The Latest News

I have a lot of news to share with you.  All good :)  First off I have been completely immersed and in the flow of my daily art practice.  As is always the case with me  it is an "experience" fraught with comedy and drama each and every day. From sun up to sun down I can be found surrounded by paints, brushes and art in the making at any one of the various portable studios I have set up all over the house.  My husband used the word "relentless" in regards to my practice as he was walking by one of the multitude of times he had witnessed me with my head bent down, oblivious to all else but the girl I was coaxing into life. I told him later that was a huge compliment. 

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We celebrated my sweet Ivy's birthday by going out for sushi.  She made a wish before blowing out the candle that was nestled within her green tea sundae, 'aka' birthday cake but refused to reveal her wish to me so I have no news for you on that subject. We ended our perfect afternoon at Anthropologie  selecting new coffee cups and fragrant candles to use in our studios. 

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The week prior was highlighted by a visit from our friend Janet Reid. We picked her up from the airport on a Wednesday and for the next three days proceeded to laugh, eat good food and learn to paint the tiny tea bag faces taught in Jeanne-Marie Webb's,  class Tiny Bags of Love. The class is divine and the gentle teachings of Jeanne -Marie helped me not only paint the adorable faces  of Astrid and Tilli that you see there on your left but also helped me grasp some larger concepts about painting loose and impressionistic faces of any size.

Working through the class during the visit with Janet added richness to both experiences. I am also lucky enough to be making the sojourn to Janet's home and studio in Southern California next month and I'm sure I will have lots to share with you afterward.

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The last thing I have to share today is how I happy I am to be a returning teacher in the upcoming all new Let's Face It 2017  class hosted by the amazing Kara Bullock. You can find out more and read all about the new content and amazing teacher lineup by clicking any one of the links in this section of the post  or you can read about it here in the teaching section of my site.  And you will be happy to know that I will be doing a  GIVEAWAY of one free spot in this class on my blog in the coming weeks so be sure to subscribe below to my site in order to stay up to date with what is happening! 

Love, Robin

Open And Learning - An Oil Pastel Tutorial

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Hello friends! I am super excited to share all of this with you! 

 To find out more you can check it out here or purchase withPayPal.

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Oil Pastel Inspiration

I've been really enjoying using magazine pages as part of my daily practice for enhancing my painting and drawing skills. I was inspired to experiment with this process after discovering Guim Tió Zarraluki a Barcelona based artist on Pinterest. He is best known for using oil pastels to alter fashion magazine images and he has perfected a technique and style for recreating the most interesting abstracted makeovers I've ever seen. 

My initial effort was to sketch out my own version of his completed makeovers then use acrylic paint to enhance them. Like this one here with blue hair :)  Very fun and an excellent drawing challenge! 

But then I wanted to try the oil pastels directly on a magazine image. My first effort was not at all what I had in mind.  I began with the magazine image below and ended up with the image on the left. Interesting but not what I was going for.

The challenge is how to create images that reflect my own aesthetic of drama and expressiveness with subtlety and detail. So I started experimenting and I am happy to say I have come up with a way to do just that and much much more! Along the way many friends on Facebook have shown interest in trying this out themselves.  As I was reading the comments I was writing down the questions and decided the best way to explain is to demonstrate and show exactly what it is I am doing.  So I created a video lesson that you can watch and learn from. It's actually 2 videos because I couldn't resist adding ideas and techniques for using a more mixed media approach and for creating interesting backgrounds. I'm thrilled to share this with you! 

Love, Robin

I Am Open I Am Learning

What am I learning from my daily practice of drawing? Remember I committed myself to doing more drawing and painting and less activity on social media after my return from Ghost Ranch. I am happy to report I'm sticking with it and drawing, sketching or painting for long periods every day.  All of it is practice for the sake of practice not for a product or finished piece. One of the commitments I made was to be more open to my inner world of thoughts and feelings as I work and I gently calm and comfort my thoughts when I begin to say things in my head that are not helpful.

Most every practice piece is going through various levels of destruction and reconstruction as I work with my self limiting thoughts. I keep moving, dragging things out of the trash and wiping out layers of pastel or layers of charcoal to look again and see a missing puzzle piece that I need to add or take away. The most important part is that I am doing it. Whether I am working or reworking doesn't matter. Stepping forward into the discomfort rather than backing away with resignation it the nugget of gold. It's not that complicated really :)

Love, Robin