Tuesday, March 1, 2011

March 2011 - History

Wednesday - March 30th:Patrick Fleming conducted the "Last Wednesday Workshop" last night with a fun-filled evening of creating the perfect "Still Life." Working in acrylics were Greg and Dave, Jim B tried charcoals, Pat brought his oils, and two participants, Laura T and another Jim were there. Laura T did line drawing, and the new Jim was working with graphite.

It was fun doing a still-life; no pose changes after a few minutes, just nice and slow with a lot of conversation and good music.

You can see the pics by clicking here.

Saturday - March 26th: When we arrived at the Old Hotel Gallery this morning, they were actually waiting for us. They had a room set up for us to use, if we wanted, which we didn't because we planned to be outside with our sketchbooks. Heidi took us on a great tour of the 99 year-old building and told us about it's somewhat sordid past; then she invited us to the wine tasting later in the afternoon and gave us a map showing where to go to find the Sandhill cranes.

We drove out into the pothole area and marveled at the beauty of the scablands with all the basalt outcroppings and other geographical features. We found a large flock of the birds, but we weren't allowed to get close enough to do any sketching of them. We did a little sketching of some of the basalt, took some photos, and drove back into Othello around 2pm.

On our way back to the Old Hotel Gallery, which we had planned to sketch when we got there, we decided to stop into a local tavern to try out Othello's version of "tav food."

While there Nancy received a call from one of her sisters in Nebraska telling her that her father had experienced a brain aneurysm and was in ICU. Since Greg drove up in his truck and Nancy rode up with me, she and I immediately headed for Pasco.

On the way, she got another call - her father had passed away.

She was scheduled to leave this coming Friday morning for three weeks in China to visit her daughter. I just got news from her a few minutes ago that she's off to Omaha tomorrow and will return on the 20th, so I am assuming she will leave Omaha in a few days and head on to China.

Greg stayed a while and after showing them that nifty portfolio of his work he carries, he was invited to be their featured artist this coming May. Congratulations, Greg! After the stories we heard about the Old Hotel today, we had already commented that his work is particularly well suited to the place!

We send our prayers and condolences to Nancy.

Saturday - March 19th: Figure Drawing with Audrey
Another great day figure drawing in the "Space" today! We had nine figure drawers with Nancy calling out times and great music provided by maestro, LaPoynte. The model, Audrey, did a nice job and we really appreciated her style and panache to model nude. It was her first time, and she was super! You can check out the pics at this link.

Saturday - March 5th: Figure Drawing with William
Another great session with model, William. See the pictures of this session at this link.

Wednesday- March 2nd: "Long Pose Make-Up Session." Our model, the same one who at least notified us last time, was a "no-show" again, without notification this time. Fortunately we have William who always is willing and able to pose for us. We called him about 6:15 and he was here in 15 or 20 minutes. Finding reliable models like him is not easy. We have had some very fine models, and we still do; but there are a few who lack responsibility. We only wish some of them would realize how much hardship it creates for all of us when they aren't here as scheduled.

Click here to see the pics from our session. Apologies to Greg for not getting a shot of him, but we did get his work!