Finally here is my latest drawing.  I wanted to have it done before I went to the CPSA convention from July 28th through August 1st in San Jose, CA, but it just didn’t work out timing-wise.  This drawing is about the same size as the other pieces in this series (a. 15 x 21 inches and done on Rtistx board), but it’s exploring some slightly different aspects of the stones in water, glass reflections, and color distortions, with less clear boundries.  I find it challenging not to tighten up all of the edges of transitions, and had to force myself to put the drawing at arm’s length and study it more than I usually do.

I’m starting a new drawing of a bird in a winter setting – a dark-eyed junco perched on a crusty snow-covered tree stump.   I’m in the mood for a change at the moment, and haven’t done a bird drawing in over a year.  It’s amusing to think of drawing a winter scene as we are in the midst of one of the most beautiful, hot and dry summers that New England has seen in recent years.

It’s been a busy summer with lots of travel and several exhibitions including my artwork.  Although my pieces were not juried into the 18th International CPSA Exhibition, I have had work in the following shows and magazines these past few months:

• Academic Artists Association’s 60th National Juried Exhibition,  April-May 2010, recipient of the Windsor Newton Award for Graphics
• Connecticut Academy of Fine Art’s 99th Annual Juried Exhibition, May-July 2010
• Academic Artists Association’s Annual Members Exhibition, July 2010, recipient of the Art Patron Award
• Attleboro Arts Museum’s “Seeing Double”, a National Juried Exhibtion, July-August 2010
• The Artists Magazine, July/August 2010 issue, “The Artist’s Life” Column, Award Winners of the 2010 On-line Media Competition, first place in Graphics for “Amber Bowl”

and these upcoming exhibitions:

• Academic Artists Association’s 60th Anniversary Invitational Exhibition, September-October 2010
• Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club, Inc. 114th Annual Juried Exhibition, October 2010

Thanks for following my blog!  – Debbi

My husband and I recently went on a nine day trip through parts of Ireland, and one of the absolute highlights was staying at the Dromoland Castle in Newmarket-on-Fergus  and participating in a private falconry walk.  David Atkinson  runs the Dromoland School of Falconry, and has an amazing array of birds of prey available for walks, educational talks and more.  More can be learned about it at:  Dromoland School of Falconry.  These photos show the castle, David walking through the grounds with Bruce, and Bruce the Harris Hawk standing on my gloved hand.  It was such a thrill to have Bruce alight on the glove.  David would make sure to put a chicken leg on the glove (or some other poultry body part) and Bruce would eat the tidbit the moment he landed.  He was so quick I never got to see him actually eat it.  We also got to see several Peregrine Falcons, a Great Gray Owl, a Barn Owl and a Long Eared Owl.

We spent the last three days of our trip in Dublin, which is a wonderful city and easy to walk around.  One afternoon we came across this store, Read’s, and since they have colored pencils prominently displayed in their street window, we decided to take a look inside.  Wasn’t it a thrill to find the Derwent Graphite Soft tin with my drawing on it sitting the shelves.  Please indulge me, it’s quite a hoot to see a little bit of one’s artwork in a foreign country!

I am very excited to have this drawing at it’s completion!  It’s actually been finished since the end of last week, but as usual, I have spent a little time tweaking it here and there to tidy up some edges and colors, etc.  I particularly love the area where the rocks and water line meet and all of the complexities of those interactions.  Now it’s on to trying to come up with a name for this piece.  That’s one of my more challenging tasks.  I usually end up using somewhat mundane sounding titles, basically they help me to know which piece it is, but I find it difficult to convey much more than that in a title.  Any comments or suggestions from other artists out there?

I’m moving on quickly to a new piece, and will write more about that when it’s underway.  Meanwhile, it’s been a busy spring with several shows going on in the New England area.  Lapis Light was just accepted into the Connecticut Academy of Fine Art’s 99th Annual Juried Show, which is up at the Mystic Arts Center (Mystic, CT) from May 28th to July 17th.  More information can be found at either of these websites:  Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts or Mystic Arts Center.

One of my favorite little drawings, Nocturne at Sea, is currently hanging in the Academic Artists Association’s Annual Member’s Exhibition, and was awarded the “Art Patron’s Award”.

Happy upcoming summer to all, and thanks for checking out my blog!

With the the glass vase complete it’s on to the really fun stuff! But as I write that I should note that the vase isn’t really finished.  Already since I’ve taken this photograph I’ve deepened some areas where it interfaces with the rocks.  But the fun stuff it watching it all pull together and come alive as each stone is drawn.  I start with the darkest stones and move on to the lightest; and in this drawing, the darkest stones are the three on the bottom.  I like the way the glass and reflections have developed, but it won’t really pull together until it’s all in place, and one can see why certain reflections are where they are.

I’ve been working on this new drawing for about four weeks and the background and top of the glass vase are almost done.  It’s a large drawing (about 20 x 15 inches) on Bristol Board, and it’s interesting to switch back to a flat paper surface after working on the textured Rtistx for a couple of pieces.  I have to be very careful to leave the whiter/lighter areas intact, as there’s no going back once they go too dark.  On the sanded surface, you can keep changing the color, adding whites or light tones on top of darks, nothing is a problem.  But on paper that type of option is lost very quickly.  I started the background by layering two to four different shades of Caran D’ache Aquarelle pencil colors and then blending the colors with a wet brush.  Then I started in with Prismacolor pencils, first using Limepeel, then Grass Green, Olive Green, Peacock Green, Black Cherry and some Dark Umber.  Certain lighter places have some Yellow Ochre in them, and most places (except the darkest darks) are burnished with a pale light blue.  I know it’s not the most simplistic approach, but I love the color transparencies that one can achieve by layering this way.

My drawing “Amber Bowl” is currently in the Academic Artist Association’s 60th Annual National Exhibition in Springfield, MA, and was awarded the Windsor-Newton Award.  The big red letter day fast approaching for all of us colored pencil artists is the announcement of the jurying results for this year’s  CPSA International Exhibition, which will be made public on April 26th.

National Pencil Day

I finished this graphite drawing, titled “Front Side/Back Side” over a week ago, and have been tending to art business details in the interim.  I guess it should be pretty evident that this stone is reflected in a mirror, so one can see two sides (or more, since more than one side is showing on the rock in the foreground).  In this series I always aspire to do a companion piece to each drawing, an opposite of sorts.  For this one, I envision drawing a whiter rock on a darker background with a mirror image.  But I’ve moved on to a yet larger colored pencil still life of stones in a vase with water, seen from straight on, rather than a bird’s eye view.  It has a lot of green in it – I’m so happy it’s spring!

I’m very excited to share this new drawing in my Stones series.  Will you look at those colors!  It’s so stunning when the  pale, discreet colors of the rocks become submerged in water.  This still life has a straight above, bird’s eye view, and the bowl is cropped; in comparison to the Amber Bowl, which is viewed slightly at an angle, and the bowl is entirely contained in the composition.  As a result, in this piece the water is less prominent, but different and  interesting aspects are created.  I had so much fun exploring the different ways light and reflection danced around the piece.

I’m starting a graphite drawing of stones reflecting in a mirror, and planning to resume work on the last oil painting I posted a while back.  It’s been sitting on the back burner (in this case, my studio easel) for too long!

]]> http://dlfriedman.com/myblog/2010/03/08/latest-drawing-is-complete-2/feed/ 8 http://dlfriedman.com/myblog/2010/03/03/amber-bowl-wins-first-place-in-the-artists-magazines-on-line-media-competition/ http://dlfriedman.com/myblog/2010/03/03/amber-bowl-wins-first-place-in-the-artists-magazines-on-line-media-competition/#comments Wed, 03 Mar 2010 18:36:17 +0000 Debbi http://dlfriedman.com/myblog/?p=693

My colored pencil drawing “Amber Bowl” was awarded First Place in the Graphite, charcoal and colored pencil category of the Artists Magazine’s On-Line All Media competition.  I am so honored to receive this recognition for my work, especially as there are so many fine entries for them to judge from.  I spoke with Chris McHugh, the Managing Editor of The Artists Magazine, who told me that there were over 1,800 entries this year.  You can see all of the first place winners and honorable mention award winners at The Artists Magazine.

In spite of my lack of blog entries lately I have been working hard.  I’m planning to post a photograph of my latest drawing, last written about  on February 11th, by next Monday.  So please check back soon!

]]> http://dlfriedman.com/myblog/2010/03/03/amber-bowl-wins-first-place-in-the-artists-magazines-on-line-media-competition/feed/ 12 http://dlfriedman.com/myblog/2010/02/11/azure-bowl-work-in-progress-stage-two/ http://dlfriedman.com/myblog/2010/02/11/azure-bowl-work-in-progress-stage-two/#comments Thu, 11 Feb 2010 21:05:30 +0000 Debbi http://dlfriedman.com/myblog/?p=689

Here is an installment after two weeks of work.  I approached the beginning of this drawing in the same fashion as the still-life that I featured in my blog post of October 15, 2009.  I worked in the background first, and then started in on the bowl from the outside in.  This will leave the rocks and water for last.  I’m  having a lot of fun working on this, but there is a challenge in the colors, as I’m slightly tweaking the color to a more “blueish” shade than a more “purple-ish” shade. There are no blacks in the drawing, so the darks are made by layering blues, purples and browns.  I am so excited to move on to the reflections that continue on the glass down into the water.