I can feel a little hint of spring in the air lately and it's got me excited to start teaching again. I always enjoy my semesters at the Ridgewood Community School and I'm always happy to see new and familiar faces.
This time around: I'll be teaching Drawing for Beginners, Watercolor for Beginners, and Watercolor Level 2. Also, last semester I presented a lecture about my summer in Giverny; this was a very popular program so we're bringing it back around for this spring semester. I wasn't able to teach the drawing course last semester and it's filling up quickly so if you're interested in it then I suggest registering asap. Classes begin on Monday, March 4th and there's still time to register, which you can do online: https://rcs.ridgewood.k12.nj.us/brochure__registration or by calling 201-670-2777 Looking forward to another great semester!
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I just found this website that has some photos of paintings and drawings by my great, great Aunt, Tineke (Ties) Schaap-Stuurman (1918 - 2001). She was Dutch and had an artistic family. I only met her when I was a toddler so I don't remember her, but apparently she thought I was quite a joker even as a 3 year old.
The funny thing is that there's a strong similarity between her style and mine. We have some of her original art, but I never tried to emulate her style or anything. There must be some genetic component to the way we make brushstrokes and use paint. Or maybe it's how we see the world which determines how we paint it. I'm not sure, but it's very interesting to see and contemplate. I wish I could have spoken with her about painting to see if we shared similar thoughts. It looks like she worked en plein air also. The photos of her on the site were taken by a Dutch photographer, which is also cool. You can click on the image below to go directly to the site for more information. It's all in Dutch, but there's information about each of the artworks. We were cleaning out some things today and I found some old treasures. Just like a lot of kids, I enjoyed drawing. My earliest memories of drawing were when I was about 8 years old. I'm sure I did some stuff in school before that, but I remember independently drawing around 8 - 10 years old. One of the things that I also did was to trace over the outline of newspaper photos with a sharpie. I think I may have been younger when I was doing this and I'm not sure why it appealed to me.
In elementary school, I remember getting a how to draw book from the library and I think it was Star Wars themed because I did a step-by-step drawing of a Yoda from it; I'm not into Star Wars, but that memory sticks with me. I was really into cartoons, but I was also compelled to do portraits. I did a portrait of my Grandmother and I can still remember her sitting as I drew her. Luckily, I put a date on these drawings (10 years old). I drew a portrait of George Washington from the dollar bill and I did a master copy of an Edward Hopper who I liked a lot when I was young. I really cherish these old drawings from when I was a kid and it's interesting because I can see glimpses of my style in these early works. There's something deeply rewarding about drawing and I can never quite put it into works. It's about capturing what I see and creating something new. I'm so happy that I rediscovered these. When I first arrived in Giverny, I started thinking about ways that I can differentiate my paintings from the iconic views that Monet painted. The last thing I want is to do any Monet-style copycat pictures; I want to do something unique and decided that one way to achieve that is by changing my viewpoint to get a variety of perspectives.
With that in mind, I've been developing this new Japanese bridge painting. The idea came from a sketch that I did as more of a panorama view. I eventually decided to do an oil study, but from the other side of the bridge and with less of a perspective angle. I liked the study and decided that it will work as a larger painting. I did the underdrawing on the final canvas today so that I can begin painting tomorrow morning (with weather cooperating). I don't always do such an elaborate underdrawing, but this bridge has a very specific shape and I need to get the curvature correct before begin the painting. I feel like an architect or designer when I do work like this and it's a change since my process is usually more spontaneous. It's hard to tell from the photo, but the final canvas is fairly large and will take some time to finish. Wish me luck! |
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