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Hi, I don't know about anyone else, but January is zooming by as quickly as December. We have had doctor appointments, and lots of trips to a friend's home who passed away and my hubby is executor and well, that is another can full of messy worms.
Onward, between cleaning and schlepping back and forth between three houses(long story) I did have my Mather class to fall back on for sanity.
Sadly, the Watercolor class is not on right now, but my
Creative Mindfulness class has been so much fun and a peaceful as well as exciting start to the New Year.
Zentangles have been a theme for the month. It is surprising how relaxing drawing repetitive lines can be.
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| oldnewgreenredo |
In my BIO I refer to myself as an artist. I did make my living as a stoneware and porcelain potter. I started out in Drawing and painting, but once I stuck my hands in clay in my sophomore college year, I never looked back.
Clay was resurrected again after my first child, I had a studio above our garage, gave classes to pay for my equipment and started doing art/craft shows and galleries. I also invested my stock in consignment shops, which was a great way to get a following and some great sales.
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| oldnewgreenredo |
I still sketched or painted occasionally, mostly designs for pottery, layouts of displays, and an occasional card or poster for some event. But my skills deteriorated over the years from the lack any serious production in the
2-dimensional arts.
That doesn't mean I didn't have art supply arsenal over the years. My son raided my supplies when he went to college for art. But as the need arose, I added good quality supplies to my bins when I found them thrifted or super sales.
That doesn't mean I didn't have art supply arsenal over the years. My son raided my supplies when he went to college for art. But as the need arose, I added good quality supplies to my bins when I found them thrifted or super sales.
When I started doing the Mather classes(drawing first) I really only needed erasers, I had enough papers and sketchbooks to keep me occupied and a bevy of pencils/pens.
The drawing tools above are what I have been using for the Creative Mindfulness classes. I added a metal square (12x8) to make my original square---square. For the life of me, I have never been able to draw straight lines.
I used a mildly textured Cardstock 12x12 in white...this is excellent thickness for the strong markers, and I got clean lines with a single stroke.
Below is the class prompt courtesy of Mather.com
The above is the prompt for the first week of January's class from Mather. The source of the prompt is in the turquoise print.
I'm not great at following directions, so when I got to the fourth set of lines I screwed up...since we were working in pen...that was it, I had to commit or start over, so I kept going as the class moves swiftly.
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| oldnewgreenredo |
The thing that makes the class interesting is all the participants interpret the prompts differently. I followed the rest of the directions and chose to emphasize my swirls with curving lines instead of following the suggested pattern of straight and slightly curving lines. I used dots to give the idea of distance--like stars in the sky.
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| oldnewgreenredo |
I did focus on the lines from square 2 in the prompt, as well as the black/ball intersections. This gives your eye somewhere to focus on...because these patterns can be quite mesmerizing. Even though none of my lines are exactly curved, round or even...it is an interesting pattern. Butterflies/beachballs and weather patterns, lol.
NEXT Project
The second week in January this was our NEW prompt, again from Mather and the source is pattern collections.com, the artis YuRu Chen
This is called U or V line..
With the added details...and suggestions to take it any way you wanted to...this was so interesting. I was excited to use some color. (Seriously, I need to get a 10-pack of Black Sharpies, though) LOL
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| oldbnewgreenredo |
My work area is perfect, I hang the prompts on the blinds and have the computer for class to the right or left in my 'studio/office/extra bedroom'. How many of us have one of those or wish we had?
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| oldnewgreenredo |
In my design interpretation, I added an extra band, and also tried to add depth by going from narrow to larger on the left one. I wish I had overlapped the crossing bar over the left bar going from left to up. Anyway, this is something you can take many different directions.
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| oldnewgreenredo |
Class moves so quickly...roughly 35-40 min for drawing that you don't have time to take photos of the work in progress. When life settles down here, I will try a few more photos of a similar project in progress.
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| oldnewgreenredo |
By the time I had all the black lines in...and anticipated adding color. I consciously chose a title and a theme...'Nefertari's Jewels'.
The Natural History Museum here in Chicago was always my favorite and I visited many of the special exhibits over the years on Egyptian art and history.
King Tut being the most famous. The beadwork and inlaid semi-precious stonework on metals was amazing, as were the pottery vessels and statues.
Working from my own memory impressions, I colored the green fronds in first, the sun-crown(scepter) of course needed to be warm colors. Wanting to limit the palette I chose red-orange, golden yellow, yellow, green and a blue. Staying consistent within the designs of the black lines, I filled everything in, but left the white in the bands or straps bare.
Thinking of the V motifs as papyrus I added little fronds at the top of each, which really took this to Egypt.
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| oldnewgreenredo |
After filling in selected backgrounds with black and orange, my design ended up being very striking.
Total working time roughly and 1-1/2 hours from start to finish including the class time.
Fun stuff, if you are 55 or over...Mather classes are free and excellent for everyone. Illinois residents are eligible for free supplies in some introductory classes. Just google Mather Creativity Classes or Mather Programs.
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| oldnewgreenredo |
Yep, this is me, and this recommendation is from the heart. I have no Monetary/or Affiliation connection to Mather. The staff is highly educated and many certified Art Therapists and others very helpful. The community of 55 and older students varies and is very interesting. We share our questions and successes, even some failures in the spirit of one learns from ones' mistakes. Mather has many great programs in the following areas: art, travel, health, exercise, the mind, crafts and more. Take a peek.
After a year of crazy health issues, surgery, I love this quote for moving forward into a healthier New Year...
lifted from pinterest...author unknown
AND HUGS to you who are
NEVER TOO OLD
TO LEARN NEW THINGS!
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Thank you for your cooperation, Sandi
