Saturday, January 14, 2017


Variations on the Theme of Rust
These are prints made from a rusty plate I found whilst walking one day. It was conveniently square and I beveled the edges so it wouldn't cut through the paper. I took a couple of 'blind prints' - without colour - which turned out great, but don't translate well in a photo. These were experimental pieces - I'm an occasional dabbler in printmaking. I love the process, but have trouble keeping things clean - not  a technician! 
I played first with water-soluble graphite - I like the Lyra-brand crayons because they're nice and dark. Then I added Inktense crayon colours, mixing them up with the graphite. The results were lovely and subtle - like granite rock or lichen. 



 I finished up with Akua Intaglio inks, first the magenta, then the Paynes Grey - taking two prints from each without re-inking between pulls. 
It was a happy and fortuitous day in the studio, just messing about with colour. 
These samples are just a few of several prints I made from this plate. Later, I may work into the surface, but I really enjoy the aesthetic of 'the found'.




Tuesday, January 03, 2017



Winter Classes Start Next Week!
It's January already, and Art Classes at Visual Arts Missisauga begin next week! So - not a whole lot of time, if you're thinking about signing up.
I'll be teaching Figure Drawing on Monday evenings. I have some great models lined up and looking forward to another fantastic session.
On Tuesday mornings - Introduction to Drawing - a great class for Absolute Beginners, or those getting back into drawing after a long hiatus.
I've had a lot of requests for a Pastel class, so here it is: Tuesday afternoons at VAM. Looking forward to lots of exciting drawing discoveries!
Check out VAM's offerings here: http://www.visualartsmississauga.com/programs/?type=adult-programs

Sunday, January 01, 2017


Figure Drawing Workshop
It's been a busy Fall session. Some of my classes didn't run, so I took advantage of the time and took a few classes myself. These drawings are from a happy weekend in Studio B at Neilson Park in a Figure Drawing workshop with John Leonard. Two full days of nothing but drawing from the model. It was so great!


Memory Drawing - First we did a quick gesture (grey pastel). We spent a couple of minutes just gazing at the model. Then we closed our eyes and did a contour drawing, trying to keep the second drawing as close to the first as we could.


                          

Two-handed Drawing.   


Cross-Contour.




Two-handed Drawing





10-30 second gestures


Two-handed contour drawing


Fast gestures.