Re-tagged

The naughty, wonderful Rose of Rose's Art Lines has tagged me to reveal 5 more strange and wonderful things about myself. Not one to be a party pooper, I decided to dig deep and find the requisite five uncommon things that few know about me.

1. When I was a small child, in the fall and winter, I used to find mice in the old house we lived in. I would catch them and put them in my little metal school lunch tin (those people of a 'certain age' will remember those) and feed them birdseed and bread crusts. They were my 'pets'. Til my mother found out. I still have a fondness for the little creatures, I just don't want them over-running my house. There's enough in the barn.

2. I have had 2.5 children. I lost a baby at 20 weeks of pregnancy and he/she would be 26 now if all had gone as planned.

3. As a teenager I was horse mad and used to muck out stables and exercise the wilder horses to earn the privilege of riding the horse of my choice. My favourite horse, Ted, an ex racer, had badly injured his leg and he was going to be put down. I begged and pleaded them not too, promising to care for him til the stable finally relented. Every day I would walk to the stable and take Ted to a pond, standing with him in the cool water, to take down the swelling in his leg. After about 3 or 4 months of this, his leg improved enough for him to be ridden again. He couldn't run as fast as previously but he could still move pretty fast.

4. I owned an MGB GT in the UK and before I sold the car, I first sold the license plate for 450 pounds to a collector in Sussex through an agency in London. The plate number was AAA 660 which I guess had some significance to the buyer. I was just happy to have the money!

5. I adore cheese, most any kind. If left to my own devices, I would probably live on cheese and crackers or toast forever.

I know most of my blogging friends have been overtagged, but I would like to invite a few of my newer blogging friends to participate and share a little about themselves in 5 facts and pass on the idea to more of their friends. If anyone doesn't want to participate, that's fine too.

Cindy Haase of Color On! has done some amazing work with rocks.
Jan Gibson - Pets to Posies I have known from another art forum and she also introduced me to colourfix paper. She does beautiful animal portraits.
Gina Cuff - Dogberry Hill Studio is another Newfoundland artist who does amazing work in art and jewellery.
Terry Banderas - Terry's Ink and Watercolour. Terry creates beautiful, strong pieces full of colour and light.

The learning curve

To be naked is to be deprived of our clothes, and the word implies some of the embarrassment most of us feel in that condition. The word 'nude,' on the other hand, carries, in educated usage, no uncomfortable overtone. The vague image it projects into the mind is not of a huddled and defenseless body, but of a balanced, prosperous, and confident body: the body re-formed.

- Kenneth Clark, The Nude: A Study in Ideal Form

My marathon life class was last night and we had a very energetic model. I always find it a little amusing how male models nearly always use poles and ropes in creating poses to show movement, while female models, for the most part tend to adopt more natural poses. I found an interesting article Reviewing the Nude, Art Journal, Spring, 1999 by Leslie Bostrom, Marlene Malik that examines the role of models.

As usual, we started off with one minute poses....I'm beginning to hate those. Well not, not beginning. I've always hated one minute poses. It takes me more time to detach my paper from the easel than it does to do the one minute sketch. While they are useful as warm ups, too many one, two or three minute poses become tedious to me and I want to get on with the 'meat' of the class - longer poses. In this class we don't have anything longer than 20 minutes. Perhaps it was my mood or the huge chunk of compressed charcoal I was encouraged to draw with, but I struggled with these sketches and didn't do any of them much justice I'm afraid.

I've been reviewing the process of how I draw in my head and believe that I am well stuck in a detail rut where I love precise, small scale drawings full of control and realism. In twenty minutes I can only begin to scratch the surface in terms of my comfort level in getting down realistic lines and shapes. Shading is a whole different story in a short time frame. I'm just starting to develop the shapes and BAM, the time is gone. I'm usually the one whining 'awwww geeeeezzz!' when the instructor says the pose is finished.

That gap of 20 plus years since life class is showing me that the re-learning curve is steeper than I thought it would be.

Do you remember when....

Cake tasted so new that you had to explore with all your senses?

And one hand just wasn't good enough? You had to use both hands - and it took concentration.

Ok, so you got a little messy...but it WAS good, wasn't it?

So good in fact, that you just had to lick the plate clean...

My grand daughter's first birthday. I think she enjoyed the cake, don't you?

One year

Today is my grand daughter's first birthday. It doesn't seem a year since the world changed and brought her into my life. From the tiny newborn that I visited in Calgary in February to the now crawling, nearly walking girl she's become, it makes me realize how quickly time goes by and how swiftly children grow and change.

The sketch I did above when she was less than a month old to the image below of her shows the changes so clearly. I will try a portrait of her as soon as I can to capture her first year and preserve it for the future. Yes, it can be done in photographs, but for my own selfish reasons, I like to explore every curve of her face and sear it into my memory as only a drawing can do.

I can't be with them for celebrations, but I'm there in my heart.

Happy Birthday!

Art resources

Oil Study - Self Portrait
copyright Jeanette Jobson

Living in Newfoundland has its benefits and drawbacks. One of the drawbacks seems to be the lack of readily available information on sources of art supplies, art clubs, and general visual art network information.

To try to bridge that gap I have created a Squidoo lens on Art Resources for Newfoundland and Labrador. Its a work in progress and will be expanded as I find information and add to what was currently available to me.

There are so many elements to art, from the concept and creation, down to marketing and selling and it often draws a blank in this province as people just don't know where to turn or how to access information.

I did a very loose - and muddy - study for a self portrait in oils to get a feel for it. Some parts are ok, there is a lot of room for improvement and I know better now the palette I need to use to achieve the skin tones for this dark lighting. I'll start the portrait itself as soon as I can get some time to myself. I've got a 16 x 20 piece of gallery canvas that was on sale and is just the right size for a portrait. Oils are still something that I'm re-learning. There are some happy accidents and a lot of unhappy ones in the process.

Art and stress

This sketch was done early this morning and sort of summed up both sides of my stress today, even at that early hour. An impending blizzard, a ton of work ahead, early morning calls to make to cancel appointments, all washed down with coffee to kick start the day.

Add a red stress ball in the shape of a heart and a bottle of Maalox and you've got my day in a nutshell.

However, the process of putting this little still life down on paper becomes stress relief in its own right. Studies have proven that drawing is therapeutic and a stress reliever. Sketching or drawing makes you concentrate on something else and you can become involved enough in it to reach 'the zone' or an almost meditative state. Just having art as an interest ensures that you spend time on it or thinking of it, letting your mind drift away from other problems.

So despite the blizzard making me shut down the office at lunchtime, I took work home and got a lot done, and now will start drawing....my relaxation therapy.

Ice, snow and art

Frosty garden spike
copyright Jeanette Jobson

I've had a snow day today due to another winter storm. When I was a kid snow days were a delight and filled with the prospect of playing in new snow til you were frozen, then coming inside to warm up on homemade cookies and hot chocolate. The adult version isn't quite the same, but perhaps its what we choose. As an adult, I feel guilty over missing meetings even if it is out of my control. I still work at home with the resources that I have and never seem to fully relax until the official 'closing time' is here.

I am tired of winter with what seems to be storm after storm (another is due on Friday), so I needed a touch of summer. I looked over photos that I had taken in warmer weather, full of sun and fresh fruit and flowers. As long as I don't look out the window, I can almost pretend its summer - at least for a few moments.

But there are some benefits to ice and snow, as you'll find if you're in Chicago in February. For the entire month, Millennium Park will host the Museum of Modern Ice. Canadian artist Gordon Halloran is installing his signature ice paintings - Paintings Below Zero -both in the Chase Promenade and also within the ice skating rink itself.

Situated behind Millennium Park’s famous Cloud Gate sculpture, Halloran will create his largest and most spectacular installation to date, a monumental and colorful ice wall measuring 95 feet long and nearly 12 feet tall.

Halloran first developed his idea of painting on ice in the early ’90s. It came out of his boyhood experience flooding backyard ice rinks for pickup hockey games with his brothers. “I would stand out in the moonlight and look at the reflection of the light on the smooth surface. I was obsessed with the illumination. I’ve always loved the way ice freezes, moves and forms.”

Other cities and countries take advantage of frigid temperatures and turn them into artistic and tourism related events. Quebec has a most wonderful Ice Hotel created each year that I must make the trek to see and actually stay in simply out of curiosity's sake. Or try Sweden's Ice Bar in Stockholm. Entry includes a parka,, gloves and a shot of Absolut vodka served in your very own ice glass.

Of course there is always Winterlude in Ottawa each February for the winter afficianados. Skating on Rideau Canal, ice sculptures, snow sculptures, music, people - its an experience.

Life class

Six minutes

For the first time in over 20 years I attended a life class last night. I was a little anxious as I felt so out of practice using a large floor easel and huge sheets of newsprint. I spent two hours in hard labour, going from very quick one minute poses up to twenty minute poses and felt exhausted at the end of the session. Partially from standing and partially from concentrating hard for two hours - 15 pages of newsprint used, some both sides!

This class will continue each Monday night until June 30th and I'm quite looking forward to attending them and getting back into practice once more. However, next week, I'll tackle some crops of the longer poses and see if I can do a portrait. I also grabbed the wrong charcoal on my way out the door in the morning (I can't get home before classes so I take my gear with me to work). I ended up with hard charcoal and I prefer the medium to soft for those nice smooth lines that it produces.

Here are some of the results, ranging from one minute to twenty minutes sketches. Photos are horrible unfortunately, due to bad night lighting. I feel that I did better with the shorter poses and overworked the longer poses in some ways. I blame it on hard charcoal, fatigue and lack of practice! Next week I'll have a plan.

One minute

Two minutes

Three minutes

Twenty minutes

Nine

Nine
Watercolour 3 x 5
Moleskine watercolour notebook
copyright Jeanette Jobson

There are nine people I know who have birthdays in January. I think its a plot to make me bankrupt or increase the profits of the greeting card manufacturers. Either way I've partially solved the problem with my nine-in-one birthday cake. Low fat, low calorie, eat as many as you like and there will always be more cake! And.....best of all - its free!

Happy Birthday to all my Capricorn and Aquarian friends. May your year be everything you wish it to be.

Now blow out your little inferno and make a wish!

Lessons learned

Another snow day gave me a little time after teaching to add some more details to this baby drawing. I'm not pleased with it as the features are skewed so it will be abandoned to the 'experiment' drawer and I will have learned to step back from my drawing to review it from time to time. The drawing is salvageable, but I don't think I'll pursue it. It started more as a doodle then grew.

In my last spending spree in the USA I stocked up on all the art goodies that I can't obtain in Canada. One of those things is Bristol 500 plate paper. I haven't been able to access this smooth surfaced paper in Canada. I can get Bristol smooth or vellum - the 300 series, but not the 400 or 500. I tucked it away in my cupboard and it slipped my mind til I rediscovered it when putting the unfinished baby to rest.

its about time that I started a new portrait in earnest. My grand daughter will be a year old in a week and I'd like to create a portrait of her to celebrate. (Provided my daughter comes up with a more recent photo to work from...hint, hint...) This plate finish Bristol should be the perfect surface to do a baby portrait. Plate (Hot Press) is unsurpassed for fine pen and pencil work, allowing flat and even washes.

A lot of my time is spent creating drawing lessons, but finally I have got enough under my belt to start to recycle some of them so it means less prep time for when I do teach. My time teaching goes fairly quickly, depending on what we're doing and I always learn something new from the kids.

Genuine Progress Index

My head has been filled all day with health information and statistics having attended a number of sessions at a conference held by the Wellness Coalition, of which I am a member of the steering committee, injury prevention committee and member at large.

The guest speaker today was Dr Ronald Coleman. Dr. Colman is founder and Executive Director of GPIAtlantic, a non-profit research group that is constructing an index of wellbeing and sustainable development for Nova Scotia as a pilot project for Canada. Dr. Colman previously taught for 20 years at the university level and was a researcher and speech-writer at the United Nations.

The Statement of Principles of GPIAtlantic are:

The Genuine Progress Index is based on the fundamental understanding that social, economic and environmental realities are inextricably linked. Although we conventionally measure prosperity by material gain, the GPI recognizes that true long-term prosperity and wellbeing are ultimately dependent on the protection and strengthening of our social and environmental assets. If these deteriorate, we are not living "sustainably" and we leave a poorer world to our children.

The Genuine Progress Index also recognizes that any index of progress is value-based and must answer the question "progress towards what?" The use of the Gross Domestic Product as a measure of progress is also value based, and assumes that "more" is always "better." By contrast, the GPI adopts a set of broader consensus values in which "less" may sometimes be "better," as in the case of crime, pollution and sickness.

As I listened to him speak, the GPI concept transferred over to the artistic side and, while his presentation was based on health, it could easily be applied to art as well. And, of course, I had to sketch Dr. Coleman as he spoke....

Life

My drawing class was cancelled tonight so I got a chance to do a little sketch of a baby that I may push further. The eyes and gaze caught my attention so I'll try to build on that and see if I can capture that soft clear skin as well.

At long last, I've lucked into a life class that will run on Monday nights. I missed the first one as I had to work late, but hope that I can make it to the others. Its been a long, long time since I've attended life classes and I'm looking forward to getting back into it again.

Its in the mail

Ground cherries
copyright Jeanette Jobson

Or will be in the next day or so.

Tonight I'm finally getting my PIF (Pay It Forward) pieces ready for the mail. Back in November I participated in a PIF by offering pieces of my art to the first three people who responded to me. And now, after holidays and commissions are gone, I can concentrate on getting those pieces out to individuals.

Those receiving art will be:

Shirley - Shiri Me!
Rose - Rose's Art Lines
Connie - ArtFair Calendar

and because of a technicality, a fourth person. One of the individuals sent her response to me on a different post so I couldn't refuse Paulette as the official # 3.

Paulette - Becoming a Renaissance Woman

I hope everyone enjoys the art that I send and that your own PIF ventures are satisfying. I know I have enjoyed the process. I may institute something similar on my birthday in March.

I grew these Ground Cherries last summer. They're unique little plants which are also known as Cape Gooseberries, seem to be almost a weed is some parts of the country. The small fruit is golden when ripe and is encased in a papery skin. The taste has a hint of pineapple to it, sweet and very pleasant. These were my irresistable plants as I seemed to eat them constantly and always searched for the fruit when I was in the garden or greenhouse.

This is an unripe and ripened version. I love how the gold of the fruit shows as a shadow of colour through the creamy paper skin.

Watercolour pencils

I bought a couple of Derwent Aquatone pencils in my continuing quest for the best drawing experience. Aquatone pencils are solid sticks of colour that can be sharpened like a pencil. They don't have a wood casing, but simply paper. It lays down well as dry media, but isn't eraseable. It behaves very similarly to other watercolour pencils, but I found that the washes are smoother and more like traditional watercolour. Watercolour pencils can be a bit grainy at times and difficult to manipulate into a smooth wash.

I chose burnt umber to do these sketches of a kitten (no Tripod doesn't have a new friend) and a study of an Embden goose. Seeing as these sketches were done at 5am, they are at least recognizable as animals. The kitten reference was foreshortened, giving it that wide eyed, slightly bemused expression.

My electric sharpener won't take the thicker Derwent pencils, and my hand sharpener wasn't cooperating (or was it the early hour?) so I couldn't get a decent point to the pencils and found that a little clumsy when trying to draw with the Aquatone. I think they're better for filling in with colour, however in small spaces you do need that sharp point, so its work experiementing the sharpeners to get one that works well with these pencils.

Chrome balls update

I've been dotting away at this pen and ink drawing over the last week and am slowly getting to a point of completion. The technique is quite relaxing to me and I can get lost in it very easily, not noticing how time slips away.

I have to wrap my mind around some marketing for the drawing classes to keep up the flow of participants. The store where I offer the classes doesn't do anything more than generic marketing for the drawing classes, so it becomes a bit of a challenge to work around all the other things there to capture people's attention.

I'm planning a blitz this month and next in the form of bag inserts and brochures as well as displays to hang in prominent areas in the hopes of attracting people to the courses. There are a steady flow of people, but numbers vary from week to week. I'd rather teach on a larger scale, as its just as much work to teach for one as it is for ten people, and economically to my benefit if I have more participants in the classes.

By the time I did a double class today and got home it was 3:30 and had turned cold again, so Flatrock plein air wasn't a reality this weekend, even if my intentions were good. However, I may take some photos on my drive to work in the mornings this week. I love the light in the early morning and there are a number of interesting places to photograph for reference, even if I can't linger too long. There's always next weekend...

Weekend art

I don't know which are worse; week days or weekends. That is in terms of trying to stretch the time of the day into longer hours. I end up with such a long 'to do' list that I end up achieving little purely because the scope of the list is overwhelming at times. Tripod, as usual, tries to help but success is out of his range.

This morning I sketched out the beginnings of a couple of oil paintings, but got no further than that before the realities of day to day functioning took over - i.e., housework, errands, cooking, etc. So now its evening and I'm prepping for some classes tomorrow. I know the subject but find that teaching drawing can be wearing or will be until I get the curriculum to a place where I can revolve it. Its getting there and perhaps in another month it will be fine. The night before a class is always a scurry to ensure the class prep and demo is in place to my satisfaction.

My thoughts of some plein air sketching were dashed by rain before noon, but I may try tomorrow after class if I have any energy left by then.

Winter landscape

This is the view from my bedroom window in the morning. Although I'm not a great fan of winter, I love the pristine look of a new snowfall when everything is coated with white and all that can be seen are new tracks of animals to break the expanse of snow.

Even on a day filled with heavy snow clouds, there are still so many things to inspire art in this landscape. I need to be brave and get out there and take some photos and braver still, wrap up and settle into a snowbank for some sketching or painting.

And I will. The only problem in this province tends to be the wind. There nearly always is a 'breeze' which to most others means windy. So you fight against the cold and keeping paper, hair and scarves out of your eyes while you draw. But I will persevere. I still have my monthly Flatrock landscapes to make a start on and this may be the weekend to begin.

Watch this space!

The Absence

Self Portrait

graphite 8 x 10
copyright Jeanette Jobson

While I was looking through some photo cds tonight, I found this image. It was the first self portrait that I drew after The Absence. The Absence was from art and seems to have happened to a lot of people for varying times from months to years. Mine was years.

When I lived in the UK, I did a lot of drawing even when the children were small, and was heavily involved in the art world and worked on both sides of the easel, as artist and model. I also worked a lot more in oils and watercolours then, something which I have to get involved in again. Sometimes life gets in the way of creativity. With smaller children around and no dedicated space to leave art supplies and active drawings out, it becomes easy to get out of the routine of making art. I still did occasional drawings and sketches, but nothing serious and most of my art supplies were stored away in boxes and baskets, waiting to see the light of day again.

Encouraged by a friend and wanting to fill that creative void, I started drawing again about 3 years ago and now it kind of takes over my life. My first images were hesitant and it took awhile for me to get back into my stride again. There are still mediums I am rediscovering and I always have lots to learn. My only regret is that I let so much time lapse before returning to the craft.

But I am making up for lost time.

Spheres

For me there is something very satisfying about drawing spheres. So when I saw the reference for this image of shiny chrome spheres, I knew I had to draw it. In pen.

Its been awhile since I've used pointillism in ink and while time consuming, it is very soothing and relaxing. I'm using a .25 nib in a Rapidograph pen and black ink. What I have produced so far has taken about 4 hours.

I don't mind drawings taking time to complete. I enjoy the process and the slowness ensures that mistakes aren't made, especially in this medium. However, drawing time is a real stumbling block for beginning art students who want quick results, yet become dissatisfied when they can't achieve what they envision in their heads in a one or two hour time frame.

Liquid centres

Baby and doll
coloured pencil on Canson sketch pad 11 x 14
copyright Jeanette Jobson

I'm feeling virtuous tonight. I've just put in a couple of miles on the treadmill, deprived myself of leftover mince pies, ate salads all day,downed 2 litres of waters during the course of the day and found a liquid graphite pencil at Walmart.

Some things are meant to be. At work this morning it was quiet, peaceful, then punctuated by what sounded like firecrackers going off. Close enough. It was the power bar that the printers and router were plugged into. It decided that it was time to stop and wanted to do so in a dramatic way, with sparks and loud bangs.

After my heart stopped racing, I unplugged the thing, then headed off to find a new powerbar - or two. These things never go alone. So I headed to Walmart and picking up a few more things for the office I passed the pencil aisle. Well, I figured I'd have a quick look while I was there and found liquid graphite mechanical pencils. Are these new only to me? The brand name is Pentech under the trademark Liquiphite and are produced by Jakkspacific in California.

I grabbed a package and will give them a test run over the next day or so. A quick try showed that they apply like pen but are erasable. The graphite line is dark and feels a bit greasy to the touch - perhaps the binder that is used for the graphite - but it erases very easily. Online reviews are mixed, so it will be interesting to compare and see how it performs.

At Pencil Things there is a huge selection of pencils of all types for sale, some of which I'd never heard of before like the Chattahoochee pencil.

You can use it to write, draw and mark on most surfaces. You can erase. Yet it's not like any pencil you ever held. The unique composite won't suspend in paint, so you can sketch and paint over the lines. It won't smudge or rub off on on your hands, either. Builders' marks won't smear or wash away. The unique shape and different planes allow you to make lines of varying widths, while the curved back lets you do shading and rubbings.

On the same site, I found another form of liquid graphite pencils under the same brand name - Pentech, called Ultrasharp. These have liquid graphite cartridges enclosed in a wooden casing, so they look like ordinary wood pencils.

In yesterday's post, I had discovered liquid graphite from an Australian company and have found out that it is available in the USA from Jerry's Artarama only it seems. I can't find a Canadian stockist (surprise, surprise...) and haven't heard anything back from my email to Matisse Derivan, the Australian manufacturer.

Perhaps these will satisfy my curiosity for the moment til I can get the real thing.