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| Imagine With Art Newsletter |
Issue No.23
| October, 2011 |
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I welcome your comments!
susan@imaginewithart.com
707-824-8163
Table of Contents:
Art Play
Book Club
On the ARTrails
Workshops | |
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Contact Us
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2550 Lewis Dr. Sebastopol, California 95472 707-824-8163
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Dear Friend,
This last week before open studios is always busy with hanging paintings, cleaning, gardening, sign making, etc. in preparation for two weekends of greeting visitors. I hope you're planning to come and bring friends along.
Any of you who have been to my studio or even followed my blog are keenly aware that my painting style and subject matter is always changing. Sometimes I worry about not having a more consistent body of work, you know, same size, same technique, same color palette, subject matter, etc.
But this past week Bob and I caught the tail end of the Picasso exhibit at the De Young Museum and that put my mind at rest. Picasso was never apologetic about constantly reinventing himself. He said,
"God is really only another artist. He has no real style. He just goes on trying other things."
Well Yay God! And may we all keep on trying other things. There will be a new Art Play idea, book to read, and other thoughts to share in this issue.
Cheers,
Susan
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Art Play: Find a Shape
You know those shapes your mind finds unbidden when you're relaxed, lying in bed staring at the ceiling and you suddenly see a face with a crazy hooked nose or an animal. Or maybe you're "on the bathroom throne on an overcast morning following the first autumn rain" and you look up and there in the plaster texture just inches from you is the cutest little squirrel carrying something like a shopping bag. He must be rushing off somewhere. . .That's the way our brains work, and it's the stuff the creative mind has to work with.
So try this out. Next time you "hallucinate" a recognizable shape where there is only plaster, abstract wallpaper patterns, spider's webs, cracks in cement, etc.(nothing literal, mind you), copy that shape onto your art journal page and play with the image. Write where you found it and anything else about the when, why, or how of it. I had some new art materials I wanted to try here. So after drawing in pencil the shape I saw in the plaster, I smudged on some powdered graphite with my finger, then glazed it with the glittery new Pearl Ex powdered pigments mixed with matte medium. Remember the great Picasso quote, "It took me four years to paint like Rafael, but a lifetime to paint like a child." ? Well this exercise could help with the "like a child" part.
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Book Club
The Madonnas of Leningrad by Debra Dean is a story about memories and the power of imagination.
In the book an elderly Russian woman revisits her memories of life in war torn Leningrad during the German siege on the city in WWII. As the people braved starvation, bitter cold, and a relentless German onslaught, she joined other staff members in removing the museum's priceless masterpieces for safekeeping, leaving the frames hanging empty on the walls to symbolize the artworks' eventual return. In the process the art takes on a pivotal role in her survival.
This was not an easy book to read, but I was captivated by this story of power of art to carry us over obstacles into a truly transcendent experience which can then be shared to uplift others. |
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On the ARTrails
"Entwined" acrylic with collage, 22 X 28" mounted on canvas currently shown at the ARtrails Wells Fargo Center for the Arts Show with a potter's work
The grape harvest, the fall colors, the tomato ripening - it's all a bit late this year. Even our annual ARTrails open studios is a week later. So with the recent rains the landscape here in Sonoma County is still redolent with greens punctuated with the oranges of pumpkins by the roadside. And we're here to lure you outside your home for two weekends Oct. 15, 16, 22, 23 of hobnobbing with artists in their country studios. That's what I'd be doing, if I weren't staying put so people could visit mine! I'll be showcasing my new Party Chicks series and wow! color abstract landscapes. I haven't updated my website yet with the new work, but you can check it out here on my blog. My personal (don't blush!) art journals and sketchbooks will be out along with copies of my book Conversations with the Muse: The Art Journal as Inner Guide.Mixed media paintings in a variety of size and price ranges will be available to add to your collection. And as always I'll be on the scene to share with you more about my techniques, materials and upcoming classes. Next door my husband Bob Cornelis will be showing his photography - landscapes, figurative and abstracts. For a real treat visit his website to get a preview of what you'll see. including a printable map to find us, Studios #38 And 39, and to plan your route to visit other studios in our area. If you have a copy of the catalogue, look for the article on my approach to teaching painting. Concurrently I have a painting in each of the following venues: The "Roots" themed exhibition at the Sebastopol Center for the Arts. My painting titled "Tangled" is hanging in the show. (This is the painting featured in the ARTrails catalogue). The show runs September 15-October 22. For hours and directions to the Center check the website.
The ARTrails Main Preview Exhibit, which features all 133 artists is at the Wells Fargo Center for the Arts, 50 Mark West Springs Rd. in Santa Rosa, Sept 24-Oct 28, Wed. - Sun., 10-5.
And at the Graton Gallery, 9048 Graton Rd., downtown Graton, Oct. 4-24, hours Tues - Sun, 10:30-6, 707-829-8912.
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Come paint with me!
Whether you're a beginner or advanced painter, Imagine With Art workshops inspire and connect you with your playful expressive art self.
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Explorations in Acrylic Painting and Collage
Now a One Day Workshop!
Explore the terrain of your imagination while pouring, splattering, stamping and layering fluid acrylics to create fantasy-filled "scapes". Add textures created with acrylic mediums and collaged elements such as Citrasolved papers to create uniquely personal art expressions. Demonstrations and handouts included, so you can take the lesson home with you. Requirements for taking this workshop: a willingness to be playful and bold!
When: November 19, 2011
Time: 10am-4:30pm
Cost: $80
Location for the workshop: The Studio in the Orchard, North Sebastopol
To register for the above workshop contact Susan.
and at the Pleasanton Art League
Sketchbooking with Watercolor and Collage
Learn to make painting so portable that you can do it around town, at restaurants, on busy vacations, capturing your unique impressions in a color sketchbook. Using pen, watercolors, collage and personal stamps you will create your own captivating color sketchbook, discovering a new way to relate to visual experience and record it with your own personal reactions.
When: November 2, 3, 4, 2011
Time: 9:30-4:30
Where: Firehouse Arts Center, 4444 Railroad Ave., Pleasanton, CA
Cost: $225
Registration info: www.pal-art.com or call Linda Beach 925-449-4226, Lsbeach@comcast.net
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According to Picasso, "Painting is not an aesthetic operation. It's a form of magic."
So why not apply that magic of making and viewing art to our lives and bring an exciting new energy to everything we do!
Cheers,
Susan Cornelis
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