Watching Tad Spurgeon create colorscapes in paint and putty on his web site, I was tempted to try one digitally. I’ve been doing it for several hours this morning and thought I would post one. The particular result below started with a molecular mechanics, energy minimized coenzyme NADH, and wound up looking like a stylized ice cream sundae. Quite a leap!! The price one pays or the advantage one gets for changing careers. I had a good time playing. Now off to some serious work.

To the left is our highly motivated group of artists in North Hero doing charcoal drawings. The class is held in the North Hero Library. Our next class will be on ink wash. It occurs at 9:30 a.m. on November 26th. If you wish to attend call Dorice at 802 372 8822 to register. The only thing you’ll need to bring is a medium watercolor brush, pencil, eraser, and watercolor paper. I’m bringing the TOMBO pens/brushes which provide the ink of the “ink wash.” These cost $2.99 so bring that along with the class fee. I look forward to seeing you all there.

This Thursday in B203 Angell on the UVM campus at 4:00 p.m. my A&S 095 class will see a demonstration of ink wash watercolor painting and calligraphy by Master Painter Chengzhi Mao from China.  If you wish to come you should call me at 865 2329.   It will be crowded with both of my sections attending, but there may be a bit of standing room.

This week was a very busy one. In addition to grading portfolio highlights, paper drafts and quizzes on composition, we drew from the model (Hannah from class and Dottie Schnure, a good friend, kindly posed for gesture and longer poses – many thanks to them both). We also finished up grid drawings (see these posted here, one by Neil and one by Rebecca – at the bottom of this post) and had Tad Spurgeon as a guest Lecturer. Tad gave a great class on the use of line/graphite to express inner feeling and emotion. He also talked about the poles of subjective and objective in drawing/painting and how these opposites engage one another in the creative process. Students drew non representative expression of emotion (anger, joy, illness, forgiveness, peace, etc.) and then opposite poles of work/play – truth/falsehood -etc., followed by an expression of past, present and future… all with non representational marks. The class was most engaged by all of this. As Tad noted, often with older folks the ability to do these exercises is repressed. He also talked about self judgement and how it can inhibit artistic expression. A very nice couple of hours indeed. And he did it twice, once at the Wednesday night class, and again on Thursday.

On Monday I was up in North Hero (above) with an older group. I introduced negative drawing with charcoal. I had students cover their page with a thin tone of soft charcoal, and then draw an accurate outline of a still life with medium vine charcoal. After this, the highlights were pulled out with an eraser, and the darks were made darker with more stick charcoal. The results were superb. They seemed to like the technique a great deal. Our next class up in the “wilds” of the north will be ink wash with a Tombo pen. The two pictures below are by Rebecca and Neil (graphite grid drawings.) Rebecca and Neil are in the Thursday night section of Arts and Sciences 095. Rebecca said her drawing was of her brother and the drawing by Neils is of a singer. I like the V for victory at the end of this post. Stay tuned for another chapter in the saga of Drawing to Learn in the coming days!!

This grid drawing from a photograph is an exercise in value.  Translating the value seen in each square in the transparent overlay on the photo to the larger page provides insight into how value creates form.  The grid allows value to be added in just the right place on the page.  These exercises eliminate the problem of converting 3D into 2d and the confusing issue of color and value.   We normally don’t draw from photographs, only from life, but this is a useful exercise in focusing concentration on value.  In the coming week we will draw portraits from life (different models are coming Wednesday and Thursday.)   The drawing displayed here was done by Jonathan in Thursday evening’s class. It was done from a photograph of  William Tecumsah Sherman. 

Students in A&S 095 (Drawing to Learn Science) are in the middle of exploring a variety of subjects in text and images. The topics vary widely, but all have a visual component. Though not a complete list, the topics include the following:

1. The Yellow Perch
2. The Wood Duck
3. Hands – Aesthetics and Function
4. The History and Lives of Sheep
   
5. The Newborn Calf
6. Visual Explorations of Sky, Clouds and Atmosphere
7. Four Families of Aromatic Herbs
8. Building a Guitar from Scratch
   
9. The Physics of Baseball
10. The Saxophone – Form and Function
11. Invasive Species in the Lake Champlain Basin
12. The Zebra Muscle
13. Surgical Instruments – Form and Function
14. An Exploration of Shoes – “Heel to Toe” at the Fleming Museum
15. Asanas – Positions in Yoga
    
16. Egyptian Funerary Objects in the Fleming Museum
17. Alpine Grasses in Vermont

The papers are being written in a series of drafts. Last week students met in groups of three during class (at the Davis Center) and critiqued each other’s second draft. They will be visiting the Writing Center for additional help in the weeks to come. Finished papers will be presented by each writer, orally to the whole group, in November. The overhead camera system in B203 Cook will be used to present images drawn by each student for their paper.

This week in class at UVM we are beginning our work on portraits, both from life and with a photo assist. Many artists use photos to help with their work, but many don’t admit it. This is especially true when working with youngsters who won’t stay still for very long, ocean waves, migrating birds, wind blown trees and the rest of the world in motion. The portrait at the top was done in graphite from a photo (taken with a telephoto lens) at a political rally in Oaxaca Mexico two years ago. You can see the original photograph in the photography section of this site. A grid was used to locate landmarks in the face and the details were done by hand from the photo. The second portrait was done from life (about 20 minutes,) very quickly, and in charcoal. Students in A&S 095 will use both techniques this week and next. Attention to shape and value is critically important in all of these exercises. The grid method slows everything down as attention is focused only on value in each grid square. Once the importance of value in creating form is understood, the complexity of detailed measuring that allows value to be placed correctly can be dealt with.

Reflecting on the past few years of getting to know artists around town and the struggles they go through, I’m prompted to post this cover of our Honors class book (Honors 195,) published not long ago. Students in that class interviewed a number of artists in the region, and wrote chapters illustrated with their work. Trying to make a living as an artist can be a daunting task, especially in Vermont. Those represented on the cover above (their stories are inside) are a mix of new evolving artists, as well as a few more well established folks. They all have a passion for their work, and those we chose to write about were very kind and worked well with students. If anyone reading this post wants a copy of the book, it is available for the cost of reproduction.

We are most fortunate to have two guest lecturers coming to visit us in the coming weeks.  Tad Spurgeon will be first, one of the most knowledgeable oil painters in Vermont.  If you haven’t visited his web site, be sure to do so.  You can find him at http://www.tadspurgeon.com/    This site is a most valuable resource for aspiring oil painters.   The struggle of the process is illustrated better on this site than in any other published, contemporary venue.  Tad will be with us on October 24 and 25.
After Tad visits we will have a visit by Chengzhi Mao, a wonderful painter of calliagraphy and watercolors on rice paper.   We will watch Mao paint poetry and bamboo in ink, and hear his life story.  His daughter Yang, a professor of Neurology and a physician at UVM, will translate for us.   Chengzhi Mao will be with us on November 1 (tentative date.)

Though I’m trying to keep this “News” focused on academics and art, a new arrival such as this happens only once or twice in a life, so I’m putting one more up.   It’s been a busy week.  In addition to the new arrival, classes are taking up lots of time.  Talked with Tad Spurgeon on Friday about his visit to my class.   Students will learn much from him.  I’m also trying to arrange a visit and demonstration of Chinese watercolor painting by Chengzhi Mao for a Thursday evening in November.  The students will see him paint bamboo in ink, and paint poetry with a brush.  Tomorrow our friend Judith arrives (we met her in San Miguel last February) for a week stay.

For those of you attending the North Hero class on Monday, October 22 at the North Hero Library (value studies in charcoal) here is the materials list:

Each student should bring:

1. Soft and medium vine charcoal sticks (these are thin round twig like sticks.)
2. A larger stick of soft charcoal (square or round). It should not be coated with plastic so that the side of it can be used to rub charcoal onto paper.
3. Large sheets of blank newsprint paper (18″ x 24″). It comes in pads. It’s cheap. If
one or two people bring a pad, that would be enough for all.
4. A box of Kleenex like tissues, without hand lotion imbedded in the tissue (i.e. plain)
5. A Masonite board or foam core board upon which the newsprint can be taped.
6. A roll of masking tape (only one roll is needed for the class, so if one person
brings some it should suffice.)
7. A can of non perfumed hair spray we will use as a fixative. A couple of cans should
suffice for the whole class, so that if two people bring cans, that will be enough.
9. Some pieces of soft chamois or charcoal blenders (called tortillions.) Students can
easily use their fingers instead, but it will get messy.

10. Two gummed erasers, the kind that are like soft clay.

DON’T WEAR YOUR TUXEDO OR EVENING GOWN. THIS EXERCISE CAN GET MESSY!