Images of the end of the first week

This workshop I have  been writing about is a workshop I took several months ago, but since the teacher would come from Mexico City for one week, during  a three month period, it has taken me some time to organize the work and photograph it.  On the Friday the teacher  left after the first week, it was announced to us that we had to do some homework that consisted of four oils using a very limited palette, plus colors and combinations we did not frequently use.  He gave us the titles of the paintings, and that would be the theme. The first one was "In the middle of the Jungle", followed by a title I had forgotten but had to do with the elements of nature.  The third was " A Rock in my Path" and the fourth was "A Pelican eating a Fish at Sea"  They could be abstract or realistic and mostly from imagination.

A Pelican eating a Fish at Sea

                                                                    

A Rock in my Path

Element of Nature

                 In the Middle of the Jungle                     

More fast excercises with crayon during a recent workshop

Again these exercises had to be done fast and there was no time to correct or try to make the coloring of paper smoother. These were interesting but very confusing when you tried to take advantage of the creases and design made by marking lines at random.  This exercise consisted of making folds in the paper and drawing a line or curve from the crease line to whatever point we wished.  As the paper was folded the previous line was covered making it imposible to know what kind of design was being created. The paper could not be unfolded until all the paper had been used up. Once it was unfolded we were supposed to color portions we found interesting, and try to create an interesting piece.  Another challenge in these exercises was the fact that  we were supposed to use colors  and combinations that we had seldom used or that for some reason we disliked.

As the time for the second exercise started, I tried to be more careful with my choice of creases and lines but time was up, before I could finish it.

This looks like a childs drawing but the only thing that mattered was to be able to use the creases, lines and color in an expressive way without altering any of those creases or lines.  The truth is I had no idea what I was going to do when I had no control over the exercise.  This was the first that to me was a little bit of a nightmare and I think it was expressed in the result.

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.