MEMORIAL DAY THOUGHTS

Hope everyone out there had a good, safe, Memorial Day and weekend! Ours was nice too. We took time to stop and think about what Memorial day means to us personally. My 24 year old nephew in in the Army and is doing his 3rd tour over seas right now. He's due to come home in a couple of weeks and we're all looking forward to seeing him again and praying that all goes well. His dad, my brother, was also an Army guy and did his time in Panama. One of my cousins is a lifer in the Army and just left Fort Hood for his 6th tour over seas. His dad was a lifer as well and retired from the Army. My dad spent a couple of tours in the Air Force - and we're still hearing his stories from it like it was yesterday. :) Mom's dad and all 4 of her brothers were in the Army or Air Force and all did their part for our country and our people. One of her brothers lost his life in the line of duty, as have many other military people over the years. He is still remembered and missed 52 years later. Let's remember the lives lost and do the best we can for the living.

EARTH DAY CELEBRATION

April 25th was our town's Earth Day celebration and my job for the past few months was to head up the Art Leagues' kite committee. My team was terrific! We had a kids kite making booth and gave away 42 free, recycled, kites to the kids who came and decorated them (with recycled paints). Some of our league members painted kites to sell there as well for a fundraiser for our group. Pictured are my team members and photos from our booths. To see the fabric kites that I painted for the fundraiser click on "KITES" at www.TerrieLeytonGallery.com

DRAWINGS FROM THE GREEK AND ROMAN ERA

March was a very good month for me. There was lots of sketching at the San Antonio Museum Of Art and lots of work completed in my studio. Also some of us artists from the Seguin Oakwood Art League have decorated several downtown windows with our art and it will remain on display untill the 26th of April. My mom and I have a window next door to Chiro Java, across from the court house, on Austin st. in Seguin. Two more artist's works are located behind Chiro Java on Nolte st. and four more artists have their work on either side of Picket Frames on N. Austin St.
Russell Lopez was the instructor at the San Antonio Museum Of Art for all of March and he was terrific! He is very well schooled and shares his knowledge generously. He's working on a workshop for this weekend in Seguin and will be showing us how to grind and mix paint from chunks of pigment, explaining and showing us why it's better quality than store bought tubes and cheaper as well. We'll also be learning to work with the old Master's "dead" pallet colors and learn how the various paint pigments react with each other, among many other things. Anyone interested in joining Russell's workshop can contact me here and I'll get back with you.
Posted today are some of last month's drawings from SAMA's sculptures. Hope to see you back here soon!

PORTRAIT OF MATT

This is a portrait of my son's guitar teacher, Matt, at the New Braunfels Music shop. The background of the painting was changed from the inside of the music shop to an audience. Posted is the photo and the painting. Let me know what you think of it. I'm be painting several other portraits from there in the next few weeks and will post them as they're completed.

Last weeks' Coppini drawings

Last week we had a surprise at the Coppini Academy of Fine Arts. We were drawing a male model half of the evening and then suddenly the model's wife joined him! Yeow! So, instead of drawing 1 model in the 2 ten minute sets, we had two, and it was a little tough, but fun too. It was a challenge to see if I could get two figures in there and it was fun too. Nice surprise!

CLOSE UP OF A ZEBRA

Last night was another drawing session at the Coppini and the model was good. It's really nice to look around at each break and see what the others have drawn and how different they look just from moving the angle of the artist in relationship to the model. One of today's photos is of 2 drawings -7 to 10 minutes each. The 2nd photo is a 20 minute drawing. I drew her head too large though, and, since it was with conte' pencils, couldn't go back and "fix" that sort of thing. So I've covered the head for this photo. :) The third photo is of a painting I did a couple of weeks ago. It's a zebra's eye and I like the painting so well that I'm going to do a series of animal eyes. It's a challenge working with the light in their eyes. I took of photo of a horse last Summer and enlarged it on the computer and was amazed to see the horizon and other details reflected in that animals' eyes.

Talking about reflections~ one morning I woke up with my hand up close to my eye and suddenly realized I was seeing a very precise reflection of my bedroom window and the trees and sky - on the diamond in the wedding ring on my finger. I'd never noticed those kind of refelctions there before, shine - yes, but not reflections. That could be the makings of a very interesting painting. So, if you ever happen to see me sitting around somewhere with my ring up close to my eye, rest assured I'm not checking out the stone, I'll be checking out reflections!

DRAWINGS FROM THE MUSEUM

Tuesday night was another museum night and they had a pretty big sketching crowd. Lloyd Wright is the instructor for this month and I hear he always draws in the people. We were focusing on shading and shadows using conte pencils. My first subject was an Asian vase and the second one is bust and, I forgot to write down what and where they are from.

My son went along with all of us that night (his other choice was to sit around in a dentist's waiting area with his sister and nephew) and I talked him into drawing with us. He says he hates drawing and isn't any good at it, but he drew 2 little Buddhas and I was surprised at how well he did. It was another enjoyable sketching night!

AMOR

It's a beautiful, sun shiny, day out this afternoon. It's the kind of day that makes you want to grab your paint supplies and head outside to bask in the beauty of nature and create a piece of art too. So many artists feel that plein air painting is the way to go to advance you skills faster and better. I have a tough time trying to paint outside when it's chilly, or hot and buggy - hey, isn't that all our choices here in Texas lately?. I'v decided this is the year to get tough and get past that and "do it anyway". So, you'll be seeing some plein air paintings on here this year. I have several portraits that I'm either starting on or getting back to work on. They'll be on here soon. There are also 7 art competitions that I'm wanting to enter this year and I will post that work on here as well. So, in a nut shell, that's the schedule for 2009. Today's painting is the one I just finished up on Monday and is now at the American Bank of Texas in Seguin. Let me know what you think of it.

Happy February 2009!

Happy New Year! Can you believe another year has come and gone? Are you sticking to your New Year's resolutions? Yes, I've made mine and am keeping after most of my goals. I did let the entire month of January slip by without adding to my blog though and sure didn't mean to do that! I have been making art though. I've been going to a the San Antonio Museum of Art once a week with some fellow artists and drawing from their collections. I've also started going to the Coppini Accademy of Fine Arts with that same bunch of artists to draw from live models once a week as well. Saturday I mailed off a CD with a photos of one of my paintings for a competition. Entering competitions is one of my work goals for this year. Yesterday I finished up a romantic Valentine painting that's now hanging in an art league display at the American Bank of Texas until the 16th of this month. The drawings #1, #2, and #4 were done at the museum and #3 is from the live model sessions at the Coppini. Please post any comments you have. I'd love to hear from you! See you tomorrow!