Photo Gallery – Places
WEEK 13: Jack of All Trades, Master of None
What defines a “master artist”? What defines a “master” anything? If I can copy a master artist’s painting does that make me a master? If I can produce master-like work on my own but I only churn out five works over my lifetime does that make me a master? Did the old masters know…
WEEK 12: Six Degrees of Wyeth
After making my way into Washington, DC with a classmate and finally finding a place to park (no small task on a Friday morning), we headed to the National Gallery of Art to see the “Andrew Wyeth: Looking Out, Looking In” exhibit, which focuses on his watercolor paintings of windows. During his lifetime, the artist produced…
WEEKS 10 & 11: Painting the Nude – A Timeless Art
During the past few months I created this blog, bought a MacBook Pro laptop, a wireless printer and a new iPhone. For my birthday a couple weeks ago my generous and thoughtful boyfriend gave me a new semi-professional DSLR camera, and with a gift certificate from my brother and sister-in-law I bought a new lens. …
WEEKS 8 & 9: The Nature of Reality
“You live in the image you have of the world. Every one of us lives in a different world, with different space and different time.” ~Alejandro Jodorowsky Flowing with momentum into weeks 8 and 9 of my watercolor class (nature studies), which started as a brief experiment in vulnerability but has now transformed into a…
WEEK 7: Sea Glass
Glass is fragile. I have accidentally broken more of it than I can remember. Jagged pieces discarded and forgotten. Glass distorts and reflects. It bends reality like dreams bend consciousness with mysterious and sometimes haunting effects. Glass is transparent. I know it has mass but I can see inside it and through it. Glass is…
WEEK 6: Gray Area
Diving in to project 6, “Monochromatic Still Life Studies,” I wondered why anyone would want to approach painting with such limitation. As an artist who tends to throw a lot of color around, it seemed counterintuitive to me. On top of that, I sat in an area of the classroom where the still life…
WEEK 5: First World Problems
Four days before class: I grip the X-Acto knife and slice deliberately into a piece of cardboard. I’m making a viewfinder. I don’t know what size window to cut so, with a strong need to be prepared, I make two different sizes. I am mildly aggravated at the lack of clear sizing and color instructions. …
WEEK 4: Me v.3
“I also had to learn that losing myself in my work was not dangerous.” ~from Virginia Valian’s essay ‘Learning to Work’ We jumped into class with our weekly critique. The task was to post a couple versions of last week’s 10-minute still life studies on the wall, offer quick comments on what we liked…