This evening my solo exhibit at Tsuga Fine Art came to its conclusion. It was an honor to have my artwork on display at Tsuga for six weeks. Eight of my watercolors have found new homes! Thank you all for your support and art love!
Women Painters of Washington Exhibit
So thrilled to learn that all three of my entries to the upcoming exhibit of Women Painters of Washington at the Pacific Regent Tower in Bellevue have been accepted! They will be on display from November 1st to January 29th.
Thank you Women Painters of Washington and thank you Pacific Regent Tower!
My Art Crush: Elizabeth Gilbert
Back when Eat, Pray, Love was on everybody's night stand, I too read and fell in love with the book. Then I sort of lost touch with Elizabeth Gilbert and her books that immediately followed Eat, Pray, Love - not because I wasn't interested in reading more by Gilbert, but because, sadly, I don't take much time to read for pleasure. But now she has two books out which I'm thrilled to make time for: Big Magic and The Signature of All Things.
I watched this video yesterday, an interview with Gilbert, discussing Big Magic.
Take the 48 minutes needed to watch it. You'll be inspired and encouraged.
Here's to the magic!
Amsterdam
We ended our European adventure this year with a week in Amsterdam. Our hotel was right in the thick of things: across from the Central Station which was for trains and a major stop for trams. Restaurants, shops and coffee houses as far as the eye could see. Along with people out strolling and biking. Beauty everywhere, truly!
Some of my favorite art stops: Rembrandt's House, the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh Museum. And plenty of people watching/sketching sitting at outdoor cafes sipping wine. Yes please!
The Beauty of Leaves
We are down to our last few days in Amsterdam before returning home. It's been a great month of travel but summer is winding down. Outside my hotel window I see everyone riding bikes wearing jackets and sweaters as they peddle over bridges, dodging pedestrians and zipping by. My thoughts turn to Fall and a class I'm excited to offer on the beauty of leaves.
Eight Week Drawing & Watercolor Workshop: The Beauty of Leaves (Adults)
$210.00
Arts Umbrella located at Country Village
Tuesdays 9:30am - 12:30pm
September 22 - November 10
We will focus on the beauty of leaves: colorful and full and subtle and skeleton leaves, in all their beauty. This class will build a solid foundation of observation, drawing and watercolor skills to strengthen your ability to be creative! The instructor will focus specifically on how to render realistically using line and contour, shape and form, light and shadow, and color. All skill levels welcomed.
Only a few spots left! Register at http://www.charlenecollinsfreeman.com/workshops/.
You're cordially invited...
Please join me for my first solo exhibit at Tsuga Fine Art!
You are cordially invited
to an exhibit of watercolors by
Charlene Collins Freeman
Beauty Everywhere
Opening Reception
Friday, September 18, 2015
5pm - 8pm
On exhibition until October 24, 2015
Tsuga Fine Art
10101 Main Street
Bothell, WA 98011
(425) 483-7385
www.tsugafineart.com
Hours
Tues - Thurs 10 - 6
Friday 10 - 5
Sat 10 - 4
Venezia
After a week at Villa Sogara (not nearly long enough), we took our sketchbook adventure on the road, or maybe I should say, we took our adventure on the water, as we headed to Venice for the final three days of sunrise photography sessions, sketch booking, dancing in Saint Mark's Square, and tasting delicious wines and foods. Bella la vita!
Sunrise in Saint Mark's Square
Our fantastic group at our Farewell Dinner. Salute!
There is no world without Verona
"There is no world without Verona walls..." Shakespeare
Maybe I'm biased about Verona. I was raised here, as was my mother, her mother, and as far back as we know, our grandmothers' grandmothers. For me, Verona is one of the most beautiful cities in the world. And so every year I bring a group of sketchbook artists to explore and enjoy this city with me.
Here are a few of the moments from this year's adventure. Bella Verona!
Piazza Dante
Piazza delle Erbe
The Roman Theater
Piazza Bra'
There is no world without Verona...
Villa Sogara, a slice of heaven
This year I discovered the amazing Villa Sogara when I stayed there with a group of ten others who were along for my Italian Sketchbook Adventure. What a discovery!
Just six miles from downtown Verona, we were in our own world at the villa. Each morning we had our workshop on this lovely covered patio.
On several mornings we got up early to walk around the small town and the vineyards and take sunrise photographs.
At lunch time we gathered around the kitchen table for cooking classes and the occasional poetry reading from our chef.
In the afternoons, we swam in our lovely swimming pool, drank local Valpolicella wines, and sketched the endless beauty both inside and outside the villa.
Our hosts, Tommaso and Ella, were fantastic. Tommaso's great-grandfather bought this villa in 1929 and the family called it home until six years ago, when they decided to share it with the world by renting it out. Tommaso and Ella, and their young daughter and loving puppy, live there as well. Hospitable, accommodating, knowledgeable and kind they are the perfect hosts.
At the end of our workshop one morning, Ella surprised us with a freshly baked cake topped with grapes from the vineyards.
We walked through their vineyards and fruit trees, photographing, sketching and picking fresh figs. Buonissimi!
Tommaso took us to a nearby winery where we sampled local wines and olive oil.
Villa Sogara is a slice of heaven. So much so that I had already started planning the next workshop there (for June 2016!) before leaving.
Arrivederci Villa Sogara!!
Traveling & Sketching Bliss
I've been in Verona for a few days now, preparing for my group of students from Seattle. They will arrive tomorrow and we will settle into the Villa Sogara for a week before heading to Venice for three days. Happiness!
I've started my sketchbook for this trip and am reminded how blissful it is to travel and sketch. Beauty everywhere!
Cover page
A few of the most important things to pull together for the trip...
About one block from my brother's home downtown Verona is this little church...
Lots of walking, lots of gelato, lots of sunshine and joy.
Keeping a nature sketchbook is my yoga
Over the past six months I've spent a lot of time sketching in the wild. Well, some places more wild than others, but always, sketching out there, out in the natural world. I offered courses on sketching in nature to students aged 7 through 86 and we walked trails in our neighborhoods, at local botanical gardens, wetland sanctuaries, college gardens, and natural history museums. All of it, great.
Even with caterpillars falling out of trees and into my hair, with bees buzzing around my head, roosters peeking and pecking over my shoulder, it was all so much more than I had anticipated. I learned about the moon's phases and the history of specific herbs, the details of trees I have ignored for years and insects I finally studied. The biggest lesson of all that I have learned and hopefully taught is that once we slow down enough to look, really look, at the natural world, we will never be bored again. It is an infinite source of interesting observations and facts, at once both bizarre and comforting.
The nature workshops from my Spring and Summer schedule are all wrapped up and now my thoughts are turning to my upcoming travel sketchbook workshop to Italy (Yah!) but if you would like to see some of the pages and moments from my own recent nature adventures, click here.
If you want to see more naturalist artwork, you can check out some of my favorites: Cathy Johnson, Keith Brockie, Lizzie Harper, and Joe Garcia.
Beautiful Beasts
Last week I went to the Clearview Nursery & Stone on Highway 9 in Snohomish with a group of sketchers. Although their goal is to provide natural stone products to homeowners, landscape contractors, builders and architects, what they also provide is a sketch-rich environment.
Everywhere we looked, there were old tractors in retirement, some decorated with Christmas lights, vintage signs, like Ivar's original clam, and a hillside full of old Tonka trucks set up as if they were in the middle of a big landscaping project. Awesomeness everywhere: rusted out gas pumps, old washers, 1940s merry go rounds...
A perfect day drawing these beautiful beasts with a great group of sketchers.
100 Portraits
A few weeks ago I met Dick Paetzke. He introduced himself to me after I had finished giving a presentation on the "Joy of Traveling with a Sketchbook." Shortly after that we got together for coffee and to talk about art, learning, Italy, and good food. All favorites of mine!
In particular, I want to share what Dick told me about how he decided to teach himself to draw, and draw graphite portraits at that. If you've ever tried to draw a portrait, you know how challenging it can be! Dick chose to learn by challenging himself to draw 100 portraits. Now, at age 82, he has completed 83 portraits and is working on #84. Below is a collection of a few of his portraits from throughout the years. In this collection we can see the progress in his skill, his ability to draw and to see. So inspiring!
Here is his story, in his own word. I hope this entertains and encourages you as much as it did me.
Well, for most of my life I've earned a good living as a successful advertising writer. I almost always worked in an advertising agency environment partnered with an art director to create print ads, promotions, radio and television commercials, posters, films, and online materials. Clients spent millions on what we created because it made their businesses grow.
Working in a writer/art director creative team in a high pressure setting is exhilarating. And because it involved getting the best possible results from two largely different skill sets, one verbal, the other graphic, it can often produce conflict before it produces synergy, what that old Cole Porter song called "that perfect blendship." Often, I'd suggest to my art-side buddy, that a layout would look better if the product photo were larger, or that maybe he shouldn't use white type reversed out of a black background because it was too hard to read. Just as often, he'd tell me to stick to my own side of the business, he was the guy with art school training. He understood mysteries I couldn't conceivably fathom.
That went both ways. I absolutely hated it when my partner told me a headline was too long for his layout, or even, damn it all, came up with a far better headline than I did. And inwardly, silently wondered, if I could somehow come up with some of the same graphic magic that he had at his fingertips. The fact was, I not only loved what I did, I loved the art side too, which became important when I eventually became a creative director responsible for hiring art directors, artists, illustrators, graphic designers and all the other art-side talent that make an ad agency work. I had to intimately understand what they were doing even though I didn't do it myself. Notice I said, "didn't" not "couldn't." I hadn't yet dared to try.
That opportunity didn't come up until I saw a family friend painting some simple, but charming postcards with watercolors. She asked me if I wanted to try it and handed me a brush. I can't remember what I painted, I think it might have been a coffee cup. It didn't amount to much.
But a short while later a catalog from a local community college arrived in the mail and offered two art classes, one in watercolor painting, the other in portrait drawing. Both were taught by the same teacher, a former major university art school professor. Some inner voice urged me to sign up for both, but I didn't want to make that much of a commitment on something so speculative. Remembering my sloppy coffee cup attempt, I signed up for the portrait drawing class. It turned out to be a horrendous mistake. Or at least I thought so at the time.
The teacher, who shall remain nameless, was the worst teacher I ever had in any subject. He continually talked about himself and showed us virtually nothing that added to anybody's skills. Despite the fact that I was getting no really useful instruction and wasting my tuition money, I somehow started to realize how challenging it was to even try to draw a recognizable portrait. He had the students critique each others' work, even though as beginners we had no notion how to do that. He would add comments like, "That looks kind of like an old uncle I had."
What he did do was mention a book of 42 charcoal portraits by the Florence born American artist John Singer Sargent. I bought it and was stunned. Sargent's portraits were alive. I sat and stared at them for hours. I knew then that I wanted to draw portraits. Then I remembered something else Professor Otherwise Inadequate had said, something he must have heard in art school: If you want to master something, you have to either spend 10,000 hours at it, or repeat it 1,000 times.
"Oh, help," I thought. "I won't live that long." But I really wanted to try. So I set myself what I thought might be a reasonable goal that would be a step in that direction. I assigned myself to do 100 portraits as a sort of self-teaching apprenticeship. That was just about six years ago. Now, at age 82, I have finished 83 portraits. Some of them are not bad, but in no way am I there yet. And don't want to be.
At first I drew almost anybody from any kind of scrap, online pictures, photos in magazines, all of people I didn't know. Then I made myself a rule to draw only people that I actually knew or had a relationship with. While I've also drawn a couple of people from photos someone has provided, I now primarily want to photograph them myself and draw from truly candid shots of people "being themselves", talking, gesturing, being emotional, and anything other than being rigidly posed. Some people are so self-conscious they can hardly stand to be themselves and instantly want to become a "model." I find faces fascinating and ideally I want someone to be able to look at portrait I have drawn and say, "That makes me feel like I know that person."
I am learning by making mistakes. That is probably largely the way I have learned everything of consequence in my life. I have about twelve different books about drawing and portrait drawing, including Sargent's. Each has helped me identify something I need to correct. Each portrait adds to my ability to hopefully not make the same error (of the 200 trillion errors that are possible) in the next one. I value those mistakes, glitches, and "failures" because they are invaluable instruction.
When you're driving with kids they always ask "Are we there yet?" As far as art goes, I have to caution myself never to think I'm there yet. The calendar may classify me as an adult, even a pretty old one, but I will fight to maintain my immaturity and not be so "grown up" that I no longer have the time, curiosity or energy to open new doors and immerse myself in what is waiting behind them. ~ Dick Paetzke
On an unrelated but equally interesting note, back in 2009 Dick published a book, Postcards: Little Letters From Life (available on Amazon). On the "About the author" page he is described as:
Dick Paetzke is a longtime advertising agency creative director and writer as well as head of his own creative services business. A native of Seattle, Washington, he has been an infantry soldier, cold an shivering duck hunterr, student of languages, ardent reader, motor scooter rider, novice grandfather, author, and fancier of well-cooked pot roast. He makes his home in Seattle and Lecce, Italy, with his wife Adriana.
This description did not include "portrait artist." He told me that came along in the same year, but like much of his life, it happened as a surprise. Such a pleasure getting to know you Mr. Paetzke!
Terence Brown 2009 A life model used in the Seattle Community College portrait drawing class.
Mother, 2009 my mom Gretchen Rohde, then age 20 and drawn from a postcard sent in 1920 from my father to his friends in America inscribed “This is my intended wife. Some kid eh?”
Uwe Kuklinski, 2009, a steel fabricating company executive in Techentin, Germany. Brought up in the former East Zone of Germany he is the husband of my German cousin.
Laszlo Pal. 2010, cinematographer, film producer and director. Now retired in Kenmore. A 1956 immigrant who fled the Hungarian revolution against the communists.
Tamara Johnson Grieger. 2010. A former advertising agency art director now working retail sales in Tacoma. She shares my birthday.
Joe Rinaldi, 2010. A retired Washington State Parole Officer, ardent hunter and fisherman, and longtime youth minister at St. Bridget Catholic Church, Seattle
“Giordana Mia” 2011. Giordana Adele Coccia. Our granddaughter .Age 4 in portrait. Now 8 and entering third grade.
Lynda Hansen, 2011. Office manager of Physical Therapy Specialties in Seattle’s Wedgwood area.
Dr. Dennis Chipman, 2011. A retired forensic psychiatrist in Anderson, South Carolina. A childhood friend that I haven’t seen for 65+ years.
Ken Sharp, 2011. Retired truck parts manufacturers representative. Now a full time artist in multiple media.
Sadie Beckham. 2012. A hairdresser at Sport Clips and self-proclaimed martini lover.
Mackenzie Altig. 2013. University of Washington senior, singer and model.
Prisha Kuberan. 2013. Our neighbor, at the time an exuberant first grader whose parents both came from India.
Gustav Rohde, 2014. Farmer, tailor, and father of nine, one of whom was to become my mother. Born lived and died in a small Prussian village called Klaushagen in easternmost Germany.
Dr. Antonio Quarta. (2014) For many years an eminent cardiologist in Lecce, Italy.
Doug Clark. 2015.Manager of Lake City Picture Framing, a company founded and owned by his family.
Ed Cunningham, 2015. An old friend of mine from way back in the 4th grade at Haller Lake School. Longtime hardware manufacturers representative.
Teresa Orlandi-Foscarini, 2015. A dear friend from Lecce, Italy. Passed away there at age 83.
Father Edgar Sanchez. 2015. Former pastor St. Elizabeth Ann Seton parish in Bothell. Now heading the Rome, Italy office of a Catholic Missionary Brotherhood.
Hai Lan. 2015. Acupuncturist and Chinese medicine specialist, partnered with her husband in a clinic in northeast Seattle.
Andrea Albrecht, 2015. Bothell hearing aid specialist.
Lefkos Christodoulides. 2015. Greek born Seattle resident, UW educated landscape architect with a fine arts background.
Fall Workshops
I'm always excited to pull together my line up of classes and workshops for the next season and this time is no different. Here is the line up of classes I will be teaching at Arts Umbrella this Fall. To see classes I will be offering at other locations in addition to Arts Umbrella, click on my Workshops page. You can register there too. Come get inspired!
Finishing a sketchbook
I get a lot of satisfaction from finishing a sketchbook. And it's immediately followed by the fresh promise of a brand new sketchbook to be started!
Last spread in my sketchbook. Next!
After decades of using various sketchbooks, I've fallen in love with the Stillman & Birn Zeta Series sketchbooks. I use the 8 1/2 x 11 hardbound ones almost exclusively. Sometimes they do feel too big (I'm perpetually on the hunt for the right sketching bag that will accommodate such a large sketchbook but not verge on being a suitcase) but I just don't like the 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 size as much. I wish they made the Zeta in 9 x 6 but they don't (yet?).
Other than recommending the Stillman & Birn brand, I hesitate to recommend sizes. Sketchbooks are such a personal choice. A sketcher develops a relationship with their sketchbook that is personal, that has to fit their way of working, their personal preferences, art materials, subjects.... and that elusive art bag...
Sketching supplies
While great art can be made with a ballpoint pen on lined notebook paper, it’s awfully fun to pull together a nice set of supplies for your sketching kit.
I've been wanting to share some of my favorite sketching supplies with you, keeping in mind that it's an ever evolving list. I carry mine with me everywhere I go, whether I plan on going sketching or not. Sometimes, the opportunity arises when I hadn't planned on it and it's great to have my supplies with me at all times. Sketching makes the most mundane of moments exciting, fun, and fresh. With my supplies in tow, I don't mind long lines, waiting rooms, or meetings so much. They all become opportunities to see, really see, the world around me.
So each tool in my sketching kit needs to earn its place since I'll be carry it around. I used to throw too many supplies in my bag, not sure what I would be in the mood to use. But my kit because heavy and it was the first thing I would leave home if I thought I'd be out running around too long. By lightening my load, there is no need to ever consider not bringing my kit with me.
There's nothing magical about my list of tools. It's just a list of my preferences at the moment. I'm always learning about a new pen, or brushes, or sketchbook. I'll try them out. Sometimes they replace my favorites. Sometimes not. So this list is just what is in my bag now. The attached sketch is what my favorite kit looked like just a year ago. You can see, it's evolved quite a bit from what's listed here. Time to go sketch my current set!
1. Watercolor sketchbook. I love the 8.5 x 11 Stillman & Birn sketchbooks but sometimes even I find it to be too big. I haven't convinced myself to go smaller yet. I prefer the Stillman & Birn Beta and the Zeta Series Sketchbooks, which are designed for watercolors.
2. Waterproof ink pens in black ink, various sizes. I like Black, Pigma Micron Pen 01/.25mm and a few Microns that are of various sizes up and down from that. Bring more than one as they do run out. However most of my sketches are done with my new favorite pen, a Platinum Carbon Desk Fountain Pen, Super Fine. The ink that comes in its cartridge is completely waterproof and I love the fine nib. I don't mind that it usually leaves black ink smudges on my middle finger.
3. Watercolor travel palette. There are a ton of choices out there. Some people fill little Altoids tins with half pans and their favorite half dozen colors. I bring a larger set: my half pan set of 24 colors by Winsor & Newton, professional grade. Hundreds and hundreds of color choices are out there. You should pick the colors that most speak to you.
4. Three travel brushes of various sizes. It’s important that they are travel brushes (they will have caps on them so that they don’t get ruined as you travel). One luxurious option is the DaVinci travel brushes but I also use the inexpensive Niji Waterbrushes, which conveniently fill up with water. I have a small round, medium round, and large round Niji.
5. A Guerrilla Painter Large Mouth Single Palette Cup. This small metal cup with a cap carries enough water in it for me to paint a sketch or two. It clips to my metal palette and I've come to love it.
6. Paper towels. Just a few, folded up in my bag to clean up my brushes and palette when I'm done.
And that's it, these days.
Do you have some favorites that I should know about? Please share. Shopping for art supplies is one of my greatest joys. Gimme an excuse to go find more!
It's Raining, It's Pouring
Not really. It's in the 80s and has been for quite a while BUT, I just finished this watercolor of one of our Great Danes, Jak, sleeping. The title is It's Raining, It's Pouring and indeed, Jak was snoring on the day I took this photo of him.
Watercolor & Gouache, 15 x 22
Sketching sheep and goats and peacocks oh my!
Yesterday I went to Flower World with a few of my favorite ladies to sketch. Instead of flowers, we sketched sheep, goats and peacocks. The sheep were very leery of us and kept inching away. The goats made a lot of direct eye contact with us. What mugs!
We also ran into some peacocks. Gorgeous, lazying about in the shade. Fantastic day of sketching!
Beautiful video about raising a creative family
I love this video of Danny Gregory (one of my all time art crushes) interviewing artist Rick Beerhorst on how to raise a creative family. Rick and his wife, Brenda, have learned a lot from raising and homeschooling six (!) creative children.
It's a gorgeous little video. Enjoy!
She sells seashells...
Today I finished this 10.5 x 14 inch watercolor of a seashell. I loved every step of this painting, which isn't always the case. Enlarging the shell allowed me to show off its' colors and textures.
I have a collection of seashells and I look forward to painting many more.
The wonderfully talented and passionate Chilean poet, Pablo Neruda, decorated his house with, amongst other collections, seven hundred seashells. They could be found all over his home on the rocky shore southwest of Santiago. Shells were tucked into corners and embedded in floors. They lined bookshelves and tabletops. The poet believed that beloved objects preserve the spirit of their owner. It is said that the spirit that prevails at Neruda`s home, Isla Negra, is one of unabashed fun and unapologetic extravagance.