Art

Phew!  It's been a hot minute.  My last post was in February and now we're beginning April!  Time has flown by so fast and it's about to be a year since we've moved from California...this is insane!

At the beginning of the year I made a conscious effort to do several things that's been on my to-do list since... high school!  One of them being ART CLASSES =D -- nothing to do with school to further my career or to make money but simply for pure happiness.

So a couple of months ago I enrolled in a portraits art class in my neighborhood and got the great experience of drawing live models and exploring different mediums I've never pushed myself to try.  It kinda sucked working a 10 hour day then going to a night class for 2.5 hrs, squinting, trying to draw a model, and make her look semi human.  But I'm so happy I did it!

Unfortunately work started taking over my Mondays - Saturdays so I had to quit but I managed to attend a majority of the 8 classes and even checked out the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery for some inspiration.  It was definitely one of the most rewarding thing I've ever made time for myself to do.

Here we are in February--ready for some art!

Hehehhe one of my favorites

LL Cool J!!

I could not believe this was not a photo of Maya Angelou but acrylic on canvas..holy smokes!

 

The inside courtyard of this museum is simply breathtaking!  You can come here to study, read, relax...absolutely beautiful.  And it's filled with beautiful live orchids!

These quotes and portraits inspired me to draw freely in my own art class.  Here are some of my own creations:

Live model, loose vine charcoal

 I am most proud of this one because it was all drawn with my LEFT hand! ...Who knew my left hand had any coordination...?!

Live model, pencil, white charcoal pencil on mi-teintes gray drawing paper 

My first attempt at doing a straight on self-portrait with water color, without sketching..

oy...NO bueno.

Feeling loooosee, I decided to practice some more with water color on a sketch of a pomegranate I did a few years back

Then I brought a giant water color brush and decided to paint this portrait and finally let water color do what it does best..run, smudge, bleed, and create on its own.  Being an extreme control freak...this felt wonderfully free.

Unfinished

Watercolor--not just for kids!

Random--I found this picture in my old sketch book.  This was a chair, draped with my favorite travel bag, in my room/apartment in Italy when I was traveling abroad in 2005.

Hopefully this inspires you to let loose and create your own art in whatever medium frees you !

Thank you for reading =)