Update on the Paintings for the Silent Auction

Posted on May 22, 2014 by Mama Cormier

…..one is almost finished and the other is just started

It’s been a busy couple of weeks. Assemblies, trips to feeder schools, soccer tournaments, field trips and a school council meeting. The grade 3s abstract painting is undergoing a second coat and will be finished by the end of the week. The grade 5 project has been delayed because the class missed art one week and this week I was at the soccer tournament with the grade 4/5 girls (we won by the way) when the same class had art. When I saw the class in their library period last week I told them I was taking inspiration from previous projects they had done and applying some of their designs onto our massive set of canvases.

Today some of the students asked if they could help start the project after school. I had painted up a rough copy of what the project might look like and most of the class liked what they saw. We agreed to keep the background one colour and I’ll conference with a small group to decide on the other colours. One of the girls from the class was able to stay for quite awhile and together we drew the design onto the canvases and I started painting the background.

Hopefully I’ll be able to take a small group at a time out of class to work on the project. Ideally I’d like every student to paint a portion of the project. If you can’t tell from the photo the entire piece is quite large. There are four canvases measuring about six feet in length.

I also introduced a new project to my grade 3 art classes today. Carla Sonheim gives a free tutorial on how to paint crazy flowers using watercolours, gesso and pencil. It’s a fun project and very textural.

Time to Choose

Posted on March 22, 2014 by Mama Cormier

….it’s time to choose one of my sketches and paint it onto a large canvas

I’ve enjoyed my on-line course with Karine Swensen and Carla Sonheim but now it’s time to get serious and paint large. I can use my charcoal sketches or my watercolour sketches for inspiration or try something completely different. I can also use them as a starting point and move in a different direction once I get started. It’s getting started that’s difficult. I want to try my earth friendly oil paints that I purchased last year but I’ve never worked with oil before. It’s a bit intimidating.

I made a couple more watercolour sketches after I posted the last ones, Abstraction Using Watercolour, but I’ve also been toying with the idea of taking one of my Charcoal Sketches and using one of them as a starting point. Here are my latest two watercolour sketches. Any suggestions? My husband refused to commit or comment about any of them. Go figure!.

Abstraction Using Watercolour

Posted on March 20, 2014 by Mama Cormier

….lesson 2 with Karina Swensen

Today’s lesson used the same technique as the charcoal drawings but the medium was watercolour, gauche or acrylic paint. I used watercolour and did about 10 samples. It was fun and somewhat challenging. I certainly didn’t like all the pieces that I did but I chose 5 to share with you. I may try a few more because in the next lesson I have to choose one of the designs from the first two lessons and make one large painting from it. Choosing one will be difficult. Do you have a favourite?e

Abstraction in Charcoal

Posted on March 18, 2014 by Mama Cormier

….learning a new technique

This week I started a new on-line art course with Karine Swensen. She is an abstract artist and a friend of Carla Sonheim. Our first assignment involved taking 8 to 10 pieces of paper and compressed charcoal and laying down some lines. The idea is to do this quickly without too much thought. It shouldn’t look like anything and if it did you were suppose to change it. After laying down one or two lines on each piece of paper you are suppose to go back and add more details. You can smudge the charcoal, use fingerprints, erase areas and use different types of charcoal.

My first four drawing were started with charcoal pencils, mainly because that’s what I had on hand. Today I found some compressed charcoal and started four more pieces. I went over some of the first pieces with the compressed charcoal and I used the kneadable eraser to take away some of the dark areas. I really enjoyed the process and can’t wait to find out what the next assignment will be. Sometime tomorrow I’ll receive the second video with an explanation and demonstration of the next task. Here are a couple of pictures of my first assignment.

Having a ‘Hoot’ of a Time

Posted on March 2, 2014 by Mama Cormier

….drawing owls

I recently signed up for an on-line art class using gelli plates. I did one last summer and I loved it. So when Carla Sonheim offered another class I jumped at the chance to participate again. This class uses some of the prints I’ve done in the past and involves drawing on the actual gelli plate. I, therefore needed a subject to draw that was relatively simple and would work in a print application.

I choice to draw an owl. I’ve always been attracted to owls and wanted to create an owl that is somewhat whimsical yet simple. Here are some of the owls that I played around with tonight.

I think I will probably use the first two in my prints. We’ll see I may change my mind or I may draw a few more.

Cheers!

Exploring Faces

Posted on January 29, 2014 by Mama Cormier

….3 days into a new online course

I recently signed up for another on-line course with Carla Sonheim. It’s called Faces 101 because by the end of the five day course I should have drawn and painted 101 faces. I’m already one day behind on my assignments but the good thing with this course is that once you purchase the program the assignments and videos are always available to you. I can post up to six of my best pieces onto a group page on Flickr daily and Carla will comment on my progress.

Here are a few of my faces so far:

My Summer Art Projects

Posted on August 23, 2013 by Mama Cormier

……in Ireland and at the cottage

I try to gather my art supplies together in the summer and make a concerted effort to practise my drawing skills, something that I feel I’m very inadequate at. I know it would be better to draw a little bit everyday but between reading and life in general it seems to fall by the wayside, especially when I start back at school.

On our trip to Ireland I purchased a small sketch pad and a black gel pen and put them to use on our train trip to Westport. We had a table between us, which made it very easy for sketching. I attempted to sketch some of the landscape that we passed and I even tried to do a portrait of my husband. Any of you who know him or have seen pictures of him can quickly assess that my attempt doesn’t look that much like him. Of course he wasn’t being particularly cooperative when he knew what I was doing.

The one thing that I really enjoy doing is Zentangle art. As the name implies it is very relaxing and the process is very satisfying. Our trip inspired me to include images and words of Ireland in the Zentangle that I did on the train.

Earlier in June I discovered a great website through Art Expectations, hosted by Carla Sonheim. She offers on-line workshops and I purchased her Gelli Plate Printmaking course,Carla Sonheim. Luckily you can access the videos anytime and as often as you need once you’ve purchased a class. With June being as busy as it was I didn’t get to trying this method until a couple of weeks ago.

Here are some of the prints that I made. I’m not sure that any of them are worthy of framing but the whole idea behind gelli printing is creating a large number of prints at one time and then deciding which you like. You can always go back later and add more detail or use the prints as background for another art project. I chose to do the later with one of the prints. I wondered what a circular Zentangle would look like on a printed background.

During our trip to Westport, Ireland I was completely impressed by the wonderful hospitality that our bed and breakfast hosts showered upon us. Both my husband and I felt that they went above and beyond to make our stay enjoyable and for that reason I wanted to do something special for them. For that reason I created a Zentangle in honour of the Elephant Guest House, Westport, Clew Bay and Croagh Patrick. If you look closely you can see that I have written little messages throughout the circle and included images of some of the sights in Westport.

I’m hoping to frame the piece with a mat but I haven’t decided if I should use a round mat or a square one. I made a temporary paper mat to see which I preferred and took photos of both. Do you have a preference?

I only have a couple of days left at the cottage before I return home so I’m trying to create a few more drawings. I have a large painting here that I’ve never finished, so maybe I’ll pull out my paints and add some more detail to the canvas. But before I do that I want to go for a swim. The only problem with reading and painting here at the cottage is that it gets in the way of my physical activity. I’m feeling a little bit guilty about that and am actually looking forward to our walks when I get home.

Drop me a line in the comment box and let me know how you think I should frame my round Zentangle. I’d like to mail it to Westport as a gift to our hosts.