LEARN TO DRAW FROM LIFE!

Yesterday in class I photographed two busy students - one working on a colorful fantasy figure in pastel. She has just recently switched from oil to pastel and loves this new medium. The other gal use to work in pastel and now is determined to master oils.

My dream is to encourage my students to discover the excitement of drawing or painting from a still life or a model. Beginning in June I invite you to join me from 9 A.M. to Noon...three hours of standing at an easel and working from life.   Students who have never done this must complete at least two sessions of drawing with charcoal on large paper (supplied)...learning to see placement and values in black and white.  Students who have done plain air or have worked from life may use paint or pastel -  bringing their own supplies. 

This will be a  strong learning session on how to see placement 

and how to use the charcoal, oil or pastel.

We will start with simple to more complex still life objects under controlled lighting and, hopefully, advance to bringing in a model for a portrait or figure study. The charge will be $50 for a three hour session and classes will be for one to four students. 
 I challenge you to get away from just copying photographs and experience the excitement - discover the ability that you have to work from real objects.  This will also improve your ability to work from photographs as you study and appreciate  the play of light on forms and the effects of light on color changes and shadows. 

 Contact me if you are interested 

and we will begin in June!
Here are two students who will be attending!

Mongolia & india

So much missionary mail comes my way with photos of needy children from all around the world.  I love their faces and the great variety of nationalities so one day I just had fun putting them on small oil canvases... Here are the results. Just sent them to Fine Art America where they sell prints of all my work at janet-mcgrath.artistwebsites.com
These are my first two...hope to do many more.  Hope you like them.

Energy-Boosting-Skinny Muffin!

Tried this yesterday and loved the idea of making one big, fresh, healthy muffin each morning. Liked the first one but it was fun trying out different ingredients.  Especially liked discovering oatmeal flour...plan to use it often.  Let me know if you try this or experiment with something that really works well.

Jorge Cruise’s Energy-Boosting Skinny Muffin

Jorge’s Skinny Muffin

Traditional energy bars are often packed with sugar, which can cause a spike and a subsequent crash. These muffins are designed to provide sustainable energy that lasts through lunch, thanks to coconut oil, a healthy fat that’s good for your brain, fiber-rich flaxseed and egg protein.

Ingredients

Makes one serving

 1/4 cup ground flax

1 tsp baking powder

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp coconut oil

1 egg

1 packet stevia

Directions

Mix all ingredients together in a mug and microwave for 50 seconds. Allow to cool to a safe temperature and enjoy!

Janet’s Experimant -see photo

Oat flour-put oatmeal in Blender.

Add in1/4 cup 1 tbs Wheat Germ

1 tbs ground Flax & fill with Oat Flour

1 Tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp Canola oil & orange oil (mixture bottle I had)

1 egg

1 packet Stevia

sprinkling of salt

added grated apple and carrot

I needed to cook this for at least 70 seconds

Want to try adding nuts, dried cranberries,

coconut, molasses, crushed pinapple, etc

America and 9/11

Just arranged at janet-mcgrath.artistwebsites for prints to be available of this oil painting that I did when I was 19 as an Museum Art School assignment to do a "Fool The Eye" painting known as a "Trompe L'oeil".  I made the set up using the inside of my dad's old trunk lid and stuff I found around my house.  Originally I had the paper image showing a page in an old schoolbook but after 9/11 I changed it to a painting of people running from a terror attack.  The original  has a perfect rustic frame and I hesitate to part with it but am selling it for $1500.

Here it is:

SARAYU - THE SHACK

Something new for me - my first stab at Christian Imagination Art.  I fell in love with "The Shack" image of the female Holy Spirit pulling out all the "negative weeds" in my life and lovingly planting the gifts from my Father - Love, Joy, Hope, Peace and this is the picture that kept flooding my mind....far from perfect..but it is a relief to get it on canvas.  As I painted the background colors the image of Father running to embrace the prodigal son out of the darkness just seemed to appear and I love seeing that motion of His being completed by His Holy Spirit working in the day to day life of the believer.  I kept wanting to find a way to complete the Trinity by adding Jesus and just now I see the possibility of putting him in the red area, on the cross, blood shed for our redemption!...but then - the resurrection!!!

Without that we would have nothing.  May you be in the scriptures this Easter season...rejoicing in that resurrection!  Would love to hear your honest thoughts on this painting...easy to get blind to something I have worked on for so long.  It is available for a print at janet-mcgrath.artistwebsites.com  I must work on another with a better image of Sarayu...in the book she is a effervesant Asian woman working in jeans and garden clothing- always busy digging in the soil of our lives.

 

Why we stuggle with Creativity

A very insightful video discussing ways to stimulate our creative thinking by John Cleese...

10 Reasons Why We Struggle With Creativity

 ppsahluwalia Creativity takes roots right from one’s birth when talent starts shaping several objects in the mind,reserved to be exploited or given shape through pen or [...] Tasos Kontrafouris Creativity is a free road of mind !! saifeldin I copy the following:

5 comments, 3 called-out

Comment Now

Follow Comments Following Comments Unfollow Comments 

Comment Now

Follow Comments Following Comments Unfollow Comments 

299

MISSION INN, Howey-in-the-Hills

Enjoyed a fabulous lunch a few months ago at The Mission Inn, Howey-In-The-Hills, FL and took a few photos with my new iPad.  After seeing Jose Rodriguez's new

oil of a fountain I decided to make a painting from a fountain photo I took in one of the courtyards.  I had a lot of fun working out the distance and colors and adding some people in the empty chairs, along with a bird drinking from the fountain. Just posted it to my janet-mcgrath.artistwebsites.com so that it can be purchased as a print - along with all my other paintings.  Let me know if you like - or if you don't!!!!