The Prunifolia Azalea is Callaway Garden’s signature flower. The beautiful scarlet blossoms open in August and that is why I’ve chosen this time to offer It as the subject for my next  Watercolor Crash Course! Art Works.Pine Mountain. August 24..

 Recently, I read an excerpt from “The Tools: Transform Your Problems Into Courage, Confidence and Creativity” and wanted to share this enlightening statement with my students; , “a real creative process isn’t immediately gratifying.  It’s frustrating, mysterious, and uncertain.  We all put such unrealistic pressure on ourselves to do everything well, even our first attempts. This attitude is certainly prevalent in the art classroom. Drawing and painting are not easy, but many students think they should be and often throw in the towel long before they’ve given themselves a fair chance.  I hate to see that happen, because I know if they keep moving forward they will push through the frustrations to the rewards of creative expression. Perhaps it would be encouraging for them to know even professional artists hit brick walls sometimes. The trick (a mind game with yourself)  is to accept the worst outcome possible and forge ahead anyway, in spite of the negative voices in your head telling you to give up. Most of the time, the result is not as bad as you think it will be and many times you will produce something you really like. Take heart, have courage, keep moving.

My painting, “Southern Magnolia” was chosen to receive the Manfred Metcalf Award in the Columbus Artists Guild 2013 Members’ Show. It was a thrill to be so publicly acknowledged as an artist.
The painting sold the same day. What a validating experience! The same day this happened, I was commissioned to paint an old family home. This house has had the same family living in it since 1910. They have a strong emotional attachment to the place and I will do my best to convey that. I’ve finished my preliminary studies and completed the final drawing. Now, I will decide on a color scheme and a value pattern. It is a process.

This is my entry for the Columbus Artists’ Guild 2013 Exhibition. The opening reception is on June 8, from 6:00-8:00, at the Illges Gallery, inside the Corn Center for the Visual Arts, part of CSU’s River Park Campus, corner of Dillingham Street and Front Avenue. Public is welcome and the reception is free. My painting, “Southern Magnolia” was inspired by a fresh palette of colors; Cerulean, Antwerp, Cobalt and Ultramarine blues, Aureolin, Winsor and Gamboge yellows, and Permanent Rose, Scarlet Lake and Winsor reds. With this primary palette, I mixed all of my greens and browns. I simplified the shapes in my composition and did a value study before starting. This planning allows me the pleasure of spontaneous experimentation during the painting process.

All of my watercolor and drawing students know they have a standing invitation to any Columbus Artists’ Guild meeting as my guest. Monthly meetings are on third Thursdays. Tonight at 6:00 at the Columbus Main Library on Macon Road (in the Synovus Meeting Room) we will start with light refreshments, followed by a brief meeting and then the scheduled program. Yuriy Totskiy will do a demonstration of his 3-D Paper Portraits. To learn more, visit http://www.columbusartistsguild.org.

This painting is a new subject for my beginning watercolor students. The class is scheduled for Saturday and Sunday, 12:30-4:30 each day. I am looking forward to this eight hour workshop because I will have more time to give to each student, more time for demonstrations, more time for detailed instructions than my usual four hour “Watercolor Crash Course” permits.

Thursdays, 6:00-8:00, CSU – “Beginning Watercolor” (4 two hour classes = 8 hours total).