CCAD Art Sale is THIS SATURDAY!

So I feel like the art sale kind of snuck up on me this year, I can't believe it's already that time of year. I wanted to make something new for this sale, something a little more suited to christmas and the spirit of giving and all. I came up with a fun idea I think; I've been making cards with just some simple illustrations on the front, then a quote on the inside. All the quotes are some of my favorites, so of course they all are somewhat nature related, about simplifying and the likes. Here is one of the most simple cards.

The quote on the inside is "An early morning walk is a blessing for the whole day" from Henry David Thoreau.

All of the illustrations aren't as simple as that one though, this one below has a bit more detail and color, but the scene itself is pretty simplified. I let a ton more of the wash underneath show through than I usually do as a way of making it seem a bit unfinished, or letting you fill in the rest yourself.

The quote in this one says "To the mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders." One of my most favorite taoist quotes from Lao Tzu. Then of course I have a little bit more from Mr. Henry David Thoreau, the one below says "Could a greater miracle take place than for us to look through each other's eyes for an instant?" I love that quote because he makes such a great insight into the idea of making art, even though he most likely was thinking about something completely different. So I will be selling all these fun little guys at the sale, plus a whole bunch of winter and christmas type landscapes. So if you have nothing else to do this saturday between 10 and 2 come hang out with me at CCAD!

I Miss Robots

One of my one on one students has really been wanting to try sculpting lately, so this week we finally broke out the clay. I havn't sculpted in awhile so I decided to let her choose what to try an sculpt, best decision ever. She wanted to make robots, I don't think there could have been a better choice.

We had our class and she managed to crank out a pretty cool head and body for hers, and I had just finished the head for mine. Time ran out so we decided to keep working on hers next time. I on the other hand was wayyy to into making my robot to stop. When my lessons were done for the day I quickly took out my half finished robot and went to work. Finally hunger stopped me and I had to go home, but I managed to crank this little guy out.

He says " 'Ello from robot land, and I hope everyone out there had a fantastically filling turkey day."

Watercolor Paintings from class

Last week we played with watercolors in my Paint like the masters class. The kids all really seem to like watercolor painting more than anything else so far which was fun for me. They actually sat and focused for the whole time and made some cool paintings. The only requirements were that it had to be a nature scene, and preferably something with water in it. These were two of the paintings the kids came up with.

I painted with the kids too, because there were a few of them missing so they were a little easier to handle than normal. I wanted to try something similar to a piece I did in college where there was a coy fish swimming beneath some lilly pads. That piece had been done in collage and I can still vividly remember how much of a pain it was to cut out so many scales and paste them on. I think the count was over a hundred of them by the time I was done. So needless to say, the watercolor version was much easier and much more enjoyable. This week were drawing a still life, should be fun!

"Being Coy Again"

12" x 12"

Watercolor

Oops it's been awhile

I am still alive.

Sorry about the long delay in posts but things have been pretty busy lately in the world of Quinn. First off I moved into a new house! It's really nice, but it's a bit of a fixer upper so i've had my hands full with that. I just finished painting the living room and the kitchen cupboards and drawers. We built a coffee table last night, and we are in the process of making a saloon style door to get to the basement. Next up for painting is the kitchen walls, then the ground floor will be done enough to start working on finishing the basement! Theres a lot of things I am excited for with this new place, most importantly SO much more space! I can start doing some really big paintings and get away from the tiny 2" and 3" ones I've been doing for a bit.

But with this almost month away from posting I have accrued quite a bit of things to post about, I wont dump it all out on one post but here is a quick fun one. My dad home brewed some Honey Porter this year, and he is hopefully bottling it soon. He went with the classy name, Harry Porter, can't go wrong with that. Here is what I came up with.

The last beer my dad made was pretty good so hopefully this ones even better, but with a name like harry porter how could it be bad.

In other news, my after school classes have been going really well, and that'll most likely be what I post about next so stayed tuned yall's!