class with Bill . . .

To get to class in Venice (Florida) today I drove out of my way to avoid the highway. Steven told me a piece of construction equipment fell off a truck yesterday and punched five huge holes into the I-75 overpass over University Parkway, backing up I-75 southbound for many miles as they worked to repair the road. I made it to my Creative Breakout art class with Bill Buchman after a little over an hour! A long drive that was worth it.

My assignment that was done in class is on the left, shown as I was beginning. When I finshed it was more saturated with color and filled completely. Bill's demo is top right - he was showing us what he wanted us to do. I could not resist taking a photo of his book, obviously well used in class, with a box of his Zen sumi paint brushes and Zen reed ink pens, designed by him.

I have yet to take Bill's expressive Figure drawing class, but plan to sign up one day -when I get the nerve to challenge myself to learn figure drawing. I am more comfortable with abstract work. But just like the mono challenge hosted by paladian, sometimes you need to challenge yourself!

Today Bill gave us a recipe of creating rectangles out of lines that turned into alphabet letter forms and then back to lines, in different shapes (not all the same size). He wanted us to lay these lines down with oil pastels and then come back and make rectangles over the lines with wet media. We used CretaColor Briques, which are watercolor, with his sumi brushes. The oil pastels would naturally resist the wet media. We could also fill in the shapes we made with color. He wanted us to think about variation -how we could vary our lines, color, and to think about composition and how we are dividing up the space. No crashing of spaces allowed!

My favorite quote of his for the afternoon was, "making art is identical to making one dish for a meal. It is not rocket science!" : ) He also added that doing the obvious or timid does not work in art. Bravery is rewarded.

I am very grateful to be in Bill Buchman's class and learning so much from him.