Report on the 16th CPSA Annual Exhibition and Convention

August 1 – 3, 2008

Renaissance Hotel

Seattle, WA

By Suzanne Kuuskmae

The evening before classes began the Hospitality Room was a gathering spot for picking up art supplies donated by several vendors as well as an impromtu demonstration by Ester Roi of her Icarus Drawing Board which features two working zones: a warm zone and a cool zone. You can learn more about this technique at: www.icarusart.net or by calling Ester at (949) 481-4010.

I had signed up for both classes and the first one was with Carlynne Hershberger entitled, “The Unconventional Portrait. We first created a colored background using colored pencils and mineral spirits. All of this was totally new to me because as a botanical artist, I am always working on a white background and the only portrait I am doing is an exact portrayal of plants and flowers. I did a portrait of my granddaughter complete with various symbols of activities that are very important to her at her age of 11. I finished it at home and am happy with the result. Also, I prepared several other sheets of paper with various colors in the background and am working on a huge hydrangea flower; quite a bit off track from my usual work but most rewarding.

The second class was with John Smolko entitled, “The Scribble – Colored Pencils and the Expressive Line.” In this class we did a very large letter imposed on a circular background of scribbled colors going from light in the center to darker tones toward the outside. After laying down the various fields, then one mixes in the adjacent color to make for a smooth transition. In the afternoon we were free to use the scribble line technique on a painting of our choice. My painting was one of water lilies, which I am working on to finish at home. This is a technique I think would be helpful to work further with as it encourages the artist to add lots of colors, which allows for a most pleasing effect. I know that John has recently retired from teaching and would love to come to Los Angeles to give a week long class. Maybe that will be my project for 2009, planning a class with John Smolko.