Laurie's Art Blog

Not long before leaving Ireland, about a year and a half ago now, I was browsing the website of a British pencil artist I quite admire. He had just published a book which I found to be very helpful. Anyway, I'd already purchased my plane ticket home, when I found he was offering a workshop just across the water in England! Oh, if I'd known I would have postponed my go home date. Bummer. But... not long after arriving back home in the states I found he had just opened an offering for a workshop in - of all places - West Yellowstone Montana! Wow. Not only the chance to take a workshop from this wonderful artist, but to do it in my "other" favorite place - Yellowstone. Well, no hesitation, one way or the other I was going. So I signed up sure the spots would fill up quickly - which they did.

Well, that week has now come and gone, and it was well worth the wait! What a week. Mike is so generous with sharing his knowledge and helping those of us attending. To be together with about 20+ other wonderful pencil artists, all having a similar desire to draw animals and detail. Just to wander around and see how the others were tackling the exercises he gave us was eye-opening.

Well I could go on and on (which I might later...) In the meantime, here are some of the exercies from the workshop. Little tidbits of information, practice and understanding how to make that little pencil do some amazing things.

Just a quick post of the latest Black Lab study. Still trying to get comfortable going really dark while keeping good value contrasts.

Well, this time it is a Black Lab. The challenge is the short black coat, as opposed to the the light wavy one of the golden retriever. And the other challenge I set was to do it in sections, as it often recommended. Usually I build up the entire piece as one with the idea I can keep values in line with each other. I also started it as a 12 x 16 to try a larger piece as well. Mistake! way to many challenges. So I've started over, this time it is 8 x 10 on smooth bristol.


Progress for this weekend. Been trying to identify those really dark darks and put them in. I think I'm still a little tentative. Sheesh, this has turned into a tough project for me! Good stretch tho.


My hand needs a break! Ok, there are levels of dark I wasn't aware of. I think this is getting closer. I'm finding as I go darker in one area, it makes it clear the need to do so in another place. So I've sorta given up on the one section at a time approach and am just working on value across the drawing.

Have to get off to work now... rats! I would love to keep working today. One of those days it just feels good to keep at it. Oh well, gotta pay the bills, so off I go.


I think I need to let it sit a while. Working around the glare has been a bit of a challenge now. I think I read somewhere here about using a mat fix to cut the glare. I think I'll give that a shot this afternoon and see if it help.

So, my crit... hmmm.. trying to keep the contract between highlights, midtones and darks has been tough. Keep finding the highlights too light as I pushed the darks. But overall it has been a great exercise!

Site is under construction.

Well, it has been five months since returning from Ireland. Finally finished another painting, the first since returning. It is another of the road trip paintings. I think I've a couple more in me before moving on to something else...



As with the others it is 8 x 13 acrylic on prepared matboard.

So here are the other two completed while still in Ireland last spring.

I have enjoyed putting together a kind of scrapbook presentation that capture photos, sounds and music from my time abroad this past 9 months. For those who have visited my blog you will perhaps recognize some of the photos and art work. I have added songs, music and sounds that I heard often and now remind me of the places I've been and things I've seen.

You can download a version that runs in a smaller window but downloads a little quicker, or one that uses a little larger window but will take longer to download. Just click on the link and it will ask you if you want to open or save the file. It will download the wmv file and then run it on your computer. The duration is just over 15 minutes.

Clearly for me the pictures and sounds bring back many memories. I hope for those who view it, you will at the very least get a sense of where I've been, a wee bit of what Ireland, London and Italy look like, and a taste of the music and sounds that are so much a part of the memories.

Click here for the smaller window version.

Click here for the larger window version:

I hope you enjoy it.

The walk into the village now is pleasant. The evenings are long, it is light until after 10:00, though I’m usually well in before then. On one side of the road the waters of Galway Bay vary on the day between glass calm and frothing whitecaps, in color from a clear brilliant blue to grey and angry green.

On this evening it is calm enough, there is some wind on the water pushing up small waves and wrinkles on the surface. The tide is in, bringing the water right up to the wall along the road. A few feet to spare yet, but I wonder, on a stormy high tide, do waves leap the wall?

On the other side of the road are a scattering of homes and cottages, holiday homes I wager for the most part. It seems, now that I’ve had a chance to spend some time here, that Ballyvaughan is largely a village for tourists. There are a few locals who stay year round, but there are many, many B&Bs and rental cottages in and around the village.

My last few days here. It is going to take a long time to digest all that I’ve learned, seen and experienced in the past 9 months. For now, it has been a well spent time.

I’ve learned quite a bit about my painting and about art in general. Can’t say I know yet what is going to come of it. I will keep drawing and painting, that is a given. What it is going to turn into, that is still open. I do know I am drawn to doing animals, in realistic rendering, and in landscape both as a background for subjects, and as a way of registering a sense of place.

I have also learned I am interested in traveling more. In looking back, the trip to Italy was a highlight for me. Something I never really thought I’d do, but am very glad I did. I would like to see more of the places I’ve read about in history, and of places where my ancestors would have left behind. I will certainly come back to Ireland to visit, and I am still particularly drawn to County Donegal.

And then there are the little things. References in reading or conversation or movies that now have more meaning because I have a context to put them in. And how differently we frame our thinking. I made a comment to some friends here one time about how Yellowstone was not far from where I had lived, about 200 miles. They sputtered at the thought. That is a major journey in the context of this place, where the next village is only a few short miles away, and you are never further than 150 miles from the edge of the island itself.

The smell of peat fires now brings warm and pleasant memories of walks through the village, or home after school on a cold and blustery evening. How much I’ve become dependent really, on the internet and the fact that it doesn’t exist everywhere, and where it does connections can be slow and dodgy. Soda bread is my downfall, particularly a thick slice toasted with melted butter in the morning alongside a bowl of wheatabix.

Walk on the footpath, not sidewalk; Hoover the house instead of vacuum. Use the cooker, rather than the oven for fixing dinner. Put recycle and rubbish in the bin. Very good things are grand rather than great. Everyone talks on a mobile, with a long i. Never ask for ride, its a lift. Young children go to cresh rather than daycare. And always start a conversation with a comment about the weather which can be soft, lovely, dull, bright, fresh and it will change before the sun sets.

I am building a slide show to post here that I hope will capture some of what I saw and heard. I hope to have it up in a couple of weeks. Stay tuned.