Laura, Dave & Eugenia

SOUTH MISSISSIPPI ART ASSN. QUICK DRAW - JANUARY 25TH
My friend Laura talked me into doing the Quick Draw this year. She and Eugenia did it last year and had a lot of fun for a good cause, so I worked really hard to get all my school work done as well as all my projects together for Hearts Against AIDS, and managed to make it to Hattiesburg for the event.

The gist of the Quick Draw is that you bring all your creative stuff with you, and you have one hour after they sound a really squeaky sounding horn to finish an art project. After that hour is up they sound the funky horn again, then you have 15 minutes to frame the piece before it is auctioned off live. It's fun and challenging and you get to meet some nice folks. I sat with Laura in front of me, and between Eugenia, and Kym Garraway, who painted a huge painting of a Madonna and Child with a lamb that was lovely, all while chatting and giggling, and shaking her bootay occasionally to the calypso drum beat played live by a local fellow. AMAZING.

The piece below is my finished project for the Quick Draw. I did a similar one for Hearts Against AIDS. Both of these events benefit AIDS charities. The pieces I did this year are made primarily from found items collected in Gulfport, MS near Thornton Avenue and Beach Boulevard after Hurricane Katrina.

SOUTHERN FAVE
This is my last painting for my Painting 1 class. Next semester I will have a special studio for painting with Ms. Atkinson since I could not fit in her regular painting class due to demands of my graphic design major. When I told her I would not be coming to the Art Department next semester she offered the special studio idea and I was thrilled!

I think this piece is my favorite painting of the entire semester; okra and purple onions on a white pedestal table laid sideways. That okra had been laying around awhile, and that onion on the left had been laying around awhile too, and it had a nice sprout on it. I'd been thinking it would make a nice painting subject when by chance they had gotten laid together and I noticed the colors looked really nice together. Finally, to my delight, it was set out for us on the last day! I think it was mostly for the lack of anything else being available, but how nice!

9 X 12 oil on masonite board.

GRANNY'S VASE PAINTED IN OILS
So here's my Granny's blue vase painted in oils along with Ms. Sally's vintage glass pieces. I did this one on a 20 X 24 masonite board. It turned out good, though I am not crazy about the composition. Not a lot to work with, just a few pieces of glass sitting on a white pedestal, so given that, I think it turned out pretty ok.

VINTAGE GLASS
Here's my final project for drawing II class. It's a pastel drawing on a piece of 16 X 20 black mat board. The still life is mostly vintage glass. That piece on the left is a vase that my grandmother has had for as long as I can remember, which she gave to me recently. The orange vessel belongs to my classmate, Ms. Sally Walton, and it belonged to her mother. The clear piece is just a piece that belongs the art department. I've also done a painting of these two beauties in oil along with a vintage yellow glass canister. The painting is still at school drying; I'll post that one later.

TROUT TWO WAYS
Unfortunate is the fish that makes it to my art class. Here's some more dead fish, this time trout, painted on their first day in painting class in oil on a 12 X 16 masonite board. The next morning their little bleeding carcasses were laid out for my drawing class, where I drew them with charcoal onto 14 X 17 Canson paper. How sweet of them to give their lives to art! Look! The little one is kinda smiling...

YAWN
Wandering Jew vine in a blue glass vase in the foreground. Curly willow in the jar in the background. Charcoal on Canson paper. Weird composition. Sorta unfinished. I'll call it the Three Day Migraine composition, since this is migraine art. This was one of those days when when that nagging ethical side of me that I get from my Daddy got the better of me, and I got up and went to school anyway. My head hurt like heck, I was in a fog all morning, could not draw for $hit, and my brain was receiving messages in arrears. I should have stayed in bed. I think everyone would have been better off. I can be pretty freaky when my head ain't right.

HAPPY FALL Y'ALL
Here's a pumpkin still life I did yesterday in drawing class. It's charcoal on a 16 X 20 goldenrod colored mat board.

MORE TEA?
Here's the teapot again, with tea and citrus fruit. This time it's in charcoal and white pastel on a piece of 16 X 20 pale blue mat board. I hope the teapot is put away next week. I'm ready for something new.

THAT SEVENTIES ART
My mom and dad were cleaning out the attic for a garage sale this week, and they found this old piece of junk. Signed and dated by me in 1978. I remember doing this in my high school art class. It's tempera paint on Crescent art board. My husband saw this and loved it with all it's colors and what I call "dod-doo" on it. It's paint is worn off in places and has character with the doo-doo spots I reckon. He liked it so much that he took it to have it framed today. Hahahahah! I suppose it is a pretty complicated piece with all the interlocking geometric shapes. Heady stuff for a teenager in the seventies. Whoa...It's thirty years old.

TEA & SHRIMP PAINTING
Here is the painting of the shrimp. They finally got tossed after all the painting and drawing. Today, we just drew the tea pot, some tea bags and some citrus fruit. I did something cool with it that I'll post later. This painting is 16 X 20 oil on masonite.

SHRIMP & TEA
Here's another attempt with pastels. I did this in drawing class today. I'm also painting these shrimp in painting class, so we'll see a painting later of the shrimp and this same tea pot, etc. I love the irregular shaped brown cup that someone made in the pottery class.

I am liking pastels more. I'm slowly catching on with each drawing. I actually like this piece, though I don't think it's all that greatly executed, I'm improving, and I just like the stuff in the picture. I was dragging a bit today and seemed to have a problem with relationships for some reason. I used a piece of mat board for this one, colored a sort of goldenrod.

WINTER BIRD
Experimenting with the pastels again. I used my Rembrandt pastels with this. I do like them better than the Nupastels. This is just a small piece on black mat board. I used a wat-not bird for a model and some dried up rosemary. I did some reading on techniques and tried some out with this. Just messing around really, but he's kinda cute.

CURLY WILLOW ROOTING
Our latest still life in painting class is an unusual looking clear glass jar with some curly willow sticks rooting in it. They are really pretty, but very tall. I was lucky to get some of the leaves into the painting. Hopefully I'll be bringing a branch or two home to plant in my yard.

There's the pomegranates again. And the pumpkins. And that red pitcher I've painted and drawn umpteen times :-) Haha! 20 X 24 Oil on masonite.

STRUGGLING WITH PASTELS
I really want to work with these because they are so pretty. This is only my second attempt with these, so maybe I should not expect too much. I'm trying to get the hang of how these blend, which brand is best for me, when to rub and when not to. These are so much like paint but not as easy to correct. Hopefully some progress will be seen as I go along. I think some different paper would help, and it could be time to try the Rembrandts.

DOWN TO THE WATERLINE
20 X 24 Oil on masonite painting from class. I have been forced to paint gladiolas! Arrggggghhhhh! Painting flowers is not my favorite, but the more I do it I'm sure the better I'm going to love it. My favorite thing about this piece is the vase and the waterline. The photo does not nearly do it justice. I need a better camera.

BIG SPECKLED EGG
This craziness measures 8 X 10 on a canvas board. Still wet when I snapped the photo. Strange painting, but I needed to use the paint left on my palette so I could clean it up and have a fresh start on Monday for painting class, and this is what happened. We'll be starting our mid-term project then. I did not want to waste the paint leftover from the pear paintings, so I did this egg. I realize it looks kinda crazy, but I sort of like it at the same time. When I look at it I think dinosaurs and jungle plants, or even "kerthump!"

A PAIR OF PEAR PAINTINGS
After touching up drawings to complete my drawing class portfolio, I had nothing better to do than paint since my family deserted me for band contest, and old friends. So! I had these lovely pears from WalMart that I decided to paint. I put two on a dishrag with a speckled ceramic egg, and then I painted one alone, and really,really large. These are still wet in the photos so they look a tad shiny.

Pear Pair - 12 X 16 Oil on masonite (Saturday night)



Alone Pear - 16 X 20 Oil on masonite (Started Sunday morning and completed by 2p.m.)

WOLFE STUDIO BIRD WITH FLOWER STEMS & FRUIT
Here's my first real attempt to do something with pastels. I got out my 96 Prismacolor Nupastels that I've been saving up and took them to school for drawing class. The difference between these and the Gallery brand pastels that I'd been playing with is remarkable. Now I'm toying with breaking out that 15 set of Rembrandts.

This is no masterpiece but I think it turned out cute, 'cause it's on a pink blankie, and that Wolfe Studio bird is just a sassy little feller. I gots to get me some of those Wolfe birds. Gonna put 'em on my Christmas list.

HORSEAPPLES AND PITCHER OF FLOWERS
More of my paintings from class. The flowers I touched up this morning. The horseapples I just don't like very much, but my teacher says "It's really a beautiful painting." I don't exactly agree, however, the colors are nice and it did look good with a gold frame around it. I don't like the composition because it seems almost centered.

Both of these are 16 X 20, oil on masonite.

MORNING CATCH
I've spent this morning touching up some of my paintings from class. I have not been satisfied with them because they needed something, and what they needed is light. In the time allotted in class I don't get around to fully highlighting and so I brought everything home on Friday to get the highligts in and give a coat of Kamar varnish to all the ones that are presentable. Honestly, the first few are downright awful, but the last few have been ok.

So, here's the bream fish that a lady from my drawing class brought in for us a few weeks ago. Her husband caught them for us that morning. We painted them around lunch time, and Miss Ruby the cleaning lady took them home for her supper.

I have to say that everyone's fish paintings turned out really nice. I think I would not mind painting some more fish. But someone will have to be kind enough to catch them again for me, as I am not a fisher.