Birthday Celebration

Sunday, March 9, 2008

IT’S MY BIRTHDAY! My family sent me a package with cards that I opened first thing in the morning but I saved my present for later. Kathleen called and asked if I wanted to go with them to Conway, SC for a river cruise at noon. When I reminded her that was in 15 minutes, she realized they had forgotten to reset their clock for daylight saving.

Scurried into clothes and met them straight away. Conway was about 45 minutes away. We met Captain Jim who ran the river tour with his 10 person electric boat. A veritable encyclopedia of information about the history of Conway, we spent a pleasant and informative hour and a half.

Got back to Springmaid only a few minutes after the workshop introduction was under way. My instructor this week is George James from Costa Mesa, California. Most of his career was spent as a professor at UC Fullerton. While he works primarily in watercolor on a synthetic paper called YUPO, he makes it clear that he is open to
any way that a student wants to work. Obviously, many students work with Yupo, as indicated by their questions. I’m hoping that this doesn’t dominate throughout.
(Photos top to bottom: on the river in Conway, Kathleen on the boat, more Conway river, George James about to demonstrate.)

First Week's Culmination

Saturday, March 8, 2008

Fridays, the last day of a workshop, are always busy. Everyone is working with determination to finish what they’re working on, while, at the same time, I felt weary with the intensity of the week.

Salminen gave his final lesson on landscape painting and making a surface reflection. In one lesson, he demonstrated perspective, shadows, reflections and wet pavement. It was a skill packed lesson that would have been tried by much of the class if he had offered it earlier in the week. The artist at the next table tried it with good results.

My conference with my instructor was helpful in determining some small adjustments that made the painting a much more effective statement.

The painting was hung with those of my class and the other five classes. Got all gussied up for our big “opening” and cocktail party. Followed by the white tablecloth dinner, we ended the evening with DJ Larry and dancing.

Saturday morning was filled with good byes to friends who were departing. I was anxious to get off the Springmaid property after a week here and started asking around who had a car. Asked a new acquaintance, Kathleen Conover about her plans. She told me that she & Dennis were going to Charleston and invited me to join them. I was thrilled!

As the sun broke through the day’s rainy start, we got to know each other on the two hour drive. Kathleen and Dennis spend the winter in Pine Island, Florida where Dennis has several boats that he loves to take out in the Gulf of Mexico. Kathleen is an artist (see her website at www.michstudio.com) who paints wherever she is, in Florida or in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan by Lake Superior, homebase for the pair.

On arrival in Charleston, we set out by trolley to see the historic district. We marveled at the beautiful architecture that is distinctive in this southern city. After visiting the Slave Mart Museum, we agreed that just being in that place left you feeling the evil of the acts committed there. Galleries are a big part of the city’s vibrancy and we visited several. To add to the authenticity of the experience, we had dinner at Gullah Cuisine, sampling dishes indigenous to the African American community.
(Photos-top to bottom: my painting that I exhibited at our gala show, classmates Joseph & Sue with their abstractions, Charleston.)

Beach Beauty & A Perspective Lesson

Thursday, March 6, 2008

The day dawned with a crystal, clear blue sky and a calm ocean. By midday it warmed to the low 70’s, making lunch break an outdoor event. There wasn’t much time for sunbathing for the painters but a few other brave souls were taking el sol by the pool. Warmer weather makes the beach a busy place with walkers, pets and surfers taking advantage of the balmy day. (Springmaid pier, above)

I, however, spent the bulk of the hours in the day indoors in the studio. Just a few pieces of collage completed the abstract project on which our class has been working for the last three days. Salminen said he thought I could keep working on the painting indefinitely which would change it but would not necessarily improve it. He confirmed my decision that this painting was done.

We got to see more of what our instructor does when he showed slides of his paintings. He creates urban street scenes, filled with amazing detail and complexity. Working primarily in a neutral palette, his depictions of New York, San Francisco, Paris and other major cities are studies in value.

Perspective drawing was his lesson today. His descriptions and diagrams made a subject that I’ve studied before but never quite got, straight forward and clear.Today I made a new painting in acrylic on paper. After many layers of color, I painted a figure and applied some of the approach I have just learned to the background. Tomorrow I will have an opportunity to conference with John and get his feedback.

Adding Collage

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

My conference was delayed as class had a slow start and I met with my instructor more than an hour late. We were friendly enough, shared stories and some jokes and eventually got talking about my painting. He suggested I use washes to unify it. I told him where I would put them and he agreed. (at right: trying out collage; before adding black)

Unity is a good thing in a painting; one that’s sometimes hard to achieve while you still keep the excitement. This is my goal and it is a tricky balancing act. He then wants us to add collage and then a block of neutral color in the white area, at least one black section and line work. I am not so enthusiastic about the collage and use it sparingly. But BLACK! That’s another story. Coming out of a traditional watercolor experience, I was taught to create dark colors through mixing of colors, never to use black. Here I am—not only being given permission to use black, but being virtually compelled to do so!

I placed it in a large section that was already quite dark, That felt so good, I found two more prominent places for it in varying sizes and shapes. It felt terrific! But then I got nervous about it and scraped out most of one section. We’re just about finished, I mean myself and most of the 24 other students in the class. Their work is interesting and well executed although few in the class truly like their work, pledging to change it when they get home,

Tonight, after dinner, was the walk around. All the studios are open for touring, What strikes me repeatedly as I walk through the studios, is the exceptional high quality of these artists’ work. Creativity, talent, hard work account for it.

Laying In Color

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Here we are at super Tuesday again, I am listening to Hillary Clinton in her victory speech. It is probably one of the best things about today. The worst was when the heavy plate glass and metal door closed on my fingers, pushed by a gust of wind. Not controlling my language as the pain was pretty severe, prompted my teacher to speculate that I had past life as a sailor.

Tonight it is storming. The wind whips up the ocean, making it roar through the rain. The sky is masked and the lightening strikes are a burst of flame inside a sky of grey cotton.

My paintings are both frustrating and not resolving well. We have now gotten most of the project but the pacing has been frustrating to me. I have realized that the premise of this project, breaking the space into small shapes, is contrary to what my painting goals are. Having those small shapes feeds difficulties that I am working to overcome. I will meet with my instructor first thing in the morning to see what he has to say.

The Abstract Project

Monday, March 3, 2008

The day is beautiful and sunny and I am energized for my work. Our instructor gives us five minutes to draw each of four objects: a shopping bag, the trigger sprayer from a Windex bottle, a piece of plastic with a bullnose clip and a tape dispenser. We then transfer our drawings on top of one another, to tracing paper & subsequently to the painting support.

John wants everyone to use watercolor on d’Arches paper. Not my thing. I only want to work in acrylic. We reach a compromise; I will do a painting on paper PLUS another on canvas with acrylic. It was my offer but I fear I have bitten off more than I thought.

All day I bounced back and forth between the two pictures. While they both started with the same drawings, each will be unique. After lunch, the teacher demonstrated the next step, after discoursing on it for quite a long time. After a while, I just wanted to jump up, shake him and yell “OKAY, PAINT ALREADY”. Which he eventually did. I stayed late to be up to speed on both pieces. (picture at right - overlaid drawings on tracing paper, folded to be transfered to paper and canvas.)

Salminen, a nice guy with a friendly wife who serves as a teacher assistant, is rather rigid in his approach and inflexible in dealing with students. Thirty three years of teaching art in public school may inform his approach; not only may you use only the materials he specifies, but he doesn’t tell you where he’s going with the lesson, only teaching one aspect at a time rather than teaching the entire project and allowing artists to pace themselves. We’ll see where this will take us,

Taking Off For Springmaid

Sunday, March 2, 2008

After sitting in a line of small planes on the runway at LaGuardia, we begin to slowly taxi to our spot at the front, in position for take off. There is a sound that fills the cabin, sort of like the rhythmic “wheh, wha” of a saw on a tree, I look around. No neighbors are very close as I’ve been able to snag a row to myself, but no one else is looking dismayed or even conscious of what I’m hearing. I then overhear the woman behind me say that she heard the same sound on her last Spirit flight. I am slightly reassured seeing her as proof that it did not cause disaster on that flight. However, I write about the sound and my anxiety in my notebook, just in case this could be the end, there might be some evidence of what happened. It’s not like me to be a nervous traveler but here I was, jetting off alone, to two weeks of painting workshops in Myrtle Beach.

I’ve been to Springmaid before and I’m looking forward to renewing acquaintances and deepening friendships. These workshops are unique because they run six studios simultaneously. Close to 200 artists, who lead solitary work lives, come together for the networking, camaraderie and collegial atmosphere that exist hardly anywhere else. Being an artist is lonely work and working with others is almost as strong a draw as what I can learn,

4:30 it’s off to the studio to hear an introduction from my instructor, John Salminen. Sporting a silver beard and bright yellow windbreaker, the Minnesotan explains his approach as focused on design, based on the teaching of Edgar Whitney. I’m excited about his design approach to abstraction—it is just what I came here for! Unfortunately, he wants us all to work in watercolor on paper. We’ve reached a compromise: I will work on two pieces, one watercolor on paper, and the other acrylic on canvas. We’ll see how this works out. (picture at right - John Salminen, instructor, giving introduction talk to class.)