Sunday, March 27, 2011

Exercising is NO FUN!

The assignment was to bring red, blue, yellow and white and we would all paint a set up of a white cup on a colorful cloth lit with a spot.  The idea was to mix the colors reflected in the cup and play with the variety of shadows that the colorful cloth and cup would make.  Not to mention the fact that we would need to know a bit of chemistry to mix all those colors with just a few tubes at hand.

Welllllll, most of us showed up with a cad red yada yada.  The cloth beneath the cup was a gorgeous hot pink...now I am no rocket scientist but there is no way on this earth that cad red and any other color (blue? white?) will ever make hot pink.  Problem #1.  The next stumbling block came from the fact that to make the spot work we all 8 needed to gather close to the set up and were practically breathing down each other's necks...and some of us got a bum view.  I could go on...needless to say, we all griped and moaned and groaned and sounded like a bunch of old sourpusses told they needed an exercise program.  And, for artists, this is precisely what it was: an exercise.  And a much needed one.

I post my painting only as testament that working at an easel is not all fun and games...sometimes you have to do the heavy lifting and it is neither fun nor very attractive.  Believe it or not, as ugly as this is I did learn a few things....hope they show up in my next effort!

Cindy Michaud

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Tahitierinnen taking a bath

Awhile ago our group decided to practice painting the masters for awhile. This was a great excercise for us. We spent a lot of time reading about various artists that we admired and copying their paintings, trying to learn their techniques. It was so interesting to find out how various painters treated light, used and mixed color, picked subjects etc. I think the main thing we learned was that there are as many ways to paint as there are painters. You can copy anyone but that is all it is, a copy. When you really paint or do anything creatively for yourself it is you that comes through.




Thursday, March 17, 2011

Or Not

As we all know the creative process can be painful and long suffering, full of frustration, anxiety, self doubt and angst ... or not.  Sometimes you just have to put your feet up and let it flow.

Monday, March 14, 2011

Collaborations

This week the Seaside Quilters, of which our own Denette is a member and one of the originators of this great idea, had their Collaborations Show. The idea was to put together a quilter with an artist and let them decide what they would like to do. Some artists and quilters worked one on one and some artists had two quilters to work with. The result of these pairings was everything from Rhapsody in Blue to Buddha to Mosiacs to Dolls.  It was a great show with lots of wonderful ideas and unique displays. 


Eat, Pray, Love    Carol Schiff

Florida Wildlife    Carmen Beecher

Flowerings  Mary Warwick

Oriental Motif   Denette Schweikert




Rhapsody in Blue  Cindy Michaud

Partridge in a Pear Tree   Donna Vines


Thursday, March 10, 2011

Back to oils and loving it

Last Monday was a back to oils day for me. It has been a long time since I have done anything "serious" and I felt it was time. I decided to do a marsh scene because I just love marshes. They have such subtle colors and there is so much going on in them then you first realize. Each season brings it own special colors and beauty to a marsh. This photo was taken in the fall when the colors of the marsh are fading and the trees behind them are reaching their peak.
Kathy took this snapshot which shows the photo I am painting from and my painting about 3/4 of the way done. The photo is a panaramic view so I used an elongated canvas to try and get as much of the photo onto the canvas as possible.

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Back to Serious Painting on Mondays


The Pieces are back to Monday painting. And I wandered around every now and then with my camera to capture the activity. It's so inspiring to see what everyone is up to and to watch the magic as it's happening. (This time, I combined my photos into one because THEN I can control where it goes. Seems when I add in lots of photos they take on a mind of their own with Blogger and don't like to sit where I put them.)

Everyone was doing their own thing, from catching up on collages to serious painting (and for me, not so serious painting). I'm hoping some of the Pieces will jump in and comment about their work shown here. And if they have an updated piece, especially since I'll have to miss the next two wonderful Monday painting days, I'd love to see them here. Hint! Hint!

Friday, March 4, 2011

The Great Apple Collage Project Continues







Today the Pieces continued their apple collages. We cut, clipped, discovered, glued, chatted, made a huge mess (which we did clean up), and then cut, glued and chatted more.



Did we all finish? No. Did we have a lot of fun? Yes. Progress is duly noted in the accompanying photos. I particularly love Carmen's ransom note signature which I caught her in the act of applying. More photos to come at a future date, I hope, as we're back to painting next week.

And if you missed our previous blog entry about Carol's wonderful giveaway of a beautiful bridge painting, please scroll down to view it beneath all the apples.

Ballard Park, Original Oil on Canvas

  I had not painted outside in two years, so this was quite a challenge. It was one of those paintings I had to improve upon in the studio. ...