Feeling bad for those back home

It got a little wet and gray here.. but nothing like up north.
They got slammed with a freak snowstorm and now are freezing without power! My folks must be overwhelmed, with so much to clean up, and not even the leaves up off the ground yet. I heard the nearby town got 21 inches of wet snow. Everyone is quiet now... My new tenants must be dazed. I haven't heard from them. I am praying that the trees didn't fall on the house or the pipes freeze in the night. I'm hoping all my neighbors are safe and sound.

Trick or Treat

After the drawing lesson...

Getting the kids to look at the skeletan and not freak about the 206 bones. They made several pencil sketches before painting small studies of details. In an effort to spread the art... kids make small paintings with instructions to give them away!

figuratively speaking, my classes get lively

I put pressure on my colleagues at lunch, asking them to come to my classes and just pose for a few minutes. The results were revealing of some hidden hams and the freedom to exercise hands and eyes and inevitably analyze our assumptions about the human body. Starting with the stick figure, we moved to contour and gestural lines, and then after pointing out flaws and successes, the kids leapt at a chance to paint a celebrity figure of their choice.

art about art

It's one of the modern obsessions that strikes a painless blow. The artist uses observation and abstraction to distill the essence of the original work. The results come with humor and wit.

Here are some student paintings just wet on the walls!

Can you guess who the original works were by?

I'd reveal the lazy bum if...

I wasn't too busy living the life of a Miami explorer.
My deepest fear is that if I stop doing things, I will never get started again!
Wouldn't it be wonderful?
So I painted this weeks ago, and stashed it above the bookshelf. Then in the patio. Now...where?

Life drawing as an artist's life line

My dearest friend has dragged me to the Uof M campus to join a life drawing group that meets early (coffee on the way there) Saturday mornings.
It's starting the work again... I am starting to loosen up, see the relationships, figure out the lines and find the light. After hours of looking, there is a shift inside me. When I leave, everything I look at is "art".
It is a great way to live.

I don't want to be WHISTLER'S mother

I imagine she put quiet a guilt trip on her son. Wasn't he off gallevanting about London, painting his high society portraits while mother was back at home waiting for his letters? I put my son on the plane yesterday after only 41 hours of visiting, and it was hard to let him go. Where is the balance to be found between loving his company and then letting him go? My memory is saturated with precious moments gone by, and saying goodbye really wrings the juice from my heart. But these are his times. He is looking to his future. And kids rarely look back. I didn't look back myself until I hit 40. Don't worry, I'll be happy. I've got paintings and students waiting for my attention.
I did this painting today as a demonstration in class of a cartoon parody.

Technicolor skies

Still feeling like an alien. Everything I look at is a wonder. Miami has skies like the west has mountains.
I was particularly impressed by the range from turquoise to pink to yellow!
no photoshop used!