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. I've been working on a series of self portraits lately and most of them haven't turned out well. Since I've been struggling with them I decided to try a watercolor. I've always felt more comfortable with a brush and I feel like the stars aligned tonight.
I'm happy with this self portrait because it looks like me, but it also feels like me. This is something that's hard to put into words, but I try to capture that feeling in every portrait that I paint. The physical likeness mostly comes from proportion, but I'm not quite sure where the deeper feeling comes from. I also had some good realizations with this self portrait and it developed smoothly. I started off with an accurate underdrawing in pencil and then focused on the overall forms before I developed the detail. Yesterday, I was sketching late at night and it hit me how important the underlying form and structure is. For instance, if I sketch a face the detail has to sit on top of the form. There are a lot of elements involved with any painting, but I think this idea of form before detail is very important. This is a quick update that my Ridgewood Community School classes begin next week on Tuesday, October 10th. I first started teaching in 2015 and I look forward to every single semester.
If you are interested in registering for my watercolor course then please follow this link: https://register.capturepoint.com/reg/cat_program_class_detail.cfm?s=&t=&season_id=18502&program_id=2089724&family_mbr_str= |
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