Designs for this years Holiday Card

The Smith family has a tradition of making holiday cards which was started by my parents while attending OU way back in 1946. Over the last 56 years at least one person in the Smith family has maintained this tradition. Last year, I regrettable did not make a card, but this year I am going to make up for it by teaching a workshop with my friend and fellow artist Susan Giller at the Creative Arts Center. The workshop will focus on a quick and easy block printing method. I'll blog more about it later. Above is a sketch of this years card.

Things Look Different in the Morning Sun

It has been a long spell of rainy and overcast days here in Dallas. 2 weeks without a decent patch of sun shine anywhere, and for a thick blooded Texan like myself, it's been like spending 2 weeks buried under a compost heap. I was feeling damp, moldy and pale. But this morning, the clouds parted, and the sun pored into my studio filling it with light, shadows and contrast.

After Sketching: Evening #4: Draw, Drew, Drawn

For the last night of Sketching in the Galleries at the DMA the group was kind of small so we drew from artwork in the All the World's a Stage exhibit, focusing on a selection of small works on paper, most of which are not put up for displayed very often.

We discussed local galleries like Public Trust, Dunn and Brown, Mighty Fine Arts and art magazines such as Art On Paper, Juxtapoz, Hi Fructose that focus on drawings and works on paper. Also places that offer figure drawing sessions and other museums that have drawing from the collection programs such as the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth (Sundays @ 11:30). The Nasher and the Crow Collection say they have drawing programs but those are never reliably listed, so no body know when to attend. The Meadows and the Irving Art Center are rumored to have programs, but I see nothing listed.

We also talked about next weeks program, the first Thursday Night Multi Media program held in the Center for Creative Connections. There was a lot of interest in this program, although nobody had any hard info on what was happening there next week. So I looked it up this morning.

The artist hosting the month of October will be Mitch Rogers, who among other creative things, has been fabricating body parts, bloody nubs and meaty bits for TV and movies for about 20 years. I assume he will be giving instructions on mold making, life casting and spurting buckets of blood. Just in time for Halloween! It sounds like it will be a lot of fun.

Sketching in the Galleries @ the Dallas Museum of Art: Evening #4: The last

11th Century Durga, from the DMA collection.

Tonight is my last night to lead the Sketching in the Galleries program at the DMA, and it is the last night that the DMA will run this program. Starting next Thursday there will be a new multi media program that will bring in artists from a wide variety of disciplines such as fashion design, animation, and writers to use their unique talents and skills to interpret the collection. I think it will be a really neat way to learn about materials and meet other artists.

As for the last night of Sketching in the Galleries, I am not sure what we will be focusing on tonight because I am not sure how many people will show up. The fact that it is the last night could mean that there will either be a lot more people showing up or a lot fewer people showing up. So if it is a big group we will work in the Southern Asian galleries drawing from the sculptures, focusing on light, SHADOW, and mass. If it's just a few people, then we will draw from some of the smaller works in the All the World's a Stage exhibit.

After Sketching: Evening #3

This time for Sketching in the Gallery at the Dallas Museum of Art, we worked from a small retrospective of paintings, drawings, and lithographs from the Dallas Texas artist Edward g. Eisenlohr (1872 - 1961). The exhibition is situated so that most of the artwork is seen for the first time from across the gallery, about 60 feet away. We stopped at that distance to study the artwork, to focus on what we could see, to study the big shapes, the big blocks of color, light and shadow. We then stepped forwards about 25 feet to see what was now in focus. Then we walked up close to examine the details.

When viewing Edward's artwork in this manor it is very easy to observe the changes that distance has on your perception of a painting, and how subject matter can often overwhelm the experience of looking at art. I also used this process to demonstrate how to drawing the big shapes first, to lay out your composition, and work slowly up to the details.

The next meeting will be the last for me to lead and the very last meeting of the Sketching in the Galleries program. I think the DMA is making a mistake by canceling this program, but I don't run the museum, I just like to draw...

Sketching in the Galleries @ the Dallas Museum of Art: Evening #3

Tonight at the DMA we will be drawing from a great little exhibition of paintings, drawing and lithographs from the little known Dallas artist Edward g. Eisenlohr 1872 - 1961.

According to the history books, this Oak Cliff artist holds the record for producing more drawings and paintings of Dallas than any other artist, and is considered one of the pioneer landscape painters of Texas.

His artwork often reflects the artistic trends and styles of the times, a little impressionism, a little romanticism... But he is a fantastic draftsman, and it is clear that he really loved to draw.

Shown here is"The Water Hole Dallas" 1932, one of the many drawings that the Valley House Gallery has in their inventory.

After Sketching: Evening #2, The end of Sketching in the Galleries

Well the class started with Stacy and Tracy announcing to the drawing group that this will be the last month that the Dallas Museum of Art will host the Sketching in the Gallery program. After September 24th there will be no more drawing program.

This was a shock to all. And for those that have been involved in the program for years and years it is the end of something very important. Of course the DMA is stating that the program is not ending, it's being transformed into an artist lead multi media program to be held each Thursday in the Center for Creative Connections. This sounds nice, but the people that like to draw from the collection will more than likely not participate in a multi media class room setting. It is apples and oranges, oil and water, beer and ice cream.

The removal of the Sketching in the Galleries program will remove a very strong public display of people actually using the museum and it's collection as a tool to study art. When the public sees people sketching from the collection it causes them to slow down and take a second look at the art. It validates the life of the collection.

I do realize that the Sketching from the Collection program is not a big public atraction or a money maker for the DMA. But it is a consistent program where the group usually numbers around 10-22 people EVERY Thursday night. It is one of the only programs in Dallas where creative people can consistently meet and interact with local professional artists. I know I have used this program in the past to meet artists that I was otherwise be to shy to introduce myself to.

Lastly, unlike the programs held in the Center for Creative Connections, Sketching in the Galleries pretty much runs itself. On the first night of the month a member of the DMA staff introduces the artists who will lead the program for that month. After that, the artist runs the program totally by themselves for the rest of the month. Total amount of DMA staff time, about 10 minutes.

Well, I did go on and on about this, but I deleted it because this program has always been close to my heart, and I was just going into an emotional tyrant about it. I still have 2 more nights of drawing to go, so we'll make the best of it.

Please join us if you feel like a bit of sketching.