Painting class trip the Crocker Art Museum

I had so much fun yesterday! Can you believe I've never been to an art museum? I was trying to think of why...I think it has to do with your family. If you didn't grow up doing it, you probably don't think about doing it as an adult. I guess. I dont know! It also has something to do with my own cocky attitude I've always had. The idea that somehow I don't need to see some famous artists' work-- I make my own art.

What a dork I've been.

I was so inspired!! I loved wandering around and letting myself sink into the paintings.

I was surprised to love the Wayne Thiebaud exhibit. I knew about the cakes...I didn't think I cared about the cakes. And...truthfully, I'm not a huge fan of the food paintings. I LOVED, loved his figurative works!!

No photo's were allowed on the ones I really loved, but I was able to take a picture of this one, that belongs to the Crocker:



Here's a couple of my other favorites in other exhibits:




"Autumn Landscape"
Oil on Canvas, 1960
Jerrold Ballaine



"Gold of the Caucasus"
Acrylic on Canvas, 1969
Fred Thomas Martin




"Winters Blue Cold"
Oil on Canvas 1990-1991
Christopher Brown

Figure Drawing #16

Ok, at this point I'm numbering posts instead of classes- I haven't a clue what class we're on!

We've been working on back muscles, portraits, and lots of seated poses.

Here's my favorites of the week:




I really want to get Mikes face. I think this- with more time- could be very close!!

Whats lost is found, what was scabby is...

well, still scabby. I'm mildly afraid I'll never actually look cute like my friends. This is so good for my terrible vanity problem. I have to see this blackish red thing in my peripheral vision 24 hours a day. And I have to suck it up and act like I don't care about it. Because I shouldn't....because I'm a grown woman. Oh my pride...

My bag was found, exactly where I suspected. Frankly I'm lucky no one decided to just grab my pencil sets out of there! I'm so relieved. I really didn't want to lose almost an entire semester full of work!

Here's a part of my life I don't write much about...(for those who may not know me personally) (which I think amounts to...zero? whatever...it could happen)...

my messy house.

I'm having a party here Friday night. I'm very excited! I wanted to get friends together to hang out without anyone having to bring a present or kids. It seems the only time women tend to see each other is at their kids' schools, kid's birthday parties, baseball games, or the occasional baby shower or blessingway.

So, no one has to be having a baby, or turning older, and no kids...just food and giggling. I love it.

My only hurdle?

My disaster of a house.


I'm really only posting this so I can post before and after shots. I need motivation. I'm a mutant type of person who usually doesn't care about house work. I just don't keep up with it at all. At least this house cleans up nicely and has plenty of room- without that, there would be no party.

Hopefully I can post Friday midday pictures of both my unscabbed nose and my un-crapped house!!

Craptastic!!

Today sucks.

Anyone who knows me knows I get really upset about fairly trivial stuff.

Currently its the fact that my portfolio bag is GONE. Gone with all my colored pencils, my sketch box and an entire semester full of Figure Drawing work. Yes....a hundred sheets of gestures and studies. All due pretty soon. Probably $75 worth of pencils and supplies on top of the bag thats worth..ok, well...$40, maybe.

Where the heck is it? I had it at Thurdays painting class...and I can't see a window in which it wouldn't made it home with me, but it seems like the only option. I've called Folsom Lake college, they told me to contact my professor. But she walked out with me! And another class came in as we were leaving- and I knew some of the students in that class- if someone saw me leave behind my giant bag, they would have stopped me.

Tonight we are reviewing our portfolios...wonderful I don't have one!!

And if I don't write today, I'll be over 3,000 words behind on NanoWrimo. Very frustrating. What happened to this weekend?

Well. I lost Saturday because I decided to go out with my friends. We had a BLAST....even got all of our noses pierced.

Of course...today, mine looks like THIS:


Nope...not black jewelry- it's a tiny blue stone. Covered in caked blood. Cute. It wont stop bleeding today.

And my house is a mess...and i have a party hear on Friday. Totally my problem...my fault...I'm just frustrated.

WHERE IS MY PORTFOLIO?????

20,028...the sweet freedom of fiction

Meaning, in fiction you can do whatever you want. Including solving a major problem by simply allowing a giant lion of sorts to be able to shape-shift and become a water beast. And I've decided this character can breathe under water.

Why? Because people write about elves! Because Frodo's ring called to him, because Aslan is a freaking lion who talks...because of Santa Claus and the tooth fairy...

NO RULEs!!

Fiction is a wonderful, wonderful world.

Especially because my character has a giant cat that he can ride on who shape-shifts when the need arises. Beautiful stuff.

I'm sleepy now, enjoy my nerd-tastic picture. Deathly Hollows comes out next weekend... I'm almost scared to see it, I love the book so much. Don't mess with my Severus too much, screenwriters!!

(I'm pretty sure no one who reads this blog is into Harry Potter, but, it is my blog...)




**Ok...I should never post after midnight...yikes. I do like the Harry Potter image, though!!**

a conspiracy: now finished

This is the result of last weeks painting featuring the clarinet and the pipe:


I'm pretty happy with it. It feels unfinished, but I like the space this has. More opacity might make this painting too flat.

Here's a close up:

Spontaneous performances- bringing classical music to everyone!

I was so delighted by this post on the NPR blog, Deceptive Cadence. I am a big advocate of classical music...to the chagrin of my close friends and family. I'm so tired of it being looked at as boring or outdated.

This post talks about spontaneous performances taking place all over the world by opera troupes, orchestras, etc. I love the idea that people are bringing this music to the street level- making it accessible and alive for people who may not have ever given it a chance.

I know that when I was in high school, our choir traveled to a huge competition to sing. Some of the school performed classical choral pieces- and I was hooked. There is nothing like having your senses overtaken by a performance! I remember hearing a large choir sing T.L. de Victoria's "O Magnum Mysterium". I have loved that piece since then.

When I was in college I got to hear a real life orchestra for the first time and was dumbfounded. It was only a rehearsal...but I was nearly in tears.

When I sang with the Nyack College Chorale, I routinely found myself choked up. I remember one time in particular when we where practicing and a friend of mine went up to sing a solo. I had never heard her sing as I sat several rows away from her on the stage. She was a voice major and was very passionate about it. I'll never forget it- the piano started, and then Kathleen began to sing. Tears rolled down my face- I had never heard anyone sing like that...in the same room as me! The beauty of it was overwhelming.

I had several such experiences through college, and they have formed a love of this music that will last forever in me.

So, check out this post on NPR....watch the videos. I hope we see more of this!

Figure Drawing #15

We worked on another long pose last night- this time of our clothed model, Kyle.

I had to start over, since my first take on this was too small, and innaccurate. I'm pretty happy with my re-do, though. I made it BIG, this time so I could get his face right. I need more work on this, though to finish the values. It's big, so, it's a lot of pencil work!

Oh yeah, AND I sing...

I almost forgot. I do sing. I don't know how well. People always are inclined to say nice things to you when you hold a microphone, but my paranoid nature plays against me with this. I'm not sure I'm as good as I think I am. That's ok, I guess. Singing is such a weird, tied up issue for me.

I do love crooning though. Last Saturday night Hickory Wind, which I sing with sometimes, played at a benefit for Twin Lakes Food Bank in Folsom. It was a laid back thing, and we were just playing our mellow stuff.

It was fun, and I got a good meal out of it!! And I get to be with such cool people!!

Painting class #11

We were to bring in 3 to 5 objects to create our own still life that communicates something. We were given some: a secret, a tragedy, a triumph, a conspiracy, an argument and a conversation.

What I came up with ends up, to me, being a combination of a few of those things. I at first gathered up a lantern, a rusted pipe and a pitcher. After further thought, I pulled out an old clarinet we have and was just positive it was what I needed in this painting.

Could I have chosen a harder thing to paint? I suppose so, but this is pretty rough. I love the feeling of the still life set up:


But the execution is pretty rough. Here's my underpainting:



And this is what I ended the class with:



Oh, I hope I can pull this one together. That back ground is...tough. I want to achieve some realism with the clarinet, but those keys are going to be a total pain!!

The color scheme of this bugs me. I suppose right now, it's analogous, but I tend to like things that cross the color wheel a bit. What should I do? Add some colors to the clarinet that don't exist? That hurts my brain a bit, but I think it is the answer.

Figure Drawing Class #14

Ok...this was last Wednesday! I'm such a bad blogger.

We had one pose for an hour and a half- it was wonderful and terrible all at once.

I started with a gesture and proceeded like normal until about 25 minutes in, I realized- everything was off. REALLY off. This pose was very very foreshortened from my point of view and I had made her legs too long, her torso too long...and thus everything around her was wrong.

SO frustrating!!

I think, in the end, I came very close to getting it right. At some point, though, with a model in front of you, you have to make the best of the time you have. I did this by getting her face right...and I feel I did.

I know her legs look short, but they aren't'!! I swear!! I loved this pose- she wore red shoes, a straw hat and a black boa. Diane is awesome!

Forgive me, NaNoWriMo has eaten my brain.

At least for the last three days. I'm behind, too!! I'm supposed to be up over 13,000 by now, but I'm at just over 10,000. Above is a word count calendar for this month. It really pays to stay on track, let me tell you!

I think I can catch up today. All it takes is a couple day of NOT writing your 1,667 words, and suddenly, you are stuck with a deficit that will take hours to make up!!

I like my story, I think. It's different than I'd imagined it. It's a fantasy, for sure, but I need to start making it more fantastical, I guess. It doesn't really matter, though. It's good to write. Even if it's utter crap.

I'm still researching my "real" novel. (I'm not sure whats so real about it) I've got some wonderful library books I'm charging though. I'm taking lots of notes. I guess I'm a geek- I love research for research's sake. I need to work on my other characters, too, it's just that John is so central to the plot, I need to develop him completely. The girl in it (who used to be Nina, but I changed to Priscilla....there is alot in a name!!)is so much like me, it's hard to "research" how she'd react to anything. I know how she would act. I'm an expert on that one.

Finished?

"Losing His Grip"

I think it's done. I think. :)

Figure Drawing Class #13

We had a few long poses and a lot of 5 minute poses.

Here's one of my longer ones- photographed badly, as usual. I sighted this in quite a bit, but her head seems too small? I feel the face is correct, though. She's such a wonderful model.



Here's a shorter standing pose that is still in gesture-mode:



Last weekend I randomly attempted a self portrait. I haven't done this in years. I didn't finish, but I was interesting to try this again with some sight skills under my belt.

NANOWRIMO 2010!!!!!!!!

Woo-hoo!! It's already started and I am right on schedule to reach 50,000 by the end of the month!!!

Currently, I'm at 1,958 and cruising along on a story about a kidnapped queen and an impending war!!

I love Nanowrimo. It's not too late for you to start!! Ever wanted to write a novel? How about a memoir? This is your chance!! DO IT!!

I'm obviously passionate about this-- I think its an awesome opportunity to try writing on for size with out any fear of ridicule.

I hope to get a widget on here that posts my word count...we'll see if I can figure THAT out.

Here's a link to my author page, just in case I don't.