Black Skimmers in Flight

Wet swan

lucky me!

I am blessed to be able to mentor in a small way this adorable and bright seventeen year old girl who has a strong interested in art. She is in something called "early college" but must finish a senior English project in high school, and that is where I come in. The study/project/paper she has chosen is about how to gets kids access to art education even though funding is waning. She had to have a mentor outside of school for it, and somehow it turned out to be me. She visited in my studio today, and I loved having her. I think we both enjoy our time together!

Painting

Over at the ArtWorks several of us were painting our cats today, and it was a lot of fun. I thought I would use watercolor but then decided to try doing him in oils on an 11x14 canvas. So far, so good. I took this pic earlier today and have done a lot since then. I hope I can get him finished tomorrow.

His name is Bustopher, and there is a whole song about him in Cats.

 

my cat

Using watercolors I have started playing with the cat assigned to me.
He was so adorable, and I feel bad he got a beginner painter.

Cats

What would I be doing this year if I had not joined the art association!
Here goes on the fun thing I did today:
The artists were asked by the children's theater people to paint pictures of the cast members who are performing in the musical "Cats" next month. When completed and framed, our paintings will then hang in the lobby during the show and be for sale. I guess they hope the parents will buy them.
Today the kids were in costume for dress rehearsal, and the group of us who volunteered to do this came at 1:00 to photograph them. It was organized, and we had already been matched up with our cats. The pix we took will be reference photos for our paintings.
The children were so adorable. The costumes, the make up! My oh my! Fabulous.
Here is one of those four to a square collages that I am fond of.

I hope my artwork of Bustopher turns out good.

Oil Painting at the Beach

What a wonderful time!
I hadn't planned on taking another art class, but this one was irresistible.
Going to the beach to paint en plein air once a week for six weeks!
I was in love with the idea of it.
This misty gray morning the six of us met at Wrightsville, the south end no less. We unloaded our copious art supplies on the sand and set up. Teacher Kevin has painted several really pretty beach scenes and demonstrated for us. He suggested colors to use in the sky, water and sand, and we started on our own paintings. Everyone had chosen a small canvas to work on.
Of course, I could have stayed there for the entire three hours just listening to the ocean and watching the changing colors of the sky, but getting to paint with the others was awesome, too.
Here is some of the group shortly after we got there. That is the Oceanic restaurant and pier in the background.

today

This morning I went to Studio 15 to finish my painting of my black cat. It is acrylic on a ten inch square wooden surface. The only part I have left is the mouth. But did I do it? Nope.
That was OK. There were people to talk with, and that was much more interesting. We did some  debriefing about the art show, sharing thoughts and accolades, and noting areas that can be improved  next year.
I have a memory of going to the art show during the Azalea Festival with my mother when I was a little girl, maybe age five or six. Back then the art was hung on the spikes of a wrought iron fence on a walkway between a church and another building. I remember looking up at the pieces while I held my mommy's hand. This show was a descendent of that remembered one, and I must be there when it takes place.

Two days down, one to go

Here are some photos from the second day of the art show. With many art pieces being sold, it has been a success already. As for me, I enjoy being in the old USO, the very place that held wonderful memories for my mother. I think she would like it that I am involved in art here.

Opening Day of the Show

The art works were judged and prizes awarded last evening. Today the judge, a fairly well-known artist who moved to Wilmington last year, took anyone who was interested on a tour to explain what attracted him to the various paintings that he gave ribbons to. (He is the gesticulating man in the center who has the eyes of the other people in the room.) People were curious and wanted to know. Now we do! If there were a hundred judges, each one would probably have come up with a different set of winners. Maybe that is one of the mysteries of art.

Much of the artwork produced around here is of the beaches and marshes, sea and shore birds, boats and harbors, beautiful skies, etc. Here is a collage of four such pieces.

Busy

I volunteer to do whatever I can in the art community. It is fun, I feel blessed to be able to participate, and I want to "go" as long as I am able. But tonight when the reception for the opening of the Spring Art Show was over, I had just about run out of steam. The reception chair decided "we" would be able to do it all ourselves - the elegant feeding of hundreds - so no catering was done. Several of us worked really hard on food prep, arranging, serving, socializing, and cleaning up, and it all went beautifully. When I got home I thought how much was accomplished and how cheerful everyone was while working. "Many hands make light work." I could talk for a long time on how it is different (and better) to work with artists on anything, but I really must get to bed. I have another long day at the show tomorrow.

Last pastel class

This afternoon was my sixth and last pastel class. At least for now.
I don't know how much I am into it. Maybe I like the oils better.
Whatever...I have had a good time exploring the various mediums.

Creativity

Today the artists who will have pieces in the Spring Show that will be held later this week in the old USO building brought in their work. My only involvement was to bring an oil painting for someone who couldn't do it because of work, that thing I used to do! I was glad for the reason to be there and see the impressive art that folks have done. Tomorrow the pieces will be hung, on Wednesday the judging, on Thursday the reception. Then the show until Sunday. Last year I was agog with excitement over it.

But before I went downtown I stopped by the ArtWorks to get a couple of little things done.
As I passed by Elena's place, I saw that her life-sized papier-mache Victorian girl was complete enough to be moved outside her studio to gaze through the window, which is intended to be her forever place. Isn't she beautiful! Elena has been working on her for a long time, building layer upon layer from scratch!
For now I will just post one photo, but I would love to show the details another time.

He is risen!



By Carl Block, a nineteenth century Danish painter.

Oil Painting Class Today

One of the other students brought in some objects for a still life, and I painted a portion of it.
Taking a picture of the finished 8x10 painting helps me to see what I did wrong and what I did better. I may do a few more little things to it.

At Airlie

A mother swan on her nest.



Movies about Artists

On Monday I went to lovely Thalian Hall to see Mr. Turner, a biopic about the famous English landscape painter JMW Turner. If I were a reviewer, I would give it as many thumbs up, stars or tomatoes as possible as it was a masterfully done movie on all counts. Earlier this year I saw Big Eyes, another well done, well acted movie. The artist Keane was the subject, and it was especially interesting from a psychological angle. Last year an individual, not a big studio, came out with Tim's Vermeer, a movie that seemed to prove that Vermeer's art was done by way of something called camera obscura, or as my daddy would say...it was done with mirrors. He still had to do the design and arrangement of subjects, but the painting was greatly simplified. Today I read about another art movie coming out, Woman in Gold, based on a painting by Gustav Klimt. I hope to see it, too.