SEPTEMBER 9th, 2:00 to 5:00 at 3030 So. 48th St. is the BACKDOOR GALLERY, and behind that is an acre filled with art, food and picnic lovers ready to spend an afternoon reflecting on paintings, sketches and natures work, while exchanging ideas and conversation with neighbors, friends and new acquaintances. A food truck will be available for your dining pleasure and artwork will be available for enjoyment and purchase. Parking is available in the back yard and you can find the gate by going east on Van Dorn, turning right at 52nd St. then right on Pawnee St. At the dead end you’ll see the gate.

Julie A. Childers will be giving a presentation on working with palette knives to the members of the Lincoln Artists’ Guild on Tuesday, August 1, 7:00 P.M. at Capitol City Christian Church, 7800 Holdrege St., Lincoln, NE.  She will also be the Featured Artist for August at Francie & Finch Bookshop, 130 S 30th St., Lincoln, NE. There will be a reception with the artist, open to the public on Friday, August 4, 4:30 – 7:30 P.M.  Julie will also be the Featured Artist for August at Out of the Box, 336 N 48th St., lower level, with the Lincoln Artists’ Guild. There will be a reception with the artist, open to the public, on Friday, August 25, 5:00 – 8:00 P.M.

You can see Julie’s portfolio on her website, http://www.julieachilders.wordpress.com.

There will be a portrait Sculpture workshop with Sondra Jonson this September at the LUX Center for the Arts for those who may be interested. The five day workshop will be Monday through Friday, September 11-15 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day.  The cost for LUX and LAG members is $360, but LAG will give a 10% stipend to those LAG members that choose to attend.         Working with a live model, the class will learn anatomy, forms, structures, and proportions of the human head. The instructor will walk the students through the steps to create a life-like portrait of the model, beginning with the most basic structures and moving on to fine detail. The class will meet morning and afternoon for 5 days. We will use ceramic clay on a basic armature. There will be daily demos by the instructor, and each student will develop a portrait sculpture of the model that by Day 5 will be quite advanced.

Day 1: Morning – Short lecture on the basics with the diagram; students will sketch the model. Afternoon – begin early stages of sculpture

Day 2 – 3: Develop the principal structure and masses of the portrait head – cranium, neck, zygomatic and eye socket bones.

Day 3 (afternoon) and 4: Build the structures of the face.

Day 5: Refine details of the face and structure of the hair.

This is an intense workshop, but one in which the student gains a wealth of information, knowledge, and skills for their future endeavors in sculpture, drawing, and painting. They will learn to understand the structures, anatomy, and proportions that make up the human head and how to take that knowledge into their own work in other media. Jonson teaches the classical techniques and methods she learned at Frudakis Academy in Philadelphia. She has a history of success in passing on these methods to her students.

www.sljonsonstudios.com

Contact Wanda Medina (medina@neb.rr.com)  (402-430-4089) for more information and/or about signing up.

August meeting is Joyce Jacobs
September meeting is Jan Blank
October meeting is Carmen Stineman and Lorena Wachendorf
November meeting is Julie Ralston and Lisa Cassel
Feel free to volunteer to help out at any time. The single signees could use a partner.

The Nebraska State Historical Society Foundation is launching a summer photo contest to highlight historical markers across the state. Contestants can submit their photos online during June, July and August. Once submissions are received, a committee will vote on the top 20 photos to advance to public vote. The top 20 photos will be on display at the Nebraska History Museum and on line where they can be voted on by fans.Awards will be given to top 3 in October. Visit http://www.nshsf.org/the-nebraska-marker-project for more information about the marker project. visit https://nemarkerproject.submittable.com/submit to enter. J Fraley

Landscape Painting: Essential Concepts and Tehniques for Plein Air and Studio Practice; Mitchell Albala; Watson-Guptill

Landscape painting is an especially challenging artform, one with which both beginning and advanced artists struggle. In my book collection I have many “how to do” type painting technique books, most of which are repetitive in content, and most generally fail to live up to the expectations of “easily” mastering artistic technique. Abala’s lavishly and beautifully illustrated book is a great addition to the technique literature and a powerful antidote to the superficial coverage of the “learn it easy” books. While written for the oil, pastel, and acrylic artist, the content is absolutely transferable to the watercolorist. In twelve cogently written chapters Abala, an instructor in landscape painting at the Gage Academy of Art in Seattle, covers topics ranging from the “Special challenges of landscape painting”(Chap.1) to “Style, inspiration, and lifelong learning” (Chap.12). He draws examples from both his own works as well as works from other artists. I found his chapters on Site Selection(6) and Composition(7) to be especially informative and compelling—probably because I presently need special coaching in these areas. The writing is lively but to the point; there are many illustrations throughout the text that explore and simplify artistic ideas and techniques for the landscape painter. Abala’s text is a great contribution to landscape painters of all skill levels and would be a super addition to the library of any artist striving to be creative in landscape painting. I checked, but unfortunately the Lincoln Library does not list a copy; at this writing, Barns and Nobel (O Street) has one copy.
Ted Pardy