MCAD Life Drawing Co-op

Monday nights
May 11 – Aug. 10.
7 to 9 p.m.
Room M109

Cost per session:
$5 for the general public
$4 for MCAD alumni, faculty and staff
no charge for MCAD degree-seeking students

The Sunday co-op will resume after Labor Day on September 14.

Please call Continuing Studies with any questions: (612) 874-3765.

These open drawing sessions focus on drawing from the live model. Drawing horses and easels are provided. While an MCAD staff member is present to facilitate the co-op, there is no instruction available.

Preview Dr. Sketchy's Twin Cities

More Info at: http://www.myspace.com/drsketchys_twincities

Where art class meets cabaret, Dr. Sketchy's will cure you of every boring art class you've ever been to.

The common view on life-drawing classes involves a silent room, a bored model, and no liquor in sight. From the mind of New York artist and burlesque performer Molly Crabapple comes Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School, the cabaret life drawing party that has taken the hearts of hipsters from New York to Melbourne. A combination of performance, life-drawing sessions, amazingly complex costumes, and all the booze in town, Dr. Sketchy’s has become THE art event for all artist and awesome hipsters to attend. Of course we had no choice but to start our very own – Dr. Sketchy’s Twin Cities!

At any Dr. Sketchy's event you can grab a chair, a drink, and enjoy an eyeful of intriguingly clad and talented performance artists. We plan on getting only the hippest hosts and the coolest models with the weirdest careers-- burlesque girls, drag kings, roller derby girls, bodybuilders and sideshow freaks. Naturally as music runs hand in hand with inspiration, we’ll have good tunes. Dr. Sketchy’s also features irreverent drawing contests, where the lucky winner can win such prizes as booze or fancy trinkets from local retailers.

All scribblers, doodlers, cartoonists and Toulouse Lautrec wannabes are welcome. Come armed with sketchpads; dry drawing materials or simply a good sense of humor. Thankfully talent is not a pre requisite. In fact you can just stick to the drinking and enjoy the show if that’s your skill set. If Dr. Sketchy's doesn't cure what ails you, at least the booze will. As always, booze = 21 and up.

Fourth Sundays in the afternoon at the 331 Club, 331 13th Ave NE Minneapolis.
Admission $10. Registration recommended.

spirits

Minnesota Artist: Jean Leuthner

I saw an exhibit of Jean Leuthner's nostalgia paintings last month that I really enjoyed. These paintings were done from old photos and do a good job of maintaining a snapshot quality and capturing nostalgia without putting in too much detail. The look is kind of hazy like a memory or an old photo that isn't quite clear.

Jean Leuthner website

Watercolor Assignment -- Emil Nolde

These paintings were done for the "Emil Nolde" assignment in the watercolor course I took last fall. Some of Nolde's watercolor paintings were done on small pieces of slightly absorbent Japanese rice paper using very watery premixed paints. We looked at his paintings in the book Emil Nolde: Unpainted Pictures and then tried to create something similar.

I bought two different kinds of Japanese printmaking paper at Utrecht, also known as "rice paper" although it is not made of rice. The large sheets of paper were torn into quarters — the paper tears very nicely when it is folded and the crease is moistened with water. The bright colored paint was applied by pouring or with an eyedropper. This was done very experimentally. After I saw something I liked in the blotches of paint, I used black paint for the lines.

The top painting was based on a sunrise photo taken from my bedroom window. It was done on "Okawara Student" which was not really absorbent enough. The bottom painting was done on "Hosho" paper which is more absorbent and worked much better. For this I started with some random blotches but planned to make a face of some sort. The composition reminded me of a flower garden, so that is what it became.

When I was looking for information on Emil Nolde today, I found an interesting artist blog, Color Sweet Tooth blog, which has a post showing an example of watercolor progressions somewhat similar to what I was doing.

The Art of Kimmo Pälikkö

Kimmo Pälikkö is a Finnish artist. I discovered him when I saw a postcard of one of his paintings of lighthouses on the Wild Postcards blog (Note: my other blog is about postcards http://www.postcardy.blogspot.com/). Many of Pälikkö's paintings have been reproduced on postcards. According to Pälikkö's website "By 2009, over 1300 postcard motifs of his paintings have been produced and over 85 million postcards of his works have been printed."

There are many examples of his artwork online that can be viewed and/or purchased. What I especially liked about about his website are his books on watercolor painting techniques that can be read online in English.

Morris Miner woody

Cute English stationwagon