m i s t y . p i l g r i m . f i n e . a r t

College painting has assignments that we do.  At first, I was concerned about what seemed to be a lack of objective. But then I finally figured out, maybe I don't need to know what the objective is. just paint. I've learned how to build canvas stretcher bars and stretch my own canvas, which  my first assignment  is being painted on. The second assignment is to mix 100 colors on paper that I gessoed.  I didn't know you could gesso paper and paint on it, so--cool!  I couldn't be less interested in this assignment, but I have learned a lot about certain pigments, namely how freaking strong they are, like viridian, and some of the reds. The 3rd assignment involves building a cradled board and either copying a famous painting, or copying a famous painter's  style.   I chose Monet.  Because I thought it would be "easy".  :-( To explain my subject I would need to tell you that my husband is a gardener. He loves it.  He loves colo...

The final painting So, I started College Painting I.  It is a requirement in nearly every drawing or painting class that at some point you create a composition out of an assemblage of random art objects and render it.  So here we are. Assignment 1: Paint a still life from a set up in the room, in black and white and shades of grey.  Using Titanium White and Ivory Black.  I cheated a little - I'm sure earlier art students had to figure out the values in gray by eye-balling the set up, but not me.  I have an iPhone.  So, I angled the set up that I wanted, and took a picture, using the phone to change it to b&w. It turns out that there is another good reason to take a picture, that being that people are just RUDE.  Within an hour of sketching out my picture, people had started coming up and moving things, adding things, taking other things away.  Before the end of class, it looked like this.   And an hour later, ...

Almost done. As a wanna-be oil landscape artist, I imagine I'll have all number of pretty landscape pictures.  Some I may even do more than once.  I tend to like single-word names because I like to challenge myself.  But ultimately, I may just name my paintings by numbers. Anyway.  I take lots of pictures of pretty views.  Seeing pretty views is one thing.  Seeing one that's worthy of a composition and some paint is a whole other thing. My first finished painting will be from a photograph I took from near the northern end of the Black Canyon trail in Arizona.  I was attempting a 60K for the third time on this trail, and for the 2nd time I was coming off an illness.  I did not finish.  Once I realized I wasn't going to finish, I simply relaxed and took some pictures.  This is one of them.   I started out by toning my canvas, and I think this may be the secret for me.   I love the way the color peeks...

I have to say it's exciting learning that you're wrong, especially when 'wrong' refers to completely skipping over something because you might not enjoy it.  For me, that's like oil painting.  After listening to me kvetch about how I never have time to attend classes, and knowing that I want to be a landscape artist, husband found one to mentor me.  Technically speaking, he's actually teaching me since I've never had a class in beginning painting.   And.  he's an  oil painter. I had, early on, discounted the idea of oil painting, assuming that it was 1) messy, 2) would trigger huge asthma attacks, 3) was messy, and 4) I can't paint wet-on-wet.   I'm amazed to find that it's not smelly, especially since there's something called "odorless paint thinner," and since I wear gloves and a smock, it's not messy at all.  In face, it's easier to clean up because it doesn't dry in 30 seconds, like acrylics, ruinin...

 I recently enrolled at a local community college whom, I'm told, has a decent art program.  I'm enough of a nerd that depth matters to me, so I decided to take full-on college-level art classes.  In doing so, several interesting things happened: 1.  I had to apply to go to college as an undergraduate.  I already have a college degree in fact a graduate degree, so this was fun.  It was online.  A few days later, a 19-year-old called me and welcomed me to the college. "So, like, have you scheduled your Acuplacer Test yet?" "My what?" "Your Acuplacer test.  Have you, like, scheduled it?" "Yeah . Um....I'm not going to take your test." She was flustered.  "Oh.  Um.  Well, oh..." I rescued her.  "I already have a college degree." She was happy to have been spared the inevitable confrontation and replied, happily, "you probably don't need to take the Acuplacer then." "No.  I don't think so." ...

 My husband took this picture in Idaho, where he did an ultra run.  I was all, GIVE ME THAT PICTURE!  So he did.    Chloe is my part pitt bull, part ridgeback animal.  She has jazz ass, and is nearly impossible to photograph because her tail constantly wags, and it wags so hard, it shakes her whole body.  To draw this, I had to do a photoburst on my iphone to find one picture I could draw. Graphite on sketchbook paper. I've been doing some online tutorials, and I think I've found my medium.  Micron Pens on Bristol.  Pen & Ink sketch, from a tutorial.  This is from a tutorial on watercolor, which I apparently suck at.  I finally gave up after two tries and did it in pen & ink.  India ink wash, micron pens, and Bristol.   This past weekend I played around with pen & ink and watercolor. I'm not sure if the watercolor should come first, or the ink. These are all on 140-lb watercolor (strathmore) with cotman waterco...