#44 and #45 of 100 Creations in 100 Days: Pregnant Nudes done in unconventional ways

#44

One of the very first drawings I did as an adult. This was me,
pregnant with my daughter. It made me so happy to draw this
piece with the finely detailed blinds and their shadows which
helped created the roundness of the belly.

When I first started doing art, the first set of imagery I settled in on to explore was pregnant nudes. Their shapes were so pleasureable to render - the light and shadow played exquisitely on the rounded forms of breasts and belly.

Another of my very early pieces.
The high contrast image thrilled me
to draw.

That was almost 20 years ago, and suddenly I find myself interested in exploring it again.  I'd been looking at a lot of Aboriginal art (I have tons of images on my Pinterest page here if you're interested) and began to wonder how it would be to try those types of marks on a figure. I started playing in my Visual Journal and on Mi Tientes drawing paper using gel pens in the first image, #44, and a gold gel pen and black Micron 08 in the second, #45.

#44 took me hours to create because I had to draw so many small marks, and I had to think about which value I wanted to create and how to create it with flourescent colors. Their intensity is so strong, the sense of value is almost erased. It was a terrific exercise for me!

#45

#45 was very different.  I took the knowledge I'd gained from doing #44 and used the pens to make rapid marks to describe the form and either a light or dark pen to describe the value, leaving the paper's color itself to serve as the middle tone.  I was excited when I was finished to see how transparent the body appeared, yet also how substantial.  It was an interesting mix for me.

Creations #35 and #36, class exercises: drapery and an orange

February 6, 2019

Creations #35 and #36

Tuesday evenings I teach Introduction to Pastel Drawing, and Wednesday afternoon I teach Intermediate Drawing at the Visual Arts Center of Richmond.  I feel so blessed to have the opportunity to work with artists at the beginning of their journeys.  It's an exciting thing to watch someone discover that, in fact, they can render something accurately! There's plenty of frustration and hard work, but the delight and satisfaction make it all worth it.

The most challenging exercise I have students take on in Pastels is a self portrait.  It's daunting for just about anyone to draw themselves, but these are students, for the most part, without a lot of drawing experience.  I teach them the basic proportions of the face then have them draw that, life-size on their sanded paper. Then they are to look in the mirror and create their own unique characteristics in the drawing. (We create strong contrast by the use of a clip lamp so the values are more easily discernible.) The next step is to choose three values, any hue, and to place them accurately on their drawing. The final step is to use the correct hue and value to their sketch, add a background, and do what's necessary to finish their portrait.   I am consistently in awe of the portraits the students create.  Here is week one and week two for my student Edson and the final product for Telly as well.

On Wednesday afternoon, I taught the students one of the many ways to go about drawing drapery - something traditional ateliers will spend months learning how to do.  They get 2.5 hours!  Oh well - it's a start! 

The primary task to drawing drapery, in my opinion, is to look, really look at what you're seeing. Try to decipher where the distinct edges are where the blurry edges are. What's causing the shadows? How can you tell the difference between a fold and a drape? Can you tell how the material is hanging?  Once those querries have been considered, the students just have to get to work to try to make sense of it all.  I don't know of any shortcuts to making drapery look realistic - just plenty of hard work.  My students often laugh and exclaim, "And people think an artist's life is easy! Ha!"

#35 Drapery study created during class as my
students worked on their studies.

The week before self-portrait week in Pastels class, I teach students about value and how to get a sense of form using hue and value. We use simple fruits and vegetables for this exercise as they're not too hard to draw and provide interesting color changes which are challenging to render accurately.  We'd already studied color, form, and composition in other sessions, so this was the opportunity to combine all those lessons in one drawing.  Below is the demo I created in that class.  Over the years I've drawn perhaps 100 oranges for class and for my own explorations.  I don't ever tire of them - there are so many possible combinations of color, light, background, shadow, composition - it's fun trying to come up with something new.  

Just for fun, I'll include some of the other oranges I've drawn over the years.  Some are finished, some not quite. Which one is your favorite?

2019

Much less finely rendered.  I enjoy the
energy of this one.

Another one with a lot of energy

All the others are pastels. This one is a small oil painting,
6"x6".

Created on a beach vacation one year. The reflections
are from windows through which I could see
the ocean!

Catching up on Creations

I've been quite delinquent in posting here the last few weeks!  I went out of town for a weekend and lost track of posting...

That doesn't mean, however, that I haven't been creating! I'll post a series of entries over the next few days highlighting the creations I've made since Feb 5 when I last posted.  This challenge hasn't turned out how I expected it to, but it's still working its magic for me.  I assumed I'd ceate a substantial pastel painting a day and would post that, telling the story of the scene from Iceland or the James River in each post.

Instead, I've gotten curious!  I have let myself wander and discover and try things out.  I've drawn and painted and collaged and tried new things I'd never done before.  I've worked with landscapes, as I expected to do, but I've also returned to the human figure - to female nudes, the first imagery I created way back when!

Having this goal of 100 Creations in 100 Days serves to get me into the studio when I might otherwise decide I don't have time since I only have 2 hours.  It's easier to watch a TV show or two.

A few of my friends have decided to set a goal of getting into their studios for an hour a day for 100 days and they are meeting with success as well.  It's fun hearing their excitement at building up a daily practice, and it's validating to hear their challenges as they certainly echo my own.

Have you ever set a goal like this for yourself? How did you fare? Would you do it again? What might you hope to get out of it?  I'd love to hear your experiences.

In the studio on a warm winter day with our cat Nube checking out the goings ons outside.

#34 of 100 Creations in 100 Days: Red Onion and Analogous Background

I'm not ready to declare this "done" yet, but it's my offering for #34 of 100 Creations in 100 Days for today. I taught this morning and afternoon and have another class this evening, so the two hours in the studio from 6 - 8 AM and 1.5 after lunch will have to suffice!

This piece has gone through many iterations to get to where it is now. I started it this morning when it was still dark outside so the only light on it was artificial from a lamp, then the sun rose, adding new light to work with. This afternoon after class when I went back out to finish it, the light was completely different, so I had to adjust everything, then decided the background needed to be different colors than I'd painted them originally. I don't think I'm 100% satisfied, but it is what it is for now. Who knows what I'll think tomorrow morning when I get back to it!

#33 of 100 Creations in 100 Days: Orange

Orange
pastel
9"x6", unframed
$150 until 2/11/19, then $275 unframed

Drawing fruits and veggies is one of my favorite relaxing things to draw in pastels.  I spent a couple of years doing color studies and fruits to improve my skills at color and observation.  It's one of the lessons I teach in Introduction to Pastels at VisArts here in Richmond, and it's always fun seeing how the students learn to create volume and form, but also convincing light and shadow (complementary colors in the shadow are the trick!)

Today I got to teach a private student how to draw an orange so I got my Creation almost finished as my demo then flew back into the studio to finish it up after she left! 

If you're interested in purchasing this or any other work you see here, please contact me at SusanSingerArt@msn.com, and I'll be glad to facilitate your purchase!

It has now been almost a month since I began the 100 Creations in 100 Days challenge for myself.  I haven't managed to create a piece every day, but this challenge is helping me see that I do make a lot of art!  I've averaged more than a piece a day.

When I began this challenge, I'd thought I'd paint a large pastel painting each day, but I quickly found that simply isn't possible.  I don't always have the number of hours necessary to begin and complete an 18"x24" painting!  They take a lot of time!   And there are so many things I like to explore, having to focus on a pastel painting every day would crimp my style!  Sometimes I like to explore in my Visual Journal, or do Zentangles, or make an art book, or practice watercolors - the list is endless.  I have allowed myself to explore and enjoy this process, trying new things and old.  It doesn't seem to have captured the fancy of other folks so much, but it is having he intended affect on me - it's making me get into the studio and make stuff virtually every day.  It's keeping me focused when I'm in there rather than distracting myself quite so much. And I am getting large scale paintings done also! 

I also have several friends who've joined me in their own challenge - An Hour a Day in the Studio for 100 Days.  We have a private FB page where we share each day what we've done and encourage each other to keep the challenge going.  It's a lovely group and I love having the company!

I hope you manage to create something fun today too!

#31 of 100 Creations in 100 Days, Half Moon Rising

In Akureyri in 2017, the days could be achingly beautiful as on this day when the moon was rising gently over the stark white mountain across the fjord from the city.

During most days at some point, I left my cozy apartment/studio and walked past the art museum, the hotel, across the main street, past the photography store and tourist center.  I waited patiently for the red-heart-shaped traffic light to turn green then crossed the busy thoroughfare to the walkway by the fjord where the whale-watching ships waited for the tourists. I watched, astonished, as joggers dodged the ice, and wondered if I would ever attend an event at Hof, the cultural center standing sentinel over the shoreline.

I went to the water to drink in the beauty.  In my apartment, there were no windows framing the beautiful sites, only the grey snow-covered parking lot.  The sounds I could hear were studded tires racing down and grinding up the cobblestoned hill accompanied by the quarter-hour bells from the cathedral above me.  I went to the water to watch the ducks dive for sustenance, to hear the waves lap and the gulls caw, to have my ears and eyes filled with nature instead of assaulted by the sounds of man counting time or hurrying from place to place.

Half Moon Rising
pastel painting
18"x24"
$550 until 2/6, then $750

#29 and #30 of 100 Creations in 100 Days

I sometimes suggest to my drawing students that they practice drawing by copying a drawing by a great master like Van Gogh, Rembrandt, Raphael or another equally gifted artist.  The purpose behind the exercise is manifold:

• Learn more about the artist and how he/she approached a subject
• Learn about the artist's strokes and ways of treating value, line, etc.
• Learn to see ever better - all drawing practice is about that, ultimately!
• Have fun re-creating something so beautiful!

Today I had some time in art class because I only had two students so I took my own advice and drew a couple of nudes, one by Matisse and the other by Manet.

In drawing the image by Matisse, I learned how he used charcoal - he had a lot of pentimiento lines (thoughts, "mistakes", first tries) which he eventually smudged out which created falue in some cases, depth in others.  I became aware again of how distorted, yet oddly accurate his images are - surely this woman's left breast  (the one on the right in the image) didn't poke out of her chest as shown here - but it works.  We certainly know what we're looking at.  How do artists get to the point where they break off from reality and yet draw images that are completely recognizeable?  I don't know how to do that - yet!

The image by Manet was fun - is the model pregnant?  Does she have nipples? What's behind her?  There seem to be a couple of other figures partially indicated.  Her left hand (on the right in the image) is completely messed up - illegible! - but gone into with darker marks, helping disguise that fact.  I wouldn't have noticed if I hadn't drawn it myself. 

Doing these sketches made me want to get back to drawing figures - it's been quite a few years since that was my focus.  Perhaps I'll make that a priority for a bit and see what happens!

#19 of 100 Creations in 100 Days: Dettifoss Waterfall

When Chris and I were in Iceland in October, we decided to drive to Dettifoss Waterfall because it reportedly has the greatest volume of any waterfall in Europe, 500 cubic metres of water per second plunges over the edge. Sure enough, it was deafening and impressive!

The drive to Dettifoss on icy roads

The drive to the site was long and arduous as the roads were icy, and it was beginning to get towards sundown. I wasn't sure we'd make it with enough daylight to see the place!  Chris was concerned we would have to walk some distance to get to where we could see the falls - I didn't think that was the case because most tourist sites make it easy for tourists to get to the good places!  I was wrong!  

Me, happy in my crampons!

When we got there, the parking lot was emptying out.  We headed to the trail.  Immediately I began slipping and sliding even though I had my great hiking boots on.  I asked people coming off the trail what it was like and how far it was to the waterfall - treacherous the whole way and over 1/4 mile.  Oops!  Thank goodness I had my crampons in the car and Chris was generous enough to go get them for me because I was slipping every step of the way - I don't know what kept him upright - great balance, perhaps?  He had no crampons at that point.  

My glorious crampons!  Like bears'
teeth. A wonderful invention!

Once I had my fabulous crampons on, I could walk over the ice beautifully!  They have teeth like a bear trap so they dug into the ice with every step and kept me from falling really well.  Note:  if you decide to go to Iceland in the winter, get/take crampons!  

The "trail" to Dettifoss

The walk was still arduous.  The trail wasn't clear and obvious - rather, we could tell where people had gone before because the snow was better packed down and in some places there were ropes showing us where not to go.  The terrain was rocky, full of ancient rhyolite volcanic boulders and debris.

Once we got to the waterfall, I was disappointingly underwhelmed.  It was, to be sure, massive - and LOUD!  So much water!  Therefore impressive.  But not beautiful.  There wasn't much light and the water appeared very muddy, not the fabulous white of other falls I'd seen.  Perhaps it was so turgid, it was grey and brown instead of white - I don't know.  Or perhaps I was tired and couldn't see the beauty. A friend of mine posted a beautiful picture of it from a different observation point from the summer and it looked gorgeous, so clearly it has a lot to offer which I didn't see this time around!

Dettifoss Waterfall (for scale, note the size of the posts and ropes of the trail markers)

And here's the artwork I created in response to our trip to Dettifoss.  The CitruSolve papers provided the perfect texture for me to express the flow of the water and the challenge of walking on the ice and the challenging rhyolite rocks.  The image of the falls themselves is from a postcard I bought in the area.  It gives a better sense of the actual color of the water than my picture since there wasn't much light left when we were there!

#19 Response to Dettifoss

#4 of 100 Creations in 100 Days, "Home for the Winter"

#4 is finally finished! I began the piece about a week ago and wasn't able to get it finished until today! The reasons for that: it was a busy week; we were out of town one day; but mostly it took a while because it is very complex - the perspective of the boat is a challenge - in the past I would have gridded it to make it exact, but I chose not to grid it this time, so it took a lot of time to get it right (I hope I got it right!) The textures are also tricky - the grass, the water, the reflections, and especially the wood in the boat - but that was my favorite part - I really enjoyed making the wood look aged.

Home for the Winter
pastel painting
18"x24"
$750

I am imagining that this row boat has been around a long time - that it was made by the owner whose family has (in my mind, at least) lived on the lake since the middle ages and is now making its living as a host at the cabins they've build in addition to their older living of making smoked trout to be sold throughout the country. I imagine them taking the boat out in the seasons other than winter to fish for the trout and just to enjoy the lake. For now it's moored in a small protected cove next to their family home which has more recently become a guesthouse. The family has hired several young people from Eastern European countries to help them run the place - cleaning rooms and cottages, setting out the breakfast, speaking with visitors when they arrive, etc. The owner doesn't speak any English, so it's helpful to have help who do, though I'm not sure how they communicate with each other, as the help don't speak Icelandic!

The main building feels like a single story family home which has been expanded to become a guesthouse. Their location is perfect, directly on the lake, and across the street from Dimmuborgir Rock Formations (more on that later). They added a beautiful glass room on the back where visitors have breakfast overlooking the lake. What a treat! There are also two rows of 1-2 BR cottages near their house. We stayed in one of them which had a kitchen and a nice living room/dining room that looked directly onto the lake. The weather wasn't gorgeous, but it was still wonderful to be able to see the lake and to be surrounded by nature AND be in a comfortable house.

Our first morning at Dimmuborgir Guesthouse, after our breakfast in the room overlooking the lake, we came outside where we were greeted by a couple of very welcoming pups. Having nothing better to do, we let ourselves be led to the lakeside, past this row boat, to where the one pup could access the lake easily. He went straight onto the lake and began digging fast and furious into the ice, at times breaking through and following into the 7" deep water. He didn't seem to mind - he just hopped right back out and started in a new place! I don't know what he was trying to do, but the marks he made looked like an abstract painting, and the sounds he made resonated through the ice and sounded like New Age synthesizer music. I was enthralled watching him!

Once he was done creating his art for us, he hopped back on land and grabbed a stick and insisted we throw it for him - though he wouldn't let go of it! There aren't many sticks in Iceland since there aren't many trees, so we played a lot of tug-o-war and cavorted and laughed for quite a while until we gave in and let the dog keep the stick. Of course that was the moment when he gave it up so we'd keep playing!

Across the road from the guesthouse was a set of rocks called Dimmuborgir also. They were formed by an ancient volcanic eruption and looked like troll homes or some other fantastical structure. We spent about 5 hours there fascinating exploring, following the challenging path into and out of caves and arches and so many other amazing places. It was so much fun!

The largest cave we saw.  Large enough to provide shelter
from the weather. We wondered if people
had ever lived there?  

A little guy we saw at Dimmuborgir who
seems very appropriate for our snowy
icy weather today!

Here are a few pictures of the day today - so gorgeous I kept going outside to admire the view. I think this is what we're going for when we decorate trees - this sort of beauty with the lights and tinsel - but Mother Nature does it so much better than I've ever been able to!

The back of our home with the deck that's in the process
of being constructed to the left and brilliant sparkling
trees surrounding it all.

#3 of 100, Down by the Lake, Early Winter Morning

Today's a busy day for me with appointments from 10:30 AM - 8 PM so I had to get up early to get into the studio for a decent amount of time.  Today I was called to create a painting from a photograph I took in Laugarvatn, a small village on a beautiful lake in southern Iceland on the Golden Circle. When I take groups of people to Iceland, we stay in Laugarvatn at Heradsskolinn, a hotel in an old school building which was designed by Iceland's most famous architect.  I love staying there.  The atmosphere is terrific; the owner, Sverrir, has become like a brother to me; the location is perfect; and the views are stupendous.

This particular picture is from Dec 2018 as I was making my way to Rekjavik so I could leave the country of my heart after 47 days in Iceland.  I stayed in Laugarvatn for a few days visiting with Sverrir and reminding myself why I fell in love with the place.  One morning I walked around the lake as the sun rose and watched the landscape appear: mountains, frozen lake, bushes, marshes grasses, houses, and path.  I walked around the lake as far as the eye can see in this picture but didn't continue on as the ground was too soft and the path too illegible.

Thanks for joining me on my journey of creating 100 Creations in 100 Days!

Down by the Lake, Early Winter Morning
pastel painting
18" x 18"
$375 until 1/14/19, then $550

If you're interested in purchasing this piece, please contact me at SusanSingerArt@msn.com.