Not Just Pretty Faces

After della Francesca

Students With Their Paintings

In addition to glorious apples, the "Forgiving Medium" students painted portraits from copying the work of famous painters--Old Masters, Impressionists, Post-Impressionists, Expressionists, etc.

I was sad when I return from teaching and find that some pictures I was sure I took were not on the camera. My apologies to the students whose work doesn't appear here--I don't know where it went. If you were in the class and don't see your painting, please send me an image of it. Thanks!

Work in progress after Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun

After Coroto

After Sonfonisba Anguissola

After Vigee-Lebrun



Work in progress after Botticelli

Work in progress after Paula Mondersohn-Becker

Work in progress after da Vinci

After a magazine photograph

After Gabrielle Munter

In Progress after Reubens

After Simone Martini

After Manet

After Greco-Egyptian Mummy Painting


After Photograph

In Progress after Manet

In Progress after John Singer Sargent

In Progress after Berthe Morisot

After Raphael

Apple Delight

Apples from "The Forgiving Medium"

My first class at Hampton Va Art and Soul used acrylic paint to create "apple portraits." Later in class the students painted portraits inspired by master paintings.

I usually use pears for this class but due to flight delays, I was only able to get apples. I arrived at the hotel about 3 AM (Hampton time) and still had an hour to spend getting ready for class the next morning. I had managed to find 8 apples at the Atlanta airport but still needed more in order to have enough. I enlisted a few friends from past retreats, and we all grabbed as many apples from the breakfast buffet as we could. I need not have worried that apples wouldn't be as good a subject as pears. Just look at these amazing apple paintings. They are all filled with life and no two alike!

































Next post will show the portraits from the masters...stay tuned.

First Photo from Hampton

Theresa's first apple--exquisite!

I'm still charging up my camera battery so I can't show you pictures of Art and Soul Hampton yet. One of my lovely students from "The Forgiving Medium" has a great blog post here where she describes the class and shows what she accomplished there. (Very impressive and delightful work.) Check it out!

A wonderfully busy month

A bold abstract landscape from my Artiscape class, "Landscape of Dreams"

I'm in this month's issue of CPS!

As I write this post, I have just returned teaching classes and taking a class at Art and Soul Retreat in Hampton, VA. My trip extended over an extra night due to flight delays. I find myself in that weird post-retreat, post-cross country-flight state where I'm really tired, but too inspired and energized to be sleepy! Teaching at two retreats in the last 3 weeks has filled me with ideas and reinforced my love of making art and my love of teaching and inspiring others to do so.

This is also a big month for me as my article on portrait painting appears in Cloth, Paper, Scissors, a fabulous art and craft magazine. Check it out

here.

I'm behind on posting photos from Artiscape classes, so I'll finish that up now. The next post will have photos from my classes at Art and Soul and I'll tell you about my amazing class with Lesley Riley at Art and Soul.

*****

"Landscape of Dreams" at Artiscape was fun and expressive. Students used painting knives to create landscapes. Some pieces were quite detailed while others were more abstract. They were all lovely. Here are a few examples:

This is the completed version, sent to me by the artist after she returned home. The piece has a very believable 3-D effect and evokes a peaceful day in the country.

Bold knife strokes and heavy medium combine with paint to

create a simple and rich piece.

Juicy paint and loose work create a delicious abstract work

A golden autumn scene--makes me want to be there!

A student "making waves" in a sparkling ocean scene

A magical closeup of nature

A rich and mysterious work in progress




A glorious, sunny afternoon--I want to be here, too!



A delightful fox watches the sun set over the pond






This feels just like beautiful Tuscany!

I hope you'll be inspired by all the ways students used the painting knife, acrylics, and mediums. Create your own landscape of dreams!

More on Artiscape

Across the street from the hotel

The Artiscape locations and hotel were in downtown Columbus, Ohio. I was thrilled to see architecture that was only familiar to me from pictures before.

Another class I taught was called "Many Windows." The students prepared canvas backgrounds with paint and/or collage. They then made collages on 3" square wood panels. (I'm very grateful to my stepdad, Rob, for cutting 150 pieces of wood for me!) When the collages were finished, the students glued them onto the decorated canvas, creating a mini art gallery.

Here are some pictures of work in progress and finished pieces. Each piece was so different and so lovely. I'll let the pictures be enough description.