Mary B Spires Watercolor & Art Stuff

Things have been very busy, but I'm hard at work, taking two classes weekly.  Monday morning is "plein air" with Deb Dawson....an awesome painter and great friend.  Tuesday is the weekly class at Donna's.....I leave Wednesday for a day visit with my granddaughter Brittney.....with her wonderful husband and fantastic kids, Haddie Girl 3 1/2 and Judah 2 1/2.....plus Levi due November 1st....then off to Columbia for a two day workshop.....painting with my friends! I have been doing a lot of research on the "Chiaroscuro"  ( skyur-o-skur) style of painting.  Merriam Webster 1:  pictorial representation in terms of light and shade without regard of color 2: the arrangement or treatment of light and dark parts in a pictorial work of art. David A. Leffel is the master of chiaroscuro, I've had the privilege of seeing him demo a couple of times at the Longboat Key Art Center in Florida.  His book An Artist Teaches:  Reflections on the Art of Painting; he was...

Still Life Set Up When setting up a still life I usually take a picture, this give me a different view.  If I'm not sure if the design looks good, I look at it upside down on my camera or look at it with a mirror.  I've heard many teachers say it really is about design and/or composition. The Sketch with Brush I usually sketch the design with a #4 filbert brush and a little burnt sienna diluted with turp.   If you sketch with this method it is very easy to correct mistakes.  I also use a view finder.  Scumbling the darks and mid tones. Three Apples 8" x 10" oil on canvas board.  

Apple Still Life Set Up  While surfing You Tube a few months ago I found a video by Impressionist Jerry Fresia.  Of couse I had to purchase his book from Blurb.  It's a great book and I have read it cover to cover several times.  He really breaks it down how to paint like the impressionist.  Today was my day to try it.  Above is the set up.  He has 5 stages and 10 steps.  "Scumbling" Once you decide on composition and do the sketch you "scumble" your darks and mid tones.  In this stage you leave the white of the canvas open. Apples 8" x 10" Final

With the age of cyber space, it's so important to get into the social networking society.  Blog or blogging is so user friendly.  Anyone can do it, believe me when I did  my blog a couple of years ago, I was one step above getting my email.  Talking to friends I've found the hardest part for them to understand is the down sizing of a photograph.  I use Google's Picasa, a free photo editing software that makes your pictures look great, plus lets you edit and down size for uploading to the Internet.  For more information and step by step how to, just "google' Picasa and go to the bottom of the page and click on Getting Started Guide. A few years ago I was lucky enough to take a workshop in Austin Texas with Carol Marine and Karin Jurick.  (check out both of their blogs    http://karinjurick.blogspot.com/     http://carolmarine.blogspot.com/   )  Both artist, plus a couple of their friends, said that once the...

I'm still working on the newsletter, but took a few photographs of the light box.  This is how it looks when I'm ready to shoot.  More details on how to build it in the this months newsletter, out later this week.

Just a quick view of Dick's area in the studio.  Still working on the "put back"and "edit" stuff.  Hope to finish today after class.  Dick's still working on the top for the old roll top desk,  needs to stain and seal. 

I finally did it!!!!!  It's only been 23 years, the studio had the original builders paint.....so I moved everything into the garage, and started painting.  It's now a very soft pale green (sage), which is the best paint color for a studio.......Dick was happy to help because he got a  new space across the back of the room overlooking a great view of the back 40! We made a new top for the old roll top desk....hope to be finished this week.  Added a few new selves, including a gray plastic one for still life stuff and plein air boxes.  Moved the mat cutting cabinet (Dick made about 20 years ago), it has storage for mat board and watercolor paper.  This created a new space for still life set up, plus photographing paintings with my light box.  More info on how to build it in the newsletter due out this week.