A busy day.  About a dozen folks came.  We did value studies and scaled them up.  There were graphite drawings, charcoal drawings, watercolors, and many different subjects.  We’re all praying for sunshine so we can get outside next Monday and see the larger world.  Thanks to all who came, participated and shared work and critiques.

Before the days of classroom marvels for displaying information, I had to cover a 30 foot chalkboard and erase it maybe 4 times in a lecture, three to six times a week, for the months of September through May, for 40 years! (Do the math and count the days!) I switched to overhead projection towards the end, and then finally to an overhead display camera (ELMO). So my right shoulder got a real workout. Shoveling the driveway, mowing the lawn and a thousand other things I did right handed (brushing teeth, combing hair, doing dishes, writing, using the computer mouse, drawing and finally PAINTING full time this past year, finally tore shoulder tendons. So says the MRI.

I used to run such a machine (called NMR) to study molecules, not people. It is called Nuclear Magnetic Resonance. To create MRI without scaring folks, the N was removed (for chemists, nuclear doesn’t induce fear) and the I was added because it was used for a different purpose – to image body parts, not molecules. So NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance) becomes MRI (magnetic resonance imaging). The machine architecture is also quite different.

So… I sit here typing my “daily” blog with a bag of ice on my right shoulder, a couple of Aleve’s with breakfast, a cortisone shot months ago, which did nothing, and three days a week in physical therapy zapped by more machines: electrostimulators, sonar devices, laser light growth stimulators, all of which make cool sounds or crackly feelings on the surface of the skin, but I fear (alas) are modern day versions of Snake Oil, (which I think I have a bottle of somewhere around the house). This is not to diminish the value of the manipulations of Matt the physical therapist who stretches the right muscles, pulls and pushes all the appropriate tendons and bits, but this is going to be a LONG process, and painting aggravates it no matter how I arrange my studio. I keep up the effort, but the time allowed for my chosen endeavor is diminished. What a drag. It’s been going on now for over a year, and I’ve got to get it solved. I’m feeling surgery is not the answer. I’ve heard that rotator cuff surgery is the only treatment for a condition that is worse that the condition itself. Imagine no use of your dominant arm for 4 months.

I’ll post another chapter on this sometime in the months to come, but it isn’t a focus of what I want to do in this particular space. On another note: It’s Dad’s day and daughter (the 10 year old in the painting in a previous post) is taking me to lunch with her son (and grandson) Nicholas.

Here are (enlarged) problematic parts of a painting I have been working on for the past two weeks. The full painting is shown again below, with the latest layer (you can see earlier layers in previous posts). The problematic areas are the foreshortened arm holding the flower, which is progressing slowly, and the light and shadow on the face, which is not progressing as I would wish.

I’m waiting for some critical feedback from a colleague. Also… the overall harmony of light and shadow color needs attention. I’m not giving up on this one. I’m having a lot of trouble keeping my “knowledge” of forms (what I see in a FACE) from contaminating what I’m actually seeing. As Charlie Brown would say: “ARGHH!” This is so for the COLOR as well as the SHAPES. So.. I’m just like my students.   

We’ve had about 5 or 6 drawing sessions at the North Hero Library so far.  Mediums have included graphite, charcoal, ink and watercolor.  In several classes we’ve addressed the topics of linear perspective, aerial perspective, and composition, and have also examined specific issues related to the drawing process (shape consciousness, grid exercises, value, and others).  The question discussed at the end of the last session was:  Where do we wish to go next?  And When?
I make two suggestions below.  We can follow up with one or the other of these on June 16 or 23 if there is any interest (I can come up again only July 21 after that, or later in August, as I’m teaching at UVM and am also out of state).   Let me know if you are interested in one of these (below), and if so, which one and on what date.  If it appears there is interest, I’ll be in touch with you via our listserve “North Hero Artists”.

First suggestion:   Though we talked about making the transition to oil painting without solvents (using marble dust/linseed oil), I am reluctant to advise such a leap at this time.  I don’t think everyone is ready to do this yet. In addition, it would require a substantial commitment on the part of individuals to purchase materials for a topic which might not be of value to everyone – at least right now.  We can consider this again later perhaps.
I think a better approach would be to revisit the topic of composition, hopefully outside (weather permitting) using the medium of your choice.  I chose this topic because I think many of you would benefit greatly by more intensive thought about the images you choose to make, the mediums and colors you choose, and how they work or don’t work artistically.  I would be available to provide critiques of your work as you proceed, and we would all assemble at the end to have a more comprehensive group critique at the end in which we shared the results, with each of us speaking a bit about our own work, and what seems well done, and what is less well done.  We might do this session on Dorice and Charlie’s front yard lawn by the lake if they would agree.   There are some good views from there.

Second suggestion: As some of you may be aware, there is a new educational movement evolving in both K-12 and college level curriculum, called Drawing to Learn.  It is based on pedagogy similar to that of Writing to Learn  which has been so successful across the country.  One of the critical components of both these classroom methods is the role of revision.  I could do a three hour session with you on the subject of Drawing to Learn.  It would be a distilled version of the UVM course being offered this July on campus.  I realize that none of you are teacher/educators (at least as far as I know) and that there may be no interest in this second suggestion.  However, the topic is of value generally, not just for educators.

SO, LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU MIGHT LIKE:
1ST OR 2ND SUGGESTION
TIME: JUNE 16, 23 OR JULY 21

Let me know if you don’t wish to continue as well.

If there is no interest in continuing right now, I’ll query you all again in August.

Above are a few images from this morning’s class. In sequence they are: Ethel’s apples, Maurie’s value studies, Joyce’s Portrait value study, JoAnne’s value studies, Maurie’s Landscape, JoAnne’s Portrait value study. Apologies for not getting everyone’s work in, and for repeating the work of some.  I’m limited by the light and room arrangement when I take photos.  Also, the format is not what I wanted for the post, but I’m limited in my abilities with the WordPress software. I’m still a novice.  Congrat’s to all on a great morning’s work.

About 8 showed up, and each did four value studies of a subject (quick studies, about 4 minutes each).  Some worked from photos and some from life.  The best of the studies for each person was chosen to scale up, and large watercolors in only a few dark hues were used to paint a large value study.  Some of those with lots of watercolor experience actually got to a finished piece.  Everyone accomplished a great deal however, and all felt it was a good learning experience.  I’ll post photos later this evening or tomorrow morning.  Gotta run now to meet with Lorna Peal as we plan the final details for our “Writing and Drawing Across the Curriculum” workshop which begins in early July.  If you are a teacher and wish to enroll, check out our course on the continuing education website (summer classes) at UVM.  Look under curriculum and instruction:  EDCI 200.  Two days: One Credit.

About once a month we have writing group, which has in the past few years morphed into EATING WELL, writing, composing, painting group. This Saturday we met at Rosalind and Carl’s house on Ridge Top Lane for a great feed and stories written by Hub, poetry by Rosalind and Mary Jane, and a few paintings by me. I got permission from Mary Jane to include her poem here (see below the images). The group is, left to right, Rebecca, Carl, Rosalind, Mary Jane, Toby and Laura (both standing) and Hub. A close up of Mary Jane is below, along with her poem.

Mary Jane Dickerson

What Were They Thinking

those teachers in that Cameron school, those

gentle women who spoke softly in the same rooms

where our fathers before us had learned

to read, when they organized class trips to

Dorthea Dix Hospital for the insane with drooping,

wraith-like figures wandering the grounds, to

the American Tobacco Company where minipacks

of Chesterfields were distributed for children of tobacco

farmers to take home to their parents and to

the Pentagon-like state penitentiary where, in small

groups, we were ushered into a starkly bare room

with the electric chair at center stage – its straps

loose but still rounded as if remembering the shapes

of those who ended up there.

What were they thinking

when in Raleigh, after the hospital and prison,

we were bused to the capital building,

lined up in orderly rows to march

through the governor’s office and shake his hand

as if sealing some mysterious pact.

What lives were we to lead

we, the children of small town merchants and farmers,

we, whose school calendar still kept to the rhythms

of the growing season, letting us out of school in time to hoe corn

pick dewberries, bring in the hay and pull tobacco,

and to pick fields of cotton in September before

the school year started up again, we, the children

whose dreams took place in the trees

we climbed and called our own.

Mary Jane Dickerson, May 2008

The two  quick sketches above are from a series of four, done to illustrate thumbnail compositional studies for watercolor class on Monday.  The bottom image was done at Red Rocks beach not far from home, two years ago.  All these drawings are value studies.  Great fun to do and the jumping off point for watercolor or oil.  This will be the focus of our efforts in the June 9th class.

On Monday June 9th we will make the transition from dry media to watercolor, extending our work on value to simple studies using only burnt sienna, or burnt sienna and ultramarine blue. To register, email me by Saturday.  We will begin the class by focusing on several quick studies to look at shapes and value and create a pleasing composition.  From this we will choose one and begin a larger painting.  Students may draw/paint from life, or from photographs they have taken.

I’ve finally got the nose in the portrait of Rebecca below, but now the mouth isn’t right.  It’s a real challenge.  Those who can do this from life, Alla Prima, in oil, are GIFTED!!!   I’ll revisit this I’m sure.  

Well… I still have to decide.  It is a little too bright I think.  I started putting some titanium white in the mix and it may be a bit much.  The original painting (as opposed to the photograph) looks much better.  The camera grabs onto titanium like glue!!