A Day at the Zoo

I spent a day sketching and taking pics at the Toronto Metro Zoo last week. The rhinos are wonderful to draw with their armour-plate hide and vast folds. 

Altogether Pink

A new pop-up piece which featured in the recent 'In Collage' exhibit at Neilson Park Creative Centre. 

For the many people who tell me they'd love to learn how to do pop-up - I will be teaching an 'Artful Pop-Up' workshop  on July 9 & 10 at Neilson Park. Here's the link - scroll down on the link to Summer Workshops. 

Ed

10-minute drawings of Ed in Spruce Blue Nupastel. 

Graphite Drawing

One of our older models who keeps herself in amazing shape. This is done in graphite which nicely captures the expressive qualities of the model. 10-minute pose.

Fast Poses

My latest drawings from the Friday Figure Drawing at Neilson Park Creative Centre. I have been working with this wonderful model for many years now. She keeps getting better at her craft and she's always a pleasure to draw from. Very inventive with her poses and knows how to use the light. These are two-minute gestures done in Derwent fat charcoal, except for the third drawing which is a ten-minute pose using NuPastel.

The Artful Pop-Up Workshop

2 Days - Thurs. July 9 & Friday July 10, 2015 at Neilson Park Creative Centre.

A lot of people have been asking me when I'm going to do another Pop-Up Workshop - so here it is, folks! All levels of experience welcome. Participants will learn basic paper engineering techniques and, as always in my workshops, an emphasis on individual instruction to address each student's skill level and artistic vision. 

Two whole days of playing with paper!

Registration opens in early May at neilsonparkcreativecentre.com (416-622-5294)

Recent Figure Drawings

These are all from the Friday Figure Drawing Class at Neilson Park Creative Centre. We start with one & two-minute gestures, then 5 and 10 minutes. The longest poses are 20 minutes. The top pieces are done in NuPastel (Cordovan), the last one is Spruce Blue NuPastel and Derwent Brown Charcoal - the drawings are collaged onto a canvas and sealed with acrylic medium.

 Rowan

Poised

Blue Vase

Recent Works

Three of my Pastel pieces that were featured in the Drawing Explorations group show at NPCC last week. 

Drawing Exploration: Works by the Thursday Night Group

Sunday, March 22 is the last day to see my group show at Neilson Park Creative Centre .

We will be hosting  a reception on Sunday, March 22 from 2:00-4:00. I hope you can join us!

The Royal

The Royal Winter Fair happened in November, but I thought these drawings of the animals would warm up a cold January day. It was a fun day - I have a soft spot for the goats as we used to keep two when I was younger, Genevieve and Tinkerbell. These are done on Strathmore Charcoal paper using pastel pencils.

Summer at Haliburton

I am thrilled to be included in the line-up of Art Instructors this summer at Haliburton School of the Arts. I'll be teaching Painting and Drawing the Figure: Media Explorations, August 3-7. Looking forward to an exciting year!

Winter Classes!

Wow - that went fast. Three days into the New Year and it's that time - registration is open for Winter Classes at Neilson Park Creative Centre and Visual Arts Mississauga. I'm looking forward to another art-filled session with lots of drawing. 

 At Neilson Park I'll be teaching Contemporary Figurative on Wednesday mornings and
Drawing Explorations on Thursday evenings.

At VAM, I've got Pastels on Monday evenings, Beginner Drawing and Intermediate Drawing on Tuesday mornings and afternoons, Teen Art Discoveries on Wed. and Figure Drawing on Saturday afternoons. 

Get your hands dirty - join me!

Wishing you all a Very Happy New Year!

Costumed Model

When I asked our model for my Contemporary Figurative class to bring a 'costume', I was delighted to have her enter the room with a fabulous 'do', silver mini-dress, silver boots and - to complete the B-movie Starlet ensemble - a toy Phaser with spinning lights. 

Needless to say it was great fun. I couldn't resist sneaking in a few minutes of drawing from my duties as instructor.

Making the News

I was chuffed to have my solo exhibit at Visual Arts Mississauga covered by the Mississauga News last week. They said really nice things and took a pretty decent picture. The show runs through this week until Sunday during regular business hours. I plan to be in attendance on Sunday if you want to drop in and say hi.

Coil

A new Paper Sculpture piece for my upcoming exhibit at Visual Arts Mississauga. 

I've been playing with spirals and how the paper responds to gravity and tension as it unwinds. This is the third of what seems to be turning into a series. Another is in the works and two are currently hanging in the "Imagination" show at Neilson Park Creative Centre. 

The Fall Season is upon us. A great line-up of classes is scheduled at Neilson Park Creative Centre and Visual Arts Missisauga. I'll be teaching Figurative Drawing, Pastel, Intro to Drawing and Intermediate Drawing this term.

Up The Hill

Water Soluble Graphite on watercolour paper. 

September

I'm looking forward to mounting an exhibit in the Emily Carr Gallery at Visual Arts Mississauga, Riverwood (https://www.visualartsmississauga.com/contactus.php). 

I've been working on new drawings and paper sculptures and will be showing them as well as some recent large paintings and pastel pieces. 

Kickstarting the Fall Season!

Short Poses

I've been working with water-soluble crayons in class, then playing on them with water when I get home. Liking the effects of various applications. 

5-minute drawing in blue pastel.

Water-soluble crayons.

Playing with Media

I was asked to teach a Figurative Drawing class at Neilson Park Creative Centre with a mandate of exploration and experimenting with different media and addressing artistic ideas - concept, design, etc - something right up my alley! This is the second session and I'm having so much fun. These are pieces done either as samples or growing out of the experimenting. 

Derwent Inktense watercolour sticks on watercolour paper. The image was drawn on dry paper and I used water once I was able to control the media back home in my studio.

Pastel on raw canvas. I used very soft Diana Townsend and Sennelier pastels - really like the feel of them on the canvas. I ironed over them with a steam iron on a piece of scrap cloth to set the pastel into the canvas. I plan to explore this technique more fully when time allows.

Warm colours in the foreground, cool colours in the back. Pastel added to fast gestures after the fact. Soft pastel (Rembrandt) on Manilla paper.

Inktense sticks on watercolour paper. I saturated the paper with the crayons as much as I could (dry) so I could get really dark areas when I wet the paper. Then puddled the water and blew the colour into the white areas of paper. I enjoy the feel of drawing with the Inktense and then playing with it as watercolour in the studio.