Qiang Huang workshop

I just finished a fabulous 3-day painting workshop with master artist Qiang Huang (pronounced Chong Wong). I have been stalking his blog for a while now, and I took a workshop with him 2 years ago in Cincinnati. This time it was in Noblesville, IN, hosted by the Hamilton County Artist’ Association. I love his work, it’s so fresh and lively and painterly. He just retired from his career as a physicist/engineer/rocket scientist, because his painting career has flourished. His genius definitely carries over into his artwork. Up close his paintings are an abstract collection of beautifully applied brushstrokes (total eye candy). From further away it is obvious that each stroke is there for a reason, and the whole painting becomes the scene he was capturing (again, total eye candy). There's no brush brush brush, blend blend blend. He puts it down and doesn't fuss over it, because each stroke of the brush is just right. It makes for a very strong painting.

Each day, Qiang would lecture with a power point presentation. The first 2 days he followed up lecture with a demo. He set up and painted a beautiful still life arrangement, and his demo was also video projected on a big screen for all to be able to see. Here is a LINK to an article about Qiang’s teachings, for those who wish to know more about him.

I just want to share some photos of my experience…

Here he is, priming his canvas with linseed oil.

This is a photo of the items he arranged for his still life demo.

The initial block-in...

 The painting as it progresses...

The finished painting:

This is the finished demo from the second day. Isn't it gorgeous? Roses are so difficult to paint so we watched closely.

We students gave it a go.  This is my painting.  I think we had about 3 hours to set up the still life, set up our gear, and attack the canvas.

My friend Janettmarie is an accomplished artist in Indianapolis. She took the class with me. She is a sweet and lovely lady. You should check out her blog.  I learned a bunch from her too.

This is day 3. I didn't take many photos on day 2. But if you click on the pic and enlarge it, you can see my unfinished day 3 painting on the easel (on the right), and my unfinished painting from day 2 above it. I had a bad habit of not getting my painting done in a timely fashion. Those who know me would not be surprised at this.  I'm slow as molasses at everything.

This is Qiang, and his lovely wife Song, and their son Jonathan.  Such dear, sweet people.

Here is the whole crew. We all had a ton of fun. I want to say thanks to the ladies of the HCAA, who all helped make the workshop a wonderful experience. Many ladies worked hard to make sure we had places to sit, tablets to take notes on, produce, flowers and other stuff to paint, snackies to eat and drink, rides to restaurants at lunch time, ample lighting to paint by, accommodations for Qiang and his family to stay, etc. I appreciated their kindness and hospitality.  If I lived closer, I would definitely be hanging out with these sweet ladies.  I felt blessed to have met them. Thanks Cheeri Dennis for being a great leader!

NICU pinewood derby car 2011

I had the privilege of creating this year's derby car for NICU. The theme this year is "The Hero Within". I posted a plea for ideas on facebook about who our "hero" should be. Good ideas were sent my way, and I settled on this one, submitted by Tami, NNP. She wrote, "Can you make it look like a preemie infant--because their strength in their tiny bodies to overcome so much makes them my heroes :-)." I thought that was pretty sweet, so I decided to honor "NICU babies" as our heroes.

Well, my husband and I went to work on it. Jeff did the wood design and made the little carseats (he's amazingly creative with woodworking). My daughter Alyssa helped me with photoshop for the banners (she's my 'puter techy). I assembled, painted and decorated it. After much shopping and a ridiculous amount of time spent, we ended up with this (click on the photos for a closer look).

Can you see who is driving? One of my favorite nurses, and Kenny Loggins. Well, Kenny is driving, and I'm sure she's distracting him. ;)

Yes, AAP would be proud...the kids are rear-facing.

Um, yep, those are 5 point harnesses.
Did we go overboard? Maybe. But I like it. It was fun.

Happy Easter 2011

Drawn from an etching by Gustave Dore, called "Jesus Scourged".

Happy Easter!

He can paint!

My son Jake is very talented in drawing. Problem is, he doesn't have the patience to do it. His interests lie in other things.

Well, he made the mistake of asking me what I wanted for Christmas. I told him I wanted him to come paint with me at a Wine and Canvas event (his treat). I figured it would be fun to have him all to myself for a couple hours, plus I would get to see him paint. At first he was dreading the thought. But when he got there, he seemed to have fun.

He was being so silly the whole time and making me laugh.

This is Jake taking a pic of his masterpiece-in-the-making, and sending it to his girlfriend.

Getting closer to being done...he was always 5 steps behind the instructor, but he pulled it together at the end.

This was my favorite Christmas present he ever gave me!
When it was over, we went across the street so I could introduce him to the fabulousness of The Cheesecake Factory. He declared it his new favorite restaurant.

Teeny Tiny Paintings

Alyssa and I spent an evening making teeny tiny paintings. It was fun! We even painted the teeny tiny easels to match.

Winter Solstice at the IMA

Last evening my daughter and I decided to attend the Winter Solstice event to see what it's like.

First we stopped to enjoy the ice carvers.

We went into the gift shop and heard Christmas music emanating from the greenhouse, and discovered this violinist and flautist there, along with a small but appreciative audience.

After warming up, we braved the cold again and got some hot chocolate (with a hint of hazelnut flavor...mmmmm!) and brownies. There were some winter animals available for petting: A reindeer, an owl, and a bunny. The reindeer was so loved that I could not get a good camera shot.

After warming up at the fire pit, we followed the luminary path over to the Lilly House.

Inside we watched a harpist make beautiful music. We were not allowed to use flash photography inside the house, so these images are a bit blurry.

After our Lilly House tour, we took a few more shots outside before leaving for home.

Blurry shot because we didn't want to use flash.

What a nice mother/daughter date!

Our New Driveway

We just got a new driveway poured!!!  May sound dull to some, but to us, it's a big deal!!  We have been waiting a long time to get this accomplished, and we are very excited at how much it has improved our property.  My dad used to be a general contractor in my hometown, and my uncle had a concrete company.  I grew up seeing big construction projects come together.  So it's been fun for me seeing my fixer-upper house evolve over the years at the hands of my talented do-it-yourselfer husband.  (However, the driveway was poured by Tate Concrete)  Here is a little slideshow...


Next year, hopefully, we can landscape around it.

Cogsworth

My nephew and godson, Noah, played Cogsworth in his school play, "Disney's Beauty and the Beast Jr."  We saw his performance last week at South Decatur Elementary.  He did a great job!!!  He is seen here having a conversation with Lumiere.

We had a backstage pass and got to hobnob with the top Nob.  Here you can see him out of his boxy clock costume.  No, that's not a real mustache.  ;)   He still has clock hands drawn on his face.  But you can still see what a good looking guy he is.  I got his autograph on my playbill.  And NO, I'm not going to sell it, so don't even ask me! 

Afterward, we went to his house and hung out with him and family to celebrate Noah's 12th birthday.  Now, I need to explain that Noah has chickens and so we try to bombard him with chicken-themed gifts.  One was a T-shirt that says, "I don't have a short attention span, I just...Oh look a chicken!!"  He laughed out loud at that one, so I guess he liked it.  Noah's mom said that it was a very appropriate shirt!  I wonder what she means?

Okay, so here is a pic of the other gift, which allows me to unabashedly show off my latest little artwork (which is the underlying theme of my blog anyway).  It's a chicken bank, which originally was blank white and intended to be decorated, so I couldn't resist doing that for Noah.  Here are the pics.  I'm not sure which he liked more, the bank or the cold, hard cash that was lovingly placed in it.

Thanks to Noah, Alli, Trent, Lori, Mitch, and Joan for a fun afternoon.  And thanks for the farm eggs!!  That will always keep us coming back for more!!

An Amazing Guy

I was working on this drawing last night.  I've been reading Tom Richmond's tutorials on caricature, and trying to apply his technique.  Tom is an amazingly talented illustrator for MAD Magazine.  If you like looking at funny caricatures, you should check out his blog.  He cracks me up!  http://www.tomrichmond.com/caricatures.php

Happy Easter

 
Christ is Risen! 
I missed church today, because it was my weekend to work.  But Christ was with us in the NICU today, as He is every day.
Here's hoping you all had a wonderful Easter holiday!
This is a sketch I did of a detail from Guercino's painting Christ and the Woman Taken in Adultery, c. 1621.       http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_and_the_woman_taken_in_adultery