Pile-O

What do you do when that project you've been laboring over for weeks turns out to be a big-o pile of carp (or a word with all of the same letters)?

Do you wring your hands, stomp and shout, weep bitter tears or just find a pal and head for the bar?

Or do you take a long, thoughtful look at the masterpiece gone wrong and see if there is anything there worth salvaging?

You know my story, I've been laboring mightily over a high contrast nude for the last three or four weeks and I finished it yesterday. And what a pile-o it is, I don't know where it went wrong, something in the anatomy or perspective, but it just isn't right.

Yes, I haven't been at this very long and I've had no training in anatomy, so there's no reason why I should be upset, except I am. I really do expect everything I do to turn out brilliant.

Except it didn't.

I think it started when I got the poor dear's nose too long. Now the lady in my original had a petite little nose and rather fine features. Not in my drawing, she looks more like a Picasso. (Of course that's just my way of saying bad, distorted, sorry, and it isn't fair to Picasso, because he really was a very fine artist with a complete command of anatomy and perspective. He just didn't want to do it that way and we are probably better because he didn't.)

But back to my sad little drawing, shortly after I gave her the face of a horse, I added Kirk Douglas' chin. I mentioned having to do a Kirkectomy? Yeah I did and she's the better for it. And then I went to work on her body.

Now you would think after fifty-two years of staring at girls, (I make no excuses, I like girls/women/females whatever the non-offensive term is, I like'em. Always have and I find they are devilishly difficult to draw with any accuracy which makes them wonderful subjects for practice because it is almost impossible to get them right and yet they are so charming you can stare at them for hours. (Now of course if you are a lady artist you probably don't share the same fondness for staring at women I do, or perhaps you do which is just fine, so we can move on to actually staring without any further ado.) Back to where I left that poor sentence dangling which is not as bad as dangling a participle, or so I've been told by the masters of the Black Arts, Grammar and Spelling, I like staring at women and have done...okay, more than my share, so you would think I could get their bodies right after all of that, but no, I squished her into some sort of Mezzo-American fertility fetish. And then there's the shading of the background, but I guess you see where I am headed, this did not turn out as I'd planned.

But I like most of it anyway. That's a big surprise, right? But it is true and I have plans for my misshapen lady. See in making her wrong I made her interesting in ways I could never have planned. This is something I learned from photography. The camera takes exactly what you point it at even if that is all wrong and has no light and sometimes that makes for a better picture than you had planned.

So I took my mangled lady and ran her through the computer and made some changes...



And I liked them! But it wasn't quite what I wanted, so back to the computer and diddled some more...



Very Picasso and good but maybe one more try?




Now I really am scr...confused, you see when I finished this drawing I was really unhappy. All I wanted to do with it was stuff it in the shredder and be rid of it, but now, I like my compacted female and I have a much bigger problem.

Which one of the ones I like should I enter in In the Flesh?

Ava Richey's Art News

Hello Everyone,

This coming Monday, March 7, 2011 we will join the Port Orford First Monday Painters for figure drawing/painting from 12 - 3 p.m. at the Port Orford Public Library.

The cost is $65 to be shared by the painters, so the more participants the less the cost each. It's usually around $5 per person.

Artists who participated in Freshwater Gallery's February show can pick up your artwork anytime at the gallery Tuesday - Sunday 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., or we can come by the gallery after Monday paintout and pick them up.

Hope to see you there. My cell phone number is 541-297-6118.
Ava

(You guys should take a look at In the Flesh posted a coupla days ago. It's perfect for all the hard work you've been doing.)
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Art Information:
FYI: New listings have asterisks *** next to the date.
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****Call to Plein Air Artists-- Coos Art Museum will celebrate the Plein Air Painters of South Oregon Coast. Show will hang April - May 2011 in the Claire Wehrle Community Gallery upstairs.

Each artist is asked to display 1-2 plein-air painted works with subject of landscape, seascape or cityscape. Paintings must be wired and ready to hang. Title, artist's name, price or NFS and contact information a paper, and on the back of the painting.

Questions or delivery arrangements call Susan Lehman 541-347-9888, or Ava Richey 541-297-6118.
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****For Sale: Wooden Library Table--would make good art/craft table. 28" X 44" x 30 1/2 " tall, drawer in the center front and a shelf at the bottom for storage or footrest. $75 OBO Call Trish at 541-404-0724
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**** AD:March Sale 15% Off: Full sheet watercolor (and other mediums) papers, single sheet decorative papers and canvases at Bandon Artist Supply. 541-347-4482
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Bandon Library has openings for 2011 to show art in the locked cases in the lobby. If you have smaller 2-D or 3-D art to show please contact Nancy Stein at stein.nancy4@gmail.com
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Three Rivers Gallery, 77231 US Hwy 101, Gardiner, OR 97441
New gallery looking for artists work to exhibit. Prefers abstract, but will consider all submissions--medium sized pieces for consignment. Send 3-5 digital images to anthonysculpture@charter.net 541-271-2030
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Current Shows:

Bandon Library Cases through March: Sue Watkins displays a variety of her beautiful art including watercolor paintings, stained glass, prints from hand carved stamps, jewelry and others.
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through April 2, 2011 Tuesday - Saturday 10 - 5 p.m.
Bandon Artist Supply, 175 2nd Street, Bandon
Watercolors by Sharon Jensen
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Wednesday and Thursday, March 2nd and 3rd, 2011
Submission dates for Call to Artists: "The Small Joys of Spring"
A juried show at the Artist Loft Gallery, Pony Village Mall, North Bend. $5 for one entry, $8 for two. Sizes limited to 8"x10", 12" x 16" or 11"x14" framed. 2-D (framed & wired,ready to hang), 3-D sculpture, assemblage, jewelry, collage, etc.
For information: Barbara Mahon 541-756-2481 or Patsy Billington 541-266-8056.
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March 4, 2011 Submission Deadline
Call to Artists: "The Artist's Vision: A juried Exhibit" for the Lake Oswego Festival of the Arts
Festival Dates are June 24-26, 2011. Juror is Mary Lou Zeek from the Mary Lou Zeek Gallery in Salem.
For information/prospectus: http://www.lakewood-center.org
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Saturday, March 5, 2011 10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.
Senior Center, Powers Oregon
Watercolor Workshop Instructor is Pearl Maxner--watercolorist, author and book illustrator. All levels of experience welcome.
$25, bring your own lunch and supplies. Call for supply list and to register at 541-439-2127.
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Call to Artists Deadline March 7 or 8, 2011
Easy Lane Frames and Select Art Gallery
3440 Broadway, North Bend 541-756-7638
Open to All Artists. Theme is "Visions of Spring" All mediums are welcome. Gallery visitors will select a People's Choice Best of Show. Winning artist will be awarded a gift certificate to be used in the gallery for artwork, framing or classes. Show opens Saturday, March 19 and runs through April 29th.
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Wednesday, March 9, 2011 5:30 - 6:30 p.m.
Critique Group Led by Susan Lehman and dorothea tortilla--an hour of group participation to critique art work in process (any medium). $10 Sign up deadline is March 2, 2011 studioblue@mycomspan.com
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Wednesdays, March 9, 2011 through March 30, 2011 12:30 - 4:30 p.m.
Seventh Day Adventist Church, Hwy 101, Florence, OR
"Portraits Made Easy" classes by instructor Karen Nichols
All materials furnished and are yours to keep. Space is limited. $65
541-902-8575 knichols222@msn.com to see her work: http://www.florenceartists.com
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****Thursday, March 10, 2011 10:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.
Gold Beach Episcopal Church
Easternmost end of Moore Street.
Figure Drawing. For more information contact Alexandra alexandra@portraitsbyalexandra.com
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Saturday, March 12, 2011 11:00 a.m.
Eden Hall on SOCC Campus, Coos Bay
Monthly meeting of the Bay Area Artists Association
Program presented by Coni Stroud from Art Connection. She will share her expertise on what framing can do (or not do) for your artwork. Public welcome. For more info: Carol (President) at whiteginger2@charter.net
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Monday, March 14, 2011 Submission Deadline
Call to Artists from Torpedo Factory Art Center, Alexandria, VA for "In the Flesh 3: Contemporary Figurative Art", a juried exhibition at the Target Gallery. Show runs May 21 - June 26, 2011. $35 entry fee. http://www.torpedofactory.org
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Sunday, March 20, 2011 1 - 3:00 p.m.
"First Day of Spring Into Art" class. Instructor dorothea tortilla will give a demonstration of an easy paper sculpting technique she devised "dry paper mache". Students will make 3-D birds and a collaged birdhouse, and a variety of paper flowers. Beginners age 12 and up through advanced students welcome. All materials provided. $25 Sign up deadline March 13, 2011. studioblue@mycomspan.com
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March 26, 2011 Submission Deadline
Coos Art Museum, 235 Anderson Ave, Coos Bay 541-267-3901 Call to Artists: "Thunder at CAM" show--Any theme related to motorcycles. Show will run Friday, June 10 - July 23, 2011. For prospectus and entry form: http://www.coosart.org
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Saturday, March 26, 2011 10 a.m. - 3 p.m.
Coquille Valley Art Association
10144 Hwy 42S, Coquille, OR
"Feel Your Art Before You Think It" painting class
Instructor Ava Richey. Bring your paints (and lunch), surfaces will be supplied. A 'loosen-up' approach to begin your paintings.
yarnfarm@harborside.com 541-297-6118
or Coquille Valley Art Assn, Anna Crosby, 541-396-3294
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Sunday, March 27, 2011 1 - 4:00 p.m.
"Big Book" class Instructor Susan Lehman. Collage one big sheet of paper by layering glazes, images and words. This will be folded into students' "Big Books" for further embellishments and story-telling. Can be a journal, book of poetry, sketchbook or art book. Suitable for all artists--beginners thru experienced. $35 includes materials. sign up deadline March 20. Contact Susan at studioblue@mycomspan.com
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March 29, 2011 Submission Deadline
2011 Hallie Ford Fellowship for Oregon Artists
The Ford Family Foundation is taking applications beginning on Tuesday, Feb. 1st for three $25,000 fellowships to be awarded annually to Oregon mid-career visual artists. Other opportunities available.
Application will be accessible at http://www.racc.org
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RSVP by April 1, 2011: Florence Artists "Green Art" 5th Annual Fundraiser for Habitat for Humanity. Inviting artists to donate "Garden Art" for the silent auction. "You can re-use, re-cycle, and re-invent to create a piece of garden art--a birdhouse, sculpture, pot, bench, chair, a window frame, a painted wooden pole, etc...."
Saturday, June 4, 2011 deadline. Fundraiser will be indoor/outdoor beer/wine garden with a picnic of hotdogs and hamburgers at the Florence Events Center, 2 - 5:00 p.m. Ginny Kelly 541-902-7639 or gvkelly@oregonfast.net
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Sunday, April 3, 2011 1 - 4:00 p.m.
"Collage in a Box" Instructor Susan Lehman. Each artist will turn a cigar box into a visual story using bundles/scrolls and developing a meaningful story reference by integrating text, paint and collaged papers. Sign up deadline March 27. Susan studioblue@mycomspan.com
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****Friday, April 8, 2011 5 - 7 p.m.
Coos Art Museum, 235 Anderson Ave., Coos Bay
Opening Reception for Expressions West 2011
Show runs through May 28, 2011
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****Friday, April 8, 2011 5 - 7:00 p.m.
Umpqua Community College, 1140 Umpqua College Rd, Roseburg at the Whipple Building
"Collage Centennial Invitational" Jon Leach curates the work of 13 Northwest collage artists including Susan Lehman. Show runs March 28th through May 12, 2011 http://www.susanlehmanartist.com
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****Monday and Tuesday, April 11th & 12, 2011
9:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Coos Art Museum, 235 Anderson Ave, Coos Bay
Colored Pencil Workshop with instructor Eileen Sorg
Learn how to use pen & ink, watercolor and colored pencil together to create richly detailed pieces of art. $170 member, $185 non-member http://www.coosart.org 541-267-3901
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Sunday, April 17, 2011
"Make It, Print It!" Instructor dorothea tortilla will provide you with fresh ideas for making printing tools from simple objects and methods for applying them. Learn "Faux Silk-Screening" technique and an easy collagraph technique. Beginning thru experienced welcome. $35 includes materials. studioblue@mycomspan.com
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Call to Artists Deadline June 8, 2011
Umpqua Valley Arts Assn
1624 W. Harvard, Roseburg, OR 97471
http://uvarts.com/call-to-artists
2011 Umpqua Plein Air "Location, Location, Location"
All artists of all abilities come participate, Thursday and Friday, July 14 and 15, 2011. Check website for prospectus and entry form. Three locations for painting, 30 artists per location, so fill out your entry forms and get them in early.
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Call to Artists for Future Shows, check it out!
Umpqua Valley Arts Association 1625 Harvard Ave, Roseburg http://www.uvarts.com

The Shadow Knows

Man, I loved the Shadow. Those days before the Tube took over the living room where just the radio waves and you struggled for justice, with a little help from Lamont Cranston. And it was not just because of Margot Lane!

The Shadow Knows and still does, shadows part of every artist's image and one of the things which makes or break the project you are creating

I may have mentioned that I am trying to relearn how to draw. I used to be fairly good, way back before the flood and all, before work and family took up all of my time and energy. Part of the way I am trying to relearn drawing is to practice on images which require a great deal of attention to light and shadow. The one I have been laboring over for the last few days in a high contrast nude.

You would think the strong shadows created by high contrast would be an artist's best friend whether boy or girl, but no, the damned things are just as difficult as any other part of creating an image!. And even though I am struggling and cursing and producing something which is a nude, but not at all like the one I wanted to do, watching the contours of the body plump up as I get the shadows in the right place is a delight. You can make a two dimensional image round.

No, I will not show you, not until it is finished and looking much more like a human being and a lot less like Rubens' sketch pad. But shadows will be a part of this and if it does turn out to be a human being and not a tellatubbie, it will be because of the shadows.



Okay I will show you, ‘cause I want you to take a look at the area around the chin. I couldn’t see that on the paper, but I knew I had the poor dear looking a lot like Kirk Douglas and to tell the whole truth Kirk Douglas doesn’t look all that good as a female impersonator, so I knew I had to shave a bit off her chin and with the power of a 7B pencil I did a Kirkectomy. And I was happy with the result, until I ran it through the scanner, then I could see that I had the area under her chin way to dark and way to isolated. Shadows fade they don’t end like a cartoon dog when he reaches the end of his chain. But at least I know what I have to correct and it won’t take that much, the dark spot does look natural there it just needs to be feathered into the rest of the shadows. So when I pull this out to work on, I know where to start.

No, of course I don't have to tell you how important shadows are, you are a serious artist and have been working with shadows all along and my discovery is old, old news.

See I spent fifty years working exclusively as a photographer and photographers are lucky and cursed all at the same time, they have to work with the shadows they get or wait for better ones to show up. They still need shadows to make their images round if they were round in the first place or square if they were square and that is why they wait for the right shadows.

Shadows in color? Right you are and they have to be there even if the work you are doing is pastel or colored pencil, oil, watercolor or Crayon. Potters and sculptures get a pass cause if their work isn't round to begin with shadows won't help much.

Here's a thought, take a picture. Yes, take a picture of what you are working on and run it through the computer. I find scanning in my images to be a really big help. See that scanner doesn’t know a flip about shadows. It records exactly what you have put down on paper. Even if it's wrong. Especially when its wrong and this is a humiliating process, but it is a very good one because it will see, unflinchingly what you have done as opposed to what you meant to do.

I haven't been at this art stuff very long, having come from Texas where art means pictures of cows and gents with six guns, Fredrick Remington is the Big Guy 'round those parts and sissy might like Andy Warhol or Jackson Pollack, but they's probably lavender any how. But having admitted to being new and all I also admit to wanting to get better. Now I know I can do that with a camera, I've been working on it for fifty years and if I'm not going to get any better I'd better quit. 'Sides with all of the painters lurking around here a photographer has to be sharp just to survive. But I don't know that I can do that with a pencil.

That's why I work at it, keeping a sketch pad with me all of the time and trying to do at least one drawing a week. That's why my nude will be finished and I will keep staring at those shadows and I will run the sketch through the scanner and take a look because it will see what I don't.

I have been writing longer that I have been taking pictures and I know one thing about writing, you need strict discipline to edit your own work. See when you reread something you have written, you read it right, not like it is actually written. Maybe that is what happens with an artist. They see their work the way it should have been painted instead of the way it is.

Are your shadows right? Does the work look rounded and right as the light plays across the subject? Are the colors properly shaded so that the shadows have the correct values? The Shadow Knows.

In the Flesh

This is your penultimate chance to enter In the Flesh and you can do it all online in the privacy of your own hone and no one needs to know you make that kind of art! And even if you don't give a hoot what the neighbors think you can still do it and all for $35.00. cheap for three entries. All you guys doing the Port Orford or Gold beach classes, this is your chance. Dig out that sketchbook and enter your bestest nekkid drawing. Okay, you're serious and don't do nekkid, enter your favorite study. There is that serious and artistic enough for you?


Click image for larger view

And if you take a look at the ole Trawler, you'll see that I mentioned this a while ago, so no whining about "last minute notice."

Invitational Collage Show

This is the annouoncement for the Invitational Collage Show that Jon Leach, a fine artist himself, has curated for the Art Gallery at the Umpqua Valley Community College in Roseburg, OR. The show includes absolutely gorgeous work from 13 different NW collage artists. If you check out their websites or Google their names I know you will be as impressed with their work as I am; it is an honor for me to be included in this show! Jon has done a thoughtful job of putting togehter all of these artists to respond to the challenge of the next 100 years of collage, this being the centennial celebration of Picasso's and Braques' original first collages!

The show runs March 28th through May 12, 2011. The reception is Friday, April 8th from 5-7 pm.

Attached is a map of the campus. The art gallery is located in the Whipple Building (#4 on the map).

If you live here on the Oregon Coast, hope you get a chance to see the show!
Susan Lehman : )
www.susanlehmanartist.com

click image for larger view

What to do on a Windy Day

Have you been to Pat Snyder's new blog? If you haven't now's the time, I mean what else can you do on these wet and windy days?

If you aren't an artist go for the wonderful art. A picture is worth a thousand words an Pat's do speak volumes.

If you are an artist visiting this site will give you a unique insight into how this award winning artist works. If you aren't an award winning artist getting the inside skinny from someone who does might just help you move into that award winning circle.

Even if it doesn't, what wonders you will see.

Pat generously posts his works in progress so you can see how he develops them from start to finish. I personally prefer Ross Inlet 1 and 2 to the finished product, but then I am not an award winning artist, okay, I do have a few, but nothing like Pat.

Be sure and take a look at the Printmaking link. The etching, Pat says dry point, but maybe only he and I know what that means, so if he asks you up to his studio to see his etchings it isn't a come-on, its real deal.

And you might ponder what Artist Proofs are and learn something important. (Hint) if you aren't making some of your own work you really should.

So be a good scout and take the journey to Pat's wonderful site and get a real look at how the noted artists does what he does.

Savin' a 1,000 Words!
http://www.patsnyderartist.com/wp/

Eye Candy

If you are staying at home on Sundays, and with the wild weather we've been having who wouldn't, you should take a look at Halogen TV's Artland. This series travels the US finding unique art treasures in the outback.

On last week's program they profiled New Mexico potter Sandra Victorino. Her coiled bas relief pottery is unique to the Acuna culture and might well escape the notice of an artist from a different geographical area.

this is one of those rare television programs which bring art to an audience much wide than the art would reach on its own. In addition to providing much needed exposure to regional artists it allows others to believe in the opportunity to get their own work profiled.

It's worth an hour on a dark and stormy night

And you might want to take a look at Sandra Victorino's work if only to inspire you to greater heights!


http://www.tribalexpressions.com/pottery/victorino.htm