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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Happy Easter II

Cross

by

Ashton

computer drawing

Today's image is by my youngest grandson. He experiments in a lot of different media. Lately, he has been really involved with computers from games to designing cars. He would like to create his own blog. Until then, I can share some of his creations on my blog.

I thought that this one was appropriate for this day as we watch movies like "King of Kings" and "Easter Parade" on tv and wait for the Easter ham to be done. (Sure smells good, with the cloves , pineapple, and cherries baking on the ham.)

We all slept late today as there was a car wreck in the brand new tunnel last night. That tied up traffic as the family was coming home after picking him my oldest grandson from work and getting last minute groceries. We all got to bed very early in the morning, and, as usual, I didn't get any sleep until after the sun came up. ( I got back in that habit after being up all night with the last round of flu.)

Hmmm. Wasn't this the multi million dollar project, complete with mosaics, that was supposed to prevent traffic tie ups on that very busy street? The reasoning for the tunnel was because trains sometimes blocked traffic when it might be needed by an emergency vehicle, or just ordinary traffic. So, they have spent a long while, and lots of money, moving the street under the tracks. Now we learn that one car in an accident can close the road, and block traffic, just like a train did in the past.

It doesn't seem like Easter without going to church in the morning, having a big family over for Easter dinner at noon, hunting eggs, and the like. Oldest grandson has to work today and tonight, daughter is cooking, youngest grandson is playing with his latest computer game or watching his movie, and I have on "King of Kings" on tv, and am at the computer. Just like most days. We'll have our Easter supper tonight and the oldest will have his special meal when he gets home. And, tonight, I look forward to watching "East Enders" on tv, just like most Sunday nights now.

We probably should be making some better memories.

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Please remember to sign my guest book. Go all the way to the bottom of the page and add your name, and a picture, if you want to. It doesn't have to be of you, but it can be of a place, your art work, or just leave it blank.

You can also sign up for my blog by subscribing, or join my Google Group, Art By Cecelia.

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I hope that you are planning to go out somewhere and sketch (and journal) Saturday March 29th. Join the Worldwide Sketch Crawl that day. You can sketch for a few minutes or all day. It's free! All you need is something to draw on and something to draw with, and the interest in recording what is around you.

For more information, you can look in my sidebar for a link, do a search for Sketch Crawl, or click on http://www.sketchcrawl.com/.

I registered for it and I hope that others will as well.

I hope that a group in our area will get together and "draw the Brazos Valley" and participate in the sketch day around the world. Woudn't that be a neat thing! Especially now that the Bluebonnets are popping out.

We have a lot here that would make excellent subject matter.

This is for everyone-beginners, professionals, students, children, adults, families, groups or individuals. Just go out and draw what is around you. You can post some of your sketches on their website and your own, or anywhere you want. And, maybe, a spectator might like what you do so much that they want to own it.

Let me know what you think. I'm looking forward to it and think it is such a neat idea.

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Be sure to see the Brazos Valley Art League Juried Show at the P.David Romei Art Center in College Station, if you haven't been already. Pick up entries March 28th.

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Easter Eggs
These children were all dressed up for Easter in the early 1970s.

Mothers, Love Your Children

Mothers, Love Your Children (detail)
Image size 11.5" x 14.5 "
Paper size 12" x 15"
watercolors
I've been trying to take a good photograph of this painting for a while, but I couldn't get the colors right, or there was a reflection, or blurring-always unsatisfactory. I do have one whole photo of this picture, but it has sort of a white haze over it from sunlight. I finally just took the painting out of the frame tonight and put it on the scanner, which cut off parts of the sides, top, and bottom.
This looked really nice with a black mat, in a frame with marbelized green, and gold trim.
I got the idea for this when I was teaching, and showing students how I mixed colors to get a flesh tone. The small, center mother, holding up a child with a red ball, in place of the nose, just happened. I didn't want just a plain background, but decided to add in many children's faces. The effect of glowing, green faces, as if lit up by a neon light, gives contrast to the piece.
This was a fun piece to do. Even painting all those little faces was interesting and not as tedious as it might appear to be. I always liked to draw "girls", and find myself drawing girls when I am doodling (instead of taking notes for example!). This is not like the girls that I usually doodle, however. I do like to put some drama into my girls. They usually have a cartoon look to them, since this is the way that I taught myself to draw when I was growing up.
"Mothers, Love Your Children" was done on 140 pound watercolor paper using Winsor Newton watercolors.
Please share with others who also might enjoy my work and my stories. I do appreciate your support and your comments.

Reunion Time

Making Toad Houses
Pencil 8.5" x 11"
This is the time of year for our all school reunion. And a time when memories flow, of place and home, of friends, and hopes, of good times and bad, little incidents and big moments, of youth and aging, those who are far away, and those who are no longer with us.
I've been drawing some of the memories that have stuck in my mind over the years. This pencil drawing is of one of the big oak trees on the south side of the playground at our school. It provided us with shelter from the heat on warm days and offered a place where we could play games or just sit and talk with friends as we grew older.
We played things like "London Bridge", "The Farmer In the Dell", and "Drop the Handkerchief" under this tree. Some days, it was the perfect hideout from the bad guys in playing cowboys, or it might be a stage where we could sing and dance to the songs from the latest musical movie at the picture show. In this drawing, it shows the toad houses we built. At the end of the day, the area between the roots of the old tree, were filled with lumps of dirt with an open door, like a little cave.
To make the toad house, one person had to remove their shoe and sock, while another person covered the bare foot with mud. This was done usually after it had rained. But, sometimes, when we played on the playground after school hours, someone would carry water in a sandpail from the faucet near the building to make a nice mud puddle under the tree. The person whose foot was being used for the construction had to stay there for a few minutes until the house had dried a bit. That was not good when the bell rang to go in the building for school and one or two people were trying to keep their toad house from falling in. You really couldn't tell the teacher, "I can't come right now. My house isn't dry yet!"
In my picture, I show one pair of children making a toad house, with other houses among the roots of the tree. One little girl digs for dirt for a house while a little boy sits on a root and watches. A trio of girls has gathered on the other side of the tree to talk.
I always imagined that, when we went home, and night came, frogs would come to the tree and occupy the houses we had built. Then, before we came to school, they would be off to hunt for bugs and we would find the abandoned houses during recess. We always rushed to look at our houses and were so disappointed if we found them crushed.
Our school was a three story building, built in the 1920s. An imposing building with a tall chimney on top. It was just 1/2 block from my house, so I saw a lot of that building. And, it was, like the rest of our small town, like one big playground for me and the other kids in town. The basement, or first floor, housed the elementary grades, ag and homemaking classes, cafeteria, and restrooms. The second floor housed the office and middle grades . The third floor was high school. We didn't say that children were in elementary, jr high, or high school. Instead, people asked "What floor are you on?" I always wondered what people did when they ran out of floors.
The south and east side of the school, where there was a playground, and a wide area to play games and even softball, was the area assigned to elementary children. Middle grades gathered at the front of the school, on the west side. And high school students hung out on the steps, cars, or sidewalk on the north side of the school near the gym. Part of the east side was taken up with the band hall, an ag shop, and the football field.
Looking back, it seems we had just about everything we needed in our small school and, in fact, our town, except more people and opportunities for subjects like art. Life was like a "Little Rascals" or "Our Gang" movie, but we didn't think so. I related those more to my father's time, until recent years as I looked back and listened to stories.
We truly were of that Golden Age of the 1950s.