Wednesday, August 13, 2014

After my August 1st session I let rosemlaing shapes gel in my mind while I did a couple of landscape commissions and the Mineral Point 2014 Paint Out--a three day plein air event.

Today in the studio I drew another set of leaves. This time something called Sweetfern (Comptonia Peregrina).

August 13, 2014 - Sweetfern

I think my second attempt at the rocaille is much more successful than the first. The darker background helped, along with using a lively blue mix paint and feeling more comfortable with the shapes.

Rocaille - 2nd attempt

Rocaille - 1st attempt.

Rocailles

August 1, 2014 - in my studio

Today I have reviewed the 300+ photos of Norwegian woodcarving that Pam shared with me. She took a few thousand photos on her recent trip to Norway.
Also collected some maple leafs for more sketching. I've examined yesterday's painting sample and see many areas to improve upon. Here are this afternoon's attempts.

July 31, 2014: first official day of my apprenticeship

Pam and I met at her studio on Lake Winnebago. Beautiful lake, wonderful studio--full of beautiful rosemaling and much inspiration.
We checked out many of the examples of rosemaling and woodcarving that Pam has.
Pam had two books for me--one she bought while touring Norway: Ole Moene's Det store i det smaa and Johan Amrud's Ornamental Woodcarving. Both books show fine examples of acanthus carving that inform and inspire rosemalers who paint in the Gudbrandsdal style. Since this apprenticeship is concentrating on Gudbrandsdal style these are wonderful resources for designs.

Two books on Norwegian woodcarving

Next, I spent some time in the morning drawing collected leafs. They had dried and begun to fold in on themselves to I spent time understanding how the turnovers work. I sketched them in my new sketchbook. After the 4th leaf I felt I would get the hang of it. There will be many more leaf drawings in the future. It is part of my education now.Here are some early examples of my work:

Leaf sketching

In the afternoon we got out the chalk and chalkboard and also the paint. I played with paint, trying to paint the graceful curves of the main scroll and adding turnovers. Here's an example of my second attempt. There are many issues with it but I record it here to show you that being good at this involves practice and persistence. I am on the first part of my journey and it shows.

First application of paint :-p

For my homework I am continuing to sketch leaf turnorvers and paint freehand plus paint on tracing paper over a couple of patterns Pam has given me.