Finished charcoal and exercises from two recent workshops

 

It has been such a long time since I last posted anything but I had been very busy taking three different workshops and my usual gesture, figure drawing. About two months ago, I finished my charcoal, Pitcher and Peach, which I enjoyed doing very much and it is now showing at the Newberry Gallery in Santa Monica CA. http://newberrygallery.com/.

The following images are exercises done in these workshops I mentioned above, and am only posting as what they are; work done in class with different approaches to spark creativity.

The first workshop I took at the Art Center was  taught by Artist Saul Kaminer from Mexico City, who masters both painting and sculpture. Here is a link of his latest exhibit. http://www.conaculta.gob.mx/fotogaleria.php?id=3402. During the first week of the workshop he asked us to take just plain kraft paper and draw  objects as he called out the names of them. We would close our eyes and draw anywhere on the paper trying to reach the edges of the paper and overlapping the objects over the next object called out. Here are some examples of those exercises. I have used colored paper underneath the exercise to bring out the design and colors used.  In the first exercise we were allowed to use only two color, then three and ending  with four in the last exercise. The paper underneath doesn't count.  We were asked to use crayons and there was no time to improve or think of what the end result would look like.  To finish the exercise we had to cut the paper in an asymmetrical design and cut out portions in some.  The workshop consisted of four weeks everyday, from 10:00AM to 2:00PM, spaced in between by three weeks of homework.

There is more work to show, and I will in the following days hoping to keep up with my blog and start working on some Alla Prima still lifes after I close the chapter on this experience with figurative expressionism and Latin American Art.