Final Term Begins

Well, I am back to work for the final term. This is going to fly by awfully fast, in fact, it already is flying by. In addition to school I am busy clearing out and packing up to move most of our household up to the house we are renting on the coast. We will spend the month of August just up the road in Talent, Oregon. We have rented a small apartment which will save us a little money in the long run. I will have a bit longer commute to school but it will be worth it.
This term I will be focusing on figure and portrait drawing. That is, I will be starting to learn the basics of portrait drawing. The time is just too short! I say I and not we because most of the time, I am the only one in my class. There is another student but he isn't always there. Being in such a small class has its good points and it also has a few drawbacks. The good points far outweigh the drawbacks though.
So, my mornings are devoted to cast drawing, or in my case, drawing with paint. I started another grisaille. Painting is coming a little bit easier but I still need to practice with the medium. Here is a picture after the first two sessions:

I took the picture with the cast in the background so you can get a general idea of the set up. I am still working on the shapes and angles of the light and dark areas. I will be working on this one for a bit, although have made the image a bit too big on the canvas which will cause me a few difficulties.
For the first time this year, Fridays no longer have gesture drawing in the morning. I must admit I am going to miss it as I really liked gesture drawing.  We spend the day cast drawing instead. It is good practice which is something I definitely need. It does make for a rather tiring day at the end of the week.
This is all I have so far. This weekend we had a moving sale. It was quite successful in that I got rid of a lot of stuff. It was ghastly hot, at least for me it was. We have been having 100 degree temps or close to. I know we are not alone as it seems like much of North America is broiling.
It has been a long and tiring weekend. I can't believe it is almost the middle of the month.
I should have more progress to post next week.
-Renee

Ongoing Fiber Sale

Just added a few more items and took off the items that sold to my weaving blog.
School starts up again on Tuesday. In the meantime, Happy 4th of July for all of us USA folks!
To see the fiber sale, go to ReneeWeaves!

FIBER MOVING SALE!!!!

To all my fiber friends who may be interested. I am cleaning out for moving. Please see the details listed on my weaving blog here.
School starts up next week so stay tuned for the final term!
-Renee

Third Term Finished!

Well, that went fast. It was a very interesting and transitional term for me. Before I get started on that and what is next here are the final two pieces from the term:

This was a 36 hour figure study done in charcoal on Canson Mi Tientes paper in sky blue. I am enjoying figure drawing tremendously. It is very challenging and demanding but also very satisfying. There is something about the energy of a live being that is much more fascinating than an inanimate object. However, that said, I do understand the need for drawing and painting beautiful objects too. So, here the final grisaille. It was my first one so the learning curve was steep yet again. I have never used oils and, even though I was using them in a manner very similar to charcoal, it still was a new medium to get used to.

It is far from finished but I accomplished the learning goals on this study. More will be coming for next term.
Even though the term whizzed by, it was strenuous. I had my share of struggles and growth. That is always a good sign. I feel like I have come a long way in my understanding in the last few weeks of the term. That is priceless. We have a two week break before the fourth and final term. I am certain that it will fly by at a terrifying pace. There is so very much I still need to learn! What I will be learning is part of my homework for the break. I will be sitting down with my design journals and revisiting the ideas I have recorded there. I will be clarifying the direction I will be going in. I know what I want and where I want to go so I will be focusing and sharpening that. When the final term starts up on July 6th, I will know what I need learn for the final push. This is such an incredible opportunity for me. Even though it wasn't as long as I had hoped or planned, I am so grateful for what I have received and achieved.
At the moment, I am with my husband and dog, Twill, in our future hometown of Manzanita, Oregon. We are here partly on business but also to relax, celebrate our 26th wedding anniversary, and start to get to know our town more intimately. Sunday morning I enjoyed participating in a Life Drawing session at the local art center. I met some wonderful women who are passionate about art and working at the study of art. Here is a rather delightful picture of the exterior of where the life drawing was held. Folks here have a good sense of humor:

The building is on the main street of town so all who drive by can see. The evening before this we went to a book reading across the street. We are definitely smitten by this little town and can hardly wait to be settled in. That will be happening the first week of September. Here is a final picture of the town, actually, the ocean at the end of the street!

This is where we will be come September. We will get settled in and I will take a small rest break and then I will get to work. What will I be doing? I will be continuing my art studies on my own. In addition to that, I will be taking up my jewelry making again to hopefully fund my art making. There will be plenty to blog about in addition to pictures and reports of this beautiful little village snuggled on the northern Oregon coast...
We will be heading back to Ashland soon and the final term of school. Stay tuned!
-Renee

First Grisaille

As you can tell by the time between my posts, my assignments are taking longer and longer to complete. I finally got to start grisaille painting! This is a picture of the work in progress. I  have two more sessions before I will stop. I have never painted in oil paint before so not only am I learning a new process but I am dealing with a new, to me, medium. It is getting easier though!
For those of you who do not know what a grisaille painting is, here is what Wikipedia has to say about it:
"Grisaille (grɪʼzaɪ, -ʼzeɪl; French: gris, grey, French pronunciation: /ɡʁi.zaj/) is a term for painting executed entirely in monochrome or near-monochrome, usually in shades of grey.A grisaille may be executed for its own sake, as underpainting for an oil painting (in preparation for glazing layers of colour over it), or as a model for an engraver to work from."
 As you can see by the picture my grisaille is not grey but earthtoned.
School has become quite intense. At the moment, I am the only one in my first year class. All but one other student has departed. The other student is visiting family at this time. In fact, as the school year heads to the final term, the remaining students are mostly those who will be going on to study in Maui. As a result, the atmosphere in the school has become more serious and intense, in a good way. All of us are aware how little time we have left here. It goes by so fast. We have one more week of school before break and then on to the final term.
I will be visiting my future home town over the break and will post a few pictures from there. I will have a few things to say about the town artistically as well as I will be participating in a life drawing session up there. I definitely feel the need for a break. Not only is the atmosphere intense but there is so much learning going on for me personally that it is a bit overwhelming at times.
So, I will have the finished grisaille to post as well as another figure drawing next week. I will have a few things to post over the break as well, then, on to the home stretch!
-Renee

Shifting Paradigms

I did not post last week as the school work was still in progress. It also had been one of the hardest weeks I have had in school. The thing I know for sure about weeks when you feel like you are going backwards is that they usually indicate a large leap in learning. Honestly, it was the only thing that comforted me a bit. The offending study is this one:

This is a drawing of a cast of Moses and he is quite large. We used a full sheet of paper instead of our previous half sheets. That uses quite a bit of charcoal. I am still using my homemade charcoal here and, if the weather will cooperate, I hope to perfect it as it isn't quite up to the standard I was used to in drawing charcoal. I went absolutely backward one day and my drawing got quite out of control. A few sweaty hours later I had managed to gain the upper hand, barely. It was a huge learning experience and one that makes me grateful I have a skilled teacher to give me a boost.
We are still spending afternoons with figure drawing. This last session was 6 sessions or 18 hours. We were drawing my favorite female model and it was a pleasure but still challenging. Here she is:

Considering this is my first year in school, I am quite please with how close the likeness was. You will have to take my word for it as I will not be taking pictures of the live models to post. I really like figure drawing even more than I though I would. There is just something about working with a live person that adds an extra element to the creation. It also adds difficulty as the model moves, a lot. I am learning to deal with that too.
The paradigm shift? That was the words the master teacher used when telling me how my work was coming along. I have definitely noticed a difference in my work and how much I understand. I am not sure that I have had a paradigm shift as it seems like quite a strong statement. I do know my level of understanding has increased. Perhaps it is one of those things that a teacher can see better than the student. In any case, I am grateful for the learning and also humbled by just how much there is yet to learn. I certainly won't be able to learn everything in a year or two.
That leads me to my future. We have a place to rent in Manzanita and are very excited about it. We will be moving our belongings up north starting in July. It will be nice to escape the heat once a month and spend a long weekend at the cooler coast. Of course, the heat hasn't made it here yet but I know it will come. I will be posting pictures of our new town now and again. I also have been making plans to continue my studies. That will be a topic for another post in the near future.
We will be starting a new drawing, or maybe even painting (I hope) next week and have already started a new figure drawing. Less than a month to go until our two week break!
-Renee

Pain Can Be a Good Teacher....Uh Huh!

We have had a couple of busy weeks lately so I missed posting last weekend. We took an unexpected trip up north to Manzanita, OR. Manzanita is a lovely little town on the north coast of Oregon and is soon to be our future home town.
It really is a good thing I like to juggle as it seems I have been doing a lot of juggling of tasks lately. In addition to daily life and working hard at school, I am reaching out a bit into the future to find a place to rent in the fall. Usually that is not such a problem but Manzanita is a tiny town of less than 800 souls and with a large number of short term vacation rentals but not many long term ones.
I have been occasionally checking Craigslist even though we are still a few months out and, much to my amazement, I found the perfect house. It has everything I clearly stated, out-loud and in writing, that I wanted. To make a long story short, we took a spur-of-the-moment trip up north and took a look. We submitted our application this week and are waiting to hear back from the landlady, who amazingly enough, lives here in Ashland! So, at the moment, we are keeping our fingers crossed.
In the meantime, there has been a lot of growth in the learning department for me at school. Alas,  I wish I could take a picture and point out all the areas of growth. I also wish I could tell you that it was a lovely joyful journey but we all know that just isn't the way it works!
One of my fellow art students is a gentleman in his 70's (I think) who told me that all his friends tell him how lucky he is since he just gets to relax, lounge around, and learn art. He laughs and says, "if they only knew how painful it is!" Painful indeed. Relaxing? More like blood, sweat, and tears (sometimes lots of tears)! Lest I get carried away and unintentionally scare someone away from putting in the time to learn art, the rewards for your toils are beyond imagining!
Yesterday I started out to work on my charcoal drawing and, after three hours of painful confusion, I made it worse! My drawing seized control from my tenuous grasp and merrily ran all over me. Yes, it really is possible! It sort of felt like opening an old fashioned wind-up watch case only to have all the springs sproing out all over the room. Finally, at the end of those three sweaty hours, I managed to coral it back in place where hopefully it will be docilely waiting for me on Tuesday.
The rewards for all that pain? My knowledge and skill took a giant leap forward! No worries though, I know very well that I will be taking a few steps back too. I managed to pull myself together during lunch (and after a phone call to my husband to lament, OK, whinge, a bit) so that I was able to take a few baby steps forward during our long-pose figure drawing session.
So, what do I have to show you this week? Well, the drawings from last week that I didn't get a chance to post. Here they are, the first is a photo of the actual cast, the second the final drawing, after 12 hours. It was a shorter session so the drawing is not as finished as the longer ones.

This guy is a true block head. We are currently working on another cast, the one that beat me up yesterday, and the long pose figure drawing. I will take a few pictures in progress but not the whole progression for next week. In the meantime, the weather is really trying hard to warm up and be, well, spring. I am aslo enjoying my walks to school through the lovely town of Ashland. Hope to have good news to report on the house statues next week. Until then, -Renee