Welcome to our archives!
October 31 & November 1 - Apple Tree Bazaar at HOT
The Art Guild will have a booth near the entrance. Our
primary purpose is to make ourselves better known and to attract new
members. Members who volunteer to spend time manning the booth will be
allotted space to display and sell their works. (Price them allow for a
10% commission for the Art Guild.) To participate, email or
call Bill Franklin
(physicsnerd@yahoo.com or 254-741-0960). He will need to know which
day(s) and hours you can be there, so that arrangements can be made to
have the booth manned at all times.
The booth will be set up on Friday, October 31, 9:00 to
12:30. Public display will be Friday, 1:00 to 5:30, and Saturday, 9:00
to 4:00. Please help if you can.
October 31 & November 1 - Apple Tree Bazaar
at HOT

We
had a nice exhibit, lots of traffic, and some sales. Displaying and
tending the booth were Gloria Meadows, Rose Jacobson, Nancy Cagle, and
Bill and Judy Franklin. Gloria sold a lot of painted rocks, and Rose
sold some cards. The total was about $400, 10% of which is donated to
the Guild, which is nearly enough to pay for the booth. Also exhibiting
were Pat Blackwell, with her own booth just to one side of us, Bettye
Schwartz, who was at the Harrison Center booth adjacent to us on another
side, and Sue Young at a more distant booth of her own. As usual, there
were many interesting things to see.
November 2 - James Spurlock
James
Spurlock is a painter, sculptor and
teac
her of considerable skill, as
you can tell from a few of his works reproduced here.
You can see more of his works at
www.jamesrspurlock.com.
He developed a reputation for painting, but has
turned more recently
to bronze sculpture, life sized busts and complete figures and groups.
For us, he will demonstrate his painting. He
is mostly
self taught, but
credits the influence of Bob
Tommey of Carthage,
Missouri. According to James,
"art is just a series of adjustments...and life is art." Be there
when he shows us how he make those adjustments.
We will meet at the Waco Charter School,
615 N 25th Street, with refreshments and
conversation at 1:30,
the meeting at 2, and the demonstration soon thereafter. Please bring one
of your works for our monthly contest and sharing. And bring friends.
They can come once free, or they can join as a regular member for the remainder
of the year for only $2 (and all of next year for as little as $15 more).
November 2 - James Spurlock - Drawing and Painting
James
Spurlock has a studio and gallery in Granbury. He is self-taught, having
studied the works of many artists. Nancy Cagle signed him up to
demonstrate for us when she him in action there, and we're happy she
did. James spent about an hour demonstrating drawing. Then, after a
break for show and tell, he took a painting from blank canvas to
conclusion. It was quite a show!
He
uses many media, and emphasized that a good drawing should be the
underpinning of any media, and that artists should plan their works
carefully. He introduced us to his geometric drawing system, using two
dimensional shapes, such as circles and rectangles, and adding
"transitional" shapes, such as triangles, ellipses, and trapezoids, to
create three dimensions. He used Bill Franklin and Nancy Cagle to
illustrate the need for warming up shoulder muscles and using the right
stance in order to make proper use of the shoulder's ball joint.

To
faithfully render a subject, the brain and arm must work together. In
his portraits he uses unit measurements, such as the head, or the
interpupillary distance, as standards from which to get relative
distances to correctly place the unique features of his subjects. He
spends time blocking in his portrait subjects using one of three
categories. Category 1 is a circle with its lower half overlapped by a
square. He did a quick sketch of Judy Franklin as an example of this
category.
Category
2 is a circle with a square underneath and tangent to it. He sketched
Pete Moffatt for this category. In both cases he got good likenesses in
a very short period of time. Category 3 is a circle overlapped in half
vertically by another circle. This is used for rounder faces, such as
babies and young children.
Some of his guidelines for portrait drawing are as
follows: 1. Once the category is determined and blocked in, draw a brow
line along the horizontal
diameter
of the upper circle, draw five eye widths below it and locate the eye
sockets in the 2nd and 4th ones. Look carefully at your subject: some
have eyes up close to the brow line and others farther below it. 2.
Locate the tip of the nose at the center of the square and the chin at
the
center
of its lower edge. 3. Draw a line for the mouth 2/3 the way up from the
chin to the nose tip. 4. Determine the distance from the center of one
pupil to the center of the second pupil (interpupillary distance). This
is the key to laying out the placement of facial features. Faces vary,
but this is usually about the width of the mouth, the height of the ear,
the distance from the eyes to the mouth, and the distance from either
pupil to the center of channel between the nose and the mouth. Also the
width of the eye is about the width of the nose, although this varies,
so you have to observe carefully and adjust.
James
also showed us how we can draw trees using circles with lines to create
the
basic
structure. He demonstrated one point perspective using a point in the
center, and radiating arms like those of a clock. Fitting basic and
transitional shapes in between the radiating arms, the artist can create
buildings as seen from below, above, or anywhere in between. James often
uses willow charcoal or watercolor pencil for his drawings. He
especially likes Moonstone paper by Canson Miteints for his pastels.

He
created a portrait in acrylics of an Indian Chief of the Kiowa Nation
from a photograph. A few stages in the process are shown here. Bear in
mind that the whole process took less than an hour! Most of the painting
was done with a flat brush about an inch wide. Highlights and some other
details were added with a narrower brush. He began by blocking in the
basic Category 1 shape using burnt umber, leaving the highlights white,
then
put in mid-tones with burnt sienna.
He
rendered reflected highlights with white added to his browns, then put
in more dark tones, ending up with a very strong and accurate likeness.
He donated the finished painting to the Waco Charter School for it Texas
wall, which also features our group painting. Be sure to stop by and see
it at the January meeting.
We
thank James for a very useful demonstration. By trying to place subjects
in one of his three categories, we will learn to better observe the
proportions of our subjects, which is vital to making them recognizable.
We also thank Violet Piper, Charleen Isbell, and Gloria Meadows for the
refreshments, and all of those who brought painting to
show
us, some of which are shown below. The winners of the monthly contest
are shown at the left. New member Kathy Perry was first, Bobbee Watts
was 2nd, and Rose Jacobson and Violet Piper tied for 3rd.
Show and Tell:

Nancy Cagle
Bill Franklin Judy
Franklin Charleen Isbell

Rose Jacobson Gilda Lancaster
Kathy Perry Violet
Piper

John Twardowski Bobbee Watts
Robyn White
November 13 - MCC Exhibit Installation
We will hang the MCC exhibit on Thursday, November 13.
Please bring up to three paintings to the Ball Performing Arts Center
between 2:30 and 3:30 p.m. There is no theme, but paintings must be at
least 16" x 20" including frame. If you cannot bring them at that time,
please get someone to bring them for you, or bring them to the meeting
on November 2. The exhibit will be removed on December 10 between 2:30
and 3:30 p.m. Again, either pick up your works or arrange for someone to
get them for you.
And while the exhibit is up, come out to enjoy a
performance and see the exhibit at night when it shows up best. The
following performances will be held there, all at 7:30,
all
free!
Monday, November 24: MCC Chorale
Thursday, December 4: MCC Wind Symphony
Monday, December 8: Waco Jazz Orchestra
Tuesday, December 9: Waco Community Band
November 13 - December 10 Exhibit at MCC
The exhibit looks
good, but there are only 22 paintings from only 8 exhibitors. We had
room for more. Several people (or their art, in Linda Green's case) were
out of town. We hope more will contribute to the spring show.
Thankfully, Robyn White exhibited for the first time, and Don Magid
loaned us some vintage paintings that had been at his mother's. The
photos below show the exhibit from left to right. Come see it up close.
Especially good times to see it are any of the following FREE
public performances, all of which begin at 7:30.
Monday, November 24: MCC Chorale
Thursday, December 4: MCC Wind Symphony
Monday, December 8: Waco Jazz Orchestra
Tuesday, December 9: Waco Community Band

Judy Franklin
Bill Franklin

Bill Franklin
Don Magid

Don Magid
Robyn White

Sue Young
Christine Niekamp

Christine Niekamp
Nancy Cagle

Nancy Cagle
Pat Blackwell