Busy October

I have been quite actively preparing for three upcoming exhibits.  Two of them are in October and I will send paintings for the third at the beginning of the month!

First, I am setting up an exhibit as featured artist at Amaro Winery in Las Cruces, which I will hang next Tuesday, September 25.  The reception for the exhibit is Friday, October 5th, 5-9 p.m.  Come and enjoy an evening of art, wine, live music by Soulshine, and food. 

You can visit  Amaro Winery to see the paintings (and enjoy the wine and company) from September 25-January 2 (2013) during regular tasting room hours, 1-6 p.m. M-Sat, 1-5 Sun, and, of course, on Fridays until 9 or 10 p.m.  Amaro is located at 402 S. Melendres St., Las Cruces, just south of Amador Ave.

Next, my annual studio event is coming!  Save the dates!

2012 Holiday Studio Gala

SpiritBird Studio

221 Karr Canyon Road, High Rolls

(directions at www.SaraJChambers.com)

Saturday & Sunday

October 20 & October 21, 2012

2-6 p.m. Saturday

2-5 p.m. Sunday

New paintings

Holiday Savings

Refreshments

Hourly drawings for art

Silent art auctions

This is happening the same weekend as the High Rolls Apple Festival.  The fall colors should still be great, so come on out and enjoy the art and the mountains!!

Last, I will have six paintings in the Artists Haven Gallery November show, which opens November 3rd in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.  I am excited to have my paintings in this special exhibit for the third year in a row.  The gallery features six artists a month, plus they display two pieces of each artist's art year around.

Look for the postcards announcing each event.  See you at Amaro and SpiritBird Studio!!

Resources for Gesture Drawing

I have been teaching gesture drawing in my drawing class lately.  I have found that doing this exercise is ADDICTING!  Below are some excellent online resources for gesture drawing.  The Pixielovely site is especially amazing.  How generous!  I expect to make a contribution to keep this one going.

http://www.terryvision.com/pages/previousBlogs/Blog_17Jan07-Tips.html 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=ctkRwRDdajo 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmiwGm32dXU&feature=related  explanation and demo plus great references!

Pixielovely Figure Drawing Training Tool:  http://pixelovely.com/gesture/figuredrawing.php  FREE!

Come join us for drawing class challenges on most Tuesdays, 9-12.  Cost is only $31.78 per class or $105.94 for 4 classes, prepaid.

Painting in Open Acrylics

I have been training myself to paint in acrylics, in preparation for our trip to Peru  I have acquired a 6x8 Thumbox Guerilla Easel.  It's very fun to use.

I am combining Golden Open Acrylics with regular ones to get blending with fast drying.  I got a couple of sample sets that have 22 ml tubes--just right for travel.  So far, I still battle the regular acrylics drying too fast in the New Mexico dryness, but I am learning to tweak them in combo with the Opens.  Here's hoping--we are leaving soon!

I painted this 8x6 experiment of Yarrow on linen today in not too much time. I am getting faster!:

I find I like using a palette knife, as the texture seems better, after putting in an underpainting.  Let me know what you think. 

Spectrafix--Miracle Fixative!

I seldom if ever use fixative with my pastels.  The boards that I use with pumice surface really holds the pastel without fixative.  But I have explored ways of sealing and varnishing my pastels in order to maintain the bright colors and textures without glass.  Although I was able to do so, the process was extremely imperfect:  It required much labor, lots of coats of spray varnish, much reworking, could not be done in my studio (fumes!), was weather dependent (wind! Think "New Mexico"!)

Recently, another multi-media artist, Bob Burridge, recommended using Spectrafix  casein-based fixative as a means of overcoming theses obstacles.  I just tried the Spectrafix on a small pastel (above).  I cannot see any difference in color or texture from "before" to "after"!!  I am AMAZED.  I plan to try varnishing it after it sets for a week, per one of the customer comments.  Totally no smell or fumes.  Cannot wait to try painting a pastel on canvas.  It will be great for charcoal drawings, also.  Thanks, Bob! 

Here is their website: http://spectrafix.com/index.html

PS--I am not receiving a commission from Spectrafix ;>)

Chile and Drawing

This is a partial view of a three foot tall chile that I am painting to be donated for the Hospice El Paso art fund raiser auction in early September.  What a challenge!  Since this is poppies, the working title is "Red Hot Poppers."  Get your bids in early!

Meanwhile, I am also offering an ongoing drawing class (3 hours per session), which will meet the next three weeks in July--Monday, July 16; Tuesday, July 24; and Tuesday, July 31. Classes will begin again early in September, probably on Tuesday mornings, unless there is consensus for another time.  Stay posted for times and dates.

The July classes will meet 9 a.m. to noon each session.  Cost for the three July classes is $75 plus tax, if paid in advance. Otherwise, the classes are $30 plus tax per class.  Tuition beginning in September will be $100 plus tax for 4 classes at a time when paid ahead, or $30 plus tax per class.

I will be teaching and reviewing drawing exercises and skills, and will begin to cover the basics in drawing the human face and figure when it seems appropriate to the class members.  Each class will feature skills, inspiration and application.  Join us to hone your drawing skills, gain some discipline and incentive and become the draughtsman (-woman /person?) you are meant to be!  Call to sign up today:  575-430-6148 or send me an e-mail:  sarajchambers@yahoo.com.

Creative Composition Coming!

My "Creative Composition" class is coming up soon!  I have shortened the class to three days--June 18-20 (M-W), in order to accommodate some students' schedules, so the price is now $250.  Such a deal!  I still have a few openings.

The class will meet from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily for the three days.  We will cover the most important elements of composition, except for drawing, which many folks are taking next week from my friend and fellow artist David Barranti at the Cloudcroft Art Workshops in Cloudcroft, NM.

Come find out what the masters have to teach us, as well as secrets that many have never heard or were able to learn.


What is Gustav Klimt teaching us in this famous portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer (that only a few years ago auctioned for $132 million dollars)???!

Pastel Society of El Paso Demo

What a fun time I had doing the demonstration for the Pastel Society of El Paso last Thursday.  About 20 people watched me create this 20 x 16" painting of a garden with red flowers:

I love painting in pastels.  They are so direct and have such a powerful punch of color.  They are also a very fast medium for me.  This painting took me about an hour, and that was while I was talking!

I had a terrific group of artists join me for my "Small Jewels" class on Saturday!  We each created between two and five paintings.  The artists learned that they could create powerful, colorful "jewels" of art on small formats in a very limited period of time in almost any medium.  These pieces encourage fluency of drawing, composition and painting, and result in lovely pieces that fit anyplace!  Remember--the more pieces of art you produce, the better you get!  Production is even more important than product.

My next class is Friday, May 11, beginning about 9:30 a.m. at the Hondo Iris Farm in Hondo, NM (east of Ruidoso, Hwy 7, Blue sign at Mile Marker 284, just off highway).  It is aptly about "Painting Irises".  See info at the right for details or go to my website:  www.SaraJChambers.com

Remember that early, discounted registration deadline for the "Creative Composition" class is June 1.  You save 10%!  Such a deal.