Inspiration from Afar

An artist is an explorer. -- Henri Matisse

My dear friend is traveling in Sedona, Arizona, and sent me a photo of the rocks in the sunlight there.  The text that accompanied the photo spoke of new watercolor paints & paper, and a new pair of hiking boots to explore the "incredibly inspiring" area.  The photo & story lit my imagination, and I was inspired to paint the scene. I send gratitude back to my friend, who had serendipitously left this quote in my kitchen recently:

By doing what you love, you inspire & awaken the hearts of others.  

So true!

Wishing you all a Happy New Year!

Reconnecting at Breakfast

This morning I woke up and this is what I saw out my kitchen window:



As I ate oatmeal and drank hot tea, I picked up a few Micron pens and my colored pencil set to sketch.




The holidays can take us away from our routines, and finding just a few minutes for a sketch reconnects us to nature, to what is deeply meaningful, calming and real.  As your pen travels down the contours of an elegantly twisted Black Cherry tree, you connect with the tree's essence and native beauty, and you are reminded that you, too are part of Creation.  This feeling of community with nature heals me, settles me, and lights that spark of joy in my heart that I am a living being on this amazing planet.

May you find a moment to reconnect through art today.

2020 Nature Calendar is Done!

I just picked up the copies of my 2020 pen & ink nature calendar!  Hubby & I made it down our country roads and back just before the snow & ice storm swept into the area.

My intention from the start was to have a calendar that recipients could paint or color if they liked.  So I had the copies printed on white card stock.  The minute I got my calendars home, I broke out my paints and played a bit. 

Why does this make me so happy? 

Painting Inspiration

This time of year, I find myself drawn to wise quotes by famous people.  After hours of selecting, writing and illuminating quotes with illustrations of wild creatures for my 2020 pen & ink calendar, I'm sensitized to the words' deeper meanings.  The more you sit with something, the more secrets and nuances it will yield for you to pluck and take to heart.

Here's some painting inspiration that hangs over my kitchen sink.

2020 Classes

The new program guide for the Community College of Beaver County is out!  Follow the link below to see the course listings for my upcoming classes: Figure Drawing, Pen & Ink and Papermaking Studio on page 3 of the tabloid:
https://www.ccbc.edu/college-catalogs

Select the bottom catalog of the two entitled "Continuing Education"

Registration begins January 6th!

Figure Drawing Update

I recently had the good fortune of drawing two young models who held beautiful poses.  Their creativity and professionalism inspired me.  Here a few images from the session.

5-minute poses

15 minute pose

Creating A Pen-and-Ink Calendar

Every year about this time I am busily sketching out calendar pages for a gift I give family and friends.  I am lucky to have a dear friend, who is also a nature photographer.  He gives me free choice of all of his amazing nature pics.  Like a kid in a candy shop,  I peruse hundreds of photos and pick out those that speak to me, selecting quotes to mingle between the drawings. 

Here's a glimpse at part of my 2020 calendar:

Art as Self-Care

This time of year especially, life gets busy, and it can be hard to squeeze in time to create.  But you don't have to block out hours to find that moment of creative bliss.  As Henry Thoreau said, "Simplify, simplify." Here are some ideas for giving yourself a little artistic self-care during the busy holiday season.

YouTube is chock-full of short watercolor painting DIY videos.  Here are a few of my recent creations and the video links for each.  Happy Painting!

Painting inspiration from artist Ellen Crimi-Trent's video Winter Landscape Tutorial.

Shayda Campbell's video Every Watercolor Flower You'll Ever Need! inspired this wreath painting.  I drew a circle lightly in pencil, then arranged the flowers around that guideline.

My dear friend & pen pal of 25 years sent me a vintage calendar, and I added winter greenery snippets inspired by Shayda Campbell's video Winter Watercolor Leaves.  I look forward to writing a letter to on my new stationery!

New Classes for the New Year!

If you are ready for a fresh art project, new inspiration, or just a way to schedule some time for creative self-care, I invite you to join me in these upcoming classes!

Pittsburgh Figure Drawing Meetup

Guided Workshop: Drawing the Model

It's difficult to get started in figure drawing if you're not enrolled in a fine arts program, or able to commit to an expensive, multi-week course. In our 3-hour workshop we'll guide you through proven drawing exercises designed to get your eyes, brain, and hand working together to capture the human form on paper. Attendance is limited to 8 so our instructor can provide one-on-one guidance. Models will pose nude. Materials provided. $25 cash workshop fee. Instructor is artist and figure model Betsy Bangley. Models are Kathryn and David. Seating is limited. Free street-side parking.

Sunday, Jan. 5th, 2-5 pm
Metta: A Healing Arts Community, 5118 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA
Register online at the Pittsburgh Figure Drawing Meetup:
https://www.meetup.com/Pittsburgh-Figure-Drawing/or email: betsybangley@gmail.com

Community College of Beaver County Continuing Education

I'll be teaching these courses at the Community College of Beaver County.  You can register online for these courses here: https://my.ccbc.edu/ICS/Continuing_Education/
See the full catalog here: https://www.ccbc.edu/college-catalogs


Figure Drawing -- Back by popular demand
Do you enjoy drawing and want to take on a new challenge? Expand your artistic skills and connect with humanity by learning to draw another human being. Our models will dress in athletic wear, and will hold a variety of poses to observe and sketch. Each week we will start with quick gesture drawings and then work on proportions, foreshortening, hands & feet, and the face through longer drawings. Bring a pad of newsprint, drawing paper, a soft pencil, and charcoal.
Mondays, February 3rd, 10th, 17th & 24th, from 6-9 PM
Cost: $59 + a $49 Lab fee

NEW! Handmade Paper Studio
Create your own artsy & unique papers out of a variety of upcycled materials in the first class. You will craft your paper into a journal, stationary or other creation. All materials are provided, though you can bring dried flowers, glitter, a favorite essential oil, or other items to include in your paper.
Wednesdays, April 22nd and 29th from 6-9 PM
Cost: $39 + a $10 Lab fee

New! Pen & Ink
Learn to capture natural scenes with the simple, sharp lines of pen and ink. Learn a technique to minimize the stress of inking, and allow your creativity to flow. You will be drawing natural scenes and subjects using reference photos or natural objects brought into the art studio.
Thursdays, April 9th, 16th & 23rd from 6-9 PM

Cost: $49 + a $10 Lab fee

Larch Cones

Larch trees are unusual for conifers in that they lose their needles every autumn just like maples and hickories do.  This time of year, the trees turn golden yellow, and glow in the late afternoon light.  I'm taken by the tree's needles -- so much softer than prickly evergreen needles -- and by their cones with the curling tips on their scales.  So many contours!

A good friend sent me a photo of these cones, and it inspired me to tape some watercolor paper to the kitchen counter and paint at the breakfast table.  While the background washes were wet, I sprinkled on salt for added texture.  Once the painting was dry, (& I brushed the salt away) I couldn't resist using Micron pens to pick out the details.

A Day of Sandhill Cranes and Sunshine

Today I had a rare day off.  And, serendipity granted me a lovely, sunny afternoon to sit outside on an old wool Army blanket south of my house and paint the scene before me.  The sky was clear as a Robin's egg shell, spanning ultramarine to cerulean blue, and I delighted in watching a half dozen Eastern Bluebirds hunting in the Staghorn Sumac shrubs around my home.  A gentle breeze made the dead aster stalks dance and nod, and I simply relaxed and took it all in.

This morning at just after 10 am, I stepped outside and was surprised to hear the trumpeting call of a hundred Sandhill Cranes flying high overhead.  How remarkable that I could hear their wild voices as far as they were from me.  I snapped these photos of the majestic birds on their migration, and offered up Palo Santo incense and a prayer for their safe travels south.  A charmed day.

Sandhill Cranes form two loose V's.

Figure Drawing Update

Model Kathryn Zapalo gave us an amazing Open Studio session at Carnegie Mellon University's College of Fine Arts Sunday night, bringing a variety of dancerly gesture poses and elegant and emotive longer poses. She let her light shine, inspiring the artists in the room.  Here are a few of my pencil drawings.  More are posted on my Figure Drawing page.

November Sunset

The days have turned suddenly cold; the autumn colors have been blown from the trees; and the more subdued tones of late autumn have overtaken the landscape.  A busy work schedule has kept me from hiking in the woods and painting, so when a friend sent me some sunset photos last night, I jumped on the opportunity to paint the beauty he captured with his camera.  I started with a wet-in-wet series of washes in the sky, and when that had dried, I sketched the wintry trees and shrubs in the foreground, inking them in with a small Sumi brush and India ink, and touching up details with an 05 Micron pen.  It felt good to connect with the landscape, even through a photo of it.

A Hike in the Autumn Woods

A gorgeous autumn afternoon beckoned today, so I loaded up my backpack and set out on a 5-mile hike.  Everywhere I looked was brilliance and beauty.  I stopped along the way to eat the lunch I'd packed, sitting right down on the trail under the most magnificent maples.  Sunlight illuminated the golden leaves so they looked like lanterns.  How relieving to the soul to dwell under trees like this:

On the hike back, the setting sun poured in from the west to fill the woods with long, low rays and blaze through the brilliant leaves.

 

Happy Autumn to all! May you get a chance to witness nature's great show!

Race to Capture Autumn

The last few evenings, late autumn light has poured from a clear sky over a richly colored landscape.  These are the days I wish I could stop time and just paint.  But my schedule is full, so I steal time to create when I can.  Tonight, I raced the setting sun with my watercolor brush, then finished the painting indoors, adding touches with my Prismacolor colored pencils.

Happy Autumn!

Flaming Sassafras and Maple leaves glow like lanterns in the late evening sun, while a bare limbed apple tree and raspberry bushes gather deep shadows.

A Rainy Autumn Afternoon

Why is it that a rainy day seems to bring out all the fall colors ? The wet sky today had such a palette of colors -- indigo, magenta, violet -- as the sun sank in the west.  The cottonwoods seem to find the slightest breeze to wave their golden leaves, and they stand in stark contrast to the stalwart spruce trees.  How privileged I feel to have spent the last of the day's light with a paintbrush in my hand.

Master Copy

I'm taking a Figure Drawing class at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts & Media, and one of the assignments we were given was to copy a master artist's work.  Copying in art -- so long as you don't try to pass the work off as an original of your own creating -- is not cheating.  It's a traditional way to learn from the great artists.  I love the high contrast in the original drawing, and in trying to approximate the original, I discovered how dark shadows are often accompanied by bright highlights. 

A Trip to Moraine State Park

I got the opportunity to visit Moraine State Park on a gorgeously sunny day this week. The autumn colors reflected in still water, the brilliantly blue sky, the cool air inspired me to rush to capture every bit of the fall beauty I could.

Autumn's Flame

The Staghorn Sumac trees outside my home have been dropping their scarlet leaves -- plenty of fodder for a quick watercolor sketch at the breakfast table.

A Hike to Raccoon Lake

The other day, I hoisted my pack of art supplies on my back and set off down the trail to the beach at the local state park.  Along the way, I found an amazing snag decked with a plethora of mushrooms.

When I reached the lake, I could see the autumn colors reflected on the water, and I had just enough time before sunset to paint the scene.

The Changing Landscape

Autumn has truly arrived, and with it the celebration of colors hidden all summer long under the green canopy.  This Cottonwood tree attracted my eye with its leaves waving, flickering, catching sunlight with every breeze.  Virginia Creeper vines weave their colors along the trunk of the tree, offering a contrast against woodland foliage and meadow grasses.

More Inktober Sketches

October has finally turned fall-ish with cerulean skies decked with feathery mare's tail clouds.  Crisp air, chilly nights and brilliant sunlight makes the colors seem that much brighter.

Inktober All Over

Inktober has been seeping into my daily planner.  Here are some glimpses.  Amazing how much life a few simple sketches add to a boring list of tasks.  Even a grocery list can be livened up!

Portrait of a Cat

My friend has been out of town, and asked me to care for his lovely cat.  After I get done with the routine care of cleaning the litter box and filling her food and water dishes, I sit with her and scratch under her chin.  I sip a hot mug of tea, and relish the quiet, contemplative cat-time.  Pretty soon, I get my pencil out and try capturing her unique personality in my nature journal. 

This tiny cat has such big eyes -- and so much depth & presence.  How can I capture that?

Catching up!

Here are a few odds and ends from my recent journal entries.

The pines at the Wildflower Reserve one September afternoon.

Urban sketching journal -- an architectural detail on a building on the South Side of Pittsburgh.

Full Moon Friday the 13th

Friday, Sept. 13th was good luck for me on my nature hike.  The wildflower reserve where I hiked put on a beautiful show.  Here are a few pages of sketches.

Walking down the trail, I spotted the last 2 feet of a Black Racer snake disappearing
down a chipmunk hole.  Where will the snake come out, I wondered.

Blue Lobelia

Wild Sunflower 

Wild Sunflowers in different stages of blooming