Archive for the 'Art' Category

One month down – my 101 list progress.

January 29th, 2012

Now that I’ve finished tinkering with my list of 101 Things to do in 1001 Days, I’m excited to start ticking some of those things off!  I Have a number of art related tasks on my list this time around and I wanted to make sure that I started early and enjoyed the process.  And besides, my art classes start up again next week and I was slightly concerned that I had forgotten everything from last year!

The still life scene above was painted on a fairly large piece of canvas board with acrylic paint.  There’s a lot to like about this painting, but I can’t help but stare at the obvious problems with my initial drawing.  I think that’s what always lets me down – I’m so excited to break out the paint that I don’t spend enough time on my sketch.

In any case 1/25 still life scenes complete.

 

This tree was really just an exercise in playing with a bunch of my art supplies – watercolours, acrylic paint, sumi ink and gesso.  I’m trying to fill an altered book with drawings and being a little more experimental on those pages.  It’s a really fun way to discover which mediums work well together.

24 trees to go!

 

 

I’ve also set myself a challenge to take 101 photos with my cute little Fujifilm Instax Mini 25.  This camera is the little brother of Polaroid, and prints out cute credit card sized instant photos.  I’ve had the camera for about a year and for most of that time it was pretty badly neglected.  I’m glad we’re finally spending some quality time together.

I thought that it would take me a long time to churn out 101 photos, but to my surprise I’m almost halfway through in my first month!  Once you get the hang of this camera it’s pretty addictive.  You can see more of my Instax Mini 25 photos here.

 

I’m really looking forward to beginning another one of my tasks next week when a big box of Ilford black & white film arrives.  I’ve been tracking its progress across the ocean for about a week now and it’s actually in my city now!

I wish I’d been able to purchase the film locally, but to do so would have cost $14 per roll, instead of $3.50 per roll from the US.  Even with 5-day shipping it worked out much cheaper for me to buy it online.  Why do Australian consumers always get the blame for the shift to online shopping when it’s the retailers who won’t compete?

There’s nothing quite like a real book

January 14th, 2012

After organizing our bookshelf almost a year ago (http://youtu.be/zhRT-PM7vpA), my wife and I (Sean Ohlenkamp) decided to take it to the next level. We spent many sleepless nights moving, stacking, and animating books at Type bookstore in Toronto (883 Queen Street West, (416) 366-8973). 

Everything you see here can be purchased at Type Books.

Grayson Matthews (http://www.graysonmatthews.com/) generously composed the beautiful, custom music.

But none of it could have been done without all the volunteer hands who shelved and reshelved books all night, every night.

 

This is absolutely magical.  Thanks to Sophie of Her Library Adventures for sharing this!

Mixed media

December 5th, 2011

 

The theme of Day 23 in the 30 Day Photo Challenge is creativity and until a few minutes ago there was a great big post that accompanied my photo.  Creativity is a subject that is very close to my heart, and something that I’m trying to find my way back to after a creative slump that lasted a few years.

The post I deleted talked a lot about what happens to a musician when she moves cities and leaves her network (and piano) behind.  It was a little bit mopey.  You’ll have to believe me, because it’s gone now.

I think it’s healthier to focus on the ways that my creativity is being nurtured.  My drawing & painting classes at the Melbourne Studio of Art have obviously inspired me greatly this year, and also equipped me with some of the skills that I’ve needed in order to get my ideas onto a page.  After 15 weeks of classes I’m drawing things that I thought beyond my reach, and when I’m not drawing with a pencil I often find myself drawing with my eyes.  These classes have really taught me to see everyday things differently and even my dreams have become more vivid and colourful.

My classes have also taught me that I might have found a way to redirect the frustration that I feel with being away from music, and turn it into something good.  When I came home from work today I grabbed a book that I’ve been altering and sketching in, and I threw a bunch of art supplies at the pages until I came up with something pretty from my imagination.  It felt good to do something fun and messy, and not worry too much about the rules.

I guess that’s why I was a jazz musician.

The A4 pages above were made from gesso, striped paper bags, acrylic paint, aquamarkers, sumi ink (and then more gesso!).  As you can see from the photo below a lot of those supplies ended up on me instead of in the book.

 

Art journaling supplies

November 26th, 2011

You guys already know that I’m pretty evangelical about the art classes that I’ve been taking at the Melbourne Studio of Artover the past few months.  Sometime soon I want to write about all of the things that I learned in our life drawing class today, but tonight I thought I’d share an unintentional side effect of these classes on another part of my life.

At different times in my life I’ve been addicted to my paper journals.  They used to be purely for writing in and recording the stuff I was thinking and doing, but over time I started to be a little more creative with my little books.  I started to use them as albums for the ephemera of daily life that accompanied my stories, and sometimes even created paper collages that represented my day rather than writing about it.

I’m really proud of some of the creative stuff in those journals, but I’ve always felt too intimidated to actually draw in them.  Now that I have a couple of months of drawing & painting classes under my belt I’ve been dying to fill my journals with paint and ink and COLOUR and there doesn’t seem to be an off switch!

So while I’m busy learning how to draw from real life in my Saturday classes, I’m also thinking a lot about drawing from imagination for myself.  With that has come a bit of an obsession with new art supplies that my favourite art journaling heros are using, such as Peerless watercolours and Aquamarkers and Aquash pens.  They’re all things that can easily be thrown in my bag and used on the run, and since colour pretty much rules my life I am completely hooked.

When I saw that today’s theme for the 30 Day Photo Challenge was Purchased I knew that I had to share some of my newest discoveries.

Art supplies are my crack cocaine, and fortunately for me they’re much better for my complexion.

 

Day 14 in the 30 Day Photo Challenge is Purchased.

So here’s the thing.

November 22nd, 2011

 

I have possibly bitten off more than I can chew.

In addition to having a fulltime job (which, by the way, is totally breaking my brain at the moment) I seem to have committed myself to about a thousand other things.  I’m studying for a Diploma through work, taking a Saturday art class, and I’m also signed up for two e-courses which are running concurrently for the next couple of months.  I’m doing NaBloPoMo and the 30 Day Photo Challenge, and since I’m a terrible perfectionist I’m trying to do everything as well as I possibly can.

(Oh, plus that little thing called Christmas that’s coming up!  We’re hosting dinner for 10, and gearing up for having house guests for 3 weeks.  Lots to do!)

This post isn’t about seeing the error of my ways, though.  I thrive on having too much to do, especially when so many of the things on my “to do” list are fuelling my creative juices!  Tonight I came home from work with a heavy head cold, desperate to fall into a coma for 12 hours.  But instead I did a little watercolour drawing, I took my photo for the 30 Day Photo Challenge (which, I’ll admit, is just a snapshot this time) and wrote this blog post so that I didn’t miss any of my deadlines.

Tomorrow I’ll wake up wishing that I’d gone to bed early, but I’ll also be happy that I did something towards all of my little creative endeavours.

(You know.  Once I’ve had my first two cups of coffee.)

 

A quick and dirty snapshot of The view from my (living room) window for Day 10 of the 30 Day Photo Challenge.

And… goodnight!

Week 5 – Oil painting in analogous colours

November 19th, 2011

 

Saturday has to be my favourite day of the week.

It always begins with an extra couple of hours sleep, and when I finally open my eyes a certain boy normally brings me a coffee or two.  Only when I am sufficiently caffeinated do I crawl out from underneath the covers.

It’s pretty great being me, on a Saturday.

Saturday also means it’s time for my art class at Melbourne Studio of Art, and that always puts a smile on my face!  Today we had a painting class with Michael Gray and learned all about analogous colours (ie colours that are next to each other on the colour wheel).  Michael set up a bunch of still life scenes with objects that matched their backdrop colour, so we spent a lot of time on our colour mixing to make all the subtle differences in tone.  We did this same exercise the last time I took this class, and although this was only my second time using oil paints I think I did better this time around.

 

The time really, really flew this week!  With an extra half an hour I think I could have added a lot of detail to my scene, especially to the shadows and the green leafy bits on the eggplant.  I wanted to do a lot more blending and tidy up my lines, but on the whole I’m happy with the way it turned out.

And besides, that famous Leonardo da Vinci quote gets stuck in my mind when I start to think about this stuff: Art is never finished, only abandoned.  

(No wonder they named a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle after that guy!)

 

It’s Day 7 of the 30 Day Photo Challenge, and today’s theme was Self Portrait.

(I’m so sorry.  All complaints will be forwarded on to Gemma.)

DIY mugs with Porcelaine paints

November 17th, 2011

Source: Amanda from Wit & Whistle

 

You might remember me mentioning this cute DIY from Wit & Whistle last month.  I thought it would make a really cute Christmas present for a few of my friends, and so I quickly ordered a couple of colours of Porcelaine paints for myself!  I’ve been really excited to try them out.

Unfortunately I’ve had a bit of trouble finding mugs that will happily sit for 45 minutes in my oven.  The paint is set by baking, and I guess not many mugs are designed with that kind of treatment in mind.  I didn’t want to put too much time into a mug only to have it crack so I’ve been trying to find some plain mugs that are actually labeled as being oven safe.

I had liked the thought of finding a matching pair at an op shop but so far the planets haven’t aligned.  Off to the shops, I suppose!

In the meantime I’ve been practising drawing and writing with my little paints.  And since the theme of today’s 30 Day Photo Challenge is Your Handwriting I thought I’d share my latest scribble!

 

The pretty hand-dyed doilies in this photo arrived in the mail today from Melissa Goodsell.  I can’t decide whether they’ll end up in my Christmas wrapping or my art journals.

Probably both!

 

Shiny Happy Art by Anna Bartlett

November 12th, 2011

About a hundred years ago I lived in a beautiful city in regional QLD called Toowoomba.  It was a pretty fantastic place to grow up when I was a kid, and I have a lot of awesome memories from those years.  One of the things I remember about it was the strong folk art and handmade culture that flourished there.

I came across Toowoomba artist Anna Bartlett by chance last month and had lots of fun poking around her shop, Shiny Happy Art.  I was immediately drawn to this sweet little robin fabric panel, and quickly added it to my cart despite having no idea what I was going to do with it!

It arrived after just a couple of days, beautifully packaged with a cute hand-drawn picture drawn on the envelope.  Adorable.  In fact, I had to convince the receptionist at work to part with it so that I could see what was inside!

 

 

There’s something extra special about receiving a package directly from the artist, especially when it’s personalised in this way!  Anna also  included a note with my order, suggesting that I might like to stitch around the robin to bring out his little feet.

A month later I still haven’t decided what my little birdy will become, but someday he’s probably going to be a cute little cushion or a bag.  For now I’m just admiring him from afar until inspiration strikes.

Did I mention that this little guy is only $12?

 

There’s plenty of other beautiful things to see at Shiny Happy Art.  These are my top picks.

Original art: Mid Century I and Antique I, $146

Robin Red Breast and Blue Wren hankies, $14

Robin Red Breast teatowel, $24

Blue Wren and Robin Red Breast parlour cushions, $35
(These are my favourites!)

 

I know sometimes it isn’t easy to be sure, so I thought I should mention that I wasn’t asked to write this post.

I’m just all about sharing the pretties with you guys!

29 ways to stay creative

November 6th, 2011

 

I spotted this video a couple of days ago and loved it instantly.  The original source of all this good advice came from paulzii on tumblr, who created the graphic below.

I was amused to see that “drink coffee” gets its own line – who knew that I was already such a naturally creative type!

 

My first oil painting – Week 3 at Melbourne Studio of Art

November 5th, 2011

Today was Week 3 of this term’s Introduction to Drawing & Painting class at the Melbourne Studio of Art, and I think it was one of my favourite classes yet!  When I heard that we would be doing our first painting class I expected it to be a lot like the one we did last term.  In that class we painted a still life scene using black and white acrylic paint.

 

I remember being incredibly proud of this painting last term.  There was a distinct moment towards the end of the class when I figured out what I was doing with the medium, and I managed to get quite a lot of detail and blending done in the last 15 minutes.  Considering that this was my first time holding a paintbrush since I was 13 years old I was pretty pleased with myself.

This week our teacher Michael Gray told us that we’d be working with oil paints, and for a moment I was terrified.  Hadn’t I only just figured out what to do with acrylic paint, finally?  Isn’t oil painting for grown-ups?  I guess I had always assumed that oil painting was for the pros, and that you needed to know some sort of secret handshake to join the club.

It’s funny how we make up these arbitrary rules when it comes to creativity.  Before I moved to Melbourne I was a singing teacher at my local TAFE and it always amazed me how different my adult students were compared to the kids that I taught privately.  Children came to their lessons with no preconceptions of what they were capable of; for the most part, they assumed that they could until repeated experience proved otherwise.  It made for an incredibly powerful and trusting learning environment, and those kids progressed very quickly.

My adult TAFE students didn’t believe that they could sing, but they came to my class because they liked doing it anyway.  Most of them could recall a time early in their life where they used to sing all of the time, and most could remember in vivid detail the embarrassing story behind their decision to stop.  The first few weeks of those classes was always about breaking through their assumptions about what their voices could do.  From there, the transformations were incredible – and it all began in the mind.

So I had to laugh at myself a bit today for reacting as I did to the news that we’d be painting with oil paints.  Why had I decided that I didn’t deserve to be using them yet?  What about those classmates of mine who had never painted before – would Michael be cruel enough to throw them to the wolves?  He seems like such a nice guy!

Michael is a nice guy, and he also has a lot of faith in our capacity to learn new tricks.  I think that the entire class did an incredible job for their first painting class today – don’t they look amazing as a group?

 

So here’s my very first oil painting.

In some ways oil painting was very different to working with acrylics, and in other ways it was exactly the same.  I loved the way that paint could be pushed around easily once it was on the paper, and how easy it was to blend.  I found it to be much more forgiving, mistakes were more easily corrected.  I’d have loved to have kept working on this still life but we ran out of time!

I might be the newest member of the fan club.

Apples

November 1st, 2011

 

We’ve had a beautiful long weekend here in Melbourne, thanks to a little horse race known as the Melbourne Cup.  It’s been such a luxury to have those extra two days away from work, and it feels like it’s been a week since I’ve thought about work!  I’m not really looking forward to hearing my alarm tomorrow morning but I’m glad that I only need to get through three days in the office this week.  I’m going to have to try pretty hard to not undo all this relaxation.

I had a few plans for this extra-long weekend, and the most important one was to get started on a painting to give to my Mum & Dad for Christmas.  The two little apples above are what I came up with, and even though I’m only 95% sure that it’s finished I’m really happy with how they’ve come out.  I’m looking forward to seeing how it will look framed and finding out where it will hang in my parents’ house.

Maybe they’ll just stick it on their fridge like they did back in the day!

 

I haven’t mentioned yet that I’ve started a new term of art classes at Melbourne Studio of Art and we’re almost up to week three.  This term the class is being split between two teachers – Michael Gray for painting, and for drawing a teacher who is new to me, Ju-Yuen Chew.

I can already tell that Ju-Yuen is going to kick my butt where technique is concerned, and get me out of the tiny little comfort zone that I’ve developed in my first 8 weeks of classes.  I learned so much in my first lesson with her, including how reliant I am on tonal work to make an object look believable.  It’s really, really hard for me to just draw an outline, and this is something that I’m going to have to work on.  Whether I like it or not!

In our last lesson we focused on negative space (ie. drawing the space between objects, rather than the objects themselves).  It’s an exercise that forces you to really look at what’s in front of you rather than just trust what you already know about the shape of a cube, a sphere, a bottle etc.  It’s an excellent problem-solving technique if you can’t figure out what’s “wrong” with the object you’re drawing.

 

 

Sometimes I forget that I’ve only been doing this for a short time.  I know that I have come an extremely long way in only 10 weeks of lessons, and it’s something that I wish I had started when I was younger.  I guess I always assumed that drawing was something that “other people” were good at, and now I know that it really is something that anybody can learn how to do.  When I look at the work that my classmates present at the end of each lesson I realise that we are all basically kicking butt at this thing, and that’s really encouraging.

I realised the other day that I haven’t shared my very first drawing here, from the first class of last term.  It’s pretty funny to look at, but it represents the absolute limit of my knowledge and ability just a couple of months ago.  I dug it out today and photographed it so that I could remember how far I’ve come.

 

In contrast, this is my drawing from Week 1 of my second term of classes.

 

We didn’t have a class this week because of the long weekend, so I’m glad I managed to fit in some painting on my own at home.  Next week is another drawing class, and then the week after that we’re back with Michael for painting.

Painting used to be something that I was terrified of, but not any more!

 

 

 

Oh!  One more thing.  This month I will be posting every day for NaBloPoMo – National Blog Posting Month.  The name is silly (especially since it’s INternational these days!) but it’s a great motivator to bring you something new every day.  I’d really love to hear from you in the comments this month, just to reassure me that I’m not talking to myself!

A little sketch

September 29th, 2011

Music: Chia by Four Tet

Remember when Facebook used to let you add little apps to your main page?  One of my favourites was a sketch app, and I used it to create this little drawing years ago.  And then forgot all about it.

I rediscovered it today amongst my media files – I guess I must have recorded the animation using screen capture software.  Love rediscovering old stuff!

 

Evolution of a painting

September 12th, 2011

 

This was an exercise in proving that I could paint something on my own, following my classes at the Melbourne Studio of Art.  It took five hours, and lots of re-painting, but I’m very excited to have recreated my dodgy old sofa on paper!

(Um, you guys can tell it’s a sofa, right?  Guys?)

I’m most proud of the fact that I mixed all of my own colours from primaries, black & white.  The colour of the couch isn’t quite right, but otherwise I’m happy.

Sorry if I’ve been sounding evangelical about my classes lately.  But honestly, I probably couldn’t have drawn the top pencil sketch 8 weeks ago!

 

Melbourne Studio of Art – Week 8

September 11th, 2011

 

Yesterday was our final class in the Introduction to Drawing & Painting course at the Melbourne Studio of Art.  I’ve honestly been dreading the end of these classes – they’ve become the highlight of my week!  I’m sad that the term is over now, but yesterday’s class was an excellent way to finish.

This class was all about analogous colours – colours that are next to each other on the colour wheel.  I found this trickier than the complementary colour exercise we did a couple of weeks ago, mostly because I haven’t got a handle on colour mixing yet and the subtle differences of shade mattered more than ever this week.  I had a pretty terrible attitude towards my painting until the last 20 minutes when I managed to rescue it!  I feel like we still have some making up to do, but I like the finished product more today than I did yesterday.

 

Yesterday was also the day that I finally confessed to our teacher, Michael Gray, that I’ve been blogging about these classes.  He seemed to take the news well!  I feel incredibly lucky to have had such a patient and talented teacher in Michael over the past 8 weeks, and honestly can’t believe the progress that I have made in such a short amount of time.  When we met back in July I was a blank canvas, and under his instruction I feel a lot more confident about how to tackle a painting.

My drawing is probably weaker than my painting now, but at least I know how to work on it!

 

I’ve enjoyed the class so much that I have decided to do it again next term.  Michael tells me that it will be a different teacher taking the class, and I guess that will be both good and bad.  I’m going to miss Michael’s patience and sense of humour, but it will be interesting to see the approach that a different teacher will take.

As long as they know how to talk me off the ledge when I’m mad at my painting, that’s all that matters!

 

I don’t know whether any of my Melbourne readers would be interested in joining me on this next adventure, but here are some details in case you want to know more.  And seriously, you need absolutely no prior experience or innate talent to make something out of these classes – I am living proof!

Weekend classes for the absolute beginner – Introduction to Drawing & Painting and Life Drawing for Beginners
Evening Classes – Art Discovery - Life Drawing, Drawing & Painting for Beginners, Drawing & Painting – Intermediate, Untutored Life Drawing
Day classes - The Melbourne Studio of Arts’ Pathways to Fine Arts program is for artists considering a career in Fine Arts or for those wishing to develop their artistic skills to the fullest.  Click the link for the full program.

 

Thanks to Michael Gray and the Melbourne Studio of Art for an excellent eight weeks of learning.  See you next term!

Melbourne Studio of Art – Week 7

September 4th, 2011

20 minute pose

 

40 minute pose

 

Week 7 of my Introduction to Drawing & Painting class at the Melbourne Studio of Art was my very first experience of life drawing, and it was great!

I was expecting to feel a bit awkward about drawing another person (clothed or unclothed, it wouldn’t have mattered!) but it was totally fine. Our model Veronique was extremely professional and was introduced to us as “one of the best in the business”.  I have so much respect for the people who do this job, and the skill needed to do it well.

Time flew very quickly this time around.  I guess I’m used to leaving these classes with a reasonably “finished” piece, but this time it was all learning through timed exercises.  I did a little more work on my 40 minute pose when I got home, just to tidy up a few areas that I ran out of time to tackle.  It still looks very much like a beginner drawing, but for a first attempt I think it’s okay!

 

 

Next Saturday will be our last class, and I’ve already decided that I would love to keep going!  There are a bunch of different classes on offer through MSA, including untutored life drawing on a Thursday night (BYO materials) and even a new photography course.

I think I’m going to struggle to come to a mid-week class so I’m looking at staying in the Saturday class in term 4.  Yesterday we were told that it would be a mixture of beginner and intermediate students next term, so that’s probably a perfect way for me to consolidate what I know and still stretch myself.

 

In the meantime I’ve stuck my ladies to my study wall so that I can remember what needs improving for next time.  It’s very exciting to be drawing recognisable shapes only 7 weeks into to the course – full credit goes to our extremely knowledgeable and patient teacher!

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