Having a little fun with Tulouse

On Wednesday it was the last meeting of the Manito Art League (Manitowish Waters, Wisconsin). Artist, Jane Schmaltz, presented the group with a wonderfully creative diversion between the meeting and the pot luck lunch!

She first created mini versions of several famous Tulouse Lautrec paintings. Then she cut them into pieces and then she took blank watercolor paper and enlarged the shape of the pieces (see below).

We each took several and enlarged them without knowing what the original was. We worked in all kinds of mediums.

Assembly came later.

It was a lot of fun. Thanks Jane!!!

A Canoe Ride in northern WI in October

Our canoe ride this afternoon was quite magical.

Little Lake Tippecanoe is settling down now to wait for winter.

The reds have turned to rust and the yellows have turned to pale raw siennas. Oak leaves in burnt siennas float down around us like confetti and float like a million tiny boats all over the lake.

A late turtle hangs out on a log and a lone eagle circles above us.

The sky is cloudless and a heavy silence lays over the lake...
A lone fisherman fishes in the cove as we paddle silently by. The loons are long gone. So are most of the ducks (we find a small flock of 7 still beside one of the islands).

Piers are piled along the shore line.

Somewhere in the distance we hear a hammer...a neighbor is putting on new roof before winter comes howling down the lake.

Most of us are summer folk...headed now to warmer climes. But about half a dozen homeowners stay year round. They split their logs now in preparation for the snowy days and make sure the snow plows and snow mobiles and skis and skates are nearby.

We make our tour around and between the islands enjoying the last of the water lilies and listening for the call of the geese.

We lean lazy on our paddles now and then and see the world upside down in the reflections. The sun beats thinly on our heads now with long shadows coming early in the afternoon as the days grow shorter.

We have a week to bid our lake farewell before we head to Florida for the winter. Today was a jewel to slip into the memory box.

Paper Painting Peppers

Say that 5 times fast! :-)

I did this as a demo of the underpainting at my class on Sept 15. But for the actual paper painting I worked on the dairy cow. Now, I've begun to add some of the papers to this one.

I filled in all the dark in the background and now have just started the green peppers on the left top corner. That's probably as far as I am going to get here in WI. I am starting to pack up the studio now and get ready for the annual trek back south to Florida.

I am thinking of continuing on during the Fine Art Open House in Florida on November 5th. If I get some interest in the technique I may set up a 2 morning class. There are a number of people who paint with acrylics in our park. I'll take some extra canvas boards and rice paper.

We plan to leave northern WI either Wed the 13th or Thursday the 14th of October. October, can you believe it!!! We have a pretty solid shut-down schedule as we do this each fall. My hubby has the lakefront closed down now, pier in and boats winterized. Now we will start on the summer porches and yard furniture. Then move into the house. We drain the pipes and shut things down tight. We are a team! Nights are like 31 degrees here now and our leaves are all falling down! It was pretty but it didn't last long!

I'll probably post a few more times before we leave and maybe get out my sketchbooks during the last weeks.

A Few Subtle Changes

My hubby is always my first critic. He liked this painting very much. Words like "bright", "cheerful", "eye catching", "fun" and "hey, there's your apple peeler" were his first words! But he had some trouble "reading" the bag of flour which appeared to have too many disjoined shapes to be a single object. He's often right about these things!

So, I have simplified the flour bag shape (you can scroll down to yesterday's post to see the difference). I darkened some shadows on the bag a little and added a tiny bit more printing on it. I did glaze that apple again but in the photo it does still read pretty orange. So I think I will do a few more glazes on it and see if I can "red" it up a little more.

Now It's Time to Wait

There's always that time...when you wonder if you are done. And of course, as Judi Betts always says, "No painting is ever done. You just find an interesting place to stop."

So I'll prop it up now for a week or so and look at it when I go by. No matter what, it was entertaining and fun to paint. It will be a good illustration for the Apple Cake recipe and I will print the recipe and put it on the back of the painting! A bonus!

I see it as a nice painting for a kitchen or entry way. A sort of "welcome to my kitchen" or something. I think I may re-glaze the apple in the left foreground with more red...it appears a little too orange. Otherwise, right now...I am feeling happy about it. Someone commented on the painting being "almost an abstract". I feel that way too. More about shapes than anything.

Letting the Still Life Emerge

There are some fun styles I like to work with on black gesso. There is NO problem getting things to "pop" out. Color just has a "boing" to it.

If you scroll down you'll see the initial sketch and the first blocking on this still life.

I have a lot of fun decisions to make on this now...nothing like a rainy day to help you concentrate on "play". This kind of painting is just totally fun "play".

Working title: "Apple Cake"

It is acrylic 16 x 20 on stretched canvas.

Blocking In

Today is a good day to do a little work in the studio so I pulled out that image I did of the Apple Cake ingredients.

I did the preliminary sketch in pastel pencil on 16 x 20 canvas over black gesso. Next I will go back and see about light/dark, how to indicate the light source and what details I want to put in. Here I am just looking at composition and a little work with how I want to arrange the colors. Just fun! All girls want to do is have fun!

It is POURING rain in the north woods today. We are under a flood warning! But it cozy in the studio with music on and the sounds of the rain on the roof.

Officially Autumn

Today is the first day of fall, the autumnal equinox, where the sun is directly above the equator and the length of day and night are nearly equal. The autumnal equinox occurred early this morning at 3:09 UTC, Coordinated Universal Time. But here in America, the equinox occurred last night, at 11:09 on the East Coast.

I looked up the daylight hours for Lac du Flambeau, Wi (northern Wi) and we have 13 hours and 7 minutes of daylight now. And we are losing 3 minutes and 13 seconds of daylight each day.

Normal temperature for today is 59 and we'll be at about that temp most of today. Although we are in a flood watch today with 100% chance of thunderstorms. A perfect day to paint!!!

These leaves are from my walk along the forest roads two days ago shortly after a rain storm...the sun came out and we had a brilliant morning and the wet leaves on the roads glistened like they had been freshly painted! Or freshly given a gloss coat of varnish! The sky after the rain was so clear it gave you a sense of being in a 3D movie. And the sky was a deep Cobalt blue against the gambouge yellows of the birches. I am holding off painting leaves this fall...and rather concentrating on a still life of apple cake and my glorious peppers.

We have 3 weeks left in the north woods now during which time we will see the leaves all fall and probably some snow showers arrive turning fall to winter in such a brief flash. I see from reading my favorite north woods almanac Graced By the Seasons: Fall and Winter in the Northwoods by John Bates, that in the year 2000 on October 7, Lac du Flambeau area had 7" of snow! I wonder if I should invest in a pair of boots?

Setting up for a Still Life Painting

One of the things we did in my class last Wednesday was to talk about "themes" or painting in a "series" and how powerful that can be.

One theme I enjoy is cooking. Although I do not do a lot of baking or gourmet cooking which I am sure some of you do...I still find the ingredients to be wonderful and beautiful and there is surely an element to food that applies and touches us all.

I was thinking of that today while I made my apple cake. I shall have to post this again when it turns into a painting!

Recipe for Ginny's Fresh Apple Cake

3 eggs

1-3/4 cups sugar

1 cup oil

2 cups flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 Tbsp cinnamon

1 tsp baking soda

5-6 apples peeled and cut thick

1 cup halved walnuts

Do not use a mixer for this cake. Blend eggs, sugar, oil. Add flour, salt, cinnamon and baking soda. Add apples and nuts. Baked in greased 9 x 13 pan at 350 for l hour.

I top this with a dollop of cool whip or whipped cream. Good warm with vanilla ice cream.

Smells like fall when baking!

Paper Painting Today

The paper painting and acrylic class I taught was today in Woodruff, WI. I taught 5 gals and we so enjoyed being together in a cozy place on a cold and rainy Wednesday!

Here we are mid-morning watching Elizabeth St. Claire Nelson's video as part of our preparation for the technique...which new to everyone!!!

One person started her Christmas card with birch trees, wreaths and a lovely cardinal...and the other painting will be a big pot of beautiful plants with leaves of all colors! They all did a great job and we all had fun!!!

Paper Painting Class

One always has SUCH a variety of subjects and styles in any class. This one was no exception.

The pumpkins are in underpainting stage with the pumpkin in the far back the only part with paper on it.

Lots more happening on the bear painting...directly from a photo of one in her back yard recently. (Remember we are in the north woods of Wisconsin!)

The eagle is a local guy too...and she has "just" begun to put the paper on this one.

PhotoShop

My friend, Lou Fitton, in Canada was talking by email to me the other day about "posterizing" a photo and then using it as a useful tool for creating a painting.

So this evening I booted up my photoshop to see if I could play with some images.

I used my 14 year old grandson, Nate, for the portrait image.

There are a ton of ways to posterize the image...this top one is just one of hundreds of ways. It boggles the mind.

The second image is called "ink sketch" and the last one is "colored pencil" . Each of these images can be tweaked about 50 different ways also.

I am sure many many of the friends of this blog have used Photoshop in tons of ways to enhance a photo for inspiration.

If anyone has a favorite one or can give me (and Lou) a heads up on any good art tips based on photoshop, let us know.

Looking at these makes my fingers itchy to get started!

Meanwhile I am preparing to head out in the morning to Woodruff, WI to teaching an acrylic class in paper painting. Photos to follow.

Feelin' Spicey

I was in the grocery yesterday and when I went by the peppers they just knocked my socks off with the color.

There is something about fall harvest, isn't there? Pumpkins, gourds, apples, pears, vegetables. Wow.

If I bought these for a still life I figure it would have cost me about $10!

So, cheapskate that I am, I arranged them right there in the produce section and photographed them.

This is a promo for having a camera so small it fits in your purse! You never know when something will come up!!!

Garage sales is another really nice place for photos of old rockers, antique toys, and beautiful tea pots without having to spend a cent!!!

I am thinking of using these in my Wed class for paper painting. More to follow on that.

A Serious Look at Joy

I know, I know. It's not even officially autumn yet. But if you want to get your Christmas card into the printer and have it proofed and ready to pack for your southern trip to FLorida...you have to plan ahead! It's the same every fall. I try to be the first at the printers with my card...but I never am.

This is a very different kind of card for me. But I am in both a serious and whimsical mood at printing time. For me, "joy" is a word not to be taken lightly as it goes way beyond "happy" to touch the hand of God. So my wish goes way beyond wishing people a "ho ho ho" for the holiday. I wish for you the presence of the Holy Spirit in the depths of your heart and so much so that you spread the gift of it to others.

And yet, with an artist's whimsy I send the wish with a wide grin. I want you to smile outside and in.

This painting is 11" x 15" on Kilimanjaro watercolor paper primed with white gesso. It is painted with acrylic and gouache. I have given it several light coats of archival matt finish acrylic spray.

Bob Burridge Workshop: Day Four

This was the last workshop day for me. Many participants spent an extra $150 to take the marketing workshop he and his wife Kate put on tomorrow. I opted out. Although it did sound very very interesting.

This clown was my last painting (I did several today) and I sort of liked the whimsy of it. The title is "Last Clown Standing" or "I Think I missed the Train". Despite the smile painted on his face...he is somewhat dejected to see the steam cloud from the train...but no train. It's not signed or varnished so there may be some small additions. He is based on a photo of clowns I took last February and if you look at my Feb posts you'll find the real guy. Acrylic with collage on canvas/board 11 x 14.

Bob demoed his "landscape" technique for us today. Starting with tissue paper to give it texture.

Here is the studio that we used for the workshop...studio One is also called the Tom Lynch Studio. Nice and airy and light. Boy, did we make clutter!!! Bob is way in the back on the left and Kate is in the white blouse taking photos.

Check out Bob's website in the days to come as we may all be featured one of these days!!!

We had a nice wine/champagne and snack reception at 4 pm. Very relaxing.

I met so many nice artists. You might want to check out Constance Grayson's website. She leads art tours in Italy (and cooking tours) and she lives half the year there.

Bob Burridge Workshop: Day Three

I am starting with one of Bob's paintings first today. This is, believe it or not, a watercolor. When he completes this, he sprays it several times with a fixative. After it is dry he varnishes it with an acrylic gloss varnish. Then with a thick layer of acrylic gel, he glues the watercolor (or acrylic) to a canvas that is about 1/2" larger than the painting. He supports the inside of the canvas with block of wood and then cover the painting with a poly plastic sheet and then a weight on top of that and let's it dry for 24 hours. After that he revarnishes the whole thing one more time to seal the edges to the canvas. He is quick to point out the advantages of such framing (no mats, no frames, no glass). However, he does mention that not every gallery or exhibit will accept this kind of framing so you need to check before doing it.

This acrylic collage is one of mine from today. It is a background collage i that the idea is that I may add more to it as I go along. You can probably see that I have already painted some acrylic on top of the collaged papers.

The only criticism Bob might have is that I really did not start out with any "intention" other than to experiment with the papers and colors I brought with me. So we'll see where this one goes. He really wants people to have some "idea" or "intention". And I agree that this makes perfect sense.

My Puerto Rican angel is from yesterday's post with some added collage. The music is to "A Bicycle Built for Two"...thus the wheels in the collage. She's just kind of funky with that hair. No golden curls for this angel! We'll see where this goes.

I came home totally exhausted at 4:30. How the class is going to go out to dinner and to a gallery tonight I have no idea. Usually I join the group for stuff like that, but Greg had a model train meeting, and I have already been to Moondeer Gallery this season. So I begged off. PLUS I am ready to drop!

Bob Burridge Workshop: Day Two

Those of you who have taken a Burridge workshop before have some concept of how "outside the box" this workshop really is! Most of us are really struggling BUT having a wonderful time. These first two painting are not by any means finished.

Like most paintings they are created in "layers" and in "stages". Bob calls this part a "resting" stage where you let the image settle and start looking at it from all angles, checking the values (which are way too much the same in the circus one) and light source (WHAT light source?) The wonderful part of working in acrylics, of course, is that you can go back as many times as you want, adding and subtracting.

We had our wonderful Puerto Rican model/dancer again today and she had all kinds of poses for us.

In additions we had lessons on varnishing your work (that is what Bob is doing in the last photo). And on fixing mud (which we all mix up from time to time). We got some excellent recommendations on art books to read.

Toward the end of the class Bob demonstrated how to use Citra-solve to create collage papers out of National Geographic magazine pages. How out of the box is that? The last two days of class are on collage. So stay tuned for more on that!

Bob Burridge's class at Dillman's: Day One

Bob has a great style and is very entertaining and the class has about 22 members. It is being held at Dillman's Resort (you can google this to get the schedule of workshops.) It is very expensive but they have a marvelous facility and amazing well-known instructors. Dillman's is in northern Wisconsin about 2 hours south of Lake Superior in Lac du Flambeau.

The first two days we will be working with the figure as a centerpiece for our semi-abstract work. We have a live undraped model (professional dancer and model) and it has been so wonderful to have her. This piece is acrylic on canvas 11 x 14.

The second two days will deal with the use of collage. As you might expect I am exhausted as all workshops are very intensive. Needless to say I will sleep well tonight!. More tomorrow.

Midsummer Reverie

Midsummer, Georgia Avenue

by Mary Jo Salter

Happiness: a high, wide porch, white columns
crowned by the crepe-paper party hats
of hibiscus; a rocking chair; iced tea; a book;
an afternoon in late July to read it,
or read the middle of it, having leisure
to mark that place and enter it tomorrow
just as you left it (knock-knock of woodpecker
keeping yesterday's time, cicada's buzz,
the turning of another page, and somewhere
a question raised and dropped, the pendulum-
swing of a wind chime). Back and forth, the rocker
and the reading eye, and isn't half

your jittery, odd joy the looking out
now and again across the road to where,
under the lush allées of long-lived trees
conferring shade and breeze on those who feel
none of it, a hundred stories stand confined,
each to their single page of stone? Not far,
the distance between you and them: a breath,
a heartbeat dropped, a word in your two-faced
book that invites you to its party only
to sadden you when it's over. And so you stay
on your teetering perch, you move and go nowhere,
gazing past the heat-struck street that's split

down the middle—not to put too fine
a point on it—by a double yellow line.

"Midsummer, Georgia Avenue" by Mary Jo Salter, from Open Shutters. © Alfred A. Knopf, 2003 Reprinted with permission

watercolor 11 x 15 on Arches cold pressed

Demo for workshop

This nice sleepy looking Holstein will be my in-class demo on Sept 15 at my workshop. The hard part is stopping the fun and waiting to do it in class!

I've paper painted the vertical fence posts and two of the horizontal ones..a tiny bit of the white and shadow on the lower nose and am experimenting with a dark blue for some of the blue/black shadows to the right of his face on the body. But that is all I've done.

The rest is just acrylic paint at this point. I was not planning to paper paint the red of barn but we'll see on that. The grass I think will just stay paint but I will sprinkle some colorful torn paper flowers into the grass and pick up some of the red there. She is painted on YES canvas board 11 x 14.

AND I think the painted coffee filter paper is going to work just fine...it seems to tear nicely and has good coverage! Info on the class is in the previous post (Aug 10).