The Young Artists

 I've been meaning to scan in and blog up my kids' artwork.  Mostly because Sara so often surprises me with the kind of work she can produce.  She's very careful and meticulous and does amazing things with drawing and cutting.  She loves it and she's good at it too.  Looks like we have an artist on our hands!  Unfortunately, I didn't record the dates on a lot of these.  But I believe they were all done in the last 12 months?
The drawing above was done by Sara.  The composition is really nice!  But I was particularly impressed with the little figure up on the right, with the frown and the arms and legs.  I haven't taught her any of this stuff she's doing, so she's just watching and learning from what mom and dad do and from the books we read.
These next two are Nora's.  I taught her how to draw a jellyfish, and she went crazy.  Her first drawings, which I can't find, were gorgeous and carefully done.  But this is her usual drawing style as of late...wild and crazy with big motions.  Totally Nora!

 These little pink ones by Sara are really interesting.  Those two on the left are side profiles.  One of a woman, and the other of a.....alien?  Haha, I don't know.  Nora did all of the writing.

 I think this is my favorite of Nora's so far.  She said that those were tiger stripes (and you'll notice the vertical lines for the paws), and that this is of "Rachel and Nora and Sara with one leg".  She has a thing for Calvin and Hobbes, so she *often* draws tiger stripes all over her body.  She was about 3 and a half here.

 And this shows a couple of my favorites from Sara.  That caterpillar with the leaf was inspired by an illustration from Ladybug Magazine.  When I saw this I recognized it instantly.  I just LOVE that she's looking at other drawings, and remembering them and being influenced by art!  And aren't those little faces on the bottom AWESOME!?!?

 Here is Sara mimicking Nora's jellyfish drawing (on the bottom), and then she also drew that cat at the top.  Totally her--no instructions from me whatsoever.  She was almost 2 and a half here.

 Some fun coloring by Sara back in October.  I love that she didn't just stick to one color, but filled in some of the shapes with this splashy color.  Really cool!

 I think this drawing marked the first time I thought: Wow!  That's really amazing!  Really, she wasn't even 2 yet!

 And here are some more cute faces by Sara.  She was about a month shy of 3.  I love the little house in the middle of the page, with windows.

 And Nora and Sara worked on this one together.  This wasn't intended to be art at all; they were just playing with paint.  But it's kind of nice, no?  And this is what Sara did today (on the right).  This is a drawing of "Amber with her long hair and the ocean all around her."  The thing is, she drew this upside down, so that it would be right-side-up for the rest of us.  Kind of amazing, huh?  I think so. 

Maybe someday we'll all be painting in the studio together, Sara sitting at an easel and Nora throwing paint from the top of a ladder (;  Love it!

We are not dead yet!

 Well, ahem, it has been a while!  I haven't done much art (besides the art of birthday cakes and the art of vaccuuming and the art of surviving with a  4, 3, and 2 year old in tow), but I have done some.  So let's document, shall we?

 I've actually been teaching a little homeschooling family.  I will be the first to say that teaching kids is not something I'm a natural at.  But I'm learning.  And they are absolutely the best people in the world, and very patient with me and my learning curve.  I'm going to try to take some more pictures of the work they've been doing and put it up on the blog.  The two photos above are part of an illustration project.  Zach (10) wanted to illustrate a scene from the Hobbit, so we made a dragon out of clay and used Rice Krispies for the pile of gold, and a little lego Bilbo for Bilbo.  Ha!  I'm excited to see how his painting turns out.
Over Christmas I was able to do a couple of drawings as gifts, one of my nephew Graham:

 And this drawing is of Grandpa Fisher, who died a few years ago.  This was for my mother in law.  I got tears!  It was a good moment.

I'm working on another drawing, one of my nephew, Ollie, and I'm also toying with the idea of bas relief sculpture for portrait work.  My homeschooling family bought me some sculpting tools for Christmas (!!!) so I have what I need to begin!  Hopefully I will be posting some sculpture here sometime soon.
Happy arting!

THE Painting

So we went out west this summer to work on THE painting. The big 8 foot by 4 foot thing that I started before Nora was born. It was supposed to be a school project, and then it was a school project on steroids. And I'm still working on it, three kids later. I've been reluctant to post about it, because it's kind of embarrassing. I actually submitted this thing to the Church a couple of summers ago, keeping with their deadline, thinking that it was "done enough." What a mistake. After seeing it again, I'm mortified that I actually let anyone see it in that state. It had SO far to go. It still has so far to go. I hate that so many people saw it then, as if it was a finished piece. I hate to let anyone see a painting before it's finished. So if you look at it and think "ewwww, I don't like it!", don't judge me. It isn't finished, ok? And I might not finish it before I'm 80. So here's the post. OK?!?!?!
I knew before we got out there that we'd have to take some more reference photos, a big group shot to track the shadows. I can't remember whose idea it was to use the laundry rack and blanket as the camel, but it worked! Kurt and offspring looked very epic and were just what I needed. (Thanks!)
I had a good reference photo for a camel, with the right lighting and everything, but wasn't sure how a camel's shadow might look on a short figure to its right. So I made a really realistic looking camel out of kids' clay. Pretty believable, yeah? I do what I can.So, then to the paint. I mainly just worked on the ground/background:
Before:
After:

Before:After:

But I did a little work on some of the figures too. Notice the robes on Sariah:
Before:After:
And then the real beast was to redo the camel. Again, he isn't finished. But he's better than the wookie I had before. (By wookie, I mean furry bactrian camel. But that species isn't very recognizable.) Here he is as a non-furry dromedary:

Before:

After:Still a long way to go. I'll get to it sometime.

Boys/Field update

Believe it or not, I've actually been able to paint a bit here and there lately, while the kids take a shared nap (I get lucky sometimes). So, here are a couple of photos of what I've been doing...
Long way to go, but making progress! I keep on thinking of Sargent's 'Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose.' It's one of my all-time favorites, and it's fun to do something that draws my mind to it!

Image dump

Lately I've been looking through some images of my work, past and present. I found files of photography, graphic design, illustration, studies, and portrait work. Some things I'd like to revisit, explore a little further. As an artist, it is so gratifying to look through all of the work that you've done and realize the volume of it, especially when you haven't been producing much recently. I guess that's why we've got to keep some of our best work and look at it daily to remind ourselves of what we can achieve. Sometimes we forget.

Here is some of what I found:This piece is one sampling from an Alice and Wonderland workup that I did a few years ago. I've got the whole dummy book laid out. I'm still really excited about the other pieces in the story. One day I'll finish the whole thing for my girls.

I guess I've made it no secret that I have an interest in religious work. Here is one I did several years ago in gouache, an illustration of Lehi dreaming. At one point, his blanket had an old tree of life pattern woven through it. I still like the idea. Maybe I'll revisit that too.

Here is another book. This one I'd actually like to finish and pitch to a literary agent one day. It's "Winken, Blinken, and Nod". I have some of the dummy book worked out, and looking through the sketches gets me so excited!
This is another story I worked on, a neighbor's version of the "Sleeping Beauty" fairytale. In his version, this is the villain. Here's the prelim drawing and the final painting. I did one other character piece for the story, but I can't find it anywhere!
And here is the rest of the image dump, no explanations. Enjoy!

It's probably about time...

It's probably about time that I posted some photos of this Lehi project that has consumed much of my art life for the last few years, especially the last summer. I said that it was finished, but I have since changed my mind. I will be taking some weeks of "vacation" over next summer to make some necessary changes to the painting before it will really be finished, before I will really be satisfied with it. BUT...here are some photos of it as it hung at the art show. It is so big that I had to piece a number of photos together, so forgive the skewed parts, the foggy parts, and the spotty parts. It's so hard to represent it in miniature!Here's the official disclaimer:
"Lehi’s Exodus/Into the Wilderness 48”x96”, oil/canvas
"And it came to pass that he departed into the wilderness. And he left his house, and the land of his inheritance, and his gold, and his silver, and his precious things, and took nothing with him, save it were his family, and provisions, and tents, and departed into the wilderness. 1 NEPHI 2:4
"And I will also be your light in the wilderness; and I will prepare the way before you, if it so be that ye shall keep my commandments; wherefore, inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments ye shall be led towards the promised land; and ye shall know that it is by me that ye are led. 1 NEPHI 17:13

"Lehi’s Exodus/Into the Wilderness depicts the departure of Lehi and his family as they journey out from Jerusalem and into the wilderness. Intended to be a personal piece rather than a realistic depiction of the actual event, the story is told in the faces. Shown from left to right are: Sam, a daughter, Lehi, Sariah, a daughter, Nephi, a daughter, Laman, and Lemuel. As Nephi is the one from whom the story derives, he is the only one looking directly at the viewer.
Care was taken to research the clothing, implements, and livestock of the era and area of Jerusalem in Lehi’s day. Designs from actual ancient textiles are incorporated into the costumes.
The purpose and meaning of the piece revolves around the idea that Lehi’s exodus, just as the Israelites’ and others’, is a type of each of our own journeys in the wilderness. Lehi’s wilderness, like ours, is a place of tribulation. But it is also a place of becoming, where, if we choose, we can draw closer to God."

Here are some shots closer in...
Lehi, Sariah, and child:
Nephi (flanked by Sariah and baby sister, and another sister):

On the easel

Along with the Bawden portraits, I'm also working on a large piece mimicking the A Field to Grow Boys In piece for my brother-in-law Sam's office. We went out into some fields and shot a bunch of pictures. This is just one of them. I've pieced the figures together and made a composite, but no peeking until it's done! (Maybe)