Sketching in Museums

There have already been a couple of posts in this blog about sketching in museums. You can find those posts here and here. The sketches featured in this post were made at the Edge of the Cedars Museum in the Four Corners region of the Colorado Plateau. Edge of the Cedars has a huge collection of ancient Anasazi pottery, artifacts, and other displays. The first sketch I did from their collection is shown above. If I remember right, the pot was around 12" or 14" across. The intricate pattern was a dark gray on very pale gray clay. It may look as though it might have been tedious to draw, but I found the pattern mesmerizing, and wanted to record it in my sketchbook. And - I had to draw it. For me, a photograph would not do. The image at the bottom of the sketchbook page (shown above) is the beginnings of a sketch of a bone-handled stone knife in the museum's collection. It's unfinished because the museum's closing time caught up with me.

The more recent sketch shown below is of a small gray pot in the same museum. I was intrigued by the pot's irregular shape and mysterious quality, in contrast to it's simplicity. Was it made to be hung over a fire outside of a pueblo? Or was it carried on long trips to special cliff faces where mysterious rock art can still be found?

Sketching in museums can be very useful and enjoyable. It sharpens drawing skills, offers glimpses into the thoughts and attitudes of artists from other times and places, and - for a little while - steeps you in the art-world-at-large. If you plan visiting a museum for sketching, be sure to check with them ahead of time. Many museums have policies regarding sketching. There may be restrictions on when you can sketch, sketching mediums, sketch size, and what may or may not be copied. Carry out your own trash and be sure to leave the place clean. Don't block the way for other museum goers. In fact, for me much of the fun of sketching in museums is talking with museum visitors and staff who seem fascinated with what I'm doing. Above all - DON'T TOUCH THE EXHIBITS! I never have, but I've heard a few horror stories about people who have.

On another note, this is the last week for you to VOTE for Peoples Choice Award in Terra Nova's Plein Air Provo exhibit. Polls are open now until Noon this Friday (Oct. 26th). You can vote by going to Terra Nova's blog: http://terranovagallery.wordpress.com/

Terra Nova Gallery's "Tidbit Tuesday"

Terra Nova Gallery featured my Plein Air Provo entry in their "Tidbit Tuesday" this week:

Tidbit Tuesday Early Autumn by James Gunter Early Autumn by James Gunter West Provo - with it's ranches, hay fields, cottonwood and willow trees - is a popular place for those of us who paint plein air landscapes. If you look around this year's Plein Air Provo exhibit, you'll see several paintings that were done there. I've painted in West Provo many times. In fact, I've painted this particular tree in different seasons and from many different angles over the years. This year, not only did that cottonwood provide the subject for my entry into the show (with Mount Timpanogos in the background) it also was the muse for several other painters in this year's Plein Air Provo. Like the Pre-Raphaelites had Jane Morris, we Plein Air Provo painters have - that tree! Take time to look around the exhibit and see the different versions of Populus fremontii. -James Gunter Early Autumn  Oil on Board 9" x 12"  Have you voted? Vote for the Plein Air Provo exhibit  People's Choice Award at:   TerraNovaGallery.wordpress.com  See you in the gallery.   EXHIBITS: Plein Air Provo 3-26 October Great Things Small Packages 2 November - 28 December download PDF information sheet here  Terra Nova Gallery 41 West 300 North Provo, Utah 84601 3:30 - 6pm M-F other times by appointment You can find us on Facebook and become a fan. Read our blog Saga about happenings in the gallery & studio. And if you like what you see use the "forward email" link below or tell your friends.

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Don't forget - only a few days left to vote for Peoples Choice!

It's Time to VOTE!

No, I'm not talking about those guys. I mean for People's Choice Award at Terra Nova Gallery for their 5th annual Plein Air Provo competition. 

Gallery owner David Hawkinson has arranged for the voting to be carried out on line. Anyone can vote. Just go to http://terranovagallery.wordpress.com/ and follow directions. Scroll down to see photos of all the paintings in the show. Make your selection and click in the little circle just to the left of the painting's title and artist. Then scroll down to the bottom of the column that shows the paintings and click on the "Vote" button. It's that easy! Voting is open NOW and closes October 26th at Noon (note time change).

You can vote just from the images on line, but it's really recommended that you come into Terra Nova Gallery and see the exhibit. It's one of the best Plein Air Provo shows ever! I only entered one painting but it split Second Place with Robert McKay's painting "Sentinel." Terra Nova is located at 41 West, 300 North in Provo, Utah. Check their website for hours or call 801-374-0016.

It can be difficult to decide how to cast your vote, but perhaps I can make the decision easier for you with a little bit of (shameless) advice: Vote for ME! There, now wasn't that a nice break from those two guys who are all over the news channels these days?

Navajo Man Charcoal Sketch

Charcoal on Gray Paper

The picture shown above is of another sketch from a past drawing session. He posed for the class a few times and was an excellent model. One of those times he even entertained us by bringing his Indian flute and playing it. If I remember right, he works as a river rafting guide on the Colorado, and has spent a lot of time in Europe, particularly France and Germany. 

For more about drawing sessions, go to "Labels" on the side bar and click on "sketching" or "drawing."

...And Another Show Opens Tonight!

The Salon d' Automne is a juried art show in Logan, Utah. The quality of artwork in the show is quite high, and I'm happy to have been accepted into the show. The show opens at 5:30 PM this evening (Friday, Oct. 5, 2012). For more information, visit their website:

http://www.loganfineart.com/

Or call the gallery: (435) 753-0333.

Plein Air Provo 2012

Event Flier. That's someone else's hand and stuff.

Plein Air Provo opens to the public tomorrow night (Friday, Oct. 5th)! I met a number of other painters taking part in the competition as I was out painting this afternoon. Unlike last time, the weather for this year's competition was gorgeous! Bluebird skies and mild temperatures, with just enough haze to give good atmospheric perspective. Because of other things in my schedule, I was only able to finish one painting, but I'm happy with it. You can come out and see my freshly painted landscape, along with brand new paintings by a lot of other painters this month at the Terra Nova Gallery.

A Wirlwind Trip to Escalante 2012

Devil's Garden Hoodoos, 9" x 12" Oil on Canvas Panel

Last year I spent nearly the entire week at the Escalante Canyons Art Festival, but because of other matters, this year Escalante was put off until the last moment. I called on Wednesday to ask if I could still register for the plein air competition, and left at 5:00 the next morning for the long drive to southern Utah. Finished paintings had to be turned in by 7:00 that evening. Sandy Larsen registered me and stamped my canvas panels around half past ten, then I headed straight for the "Devil's Garden" where I did the painting shown at the top of this post. The painting was finished, framed, and turned in before 5:00 PM, well before the deadline. Later that evening I spent a little time at the artist's reception, then headed out into the desert to find a place to camp for the night.

Competition rules require that paintings entered not be signed until after the judging so as not to influence the judge's decisions. I wonder about the rules effectiveness, but of course follow it anyway. The paintings have to be signed before the "silent auction" on Saturday or they won't be sold. So, late Friday morning I drove back into town to sign my painting. Taking my little cherry wood pochade box into the exhibit hall, I signed my painting. Then Brad Holt, last year's winner and a featured artist at the show, asked if he could borrow my brush and paint to sign his painting. Of course I was happy to let him do that, and left him so I could go peruse the exhibit and visit with other painters there. When I returned to my pochade box, I found other painters had used my stuff to sign their paintings, too, and most of them were this years award winners! If I wasn't an award winner this year, I was happy to be of good use to those who were.

Later, I traveled out to a different place in the Escalante Desert to camp, once again under the full moon. That evening I did a painting in the little cherry wood pochade box and the next day painted two more before returning to the plein air show. There I found my painting had sold.

More about Escalante 2012 later...