mARTa's Art

I attended Alicia Sotherland's pastel portrait workshop today in San Clemente, Ca.
I had a lot of fun and was grateful my friend Dianne attended also, for she drove and hauled supplies for me.
We worked with nu-pastels on suede matboard. Interesting. No preliminary sketch but began by putting in the background with a dark and finding our shapes. Alicia was a great teacher and I found myself really picking up some good tips. Alicia is a hands on teacher so she had a bit of a "hand" in this piece. This was from a photo from my trip to Guatemala in 2008

18x24 inches, oil on masonite board.
Not a good photo as I only had my iphone with me in class today.  And yes, this is from life.

I've been having a difficult time again with peri-menopause symptoms. I see the doctor next week and will be begging to be placed on HRT again. Last night I took a sleeping pill just to get one good night's sleep. I did but was groggy most of the morning. None the less, I got right to work in class today.

We had to do two markers today. The first was a self portrait, life size using our nupastels. The second was to do a drawing using linear perspective. We could pick something in the studio or go outdoors. It was lightly raining so I just drew what was in front of me. Time allotted was 45 minutes for each drawing.

On Wednesday we are to take to class something that is curva-linear for line drwing. Hummmm

As for the rest of today I am going to begin to prepare some of my masonite boards for painting class on Friday and do one with a new medium I bought yesterday: Acrylic ground for pastel by Golden. I'll keep you posted!

This is an email I received from my niece Grace who lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico:

The next big ticket item in my basket is school. I sometimes feel like I took on too much here. Attending a college class involves homework, research papers and projects!!! I am learning so much even if I do feel overwhelmed. I have one week to complete 3 master studies,  a group research project on German Expressionism....go ahead, ask me anything about it, I have it all up here (pointing to head), and a paper on an artist of my choice: Kathe Kollwitz.  Learning is fun and I know once all is complete I will be very proud of my accomplishments.

This week in figure class we are doing portraits. I so loved this! I am happy with the three portraits done this week. The young lady liked it so much she asked if I would sell her the portrait I did of her. It pleased me that she liked it and wanted it. It was so much fun to do them all from life!

My figure drawing class officially began today with a brief round of introductions of everyone in class and then right into the first assignment.  She split the class into those who have taken it before and those who are beginners.  I am a beginner.  We had to take hand mirrors and sit at a draft table and do self portraits.  I really like doing self portraits but I like working at an easel and using a larger mirror.  This 30 minute drawing is pretty accurate but I made my face to0  elongated....perhaps "Modigliani-ish?"  She had us label this 'marker no. 1.'  

I'm in the car with my Rudy and Amy on our way to my friend Joan's funeral tomorrow. This is a self portrait of me looking into the visor mirror.

Sent from me and my cool iPhone

I am really enjoying the water soluble graphite sticks. This is a sketch of one of my other little ones, Devin. Unlike Nicole whose mama can't be with her all the time; Devin's mama rarely leaves his side. He is such a vocal little man who entertains us with his jabbering. Him and I share his Cherrios in the mornings; me pretending to steal them from his tray and he laughs when he has caught me plopping one in my mouth! Both of parents are wonderful people and I enjoy them as much as their precious little boy. They have had so much to deal with this past year with his illness (leukemia) and still have a long battle ahead of them. Their love and constant vigilance with their son is beyond admirable. Often we only think of the children going through cancer but in reality, this is a disease of a family.

Amy & Adam

Our eldest son Adam graduated with high honors today from UCLA (university of California Los Angeles). I did this quick sketch of my daughter Amy on the train into LA and the second pencil sketch in the sculpture garden at UCLA.

My son is over today doing laundry and visiting. He was curious as to how I approach a watercolor. So I gave him a mini demo. First I work up some sketches with charcoal or pencil. Sometimes I get what I want the first time, sometimes not. I didn't this time. Then using a grid I draw my working sketch in the finished size (for this one a full sheet of wc paper). Next I transfer that sketch to the wc paper using a graphite sheet I have prepared ahead of time. Then I use masking fluid if I think I might mess up areas I want to save for highlights later. I then mix up paint and play around on scratch wc sheets to see what colors I will use...usually a limited palette of 3 or 4 colors in warm and cool shades. Next I start a study painting (which I've started here) but don't think of it as just a study. Who knows, it might be the better of the two! Right now, well, just waiting for the paint to dry before the next step which will be putting in more color and starting the shadow areas.........I returned to the study laying in deeper skin tones, shadows, working the eye area and mouth and lots of color for the hair. Once dry I went back in for more detailed work and finally finishing the 10x14 study. It looks a bit illustrated to me but it's hard to work really loose on such a small area. I'm excited to begin the full sheet painting soon!

I painted these about 8 years ago of my nieces in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Today another of my nieces is coming to stay with me for a few months. I haven't told her yet that she will be doing some posing for her "nina" as I am affectionately called by all my nieces: Rachel, Allison, Elisa, Sara and Grace.

I finished this first portrait of Sam (I think is his name) but I am not very happy with it and since his mother is paying me to do this, I want both of us to be happy with it, so I am going to do it again. I think it's the background that bothers me as do the over worked areas around the ears and eyes. My favorite part is the sleeve of his shirt! I just want it to look "fresher" and not so pained. But it is a good study and I learned from doing it. I 'm excited about starting a new one. The reference photo and preliminary sketches can be viewed on the Post from February 20, 2007.