Digital scrapbooking!

During my time spent surfing the net, I have discovered "collagers," "journallers(?)" and scrapbook makers - hand made, ready made and digital. My favorite to date is Thrifty Collage Artist. I want to try some journal pages with family faces, but for my first attempt I have tried a digital scrapbook page.

Developing Tioga County Artist!

Emma visits her Nana & Poppy next door almost everyday. She loves to work on her ART. One day she came home from kindergarten and showed her grandparents that she could draw her dog Piper. Ali taught her how!
The drawing below just naturally brought to mind a new title -

And below is a self-portrait that Emma drew!

Christmas gift project

The challenge of this project was to paint a wooden box and give it the look and feel of the domed painted box below:
The first color sure was scary to look at - would I be able to get "close" to what I wanted:

As I got to three colors, I still had many doubts. Hopefully some sandpapering would give it that antique look.

I keep working on the pattern using the premixed colors. (Thanks Lana for letting me use your "empties!")

A wash of yellow made the box more like the original. Is there time to antique the surface even more?

Downtown Mansfield

It was a snowy day. The flurries lingered into the early evening darkness. The new electric snowflakes fit well.

Third Art Student Teacher

Georgia Test student taught at EFA with art teacher June Gordon. What a program! All photography - dark room and photoshop! June has been building her program for a few years. Wow! Georgia taught a lesson on using photoshop to create visual puns. Below is a Cheese Ball.
Below is a Cowboy down on the farm. This one spooks me.The last visual pun is, of course, a Ball Room.

Georgia sent this image that one of the students photo-shopped to create a surrealistic photograph. Click on it to be transported where anything can be accomplished!

Another Art Student Teacher!

Gayle Hill just yesterday completed her student teaching. She worked with art teacher Gretchen Lawrence at Williamson Jr. Sr. High School. Below is an interesting project - and many of the steps are shown in the photograph.
The students had to first pick a magazine picture (a face preferably) to work from. The students had to generalize the values into three groups - light, medium and dark. Then tracing paper was used to outline the values and to transfer the shapes onto the colored paper that was used for each value.

The lesson intrigues me to the point that I have to try it. Check back later!

Gayle also, for her masters thesis, created and directed a week long, live-in summer art camp at Mansfield University for 12 to 15 year old students. A youtube presentation of the art camp, which will be held every summer, can be seen by clicking on this link.

Our Grand Canyon Photo Club has a Christmas party every December. We send five digital images of our work which are shown in a loop during our snack & visit time. I picked these five from my 2008 folders.

Above is an image from an ice storm last winter. Below are the three hot air balloons being inflated in Smythe Park.

Above is a photograph taken from my boat this fall in what I call Gee Hollow Cove on the Cowanesque Lake. Below are some of the wares for sale at the April Lewisburg Art Festival.

Below little Lana sits on Santa's lap - our friend Joe Maresco who raises money for the American Cancer Society by playing Santa.

Grand Canyon Photo Club 2

Here are some of my photographs from the past months that I have submitted for our Photo Club's critique sessions. I have learned some things about composition. Our work is projected with a digital projector so that we can really "see" the images we are discussing!

Traditional German wall figures

Some of these figures came from Germany and decorated my wife's room when she was a child in Turtlepoint, PA. They enlived daughter Sue's bedroom when she was little. Then they brightened our kitchen for years. A few weeks ago, we found them in storage in our attic.
Now they hang in baby Lana's room in Blossburg, PA.

New work - small

I've been making small square paintings - 5.5" by 5.5" - because I have the masonite already cut that size for another project which was to be the piecing together of 35 squares to make one large painting.

Shoe project - part 1

During my observation of art student teacher Mat Malloy, I was drawn to these projects that were just finished and waiting for a grade. Discarded shoes were used, and in some cases other materials, to make these interesting objects. The students who created these works are members of Shvonne Strickland's GRAPHIC DESIGN class at Towanda High School. Mat taught the class. The Black Knights score again!
I think that I'll leave it up to the viewers to come to an understanding of the art works!

Shoe project - part 2

Here are some more of the shoe projects and the teacher's exemplar at the end.

Getting ready for winter!

On a crisp November afternoon while the sun was shining, I hauled six sheets of masonite home.
One by one they were cut in half so that I would be able to carry them to my cellar.

Below 12 pieces wait for me to move them from the garage to the cellar.

Once in the cellar/studio, I pile them where they wait for the table saw to cut them into painting-sized boards.

A couple of pieces stand beside the saw which will be revved up soon.

The six sheets of masonite amount to 192 square feet of painting surface!