Friday, May 13, 2011

Nancy Chaboun Workshop

What I did today


It has been a great and challenging week! I was fortunate to have an opportunity to participate in a workshop taught by Nancy Chaboun. She traveled here to Birmingham from Scottsdale Arizona where she teaches at the Scottsdale Artists' School. Our main focus was on figure paintings. Something I have wanted to do for years. We loved to watch her paint a demo each morning and then would try it ourselves in the afternoon. Here are a few more photos from this week...

Mrs. Nancy Chaboun, our fabulous teacher

One of our lovely models holding a pose

Nancy's demo (my favorite)

For more on Nancy and her work, visit her website here.


Thursday, May 5, 2011

Have You Seen This Lady?

"Self Portrait"  4x4

The painting challenge this week was a self portrait. EEK! I have not done one since college or even high school (and I'd love to have those). But, like I said, these challenges are to push me out of my comfort zone. And yeah, I took the easy road and didn't do eyes or teeth. I am happy to add that I'll be in a workshop next week and will learn how to mix a good flesh tone, among other skills I'm lacking. This was painted from a photo taken at an art show last year.Oh, and good news! I found my color wheel.

I feel like I need to "bookmark" something here on my blog. The past week has been monumental in our corner of the world. I think everyone has heard about the epic tornado disasters. While our home was not damaged, I think I'm not the same person in the photo I painted above. I have a serious mission in my own backyard. We have been eagerly seeking out opportunities to serve and help in the relief efforts and this dominates our conversations and priorities lately. Over half of our state was impacted. We don't meet many strangers these days and people greet each other with "How are you? Did you have any damage?". The love and generosity is everywhere and you can actually feel it. I'm sure it'll be a long recovery. If you know of any needs, or if you'd like to offer assistance, please let me know. We appreciate your prayers.-Amy