California Art Club Annual Critique Session

Each year the California Art Club presents a very popular event - an anonymous critique session. This year, members who were interested were asked to submit one or two digital images (an improvement from past years requiring slides) for critique. Members and the public attend whether or not they submit images because the viewing and feedback serve as valuable learning tools for all of the attendees.

This year the panel included sculptor Béla Bácsi and painters Amy Sidrane, Joseph Mendez and Tony Pro. The event was held at the Autry Museum and was underwritten by Sennelier. I knew some of the panelists' work but not others, and I couldn't help thinking that to serve as a panelist requires some special empathy as well as a strong understanding of the principles of the craft.

I was happy to see many artists I have met at exhibitions, workshops and working en plein air. It was a good feeling of a community of learners.

Eighty works were discussed in about three hours. All were accorded respect by starting with what was good with the painting or piece of sculpture and then by making suggestions for improving it. Over and over I heard about values, warms and cool placement, encouragement to study certain masters, questions about focal points and composition and reminders to think about light and its source and what it does as a form turns. Over and over....... value, drawing, edges, composition. ----- It seems that there is really nothing new, it's just getting to the place where your mind and your hand seem to do what you think you know! VALUE, DRAWING, EDGES, COMPOSITION.

This time I did submit images... two. One, - a seascape received many compliments... made me feel really nice. There was also a suggestion by Joseph Mendez (who impressed me during the entire session to be very insightful and able to clearly and simply articulate artistic concepts) to work on the foreground cliff to see if I could avoid too many repeating shapes ... the vertical lines that the volcanic structure of the rock had. I will think about it and see if I can take the advice. The second was a figurative work of a cook. Mostly it, too, was thought to be a good painting, but Tony Pro felt that the overhead light source was a good strong source and that I should darken the eye sockets, under the chin and some other areas to emphasize the light source. He reminded all of us that it's ALWAYS ABOUT THE LIGHT.

The CAC hosts, Elaine and Peter Adams, polled the members and it was decided to do the critique sessions twice a year and to limit the number of images one participant can submit to one and the total number of images to 60. - Thanks, CAC for another good opportunity to learn.

A Wonderful Talented Artist and Teacher: Karl Dempwolf

Caballero Canyon
16" x 20"
Oil on Canvas

I shared a wonderful experience recently with some fellow artists arranged by Sharon Weaver from the San Fernando Valley Art Club. I've always wanted to hear how other artists take the plein air studies they do to create larger studio paintings. I know that working in plein air is important for developing skills, (in addition to being a just plain enjoyable activity), but never really felt that the paintings I created were wonderful. Oh, there were things I liked about them to be sure, but I've never considered them my best work. Sometimes, I'd take the study and paint over it using photo references - often making it better - but sometimes not. But what other artists do with their studies remained a mystery until Karl Dempwolf , a signature artist in the California Art Club, offered to show us.

Many years ago I took plein air classes from Karl. He is a fascinating, unique man who is lots of fun and has a clear vision of how he thinks landscapes should be. His knowledge of values and color harmony as well as composition is invaluable and he willingly shares it with his students. This, however, was a special opportunity. Karl has a beautiful book (Karl Dempwolf - A Painter's Journey) where one can see close ups of his studies and studio paintings, but in it he really doesn't share how he gets from one to the other.

Karl started out the workshop with a demonstration while plying us with enjoyable banter about his artistic experiences and the process he uses. He had several different versions of larger paintings that he had created from a plein air study. They were all similar, but absolutely NOT copies. They each had elements in them that were the same, but many dissimilar elements as well. Karl is very analytical and thinks about which elements of the study AND a variety of photos of the surrounding areas he likes and which he thinks would go well together to make an interesting painting. He moves the various elements around to please his eye. He'll change colors and sizes to create a better composition.

After the demo, he worked like a madman for the rest of the workshop helping all of the artists with their initial composition and with suggestions (or, depending upon the needs of the participant, even actually painting on some of the canvases to move them along a bit). I don't think I've seen a workshop leader work so hard before. Although he ate the food offered by the students with gusto and relish... moaning happily in enjoyment, I didn't see him take any breaks the whole time.

I used a study I had painted last October in Caballero Canyon. He knew immediately where it was painted... (He actually dazzled us all by naming almost every location from the students' studies or photos). --Is there anyplace this man hasn't painted??-- When he came to help me, Karl told me to "lose" the bicyclists and to move a young sycamore over to the right side of the painting to create more interest on the right. He reminded me to block in the darks and lights first. Later, toward the end of the workshop when I was about finished, he suggested that I add some warm light colored leaves in the sycamore and to the bush on the right of the path.

When I got home I made quite a few changes .. some that Karl had suggested and some I just thought helped the over-all look. I think it turned out rather well. I had liked my study (and the bicyclists) but with Karl Dempwolf's expertise and good eye, I think I created a more attractive and interesting studio painting of Caballero Canyon.

Summer

"Palm"

by Tyler

My eight year old is taking art classes. He is going to Mission Rennaissance which is where I began my studies in art. (I was taking the adult classes, of course.) He is enjoying himself and after the initial few months, convinced his teacher that watercolor was his medium. He's been working on washes and other drills for a while, now and just finished his first "painting". He is very proud and has decided that this should be a gift to his Aunt Francesca.

I think he did a great job with the watercolor. He has some layering so the palm fronds show some depth and it's a nice little piece with coconuts and all. (I guess no one has told him that palm trees only grow coconuts or dates.... not pineapples.)

In the meantime, he's learning and having fun this summer.

School's Out!

Excitement abounds! School's out and my eight-year-old is ready for summer. He handed me his report card and was proud to learn how well he'd done. He's worked hard all year.. had a fabulous and loving teacher and now all he wants to do is swim, play, go to day camp and veg out. When I picked him and a friend up after school, they were singing some song they had learned called "School Is Out For The Summer"... sometimes substituting "the summer" for "forever". (quite off-key and loudly!) It was funny listening to these eight-year-olds trying to be rockers.... With the advent of the Wii "Rock Band" system, they all want to be in a rock and roll band and try to make their intonations and words more "rock".... .... sung hoarsely... "School is out for the summaaaaahh....!!!"

(OKAY... I just looked these lyrics up on the internet and found out that the song is an ALICE COOPER song and it's not quite so light-hearted! WHERE do eight-year-olds hear these songs?? --The song is somewhat reminiscent of Pink Floyd's The Wall.... (Which strangely enough...with me being an educator... I really like.) Oh well..)

Seriously, -It was a good year.. He had a terrific teacher and he learned a lot and grew up a lot. He even commented on how quickly the year went. I didn't want to mention how it goes faster and faster the older you get. .... He'll figure it out.

I decided to do a "start" for a painting of him by the pool in honor of the upcoming pool season. I had been wanting to work on developing and experimenting with skin tones so this is a perfect subject to start on-- lots of sunny skin. I've decided after the initial lay-in that although the skin tones are basically all right, I need to lighten the lightest areas and really, really darken the darker areas. -- Punch it up. I'll let you know how it goes. Check for further progress on this one.

In the meantime.... Yippee... It's officially a scorching 109 degree summer day! It's pool time.

ON ANOTHER NOTE....
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Plein Air Fun

Eucalyptus Morning
8" x 10"
oil on canvas board

I love to go outside and enjoy all that nature has to offer.... well perhaps not those pesky bugs that seem to love to commit hari kari into wet oil paint .. or those other ones that are likely to pick me up and carry me away. But I do love to see the rolling hills as they change throughout the seasons (Yes, we even have seasons of our own sort in Southern California). There are so many wonderful places I've discovered since I started painting en plein air. It's not that they weren't always there, but I just never looked.

I was lucky to get together with a group of established painters that I met at another formal paint out. They are a loose group that paints together when they can and my friend Sharon and I hitched on for a fabulous day of outdoors painting. Originally we were to go to Leo Carrillo Beach closer to where they live, but it was fogged in so we got an early morning call to switch locations. I had been looking forward to the beach since it's been a hot week in the San Fernando Valley, but off we went to King Gillette Ranch in the Santa Monica Mountains. It is now a state park and there are beautiful spots to paint all over the campus which was originally a seminary then was Soka University Campus and now is part of the SMM Conservancy. Hooray for our State Parks.. They are such treasures.

The weather couldn't have been more perfect. It was cool enough, warm enough and bugless. The other painters, some of whom are well-known professionals, were welcoming, kind and interesting to chat with. It was a great day! .... I even liked my little painting... Inspired by the early morning fog which hadn't quite lifted. It was kind of tough trying to capture that look because as the sun burned off the fog, the light changed tremendously. But I think I did well enough.

Lady In Red

Why does it seem easier to paint someone else than to paint yourself? My friend, Sharon Weaver, recently did a self portrait and seemed to do it very well, but as she explained in her blog, what made it work best was the comments and suggestions from her husband. Maybe we just don't see ourselves as others do. My self portrait (see my last post) was okay, but there are a number of things to improve on it. I thought perhaps the skin tones were too green so I took it to my teacher for her opinion. She felt the skin tones were fine... but the upper body was incomplete looking. -Not really painted "to the standard"... Yet another thing to work on.

However, I really enjoyed painting this beautiful young lady dressed in red yesterday in my class. The model sat for two classes so I took a bit more time than I usually do. I like the results. I used a greyish purple mixed of ultramarine, alizarin, white and a bit of cadmium yellow deep for the darks and a peachy light mixed with alizarin, a tiny bit of cadmium yellow deep and white. Of course, never to be held exactly to mixtures, I sometimes added ochre or cad red in if something felt like it was calling for it. I actually just realized that this is the same model I painted in May where I used a lot of turquoise in the skin one....-- different, but it seemed to work. she had dyed her hair, but I just can't believe I didn't make the connection! Our teacher, Johanna Spinks, kept reminding me about getting in the darks of the dress and remembering that dresses and arms are forms that turn as well. She works hard to help us understand values and how the "story" is always about how the light makes curved things appear round. I was quite happy with the result.... I've got to get better with my camera because I thought the painting turned out better than the photo of the painting, but oh well. After all is said and done, I realize that I am learning and improving. This model will be there for two more sessions so I'll try a larger canvas and a full body pose. ..... And next time I just do an upper body portrait, I'll try to remember not to cut off the arms like I did in this one. .... When trying to paint in a class, I usually haven't planned out the composition... I just try to paint it well. But composition includes deciding what part of what is up there to place WHERE on the canvas. Another lesson learned.


It was actually funny because another model that we've painted several times, (Toni) came in to model for a different class and she was wearing such a similar dress as our model (they don't even know one another) that a little girl who takes ballet lessons in an adjacent classroom asked if they were sisters.

Who Am I? -- Guess Who--

Many of us define ourselves by what we do. Some measure their worth by the power they wield or the money they make. I've enjoyed a long rewarding career in education and was comforted by what my husband once conveyed when he said, "I make the money and you make a difference." Education wasn't and isn't a career where you make money or where what is commonly thought of as power is gained. I was a good teacher and a pretty good principal. I worked hard to raise my own children and have fun along the way. I have been satisfied with life and the role I have in the world.

When I retired last August, I figured I would continue to do the best job I could while helping my husband raise our grandchild. I would paint and enjoy life and that would be it. Until this weekend, I haven't spent much time measuring my worth.

However, events this week have conspired to play the pictures of my past through my mind and remind me very much that who I am is a result of all of the people I have encountered in my life.

A retirement event for several teachers from the last school where I served as principal started me off into deep reverie. These teachers -- nice people and really good teachers were honored by their colleagues and students and their own children. The words of praise and contemplation that were shared reminded me of the greatness of our profession... ..of the underlying power that a teacher holds and the lasting effect they have on the children and families they serve. So many people trivialize teachers, but where would they be without them? These new retirees are singers, dancers, mothers, fathers, actors, home makers and friends. They may no longer be employed by the school district, but they will always be teachers, parents and great people.... just as, I guess, I will be.

The next event, on that same day was a wedding shower for a warm and loving friend, who coincidentally was a tremendously talented teacher at the first school where I served as the principal (I was there 11 happy years!). I give myself credit for hiring her as a teacher, but I know in reality that she has been teaching me (or trying to) for years! She's Costa Rican and a gathering of her friends is like the United Nations. She is the embodiment of friendship ... accepting, giving and caring - plus she knows how to have a good time! She's now an administrator and knows the joys and pain of that job as well. I've been blessed to have known her now for over 20 years. The shower brought together her friends which numbered former students and their parents, and colleagues from all of her schools, relatives and neighbors.

Today capped off the weekend with a party ... I don't know HOW my husband and I were lucky enough to be included, but the host and hostess were former parents from that first school where I was principal! Their two daughters - both all grown up and beautiful - were there. Oh good grief the time does fly! The girls are both bright and successful and it was joyous seeing them with their parents at this terrific social event. They now have a young son who is a little younger than my Tyler and the two boys go to school together at a school near our homes so we have a new connection and I am able to enjoy this family from a whole new point of view. I also got to meet some of their friends and see others that had been "my parents" at the first school. We all had a ball and the conversations ranged quite afield from what you might have heard back at school!

I've also been musing about MY teachers... both those from the past ... from school.. from art... my friends and those I love and live with. My parents, my husband and my children have all been my teachers. As the song says, they are the wind beneath my wings. Thank you to all of you... You have made me who I am... Whoever that is.

Watching a "SmartFlix" video by Helen Van Wyk about painting a self portrait and my self reflections made it seem appropriate to see if I could paint myself - the cheap model. :)

Are We There Yet?..... No.... And I Imagine No Matter How Far I Travel, I'll Never Be THERE!

Three-Hour-Figure-Study
11" x 14" Oil on canvas board

I left my figurative painting class (taught by Johanna Spinks) yesterday afternoon tired, but satisfied with my effort. I do remember a time not that long ago when trying to capture a likeness or even trying to paint anything remotely resembling a human figure was beyond me. My efforts were fairly laughable in fact. Don't get me wrong... I'm not going to be making my living with commission portrait painting any time soon... nor do I want to, but I'd like to get to the point where I COULD!

I'd painted this model a few times in the past, but this time Johanna not only changed her costume and her pose, but she changed the lighting. Painting the model while sitting down low and having the lighting overhead could have been a problem... creating a pig-like nose, etc. I think I avoided that and that I achieved a likeness without creating a monster. Each time I work on one of these studies, I feel I am learning new and practicing newly learned skills. I originally took the class from Johanna because I wanted to work on values. I STILL need to work on values, but as I've said before, the more I learn, the more I realize I need to learn.

Johanna just let us know that she'll be switching schools. This is good news for me as the new school will be much closer to my home. With the price of gas, that will be a great plus. I think it will be good for Johanna as well... She'll meet a new crop of students and from what I've learned about the school it might be a better place to work. I've been eyeing the school anyway for a while and think I'll try to take a class to improve my basic drawing skills. ... Hopefully the classes won't be on the same days!

California Art Club's Quarterly Paint Out

Matador
8" x 10"
oil on canvas wood panel

On June 1st the California Art Club had it's quarterly paint out. Because there are so many painters in the club spread all over California, they have wisely chosen to have paint-outs in different areas. The closest to me was the Malibu/Ventura County group led by Sharon Burkett Kaiser. My friend, Sharon Weaver, and I drove out on an absolutely beautiful June day to a perfect day at the beach. I had never been to a CAC paint out before so wasn't sure what to expect, but in addition to the gorgeous weather, we were greeted warmly by Sharon and many other painters out to have a good time. Everyone chose a spot... Some were down on the beach some on the path or stairs leading down the cliff and some remained on the top of the bluff. All of us had lovely views. Sharon and I hiked down about 3/4 of the way and painted on a spot to the side of the path down. The only problem was hiking back up to use the restroom and making sure not to fall off the edge when stepping back to view our work from a bit of a distance.

Many broke for lunch at 12:00 while others remained painting and enjoying the delicious day. Sharon and I enjoyed meeting and talking to other painters and discovered several friends from our local club (the SFVAC) painting on the top of the cliff.

After lunch Sharon Kaiser was gracious enough to critique several paintings of those who asked. She was respectful and gave good advice while making sure to value the good in each painting. Most of the time my plein air studies are never worked on after I go out for a day communing with nature. However, since I had requested a critique, I decided to use the advice she offered and I worked on the painting after I returned home. I tried to keep the good things she pointed out and rework those things such as rocks that were too dark and keeping what I had liked about the scene in the first place in mind. I had really liked the way the water came up to the sand and pointed to the many rocks and cliffs. It was really pretty. I tried to use that information to improve the painting and this is how it ended up - still a study... but a bit better, I think.

Thank you, Sharon and thank you, CAC for a great day!

PS... I was impressed today when Sharon called to thank me for coming. I'm sure she called all of the almost 30 painters! That's a great way to make members of a group feel very welcome!