At least, I think it was. I mostly had my head down in the studio. However, I finished my two big summer projects yesterday, just as the month was about to turn. My three-sessions drawing classes at Duke University's Nasher Art Museum were wonderful far, far beyond expectations. My classes were completely booked, with a long waiting list and the participants were a varied, accomplished, and very fun group! I am still basking in the glow of all that excitement!
We accomplished a lot. The students made blind contour drawings, modified blind contour drawings, gesture drawings, structural drawings, expressive drawings. I, unfortunately, failed to take photos of their work and I won't make that mistake again. Here are some demo drawings I made for the class:
Blind contour drawing of a 16th C Saint Matthew
Modified blind contour and gesture drawing.
Expressive drawing of a fragment of a Roman sarcophagus, made with two colored pencils taped together, done in a modified blind contour technique.
In all the drawings for this series, we emphasized process, not product. This was about freeing yourself and finding your own relationship with the subjects of your drawings and with yourself as artist.
I will show some of the paintings I did for the restaurant in Chicago once it opens, but here are just some of the gorgeous scraps and leavings I kept, after a summer of testing colors and composition on paper. These are a treasure for me for both my future paintings and illustrations. Exactly how they will be used remains to be seen and that is the very exciting part!
I have one more illustration to do this year, for the winter issue of Charleston Style & Design, due the end of October. Then I will take November and December off for travel, family, friends, and my own work. More about all that later. I feel so happy just thinking about that freedom and flexibility. Happy October to all of us!
Maria, I'm so happy you liked them! We'll see what happens with future series. I'll let you know as soon as I know anything. By the way, I thought of you as I was taking the photo of my art orts ;D.
Posted by: Laura | October 02, 2015 at 05:31 PM
Your three Saturday sessions were incredible and what a creative boost, it would be great to do it again. I love the photo of your art ort and can't wait to see what it becomes!
Posted by: Maria | October 02, 2015 at 04:27 PM
Thank you so much, Robyn. I hope we can, too. I'm SURE we can! And the scraps are just loosely gathered in a pile for that photo... I have so many little treasures from this summer and I can pick and choose among them to incorporate them into my work over the next months.
Posted by: Laura | October 02, 2015 at 09:42 AM
The Nasher series was a wild success which I enjoyed so much. I hope we can do something like that again in the future. I love the collage of all your trials--it is a magnificent piece worthy of a frame, I say.
Posted by: Robyn Mixon | October 02, 2015 at 09:13 AM