and I imagine that next week, we will be developing these negatives.

Friday: Computer Class

In class there was our next handout and an activity painting a bouquet of lilies using layers in Photoshop. The tricky part of the exercise is that it was written when Photoshop was in Version 6 and we are working in CS2, a later version where the toolbar menus are not quite the same. This means a lot of hunting around to try to find what is called for in the lesson.

The Week Overall

I was working to my limits in the classes this week and as a result was quite tired each evening. I’m looking forward to having an extra day in the weekend (for Thanksgiving) and I’ve got two DVDs on photographers to view: Masters of Photography: Edward Steichen and W. Eugene Smith: Photography Made Difficult.

Here are Wikipedia’s sites on these two photographers:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Steichen
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Eugene_Smith

Art Centre: Sept. 29 - Oct. 3, 1008

2008-10-05T10:27:00.000-07:00

Central Technical School Art Centre:

Year Two: Week Four

September 29-October 3, 2008

Monday: Ceramics Class

I was relieved to find that my bowl and another one I started had survived my being away. I was able to continue on with them – two of the four I’ll make for the project. Two go to the hungry event, one is mine to keep and one is insurance.

Tuesday Evening: Collage and Assemblage

Our first assignment: Black and White text collages. We could tear or cut text from magazines to arrange on a rectangular card. My first attempt was over done; I didn’t know when to stop. The second was pleasing to me. On the third one I tried adding black and white paint. The fourth creation was the boldest effort of all. Before class ended we chose one to display in a gallery along the window ledge. Also in class, we wrote why we were taking the course and the first thing that came to mind for me was a kind of “freedom” which I haven’t been feeling in my day classes. For the most part, we are given assignments with farily strict guidelines and in this class, the directions feel looser and more flexible.

Wednesday: Printmaking Class (and Advanced Printmaking Class)

Worked on my lino blocks for the three fountains series. And in my evening class, Advanced Printmaking, I was able to get some helpful feedback on the blocks from that teacher – this will be our third course together.

Thursday: Sculpting Class

We were introduced to a very helpful website chock-a-block with sculpted heads so we can see the various ways of working the clay.
http://www.portrait-sculpture.org/

We started putting clay on an armature to begin the head of a classmate. Our noses (after the model taken from the statue of David by Michelangelo) were ranked and I was please to see that mine was ranked in a group close to the best (mine was 6th) – none of course were perfect – all could be improved. My plasticine maquette was looked at and I was given guidance as to what modifications are needed.

Helpful anatomy of the head sites:

Head and neck - http://home.comcast.net/~wnor/lesson1.htm
Head and neck anatomy - http://www.med.mun.ca/anatomyts/head/head.htm
Head showing musculature –
http://www.human-anatomy.net/anatomy-head-pictures.html
Full tutorial on head and neck muscles - http://www.gwc.maricopa.edu/class/bio201/head/head1.htm

Thursday: Photography Class

I watched the Ansel Adams and the Richard Avedon videos this week. The contrast is excellent. Adams strolls through at a leisurely pace amidst magnificent scenery especially of Yosemite Park. Avedon’s work from the fashion world and from his concentration on portraits is a very active chronicle.

In class we shot our first roll of film, featuring patterns and textures. We also were given the procedures for unloading film in a black bag to prepare for chemicals. We practiced threading the film onto a spool without seeing what we are doing. I shot a 24 roll of black and white film(400ASA) using a telephoto lens but my Nikon was difficult to work with as it had a broken switch. I have since had it repaired.

Friday: Computer Class

In class there was a handout and an activity using layers in Photoshop. We were encouraged to go beyond what we have learned from the tutorial. It was suggested that we find images on the Web and use layers to create new images from our own imaginations.

The Week Overall
Yes, I was back at school and I also attended the first of the two evening classes– Collage and Assemblage and Advanced Printmaking. I have to pace myself as I’m still run somewhat low on energy as I continue to recover from the surgery.

Art Centre: September 22-26, 1008

2008-09-28T07:35:00.001-07:00

Central Technical School Art Centre:
Year Two: Week Four
September 22-26, 2008

Monday: Ceramics Class
The class is busy making bowls. This week I am away from classes as I recover from surgery. I was happy to learn that the number of bowls required is now only three – and I’ll get right on it as soon as I return. I don’t think my first attempt is worth keeping and the second one I started will be too dried up to continue.

Wednesday: Printmaking Class
For some reason my notes for printmaking class would not go on the blog last week except in all caps – I tried to remedy the situation a number of times and finally just left it as it turned out though I really don’t like all caps online – it’s that netiquette thing of it being like shouting. This week I missed the demo on monotypes – so I’ve looked it up and here are some links.
Wikipedia on monotypes - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monotype
What is a Monotype? - http://www.collectorsguide.com/fa/fa042.shtml
Monoprints.com - http://www.monoprints.com/
Monotype Lesson - http://www.princetonol.com/groups/iad/lessons/elem/Brenda-mono.htm

Also regarding last week’s demo on polyester litho – I found online resources.
Polyester Plate Lithography –
http://scottkolbo.com/printmaking/Printmaking%20pdfs/Printmaking%20Book_PplateLitho.pdf
http://www.vancouver.wsu.edu/programs/finearts/guides/litho.htm
http://art.utk.edu/printmaking/resources/pdf/khaas_pronto.pdf

Thursday: Sculpting Class
Using a plastic modeling medium http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasticine
I worked on a maquette for the fusion head project based on the Frink and Egyptian heads (see last week’s images). I also did sketches of the student whose head I will be modeling when I return to school.

Thursday: Photography Class
Thrilled as I was with the Stieglitz video last week, I ordered three more from the library: Ansel Adams, Henri Cartier-Bresson and Richard Avedon. I’ve already seen the one on Fran Liebowitz but may order it again. I began creating a resource collection for photography that will go on the Web.
http://astralsite.com/Art/photography-resources.html
In the class I missed, the teacher showed the parts of a typical 35 mm camera like the ones that will be used shooting black and white film.

Friday: Computer Class
I played around with the three photos I took of three of my teachers using Photoshop to alter the images with the goal of illustrating what they teach. Here’s what I’ve done so far. http://astralsite.com/Art/3wisemen.html
In class there was a handout and an activity manipulating objects in Photoshop – I’ll have to catch up next week.

The Week Ahead
I hope to be back at school next week. I have two evening classes that will be starting as well – Collage and Assemblage as well as Advanced Printmaking. I don’t plan to attend many of the studio sessions this term as I have the evening classes. Also I hear that the afternoon studios have been reduced to about half of their previous length this term – it’s going to be difficult to get much done in the time now allotted.

Art Centre: September 15-19, 2008

2008-09-22T12:12:00.000-07:00

Central Technical School Art Centre:

Year Two: Week Three

September 15-19, 2008

Monday: Ceramics Class

bowls

The class is now busy making bowls. Our teacher was away and the ceramics technician was kind enough to hang around and give us all sorts of good advice as we experimented with coil and slab methods, sometimes working on the outside of a bowl mold and sometimes inside of a mold. I completed one crude coil bowl and began another. Later on Monday, I purchased two plastic bowls from the dollar store to have as molds for my next creations – we have to make at least six bowls in total for this assignment.

Wednesday: Printmaking Class
We had a demonstration of a new way of doing polyester lithography. It is a much less demanding medium than using lithographic stones. We were shown examples that seemed to work well if one was careful with cleaning the Plexiglas

I began transferring my designs for the block prints onto the blocks. I’m doing three different fountains that have water coming from the mouth. One is a medusa like head – a wall fountain I saw in an art museum in Jacksonville Florida, one is a winged cupid head – not sure where I took that one and the third is a stone lion with brightly painted Spanish style tiles in the background – that one was in a courtyard of an old mission in Tucson, Arizona.

I did a study of fountains when I was developing a resource site called, The Fountain (http://www.astralsite.com/holistic/fountain.html) and noted my explorations in a web page – “Notes and sketches from an exploration into the nature of fountains and the planning of gardens as regards life and contemplative thought” found at: http://astralsite.com/holistic/fountain_read.html also created a gallery of fountain images http://astralsite.com/holistic/gallery.html

Sculpting Class

Built a human skull and completed the building of David’s lips.

Decided on these two heads for the fusion head project

Elizabeth Frink fused with the Ancient Egyptian Amenhotep III

Photography Class

The Pinhole assignment continued this week. My self-portrait from last week was acceptable and after two tries, I got one of empty containers on the school retaining wall to have a photo showing foreground and background. I was shown how to print from the negative of my portrait on the enlarger.

The Alfred Steiglitz – The Eloquent Eye – American Masters series video is superb and I am watching it again as it details not only the first gallery showings of important American photographers but also chronicles the beginning of the modern art movement in America just after the turn of the century starting with Picasso.

Computer Class

I understand that the class continued working with the basics of Photoshop and also had a look at Image Ready. I was occupied with having surgery and missed class. I have started taking a few pictures as I work on the excellent assignment coming up in that class. We are to “Photoshop” the image of one of our teachers to illustrate what they teach. There’s a big display on the wall of a series done of teachers at one of the local colleges to give us inspiration for the project.

The Week Ahead

I’ll be taking a week off to recover from surgery and have at home what I need in order to work on the printmaking projects, the maquette for the fusion head, and I’m shooting the roll of colour film in my 35mm camera to free it up for black and white film for when I return to school and future assignments. I’m also looking at the digital photos I have taken so far for the Photoshop assignment. So probably there will be no entry until I return to school since this blog is intended as a way of recording my progress in art school.