Week 14 In and Out of the Studio

At the beginning of this week I had my last Princeton Uncreative Writing class. Aside from being fun, I gave away the pages of my final project titled From Idea to the Word. The students seemed excited to receive a page from my book. There was one for everyone, the title page and one for Kenny Goldsmith, and one for me.  I was very satisfied with the project and the class and quite sad to see it end.

On Tuesday, I met with a Princeton administrator about my paper which is nearly done!  He said I have a few more edits and a bit of rearranging and then I can call it finished. So, early this week I will put what I hope to be the finishing touches of my research paper which will be published by Princeton's McGraw Center for Teaching and Learning. This entire experience has been great and if any ACCC friends are looking in, I highly recommend the program. It was well worth the drive, time, energy, and commitment.  I am happy to say I will be celebrating the end of the program with a nice dinner at Princeton on May 11th.

So now on to the art. I did go to the studio a few days to do some non-painting work in preparation for a workshop I am doing in June which is a series of 4 Mixed Media workshops at the Riverfront Renaissance Center for the Arts (RRCA) in the Glasstown Arts District. They will be held every Thursday in June from 12 noon to 3 PM. This is an adult workshop series and if you are interested please contact the RRCA or me for details.

On Saturday I went to a drawing session at the Hammonton Art Center (HAC). I joined Cort Bellevance (retired ACCC Art Professor and my boss) and other HAC members and the subject was Brenda's (upstairs studio at HAC) daughter. The drawings below are the result of 4 poses within 2 hours. The average pose was 15-20 minutes.

Medium: Pencil on Paper

Sketchbook Spread of Two Poses

Detail of Portrait Sketch in Pencil and Gouache on Brown Paper

Today (Sunday) I ventured back to Morris Beach. I lived there for nearly 7 years and this is the place I met John. With Paula and Cathie, I painted near Marge and Joe's homestead. We went all the way down to the back bay. I decided for the very first time to paint in oil on site. 

At first it went very smoothly but later became like painting with icing. BUT I am very happy with the results. I did not paint the dock but instead focused on broad areas and scratched some minute details on the panel. I did see moments of pink, purple and orange in the marshes and the sounds of the local birds were a very pleasant song greatly enjoyed while painting.

Back Bay Morris Beach

Medium: Oil on Primed Panel

Detail of tower at Morris Beach back bay

The entire painting probably took about 1.5-2 hours. The panel is small at only 9 by 12 inches.  I do plan on doing more of these. It is a real test of being innovative and creative with color, brushstrokes, and composition. Though not a masterpiece....not bad for my very first plein air painting.

Stay tuned as more to come next weekend here at Cheryl's Studio Blog as I bring you updates from in and out of the studio!