A big Year

Earlier this year I received a letter that the CPSA was going to publish a new Best of Colored Pencil Book.  Everyone that had Signature Status was asked to send in two images to be considered for the book.  I picked two.  The first was an older picture called Anointing, which I consider to be the best of the "God's Hand" Series.  The other image was the same one that I entered into the CPSA International Exhibition, Labino Tribute.  I sent the images and went on to other things.  Later I entered the piece into the Exhibition and waited to hear the news about acceptance or rejection.


I was very busy during this time so I didn't really dwell on my piece getting into the show, but as time approached I thought about it more.  When the list was posted of the artists that got into the show, I saw my name and drew a huge sign of relief.  Did I think my picture was going to get into the show?  Yes, I did.  But Jurors have another perspective on things and can really surprise us all.  I have had the experience a few times when I  thought I was a shoe-in and not-so-pleasant experience of rejection; so I never take the news that I have been accepted lightly.


But then things began to happen quickly!

I received an email from Vera Curnow that my piece, Labino Tribute, was chosen to be on the cover of the CPSA Signature Showcase Book coming out this year.    I squealed like a piglet and did a little wiggly dance around the room!  What an honor.  Anyone going to a Convention for the CPSA will view all the entires into the exhibition, and you soon learn how much talent is out there.  And the Signature status of the artists in this book is the cream of the crop.  To be picked for the cover was very exciting. I shared the news with a few people, but had to keep the news quite until the convention when they announced the book and had it ready to be ordered.  They are hoping to have it ready for shipping in September of 2010.


A week before the Convention was the time (this year) to get notified of awards.  The phone call came that I had indeed been given an award, but as we all know that are part of the CPSA, you are not told what award, just that you have been picked for one.  So the waiting began again.


My husband and I traveled to the Convention in Santa Clara, CA.  The hotel was a gem and we really enjoyed our stay.   Meeting other artists that I have seen every year or so at the conventions is always a joy.  I enjoy putting a face to the name and linking them to their artwork.  There never seems to be enough time to sit down and chat and get to know each other.  There are too many to see, talk to and get re-aquainted with.  Time is too short!  Life is too short!

Tea Time Auction piece

The auction is always a highlight of the week.  The bidding is fast and furious and so competitive.  I had a piece in this year that was fairly popular, so I was happy about that.  Keith went around and bid on his favorites and ended up empty handed at the end of the night when he was overbid in the last few seconds.  There is always next year!  But some of the pieces were wonderful and I was excited to be among them.


For those not familiar with the Convention and the proceedings it goes like this.  There are many awards, but the top places run in this fashion.  There were three 1000.00 awards this year, two 1500.00 awards, and then the top Award, the Cippy, for 2000.00. The highlight of the convention is the three evening events.  The first is the General Meeting that has the auction and prizes, the second is the Awards Banquet, and the third is the Artist's Reception and viewing the show itself.  As I was in line for an award, I was excited about the Banquet and which award I would receive.  It is exhausting to wait.  The anticipation can wear you right out!  I finally was named with the 1000.00 Award from the Seattle, Washington Chapter of the CPSA.


The Top Award winner this year was a piece called "Grapes in a Basket" by Shinji Harada, CPSA from Japan.  It is an exceptional piece and deserved it's place in the awards standings.  I picked it as a top contender when I went to the show earlier.  It stood out as a wonderful work and was very beautiful.  There were many many fine pieces in this show, and the competition for the awards would have been difficult to decide.  We all have our personal preferences, and we all sort of disagree with the Juror of each show on some aspects, whether it be who was accepted and rejected--- to those that got the awards, or where their standings were on the awards.  I guess everyone is an Art Critic when it comes to an art convention.  And as anyone will tell you that knows me even a little-bit, I have a lot of opinions on everything.  This year is no different.  I disagreed and I agreed with certain things, but I will not go into it here.  I think overall it was a good showing and I was among exceptional talent hanging on every wall.  Congratulations to all those that were in the 18th Annual Colored Pencil Society of America International Exhibition.




It has been a very big year for me.  Sometimes you have the honor of doing something exceptional.  As  a Christian, it is important to give the Lord the honor and praise.  For when you stand back from the work, you know you did not do it by yourself.  Your hand moved while His advised.  Even the talent that was given was not your doing, only yours to cultivate and to grow.  But I take joy in the moment, and laugh at the serendipity and wonder that sometimes things are just wonderful right at this moment in time.

Back from Dallas           

This past weekend I taught a workshop in for the chapter in Dallas, TX.  I packed my studio up, taking most of my pencils and crayons, brushes and paper and took the plane down to Dallas, looking forward to meeting fresh faces and past friends. 

While in Dallas I stayed with a wonderful couple, Toni and Ken Wengler.  They are splendid hosts and made me feel right at home; fed me healthy food and kept me on schedule.  Toni is a sweet and loving woman, a talented artist, and makes great brownies.  They both showed me around Dallas a bit, let me lap up some sunshine that has been missing in Michigan and took me out to dinner.  Toni did her best to get some Texas chic into my wardrobe, culminating in a new purse that will definitely get some comments!

Workshops are hard work.  They take planning to prepare for, and energy to teach.  But I love teaching them.  Something happens in a good workshop.  Most everyone there is trying something new by diving into unknown waters in an attempt to widen their horizons.  In some way a Synergy takes hold in the room while the artists experiment and take the plunge into unknown territory.  We laugh at silly mistakes, outright catastrophes cause funny comments and more laughter while most learn how to keep away from the blunder on the second or third try.  Even those that will not use the techniques put forth when they get home will usually encounter something in a workshop that will come in handy in the future.

In my opinion, teachers should always go into a workshop thinking how they can improve upon their techniques plus pay attention to better ways to teach the students those skills-- even learn from the students themselves.   Likewise, a student should enter with an open frame of mind that they are going to have fun, experiment for a few days or hours, and see what will happen.  Both parties should go into the whole event with a sense of humor and a willingness to learn.

As any artist that works in Colored Pencil will tell you, one of the hardest things to do is let go and experiment.  We are generally a tight group, meaning we like control, we like to know what is going to happen with the next layer of color, and we hold our breaths when we go out of our own little boxes.  Because of this we sometimes forget that art is supposed to be fun, we are even supposed to enjoy the whole process.  Since this technique is quite new to most, it leads to some consternation when things don’t happen just as they thought they should, and laughter when they are disastrous.  But we all find out that the world did not end, the earth still spins on its axis, and your box just expanded when you weren’t even thinking about it!  What serendipitous fun!

New Beginnings: January, February 2010

It has been a very interesting year so far.  After a full house during the holidays, I sat down in my studio and tried to get back to work.  Not an easy task-- as I had been gone at this point more than five weeks.
I really dislike being out of the studio and not being able to work consistently on my artwork.  When I return, the studio feels like it is not home anymore and the artwork is a stranger, someone I have to get reacquainted with all over again.  The whole experience feels something like moving into a new home.

I usually set about cleaning.  I begin putting things in order and rearranging things.  I dust and sweep and make the place feel more familiar.  Going through the pencils and crayons that I use helps and I may reformulate my palette for the current picture. I sit before the work and get to know it all over again.  I feel like apologizing to a friend for leaving it for so long.  And to be honest, I may take a deep breath and an “Ugh” may come forth, because I am again reminded that this is not going to be easy.  

And then I dig in and get things done.  About two weeks of work was needed to finish up the latest glass piece, “Labino Tribute II” and it came out well I think.  Then I put another piece up that had been on hold for a while.  This one is a very dark and mysterious work, and has been lots of fun so far.  I will post it later for you to see.

October Colored Pencil Workshop in Washington, D.C.

Workshop: Building Blocks of Color

October 16 & 17, 2010

109 METRO. WASHINGTON, D.C.

Blair Jackson: 703-222-6685

email: metrowa-dc109 at cpsa.org

Chapter Website: http://www.cpsa109.org

Register today to reserve your place!

Colored Pencil Workshops Coming Up

March 6-7 - Workshop: Building Blocks of Color
2 day workshop in Plano, Texas
Hosted by CPSA chapter DC 215 Dallas/FtWorth
Contact Person: Linda Lucas Hardy

Description:
If you have wished you could paint with your pencils, this is your chance to experience that feeling of freedom on a fast and efficient surface that is so forgiving it makes worrying about mistakes a very rare occurrence. Many Colored Pencil artists are not sure how to use the newer water-soluble crayons. There are now two sets of them available. (Caran d’Ache and Lyra) This Workshop explores the many uses and techniques of mixing, creating a palette, and layering over and under colored pencil, using these wonderful crayons. This technique does not use the Prismacolor at all. Coloursoft, Polychromos and possibly Lyra and Pablo pencils are all very useful for this fast and free technique. Rather then the waxy Prismacolor pencils, these dryer and softer pencils are used to their fullest extent. As they are all partial or fully water-soluble, they can be layered over and under the washes to create intense color and strong effects. In this workshop you learn to blend with a brush and with water to create smooth color transitions.

UArt paper is utilized throughout the exercises, as it is very forgiving, will not buckle when wet, and is almost indestructible. I will also touch on how colors work together, their psychological effects, warm and cool tones and value scale.

April 10 - One Day Workshop: Building Blocks of Color
Detroit Michigan Chapter #104
Contact Person: Diane Radtke

Description:
A breakthrough in new materials also creates fresh dimensions where barriers no longer exist. The pencil, painstakingly layered and blended took us all to one dimension. Now enter a new level where possibilities are limitless. Blocks of color applied with a brush. Washed on, floated over, dribbled or layered and blended, it’s all delightfully new. The pencils are softer, bolder, blending easily together. The surface is marvelous to work upon; wet or dry.

"Man's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions."
~Oliver Wendell Holmes

Life gets in the way!

We all want to be productive artists. The picture of ourselves sitting in front of the drawing board, coloring, drawing and producing is how we all view ourselves. We love the thought of putting out one remarkable piece after another, swimming along with art popping out of our pores and nothing stopping the process. Believe me. It’s a Pipe Dream!

Life gets in the way!

For instance, right now I have just finished a really spectacular piece and begun another, and it was going slow but sure along the usual route. Then along came a distraction of mammoth proportions and although I tried, my mind could not concentrate on the task at hand. I figured it would go away, but the distraction became more important. My Mother-In-Law, a wonderful person who is the kindest woman I have ever known, is dying. I live right next door to her, so it hit me pretty hard. I had to be there to help where and when I could, and although my art is very important to me….well it didn’t come close to this in importance.

I suppose there are those that could take all this pain and hurt and make great art with it. So far, that has not been the case with myself. I just plain go empty and it does not matter to me. Maybe when all this comes to a conclusion I can finally pick up the pieces and begin to go back to my life as it used to be…that will never be the same again. I hope I will be a better person after this. Perhaps my artwork will reflect the change. I also hope that I will be able to work through this sort of thing in the future, sort of keep creating while the world spins out of control, but I think that might be a pipe dream of my own.

We should all fight distractions. That is what we are told I guess, but I think they are there for a reason. What is it that the Lord would have us see or feel or take care of that we have not been attuned? We need to make time for our artwork or it will not be produced in the first place, but some distractions are well worth the time lost at the drawing board. When we come back maybe, just maybe, we will see with a clearer vision, with more spectacular colors or with added feeling that would not be achieved in any other fashion.

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My Mother-In-Law, a most generous, kind and loving woman passed away yesterday. I will miss her dearly. She should get a medal as the best Mother-In-Law in the world as far as I am concerned. Thank you Mom for helping me be a better person and see more clearly the important things in life.

Overcoming Handicaps

When I first began to focus on my art years ago I was so excited about painting and making art. All my life I had been drawing and reading and studying on my own trying to learn about color, composition and anything I could find to educate myself.

In the midst of all this discovery and excitement I went to the eye doctor for my son and while waiting took the Color Blind Test. To tell the truth it felt weird. I saw things sometimes but at other times saw nothing. The doctor came out and asked how I was doing. I must have looked worried, so he gave me the test. I failed. Dismally. He told me I was one of the worst female cases he had ever seen. I took more tests and failed them as well. I can remember going home and crying and feeling so sorry for myself. How was I ever to be a fine artist when I could not see color? It seemed impossible.

I see color. I see the autumn colors at this time of year and they look vibrant and glorious just like they are supposed to. So how can I be colored blind? Well, the first thing to learn is that there are varied levels of colored blindness. They call me color recessive, because I see some colors very well, but others seem to recede or go un-noticed entirely. At other times I do not see colors correctly, they may look more red or green to me than to others. So I began to teach myself about color. I learned its properties, about value and contrast, warm and cool colors, and also about the color wheel and how it works. I figured if I learned about the handicap I could also figure out how to overcome it. And I think I have for the most part learned to think of it as an advantage and not the opposite.

It is far more important for an artist working in color to learn and understand values. Where does that color fall in the gray scale? How dark or light is that color? For many artists colors sing to them. They sing so loud they cannot hear the value whispering. So although they may paint or draw a very colorful picture it is somehow flat and does not feel lively. It may be that the values are mostly midtones. They lack darks and lights, or value-change throughout the picture. In this I am far ahead of the game, for I see value first and color second. I do not have to wonder about value because it is the very first thing I notice and then the color will sort of sift through, slowly being noticed. I concentrate hard trying to see as many colors as I can.

For some reason I can see temperature very easily. Do you think about the temperature of a color when you are doing you artwork? It is one of the main things that I notice. Is that a warm blue or cold blue? Is the object a cool red or a warm red? This may seem unimportant to some, but to me it is uppermost in my mind, because if a picture has too little of one or the other it will lack vibrancy and pizzazz. There should be balance.

Does the picture have story to tell? Do the pictures colors help tell the story? Bernard Poulin, www.poulinstudios.com, has a striking picture on his website that has haunted me ever since I first viewed it. It is a lonely picture, taking place around midnight, and the colors are all extremely cool except for where the man stands, which is warmed by warm light and draws you in with shadows of mystery. The colors tell the story because color has personality and psychology. You could not convince a viewer of the same story using warm welcoming color in that picture.

The picture above is about old things more than new. The colors help tell that, with the rusty reds and the old browns. These items look used and homey. The water and suds look cool because the colors that they are rendered in are cool.

The picture also works well because it had a dynamic composition that is a bit unusual. The values are good as well, for they range from very dark to very light with a fine range in mid-tones. All these are much more important to me than basic color, because the warmth and values tell the story far better.

Think about these things the next time you think about what color to put down. Do you know what value it is or if it is a warm or cool color? I think you might find it to be an interesting exercise that will help you make a convincing painting.