This Week's Accomplishments

Homestead

Drypoint print, 6"x12", edition of 8

This week, I finished pulling an edition of the new drypoint print Homestead. The burr on this one was very fragile and I only got eight prints before it went away and the prints became weak and unacceptable. But that's part of the charm for drypoints: you only get a very limited number. I need to do two more new prints for my November show at Bella Vista Gallery. Both will be along the lines of this one and the two I've shown in earlier posts.

Another project is preparing for an oil painting class that I'll teach in my studio this month. Building an appropriate class schedule takes some time - there's a lot of consideration that goes into what can be effectively taught in a limited period. And I had to get promotional emails out for it. The class will run for four consecutive Saturdays in my studio. I'm looking forward to the experience. Teaching, for me, is both fun and draining. I haven't taught in my studio in a long time, so getting the rust off my mental gears is taking a while.

I've also been following up on items from the public art conference last week. It takes a lot of snooping on the net. There isn't one central repository for public art - every municipality handles it differently, usually by posting notes only on their own websites, which means you have to find them first. However, I've started down that journey-of-a-thousand-miles, gotten myself onto a couple of email notification lists, found websites that need to be checked every month, and made one submission already. The process has started.

This next week I'll start my life drawing sessions again. These sessions run from 7-9 pm on Wednesday evening in my studio. For me, they're a necessity. I need to work from life on a regular basis. It's just like regular exercise for an athlete. My sessions are open to any artists who want to come, and cost is just $5 for two hours. If you're interested, let me know and I'll put you on the notification list.

Recently I found an outstanding book for painters. Called Portrait Painting Atelier: Old Master Techniques and Contemporary Applications, it is (to me) the definitive text for painting figurative works. It goes into very specific details about using classical approaches, particularly building a portrait through an underpainting and then layers of glazes, using contemporary materials. Most texts that discuss old master techniques only discuss old master materials and don't recognize modern technological advances. That's like riding around on a horse and refusing to recognize the fact that automobiles exist. But this book is really well done, so much so that I've got three pages of notes that I'm trying out, and I haven't even gotten to the part about putting paint on canvas! I found the book by wandering into Barnes and Noble, but you can find it at Amazon through the link above.

One last note. Janis has been out in San Diego this past week, visiting friends and family and getting her California fix. Here she is with our grandson Jackson at the Coronado beach. Life is pretty good!