Art Day with Mickey

I recently had an "art day" with my sister, Mickey who lives in New Jersey. Of course we decided on a day and then the forecast was for temperatures in the 90s. We were tempted to postpone the art day but decided we would do something indoors instead. When I got to her house we decided to go out sketching before lunch while it wasn't quite as hot as they were predicting.

We went to The Gardens at Wycoff which is a few minutes from Mickey's house.

The roses were in bloom and were just gorgeous. I did this across a double page in my sketchbook and worked on each of these without any pencil sketching at all...just directly in paint.

After lunch we worked on collages using stained paper. This is the method we used in the workshop we had taken with Gerald Brommer back in March. I did this sunrise which is an 11 inch square.

Stained Paper Collage - Day 5

The final day of class I worked on two collages. The night before  we had gone back to the studio after dinner and I started a sunrise from one of my photos. I finished it the next morning. This is a 7 1/2 inch square.

Here is a photo of the class with Jerry Brommer posing with one of our collages and one of him speaking to the group.

Then I did this 11 x 15 of Tinturn Abbey that I had visited in Ireland last year. I used a small painting I had done on site as well as a photo I had taken for inspiration. As you can see, this one isn't finished yet. We only had until about 2 pm to work on Friday because  they were having Gallery night on our floor and they had to set up and hang all the paintings. When I finish it at home I will post the completed collage.

Gallery Night at Springmaid Beach Water Media is always so great. We have cocktails and walk around to see the work that was created by all the students in the different classes that week. They hang them in groups by instructor. Since we had so few people in our class we each were able to put in most of our paintings. Here are a few photos of what our group did.

My sister, Michelle, who came with me.

Me with my paintings.

It was great to see how different each person did their collages using different subjects, papers, and collage materials. We learned from each other as well as Jerry Brommer. People were so willing to share information and materials.

It doesn't show much in this last photo, but on Friday after going in the indoor pool I went to take a shower. I slipped getting into the shower and landed in the tub hitting my leg, lip, face, and eye. I was a little red and puffy in this photo, but now I look like a prize fighter. My face is all black and blue and swollen. I know I am lucky because I didn't break anything, my teeth are still in my mouth, and I am not too sore. The biggest lesson I learned this week was to use the grab bar in the tub. lol

Stained Paper Collage - Day 4

Today we continued working on collages form our minds or our references. I decided to work from a reference photo of a pond with a waterlily. This is 8 x 10.

We did get to walk on the beach at sunrise. It was drizzling a bit on the way back and there wasn't much color in the sky. I did catch a big wave.

Stained Paper Collage - Day 2

Our second day in Jerry Brommer's class had us working on florals without making a flower...just shapes. The goal was to use the collage papers to give the impression of a floral, varying the size of the pieces and having more detail and smaller pieces near the COI as with the abstracts.

I started with an 11 x 11 square. 

This is also 11 x 11.

This collage is 11 x 15.

We were playing around with different mats to crop and find a smaller piece that makes a small painting. I cropped the painting above this way. I like this...what about you?

It is always amazing to me to see the variety of different pieces created by students in the same class. We are lucky because we only have 10 students in the class. Most of the classes here average about 22 - 24 students.

Today was not nice weather-wise. It was drizzling this morning so we didn't walk on the beach. I did take a photo from the balcony before we went downstairs for breakfast. That is the Springmaid Pier you can see in the photo. I am hoping the rain will be gone by tomorrow, but that isn't the forecast.

Stained Paper Collage - Day 1

I am taking a stained paper collage with Gerald Brommer down at Springmaid Watermedia at Myrtle Beach. I've taken several classes with Jerry him before, including this one. My sister and I each did a lot of paper staining before coming down here so we be prepared to start collaging.

The first things we did yesterday were 7 1/2 x 7 1/2 abstracts. One in a bridge shape, one in a T shape, and the other in a cruciform shape. Jerry had us work in two colors with the addition of black if we wanted. One important thing was to use a variety of widths. Also to make the center of interest more detailed than the rest of the collage. The COI should have smaller pieces and more detail and the detail should diminish the further you go from the COI. We added lines, paint, and gouache to make the parts of the collage connect to the outer areas.

Here is my bridge collage.

Here is my cruciform collage, which happens to be my favorite of this group.

And my T shape collage.

It has been a long day today. We were up at 6 am to take a walk on the beach. It was cold, and cloudy so we were bundled up with winter coats, hats, gloves, etc, but our faces were freezing.

Yesterday we had a gorgeous sunrise, but today it was gray and cloudy. 

We were in the studio from 9 - 4 with a break for lunch. Then we exercised in the indoor pool, came back and showered and then headed to cocktails and dinner. After dinner there was a presentation and then we went back to the studio to prepare more stained paper for tomorrow. We were back in our room around 10. I'm ready for bed and then we will start this all over tomorrow.