Alexander McCall Smith’s inlet, Argyle

Billy Collins often asks us to write about what we’re doing and to post it on his poetry broadcast thread. This morning, I woke up thinking I was in Oban, of all places, I haven’t been there in years! and so I did a quick sketch of Alexander McCall Smith’s inlet near Argyle from a video he had posted, with friends singing an alfresco Jubilate Deo in the gloaming. My good drawing pencils and watercolor set were in the car, far away, but I happened to have nearby, an odd jumble of prismacolor pencils in a baggie I was planning to give away. I was desperately trying to finish a complicated multi-year Cal Arts Council Artists in Schools grant due at midnight, my head was a slaughtered pumpkin, I was working off the arse-end of a four-day migraine, and was flummoxed by the Covid/community access questions, and this wee drawing was my one lone procrastination distraction that I allowed myself. I tucked in, and got the blasted grant in on time. An odd solstice gift. Sometimes you just have to find the time to waste a little time. And sometimes the best art supplies (or camera) are the ones you have on hand. And yes, I did post it on Sandy’s Facebook page. No comment was the loud reply.

Four quick paintings

Thinking my painting for the SGV Spring Art Show was due on Tax Day, and wanting to test run my newish Gamblin oil paints, I banged out four quick canvases sitting in my car. They were wet when I took the photos. Mt. St Helena from Sonoma Mountain is glistening, it's so wet. I haven't touched oil paints in 50 years, an allergy to turpentine made it impossible to breathe. Now there's Gamsol, a mineral oil opens up possibilities. Larry Rippe said no, you have two weeks. Reprieve. Sneaky Larry. I'm always late turning in my assignments.

Lou Lambert’s Rockpile Ranch, Sonoma County, drawing 6x9”

Lou Lambert’s Rockpile Ranch, Sonoma County

Landscapes, sketches (art) 2013

I made these drawings in May and June of 2013, ideas for silk art and wet pastels. I like the drawings better than the finished product.

Scratchboard drawings, India ink, 1995-97
Landscapes, wet pastels (art) 2013
Three drawings, Scotland, ca 2006
Mt Diablo from Clayton, drawingBaja, Mulegé, Cabo San Lucas, watercolors
Shells, three drawings, stabillo pencil, 3/95
Shell, charcoal drawing

Landscapes, wet pastels (art) 2013

I'm posting all my 2013 wet pastel landscapes at the end of December, though they were done over the course of a year, most were done during the summer.

Wet chalk and wet construction paper pastels: these are 9x12". I can't go back and finish them when the paper's dry as they're generally far too fragile to re-wet and add details. I usually only have about 10-15 minutes to complete a pastel!

This idea evolved when my after-school art kids at Cleveland Elementary Schools (2007), asked if they could do chalk pastels. I wasn't wild about the idea as I like more painterly colors, etc. But I also love to draw. So we did some pastels and I was disappointed in our results. I noticed that one child developed a cough from inhaling the chalk dust. (It bothers me too). His mother insisted it was only a cold (I think she was afraid I wasn't going to let him participate as he totally loved art). But.... I wondered: how can I reduce the chalk dust? Water. When I worked at a horse training stables, we used to sprinkle the indoor arena sand to keep dust levels down.

I discovered a technique of wetting both paper and chalk and it's akin to painting with sticks of chalk. (I've used both oil sticks and Aquerelle watercolor crayon sticks so it was a natural progression. With the Aquarelles, I weted the stiff morilla board first, or sprayed it with water after the crayon was applied. But I didn't want to use white paper for chalk pastels—besides, morilla board is astronomically expensive to use in the classroom.

So I experimented with all kinds of paper and the ONLY paper that would work was my former school painting/drawing nemesis, construction paper. It has a tooth (texture the chalk needs to adhere to) and the glue that holds the woodpulp together softens and the chalk adheres directly to it. Riverside acid free construction paper works best. Most schools have the worst grade cheap construction paper, but it will work, though it's more fragile and will easily tear.

An added bonus of using chalk wet, the colors are more painterly and vibrant. Cheap kid chalk or hopscotch chalk generally won't work, it's often too hard and will tear the paper, but the heavy teacher white chalkboard chalk is a perfect blending tool with a buttery consistency when wet.

We add black details with the waterbase stabillo pencils at the end of the session. (I also remove black chalk from the pastel sets). Pieces are very fragile until the construction paper dries. I put them on paper towels and in a sunlit window to dry.

Adult pastel sets often have toxic chemicals in them—like vermillion, cadmium and cobalt. Don't use them with kids! make sure the chalks have non-toxic AP labels.

I was nosing around for a silk painting idea and did these instead.

Chalk pastel on construction paper, 6x9" or 9 x 12".

Landscapes, wet pastels (art) 2012
Landscapes, wet pastels (art) 2011
Landscapes, wet pastels (art) 2008
Landscapes, wet pastels (art) 2007
Still life (art) 2007

Landscapes, wet pastels (art) 2012

I had a CAC residency at Gardner Academy in San Jose, the commute killed me. I also didn't have much time between classes, so these are 2-3 minute sketches.


Landscapes, wet pastels (art) 2013
Landscapes, wet pastels (art) 2011
Landscapes, wet pastels (art) 2008
Landscapes, wet pastels (art) 2007
Still life (art) 2007

Landscapes, wet pastels (art) 2011

Landscapes, wet pastels, Bret Harte School, after-school arts program in Hunter's Point. The classes were squirrely so I rarely had tome to finish the pieces, and once they've dried, that's pretty much it. You can't go back. You can see where I had paper issues too.

Landscapes, wet pastels (art) 2013 
Landscapes, wet pastels (art) 2012

Landscapes, wet pastels (art) 2008

Landscapes, wet pastels (art) 2007

Still life (art) 2007
 

 

Landscapes (tempera, art)

February 29, 2008  art is from 2006 to 2007.

In each class, I begin this lesson with large gesture painting so kids won't freak over details. I  deconstruct several large calendar photos on the board to show the basic shapes. (KISS: keep it simple, sweetie). I laminate 2 photos back-to-back and let kids choose an image.

We air draw the shapes first before we begin painting. I don't let kids sketch with pencil because they get too caught up in it and forget to paint. And we only have about 40 minutes to paint and clean up! So making big gestures with the arm translates well.



These are, for the most part, quick 2-5 minute sketches of landscapes with tempera to demonstrate how the landscape is comprised of basic shapes (layers). Note the photo is a model. We work from calendar photos. Tempera on 80 lb white sulfite paper, 12x18" each.



We look for basic shapes to emulate. I demonstrate water and sky with wet on wet technique. Though we're using tempera, or poster paint, it can be thinned down and used like watercolor. I paint paper with water first and add color sparingly. Their palette contains only four colors: yellow, magenta (no red), cyan/sky blue and dark blue. And from that, they make all the colors of the world. Brown is made from all three primary colors. As is black.

I don't give kids little brushes. We do these paintings with fat 1" wide brushes! Harder to get details that way. We go for the basic shapes. The rest will follow.

Since I rarely have more than 10 sessions per class (sometimes I only see kids 5 times in any given year), I streamline and accelerate lesson plans to cover maximum ground. So this lesson focuses on primary color mixing and identifying simple shapes.



These sketches introduce the idea of water horizon line. Sometimes the easiest way to begin a painting is to put a horizontal stripe down the middle. I usually start with yellow and add layers of color. There are four colors in their palettes (really ice cube trays) Yellow, magenta (no red), cyan/sky blue and dark blue. Nada mas! And from that, they make all the colors. Brown is made from all three primary colors. I tried using stabillo pencil to sketch in black...I will do anything to NOT put black in the painting tray/palette (really an ice cube tray).



This is an unfinished sketch of Maui. A child was having trouble seeing the basic shapes so I did a quickie demo. I've given up on letting them sketch first with a pencil (though I did on this one to show him the shapes), because they'll spend the entire hour drawing and not painting. We usually have only an hour total to complete our work, not much time to crank out art!




I'm noticing that the longer I work with a particular group of kids, the more in depth and realistic my demos become. I worked with these kids in 3rd and 5th grade and so I was able to refine the info.






With an advanced class, I introduced the multi-color dabbing technique for shrubbery with sparing use of black and white. I also tried to introduce light direction as well, with less success. (added 3/17)