Therrific Thursday - Museum hopping!

Yesterday was museum field-trip day!

First up, was the Nicolai Fechin exhibit at the Frye Museum.

Me and some of the gals from my critique group viewed and discussed the entire fascinating exhibit.

While his paintings are interesting, it is his drawings that I *love*. SOOO gorgeously nuanced and expressive. Couldn't get enough of those! (I want to draw like him when I grow up.)

Nice afternoon with the girls, as usual...

But that was only the first half... Stay tuned for the preview of the Fantasy Art exhibit at the SciFi Museum... So cool!

Fabulous Friday - The Bellevue Art Fair

Got to spend the day visiting the big, fancy
Bellevue Festival of the Arts -

The featured artist works with yarn (the banners above? yes, yarn) -

She even knitted lamp post covers - all down the street (the 'kid street' - full of chalk drawings...)

There were also interactive pieces - these metal frames that had been primed with some yarn. Anyone who wanted were given a ball of brightly colored yarn to add to the pieces. At the end of the day, these will be moved into the museum, and new ones will be put out for tomorrow (again - kids especially love it).

And then on to all the booths and vendors -

Love this guys' outdoor, kinetic sculptures.

There were a number of musicians selling, and performing on exotic instruments.

Loved this guys' wire sculptures. (I bought one of his wire beetles).

This gal's work was really neat. Photographic prints of actual insects, but cut and mounted dimensionally.

Chris Griffin had a delightfully crowded booth of repurposed vintageness turned into darling clocks.

And so on. There were paintings (look at the darling metal-circle painting label on the right) -

-glass and pottery galore.

And there were a number of booths selling funky hats :-) (filled with older women trying them on).

This gal's paintings were enormous and stunning.

Gardens of glass...

There were hundreds of other impressive artists. A couple of standouts that didn't allow photos (and that you should look up) are Diana Voohries Kinky Shoe sculptures (so cool) and Lorra Lee Rose's absolutely breath-taking life size feather sculptures. They were some of the most amazing things I've ever seen. 

But maybe the funnest part of the entire day were all the great artists that we got to talk to (momo here, with my POBL friend Michelle - from Jamaica, now from San Franscisco. She learned paper marbleing in Turkey. She has a great French-Jamaican  accent. She has traveled the world and has done many many interesting things).

Fun, arty day!

Gallery Friday -

 Tonight, my critique group got to attend fellow-member, the lovely Michelle's, open to her gallery show.

 She had an impressive collection of paintings - big and small.

 This large one was "The Cabinet of Curiousities" (my personal favorite. Wish I had an extra $1000).

She had a wonderful variety of subject matter - from architectural landscapes from her month-long stint in Europe last year -

-to drawings of sculpture from the same trip,

to portraits, and still lifes - from her quirky collection of antique-objects-of-great-character.

(The wine-and-cheese table was decorated with some of these fabulous finds).

Here's the bulk of our POBL group - loved the show, and reveled in the after-show Thai food next door together. Critique groups are not just great - they are vital for artistic growth. And sanity. Thanks gals.

WIP Wednesday - Critique Meeting -

Tonight was our monthly critique meeting -

I brought print-outs of the large spreads from the current book I'm working on for tweaking (me and perspective - we are not friends).  They are all much better for their critical eyes...

It takes a village to illustrate a book I tell ya. Thanks girls.
(You can see more of our critique meeting on our POBL blog).

Figure Friday - Daily Pages...

Not as many pages done this week - the faces take longer, plus I had TAD design homework...

...perspective homework, critique meeting, and art gallery day....

...with cupcakes! :-) (If I get a minute, I'll try to blog about it tomorrow. Was way fun!)

Figure Friday -

Getting back into the swing of 'real life'. Trying to reassert the feeble beginnings of routine and 'balance' (life can't be all about gardening. Or can it...?)

Today, a couple of my POBL cohorts came to my Life Drawing session - I was especially interested in a recent technique that the awesome Kathleen Kemly has been working on the last 6 months or so.

She's been drawing from life with her left hand (see? photographic evidence! and yes, she is normally right handed) - to great effect!

(drawn by Kathleen)
There are a couple of reasons for this - first is to bypass all the drawing 'habits' and the visual shorthand that comes from them. Since your hand doesn't know what to do out of habit, you are forced to really *look* again -

(drawn by Kathleen)
- and secondly, it helps to de-lateralize your brain. Easier to get right into the right hemisphere. Ones' non-dominant hand may not be as facile as the other, but see how lyrical ones' lines can be?

(drawn by me)
So here are my first, tentative attempts with my left hand. So hard! And amazingly exhausting!

(brain dead -back to the right hand)
It sooo fried my brain that after about an hour of that I was reduced down to only drawing feet...

Monsters. And cupcakes.

Went on another downtown-Seattle gallery fieldtrip today-

This time a car full of us braved the clouds and the crowds (both Bumbershoot (Seattle's Music & Art Festival), and PAX (Penny Arcade Expo) are going full-blown this weekend)-

-to see an exhibit by the wondrous and eccentric Travis Louie-

(who has the best show title ever- "Portrait of an Artist as a Young Monster". Plus gorgeously detailed and realistic graphite and acrylic paintings that resemble gothic Victorian photographs.. You can see the entire show at the gallery website.)

After getting our fill of luscious art, we returned to the equally luscious cupcake bakery of wonderfulness...

Nice day. Nice company. Nice treats.

Back to painting...

Happy St. Pat's Day!

'Had a very enjoyable St. Patrick's Day evening with some of my fellow POBLites who were having an arty evening.

A few of us went to dinner at a very atmospheric, old and renovated firehouse-turned-restaurant. In one of the dining rooms, Jo Gershman is having a mini-solo-show of her lovely still lifes (is that the plural of still life? lives? life's?) this month.

After dinner, we walked a couple of blocks to the independent book store down the street where Kathleen Kemly was being featured in a holiday book event -reading "Shannon and the World's Tallest Leprechaun" -

- followed by Irish step dancers, gold and green treats and a shamrock hunt.

Then she got to sign books for her admirers (which include all of us. Way to go Kathleen!).
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And since it is St. Paddy's day, I will end here with my absolute favorite Celtic musician for your viewing and listening pleasure. Enjoy!
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(and a patched together Bonny Swans - I don't know if a complete version of this exists? I adore the visuals on this though:)

Art Opening -

Tonight, I attended an opening for fellow POBL member, Michelle Waldele-Dick's first solo art show! (You can follow along on her painting ventures on her blog here).

A number of other POBL members were able to attend. Much lively art discussion abounded.

There were many lovely pieces, but this one is of the road in front of the cabin where we spend our annual fall retreats. Loved it, and have made it mine...

(Here's the POBLites who were able to attend this happy occasion).

Followed by a most delicious dinner at the Thai restaurant next door. What a terrific evening. Big congratulations Michelle.