Painted Thoughts Blog: guest artist

More On Changing Styles and A Guest Artist

"It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see."

Henry David Thoreau

In our last discussion about Changing Styles, some of you mentioned "how you saw" something determined how it went down on the page.

Last December, my husband and I went to Bok Tower and Gardens to celebrate our anniversary. One of our favorite places to visit at Bok Tower is the Window By The Pond.

There is a small building that will seat a dozen or so people with a large glass window that looks out onto the pond you see in the image below.

Window By The Pond
at Bok Tower and Gardens

The day Chris and I were there, the day was sunny and bright, but there was not a bird, squirrel or bug in site. The photo you see above was taken on a cold, rainy day when I went back with Kathy at Catching Happiness to visit Pinewood Estate.

Knowing I always take my sketchbook with me everywhere, brought his as well and we spent a very fun half hour sketching at the pond.

And this is where what we see and how we see it becomes fascinating...

Here's what Chris saw:

"Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting"
by Chris Ferlita

Now remember, the day we were there, there were no birds, no squirrels, no nothing, but this was what Chris saw. (Each time I look at his sketch, I hear the song, "…and everybody was Kung Fu fighting…" but that's just me!)

If you know my husband well, you would take a quick look at his sketch and think, "Yep, that's definitely Chris' sense of humor."

When I asked him what his catalyst was, he said, "You mean besides that fact that there were no birds or squirrels anywhere? It's just what popped into my head. The birds and squirrels are always fighting over the food so this is what it would have been like if they had showed up."

And this was my take:

Window By The Pond
Bok Tower

Much different!

My focus was on capturing the bright, sunny day as well as the peaceful feeling I always get when I visit the pond.

Is one more accurate than the other? No, not really.

Is one better than the other? I don't think so. Not when you take into consideration the artist's approach and what they sought to capture on the page.

Stop and think about how you look at things, places, life, when you sketch.

Are you attempting to capture the actual place, a feeling you have when you sketch that place, the colors, the light, the reflections or something else?

Our approach to the page starts long before we ever put down the first mark.

If we change our approach, how we see things, can we change our style or is style embedded in our skills and technical proficiency?

I'd love to hear your thoughts!

10 Creative Thought(s)

, by Laure Ferlita

Animals

Bears and A Blues Jam (Guest Artist)

12 Creative Thought(s)

, by Laure Ferlita

Alaska

Birthdays and Bears (Guest Artist)

11 Creative Thought(s)

, by Laure Ferlita

guest artist

Info on A Journal-MAKING Workshop

1 Creative Thought(s)

, by Laure Ferlita

guest artist

Guest Artist: Sketching On Location (and Being Photographed!)

Donna Vacca, one of the artists from the Imaginary Trips online sketching classes, recently emailed me after she returned home from a three week trip to several European countries (lucky girl!!). Donna joined me earlier this year on an Imaginary Visit to a Japanese Garden and an Imaginary Trip to Greece.

Donna is fairly new to watercolors (but not to art) and she wanted to combine two of her passions—travel and art–on her upcoming trip. She took the two online classes as a way to help her prepare. Take a look at her gorgeous pages! I'm posting her delightful email below:

Hi Laure,

I want to thank you again for your fabulous online classes that helped me practice and achieve such personal satisfaction with my art skills. Working with different tools [in the classes] helped me pack my supplies knowing what would work for me. I often made use of the fountain pen and waterbrush for super quick sketches (something I had never used before your classes).

During August I traveled in France, Switzerland and Italy, sketching and painting in my journal as we went along. I managed to do 16 pages over 3 weeks.

Here are some of the pages:
Eiffel Tower - 15 min. on site and embellished later at the hotel

Moulin Rouge - Painted leisurely from memory, 4 sessions on the bus

Venice - 50 min. on site (while being constantly photographed by tourists!)

Sincerely,
Donna Vacca

Eiffel Tower by Donna Vacca
Click to Enlarge

Donna Sketching at the Eiffel Tower
(Note that she's standing up!)
Click to Enlarge

Moulin Rouge by Donna Vacca
Click to Enlarge

Gondola by Donna Vacca
Click to Enlarge

Donna sketching in Venice
Click to Enlarge

Sixteen pages in 3 weeks—that's incredible! Some of the things we work on in the classes are what tools work best for quick sketching, how to take advantage of those small windows of downtime (waiting for the bus, the train, dinner, the lost passenger, etc.) and how to go with the flow and enjoy the experience.

Thanks, Donna, for sharing your fabulous pages and experience with us!

____________________________

P.S. Don't forget to check back for the GIVEAWAY tomorrow!