It’s been a while, I know. Gardening in the summer in the Florida heat has proved to be quite the challenge. That, and my love for art and a passion to learn as much as I can put a damper on me getting out into the garden except to water my thirsty plants.
I have been enrolling in several online art courses the past three years. Started out with acrylic abstracts with Jody Ohl and a patreon of Lisa Boardwine who paints abstract oils and cold wax.
Then I enrolled in a year of acrylic abstracts with Judy Woods. I popped in to some individual classes with Elizabeth St. Hilare (collage) and became a patreon of Lioba Bruckner (acrylics, watercolor, gouache, mixed media). I have been loving Daniel Gerhartz (oils) and Lena Rivo (gouache) and have been addicted to Malcolm Dewey’s impasto Impressionism on youtube and some one-off online classes. I am also looking forward to taking Brad Kunkle’s online class on his oil/gold leaf process in January. Oh, and a Jane Davies mixed media class in December.
For nearly a year, I have been under the tutelage of American French Impressionist oil painter Valerie Colleymore and a student of her atelier since May or June. During that same time, I enrolled in the local college painting 101 class with Mrs. Lovero, whom I love and had for drawing 101 a few years back.
I have learned so much from these beautiful women. Valerie has taught me so much about composition, color mixing, and value studies. Mrs. Lovero has spurned a fascination in me of mixed media… particularly abstract realism, collage, and even 3-D art. She realizes I love depth and texture and has also encouraged me to seek out encaustic art. Meanwhile I am preparing for an art show of my final project, a series of Florida animals, due in two weeks.
On top of all of that, I enrolled in Milan Art Institute, an online art school that completes in a year. So far, we have concentrated on oils, graphite, and charcoal. We have worked on indirect painting with vibrant underpaintings, subtractive painting, perspective drawing, gesture drawing, and still life painting and drawing.
I have also been busy filling up my art journal with lots of mixed media ideas… in a discarded library book given to me by Mrs. Lovero. Here’s the front cover… and my Make Art Not War front cover with Athena Goddess of Art and War but she prefers art!
So it appears I am finding my artistic voice. I definitely have preferences in color and subject matter and my media of choice. I plan to add more art to my web site and also to start a youtube specific to my art journey. Would love to share my progress with you along the way. Coming with?
