notes from the airing cupboard.. Oranges in oils

So, I mentioned that I moved my workspace up to my small spare bedroom, and felt the benefit of being away from the general living space of the rest of the house. After the first painting, of an orange, which I'd set up in  shadow box, on top of a chair on top of a table, I decided it would be useful to have some shelves, to vary the height of my subjects. And then I remembered that the other wall is a set of cupboards, with lots of shelves! Da-naaa!!

So I turned my easel and lamp around, moved a few towels, placed the shadow box on the right shelf and set up the next arrangement. Oranges in the airing cupboard. Perfect...

Fruit in the airing cupboard..

One of the important factors in using the shadow box is the ability to control lighting, or to prevent more light than you want, on the subject. I lined the edges of the cupboard with black fabric, and used the cupboard door to block external light. Yes - a lot of time is spent preparing and setting up. This is so important. Composing, arranging and lighting your subject  is the making of the picture. It has to look delicious, or there's no point in painting it. So all this faffing about isn't a waste of time, it's the creative part. 

One lamp on the subject, another on the canvas. 

I did my preparatory drawing in my sketch book - I love this stage. This is a step which so many students leave out. Why? Drawing is information gathering - we draw information from the subject, to gain understanding of spacial and tonal relationships and to get the balance right. 

Something magic that happens when we draw before painting. Familiarity with the subject, an intimate getting-to-know it better. Then, at paint stage, we've already observed it, we kind of FEEL it, and the NEW decisions we are making are about colour - we still have to make the spacial and tonal decisions too, but we're half way there with those by then..

Underpainting, over a burnt sienna base colour

I painted the white canvas with a layer of burnt sienna, as a good base to paint on.

I propped my drawing up as additional refrence material next to my easel. Sometimes looking at the drawing helps, even though the fruit is still right there!

With this painting, I was trying out glazing techniques, and trying to be a bit looser. The canvas was one that I'd already opened, from my pre-Milliken Brothers days, and it was horribly rough and textured, which at least helped to restrict any over-tight tendancies. Sometimes though, it can feel like we're battling with the materials, which is not a good thing. I stuck with this painting till I couldn't stand the rough canvas any more, and moved on to the next one (making sure it was a nice fine linen).

For me, painting really is about the doing of it, rather than the completing of it. The hope is always that the next one will be better, and the next and the next...

Up and coming workshops: Oils weekend, Belfast. For info email julie@juliedouglas.co.uk

Press!

Last week I was delighted to be asked if I would contribute to an article in The Irish Times, by Roisin Ingle, who is, in my opinion, an angel. The main theme was on ways to improve on the year ahead and my subject was creativity - what does it mean and how might everyone get started. 

We talked for an hour and a half, and had only begun to get going... then Roisin had to get just 400 words out of it!!  My gist was - everyone is creative, no matter what you've been told. So lets.... DO IT!! The article is below if you are interested. Ken Robinson is an Education genius, whose book The Element is well worth reading, and for giving to your teenage children. 

A little bit of active creativity will put a spark in your step

FIVE YEARS AGO Sir Ken Robinson delivered an 18-minute TED talk on how schools are responsible for killing creativity. To date it has been downloaded almost eight million times.

His argument that we are all born with vast natural creativity and talent which our educational institutions tend to stifle resonated deeply with people. Friends tipped each other off about the talk, parents showed it to their children, and companies screened it.

The notion that nurturing your creative side in 2012 should be limited to so-called arty types is nonsense. According to experts in the field, not tapping into this part of ourselves is tantamount to self-neglect.

For those who already regularly flex their creative muscles, this is obvious. But for people who don’t, suddenly attempting to be creative can feel awkward. If you are stuck for ideas, ask yourself this question: “What can I do that is just for me, that is enjoyable, that will take all my attention and keep me focused for five minutes or five hours?” Nurturing your creative side could mean anything from making pastry to cutting the grass. Whatever the answer turns out to be, enjoy.

THE EXPERT 

Belfast-based art teacher Julie Douglas meets a lot people through her work and says the biggest block to creativity is “negative self-perception”. In her classes, especially among beginners, she hears a lot of stories around how people view themselves creatively: my sister was the arty one; I was told I couldn’t draw; my drawings were the ones the teacher held up in class to show everyone how not to do it. According to Douglas, negative past experiences colour our own perception of our ability and “they are always wrong”.

“Once students treat themselves more kindly and give up thinking they should somehow be able to do it automatically then they begin to amaze themselves by how much they can do. That’s how creativity works.”

Douglas believes anybody can paint well. “I believe less in natural talent than in skill and the art of learning. The best artists and teachers describe themselves as still learning. We are always wanting to try something new and learn from it.”

“[Creativity] works best when you have no expectations, when there is no end product in mind. Watch a small child who has been given a crayon and a piece of paper. They have no idea where the next line is going to go, they are just engrossed in the act of connecting hand to crayon, crayon to paper. That’s creativity.”

In a supermarket or in a queue for the train, Douglas says she can pick out people who are not nurturing their creative side. “It’s as though their light has gone out or they are missing their sparkle. We are a creative species. If we stick to a treadmill of work or duty, ignoring the natural want in us to be creative we can become unfulfilled and depressed . . . being engrossed in something you enjoy brings meaning to our lives and answers a need within us all.”

Recently, Douglas has been painting a lot of cakes and tarts, simply because of how attractive they look. When she emailed the images to students the response was immediate and warm.

“Why am I painting tarts?” she asks, before answering her own question. “Because they make people feel good. No better reason.” RI

Portfolio Course

Size MATTERS. Some drawings work better small, others insist on being huge. Chalks and oil pastels work so well when you go Big. 

B. Houlihan, student - this wonderful drawing is of a tiny beech nut, which is sitting on the top of her page! Delicious!! 

Long days, and working late into the evening mean students really bond with each other and reach new levels in their drawing ability. 

But of course, it's dirty work... Amazingly, the artwork was spotlessly clean! 

Honestly, some students let their teacher walk all OVER them. But not me. I just have to have a little lie down now and again..!!

Geese in the Snow, colour pencil on Bristol Board

Geese - colour pencil on Bristol Board by Julie Douglas

I want to wish you all a Happy Christmas.
Thank you for your custom and support through 2011 and I look forward to seeing you in 2012. You have made every class fun and inspirational and I find it amazing and rewarding that so many students are life long, becoming friends with me and with their group - there is a strong bond through creativity and I appreciate you very much. Thank you. And while everyone feels the benefits of taking up the pencil or brush, in ways far beyond artwork (because it impacts everything in your experience!), I think perhaps the one who learns the most may well be me. So keep asking those questions, for they make me THINK!

And remember, if you don't have time to paint, make the decision to enjoy noticing beautiful (and ordinary) things that you might like to paint, seeing the way light filters across things, noticing wonderful shapes or colours.  Just observe them, and know you will come to it soon. A big part of the joy in painting is noticing the things you like.

Art - it's not just for Christmas, its for Life!

Autumn, the colour is BLUE.

Have I mentioned that I love trees..?? I know, I know..  My weekly classes have been painting leaves, and when I innocently shared my enthusiastic (if obvious) discovery that, 'isn't it AMAZING that no two leaves are the same...?', one of my students suggested that perhaps I needed to get out more..! Well!! 

I do resist collecting leaves for as long as possible, for once I start, I can't stop. I left it till this week, and it's now or never for they are nearly gone. But a couple of bright days and the dominant colour isn't gold, it's blue. Joy. 

You can't get more Out than this. 

The heart of the matter.

I am an Attractor of hearts. I have always been one to walk with my eyes on Search mode, looking up, around, all about me, as well as what's at my feet. And so often, the shape that jumps out at me is a heart-shape. I see it in reflections, clouds, all over the place. I was at a concert in the summer, and was delighted, when I saw the photo, to find one in the lighting..!

When I lived in Sussex, the beaches were full of beautiful stones with natural, sea-eroded holes in the middle, perfect for threading on rope. Nature is full of such amazing things. When I moved to County Clare, my children were still small, and had grown sharing an awareness of their surroundings. They began discovering a new shape of stone - heart shaped. It amazed me, they would come in from the fields announcing MUM, I got you another heart! Wow!

Some of my childrens gifts - but the white one on the left was from a friends son. I picked them up from the airport and Samuel rummaged in his pocket saying he'd brought something for me from Spain, and produced the white heart. Aw.

I have only found one for myself, quite by accident, this black one, on the shores of Belfast Lough. Pocket sized.

Earlier this year, I was on the beautiful beach at Newcastle, County Down, and my (now taller-than-me son) decided he'd hunt for a heart. The stones and rocks there were blue, with fabulous stripes on them, but they were smooth and rounded and I reckoned he'd not succeed.

But he certainly did. Not only did he find THREE (a bumper crop!) heart shaped stones.

 but he also noticed a really big heart. He was walking ahead of me and stopped in his tracks, and everything about his body language said - I don't believe it. He pointed and said - its there. LOOK!

The moral of this story? Be aware. Look. And laugh when everything works perfectly!

Gourd-eous gourds, pencil and colour pencil, sketchbook

It's been a poor year for pumpkins and gourds, apparently, but I kept popping into the florists, full of hope, and eventually he had a few choice warty specimens waiting for me.

I don't know why I love them, I only know that I do. I think they are so weird that they're wonderful. And they're great to draw and paint, warts and all. 

Next up, Monthly Monday Killaloe, Art for Teenagers, Belfast, and Intensive Portfolio Course. Email for info on these as wel as Big Drawing Days, Portrait days, Oils and Water Colour workshops.

julie@juliedouglas.co.uk

Drawing, a contented heart.

Colour pencil is a much under rated medium. There are a few points to remember when using it. One is size - the larger you work, the longer it will take. Another is paper surface. The smoother the surface the more layers of pencil it will accept. Bristol Board is extremely smooth, and unforgiving. Unforgiving means that its not easy to remove marks you've drawn, but the slippery surface encourages cautious mark-making in the first place... Another element is the brand of pencils, and they're all different. The only way to know which brands suit you is trial and error. Some brands are waxy, some scratchy (like chalk scraping on board, aaaaaargh), some hard, some soft. Some are delicious. Some are yucky. Some are light fast, many are not. A useful rule of thumb is that the larger the range in a brand, the less the colours will blend together. Personally, I prefer a smaller palette that I can layer to my hearts content. What a lovely thing - a contented heart.

This drawing took 60 hours in total. The line drawing stage alone took 19 hours. I used an F pencil to do the line, which I rubbed out as I went along putting the colour in.  I am showing it to you as you might find it interesting. It is NOT so you can copy it. I drew it freehand - its the only way forward. Trust me, I know these things.

Caran d'Ache Prismalo 1 and Van Gogh pencils. The entire Van Goch range is light fast, but doesn't layer well at all. (grrrrrr....)

Drawing is very good for your health. If you use a daylight bulb all the time (day as well as night) it will stop you straining your eyes (personally, my eyes are supersonic, and I'm sure the drawing has helped). And when you get really engrossed in what you're doing, you can't think of anything else. So when all else fails:

Next up - Big Drawing Day, Portrait Day, Monthly Mondays, and Weekly Classes. 

For info email julie@juliedouglas.co.uk

Water Colour Painting and life drawing, Dublin

There are so many myths about Water Colour painting that I couldn't begin to start... Mainly, the impression that students have is that it is more difficult than other mediums. This is simply Not True. (Trust me, I know these things..) Water Colour is a lovely medium, and its a great way to learn about colour, as it uses pure pigment, and no White. I did a long Crammer-Day in Dublin recently and none of the students had used water colours before, but their work was stunning. We used a variety of techniques and subjects. 

Selection of paintings by students who had never used Water Colour before, Dublin.

In the next room to mine during this course, a Sports Shop was having a sale, and I spied some wonderful plastic Torso which were displaying the sports shirts. I tried to buy one, without success, but one of my students sneaked off and did a better job of persuading them to sell one, and presented me with my very own Plastic Model for drawing. I've never been given such a wonderful gift in my life, THANK YOU Mary! My students on the next course also loved it.. (the next thing I'm after is a Bust, maybe Beethoven, or Mozart..!)

Being silly (wearing my drawing...! But it shows you the scale) 

Compressed charcoal, demonstration drawing, by Julie Douglas

Next Up - Big Drawing Workshop.

Contact details - From UK call 07730560517, from Ireland, call 087 1330040

email julie@juliedouglas.co.uk

Drawing subjects... and visual feasting.

Every moment of every day is a visual feast. Even if you haven't time to sit to paint, allow your eyes to absorb the amazing beauty all around you - this means not Thinking about it, but just.... Looking. When we really start to observe light, and shape and colour, our lives begin to be transformed. How could we not have noticed how colourful everything is? When I was walking the dog yesterday I noticed some unusual looking objects on the ground - just one or two at first, but eventually a whole heap of them.  They look like buttons from a formal blazer, or perhaps little drawer-knobs. They look like they have been carved, each one with the same pattern on the top. Knobbly, very solid, brown with hints of greens and red. They are seeds from Eucalyptus trees, I deduced by looking...up! (I am very grateful that they'd already landed on the ground, they'd be a bit painful if they landed on your head)

 Just peering at the detail on objects like this increases your visual awareness,  with no effort on your part at all! Stare, wonder, unravel the details with your eyes, and the next time you draw something, you will be as tuned in as if you'd been drawing all week. 

Tip of the day - don't look hard for somthing interesting, it's right beside you. And when you are out and about, sometimes the most interesting landscape is at your feet. 

Double click on the image to see it BIGGER....

Next Workshops, April - Drawing on location.  Portrait Drawing.  Email for details.