Colored Pencils

The first weekend in October I attended a 3 day colored pencil seminar in Ajax...the course was taught by Janelle Johnson (http://www.janellejohnson.com/). It was a lot of fun and a lot of work, but I learned a lot, and, since returning home, I have been working on several projects. The first day of the course we completed the Baltimore Oriole in the Cottonwood, and on the second and third day we worked on Copper Still Life (I did not get this picture done, so I will post it when it is complete). I love colored pencils! It is so nice to work with just the pencils, a sharpener and scotch tape in front of you - no paint, no cleanup material, nothing to spill.....it is great. At this point, I realize I still have a lot to learn, so since returning home, I have been working on 'beginner' pieces. I have attached a pic of the two pieces I completed - Albert's Rose and Calla Lillies (both of these are patterns by Janelle Johnson). I do have some harder pieces to work on, and I plan to tackle them very soon.

Janelle was a wonderful instructor, and I certainly learned a lot from her. I feel with a little time and experience I will be able to convert some of my patterns into colored pencils, and I am really looking forward to the challenge.

Some of the girls in my Monday and Thursday art sessions have expressed an interest in working in this art form, so I expect to have some company while I am learning.

Well, I'm off to work with my colored pencils....I will post new projects and information soon....

Pen and Ink with Oils

Over the past couple of months I have been so busy working with colored pencils, that I do not have a lot to report on pen & ink with oils. I did complete the attached two pieces....both projects were designed by Renee Mullens, and can be found in her book 'Christmas Spice'. Renee's instructions for the projects are for acrylic paint, so, I converted this to pen & ink with oils. The snowman outside the window pane is on 4 1/2" x 4 1/2 " wood (the pane and window are separate pieces), and the larger snowman is on a porcelain plate that is approximately 7" wide.


On the top project I was able to add color to some of the very small areas with colored pencils. I had sealed the wood with J. W. Undercoating, and I found the surface rough enough that the colored pencils worked. The larger piece (on porcelain) was all done with oils, as the surface was much too smooth for the pencils to work.




Mary Owens News: Mary (http://www.maryowensdesigns.com/) has added a new feature to her webside called Monthly Tips. You might want to check this out - I'm sure the tips will be very interesting and helpful. Mary has not released any new patterns in quite some time, but, as soon as she does, I will report it in my blog.

If you are interested in purchasing any Mary Owens supplies I do have most items in stock, along with a lot of her patterns...just call or email me if you are looking for supplies.

Weekly Art Sessions - October

This fall, rather than hold our regular Monday night and Thursday morning classes, I switched to 'creative art sessions'. We currently have 8 artists on Monday and 4 on Thursday, and we are all working on various types of art on a variety of surfaces, including, canvas, porcelain, wood and hand dyed paper. In this section of my blog I will show some of the completed artwork from our Monday and Thursday sessions.

The Owl on a branch was designed by Susan Scheewe and completed by Linda Dufour. Linda chose an 8x10 oval porcelain for this project, inked the design first, then rouged on oil paint. Some of the girls have taken this design and put it on a small oval porcelain ornament for the Christmas tree.







Bev Laabs completed a design by Claudia Nice - House Sparrows and Birdhouse. This project was done on a large, round, wooden piece, and Bev added some border flowers to it. The piece was first inked then oil paint was added.






The Western Meadowlark and Wildflowers is a Claudia Nice design and was completed by Sue Deighton. This piece was done on a 11x14 canvas - it was inked then finished by rouging small amounts of oil paint.









Ginette Beaulieu completed a two piece set - Barn Swallow and Oil Lamp and Sparrows and Basin - both are designs by Claudia Nice. Both projects were done on small canvas (I believe 5 x 7). Ginette first inked the picture, then added very small amounts of oil paint to finish them off.



Stay tuned ........ I will pass on more of our artwork soon.....