Nicole Caulfield Fine Art

CP Treasures Book

2012-02-08T17:19:00.000-05:00

I'm happy to announce that one of colored pencil pictures will be in the new CP Treasures book edited by Ann Kullberg. click the image to purchase. I love books like this - its full of hand picked colored pencil drawings to drool over. There isn't better inspiration!

I have two "art days" coming up so see you soon!

Funny Face

2012-02-02T14:15:00.000-05:00

Only one art day this week (boo-hoo) but making good progress today! I got a mouth demo finished which also finishes off my funny face pin board!

Where have you been? (in your best Mrs. Weasley voice)

2012-01-26T14:51:00.002-05:00

I had an online art friend ask if I was okay since I have not been "around" lately, so I thought I would show what I have been doing lately. Well, besides working and going for a couple of weeks to Illinois I have been trying to get my ebook finished. Since I only get 2 partial days to work on it or any art now, it is taking a while, but I am really seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. I don't want to give too much away so I took some screen shots of the (109) pages in Open Office.

I haven't done ANY other artwork besides the book because I have this habit of not starting a new project when I have one going. It works well for still-lifes and portraits but a book is a big job and takes a long time to finish so it does hurt a bit to not be doing any still-lifes. I am trying to finish the book by March because I will be doing a demonstration locally for the Monadnock Art Association and it would be great to have it there to show people.

Anyway enjoy the thumbnails! & if you want to see more of me don't forget to visit me and my sister at my http://www.mealpod.blogspot.com/

Art Present Ideas for Middle School & High School:

2011-12-04T09:24:00.001-05:00

Art Present Ideas for Middle School & High School:

Tie-Dye kit - a good one! http://www.dickblick.com/products/jacquard-tie-dye-kit/
Adorable Manga book that starts at the beginning http://www.amazon.com/Manga-Beginner-Chibis-Everything-Super-Cute/dp/0823014886/ref=sr_1_26?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1323007888&sr=1-26
I love Lee Hammond's clean style and she starts with drawing tutorials as well as shading in this BIG drawing book http://www.amazon.com/Lee-Hammonds-Big-Book-Drawing/dp/1581804733/ref=pd_sim_b_7
Can't learn to shade well without some good graphite pencils http://www.dickblick.com/products/derwent-graphic-pencils/
Late middle school I think they are old enough to take care of a good set of colored pencils (maybe they need an electric pencil sharpener too then) http://www.dickblick.com/products/derwent-coloursoft-pencils/
Block Printing Kit for high school kids. This kit has everything but a good book so I included one next http://www.dickblick.com/products/speedball-deluxe-block-printing-kit/
& a block printing book http://www.amazon.com/Block-Printing-Techniques-Linoleum-Wood/dp/081170601X/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1323008271&sr=1-2

Gifts for kids

2011-12-04T08:56:00.000-05:00

Somebody asked me what art supplies would I suggest for a Christmas present for kids, so I thought I would share my ideas with you.

Kids 7-10 Christmas Gift Idea

This is a simple and fun cartooning drawing step by step book. http://www.amazon.com/How-Draw-101-Animals-Green/dp/1842297406/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1322957315&sr=1-2
a more advanced book while still being age appropriate I like the looks of this one. It takes kids to the next level – thinking in 3-d. http://www.amazon.com/Drawing-3-D-Mark-Kistler/dp/0684833727/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1322950293&sr=1-2
Pencils... really you just need #2 pencils, a pencil sharpener and a good white eraser... but these pencils are WAY fun for anybody. You put the lead in and then use the special sharpener to sin and sharpen it really sharp. Its easy to use but feels professional. :-)the “lead holder” http://www.dickblick.com/products/alvin-pro-matic-lead-holder/the sharpener http://www.dickblick.com/products/alvin-rotary-lead-pointer/the lead in HB (#2) http://www.dickblick.com/products/koh-i-noor-duette-lead-refills/
Watercolor pencils. You shade with them and then take a brush with water and activate the pencil to make them bright and watercolor-y.http://www.dickblick.com/products/derwent-watercolor-pencils/
& then if you have watercolor pencils you need watercolor paper http://www.dickblick.com/products/winsor-and-newton-cotman-watercolor-pads/
& a watercolor brush... this one is cool because you ut the water in the handle! http://www.dickblick.com/products/aqua-flow-brush-set/

I'll put more lists together for young kids, middle school, and high school - watch for them!

New Venture With My Sister

2011-11-28T23:10:00.004-05:00

I recently started a new website with my sister called www.Mealpod.us. It is a recipe site that focuses on planning meals ahead and freezing them in individual portion sized packets. My husband and I have been cooking like this for years now: creating big batches of food once or twice a week and not cooking the rest of the week. The thing that makes it different is portioning it out to the individual portions. My sister has been doing something similar; cooking on Saturdays for the whole week and packing them for lunch and dinner and keeping them in the fridge. It just made sense to join forces, resources and recipes and start a website to keep us motivated for making new recipes and keep up with our healthy nutrition.

My sister lost 100 pounds over 5 years and is dedicated to keeping it off and preplanning her meals has really helped. I have lost almost 40 pounds from my highest weight and have kept it off for three years (with some minor ups and downs).

Anyway - it is not artwork but I did get to do all the design for the new website complete with its own infographic. I used all free programs or sites to do do everything:

Google Sites for hosting and template design
The free program Inkscape for making the logos and Infographic
The free graphic program Picnik for editing photos
Google Documents for holding the pdf recipes
Open Office for documents

& I know there are more that will come to mind. I highly recommend Inkscape if you can't afford Illustrator - it was really easy to get the hang of in a weekend.

So, please stop by the website and give it a look. If you are interested in nutrition, cooking, etc maybe you will want to join our blog, follow us on twitter, like us on Facebook, or submit a recipe! We don't have a lot of recipes yet (we just started) but we are adding 2-4 recipes or more a week.

I promise to get back to posting my art soon. I have a really good idea for a self portrait I would like to do and am starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel on my digital portrait book! For now you will have to settle for my great (haha) logo above and taking a peak at my first ever Inkscape infographic here.

p.s. you don;t want to know how long it took me to make that cute little peapod logo....

A Very Merry Christmas 2011 Greeting Card from Zazzle.com

2011-11-14T20:09:00.000-05:00

A Very Merry Christmas 2011 Greeting Card from Zazzle.com

To celebrate the holiday season I am offering a Christmas card at cost (no profit for me) from Zazzle.com (click above). It is notecard sized and depicts a vintage planter holding holly and some red leaves. The original done in all Coloursoft pencils will be on sale soon in my Etsy shop.

EDIT: Zazzle is having a sale of 1/2 priced cards! Use the coupon code: CARDNPOSTAGE

If you would rather print the image yourself - click on the image above for a high resolution copy and shrink it to size. Enjoy! & let the holiday season begin!

I am posting a Christmas Shop soon with artwork priced for the holiday season so watch for it.

2011-11-13T11:04:00.001-05:00

My newest still-life. It was a wedding gift for my friends Becca and Jonathon Berkey - two amazing people!

Coloursofts on Pastelbord - 6" x 18"

Lina's Finished Portrait

2011-10-17T17:01:00.000-04:00

This portrait will be a part of my book. You an see the steps it took to get it here on my other post: http://nicolecaulfieldfineart.blogspot.com/2011/10/cake-pops-and-small-portrait.html

Yes, I am still working on it. :-) I have 2 art days a week and the last couple of weeks have gone to other things: the open studio tour, and the bowl for the auction. I am not worried though because there is nothing on the radar at the moment that will suck up my art days. Oh, except my daughter does want me to come on her field trip next month to Plymouth Plantation on a Friday and I have never been there so I may have to go.

My schedule seems to be very rigid as of late:

Mondays: cleaning the house, running errands, getting lessons ready for school the next day.

Tuesdays: Work

Wednesdays: work

Thursdays: Art Day!

Friday: Art Day!

Nights: drive the kids around, dinner, laundry, getting lunch and clothes ready for next day, tv/reading, bedtime

Weekends: Family Time! Woo-Hoo! & laundry... always laundry. Oh and grocery shopping.

Unfortunately when I have to squeeze things in it usually happens on those art days...

a Not So Still Still-life

2011-10-15T21:53:00.000-04:00

Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up. Pablo Picasso

I have heard this quote by Picasso so many times, but I've never been sure of what it means exactly. I think it means more than "kids make great quirky little line drawings." It is more about kids having less restraints...

I have a still-life at the beginning stages of design. I've gathered what I think are going to be the basic objects and they have been sitting on the floor of my studio. My 8 year old daughter saw it and asked if she could arrange the objects. She played with the objects for a while and gathered more off my shelves. I was busy working on a drawing so I was not watching her activity, but she was asking me questions. I remember her asking if it was supposed to be about Van Gogh because his sunflower painting was at the center of the objects. Her art teacher would be very happy to know that then she chatted about Van Gogh to me for quite a while while working away on the still-life.

When I finally looked at what she did I was really surprised. The still-life was not very still. She set up several vignettes scattered around and they were all in the midst of some sort of action. She has a little bird peaking out of a letter in a cafe sign, a bottle tipped over spilling out its invisible contents, another bird eating out of a tipped cup, and finally a ceramic maiden tucked in her covers for the night.

I'm not sure what I should take from this but I think Picasso was on to something.

Donating Your Artwork

2011-10-14T13:45:00.000-04:00

The Ins and Outs of Donating Artwork

I just finished decorating this bowl for a local charity auction for the Colonial Theater outreach program in Keene.

Since most of my blog readers are fellow artists - I know that we all have been asked from time to time to donate our artwork to some cause or another. I have a confession to make. Sometimes I feel a bit put out by all the requests that come in for donating artwork. Since I only work on my artwork 2 days a week (or less) it is a big sacrifice for me. Below are some thoughts of mine on donating artwork.

Wooden Bowl decorated with Derwent Coloursoft pencils

donated to the Colonial Theater in Keene for their outreach program

description for the donated piece:

My colored pencil technique relies heavily on the paper I use, so when challenged to use my colored pencils on a wooden bowl I had to get creative with my techniques. On wood, the colored pencil can not be softly shaded, so I decided to exploit the characteristics of drawing lines. When thinking in "lines" the first artist who comes to mind is Vincent Van Gogh because of his use of thick lines in his work,which immediately made me think of a sunflower design. The background was cross-hatched with criss-crossing lines to fill in the blue sky. The petals are flowing curved lines that move with the flower's direction and topography. The center of the flower was done with a sgrafitto technique: first I layered overlapping circles from light to dark, next I applied solvent to soften the waxy pencil, and finally scraped into the top layers to allow the lighter colors below to show through.

What Some People Don't Know About Art Donations and Taxes

First off, artists are not allowed to claim the donation on their taxes. They are allowed to claim their purchased supplies to make the artwork they are donating, but that does not include any of the artist's time.

I just learned that people who own existing artwork can however donate the art from their walls and claim the full market value of that artwork when they donate it. Although this seems completely unfair, that is just the way it is and should be taken into account when deciding if you want to donate your artwork or not.

Does Donating Artwork Get You Exposure?
Sure, it could, but it doesn't usually give you enough to over-donate. When I first started out I was so honored to be asked to donate my artwork, especially if well-known artists were asked as well. I think I figured that if they were donating that it must be beneficial. Honestly it is hard to say how much exposure you can get from donating to a cause. I would suggest to ask questions from other artists about the auctions or do a little investigating. Does the organization make an effort to get out to the public the names and images of the artwork donated? If it is for a smaller less public group, is it a group that could have potential buyers in the future or is it a group that will probably only buy artwork when pushed to do so at a charity auction? Be honest with yourself with these questions!

Also exposure can have a double edged sword. If you donate artwork that is not a good representation of your art will it actually give you bad exposure? For example, let's say the Humane Society asked for a small artwork to auction off and you decide to whip up something quickly and don't put as much effort into it as usual because it is so small... will people at the auction think better of your work after seeing that piece? This is a tough one for us colored pencil artists since our artwork can take more time than other media. If you don't have time to do a good job you should turn down the request.

Over-Donating
In the past I've donated artwork to the Colonial Theater, the local Humane Society, the Historical Society, The Colored Pencil Society of America, Stonewell Farm, local schools... and there are more. Quite honestly I have probably donated to too many things some years. I know for me, I work part-time and only get 2 days for work on my art a week, and my family life does not allow for much work in the evenings, so my time is very expensive. If I have donated to 5 groups a year that is 5 weeks worth of work out of the year I have given away.

I'm not saying it isn't worth it, but I think artists shouldn't get into the habit of donating to everyone who asks for exposure. I think you have to think of donating in terms of wanting to help a cause or support a cause instead of the cause helping promote you. If you want to donate to the cause because you believe in the it, go ahead and donate. It also might be better to not give them your artwork, but actually donate a monetary amount. Its like the bake sale curse. I have been asked if I would give baked goods for the 3rd time this school year and I've decided to just give $ this time instead after the first one. Why? Because at the last bake sale I spent at least $20 on supplies and bags and tags to make the goods and they were sold for pocket change. I would have been better off just giving them the $20. The same goes for artwork - sure you can claim your supplies, but you can't claim your time - and a week of lost work is worth sometimes more than what the organization got for your work.

Here again is something you can ask the organization asking for the donation - how much has artwork gone for in the past? Then decide if it would be better to just the organization money instead.

Even if you like the cause I would suggest to limit the amount of artwork you donate a year to 2-3 donations? Why? Because if you have artwork constantly in charitable sales, especially in a small community, then you may have just sold to all your potential buyers and you didn't make any sales. If they can get your artwork at a discount AND make a donation to a good cause they will probably buy at one of your auctions and feel satisfied. If you do too many auctions will there be anyone left to buy from you at your full market value?

My friend and fellow artist makes some good points on this topic on her blog Durable Goods: http://www.luannudell.com/blog/2006/06/06.html

So to some up my advice:
- Limit the amount of artwork you donate a year.
- Do your homework on the the auction to make sure it will help instead of hinder you.
- Only donate to causes you truly believe in and would like to give to even if you weren't an artist

Cake Pops and a Small Portrait

2011-10-06T22:11:00.000-04:00

Cake Pops for this weekend's Open Studio Tour!

Come visit me and artist Luann Udell at her studio in Keene! 271 Roxbury Street

10 am - 5 Saturday and Sunday.

I plan on making many more things to eat tomorrow and will be picking up coffee from Prime Roast!

& below is a work in progress. Its not finished yet so I will be bringing it to the open studio! You can see the beginning stages below and where I am at now.

The Things I'll Do For This Book!

2011-09-26T15:18:00.000-04:00

Who is the cheapest model you can get? No, not your kids... believe me they make you pay - its yourself! I am doing the chapter on face proportions and drawing the face. I did want to get across the point that most people do NOT follow the usual guideline for face proportions. You know the one: eyes half way between chin and top of the head, bottom of nose 1/2 way between eye line and chin, mouth half way between the bottom of the nose and chin. If we all exactly fell on those guidelines the world would be pretty boring and would resemble the Scott Westerfeld's Prettys.

I knew that I wasn't close to those ideal guidelines but it is a bit surprising just how off I am, lol. Above is my photo looking as straight ahead as I could get. I've printed out the photo and drawn on top of it where those "general guidelines" would be. My eyes are above it... my nose WAY above it (I knew that), my lips too!

So here is my guidelines where they just are - not where they should be, lol. Do notice my ears are right where they are supposed to be, lol.

and then above is applying those guidelines on my head from different angles. When the head is turned those lines curve with the curvature of the head.

Enjoy this sneak peak... and no I do NOT wear my hair that way - ever! :-)

Fall Foliage Art Studio Tour Coming Up!

2011-09-26T09:06:00.002-04:00

Last week I had a couple of days to work on my art/book and I'll see if I can come up with another sneak peak to share. This week I am substitute teaching again so this is my only art day to work.

I do want to share with you all an upcoming tour I am am on: the Fall Foliage Art Studio Tour on Columbus Day weekend. This Sunday there will be a preview at Bagel Works in Keene from 7-8:30 where you can see one piece from all the artists on the tour, pick up a map, and mark where you would like to visit the following weekend.

I won't be opening my studio for the tour - instead I will be at the studio of my friend Luann Udell - just like last year. Since I moved my studio from downtown and work in the back of the living room, I don't think anyone wants to stand on the treadmill to see my little work space. Luann has been kind enough to have me at her studio again which is great because her work and her space is so much fun.

the Nose... book sneak peak

2011-09-12T13:59:00.004-04:00

I had planned on working on my portrait book this summer. I managed to make 6 still-lifes, but I just couldn't work on my book. I've learned how to draw with my kids around. I started drawing seriously 8 and a half years ago after my youngest daughter was born and I taught myself how to work with constant interruptions. You would think that as they get older, you would get less interruptions, but honestly I think its gotten worse, lol. The typical day this summer consisted of 4-5 meals a day, driving them places, having friends over, lemonade stands, hiking, biking, applying many band aids, etc. Okay maybe they didn't have 5 meals a day but it certainly felt like it!

The reason I could work on drawings this summer but not my book is because it takes a completely different kind of attention to write. Writing, I think, is THE biggest brain teaser! What a difference a break makes though. I came back with fresh eyes last week and have whipped it into shape. I've reorganized things and have figured out the answer to some of the things I was stuck on. Maybe the kids nagging me was meant to be, lol.

So above is another sneak peak: my example of a straight on nose. :-)

Art In the Park, Coloursoft Tins arrived, New School Year, the Hurricane

2011-08-28T09:47:00.000-04:00

Well I have been busy, busy, busy so this blog post will just cover everything. I'm sitting here this morning right in tropical storm Irene's path (it has been downgraded) waiting for the electricity to go off so I figured it was now or never for this post.

That little red pointer is my house and that blue line is the projected "center" path. Considering that the storm is a couple hundred miles wide, I think we will be getting hit. & actually we just got some of the first big gusts. I'm beginning to not like trees.

If you have been reading my blog for a while, you may have read that my artwork was commissioned to be on the new boxes of Coloursoft pencils. Well I just got some in the mail! They are not in the US stores yet as far as I know (not at mine), but should be soon. I need to send a bunch of little elves in to buy up the old boxes so they can be replaced! Derwent contacted me to submit a design because of this blog and Facebook - so if you are wondering if you should start an art blog - start one now. :-)

This was the original drawing that I sent to Derwent sitting on an easel. It was done in all Coloursofts (of course) on Fisher 400 paper that Creative Encounters mounted on Gatorboard.

So this has been a busy couple of weeks - last week was meetings at school and readying the classroom for a new year. I've gotten my room and assignments so much better organized - I hope it will make for a happy year. Then the last couple of days I've been getting ready for the hurricane.

Tuesday school starts and then Saturday and Sunday next week is the annual Art in the Park fair in Keene at Ashuelot Park. I hope it doesn't flood too bad and the show can go as planned next week. I have loads of artwork to display this year including my 3 new juice still-lifes and my 2 new Harry Potter inspired ones. I have a new tent and finally have enough display walls to fill it. If you have time, come and see me! Its a really great fair with over 80 artists in a beautiful park (that is right next to a Starbucks, win, win).

Now I better log off.

Moo Cards

2011-08-21T13:35:00.000-04:00

I used to get postcards from Vistaprint and more recently business cards. I like the photo business cards better than postcards because I can carry them with me all the time in my wallet and give them out when a conversation about my art comes up. Although postcards are great, you can't carry them in your purse without them getting dogeared.

I started using Vistaprint because of their "free" deals that are always advertised on the web, but I have become increasingly disgusted with their business practices. If you don't watch every pre-checked box on the multiple offer pages you have to click through to check out, you risk being signed up for a "club" that automatically takes the $50 membership free from your credit card account.

So after seeing my friend's mini moo cards I decided to try out www.moocards.com. Instead of making their money on seedy business practices, their business seems to be based on good design and quality cardstock. They also allow you to have several images printed in one box of business cards. So as you can see above I paid for one box, but I made three designs. I just made my designs in photoshop using their template in a layer to make sure the bleed was right, and then uploaded the .jpg.

I'm really happy with the quality of the cards/cardstock and definitely would recommended them. They may be more expensive than places like Vistaprint, but they seem to be committed to the product rather than the con. They also have a first time customer deal : http://moo.com/share/b8yqqc

If anyone wants one of new business cards - just send me an email at nicolecaulfield@gmail.com and I will pop one in the mail. If you want a specific design from above let me know or I will pick one randomly.

Apples 4 Ways

2011-08-19T18:52:00.000-04:00

Apples 4 Ways

6" x 18" Coloursofts on Pastelbord

What a week... but I managed to get my last juice drawing finished.

I started the drawing (like the others) with my focal point: the glass of juice. I've often heard the advice of doing the focal point last, but I can't seem to work that way. I like starting with the focal point because it is the star and I want it to have the most contrast and the most detail of the composition. If I do it first I can draw the other elements in a way to support that focal point, possibly with less detail and contrast. So I started with the glass and then I worked my way left to right just so I wouldn't smudge much. You can see how the details of the cloth in the back is the most "unfinished" because it is just there as a supporting element and I didn't want to call attention to it (although I am in this blog post right now, aren't I?).

& below is them all together. They work pretty well I think! AND as an art teacher I can't help but like the analogous color grouping.

Lemonade

2011-08-11T13:51:00.000-04:00

Lemonade

6" x 18"

Coloursofts on Pastelbord

I decided to play with

the reflections on the tabletop more with this one. They seemed to go with the more sparkly glass of lemonade. To create the reflective white surface I placed my objects on a white pastelbord that was still wrapped in its protective plastic wrap coating. The plastic makes a great surface for reflections and with the many colors of Pastelbord there are many colors to choose from.

The other two glasses in this set have grapes on one and apples on the other. I need to make another trip to the grocery store to work on the next one!

Fresh OJ

2011-08-10T13:00:00.000-04:00

Fresh OJ

6" x 18"

Coloursofts on Pastelbord

I'm terribly happy with this one. I am happy with it technique-wise, not because my technique is perfect, but because it does those little things that realists love doing. I love the hidden half of an orange behind the squeezed one on the left... the way it is nestled in a weird dark space that I created. I am also very happy with the hints of glow in the piece (not only Kinkade enjoys capturing light). That is something that if you try to plan for - it doesn't happen. It happens by setting the lighting and objects in such a way that you get pockets of glow as well as being able to draw/paint them to work right. In this picture I managed to get the little fruit glass of juice in just the right light to see that yellow orangey glow in the middle as well as in the flesh of the fruit slices.

I am also happy with this piece for the mood/image it displays. I have been guilty of looking at contemporary realist artwork and complaining that it is all well done, but "geez what century was it made in!?" Not only do the techniques harken back to the 19th century but so do the objects, arrangement and lighting. One thing that I have tried to do with my still-lifes is try to make them look up to date. I think this piece really achieves that with its graphic black and white backdrop and boldly lit colourful objects.

I have 3 more of these fruit glasses that are reminiscent of jelly jars - each with a different fruit on it. I plan on making more of these before school gets back to have ready for Art in the Park in Keene in the beginning of September as well as the upcoming Fall Foliage Art Studio Tour coming right after.

Madhatter

2011-07-31T15:48:00.000-04:00

I got back Tuesday from a great trip with the family back home in Chicago. We did get to see Harry Potter which was A-Mazing. When I got home and started to think of what new drawing to make I really wanted to do another Harry Potter inspired one, but resisted. Instead I made one equally as weird.

My mom gave me these cups with faces on them that came with bottles of Bailey's. I decided to stack them because I thought the faces partially obscured in different ways was a bit funny. However, paired with the grey background and mostly grey pencil they give off a slightly darker feeling.

Madhatter

11" x 14"

Coloursofts on Pastelbord

a little something from the trolley

2011-07-10T21:05:00.001-04:00

a little something from the trolley

5" x 8"

Coloursofts on Fisher 400 paper

I leave Tuesday for my yearly 2 week trip "back home" to the Chicago suburbs to visit my family, so I decided to do something little before I left.

The kids and I will be in Illinois when the final Harry Potter movie comes out and obviously I can't wait! See you at the Imax!

Graphite Hunt

2011-07-07T20:53:00.003-04:00

graphite (grft)

A naturally occurring, steel-gray to black, crystalline form of carbon. The carbon atoms in graphite are strongly bonded together in sheets. Because the bonds between the sheets are weak, other atoms can easily fit between them, causing graphite to be soft and slippery to the touch. Graphite is used in pencils and paints and as a lubricant and electrode. It is also used to control chain reactions in nuclear reactors because of its ability to absorb neutrons.

My family and I went hiking today to hunt for graphite, thanks to one of the very nice people at Creative Encounters in Keene who told me about the trail. I don't think the trail is even 2 miles from my home - it is on a nature preserve owned by Antioch University as part of the Horatio Colony Nature Preserve. The trail is great... but the best thing is that near the end of it there is an old "black lead" mine where you can find graphite rocks. I never thought about what graphite was... I guess I thought it was a mix of things... so it surprised me that you could go and find graphite rocks? The trail took us about 3 hours to do all together... with stops to read the guide, etc. The first mile is all up hill but then you walk the rest pretty level through the woods at the top of the long hill.

This is the trail to get to the black lead mine! People used to call graphite "black lead" before lead was deemed dangerous in the latter half of the 20th century - then that term fell out of favor. The word graphite comes from the Ancient Greek graphō, "to draw/write."

Believe it or not this is the old mine (above). It is actually a hole in the ground filled with water. Yucky water. It s maybe 20 feet across. Well I wasn't going to go sticking my hand in the water to look for black little rocks and I couldn't find any just scattered around. So we went on a hunt.

Next to the hole, I mean mine, was a tree that had fallen over and there were rocks and dirt stuck in the roots. I couldn't find any at first, but then my husband, who was looking in the hole that the tree uprooted from, said that he found them by brushing the black dirt. The graphite rocks perfectly matched the dirt, so if you brushed away the dirt, the rock surfaced. Above is my daughter taking her turn in the tree root hole.

The funny thing is now that I am looking things up about graphite, according to the Derwent pencil company, the legend is that:

in the early 1500s, a violent storm in the Borrowdale area of Cumberland led to trees being uprooted and the discovery of a strange black material underneath. This material turned out to be graphite, and shepherds began using it to mark their sheep.

So I guess looking under that upturned tree was a good idea!

Also in the dirt was loads of quartz, rose quartz, and mica. Actually there was so much mica that the dirt looked like it had glitter in it. This is me brushing through the black dirt. At the end our hands were really dirty with the graphite dust that permeated the dirt.

Here's the pieces that we found. Just little bits and then one that felt pretty good in your hand to write with. I wrote the word graphite using the tip of that larger one. It really did feel just like writing with a pencil.

The Derwent website has a quick explanation of how their pencils have been made over the years if you would like to know how rocks can be turned into pencils!
http://www.pencils.co.uk/heritage.aspx?mid=1258&pid=1

Harry Potter Inspired Still-life

2011-07-01T15:03:00.003-04:00

Click to Enlarge

Potions Class or Wizard's Chemistry
7" x 16" Prismacolors and Coloursofts on Fisher 400 paper

To commemorate the end of the Harry Potter entertainment era I really wanted to make a Harry Potter inspired still-life. I tried to make it inspired by HP. I wanted it to look like I was setting up props for one of the movies and had to find things that fit the part. Last year I went to see the Harry Potter exhibit of props at the Boston Science Museum and a lot of them were very ordinary things and I even saw a couple of things I owned myself (a Derwent canvas pencil roll, and some tea cups from Ocean State Job Lot) .

I set it up in front of my card catalog that I draped with some Gryffindor colored fabric. Then I lined up probably too many objects, but I couldn't help myself. I purchased the little block of wood holding a bunch of dirty test tubes, the little old books, and the weird things in jars from Seaver and Mc Lellan Antiques in Jaffrey, NH. Walking into Seaver and McLellan's is very much like walking onto a movie set - if you ever can make it there I suggest stopping by.

There are also a few little magical fun bits in there like the floating candle, the image of a young witch in a jar, and a spider going for a walk on another jar.

I hope you enjoy it - and I have to say I might be doing another, because I have some props I didn't get to use in this one!

How art is depicted in pop culture

2011-06-27T18:45:00.000-04:00

My friend posted this on her Facebook profile and I thought it was one of those touchy subjects we don't like to talk about. Do you agree Dilbert's coworker Wally? Just for fun what are your opinions?

Summer 2011 Goals

2011-06-26T17:42:00.000-04:00

You all know how summer goes by incredibly fast so I think I need to make some goals here for my own art. Besides making sure I take the kids to swim lessons and the pool most days, a handful of playdates, the trip or two out of town, (the ocean, Six Flags), and our annual 2 week summer trip back home to Illinois - I plan on getting the following things finished this summer:

(Insert picture of self with palm facing out)

I will get my portrait book finished by the time school gets back except for having it edited. (4 chapters are finished now).

I will make a Harry Potter themed still-life in the next two weeks (before the last movie comes out and I leave for Illinois).

I will attempt to arrange and photograph several still-life reference photographs for future use.

I will make at least 4 new still-lifes before Art in The Park in September.

Summer Expectations

2011-06-26T16:55:00.000-04:00

The snow days have been made up and it is finally the end of the school year.

As my second year of teaching elementary and middle school art was ending, I started thinking about what projects worked well and my general curriculum. I want to fine tune it for next year, which brought me to the questions of course of goals. I have all the state goals for art to go by, but I was thinking about what my personal goals are for what I teach the kids. What specific things do I want them to walk away with and especially what ideas of art do I want to convey.

Here's what I have so far...

I want my students to be able to draw with low stress.

I want my students to feel okay about making mistakes.

I want my students to understand that the amazing realistic paintings they look at at Museums/history are not made by geniuses but are made by people, who learn to use values and tones, and how to see the simple forms of objects.

I want my students to know that there are many art forms and crafts and many reasons why artists make art.

I want my students to know they don't have to like or understand all art, or all the art that hangs in museums.

I want my students to know that if they do enjoy drawing/painting that they don't have to just paint oil paintings, they have many creative options.

I want my students to know that creativity and artistic abilities is not something that flows out of some people - that artists are also crafters and that they work hard learning techniques, and practice their craft.

I want my students to know that art is a great way to express yourself but that practicing your art skills will only allow you to express yourself better.

Below are some of my favorite art definitions on the web. Funny how my favorites are from wikis...

The expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power

- google difinitions

Art is the process or product of deliberately arranging elements in a way to affect the senses or emotions. It encompasses a diverse range of human activities, creations, and modes of expression, including music, literature, film, sculpture, and paintings. ...

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art

Human effort to imitate, supplement, alter, or counteract the work of nature; The conscious production or arrangement of sounds, colours, forms, movements, or other elements in a manner that affects the sense of beauty, specifically the production of the beautiful in a graphic or plastic ...

en.wiktionary.org/wiki/art

Oh Deer...

2011-05-29T22:25:00.000-04:00

I have a show coming up next month at http://anthonytoepfer.com/ in Keene which is now affiliated with Monadnock Fine Art Gallery. The show opening will be June 17th. I'll post more information soon.

It is good timing too because when I am so busy with the "end of the year" stuff at my school and my own kids' school it is hard to keep making artwork. So this is pushing me to make some new pieces.

So here is the first new piece - one for the Kitsch Series.

Oh Deer!

8x10"

Coloursofts on Fisher 400 paper mounted on Gatorboard

I can't seem to get enough of these flower pots from the 50's/60's. They are just so much fun. Thanks again to my friend Luann Udell for lending me this adorable ceramic pot.

& thanks to Derwent for making the amazing color Lichen Green in the Coloursoft line which seems tobe able to disguise itself as a dirty spring green and a great shadowed yellow.

CPSA 2011

2011-05-02T17:04:00.000-04:00

I am happy to announce my piece Lasting Impressions got into this year's CPSA International Competition. I am really excited because it is my third to get in and will get me signature status this year.

As far as my computer issues - I am still without a real computer, but will have something to work with this week.

My past entries that got in are:

Becca http://www.imagekind.com/Contemplate-art?IMID=b9be6991-41a9-4b95-b0fb-999e7145d01e

& Diner Reflections http://www.imagekind.com/Diner-Reflections-art?IMID=0ebe81f7-79b2-4026-86f2-223536267c4f

The show will be at the

Charles W. Eisemann Center

2351 Performance Drive

Richardson, TX 75082

Jun 29-Jul 31

Publish Post

Computer Issues

2011-04-30T10:45:00.000-04:00

Just wanted to let you all know that I am having computer issues and will be posting again shortly. I have been spending time backing things up before it dies completely and my husband is trying to piece me together a frankencomputer.

Ageing

2011-04-20T08:31:00.000-04:00

I'm still trucking along. Its spring break, but the kids are home so my work time is strange this week.

I realized the portrait was looking like the model but he was starting to look like an older incarnation of himself so I sent him off to the fountain of youth. Above right is the before picture and left is the after. I desaturated them so the differences in the color cast won't distract. I spent a lot of time rounding his face more from all sides. and unsquaring his jaw. I also enlarged his irises and even thinned out his neck a little bit. Now if I could make people look younger in real life.

If you like this post, I wrote a post a while back on how to drop 5-10 years in your reference photographs: http://nicolecaulfieldfineart.blogspot.com/2009/06/how-to-drop-5-10-years.html

Rendering the Shirt

2011-04-17T11:05:00.002-04:00

Today's sneak peek is the shirt. I started with just finding the lightest and darkest big shapes, then brought them closer together with a wash of a medium gray, then started adding details and hard edges. I'll leave it at this level until I get the other arm in and know exactly how it reads. Of course in the book I will give you more information than this - I don't want to spoil it!

This portrait will be in the back of the book where I show how I put together a full portrait and what order I do things in. The previous chapters are: Supplies, Making A Reference Photograph/Drawing the Cartoon, Learning the 2 Step CP Technique, Proportions of the head, The Eyes in Detail, Other Features in Detail, Hands and Fabric. After these chapters will be full portrait WIP, some cropped in on the face and some further out like this one with all the supporting elements.

All the titles of the chapters have not been made yet so these are just descriptions of what will be in those chapters. So far I have 3 chapters in good shape and I am starting the 4th! At the moment it is 60 pages at 6" x 9" - a good format for an book.

The Little Apprentice

2011-04-16T14:21:00.000-04:00

My daughter is helping me fill in the background with black. Don't worry about it looking scribbly. It will all be finger blended together.

New Portrait

2011-04-15T14:41:00.002-04:00

I've been busy writing for my book, so I decided to take a break and make a work in progress, an example, for the book.

My coworker/friend was kind enough to let me borrow her sons for portraits, who I have in class as well so I do know their personalities. For this one I wanted to keep the nature theme of the Zen series, but have it say something about him. Well, he loves animals and has a put lizard of some sort. So I won't give away what the things will be in it, but you can guess it is lizard related!

The size is 16" x 20" Polychromos on Fisher 400 paper.

Keep, Store or Bin?

2011-04-08T14:13:00.003-04:00

Since I have more artwork to store at the moment than I am ready for, I am doing the arduous task of deciding what to keep, store, or bin. I know - its hard - but I've created a system that is working for me and I've even made a messy little flow chart of the questions I ask for each piece and an action required for each answer to those questions. It is helping me through that feeling that everything needs to be kept and everything has merit because I made it, which is much too emotional.

So I start with the top question and work my way down.

Does this piece support my brand? Which I think means a few things. First, if it supports my brand it is a good representation of my skill. If it was a bad day or an old piece that isn't up to par - the answer is No.
Fitting in my brand also means that the subject fits into the image I am trying to portray. That might mean it fits into a series I am working on at the moment or it might mean a general idea of subject. For example I have decided that my very traditional work that doesn't have much "me" in it doesn't fit in my brand anymore even if it is a skilled drawing. So for a recap: right now I am definitely keeping things that are well done and that have a Nicole twist on them like my 6x 18's and my kitsch or box series. I am not keeping things that I made to look like classical or dutch still-life with classical arrangements and drooping lemon peels. To those I will answer "no" because I think they no longer fit in the Nicole Caulfield brand.

If the answer was yes, I'll wrap it and keep it in the easily accessible ready for shows pile.

If the answer was no - next question

Will this piece fit in a theme or brand of the future? This is a judgement call. I may have done one piece that is different from the rest... like maybe my eighties piece. I can look at that and ask if it might fit in in the future even though at the moment it doesn't fit in my brand. & yep, I think I may want to do some more montage or collage pieces so I'll keep that one.

If the answer was yes, I'll wrap it and keep it not too far away so I don't forget it. Maybe I'll hang it up for a while.

If the answer was no - next question

Is this piece sentimental? A piece can be sentimental for various reasons. One that often comes up for me is that it shows some skill development. Things that I just plain old like but have no place to hang goes in this category too.

If the answer was yes, I'll take it out of the frame and store it in one of my portfolios.

If the answer was no - next question.

Would a friend or family member love it? Some people think you should never do this, but I see no harm in it if it would make them happy and I don't need it.

If the answer was yes, I'll wrap it and ship it off. If they want the frame, I ask they give me the cost of the frame.

If the answer was no - then it's time to Bin IT! If it hurts too much then I should have answered it was sentimental above... and I reserve the right to change my mind.

First Sneak Peek

2011-04-03T09:20:00.000-04:00

Here is a sneak Peak from the book in the making! This is step 1 and the last step of this demonstration. I'll have more sneak peeks from time time, some with more steps and some with less steps like this one.

and a little sketch to illustrate a point below.

Times Are Changing

2011-04-02T11:08:00.001-04:00

On Thursday I had the unfortunate task of picking up my artwork from Monadnock Fine Art Gallery because they are closing their doors due to the economic climate. They are greatly going to be missed by us artists as well as the community. I have been told that they are going to still function for us hosting rotating shows at various upscale Main Street businesses and keeping up their website.

photo: artwork picked up from Gallery on the studio floor

Two years ago I had come to a different crossroads. I started teaching part-time at a local grade and middle school. It is a demanding part-time job with 10 grade levels to teach in 2 days, along with no curriculum provided. My studio time out of school was invaded by constantly thinking about what projects I was going to do next and doing examples. Not only was my time eaten away, but my mental ability to stay focused on my artwork when I wasn't teaching was stressed. SO I had to down scale my fine art projects which included removing my artwork from galleries that weren't performing and putting my colored pencil portrait book project on hold. I decided to just keep my artwork at Monadnock Fine Art Gallery (the one that just closed) and Chasen Galleries.

So now that my best selling gallery is no longer needing the same output from me, I can resurrect my portrait book project. I am thinking of this change as a good thing and a chance for me to finish a project I really feel strong about. I have one chapter finished, and a table of contents finished already. Basically I have the book planned out which is the hardest part. I am thinking the rest of the chapters will take a fraction of the time that that first chapter took, as it was a huge learning process. I am also excited about how my teaching experience has enlightened me on a new direction for my exercises in the book. I am looking into self-publishing options in ebook and print format which was not as available two years ago, so the formatting and editing will lie on my shoulders, but I think it is worth it.

I hope you all are up for the ride into this new venture with me! It will also mean less artwork displayed on this blog for a little while. So watch for book sneak peaks and the occasional still-life or portrait in this space!

possible ebook cover concept

80's Makeover & Smurf study

2011-03-28T19:22:00.001-04:00

I finished! Here's my 80's still-life all finished. I think I'll name it "80's Makeover" instead of Heartbeat City. I hope you enjoy it.

80's Makeover

6" x 18"

Coloursofts on Pastelbord

& a Bonus little study up for a "Buy It Now" auction below.

I decided to make a companion little 4x6 drawing of a smurf. It is Derwent Coloursofts on Fisher 400 mounted on board. If you are interested the price is $30 with free shipping and the auction is here: http://bit.ly/eUKqGI

http://bit.ly/eUKqGI

Update on 80's Still-life

2011-03-24T15:48:00.000-04:00

I've gotten a bit further, but will have to put it on hold for a bit to do another project that has come up and has a deadline soon.

I've added my own 80's picture which is authentic eighties, although I did not have pink hair. Also added in is my 8year old in the very large for for her sunglasses and a teddy bear rainbow pin. The beads had to be rethought as what I have is a silver bead mardi gras necklace. I rendered them silver and it did not look right so I am trying to make them into pearls ala the Material Girl... they are still in progress.

Enjoy!

Heartbeat City - 80's Themed Still-Life

2011-03-20T09:39:00.004-04:00

I have been following the UKCPS (United Kingdom Coloured Pencil Society) for a while because I like seeing new and different colored pencil drawings. BUT recently I saw a blog post there that mentioned there would be an "Eighties Themed Prize" at their next member's show. I couldn't contain myself and joined the UKCPS even though I am a bazillion miles away, just so I had an excuse to make an 80's piece!

I've gone for the early eighties, even though I was young in the early eighties, because that is what people think of as "80's" now. I think my young age then has influenced what I chose for props however! I went on an eighties search for props in town and ended up buying this old Polaroid camera at the Salvation Army. I LOVED the rainbow on the front of it and that set the whole theme of the still-life. My daughters did an eighties makeover day with glasses, pink hair, and loads of eye makeup and I spruced up an authentic photograph of me in the late eighties (which will be seen soon). I've added a few other little eighties props, lipstick, those gasket-like rubber bracelets (I remember Madonna wearing) an authentic 80's rainbow teddy bear pin (my sister sent), a beaded necklace, a smurf, and the Cars cassette Heartbeat City. Like I said this still-life might be influenced by my young age in the early eighties. I did leave out the scratch-and-sniff stickers... but not much else.

I decided to do it on Pastelbord in case it does get in the show, so I don't have to send a picture under glass. As you all know my works on Pastelbord get varnished instead of sealed under glass. This will make it cheaper to ship and I won't worry about glass breaking along the way.

The short side of doing this on Pastelbord is that I don't like the way portraits look on Pastelbord with the graininess of the board and the inability to get really subtle changes in value/color or details for that matter. It is also hard to make corrections on - which I always need doing portraits to get the likeness just right. I'm plugging my way through however as the picture is so much fun.

If you want to enter this contest and join the UKCPS to do so, you can on their site (links below). The closing date for entry is 23rd April 2011 and they are only selecting 24 pieces! Eek!

http://www.ukcps.co.uk/ukcps/membership.php

entry rules: http://www.ukcps.co.uk/keswick_2011/Keswick_2011_entry_form.pdf

Work in Progress!

Heartbeat City

6" x 18"

Coloursofts and Prismas on Pastelbord

Derwent Coloursoft Tin

2011-03-12T18:57:00.002-05:00

Okay so now for the big news. I've been waiting a long time to tell you all about this. Last year Derwent commissioned me to make a drawing that "may or may not" be used on their new Coloursoft tin. They wanted fruit on fabric - that's all I was really told.

The big news is they decided to use it for the tin. I don't think the tin is out yet but a picture of it is on the Derwent website on the Coloursoft product page and it was spotted in a UK artist magazine ad (I'm not sure which one). It's interesting to see the actual artwork and how they cropped it and changed it up a bit to work on the tin. I think they did a fabulous job and I can't wait to see the tin in person!

Just for the other colored pencil nerds... I did the drawing with all Coloursofts on Fisher 400 paper.

Fossil, Trace, or Impressions Finished

2011-03-12T18:36:00.003-05:00

Okay I think this is finished now.

I'm really pleased with the addition of the ferns on the wall face. As part of the Zen series, I wanted the wall as much a part of the picture as the girl. I see the surroundings she is in as an abstract expressionist painting - all about the surface, like a Pollack or Rothko. The wall face is brought to the surface of the painting by being cropped off, by the texture, and by the decorative fern pattern. I think bringing this pattern to the surface matches what we do when we decide to pay attention to the beauty of nature.

I plan on getting this professionally photographed so I will repost it in a couple of weeks when I get it back.

Oh and any opinions on the title? "Fossil," "Trace," or "Impressions."

"Fossil" at the end of the day

2011-03-11T15:39:00.000-05:00

Fossil

16" x 25"

Fossil

2011-03-11T10:31:00.000-05:00

New portrait! Update later. Plus some really good news coming soon!

Portrait Update

2011-03-03T13:52:00.004-05:00

I am still working on that eye demo, which I should be finished with soon. In the meantime I've gotten a lot further on the portrait. At this point I am technically finished except for tightening up the shirt a bit. The shirt was very wrinkled and I promised I would not draw it that way, so it requires a lot of thought to get looking right. Its a fight between simplifying what I see and keeping true to the light pattern on his form.

I also need to photograph it better - despite my 10 MP camera and a tripod, my shots of my artwork are substandard. In this case washed out and grainy.

Update: Thank you my wonderful reader for the photography info - I've gotten a better picture which I added above. :-)

Sorry for the absence last week. The kids and I were off school and we spent our time redoing my oldest daughter's room with "older" furniture.

Sneak Pek

2011-02-18T10:29:00.001-05:00

Sneakie Peekie of what I am working on.

Sick yesterday so this week's post will be late.

New Stuff!

2011-02-15T17:02:00.002-05:00

Always on the lookout for new still-life items, when I had to go to Peterborough, NH last week I picked up these great ceramic hands at Bowerbird & Friends in Depot Square. I am not sure how I will use them yet, but I'm sure I eventually will. They are not antiques, which is fine with me - smaller price tag! They were displayed holding place setting names on a set table. I also got a couple of new diner mugs which I am very happy about. If you haven't noticed I have been enjoying getting a little fun or kitsch in my still-lifes lately so these hands go right along! If you are interested in buying a ceramic hand too I found this one online from Urban Outfitters., It is a jewelry stand. http://bit.ly/gkUfK5 & here are similar diner mugs available online. http://bit.ly/f4h0jk They are more expensive than what I paid - but if you have to have it too there they are!

On the same note, the great Design Milk Blog posted some glass straws today, but I was more interested in the glass milk carton she mentions in the post. http://bit.ly/eQSUDn I googled it to see if I could purchase one and to my amazement (I can). There were other similar things like a glass ziploc bag! How fun! & don't even talk to me about the food face plate - how fun would that be!? Maybe not for a still-life.... but just for the fun of it! ;-)

Another new thing in my studio is this cart. I got it last summer but just finally put it in the studio. It is a vintage cart that we picked up from a yard sale for $5! It is in perfect condition, no rust, completely sturdy. Actually it is in such good shape I am afraid to use it! I get upset when I buy something vintage/antique that has made it through the years unscathed only to shorten its life when it gets to my house. Well it was only $5 and is a very good example of why you shouldn't jump right away and buy one of those similar expensive ones made for artists and sold in the art catalogs. I've seen these several times at yard sales so keep a look out for one by you if you like it.

Can't wait to get to my art day on Thursday! See you then!

Nicole

2 Light Sources versus 1 Light Source

2011-02-13T10:46:00.003-05:00

This is where I am at after 2 days of work. The plan is to have just the face and collar area in focus and have everything else a bit out of focus, especially the window and masks on the wall.

I am really happy with the actual figure in this one. I decided to photograph him with the natural light of his home instead of dramatic lighting. I stood him close to one window with another window across the room. This allowed some strong blue light to hit his face and hair on the right from the close window and filtered, fainter warm light to hit his face from the windows across the room. I like how this lighter airier lighting looks with the young adult, softening him.

Just to show you the difference lighting can make, below is a portrait I did with my daughter as the model. I darkened the room and used one strong light on her right side. The dark reddish light on the left side is just the reflected light of the one light source bouncing off the other side of the room. It makes for a spooky dramatic effect. Dutch masters like Rembrandt and Vermeer were amazing at using this effect, although maybe they used this lighting because it mimicked their lighting in their homes! Windows or candles!

I used this dramatic one light source lighting in my Zen series.

Two Vermeers with very different lighting. Which do you prefer?

check out James Gurney's post on warm and cool light sources and their interaction! http://bit.ly/etxmhu

Beginning of a Portrait

2011-02-10T19:13:00.000-05:00

This is a portrait commission I've just started. It is going to be about 18 x 24" and is done with Polychromos on Fisher 400 paper.

Valentine Kid Craft Idea

2011-02-10T09:42:00.000-05:00

It is Thursday & if you are getting to know my schedule you know that means it is a day dedicated to my art. Mon, Tues, Wednesday are teaching days & Thursday and Friday are my art days. Saturday and Sunday as well as evenings are family time.

Before I start my colored pencil drawing of the week I wanted to share with you a simple Valentine's Day craft I did with my kids at school yesterday as I think it would be a great home craft in time for the holiday. I did it with preschool - 3rd grade and they all enjoyed it and added their own personal twists to the project. I wish I would have photographed the amazing ones the students did or brought home my example from school, but I didn't think of it in time, so you will have to imagine my quick example below.

So I know - what is the craft Nicole?! Now that I hyped it up it won't seem so exciting.

I often frequent Martha Stewart crafts for inspiration for my little kiddos at school and I came across this lace printing project. http://www.marthastewart.com/article/lace-print-stationery I was thinking about doing it with preschool (3-4 year olds) and decided:

1) it was a bit too difficult for them and

2) I would have to go out and purchase lace, so the idea had to be tweaked.

So what we did was make lacey heart stencils out of just plain old copy paper. For the smallest kids I folded their paper and had a line for them to cut on to form the heart, while the older kids made their own. Then they were allowed to use hole punches to make them look doily-like. Again, I wish I had some of their examples because they really went all out on them. This one is just the simplest you can go. They added rows and rows of hole punches, heart punches, flowers, zig zag scissors, etc. We also made separate stencils of rows of small hearts using a small hand held punch, which worked great for creating a frame around the card.

I really like the kids making their own stencils and have done it with trees for a snowy landscape before. It gives them confidence and allows them to add their creativity. It also teaches them about symmetry and positive and negative space.

stencil tools: scissors, hole punch, shape hole punch, zig zag scissors

Next of course is the printing. If there is one thing I've learned as an art teacher of smaller kids, its that you do have to limit the supplies a bit so they don't make a big painty mess. What I did at school was squirted a very small amount of magenta, white, and turquoise paint on paper plates. I showed the kids how to sponge over their stencil using a very small amount of paint on the sponge (in all three colors) in a dabbing or up and down motion. They seem to want to drag the sponge across instead of dab, which quickly tears the cheap stencil and of course makes it go under the edge, so the little ones may need help to do the process right. I found that for the kids that were having a hard time, if either I or a partner held down the stencil with two hands while the child printed slowly, it worked well.

The best part of this craft is when the child lifts up their stencil and sees the crisp design in all the marbled colors underneath... their eyes light up like its magic!

Anyway! I hope you try it with your kids or grandkids and make a better one than my quick example up above!

I'll post the colored pencil drawing I am working on tonight or tomorrow. Cheers.

White Espresso

2011-02-03T21:36:00.001-05:00

White Espresso 6" x 18"

Coloursofts on Green Pastebord

I hope everyone has made it through this week's crazy weather! It did alter my week a bit, having a snow day for the whole family on Wednesday... that was our 4th snow day. The kids are getting a bit bored with it and unfortunately they have a week off at the end of the month called "Winter Break." Don't worry though I've gotten pretty good at working with constant interruptions. My husband was pretty impressed even, as he usually ends up stopping his work and playing video games with the girls.

I barely finished this piece in time to have a post for the week as tomorrow I am going into work (which is usually a dedicated art day), but I am glad I finished. I did have to photograph it with a light shining on it since it was dark, so I will try and replace this photo with a better one when the place is lit up tomorrow after work. There's a bit of a glare on the left side - you can tell especially in the the dark space of the bottom of the espresso pot. It is a bit blurry too.

The idea behind this still life was to have all silver and grays, but hidden inside are pops of color. Kind of like what it looks like outside my New Hampshire home right now!

There are a couple of progress shots below that were taken during daylight hours!

Framing Colored Pencil Without Glass

2011-01-27T16:50:00.008-05:00

Today is an art working day, but no new artwork has been worked on. Why? Because I needed to finish off and frame the 2 pieces I just finished and deliver them to the gallery. This blog post will explain what I do to finish off a piece of art, but first I'll have to explain the process and supplies I use.

Most of you know that my still-lifes are framed without glass. I do this for a couple of reasons:
1. to make pictures seem more approachable/intimate.
2. to bypass the perils of framing with mats & glass.

I've tried quite a few surfaces for colored pencil that can be framed without glass, but my favorite is Ampersand Pastelbord which is described as "a clay and gesso coated hardboard panel with a granular marble dust finish comparable to a sanded pastel paper..." It was first recomended by my friend/artist Louise Sackett who thought I was a little nutty trying to make my own sanded board with grit, paint, etc. when Ampersand has a pre-made board.

Choosing a Color

It comes in grey, green, tan and white. I find the white board unusable for my techniques unfortunately. The grain is quite large on Pastelbord so whatever the color the board is, that color will show in the "grain" as dots in the finished artwork. The white is just too white when seen in dark areas of the composition, throwing the values of the piece off. I prefer working with one of the colors and choose the color based on what I think will look the best in the grain of the piece. If I have a piece like Tea with Milk that is mostly cool colors, I'll choose the grey board because the little specks of grey in the grain will influence the overall tone of the piece.

Pieces like Italian Decadence is a bit harder to choose. The overall tone is warm, but the tan board is light and would lighten the dark areas of the cloth and bottles of oil too much... so I'd be better off using either green or grey board.

Building Up Your Lights.

Using colored board is a bit different than using white or beige paper because you have to make sure that your light and medium colored objects look bright enough on that color, especially after varnishing. What I do is build up my lights in the light and medium areas to make sure they glow. Since this post is on what I do when I finish a piece, I'll save this explanation for another post.

Colored Pencils That Can Be Varnished

Not all colored pencil brands can be varnished. Faber-Castell Polychromos (which I use for all my portraits) can not be varnished. The paint thinner that is in spray varnishes to keep them liquid eats away at the colored pencils, and the oil binder in Polychromos can't withstand it so your drawing literally dissolves away. I've found that Derwent Coloursofts, Prismacolors, and Caran d'Ache Luminance pencils all do well with spray varnish, although you still have to be ready for some colored pencil to dissolve and color changes with the process.

Using the Prismacolor Colorless Blender to Minimize Dissolving Pencil

Despite these changes in the drawing when you varnish, I still think it is worth doing to stay away from glass. Plus you can anticipate the changes that will happen and minimize the changes or use them for your advantage. One thing that happens when you varnish is a small amount of colored pencil will dissolve, making more of the color of the board show through. That is why I build up my lights in light areas when working on a dark surface. If there are enough light layers of colored pencil under your color, it will darken less (demonstration in future post). Also if you regularly build up your pencil to burnishing levels it seems to not have as many significant changes. I don't usually burnish however, so I've found that if I put a layer of Prismacolor's Colorless Blender on my pieces, especially in the lighter areas, the colors stay brighter. Going back through the piece to add the blender pencil takes time, but it also gives you a chance to blend the pencil in some of the grain and soften edges if needed. I've found that adding the blender only on the areas that I don't want to darken is sufficient and actually adding the blender over black or dark areas leaves some light colored wax, so I wouldn't do it.

After you finish adding colorless blender over your drawing just make sure you remove any colored pencil dust before varnishing (or hair or whatever else has fallen on your artwork) as it will be a permanent fixture to the piece if you leave it there!

Varnishing, Finally

I use canned spray varnish over my pieces. I once sadly tried a brush on kind and wiped my entire drawing off, so using a spray on varnish ensures the pencil stays in place until it dries. There are matte, semi gloss and gloss versions of the spray and any of them will work, so choose the look you like best. I've used them all, and right now I am enjoying the look of the glossy finish. Today I used Grumbacher's Picture and Oil Painting Varnish in the Gloss finish which I purchased locally at Michael's. You can use other brands; I've even used Krylon's Kamar varnish from Walmart, but you need to make sure it says "Non-Yellowing" and test it first on a scrap drawing.

When you spray, hold the can at least 8-10 inches away from your piece and only spray a fine mist at a time. If you spray a whole bunch so it pools, more colored pencil will dissolve. After spraying the whole thing in a fine mist, let it dry and do it over again. Repeat until it is evenly coated and the entire surface has a glossy wet sheen. I hold my drawing up to the light and tilt it to see if there are any dull areas that indicate missed spots. That's it, if you have a nice even finish without any exposed colored pencil purchasers of your artwork will have a protected surface that they can then wipe clean with a damp cloth if need be.

You might notice that the dark areas of your drawing got a little deeper or that very subtle glazes of colored pencil disappeared with the varnish. The more you varnish your colored pencil work, the more you will be able to anticipate these changes and work them into your design, As a last note... if you are going to photograph your artwork you may want to do that before you varnish so you don't have to work around the glare of the varnish finish.

Italian Decadence and Tea with Milk are now showing at the Monadnock Fine Art Gallery in downtown Keene, NH. Call 603-352-3201 if you are interested.

Italian Decadence

2011-01-23T10:31:00.002-05:00

Italian Decadence 6" x 18" Coloursofts & Prismacolors on Pastelbord

You might notice I chose a different reference from the one in the video in the last post. I wanted it to look more decadent so I decided on this set up where the satin fabric played a larger role. There are a lot of objects in this piece, but I think it works because of the way like colors/values are grouped together. Please click on the photo to view it larger.

People often ask how long my drawings take to do, so for this one I tried to figure that out.

Thursday: 4 hours setting up still-life, Photoshopping and drawing line drawing on board.

Friday day: 5 hours drawing (with breaks)

Friday night: 4 hours

Saturday day & night: 8 hours

That adds up to 21 hours for this little piece. Although I have to admit that the cow still-life, which is the same size, took me about 14 hours. The Italian one has more objects that are also more detailed so it took a lot more time.

Sneak Peak Video

2011-01-20T11:31:00.001-05:00

Here's a sneak peak of what I am working on today/tomorrow. I made one of these videos before and I think they give a little glimpse into what goes into composing a still-life. For me, it starts out with an idea, a format, and some objects and usually looks terrible at that beginning stage. Then I find something that works and keep that the same and change things around it until I hopefully get something good. Hope is very important in the process!

I also threw a few images of where this still-life is taking place... in a big mess and a terrible corner of my studio! Its amazing what cropping does!

Still-life with Moo-cow

2011-01-18T18:51:00.006-05:00

I bought this cow creamer a while ago, but had trouble fitting its long shape into a still-life. Putting the tipped over cup behind it offered the composition a similar shape which I think makes it work. That same cup with the spoon sticking out of it plus the curving and waving fabric added a lot of movement to the composition which was a lot of fun. That movement almost animates the rest of the objects, which makes it seem like the cow creamer is threatening to walk out of the composition. Which makes me think... if personification is "the attribution of a personal nature or character to inanimate objects" then is this animalification?

I tried something of a new technique on the background. Since I was using a grey board and I wanted a grey background, I laid down a colored pencil the same color as the board: Dove Grey Coloursoft. This gave me a smooth texture to smudge other greys into by first scribbling them on, then swirling them around with a 1/2 inch bristle brush. I like the effect and it took less time than usual.

Sorry for the blurry photographs (like usual) and you can click on them to see it larger.

New Website

2011-01-17T18:44:00.002-05:00

My official website has been down for a little while. Here is the story of why it was down and the beginning of a friendship with a new host. If you don't want to hear the whole sordid story scroll down until you see this symbol *. I don't mind.

Basically the trouble started when my host updated itself and stopped working with my old version of Dreamweaver. I loved Dreamweaver and had been using it since the 90's without having to bother my website savvy husband, which I enjoyed greatly. I called and called my host and could get it working again only to lose connectivity the next time I tried to log on. I looked into getting more current software but it is expensive.

So I decided to leave my host and find a new one - one that doesn't require software.

Then it happened.

I cancelled my hosting account with my original company, which we'll call SN. What I didn't know is that I had originally registered my domain name also with SN and when I cancelled my hosting account with them I also lost access to my domain name. & since my account had an email address that was also cancelled when I cancelled my account, I had no way to put in a transfer to a new domain name provider. Sigh. So I called them and had them change my email address so I could get the transfer code.

BUT when you change your email address with your registrar, your account gets flagged by I think Internic and they freeze you from transferring your domain I think for 60 days.

Are you following?

SO I went to that web savvy hubby and he got it up for now.

What I have to do is stay with SN for my domain until those 60 days are up and then transfer. In the meantime my domain with them is set to expire next month... so I'll have to renew it somehow (even though I technically don't have an account) so I can transfer it in March without losing it.

* So my website IS back up at www.nicolecaulfield.com and also www.nicolecaulfieldfineart.com in case I lose my domain name next month.

Take a look at the new site. I set it up using Google sites which is a completely FREE service. I think its a great way to go for art sites!

& the moral of this story? Don't sign up your domain name at the company that you use for hosting your site!

Revelation

2011-01-14T15:54:00.003-05:00

I think I gave the wrong impression in my post after the Thorne show notice from the comments that are stirring in that post.

Actually not getting in the Thorne is exactly what I needed.

First, the idea of the series (that the ballerina girl is in) is just so unbelievably "me" in its weird sense of humor and ties to the past and illustration. The idea behind the series, as I've said before, is a re-imagining of Norman Rockwell's famous covers if they were done today, looking at the weirdness of what we are like now. It is deliberately in a illustration-like style with more "pop" colors than I usually use, partly because this series is based on illustration,but also because it reflects on the consumer/ad centered society we live in. I plan on touching on issues like technology, roles of wives/husbands in families, etc. I'm kind of thinking of the series as post-pop, or maybe steam punk fifties, lol.

Now onto why I made the comments I did questioning the validity of the series. I was struggling with the feeling of "WHY" when I started the series. I knew I WANTED to do the series and felt it would be fun to explore the psyches of today in a humorous way, but just because I really wanted to isn't always a good enough reason to make the drawings, when so much time and money will be put into creating them. The problem I was having was, I needed to know who my audience was. This is what I was struggling with after finding out that I didn't get in... I needed to know what I should do with the series. Not getting in just made me have to deal with the thoughts I was already having.

Anyway I've figured something out. I have to do this series, whether or not it fits into my current market that I have carved out for myself. I'm going to work on these at the same time as my still-lifes and "Zen" series and eventually will have enough pieces for a show or possibly to put in print. Maybe this series would do well in a more digital format even... after I get more pieces ready I can explore my options. That doesn't mean I think they have no place in galleries, because I do, it just means they are different than my other work so I will have to figure out where they fit in when I have more of them.

Anyway I would never stop exploring new ideas, techniques etc, because I know that is how I've gotten to where I am now. I also am not defeated by not getting in the show as I know how shows are judged and understand that it is not a reflection on my validity by not getting in or by winning... I hope it didn't sound like I was whining, but rather I was doing a necessary self-reflection about the new series, which is such a departure from the work in my current venues.

Anyway... I have made some progress on my preteen slumber party I've been posting and I did start a still-life today... just the sketch and set up so far though.... my day was cut short by a frenzied daughter who forgot that she was supposed to bring brownies for a bake sale today, so I was baking the first half of the day. Since there isn't much progress to show yet, that is what I will leave you with for today's picture... some behemoth brownies. :-) The recipe is on Bakers unsweetened chocolate boxes and are called cake-like brownies.

Show at the Peterborough Library - Artwork Update

2011-01-13T10:26:00.002-05:00

I just realized I didn't make a blog post about my show at the Peterborough library this month. I have several pieces displayed at the library in downtown Peterborough, NH through the end of January. January 31st to be exact.

Most of the work is portraiture but to fill things out I did put in a couple of still-lifes including the two above. I know I said I was going to bring the good luck kitty to the gallery, but I found I needed it to create this display.

I believe the town of Peterborough has dug itself out of the snow if you want to go check it out! <3

Bonus Day... otherwise known as Snow Day!

2011-01-12T15:58:00.002-05:00

I know, I only work two days a week so a snow day isn't that big of a deal, but I did sneak in a little work. My husband and kids had a snow day too so it is pretty energetic around the house. I usually spend snow days out in the snow shoveling, snow blowing, sledding etc, but with my injured knee the family had to do that without me, leaving my tasks to filling the crock pot (with butternut squash soup) and readying the hot chocolate.

I also had some bonus time for my drawing. Before you say there isn't much more finished, keep in mind the size of this puppy (and please try to not notice the falling duct tape on the side of my paper). I started the girl in the back's pants and had to go back in and deepen the shadows on the shirt to work with the pants.

This had me thinking about the debate between people who work their picture's "as a whole" and people who work piece by piece like me until they are finished. The thing is... I think we are both really doing the same thing. If you work on all parts as a whole you put in basic color shades in large shapes around the paper then go back in and refine until you get to details. I would imagine as an artist put down those large shapes of color in the first step they may have to adjust a shape/color somewhere else on the page to work together (or maybe that is done in the refining steps).

When you work piece by piece its not that you work each part to conclusion and move to the next... you are always refining the parts you put down to work with the rest. Just like in this instance where I put in the pants leg and had to deepen the shadows in the shirt.

I just trudged out into the snow to get the mail and found out that I did not get into the Thorne Sagendorph show this year. This is a regional biennial show that is a big deal in my area. At the last one my piece Zen won Best of Show and People's Choice. I was nervous this time about my piece getting in... I entered the ballerina from my Norman Rockwell series. I'm not sure how I feel about that... it does make me question this series... is it not "artistic" enough? Is there a place for humor in the gallery world? Maybe I need to use polychromos like in my Zen piece because it comes out more painterly and less illustration-like? Not sure.....

African Masks

2011-01-10T21:28:00.001-05:00

Can you believe after that last post bragging about running I took my daughter ice skating on Sunday and injured myself. I was skating fast holding hands with my daughter and leaning around her to talk to my friend and my toe pic caught landing me hard on my left knee. Now I have been lying or sitting with my leg propped up and ice on it for all day or hobbling around. I hope it heals quickly so I don't miss too many days of running, but at the moment I can't bend it without pain.

Anyway I thought I would share some student art! This fall my students and I walked over to Keene State's Thorne Sagendorph Art Gallery to see the African Art exhibit. I took all students K-8th grade. They really enjoyed the exhibit (or so they tell me) and afterwards they made some African inspired paper or paper mache masks. I'll post some pictures below.

The kindergarteners made the paper "body-sized" masks the are above the panels. The rest are made of strip paper mache or paper pulp. These are just a sampling - the display went down the entire hallway.

Happy New Year!

2011-01-08T14:32:00.002-05:00

If you are friends with me on Facebook you know I am good and well, but I've heard a few people have been asking where I've been, which brings me to this blog post. I think we all have to evaluate where we should put our energies or resources from time to time and the new year is the perfect time.

Last year I started teaching 2 days a week at an elementary/middle school. It is a demanding 2 days with teaching 5 grades each day (preschool - 8th grade) and different assignments for each grade (sometimes 10 assignments in a week). I thought it was just a 2 day a week job but with the time I put in at home planning, it is at least a 3 day job. It is not a surprise then to hear I was not as productive with my art last year and since I am still crafting my curriculum and getting things ready for the little ones - this school year as well.

Not only does work cut in to my drawing time, I am also committed to my family and to my health, so the rest of my time is busy as well. My husband and kids are my first priority (yes, even over my art)... which means that their engagements often come before my own. Driving them to see their friends, inviting their friends over, birthdays, sports, crafts, etc. The way I see it, kids don't stay kids very long and I don't want to miss any of it.

The other commitment I mentioned is the health of me and my family. I started running about 3 - 4 years ago to get healthy and it is a big part of my life now. It surprises me that before I started running I would get winded climbing our small flight of stairs or get tired from even short amounts of time playing outside with the kids. I started running/walking (because I couldn't even run a mile), and now I run almost every day 5 miles a day or more (unless I wake up late). I've run 13 miles in my own private half marathon and just couldn't live without that exercise now.

Healthy eating also sucks up my time. I used to order out often or cook using packaged foods and now I cook dinner most every night from scratch. My husband and I have started eating pescetarian... vegetarian with fish allowed. I try and cook everything from scratch too so we don't have all the preservatives and additives in packaged foods, which means I've gotten good at making breads, and homemade tortillas to supplement the vegetarian diet.

With the new year, it is time again to reevaluate how I spend my time and set resolutions to spend it the best way I can. This year I would like to focus on making the most of the two days I have alone to make art, as well as attend more art events again in my region and get back to writing more on this blog even if that means sharing more of my students' art or some of the things I do with my family. I have already made myself a little more time by canceling the class I usually teach at MOCO Arts and will have to figure out a way to maximize the rest of my time. As far as increasing my output on art, I think it would be better to just make the best art I can in those 2 days. That would mean less art again this year, but better art if I am not stressed about how much I put out, so quality over quantity!

I hope it doesn't sound like I am complaining about how my time is spent, I have really been enjoying everything I've been doing, but if I am going to continue this blog I think I may have to rethink the content of it as I have the content of the rest of my life. There was a time when all I could think about was furthering my art career and about nothing else. My family suffered as did my health... so as with my life, this blog will probably start to have some non-art things included. Maybe I need a new title for my blog to reflect the change - let me know what you think.

So today not only do I want to share the new drawing I am working on I would also like to share the lowfat baked doughnuts the kids and I made today. mmm http://hubpages.com/hub/Low-Fat-Donuts They didn't turn out as "doughnutty" as I would have liked, but a healthier take on a weekend treat is a good thing. We dipped some of them in a chocolate glaze, but since the doughnuts are really not that sweet, I thought the cinnamon sugar ones tasted better.

Now for the art!!! This is the second piece of my Norman Rockwell updated series. This one shows two preteen girls in the pj's surrounded by all the tools of a girlie sleepover circa 2011: makeup, hairbrush, popcorn, laptop (facebook), cellphone (texting), etc. I think I may name it something like "Some Things Never Change," but I'm not sure if you can have italics in a title. *Sarcasm* I hope it shows how integrated social technology is in kids' lives. It is large, like the one with the ballerina soccer girl, measuring 24" x 36". I'm using my fave Fisher 400 paper (which I am almost out of) and Derwent Coloursofts and Prismacolors. Click on them to see them bigger!

& Happy New Year everyone! If you skimmed most of my rambling - I won't hold it against you! ;-)

Good Luck

2010-11-08T12:34:00.005-05:00

Good Luck

12" x 12"

Coloursofts and Prismas on Fisher 400 paper

I just finished my Good Luck still-life. I should have photographed it before I varnished it as it glares all over it. It still needs to be mounted then I'll bring it in to the gallery.

Birdhouse for Colonial Theater

2010-11-04T21:51:00.003-04:00

I've finished my contribution to the Colonial Theater fundraiser in Keene. The theme is Birdland so they asked us all to put our artwork on a handcrafted birdhouse to be auctioned off. I showed my birdhouse untouched in an earlier post:
http://nicolecaulfieldfineart.blogspot.com/2010/09/since-art-in-park-ive-gotten-one.htm

& here is the finished piece. It is all colored pencil. I used orange zest (a thinner) to melt the colored pencil on the top and bottom spindles which gave it a colored stained look. The rest is straight colored pencil.

If you would like to try colored pencil on wood, the pencil went on the wood easily but did not allow for layers or any mistakes. When you drew on it it incised the soft wood which was sometimes good and sometimes bad. I also couldn't find anything that could erase the pencil on it. Get yourself a wood piece that is nice and smooth as well so the texture isn't a fight.

New Still-life

2010-10-26T06:35:00.001-04:00

Here's the beginning of a 12" x 12" still-life with a lucky cat teapot.

& here's a video my students did in my MOCO Arts Animation Clas!! video

Final Wrong Place, Wrong Time

2010-10-21T12:23:00.002-04:00

Its finally finished! I am going to get my references ready for the second of the series asap, but in the meantime look for some still-lifes from me for the holiday season!

Update on "Wrong Place, Wrong Time"

2010-10-14T16:22:00.003-04:00

Almost finished! I'll try and take a better photo when it is finished. Just the right event bubble to do... and then going over the whole and getting things to work better together.

For an explanation of this piece... and what those bubbles are for see my original post: http://nicolecaulfieldfineart.blogspot.com/2010/10/beginning-of-norman-rockwell-series.html

Photos from the Open Studio

2010-10-14T16:19:00.001-04:00

A big thanks to everyone who came to see Luann and I at the open studio! For those of you who didn't there is next year! Its a great time to travel to New Hampshire - always at the peak of foliage!

Update Friday

2010-10-08T13:33:00.002-04:00

Painfully slow progress, isn't it?

I would like to invite you all to an open studio event I am participating in this weekend: the Fall Foliage Art Studio Tour in the Monadnock region which coincides with the Dublin Art Tour.

You may remember that I moved from my studio downtown at the beginning of the summer? So instead of everyone looking behind the sofa at my cubby... I will be in my friend Luann Udell's art studio. She makes fabulous fiber art and jewelry art and she's a lot of fun, so I am excited to hang out with her for two days. If you are near Keene, she is on Roxbury Street, East of Main Street about a half mile. Just look for the signs. :-)

I will be bringing this work in progress along so if you would like to see me working on it come on by this weekend!

Update on Wrong Place, Wrong Time

2010-10-07T19:16:00.002-04:00

Here's a very warped update! I took away the hairs that were on her face for a cleaner look and have started all that grass!

I really wish I could buy open stock pencils locally that are not Prismacolors! Coloursofts are my workhorses but I don't want to wait for them to be shipped to keep going, so the pencils here will be very mixed. Good thing they play nice together: its a mixture of Coloursofts, Prismas, and Luminance pencils.

Beginning of Norman Rockwell Series

2010-10-05T18:14:00.001-04:00

I've been wanting to do a series inspired by Norman Rockwell for a long time (ask my friends, they are tired of hearing about it) and I am finally diving in. The idea of the series is to combine the sense of humor of Rockwell but apply it to today's social environment. I want them to say something about family life TODAY and all the wonderful weirdness of it. Issues I am thinking of is the plethora of extracurricular activities kids are in, the infusion of gadgets in our daily lives, working Moms, Dad's new roles, etc. etc.

The reason why I haven't started yet is because the set up on them is more than I am used to and I am not sure how I will market them... or if I will. I just feel like I have to do them and after just having my 38th birthday I am ready to risk it and to do the series, before I hit 40, lol. That is what you do right? Hit 40?

So I started my first one... its a simple one, in that it only has one model. The next one will have multiple models, props etc so I decided to do my first one with just one model (even if she [my daughter] made me pay her $20 for the honor of portraying her).

I think the title will be "Wrong Place or Wrong Time." A little girl stands on an empty soccer field, ball in hand, cleats and pads on, but also dressed in her ballet outfit and bunned hair. Did her mom drop her off at soccer when she is supposed to be at ballet? The viewer can guess, but down near her feet will be two google calendar event bubbles for "Soccer Practice on Thursday" and "Ballet Class" on Wednesday. I wonder if she looked at the calendar before she drove off in the SUV?

It is 24" x 36" - which is huge for me. I plan on getting these photographed after and if I frame them, framing them open air (no glass) &varnished to cut framing costs and to keep the weight down - glass is heavy. If I varnish I can't use Polychromos like I usually do with my portraits, so I am using Coloursofts and Prismacolors like I do on my still-lifes. The paper is my favorite Fisher 400, which I am running low on now! Varnishing these may backfire. Whenever you varnish a colored pencil drawing the darks will deepen and some colors will change a bit. That's why I will be having them photographed professionally first and then trying the varnish. Hopefully the varnish won't change them much!

Keene Sentinel Article

2010-10-02T09:23:00.001-04:00

I was recently interviewed for an article in my local newspaper. The article is for a piece they do every other week focusing on a member of the community. It will be online probably only for a week. You can see the new "little" piece I'm working on it it too.

http://www.keenesentinel.com/articles/2010/10/02/community/monadnock_profile/free/id_414222.txt

Nopales

2010-09-24T11:13:00.003-04:00

Cactus Salsa

In November I am going to be part of an exhibition at Mission Trails Regional Park in San Diego California along with my online critique group: Louise Sackett, Katherine Tyrrell, Gayle Mason, and Vivien Blackburn.

The show is supposed to reflect the wildlife in the park. Here's a snippet from the Mission Trails website:

Mission Trails Regional Park encompasses nearly 5,800 acres of both natural and developed recreational acres. Its rugged hills, valleys and open areas represent a San Diego prior to the landing of Cabrillo in San Diego Bay in 1542.

It has been tough for the group to come up with subject matter for the show as all but Louise lives far from the area. I live in New Hampshire, on the east coast, which seems mighty far away, but Katherine, Vivien and Gayle live even further away in England, so I am not going to complain.

On the Mission Trails website they have listings of pretty much all the plants that live in the park. One was the prickly pear cactus (the one and only cactus in the park) which I am very grateful for! So when I went back home to Illinois this summer I visited a Mexican grocer and got myself some prickly pear cactus! I know... show in California, I live in New Hampshire and I picked up the subject in Illinois... at a grocery store. Well you do what you have to do!

So to end an unnecessarily long story, my cactus has been getting browner and browner in the fridge so I had to do this piece now! Its a collection of ingredients for Nopales Salsa!

I'll be doing a couple of more pieces for the show soon... thanks to my stepsister Lisa who lives in San Diego and who sent me a bunch of goodies she and her son picked up for me!

2010-09-16T16:32:00.005-04:00

Since Art in the Park I've gotten one artwork finished, but its not something I can show you presently... sorry about that. Its Top Secret for now. :)

So on to other things...

I was asked to participate in a fundraiser for our local arts theater: the Colonial Theater.

It is one of these dinner/art auction/raffle things that they have every year. They always do themes for it and the artwork auctioned goes along with the theme. One year it was "Tray Jolie" and we decorated trays. This year the theme is:

“Birdland” : Birdland was a jazz club founded in New York City in 1949 by Charles Parker, a noted saxaphone player. The club still exists today but not in the original place.

So of course we are applying our artwork to birdhouses. Mine is the one that I am holding above. Ignore the face I am making - that is the face you make when a 7 year old is trying to take your picture and is taking a long time.

I have never drawn on wood so my daughter and I practiced today on little $1 birdhouses I piked up at the craft store. The wood is rougher than the wood on the nicely crafted house I will be using but it allowed me to try out which pencils worked and how much detail and layering I could get.

I found that the waxed based pencils worked best. I preferred Derwent Coloursofts over Prismacolor because they are very soft and covered the wood much more quickly. The Prismas worked fine but would take longer to over the wood.

As far as details and layering goes - they both performed the same: not that well. The colors go on bright and pretty but you will only get a maximum of 3 layers on there. So I think my design will have to be pretty stylized which is okay.

I am thinking about doing apples in a tree for the birdhouse so that's what I did for practice:

2010-09-06T20:01:00.001-04:00

Art in the Park was a lot of fun... but windy. Look for some new pieces of mine at the Monadnock Fine Art Gallery in Keene... soon.

Updates

2010-08-25T20:40:00.002-04:00

Updates! Another kitsch piece finished! I am hoping to get one more done before Art in the Park on Labor Day weekend. That is our local art fair that happens in town that same weekend every year. I missed it last year with it being my first year teaching but will be back this year! Hope to see you there!

A Bird & a Feather

8" x 10"

This portrait isn't quite finished. I'm still working out the likeness that is a bit off, but its close!

I did nail his hair and t-shirt though! ;-)

Let's Get Synthy!

2010-08-22T17:07:00.005-04:00

My brother-in-law just got married this weekend, so I've been in festive mode (which really isn't a good enough excuse for the bad title of this blog post).

Ben and his beautiful wife Caitlin had such an amazing wedding at an estate in Harrisville, NH. It is at the top of a hill overlooking Mount Monadnock, Harrisville Pond and countless tree topped hills; with a full panoramic view of it all from the estate's deck and lawn.

I took several photos standing in one place on the deck but turning my body so I could get as many continuous shots of the panoramic view and today I created a Photosynth of the scene; which I just found out about at a recent edcamp unconference in Keene (thanks Matthew).

Here's a description from their website of what photosynth is/does:

"Photosynth takes your photos, mashes them together and recreates a 3D scene out of them that anyone can view and move around in.

Different than static photos and video, Photosynth allows you to explore details of places, objects, and events unlike any other media. You can’t stop video, move around and zoom in to check out the smallest details, but with Photosynth you can. And you can’t look at a photo gallery and immediately see the spatial relation between the photos, but with Photosynth you can."

Here it is below! Go ahead and click the Photosynth tips box off after you read it so it doesn't block your view. Okay now to look at the view just click the right or left arrow since that is the only directions that I turned. Then if you are looking at a photo you like and want to zoom in hit the plus button - even a few times to get right in.

Of course I instantly can see how great this gadget would be for art shows/galleries. Instead of taking a shaky tour with a handheld video camera you can take shots all around the room and allow the people to walk around. You actually don't have to do a circle like I did too - as long as the shots have some overlap the program can stitch them together and you can meander around the space.

I searched their site for "art gallery" to see if anyone is doing this and found loads:

HAEA Faculty Art Show by Chanbliss
& a simpler one:
SB Art Gallery

Another great use for Photosynth is making a 3D rendering of a statue or object like Matthew Ragan did below. I would imagine for a gallery, you could even do this with smaller objects so people can really take a good look at a sculpture.

New Works

2010-08-15T22:30:00.002-04:00

I went for a trip back home to the Chicago burbs for a couple of weeks. Here's what I have been working on since I got back. I don't often have more than one going on at once...

To the left is another one using whimsical pottery and fresh flowers. I just love these and plan on having several for the Art in the Park Show in Keene in September. So far they are all 8" x 10."

Below is a new portrait I'm working on that is about 12" x 16." It is the second half of a diptych I started a while back - kind of a contemporary engagement portrait.

Then finally what I think is the final version of Artifact. I hope!

Bird's Eye View

2010-07-10T10:01:00.003-04:00

Bird's Eye View

8" x 10"

Prismacolors and Solvent on Fisher 400 paper

I need to go in and touch some things up on this but I am impatient to post it.

My daughter and I picked these lovely flowers on the side of the road. I think I need to go back and just get a whole vase full of the black-eyed Susans! They were really fun to do.

A Fish Out of Water

2010-07-06T15:39:00.002-04:00

A Fish Out of Water

8" x 10"

Prismacolors of Fisher 400 paper

I could do loads of these... I am such a fan of kitsch!

2010-07-01T23:36:00.003-04:00

A Walk in the Woods

10" x 8"

Prismacolors on Pastelbord

We have been enjoying loads of wild raspberries from our backyard. We've had raspberry muffins, pancakes and they are great in my greek yogurt with some walnuts. So this little still-life is just some things I found in the woods behind my house and stuffed in a little metal green teapot.

Sorry for the lousy photo.. it was late and I only had artificial lighting. The photo below is interesting though. The butterfly still-life on the left is under Museum glass and there is no glare and the orchid one next to it which is on Pastelbord and has been varnished has a terrible glare! The Walk in the Woods has not been varnished yet so again no glare there.

I hope to drop these 3 off to the gallery tomorrow along with some portraits. That is if I can get them framed! They are just sitting in the frames right now.

Oriental Flair Big

2010-06-28T08:37:00.001-04:00

Oriental Flair Big

11" x 14"

Prismacolors and Coloursofts on grey Pastelbord

I hope everyone had a good weekend. I carved out some time this weekend to work on a larger version of the oriental inspired orchids (mostly the rainy Saturday we had). I haven't varnished this piece yet, so I hope the grey board won't darken it too much when I spray it. I think what happens is the varnish makes the board show through more making it darker.

Below is this piece paired with the mini piece for scale.

Oriental Flair

2010-06-24T17:26:00.003-04:00

Orchids

6" x 10"

Prismacolors of Fisher 400 paper mounted to Gatorboard

I'm kind of hooked on this 6" x 10" shape. Its kind of funny because this shape is just the leftover piece from the board I had Creative Encounters cut & mount off of my sheets of Fisher 400 paper. I just like that little bit of extra height to cure that perfect rectangle feel of an 8 x 10.

I am also stuck for a little bit on the tiny details after doing these! I better do a bigger one next to get me out of it for a bit - but I have 2 more 6 x 10's left!

Here's a pic of the three small ones sitting on (a very dusty) ledge together. Seeing this I may darken Maggie's figure on the first one.

Well Read

2010-06-23T14:09:00.004-04:00

Well Read

6" x 10"

Prismacolors on Fisher 400

The last one was so much fun I had to do one more. Unfortunately I had to use me as the model because Maggie and I posed at the museum. That's fine really but its just not my best side.

Anyway... the work of art I am in front of has some meaning too, but not as much as the other one. My husband had a print of this painting hanging in his room in college which is where we met. It is Fragonard's Young Girl Reading. On the National Gallery's website it has this to say about the painting:

"Fragonard painted several young girls in moments of quiet solitude. These works are not portraits but evocations, similar to the "fantasy portraits" Fragonard made of acquaintances as personifications of poetry and music. He painted these very quickly—in an hour, according to friends—using bold, energetic strokes."

The fun thing about doing these miniature paintings is it feels like your tiny pencil tip is a big paint brush - with every stroke counting!

detail of my drawing about actual size!

Mini Maggie

2010-06-21T12:40:00.010-04:00

Dress Casual

6" x 10"

Prismacolors on Fisher 400 paper (mounted to Gatorboard)

It is my contribution to the CPSA convention Silent Auction.

This piece was fun for me in many ways. First off I am a HUGE fan of Karin Jurick and her popular series of people at museums, also of the famous Norman Rockwell where an older gentleman is looking at a very modern painting. I'm not trying to be either one of them, but wanted to try the scenario of a museum goer myself. Since I am working in colored pencil with a very small tip it lent itself to a miniaturist's approach which I very much enjoyed doing.

Okay now for the meaning in the picture. It may look like an innocent girl just at the National Museum of Art looking at a Whistler painting. Well... its not. :-) It is of my friend Maggie Stiefvater. Recently we went to that museum together and walked through beating up some very famous paintings. This one - Whistler's Symphony in White - was one she liked that I was not too keen on. I couldn't get past the fact that when viewing it at the museum you don't even see the girl. When in front of it you look smack dab in the open mouth of this scary looking dead wolf rug that she is standing on! Then if you look up at the girl's face you get nothing but glare on the mirror-like surface of the face. It seems that Whistler at some point rubbed the face off and repainted it, but left an oval of a smoother surface around her face.

That's not what is funny about my drawing though. The girl in the foreground is Maggie Stiefvater - bestselling author of the Wolves of Mercy Falls series. The first book, Shiver, is about a girl named Grace who falls in love with a wolf/boy. In the summer Sam is a boy but when the weather turns cold he becomes a wolf (not a werewolf but a full wolf which is much prettier). The story turns into a race of time to treat his wolfie affliction before the weather runs out.

Shiver has been on the NYT bestsellers list for a gazillion weeks and is still there now on the paperback list. The second of the series Linger is due out in July.

The girl in Symphony in White is very different from the character Grace however. She is emotionless, almost a shell of a person staring out in an odd gaze. Grace is much more like Maggie in the foreground with her sassy stature, ponytail, and mail bag. So why does Maggie like this painting? Could it possibly be a melding of her Faerie series and the Mercy Falls wolves (the Ice Queen Faerie defeats the wolves of Mercy Falls)? I don't know but this drawing is my way of asking that question. :-) Don't tell me though Maggie - some things are best to wonder about! I'd be crushed if you told me you just liked the brushstrokes!

Below are some more pics to get a sense of scale. The wolf and Maggie on the left are about actual size (Maggie's body is only 4 inches tall). The picture on the right has a couple of pencils and a penny for comparison.

a cute little commission

2010-06-19T00:18:00.000-04:00

8" x 10" Prismacolors on Pastelbord

Butterflies & Roses

2010-06-17T14:02:00.002-04:00

Butterflies & Spray Roses

8" x 10"

Polychromos on Fisher 400 paper (mounted to gatorboard)

I did something last night that I haven't gotten to do for a long time: stay up drawing past midnight. This is one of the perks of moving my studio back home. The cons of course being the clutter of all my supplies and distractions, but I'll take the late night drawing sessions!

A lesson relearned: Have you ever printed out reference photos where you lighten all the shadows to see what is in them and use both the dark photo and the lightened photo in your drawing/painting? All I can say is be careful. You can change things obviously from a photograph or life, but changing lighting is a tricky business. I printed out a dark and a light version of the reference for this so I could see all the subtleties in the flowers and see the edges of the bug which did not show up in the dark photo. Well... I started the flowers first with just a bit of the background in... all was going well until I switched to my darker photo for the rest. The result was garish - the flowers did not match the rest of the picture at all. Think about it like in writing... you should not change your tenses from 1st to 3rd person in the same paper. Why would you be able to change lighting on the same drawing ? Anyway I fixed it, but it was a bit of a struggle to remove the lightened details in the petals since the lighter colors in colored pencils have more wax/oil...

That doesn't say you can't lighten things a little bit, just not so much where it is mismatched or changes the light source only on one part. Like let's say you are doing an adorable drawing of your child... but the way the light is hitting him/her his eye color is hard to see because they are in shadow. What should you do? Either draw it without the pretty eye color as in the photo or retake the reference photo with the right lighting to see their eye color! If you bring the eyes out of their shadow and don't change the lighting on the rest of the face - it will look like a demon child!

My beautiful daughter above has gorgeous blue eyes when light hits them but when the eye sockets are even in a slight shadow like above her eye color does not show. So maybe I'll just pop up the color... I could make the eyes look gorgeous, but what I'll have is gorgeous eyes but a final portrait with lighting that doesn't make sense. People won't know what is wrong perhaps, but their psyche will pick up that something is off.

butterflies and roses

2010-06-16T15:42:00.001-04:00

I am honored to have been asked by Ann Kullberg to jury her annual online members colored pencil show. Please take a looksee at it on her site:

It was REALLY hard to pick winners!!

I thought my vase was way too big for the next still-life I am doing so I played a bit in photoshop. Of course I'll fix things when I draw it, but above are the two reference photos to compare. I plan on starting it tonight as I just got a bunch of my beloved Fisher 400 paper mounted to some gatorboard from Creative Encounters (my favorite frame shop).

Anyway I can't wait to start - it will be 8 x 10" only, so it will be a sweet little piece, I hope.

this week...

2010-06-06T23:28:00.000-04:00

It is the last week of school (teaching) and unfortuntely I will be very busy so artwork will be put off again. I've got grading... getting assignments back to kids, etc so I envision some overtime on my part.

but I do have some florals in the works... I am on the lookout for fresh from the garden flowers that I want to do some still-lifes with. You know the last one I did (and cut!) and I think I will do it over but with the wood gone and on fisher 400 instead of Pastelbord. It was a bear to get all the spiky detail on the Pastelbord and I don't think I can do it again! & then here I am playing with some spray roses. I think the vase needs to be a little shorter and not so tall. I also think I need something small to place next to the vases... I'm thinking some old marbles.

Anyway things are getting ready for some serious art making - just another week away. In the meantime I just found this pic of me. Its my senior picture nd since it is my 20th reunion I thought I would share it. Some things do get better with age! Although the hair is an artform!

Uh-Oh!

2010-06-02T22:51:00.001-04:00

hmmmm... I was trying to crop that still-life, which is on Pastelbord, when the blade skipped and sliced into the drawing. Sigh. After shedding a few tears, since it was actually a rather difficult drawing to do, I have decided to give it away. It can't be sold as is but it can still have a good life on someone's wall.

So the first person to email me their address gets to have it.

Weird Purple Flowers

2010-06-02T21:44:00.002-04:00

Oh you don't want to know how busy I've been lately, so I won't bore you. I'll just say I brought my studio home so I can sneak in more work here and there.

Here's the newest, some strange purple flowers from Lina's house. I don't know what they are. :-)

The framing on this one will be difficult to get the illusion right so I will be taking it to the framer instead of doing it myself. I have a couple of others I need to frame too.

Google Streetview

2010-03-25T22:04:00.006-04:00

Google Streetview for Artists

Like most technology on the internet my husband shows me, I initially shrugged off Google Streetview and later came back and became obsessed with it.

If you haven't used Google Streetview... its much more than the fuzzy satellite pics that Google gave us a while back. This is how it is explained on Wikipedia: "Google Street View is a technology featured in Google Maps and Google Earth that provides panoramic views from various positions along many streets in the world.^{[1]" That I don't think is the best description... basically you can go to various cities around the globe and virtually walk down the streets. You can see the view from every angle from every step you are at: you can look up, look down, and turn to see the view to the right or left.}

My new obsession with Google Streetview started when I was visiting the blog of the talented artist Leslie Hawes who often uses Google Streetview to find landscape compositions in far off places. Here is a drawing she did of a home in France.

"France is beautiful.

As I travel, virtually, using Google Street View, I discover that so many places look like somewhere else. This could be Ireland or Bucks County, Pennsylvania. But no matter where I find a stone building, I will likely stop to draw." Leslie Hawes

Check out Leslie's blog for more of her gorgeous artwork!

Leslie also takes part in a blog called the Virtual Paint Out that blogger Bill Guffey started. "The Virtual Paint Out: VIRTUAL PAINTOUTS USING GOOGLE STREET VIEW AS A RESOURCE FOR TRAVELING THE WORLD TO FIND INTERESTING LOCATIONS AND SUBJECTS TO PAINT."

Basically Guffey posts a location that is available on Google Streetview and viewers of the blog travel there on their computer, find a good composition and create an artwork of that place which he then posts on the blog. Its amazing to see them all together and the different things people find in his posted destinations. Here is a recent Paint Out of Norway.

My head is swimming with possible ways to use this technology... art history lessons, compositions for artwork... how about an illustrator being able to find the perfect background in a faraway land without leaving his home. Or let's say you need a reference of someone walking across a road or on a bike... just go to a major city on Google Streetview you will most likely find one (with the face blurred out of course). I even know where to find a nice shot of a man bending over gardening (thanks to my friend Barbara).

Here I am in Taipei, on a little sidestreet just steps off of a major road with huge large buildings... because its not just the major roads with the landmarks... its small roads, roads with houses... surrounding country roads...

Taipei, side street

Taipei, on a major road

Although I have many plans for Streetview, including a virtual tour somewhere with my students and maybe a landscape, I have for now just amassed an album on my facebook account of significant places from my past present and future; a sample of which I will end this post with.

My current studio... in Keene, NH

Northern Illinois University where I spent 4 college years and think I graduated from (I still have those nightmares where they take the diploma from my hands)

Across the Kankakee River from my mom's house in Illinois

My favorite coffee shop in Seattle where I lived for a short 2 years.

Take a virtual tour yourself! Here is a map of the current coverage of Google Streetview!

James Gurney

2010-03-20T12:07:00.001-04:00

Last week I was home Thursday from the studio because my daughter was sick, so while I was sitting on the couch with her all day I had time to browse through the blogs that I subscribe to and found out that James Gurney was going to be at the Norman Rockwell Museum that Saturday. James Gurney is the author/illustrator for the children's book series Dinotopia (which was made into a tv miniseries in 2002) and writes the most amazing art blog out there today: Gurney Journey. His blog is so good that his newest book (an art how-to book) Imaginative Realism borrowed a lot from his blog posts. He writes about the methods he uses for his illustrations which include everything from drawing lessons to lessons learned from past artists to his many sketching adventures and the people he meets along the way.

The reason I was so excited to go see him was that I had just recently done a 3 part lesson with many of the grades I teach based on Mr. Gurney's book. Often Gurney constructs sculptures/models of the creatures in his books so he has a model that he can look at from many angles, light to see highlights and shadows, and even populate models of cities etc (that he also constructs) in scale. From there he can start drawing and painting his amazing imaginative illustrations. So we did the same - we built clay models, sketched the model from 3 viewpoints, chose a view we liked and created a finished painting with background of our subject. From an art teacher/artists point of view I find it very exciting for my students to see the mechanics and hard work behind these illustrations. I think it is important to know that to paint a subject that looks real, even if it is imaginative, that you will get much better results having something to see and manipulate than to completely make up in your head. Especially lighting and foreshortening.

SO back to the happenings at the Norman Rockwell Museum. It started off with a lecture by Mr. Gurney who very delightfully geared it to appeal both to adults and children. I had my two girls with me who are 11 and seven and they both enjoyed it (especially the story about sketching a certain mischievous monkey). He talked about many of the things that are in his book and blog that I was familiar with but added stories and anecdotes that brought it more to life. Another highlight of the lecture was gaining an appreciation for all the research that Mr. Gurney did for his illustrations of dinosaurs; meeting with scientists, visiting museums etc.

After the lecture he signed books and then we all went into the education room at the museum where we all could sit down and draw from plastic toy dinosaurs while James Gurney walked around and talked with everyone. He did a quick drawing demonstration of a dinosaur up in front showing the kids how to look for the large shapes in the animal and then work towards details. Mr. Gurney's example was simple and really got the point across. One thing that I noted in his demonstration was how he wasn't afraid to change things as he went... he started out with a simple oval for the body, added one for the head and then started placing the legs. Then he went back and checked the negative space between the legs to check if the legs were right (they weren't) so he moved them over until that space in between was correct. This may sound simple to my artist friends here on my blog but this is something I often forget to show when I am working with my young kids at school. Often I find myself just going through and showing them the steps to make the shapes of a dog for instance, but when my lines are in the wrong spot, I'll often just leave them instead of taking the time to fix them. That's wrong though... they need to see that drawing is not just a series of steps, it is a series of decisions... any of which can be wrong along the way and fixed, and that is okay.

All in all it was a great experience for me and my children - so thanks Mr. Gurney! If anyone is near the Delaware Art Museum he has an exhibition right now that I wish was here in New England! Hmph! Enjoy.

Dinotopia Exhibition

Thanks to Jeremy Clowe who was sweet enough to email these pictures of my kids and I at the lecture... as silly old me forgot her camera. :-) & thank you to the Norman Rockwell Museum for bringing Mr. Gurney to the museum.

No Props Required

2010-03-17T13:46:00.002-04:00

No Props Required.. okay not a good title, but something I was thinking while I saved the photograph of it. I believe the size is 14 x 22, but as I am down in the Prime Roast coffee shop around the corner from my studio (for a cappuccino and to bum internet) I can't be sure.

The full view.

The close-up

The set

Finished Portrait 1 on to 2!

2010-03-10T16:22:00.003-05:00

Here it is finished. Below are some close-ups that you can click on to see larger. Now the difficult task of titles! I think its between "Testing Boundaries" and "Hide and Seek."

& I started this one today... I plan on submitting both to CPSA at the end of the month if this 2nd one turns out ok.

EDIT: It is Thursday and my little one (the one in the picure actually) has a stomach bug, so 'till Tuesday then...

Strifrieng 2

2010-03-04T15:49:00.004-05:00

The "I" is not working very well on my keyboard, so this post was made with some frustration, lol.

Thanks for all the suggestions in my last post. I am going to leave it (probably) with just the string (I think). I got quite a bit done today. I started with correcting her eyes. They were way too small and the shadows of the sockets were just wrong. I still think that one eye needs a bit of enlarging on the top. Let's see... then I started on the hair which really pulled the colors together in my opinion. The dark side of her face is very warm and I love the way the yellows and shared oranges of the hair pulled the colors together. Then I went to the shirt, and part way through the black background.

It might seem like I work one piece at a time, which I do in a way, but I am always adjusting parts I have previously put it.

Anyway here it is until next Tuesday.

the String, Strung? Not sure yet.

2010-03-03T16:45:00.002-05:00

I haven'that t photographed the Long and Skinny one yet, but will soon!

In the meantime I started a portrait today that will hopefully be my CPSA (Colored Pencil Society of America) entry.

I wanted to do a portrait in the same mysterious tone as my Zen portrait of my daughter Katie.

Lizzy wanted to be the model this time - so the kids and I had a whole day/night photoshoot - this is one I came up with. I have another one I'm going to do hopefully b4 the deadline too and pick the best one.

This one is CHALLENGING since most of her face is in shadow! Eek! I really do enjoy doing things in shadow though. Whenever I look at paintings in museums/galleries I am always drawn to the ones where the features are mostly in shadow and how subtle all the tones/color/values have to be to create the form of a face.

This is only 2 hours worth of work... so there's lots to fix but you can get the idea.

Her hoodie is white with all these pastels coming in what looks watercolor-y..

I was planning on hanging a carpenters balance weight from the string but now I think I'l tie it to her finger on her lower hand? not sure.

More to come!!!

Long & Skinny

2010-02-17T18:09:00.004-05:00

I've had a setback with the framing on my lemon piece. I ordered 3 - 12 x 12 frames from Dick Blick in the Simplon frame like I usually do for standard sizes and all 3 have flaws. Specifically they all have spaces at the joints that show like cracks on the front of the frame. I think I would be better off purchasing the frame I buy for the non-standard sizes from pictureframes.com (Plein Aire). I'll do that soon so I can get it to the gallery.

In the meantime I am working on a new tall and skinny still-life. I did one in this format a while back that used the same handled bowl with a spoon in it. I really liked the blueish tints the bowl lended as well as the strange shadowy space of the small bowl. The angled spoon really helps move you through the tall composition as does the pattern of the holes on the lace. Actually in these tall and thin compositions it is really important to alternate the directions of everything that points this way or that - even the grain of the wood on the table had to be turned the right direction. In the end you sort of zig-zag through the piece like a ball in a pin ball machine. Relaxing right? ;-) I'm hoping to fnish this tomorrow so you can see the whole composition.

I made Linzer heart cookies recently which are an art form in itself... I love making pretty desserts - there is just something so satisfying about hand loved foods to share with your friends. & sometimes beauty just sneaks up on you... like the pattern left over from dusting sugar on my cookies. :-)

Traditional Lemons

2010-01-28T17:15:00.005-05:00

I just finished a more traditonal looking lemon still-life. Its 12 x 12 - which I guess is not a traditional format. I placed the glass almost dead center and flanked it with lemons. Click on it to see it bigger.

I've been spending a lot of mental energy on trying to figure out what to do as a sequel to my Zen piece. Search my blog for the word Zen if you are not familiar with it. I've come up with some good ideas I think... but will not know for sure until I sit down with the model - hopefully this weekend I can do that. I did get some really bad ideas pop into my head too... like having her lean over in the same pose but instead of a stack of rocks in front of her, place a very tall sandwich or scoops of leaning icecream. See I said it was bad! I did have a couple of good ones however and hopefully I can work with my model soon.

MOCO Faculty Art Exhibit & Benefit Sale

2009-12-03T20:05:00.004-05:00

Yes, the flu has been gone now... and although I haven't been away from my blog all this time from the flu - it did last way longer than I thought it would. I highly recommend getting the swine flu vaccine if you can.

Anyway I've been busy teaching and doing commissions. I've gotten two more still-life commissions finished exactly since we last met here, but I haven't any photographs.

I took this week off from the commissions to get ready for a benefit Art Sale/ Faculty Show at MOCO Arts were I teach community art classes. The faculty has put together a show to benefit the School of Art at MOCO. I am going to have the pieces above for sale along with a couple I have posted here before. The small ones are 5 x 7 and 6 x 6; the larger is 11 x 14.

The show will be at MOCO's Wellness Center, 9 Elm Street, Keene. The Opening Reception is Saturday December 12th from 5-7 pm . The show will also be open 12/13, 19, and 20th.

Other artist exhibiting are Susa Christiansen, Alicia Drakiotes, Sienna Griffin, Peter Granucci, Ashley Mc Allister, Karena Ness, Kim Peterson, Marylise Reilly-Fajal, Char Russell, Craig Stockwell, Georgia Tasoulas and Jeanne Thieme.