Painting the morning in the night

Last night I guided a small group through a paint and wine class at Vanguard Gallery in Moreno Valley.  One of my students had already taken classes with me, including the Absolute Beginners class and was happy to work through this painting  of winter solstice sunrise across the Salton Sea to hone some of the skills.

We’re doing an underpainting to get rid of the white so in the final painting we’re not strugging with that aspect

We’re painting the sky part of the top coat

It’s easier to paint the bottom of the panel when it’s upside down.

Adding the sun.

All done!

 

Jan Wright solo show.

On Friday I had the pleasure of hanging Jan Wright’s solo show at the Vanguard Gallery in Moreno Valley.

And here’s Jan herself with my personal favorite in the show.

Here reception will be on October 20th, 4-6pm.  Please join us if you are in the area, or please share this message!

Anniversary at the Vanguard

My strong association with the Vanguard Gallery in Moreno Valley – I teach there, curate about a third of the year’s shows and sit on the advisory committee – goes back pretty much to its inception 7 years ago.  For August Rick didn’t have a theme he wanted to work on and I couldn’t find another artist so I had to fill the walls myself.  I had lost track of the years, but the reception is going to be the 7th Anniversary of the Vanguard.  A few special items will be scheduled, including a mini petting zoo with some rabbits and birds, and probably Rick will come up with some other things between now and then – then being August 11th 5-7pm.  In the mean time, here’s the show wall of the gallery.

Second Place!

Before you get too excited about my achieving second place with my chalk painting last Saturday in Moreno Valley, it was a very small field of competitors.  I also had a small booth at the art fair and my beloved was being the store keeper for me, while I wore off my fingerprints.  I discovered fairly early on that our choice of space to set up (chosen because putting Doug under the tree in the shade would allow me to use the umbrella to keep the blacktop I was working on from melting my fingers), was in front of the band.  The band (there were several during the course of the day) and the between-bands background music was LOUD.  So, to relieve Doug and allow him to walk around and repair his eardrums and sanity, I hurried through my work.

The need for speed was exacerbated by wind which took the umbrella for a tumble and meant I had to chalk with one hand while quickly rubbing the chalk into the now-scorching blacktop with the other.  I finished in 2 hours, and apparently was the only one who completely finished, though other chalkers, intending to take until 4pm created larger compositions.

I had a limited amount of blue, so did the surrounding ‘atmosphere’ in red, rather than follow the original, and created far less clouds than on the mixed media painting this was based on. For this it’s more about the message than the accuracy of the map.

“That the world is round reminds us that we are on the same side.”

Pets and animals show.

On Friday I hung a group show featuring work of pets and animals at the Vanguard Gallery in Moreno Valley.  It features the following artists (just in the order they are on the wall):  Sandy Zelasko, Mike Holder, Kelly Vela, Jeni Bate, Terry d’Chacon, Kay Levie, Diane Morgan and sculpture pieces by Janice Osborne and Alana Marston.  The show will be up through June 28th.

From the right: 4 paintings by Diane Morgan, 3 photos by Kay Levie, 1 painting by Terry Chacon. Under, a basket of prints by Mike Holder

Four paintings by Terry Chacon on the right, to the left, a photo by Kelly Vela, two paintings by Jeni Bate and two of Janice Osborne’s glass sculptures

From Right, 2 paintings by Terry Chacon, 7 photos by Kelly Vela, 2 paintings by Jeni Bate and 2 glass sculptures by Janice Osborne.

From the left this time, 4 photos by Sandy Zelasko, 3 paintings by Mike Holder, 4 photos by Kelly Vela.

Four glass animals by Janice Osborne.

Four horse pieces by Alana Marston.

More birds.

I only had two students in my Paint the Night class last night at the Vanguard Gallery in Moreno Valley, but they both had fun.  One of the questions were, what kinds of birds are they?  Jenibirds?  Blue fronted swifts?  This is a very popular image, and sometimes students use their own imaginations and create red-fronted Jenibirds, or once, blackbirds.

Jumping from one space to another.

The last few days have been so busy – no blogging!  I taught a class yesterday and forgot to take pictures! Ugh.  Anyway, I do have some news from the Vanguard Gallery in Moreno Valley – where I will be teaching tomorrow and Thursday.  I will try harder to remember to take photos!  You might get a preview of the show he mentions in the background.

 

Good copies

Underpainting going down

On Friday I ran the Paint-the-night event at the Vanguard Gallery in Moreno Valley – and had 11 students, many of whom knew each other, so they were enjoying the evening together.  We painted a scene from an open road through fields in the Ojai area – a painting I’d completed in watercolor many years ago and thought would work well as a paint night subject.

Filling in the grassland.

One of the thing that I tell students at these evenings, is that their painting is not going to look exactly like mine – which is why art forgers are paid so much.

 

 

Fences going in.

However this group all got really close to the painting we were working from!  The main difference was that I had yellow ochre deep – vs yellow ochre which I usually work with, and as I hadn’t used this before, I hadn’t realized how dull this color is compared to regular ochre.  I figure I learn something in every class too, so this was it for this one!

Most of the graduates. One had to go home because her baby was crying.

Birdy, birdy.

Three concentrating on making round blue blobs into birds.

Last night there were three students at the Paint-the-night evening at the Vanguard Gallery in Moreno Valley.  I’ve guided a different group through this painting before, in case it seems familiar, but they were all first time bird-watchers. They all had a lot of fun, and are looking forward to a different painting next month.  If you’re in the area, and you’re interested, it’s on June 23rd.  A great way to celebrate a TGIF.

Variations on a theme.

 

 

Class acts

I did two classes in the last couple days, the first one was a watercolor collage workshop in La Quinta, the second one was a Paint and Wine evening in Moreno Valley.  Seven people had a lot of fun and created some happy stuff.

Four Having Fun

Some of the results

Underpaintings being finished

Students going off in their own directions

Student going off in her own direction

The students wanted me and my variation in the pic too.