Imagination: If I Was a Fish…
by Evy Okerstrom,
Watercolor, gouache, pen & ink, 14″ x 12″
For Sale, email me if interested.
Thank you for reading my June edition of Art News! I imagine that you are about to take off for the summer. Before you do, I wanted to share with you, a new piece of artwork. “Imagination”, is the new picture you saw when you started reading this. I have been taking classes with Susmita Bando, from the Worcester Art Museum. We have been studying 20th Century artists. Most recently we studied the work of Keith Haring. He was known for his pop art graffiti drawings in NY subways. The reference picture used, was his colorful painting, “Monkey Puzzle”. The monkey figures are arranged in a circle, dancing together. This composition is similar to primitive wall paintings.
He gained recognition because his simple artwork spoke directly to the public. What was it that made me interested in this painting? Maybe it was my working with pen and ink. How could I take this idea and make my own composition? It took me several weeks to play around with it. I liked the idea of a circle to represent unity with some figures. I first drew my sketch in pen and ink, then cut it up and rearranged it. Next painting it in watercolor, gave me a color palette. For a theme I chose the ocean since I live near it. In my final composition, I used circles to keep the floating figures together. The viewer’s eyes can then travel around the circles to take in a dream like sea world; the inner circle is when we are “awake”, imagining what it might be like to be able to explore the sea, like a fish or dolphin. I wonder if this is a primitive idea.
My Wednesday Classes, 1 pm to 4 pm, at Trinity Lutheran Church are going well. The classes are small, which gives me time to work with each person. I have been invited by the Artists’ Workshop in New Smyrna Beach, to teach pen and ink journaling, from June through August. Classes will be Thursdays from 9:30 am to 12:30 pm, beginning June 8th. You can email me at eokerstrom22@gmail.com, if you are interested in either class.
Other Stuff: Sunday, May 7th I volunteered to take pictures of the Hub’s 5th Annual Fashion Show, “Razzle Dazzle”, which I made into a video for Instagram. Check it out at @evyokerstrom. Held at the Brannon Center here in NSB, it was a terrific show. Middle School through HS kids design, and make their own outfits. I was impressed and would do this again next year.
Still Life Exercise with Grape Tomatoes
by Evy Okerstrom.
Showing use of watercolor and the granulation effect in certain pigments (ultramarine blue).
Mug Exercise in watercolor, pen & ink. Learning to draw shapes.
Thought of the day: “Thank you for taking the time to read this, see you next month.” Evy