2016 Winter/Spring Class Schedule

The Open Studio at the Base Rec Center here in Myrtle Beach will resume this Thursday January 7th.  It will run - probably until the end of June on Thursdays from 9 am until noon.

We will miss a few weeks.  I will be traveling in February to Costa Rica so there will be no class on the 11th and 18th of February.  There will probably not be a class on the Thursday before Easter - March 24th, I will probably have company in town.  Not sure of the last week of May but its too soon to say for sure.

Come join us!  Every works on their own project at their own pace.  Beginners thru experienced artists are welcome.  Oils, acrylics, w/c, color pencils, pastels are all welcomed. I do a small demo about half way through the session.

Family Secrets -finished painting

I completed the painting in oils.  I am very happy with the result.

New Body Language Painting - Family Secrets

The sketch

First layout

I just started a new canvas.  It is part of my body language series that explores interpersonal relationships.  This image explores the secrets that every family has.  Some large, some small, but all ignored if possible.  The secrets try to get notice.

As always with me, the layout on the canvas does not exactly match the sketch.  I wanted to use a canvas that was twice as wide as it is tall.  This one is 24 x 48".  

I block it in using acrylics.  They dry quickly and let me make modifications easily.  I think I like how it is laid out.  So I will switch to oils when I continue.

Abstract To Expressionism - SAG presentation

I was the guest presenter at the May meeting of the Seacoast Artist Guild.

My talk explored my creative process for my Body Language series and the path that took me to that series of painting.  It was an interesting, and mostly difficult, process of trying to articulate the way my brain works when creating these paintings.

This is a link to the pdf version of the slides I had in my Power Point presentation.

SAG May 3, 2015

Seacoast Artist Gallery Hanging on May 1, 2015

The Gallery changes the displays twice a year on May 1st and November 1st.  We had a re-opening and 2nd Anniversary this week.  Here is a quick photo of my display.  The front display has a theme every month.  For May the theme is 'Food & Drink' and I did a tasty lobster as my contribution.

I am displaying a selection of my Body Language series.

'Get Cracking'  16 x 20"  Acrylics

Get Cracking

"Get Cracking"  Acrylics

My latest painting.  The Seacoast Artists Gallery at Market Common in Myrtle Beach changes out its window display each month.  Each month there is a theme and the theme for May is 'Food & Drink'.  My tasty lobster here will be part of that display.

It is 16" x 20"  done in acrylics.

I have had the reference photo for this for a number of years.  I kept toying around with it in my head and with this theme, it was the perfect time to finally put brush to canvas.  I am very please with how it turned out.  Makes we want to head out to a seafood restaurant :)

Painting - February 2015

Here are my latest paintings.  I completed them (just) in time to enter them in the local spring shows.

For the Waccamaw Arts & Crafts Guild Juried show I entered:

Looking Back - 40"h x 30"w  Oils

Wave Of Celebration  -  22"h x 28"w Oils

For the Seacoast Artists Guild Spring Show I entered:

All My Eggs  8"h x 10"w  Oils

Embracing The Warmth  18"h x 24"w  Oils

All of these are part of my "Body Language" series.  The sizes of the canvases are important too, the basket is small and intimate and the mountain is tall.

The SAG show is at the Seacoast Artists Gallery at Market Common in Myrtle Beach from April 3 - April 16 2015

The WACG show is at the Art Museum of Myrtle Beach on Ocean Blvd from April 30th to May 31st 2015  I must be juried into the show and judging has not been done yet.  

I am very happy with how these all turned out.

Class Demo from 9/25/14

This is a demo of a landscape painted from the inspiration of a photo of a marshy area here in South Carolina,  Kurt was nice enough to snap the photo since my i-phone was stuck at the time.

The steps so far:

1 - I began with the sky, making it more intense than the photo.  I like to use more intense colors in my paintings to add pizzazz to them.  The sky is a darker value at the top and becomes a lighter value at the horizon to add visual depth to the painting.

2 - I added the tree line.  Distant trees are less detailed than those 'closer' to the viewer.  A gradual V-shape pulls the viewer's eyes to the focal point where the water leaves the marsh area to the left.

3 -  The sandy soil under the grasses was blocked in.

4 - The water was painted in, lighter in value near the horizon, becoming a deeper value towards the bottom of the canvas.  The variations in the water add interest.  The water is smoothed out to remove brush strokes to give the mirrored appearance of still water.

to be continued at class on Thursday.  9-noon  Base Rec Center

Class Project May 16, 2013

 

Class Project  May 16, 2013

 

 

In class this week I painted the above canvas in oils.  Notice how the sprig of flowers begins on the left side of the painting and casually drapes over to the right side.  The leaves at the bottom and on the right side balance out the composition.  They are not as intense as the focus object of the flowers, but give weight to the right side to create balance.

 

I worked wet-in-wet which allowed me to get the nicely blended colors in the flowers.  The richness of the oil paints and long working time gave me the ability to achieve this look.

 

The Open Studio will continue until the end of June.  Come join me if you'd like. 

Thursday mornings from 9 am until noon. 

Base Rec Center near Market Commons,  Myrtle Beach SC

Parade of Joy - Stage 1

 

Parade of Joy - Stage 1

 

I transferred my sketch onto an older canvas so the background colors were there.  I decided that I did like the blue, green and pinkish areas, so I made them more intense.  I also added more color into the figures.  Then I tried adding more movement into the figures.  I am still working on the composition.  I will play around with it some more before I decide which direction I will continue in.

 

Class - Open Studio

My current schedule for teaching is my Open Studio at the Base Rec Center at Market Commons at the south end of Myrtle Beach.  It is held on Thursdays from 9 am until noon.  It is open to all levels of skills and all mediums.  I coach each student on their own projects at their own pace.  I do not require students to sign up for a particular set of classes, just come when you can. 

For beginners I can spend more time going over basics to get you off to a proper start. 

For intermediate level artists I can teach you techniques to improve your paintings and get you to the next level.

For advanced artists I can help you critique your work and find new solutions for a fresh take on your paintings.

Bring your own supplies and come enjoy painting in the company of fellow artists.

Parade of Joy - Sketch

I have come up with a sketch that I like for a new painting in my Body Language series.  I like the movement that I captured.  The figures are dancing with joy in a sort-of  semblance of a parade. 

I will transfer the sketch to an old canvas.  I like to reuse canvases that I began a painting on - then abandoned for some reason.  I seldom use a pristine canvas, if I need to use a new one I will smear left over paint onto a white canvas to tone it down before using it. 

As I progress I will post more photos.

To be continued...

Class Demo - The Egret, Part 1

 

The Egret - Part 1

 

 

The class demonstration painting begins with a lesson on placement of a single figure on the canvas.  Notice that most of the bird is to the right side of the center line.  He is facing left, with enough space so it appears that he can easily walk forward.  This is an important compositional feature - whether it is a person, a bird, a car or a train - any object that can move, have more space 'in front of it' than behind it so it will feel comfortable to the viewer.  Its a psychological thing, but real.

 

Also notice how the bird is place on the canvas up and down.  There is a little space, but not too much.  A single object should fill up most of the space on the canvas.



 

The other feature to notice is the darker value background at the top and lighter water area at the bottom of the canvas.  This will allow the best contrast between the light bird against the dark and the dark legs against the light water.  This will make a more interesting painting then if I did the opposite.  Contrast is an important part of composition - use it to your advantage.  Use your artistic license to make sure your center of interest, in this example the bird, will stand out better against the darker background.  Even if that is not what you see.

 

This step was to lay out the composition and block in the background.  I used several dark colors to keep the background interesting.  It got smeared in the car on the way home, but no big deal, this is just the first layer of the painting, the scapes will be painted over.

 

To be continued....

Class Demo - The Marsh

 

The Marsh

 

Now that my Open Studio has resumed, I have also resumed doing a demonstration painting.  This one is a scene of the marsh in the early light.

 

The first step was to paint the sky.  I used a lavender blue fading to a pale yellow to capture the silky light of the dawn.  I also used a richer Indian yellow in the water; although stronger the sky color it still reads reflected light which is what I was after.  In demos I sometimes exaggerate the colors to illustrate how to use one's artistic license to capture mood as well as the actual scene.

 

The distant trees have bushes in front of them.  I painted them a brighter green since the morning haze was giving them a glow that I wanted to capture.

 

I made the grassy areas in the foreground much redder than in real life, again to grab the sunlight and to bring them forward into the picture plane.

 

The tree has amber tones which reflects the nature of the light of that morning.  A few birds in the sky add life to a painting.  There is also a gator in the grasses that adds the true nature of the marsh and mixes well with the quiet calm of the morning.

 

This painting is a good example of using artistic license to exaggerate the colors of nature to capture the mood of the scene.  Don't be afraid to push your colors.



Wrap Up The Year

Yes, it is only the 1st of December, but I am in a mood to start tying up loose ends.

I have not posted anything on this blog recently - my life has taken a turn.  Since the beginning of July I have been in Florida helping my Aunt.  She is my Dad's little sister and my godmother and a good friend all of my life.  She lost her husband of over 51 years and has some heath issues of her own.  I have been staying with her, helping with all of the paperwork, doctors visits etc.  My energy is spent with all of that.  Things have stabilized enough that I feel that I can start putting some effort into my own work.

I have been sketching.  Exploring ideas for a book to write.  Planning to finally getting around to updating my website. 

I need to get photos and create a post showing my latest 4 painting that I did in the Spring.  They each can stand alone, be two diptych or what I like most is that they can hang 4 in a rectangle and create one large quad-tych.  Each is 3' x 2' and when hung like that the image is 6' x 4'.  I created it to be hung as part of a show called Big Art which was displayed at the Richardson Gallery at the Horry Georgetown Tech College at the Conway campus.  I really like how it turned out (and how easy it was to transport this way)

I hope the Holidays are wonderful for everyone.  My resolution for the New Year is to get back to posting on a regular basis.  I might just be able to keep that one :)

Color Pencil on Dura-lar

On 4/21/12 the WACG held a color pencil workshop with Kate Lagaly showing us how to create images in color pencil on dura-lar (acetate with both side having a matt finish).  Using Prisma-color pencils.

Once you have your image to work with.  It helps to have both the photo or sketch  and a mirror image of it.

• mark the dura-lar so one side is the side for the 'black & white' image and one side is the side for the color -  very important!
• on the color side - outline your image enough to place the image on the sheet and to give yourself a guide to different value areas.  Not a detailed drawing.  I found if I did this sketch in a color, such as blue, it was easier to see later on.
• on the b&w side - using black, white and grays do a detailed drawing of the image capturing the values.  You are creating a grissiale drawing.  If you prefer not to do it in grays, you can always use any color you want that will give you a good monotone value drawing.  (I found putting in the whites first helped save the light areas, since putting them in last was burnishing the pencil)  Working on the slick paper is very different from color pencil on regular paper, so you may want to go with a very light touch first.  You will want to work on a solid board or sheet of paper; it can be white although most of us liked something with color such as a manila folder or sheet of construction paper.
• on the color side - erase the line drawing you did earlier.
• on the color side - begin to add color to your image.  Keep in mind that it is a little like painting on glass - the colors you put on first will show up the most on the opposite side.  The value image you created first will save the values for you on this side.  You can flip the sheet often to see how it looks. You can always add more values to the b&w side and/or more colors to the side with color.  Try not to mix them up!  Very easy to do.
• Decide which side is your finished side - either one is right, just choose which side you like the most.
• When you go to frame the image, you can back it with either a plain white sheet of matt board, or a sheet of color paper or a painted background or whatever you want.  It is easy to try out different backgrounds or even plan out a related image to put behind it.  As most color pencil images they are best framed matted and under glass or plexi.

Although we did not get to finish our images, everyone was making very good progress and learning a lot.  This new technique offers many benefits: getting good values in your drawing, experimenting with colors without loosing your values and offering many looks by changing the background it is placed upon.

Thanks Kate for a wonderful workshop!

My monotone sketch with the mirror images of the frog.

The first is the side I added color to, then flipped it so you can see the b&w side.  I placed it over a blue/yellow beach wash paper and then placed it over a red paper.
The sky is the limit.  enjoy!

the BIG picture Part 2

Now that the 'priming' is dry, it is time to layout the design.  I used my living room floor to lay the four canvases out as one large painting.
I do not transfer the entire image.  I wanted to get the strong lines in, so I used blue painter's tape -easier for a large image.  I used blue chalk to mark the location of a few major objects.
I put in just what I need to save some lights and establish how the four individual canvases will relate to each other.
Next step is to begin laying in some background.  I will do some if that with the canvases on the floor, to make the transition appear seamless.  But once that is in I will work on one canvas at a time for convenience.  I can always put them back down on the floor to make any judgements I may need to make to be sure they continue to play well together.
Time to bring out more paint!

the BIG picture Part 1

I have begun a new project.  Millie Doud is putting together at the Richardson Gallery:  the big picture, the summer show at the Richardson Gallery on the Conway campus of Horry-Georgetown Technical College.  She asked me a while ago if I would like to participate and I just love painting large.  I enjoy doing murals and large canvases.  Most shows I enter have size limits so I do not get to do non-mural large works too often.  I went through many ideas and concepts and tried to come up with a way that will let me create a BIG picture that will fit in my studio, fit in my car and fit in the gallery.  I will document the process and hope you enjoy the ride.


For size and convenience I decided to make my entry out of four 36x24 canvases which will hang in a rectangle giving the final size 72 x 48 - that's big.  The individual canvases will be a size I can work with and transport in my car.  I want them to hang together but at the same time they can also be treated as individual pieces.


I swoon when I walk through tropical gardens.  Visiting my Aunt and Uncle in Florida gives me a chance to do so on a regular basis.  I have tons of photos I have taken especially at the American Orchid Society gardens (although they are now moving closer to Miami).   So I dug through my photos and came up with some of my favorites and put together a scene of a tropical garden.  It took many sketches and concepts to come up with a plan that unites the 4 canvases but will allow each to stand alone.


I ordered the canvases and today I put a base coat of yellow on each.  I like to use a base coat to unite all four.  It will give a good base to the canvas and I chose yellow to give a glow of sunlight behind the images.  Not much will show through, but if I do leave a gap in the paint, yellow will appear and not the white of the canvas.  I like to do a base of yellow on all of my landscapes just for that reason.


Once they dry,  I will use chalk and blue tape to lay out the image.  Then I will put in a background.  Once that's done I can work on one canvas at a time.

Collage - The Art of Making an Image From Other Objects

Images from Google Images

The Sept meeting of WACG will have a chance for everyone to give collage a try. Supplies will be provided. I did a short write up I did that I will hand out at the meeting. The meeting is free and open to the public.

Saturday, Sept 17 at 10:15 at the B&C Art Museum in Myrtle Beach (near Springmaid Beach Resort & Pier) Bring your creativity and enthusiasm and give collage a try.

There will also be a special election for a new president. I have taken the position of Show Director for the Guild and cannot hold both jobs.

Collage - The Art of Making an image from other objects.

Collages became popular in the 60’s as a montage of relatedimages used to tell a story or capture an event or emotion. Now days they can still be used that same waybut are also used to create either detailed images or abstract images.

The objects can be just about anything: paper, fabric,buttons, coins, metals, plastics, found objects, made objects… It can be a single medium such as all paperor a mix of many types of objects.

The objects can be flat, such as paper or fabric; or 3-Dsuch as metals, bottle caps, pom-poms, beads, strings, yarn… The final image can be relatively flat like apainting, or very dimensional as a sculpture. You can create a collage on a table top, or a headboard or a plate – theonly limit is your imagination and creativity. Pieces can be torn or cut to size – a way to use parts of unfinished andunwanted paintings. Get out hidden gemsfrom your junk drawer.

You can add paints or mediums or glitter or sand or sticksor just about anything else to a collage or to the objects or to its base as well.

The base can be anything: paper, wood, metal,cardboard… It helps if the base isstrong enough to hold the objects and can be framed or displayed in somemanner. How you attach the objects tothe base depends upon the materials involved. Matt medium is a popular choice for paper, fabric and small objects. You can use glue or hot glue or anappropriate adhesive. Metals can bewelded. Fabric can be sewn. The attachment can be hidden or can be partof the design.

However you choose the objects, the base and the manner ofattachment, remember that the principles of design and composition stillapply. Even abstract images require somestructure. An instrumental song still has structure even though it does nothave words, the same goes for an abstract image – it should follow thestructure of composition and design as well as any representational image.

Collage gives you many freedoms to use in its creation. If you have haven’t played with it for awhile, start small and work up from there – the sky is the limit.

Artist Jackie Stacharowski 2011

Sample Collage Project

The WACG will have a mini-workshop Sat 9/17 at 10:15 am at the B&C Art Museum.  We will be exploring Collage.  So I did a sample project.  I used a round of cardboard just because I had one.  I used papers we had made at other meeting workshops from the sand-painting and shaving cream painting projects. 

I sketched out the black eyed Susan to make sure I liked how it was arranged on the board.  Then I cut up some bluish gray papers and used acrylic matt medium to glue it on with.  Since the cardboard had the usual ugly edges, I wrapped the papers over the edge and glued them on the back to make a nice looking side

I then used my yellows and oranges and pinks to put in the petals.  I tried to keep track of the values I was using to give some dimension to the image.

I then used some browns to make the center and added a highlight. 

I found smaller pieces were easier to play with than larger ones, but I did not get too small.  I like the look of the piecing.

I have not yet done it, but I plan on putting a couple of coats of the matt medium over the whole image to seal it and give it a even sheen.

The color paper I used was 90lb watercolor paper.  But you can use anything:  papers you created, ones purchased, torn out of magazines...  It does not have to be just paper, you can use string, metals, glass, beads, sand etc.

I did a general write up to distribute at the meeting.  I will post of copy of that too.

Artist Jackie