Weekly Art Sessions and Classes

CREATIVE ART SESSIONS:

Monday evening: 6:15 - 9:15 p.m.
Tuesday evening: 6:15 - 9:15 p.m.
Thursday morning: 9:00 a.m. - 12 noon
Dates: Sessions start the week of September 27 and end December 2 (participants can attend some or all of the sessions)
Projects: Choose your own project - I have numerous completed projects on display, as well as many books, magazines and patterns for pen and ink, oil and coloured pencils.
Cost: $8.00 per session


Note: During these sessions everyone works on whatever they want - pen & ink with oils, coloured pencils, oil, etc. Rather than teaching, I will be a member of the 'group' and will also be working on various projects. The idea of these sessions is to bring together a group of artists to share ideas, be creative and delve into different areas along with pen & ink with oils. Participants will have access to all my books and patterns, and, with a few exceptions, I will supply most miscellaneous items (oil paint, paper towels, Liberty Spray, etc.). If anyone is interested in learning pen & ink you are welcome to join our group - I will provide instruction and help in this area as needed. If you wish more information on these sessions please contact me at 613 638-9769 or email me at joan_sarginson@hotmail.com.


CLASSES:
I will not be holding any classes until late October or November - information about upcoming classes will be posted soon.


MISCELLANEOUS NEWS:
Usually at this time of year I am completely organized and have everything in order for the fall sessions and classes. However, this year we are having our bathroom completely renovated, and we don't expect it to be done for another week or two. So, with all the renovations, we have been spending a lot of time at our cottage, and I am running a little behind with my scheduling, projects, computer work, etc.

I did complete a number of projects over the summer, and, as soon as I take pictures, I will post them on my blog.

With respect to upcoming classes, I will be working on this towards the end of September and will post the information at that time.

After the wonderful summer we had, I hope everyone is busy inking and painting, and starting to think about all those Christmas decorations and gifts that have to be done over the next couple of months. I know I am, and I already have a couple of decorations completed!

Weekly Art Sessions

Hi - I have some more artwork to share with you. The following pieces were completed in the spring by the girls in my weekly art sessions - they were very busy! I think I still have enough pieces that I will be able to do one or two more posts before fall.

Sue decided to tackle this coloured pencil design by Pat Lentine called Bella. She has done a wonderful job. The picture is done in different shades of browns and yellows, and the addition of the bright red flowers on the hat really makes the piece come to life. Sue is doing a great job with the coloured pencils - I have one more of her col. pencils projects, which I will put in my next weekly art sessions post.

You may remember seeing this project a few months ago - at that time I only had the pen & ink version. I recently took a picture of the completed piece and thought I would share it with you. This is a pen & ink piece designed by Claudia Nice, and it is called Wild Roses in Canning Jar. After inking the project Linda rouged oil paint on - then she added a very subtle background. I think Linda has done a great job.

This project was completed by Nancy - it is called Ruby-throated Hummingbird and Fuchsia. It was designed by Sherry Nelson, and the pattern and instructions can be found in Sherry's book titled Painting Garden Birds. All instructions in Sherry's book are for oil painting, but Nancy has converted everything to coloured pencils, and I think she has done an amazing job.

These two whimsical pieces were done by Renee, using the pen & ink with oil rouging technique. Both pieces were designed by Susan Scheewe. Renee just started working with pen & ink this year, and this is only her second project. She advises me that she is really enjoying the technique and she is looking forward to the fall

when she can tackle some new projects. Renee is always full of enthusiasm, and it is so much fun having her in our art sessions.

This project is called Downy Woodpecker & Tulips, and was designed by Sherry Nelson - it can be found in her book titled Painting Garden Birds. Nicole used oil paints to complete the project, and she has done an amazing job. I love the vibrant colours and all the detail. It is a very nice piece.

Our fall sessions will start in late September, and, as soon as the girls have new pieces done I will post them on my blog. Information about my fall art sessions and classes will be posted on my blog in September.

I am currently working on some pen & ink pieces and also some Christmas projects (can you believe that??). I will post my projects as they are completed.

Hope everyone is having a great summer.

Colored pencils

I have completed another coloured pencil project - I have made up my mind, I WILL work on some pen & ink with oil projects over the summer and (hopefully) have them ready to post in the fall. I just LOVE col. pencils so-o-o-o much, I can't seem to stop working on them - I think it is becoming an obsession....

This project is called Evening Grosbeak Pair, and was designed by Sherry Nelson. The pattern can be found in Sherry's Book Painting Songbirds. It is a lovely book - I have already done a couple of projects out of the book, and several of the girls in my art group have also worked on some of the patterns. The instructions in the book are for oil painting, so, I had to convert everything to coloured pencils. I had fun doing it, and, with approximately 150 coloured pencils to choose from, I had no problem trying to match the colours with the designated oil paint. Perhaps I got a little carried away with the colours on the leaves - I didn't plan to have them quite so colourful! This picture will be a gift - hope they like it!

We now have our cottage open, and I plan to spend a lot of time there over the summer. So, I will be packing up all my pens, brushes, coloured pencils, etc., and setting up shop on the banks of the Ottawa River for a couple of months.

I still have quite a few pictures that were done by the girls in my art sessions, and I will post these over the summer.

I hope everyone has a great summer.

Weekly art sessions

The warm weather is finally here - we have opened our cottage, and are spending quite a bit of time there. For now, my art work is on hold - there are too many other things to be done! But, in a few weeks I will get back into it, and plan to produce some new pen & ink and coloured pencil projects for the fall.

Our spring weekly art sessions have now ended, and I have a lot of art work to share with you.

Cecile decided to try a coloured pencil project - this picture is called Common Green Birdwing & Angel Trumpet and was designed by Sherry Nelson. The project is in Sherry's book called Painting Butterflies & Blooms, and all the instructions in the book are for oil painting. Cecile converted everything to coloured pencils, and came up with a beautiful completed piece. It was a big undertaking, and Cecile was definitely happy when she finally finished it.

This piece was completed by Ruth and was designed by Susan Scheewe. The original instructions are for straight oil painting, but Ruth adapted the pattern to pen & ink with oils. I was a little concerned about how the milk can would turn out, but, Ruth worked away at it, using different colours until she was happy with the result. I think the picture turned out great, and I love the variations in colour she has used.

Darlene has only done a few pen and ink projects, but she decided to try and do a portrait of her dog. She used one of Claudia Nice's pen & ink patterns as a basic pattern, then adapted it to look like her dog. After completing the inking she rouged various colours of oil paint here and there and came up with a great picture of her dog.

This picture was designed by Bonnie Seaman and is in her book Say it with Flowers. Linda converted the project to pen and ink, and added a few more flowers & greenery, then proceed to finish it with oil paint. The colours just seem to pop off the page! Great job.

Brenda is fairly new to coloured pencils - I believe this was only her second project. This is called Buddies and was designed by Pat Lentine (who is a coloured pencil artist). I had the pattern for this particular project and Brenda worked through it following all the instructions. I love this pattern, and I think it would make a wonderful baby shower gift (once it is matted and framed, of course). Brenda is really enjoying working with the coloured pencils and plans to continue working with them.

That's it for now - I still have quite a few pictures of completed projects that I will be sharing with you over the next few months. In September our fall art sessions will start, so, at that time I should have a lot of fall and Christmas projects to post on my blog.

Thanks for visiting my blog.

Colored Pencils

Well, here I am again reporting on some colored pencil projects I have finished. I do have plans to work on some pen & ink pieces, but, right now, I am enjoying the pencils so much I just keep working on new c.p. projects.

The first project is called Daydreamer, and was designed by Pat Lentine (http://www.patlentine.com/). I love the simplicity of this design as well as the very subtle colour. There is really not a lot of colour on this piece - it is just tinted here and there, and the colour of the paper shows through in almost all areas. I have already picked out a picture (side profile) of my granddaughter, Abigail, which I plan to tackle with the col. pen., and I am going to use similar colours as are shown in this piece.

This project (Black-capped Chickadees and Cherries) was designed by Sherry Nelson, and can be found in her book Painting Garden Birds. All the instructions for this project were for oil paint, so I had to convert everything to colored pencils. I found the cherries rather challenging, but I loved working on the chickadee. When working with coloured pencils there is such a large range of colours to choose from that it is so easy to create the exact look and color you want.

Right now, that's all I have to share - I'm off to work on a project with two grosbeaks and fall leaves - will post it when I am finished.

The girls in my Monday and Tuesday art sessions are busy producing all kinds of interesting artwork, and I will post more of their finished pieces shortly.

Weekly art sessions

Our weekly art sessions started in March and I have a few completed pieces to show you.

This is a pen & ink with oil rouging project done by Ginette on 11 x 14 canvas. The design is by Claudia Nice and is in one of her out of print books. There is a lot of detail in this, and I think Ginette has done a great job with both the inking and rouging.

Nicole has done two projects designed by Susan Scheewe on 8" porcelain plates - Nicole pieced some patterns together in order to make the designs. The patterns were inked and then oil paint was added to complete the pieces.

The first shows apples, and I think Nicole has captured the right colours in both the apples and leaves. She has taken the yellow colour from the apples and rouged it behind the fruit and the green leaf colour has been added to the scroll pattern on the edge of the plate.

The second project by Nicole is strawberries - both the berries and leaves look very realistic. Once again, she has taken colours from the project and used them in the background and on the scrolled edge.

This piece is a Mary Owens pattern called Eggstra Special Delivery. This is Renee's first attempt at pen & ink and I think she did a terrific job. She is very quickly mastering the pen & ink technique, and is close to finishing her second project - which is very different and cute - I will post it when it is finished.

Sue tackled this coloured pencil pattern designed by Pat Lentine - it is called Little Digger. Sue came to our Monday night art session, started the project about 6:30 and was completely finished before 9:30. I think this is Sue's third or fourth project using coloured pencils, and I think she likes working with the pencils as much as I do. I'm sure I will be posting more of her coloured pencil work soon.

This bird is called a mot mot. When Nancy was in South America she snapped a picture of the bird and decided to create a drawing using coloured pencils. The colours on this bird are just beautiful, and with the large selection of coloured pencils, Nancy was able to come up with colours that very closely matched those on the bird.

That's it for now! Our Monday and Tuesday evening art sessions wrap up in a couple of weeks, and everyone is busy getting their last pieces done - and, I am busy snapping pictures. So, over the next few months I will have lots of pen & ink and coloured pencil projects to post on my blog. I expect my fall art sessions to start sometime in September, and I will post all the information on my blog.