Inktober Drawings

  Inktober is going strong still. I've been sharing my ink drawings every day on facebook and Pintrest, except for this weekend when I was away with friends. I took my sketchbook, of course, and managed to draw every day, though they were are a bit sketchy!

 Next week I will be out on the boat with my brother and a friend. I will be painting  the coast huts between here, (Whangaroa) and Whangeri. It's going to be lots of fun, hopefully we have good weather and lots of wind to get us places.

This is Destiny, my brother's 22ft yacht which we will be voyaging on. I'm sure we will take lots of photos of the trip which I will share in a couple of weeks when we get home again. And hopefully with some successful paintings also!

  This will be the last hut hop before the Art of a Hut exhibition in Novermber from the 10th to the 29th. Remember those dates, I hope you will get a chance to pop in one day to see the results of my last two years of work.

  Here are the first 11 days of my #inktober drawings.

April Fools day summery

I refrained from playing April Fools on my readers, forgive me!

But here are some art related April Fools day pranks that happened around the world on the first of April:

Breaking news: Shark swimming in Detroit river!

And a museum plays April Fools on the prolific forger Landis. Not really...

You mean you have never heard of him before!! He's only a very famous artist. Most people are so scared of not knowing the famous and popular that they will believe anything!

And finally this

I have found that it is hard to find any art related April fools jokes... but Norman Rockwell has always been my favorite so I fall back on him:

Of Painting and Books

Norman Rockwell painting

 I have been painting for six hours today and have mostly finished an oil painting which I will share with you as soon as is finished. It's something slightly new for me. (After the oil painting still life I have recently completed but yet to take a photo of). I have discovered that audio books are great things to listen too while working on a picture. I generally much prefer to read a real book than an e-book or audio book, though it is pleasant to be read to I will admit. Anyway I can enjoy two of my favorite things at the same time this way! Books and painting! =) 

The Artists Triumph, by William Sydney Mount, Oil on wood, 1838

Watch this space for my new painting! 

=)

Norman Rockwell's Valentines

 I looked up some Rockwells with love themes for February since the 14 is coming up. Here are my finds: 

Boy And Girl Gazing At The Moon, 1926

'Young Love'

First Dance

After to Prom 1957

Marriage Licence

The Election

Did you Follow the story line?

Happy Birthday Norman Rockwell

Norman Rockwell, the great American illustrator and artist, is 118 today!

Fellow Bloger's Happy Birthday to Rockwell

Video Documentary of Norman Rockwell

George Lucas and Steven Spielberg reveal their insights into Rockwell's art and why certain works appealed to them. Telling Stories is the first major exhibition to explore the connections between Norman Rockwell's iconic images of American life and the movies.

I'm posting several posts all about Norman Rockwell in honour of his 118th birthday on Saturday. 

Rockwell's first Saturday Evening Post cover

Normans Paintings and Quote from Dickens

The Barber Shop, by Norman Rockwell

'I should never have made my success in life if I had been shy of taking pains, or if I had not bestowed upon the least thing I have ever undertaken exactly the same attention and care that I have bestowed upon the greatest.'-Charles Dickens 

Norman Rockwell painting the Soda Jerk, 1953 Oil on board by Rockwell

Norman Rockwell's April Fools

      I have been reading a book on Norman Rockwell and am enjoying it immensely! I find the artist very inspiring there are so many paintings of his and so much in them. They speak volumes, and illustrate the old saying 'a picture is worth a thousand words.' Each one tells a story, he was an artist and a storyteller which makes an illustrator of the very best kind.

   Since Norman Rockwell's 118th birthday is coming up on the the 3rd of February I shall post a few posts about him during the next week and share a few interesting things I find out about him. If you want a biography on him I advise you to Google it! :)

   The paintings in this post are a series of covers for the Saturday Evening Post one April when letters to the editor pointed out mistakes in his illustrations. Well he decided if they liked finding mistakes then he'd give them some--the more the merrier!

  In this painting of a curious old shop Rockwell challenged his readers to find the 57 mistakes he had painted.

Here are the answers

Norman Rockwell

    Here are just some of the paintings of Norman Rockwell's which I have grown up familiar with even way down here in New Zealand. I never knew who the artist was until in the last year I have come across him everywhere on the internet.

 These paintings we have in a big literature book and I used to stare at the Thanksgiving for ages trying to figure out if it was a photo or not! I used to study the faces very carefully and try to figure out the family relationships. 

 I used to enjoy studying this one too. Tracing back the family line; I have always been interested in genealogy.

I identified very much with this little girl! 

More illustrations here. There are so many, I'm always seeing another Rockwell I've never seen before. I wonder if all the images are all gathered together anywhere. I mean digital images or prints.

Rockwell slideshow: with an interesting paragraph about each piece.

Enjoy this documentary of Norman Rockwell's illustration. Some of his old neighbours and sitters tell some interesting stories.