Claudia Stewart - Artist

Return to Sunshine and great folks

I have a new development in the works, besides the lovely Rosemary. I made two modest proposals for workshops to be given at the Port Moody Arts Centre and they have been tentatively accepted. More on that probably in the forthcoming blogs. all I venture to say at the moment is that I will be one very busy woman til July, when they are to be held!

 

I love to sketch my cat and always have enjoyed sketching and drawing pets and other animals. Drawing animals from life is a;ways quite tricky because of course they move around so much. I find that by keeping my hand in constant motion as I focus on looking at Jazz and glancing down at the work seems to do the trick. Later I can go over lines, making the more accurate ones stronger. Sketching in the main masses works well, and fleshing things in later is often a good practice when working on something that may at any moment lift a paw, roll over or simply walk away. 

 


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So....world's fattest cat! Quite the "cupboard lover", Jazz is.

 

I keep many of my sketches in a "morgue". I have a filing system for categories such as animals, portraits, figures, architecture, and so on.  i also refer to my sketchbooks, but I usually try to get a sketchbook whose pages I can tear out, so that I can add things to the morgue at will. (How ghoulish that sounds!)

 

Got some good things accomplished last weekend, Rosemary-wise. Hydrangeas and ferns were trimmed and, after a base coat of the background night sky was painted in, the photocopied fern and floral images were applied to the board with gel. 

 



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Still have not figured out what is going on to make all photo images I load only go horizontal. Will fire off a query as to what's happening on the website provider  as previous to last blog, all was running as expected. Hope to have it fixed by next post. 

 

I need to revert to using my sketchbook on the Skytrain in to work so as to maximize my art time. I find in the mornings it works best, but i may also use some of the time coming home as well and see if that sparks more energy for art in the evenings. In the book "The Creative Habit",well-known choreographer, Twyla Tharp writes that she has a routine before she sets to work with her dance troupe, doing choreography. I like the idea of a short meditation before beginning to do artwork. An exercise I find limbers up my hands,arms and brain for art invovles taking a large piece or pieces of newsprint and drawing large circles, jagged lines, squiggles and marks. So as not to be wasteful,I do use both sides of the paper. I will try that out during this next week for evening "arting" and report my findings.




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