Sketches from Life Drawing Studio

I went to the Maitland Art Center Sketch Club on Thursday night last week for the first time. It's a life drawing studio (no instruction) with a model and lasts for approx. 2 1/2 hours. It was a good, if tiring, experience as I hadn't drawn from life in quite a while and it was particularly exhausting using a part of my brain which apparently was very rusty. I saw some other artists I had met in Patrick's class and Kaye's class and met some new ones, including Bill Orr. He knew Andre Smith, the founder of the Maitland Art Center, and told me that the room we were painting in used to be his studio. He was very encouraging and says he comes to the open studio frequently. I think I'll check it out again for the great practice and experience and the price can't be beat--$10 a session.

Labor Day isn't just a holiday

Dianne and Troy at their new homesite, with Jerry

I'm not sure where the day went. After fooling around with my website for an eternity and trying to remember how I had created the thing in the first place, I made a few tweaks--although major tweaks are really needed. Why, oh why, are websites so much more complicated than blogs? Afterward, I had to get the kinks out of my butt from sitting so long, so I mowed the lawn, showered, balanced the checkbook, worked some on the Art League newsletter and went to the Y for a step class. We took a trip to Tampa over the weekend for a couple of days to visit Jerry's daughter, Dianne, so exercise had been kind of sparse. His daughter and her husband, Troy, are building another new house closer to work, so we drove over to see the site. It's a nice wooded five acre parcel, so there should be plenty of room for their dogs.

Since I was on a roll with the exercise class today, once we got home I decided to work out in the yard until dark weeding. The fun is never ending. Instead of just reading about it, one day I hope to have time to do some actual artwork.

While it's not easy or habit for me, I've been trying to keep a sketchbook/journal for a while now. To say it's an intermittent endeavor is an understatement, but I can see the value of it. It can be surprising and sometimes gratifying to open up an old sketchbook and come across something done years back and think "I remember this" or "that's not so bad" or "this could turn into...". I came across a sketchbook site today which deserves some more exploring whenever I have a free moment.

Back to the Drawing Board

It's been a bleak couple of days in my art world. Nothing is jelling. I tried some experiments with keys--I thought the concept had so much potential--locks, secrets, safe, Cheney, the whole dichotomy issue (plus I had a bunch of keys laying around from god/God knows where), but that didn't pan out. In desperation, I tried working on a sketch I had started a while ago, but it was so dull with mind-numbingly horizontal/vertical lines, I almost fell asleep doing it. I had to Photoshop it to death to get something half-way stimulating. Anyway, it's back to the drawing board--literally. I must do some sketches first before I start throwing paint around. The abstract well in my head appears to be dry, so perhaps the concept of actually thinking things through before applying paint to canvas could work. Nothing else is. My impulsive nature doesn't like the idea, but it's time to focus!!! I spent a large part of the day looking for quotes to back up this sentiment (another stalling mechanism, I'm sure)--and I know I've seen it somewhere from an admired abstract artist, something about doing still lifes --but I couldn't find it. Suffice it to say, This Week I'll Sketch and Plan Before I Paint. Yeah, baby! A game plan!