Art with colored pencils - who knew?

If you have been following this blog, you know that Marie has been taking art lessons from "Tiny" in our Arizona geezer camp. After working her way through three mediums in three years -- charcoal, pastels, and oils -- she was offered post graduate work in water colors. Nah! Even with her dad leaving us marvelous water colors, she had no interest in the medium. I secretly suspect she doesn't want to show me up -- a position I both admire and appreciate.

( The picture above is an "early" colored pencil drawing Marie made of Bradley Ellis. I say "early" because it is prior to the first book and serious study of colored pencil art. )

So, she took her graduation certificate from Tiny's kind tutelage and bravely faced the world on her own, thinking oils would be her calling. Wrong, turpentine-breath! Having dabbled with colored pencils in the past, she decided to give them a try. If you know Marie, you know she starts any new adventure with a visit to Amazon.com and buys a book, ... or two, or three. And so did start her journey into the world of colored pencil painting. It's not anything like she suspected, and yet quickly became enthralled with the medium. It's not messy; it's not stinky; and you can do some of the background stuff on your lap while watching television. I am very impressed with the work she has done with this medium and, yet again, she may have found her favorite style.

link to colored pencil art

Finally! Painting that uses paint

And brushes! Painting that uses paint and brushes --- what a concept. Marie passed her second class with pastels and was moved on to oils. A new medium for her again, and being new, it required yet another trip to the art supply store. Better make that stores, plural. Lots of tubes of paint, a couple of hands full of brushes, mixing medium, and brush cleaner. Oh yeah, canvas instead of paper. We're off and running. She thought she would not like oils --- stinky materials and long drying time. Well, in the words of Gomer Pile, "surprise, surprise, surprise". She loved oils and felt she had found her medium.

Her first attempt at oil painting, again under the careful tutelage of Tiny, is shown here and was named "Serenity Cove". The art show of 2007-2008 had over 280 paintings and she again won an Honorable Mention for this painting. She has entered 3 shows and has 3 ribbons as a result, one in each of three mediums. I'm proud, can you tell? The other oil paintings required of her class were "Almost Home" and the portrait of Molly, "I wonder". Other oils include a portrait of Zack as a Jetti (must have been Halloween or else he got beat up a lot at school). The Link below has all of her oils shown.

Upon repeated urging from Marie and some of our painting friends, I asked Tiny if I could join her classes. "No". There was no further discussion of the matter, which was fine with me. I didn't want to go through the charcoal and pastels stages. So, I got a book, and decided to teach myself water colors. I've got a long way to go to catch up to Marie, but in all fairness she has more talent. The small paintings are exercises in a do-it-yourself book and are done in about 15 minutes or less. Ah, the joy of instant gratification.

link to oils by Marie

link to water colors by Jay

Man, this stuff is messy

Just on the chance the name doesn't give it away, art made with charcoal is painting with a burnt stick. Following a few hours of this activity the participants look like B-movie coal miners. You know the type --- clean except for the streaks of black on the cheeks and hands. The hands are a no-brainer, and the noses, cheeks and other points of interest on the face are the result of touching same with the already charcoal covered fingers. The blending and shading accomplished in charcoal is done with the fingers -- it's messy.

But, having successfully completed the classes in charcoal, Marie moved to the next step in Tiny's art classes, that being pastels. For those not familiar with pastels, it is ground color pigment which has been compressed into sticks 3-5 inches long and maybe a quarter-inch in cross section. It is basically charcoal sticks with color -- more mess, only more variety in the face smudges.

Again, the class required a scene, a portrait, and a subject of the student's choice. Marie's choice for the third class project was a still life of a blue vase, given to us by David, sitting on Marie's red pajamas with fake philodendron. Her scene, and first try at pastels, was a group of Hobbie Kats (catamarans) on the Snake River in SE Washington. She didn't particularly like the subject, but the teacher loved it, so Marie did it --- and won another Honorable Mention ribbon at the art show for that year.

Link to more pastels