Art Abounds

Art Abounds

"I Want A Light Saber"

10.5" x 6.75"

watercolors

Update:

The pick up date for entries for the Brazos Valley Art League Juried Show at the P. David Romei Art Center in College Station is Thursday March 27th, rather than the 28th. The date was changed due to an activity scheduled at the Art Center. You can go to the BVAL website for more information and a list of the winners. I have a link to their website under Organizations in my sidebar. So, if you have an entry there, be sure to go pick it up on Thursday.

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Events:

World Wide Sketch Crawl Saturday March 29

Brush off your sketchbook or journal. Get out that paper and pencil. Or watercolors, pen and ink, or whatever you like to draw with. Scrape together some paper or whatever you like to draw on.

Let's all sketch/journal on Saturday March 29, where ever you are, and no matter how much time you have to spend- a few minutes or all day! No matter what your level is, or your favorite media, go out and spend some time drawing what you see around you-indoors or outdoors. Grownups, children, professionals, beginners, groups, families, or individuals.

It's Free!

For more information, go to http://www.sketchcrawl.com/ .

Let me know if you plan to participate. And, afterward, I would love to know what you recorded.

I would really like to see this happen locally, too. Let's Draw the Brazos Valley!

Please pass this on to anyone who you think might like to take part in the Sketch Crawl.

If you need more information, let me know. Just click on the contact address in my sidebar.

Art Fest

Local schools are having their annual Art Fest on Saturday. Student art work, workshops, and demonstrations will be featured.

Robertson County Fair

This is the time for the annual Robertson County Fair in Hearne, Texas. Besides all the events with animals, there is usually a homemaking division and an art show. Lots of things to see there, and a carnival.

Open House

Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine

and Biomedical Sciences

The Open House is always an interesting event at A&M. I'm not sure if they have an art show along with it this year, but they will have things like teddy bear surgery, a petting zoo, aquatic treadmill and rehabilitation, exotic animals, live surgery, a demonstration with frisbee dogs, Houston mobile zoo, mounted and K-9 search and rescue, wildlife rehabilitation, dary cow milking demonstration, and more. Visit http://www.cym.tamu.edu/openhouse for more information.

George Bush Presidential Library and Museum

2008 Art Contest

(for Brazos Valley Students)

The theme for this year's competition is "Framing Issues From Historic Places". This competiton is open through the art teachers in the Brazos Valley area, which includes 15 counties. Entires are due March 31-April 2. Each art teacher is allowed a limited number of entries. The winners will be displayed in the museum and there will be an awards ceremony.

For more information, go to the George Bush Presidential Library website and look under Education.

They do have a lovely facility and some very interesting programs and exhibits.

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Art Abounds

Yes, there seems to be a lot of art and activities around this time of year, especially. We used to have a big Youth Art Show at the Brazos Center, at the same time as the art shows for the county fair, and the vet school open house. A very busy time, especially for art teachers. And, now, we have a youth art show with a deadline coming up the 31st through April 2 for the George Bush Library.

I always wanted my students to take advantage of every opportunity to show their work. Not for the sake of winning and competition (that's icing on the cake), but just so that someone else could see what they had done and appreciate their thoughts and efforts. I look at it as more sharing. Otherwise, it may only be seen by the teacher, fellow students, maybe the family, or it might go in a closet, under the bed, or in the trash. Of course, No Pass/No Play that rules what students can and cannot participate in, ruined it for most of my students.

In my painting above, I have shown our Texas Independence Day visit to one of the galleries in the MSC. My youngest grandson and I had been to a concert in Rudder Tower of the A&M concert and symphonic bands. He sat through the program like a young gentlemen, and helped me with signs and finding things.

And he went with me to try to see Shep Smith from Fox News broadcasting in the Flag Room. (I couldn't see a thing with the blinding tv lights! But I could hear him and make out that there were people at a table.)

But, I think my grandson was tired and running out of patience by the time I insisted that we go into the art gallery where there was an exhibit of Anthony Quinn's art work. By then, all I heard was, "Call Mama" , "I want to go home", "I'm not going in there", and "I want a light saber".

I tried my best to point out that something was very old, or exciting, but the only thing that he was impressed with were some things that had real gold, silver, and jewels in them. I think that he was trying to hide his interest in some things, because he did look.

I finally told him that I had been looking forward to seeing this and for him to just be patient while I looked. We had to wait a little while before his mother got there to pick us up, anyway. He finally sat on a padded bench in front of a big wall of windows that overlooked the entrance to the MSC from the fountain area. He squirmed and seemed to pout, and told me about the light saber that he wants. He says that it is $200! I don't think so.

We waited for our ride on a bench under live oak trees that line the sidewalk,and talked. We watched some people in what looked like some kind of sports uniforms as they crossed over to G. Rollie White, the old gym. They had on red and white shorts and shirts, that looked like they had a diagonal band across the shirts.

When we got home, I wanted to record our trip to the concert, so I did this little painting of our museum visit. In this painting, the colors are not true as I scanned them. Where there is so much yellow, the color is actually yellow green. For some reason, the blue doesn't seem to have picked up. Yet other shades of blue do show.

I added some of the people that we saw as they walked near us, and a newspaper rack that isn't there anymore. That area used to be filled with newspaper racks from everywhere. I always enjoyed seeing those, and picking up a copy of the campus newspaper when I visited. I guess they think that everyone is online now and, possibly, the newspapers left a mess when people would just scatter them after they were through reading. I prefer a paper newspaper and paper magazines and books, personally. That walkway really looks bare without the newspaper racks.

I did another small watercolor of the concert, as I saw it, through my eyes, that I will post another time.

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