Day two of class was a breeze. I was really pleased with my painting of a church or cathedral window. I stayed late to finish it as I knew we had to complete an assignment the next day. Wayland came in a saw me painting late and was so excited to see this he gave me a hug. I had done heave outlines of the window details thinking that I would go in later and thicken up my lines and give them each more depth. I need to do this as I have a tremble in my dominate hand due to a car accident from years ago. But Wayland said “leave it”. He also tells us to S T O P and LIGHTEN UP a lot! Which has taught me a lot about perspective and lighting levels and how to use that to affect height and distance?

I like his idea of levels and suggested a hand out for us one this. After two more days I have another ideal to suggest what size brushes to use to keep me in particular, from getting to detail oriented - too fast.

Wednesday was our assignment day. “Paint three apples and three apple trees. No more no less.” Well I thought I had a cute idea. I came up with at intervals between starting and wondering how to work in background, table, apples and trees. The idea came quick. The painting did not. Well I did it anyway, but did not like where this put me in my head, or where it put me with the outcome of my painting - ok it looks like a third graders. I hated it, I hated this day, I wanted to walk out of the room - well I did but came back in. I knew no matter what I was feeling or thinking I would come out ahead, more advanced with a new trick up my sleeve. Wayland sat with me instructing me and showing me what was wrong and how to correct it. A few things were fixed, but on to next things….which I did not care about because I hated this project and I hate this painting! My idea was three award winning apples and their blue ribbons with an emblem of the APPLE GROWERS OF AMERICA sticker in the center with an apple tree in the middle of each 3 apples, 3 trees, no more, no less at the ______Fair 2009. Well the sign was cut off so you don’t know what country it was held in. The apples were highlighted on individual pedestals with their winning ribbons on the back board. Horrible composition. Just horrible.

I have never been so exhausted as I was this evening. I had dinner, luckily got a massage, had a good night sleep and even though I knew it wasn’t finished I knew I was going back for more because I would choose the next painting.

I love my next subject. COLOR inspires me but I didn’t get to keep those colors and was getting a big time lesson on lightening up for depth - creating near and far objects on the canvas.

Now I don’t want Wayland to touch this one. Cause if I am gonna get it I NEED TO DO IT. If it takes being told 20 times. And I’ll do it that many times. I have probably put that many layers on. But with each critique I am getting there. I see the closeness and the distance and the curve of the subject. I’m not crazy about the color because I like painting what I see in nature. But I’ll go there and see what happens.

I am excited about every new corner I turn in this process. I may not like it in the moment but I go through anyway knowing I am learning something new.

Tomorrow is our last day, sadly. Wayland and everyone at the Folk School have been wonderful and the food is good. Wayland has been fun, joking and taking and giving as much teasing as we can all give and take. He has been exceptional sharing himself truly inside and out. Not only as a teacher, but as a man with a passion about what he does, bringing that to others and sharing his unique experiences, talents, perspectives, and joy. I know how lucky I am to have been in this class this week.

The Folk School has something really good going. Check it out for yourself sometime.

Laura

I am taking a Class at the John C Campbell Folk School with WAYLAND MOORE teaching. We had orientation Sunday night with Wayland talking about many different subjects. He has lots of drawings and paintings to demonstrate what he speaks about and also started and worked a painting himself to further demo. We started painting Monday Morning.

Now he asked us if we mind if HE paints on our canvas. I told him I won’t mind as long as it is not on the final layer. I want it to be MINE…but I don’t mind him teaching me on the levels the eye won’t see.

He did so on my first piece. I was struggling with this inside, but also trying to see what he wanted me to. He was trying to teach me depth and height on a painting along with levels of lighting. A bit much for me at first and I can see that I am on my way to “getting it”!

I hope we will paint more as I don’t feel they are finished.

People that have seen my work would look at the two I have started and NOT believe this is my work!

I asked him to really challenge me on the second with levels by choosing my subject. It is a cathedral window from a black and white photo.

Today I hope to start two more. Next post perhaps I will get my photos of painting on.

Laura

When interviewing for an important position with a technology company, I wore my best suit and tie and made sure my shoes were shiny and my shirt fresh and crisp. Of course I was clean shaven and I even used some of the men’s hair color to hide most of my gray hair. Why would I go to all that trouble? To make sure I made a strong first impression with a person who could positively (or negatively) impact my financial future.

Artists face the same challenge of getting a potential buyer’s favorable attention. The primary difference is that we are not expected to wear business suits and wing-tips. No, the first impression we usually make is with our art. When we do shows, the potential buyer gets to see our work in person but what about the people who have not had that opportunity yet? Or what happens when the people who did see our art can’t remember it from the scores of other work they saw at a show?

In the old days (a few years ago), the business card was what we entrusted to convey something memorable about ourselves into the home and offices of those potential buyers. We still need business cards today and those cards are more important than ever in helping people to remember you, your work, how to reach you, and how to see more of your work on the internet. The internet? Yes, the internet! Like it or not, the internet is today what the business card tried to be but never could mainly due to its size constraints.

Still, the business card and the internet have some things in common. The FIRST thing they should have in common is a very high-quality image that is representative of your work. The advantage to the internet is that you can show several images or your entire portfolio. The key though is that the image just has to look great-period. Why should you expect someone to show interest in fuzzy, off-color, dingy, crooked images showing glare, or your kitchen chair in the background?  They won’t and neither would a show jury so why not show them a great image instead?

More to follow…

I have been painting on watercolor canvas for about a year now and these are some of the problems I encountered.

Because the paint lays on the canvas rather than be absorbed into it, it takes a lot of practice as well as care if you try to paint over certain areas.

For instance, if you try to shadow, the layer of paint beneath will come up. Therefore, I put a light wash of acrylic on first so the white of the canvas doesn’t show thru unless I want it to.

Also, you have to spray the finished painting with Blair matte damar varnish (about 4 or 5 times).  That way, since the painting doesn’t require glass, if it gets wet later on down the road, the paint won’t come up.

This canvas takes a lot of getting used to, but with some of the textured things I do the effect can be quite nice.

Look at the photo. To get that texture I used Masa paper that is in the rice paper family.

When you get it, it will be a smooth piece of paper and do not appear to be rice paper at all. You put it in a sink of cold water, wad it up into a ball, this breaks the sizing of the paper. It is now VERY VERY fragile so be careful when you spread it out. Take a roller and roll over the paper, otherwise it will dry puffy. After the paper dries, I adhere it to the top half of the canvas using Acrylic Matt Medium (diluted).

I again let it dry and then with a large brush with a good bit of water, wet the top half of the canvas. Next step is to have a lot of paint on the brush, most of the time I have two colors on the brush, one color on one end and the second color of the other end.

When you put the paint down, and with all that water that you put down, it just explodes into all the creases that the paper now has. After a bit, when your frustration levels off, you will enjoy working with it.

P.