Artwork, travel, and musings by artist, Gail H. Shelton.
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| Today in class, I had the students design their own monster. Then they drew them on the canvas, and painted them with acrylic paint. Kate here is outlining her painting...too cute. |
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| This is Anna and her monster, with curly arms! |
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| And Samuel's is a sort of buffalo creature...scary! Children's Art classes: Wednesdays 4-5pm $10 each Call the gallery to register 318-628-3560 sheltongail@hotmail.com |
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| I am getting closer to finishing this drawing. I just added a little background...some of the colors in the bird lightly cross-hatched across the surface. I am going to enter this in the Colored Pencil Society show soon. |
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| Just about finished with the bird...now for the background (which I usually do not care for!) When talking to many other colored pencil artists, I found out that many of them do the backgrounds first?! I never do that. How do they know where their subject is going to be exactly? You might change your mind about the size or placement...oh well, there is more than one way to do things. I just like to have my subject done when I add the background. Interesting.... sheltongail@hotmail.com |
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| Some of our table decorations for the dinner party |
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| Some of my artwork in the back of the pickup tree (that is in the cafe) |
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| The salad course...shrimp and vegetables Peruvian style |
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| The soup...more shrimp and vegetables...delicious |
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| Beef stir fry and rice...main course |
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| And the final dessert course...white chocolate mousse with coconut and marmalade |
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| These are some of my special helpers...Jody, Nelson, and Meagan...thanks so much!! |
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| And this is our chef, Pete Schneider, with his parents We pulled off our third annual dinner party/gallery talk last night with our "Night in Peru". We enjoyed delicious food prepared by Pete, Hannah Schneider, and Carrie Sanders. And I gave a slide show about our trip, and shared some insights about my artwork. Thanks to all my workers and those who helped in any way...it was great! We will probably do another one next year...after my trip to China! So, look forward to some Chinese cuisine, and some oriental artwork, coming in February 2014! sheltongail@hotmail.com |
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| Making some progress on this drawing...still have some textured areas to do. The part that is left is very tedious. This is called a "work in progress, or WIP. There is a great group on Facebook that is comprised of colored pencil artists from around the world. You can check them out, and see lots of works in progress... very interesting. Colored Pencil Artists and Lovers/Facebook.com (CPAL) sheltongail@hotmail.com |
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| Making some progress on this drawing of this bird. It has some really interesting textures...I have used some Gamsol on a few of the areas. It helps it all blend together and smooths out the pencil strokes. The paper is a cream color, and is a new paper for me, called Stonehenge. sheltongail@hotmail.com |
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| Decided I needed a little "fine art" fix! I have to have something new to enter in the Colored Pencil Society show, so I started this bird. I can't think of what kind of bird this is...if you know, leave me a comment. sheltongail@hotmail.com |
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| I think I have finally tweaked this design enough! Here is the black and white drawing. |
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| And here is the color version. I have plans to print this on a red tote bag. T-shirts would also be a possibility. I hope to have the bag ready for the next market in June (hopefully before then). There was a lot of requests for a Texas-themed design while I was in Dallas. I meet with one of the permanent showrooms next month, and plan to show this design to him as well. sheltongail@hotmail.com |
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| These are selections from the YACA art competition. This piece is a pencil drawing with real objects added...very cool. |
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| This is a 3 dimensional abstract piece. Reminds me of topographical land maps...and I like the colors. |
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| This is colored pencil. I thought the rendering was nice and I also love the colors in this one. |
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| When I first saw this piece, I wasn't sure what it was. Then I realized it was piano keys. |
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| Very interesting drawing of an Indian woman |
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| This is another drawing that has 3 dimensional objects added...the butterfly wings came away from the surface. |
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| And this was absolutely stunning! It was drawn with charcoal, and it was the talk of the show. I was not there for the awards, but I am sure this one took top honors. There is no way I was drawing anything this well in high school?! Congrats to the teachers and students whose talents were well represented. YACA (youth art council of America) Look into this organization if you are an art teacher or art student...well worth it sheltongail@hotmail.com |
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| I put my "teaching shoes" back on today. I spent the day at the YACA convention (Youth Art Council of America).When I was a teacher, I took my students to this convention. It is a wonderful organization. At the convention, the students compete in an art show, take workshops, complete art projects, attend a banquet and a dance, and have lots of fun. Today, I taught them to do colored pencil on canvas, using the Gamsol solvent.They caught on very quickly, and had some success with it. It was a fun day for me, away from the gallery, getting to spend time with young people with a passion for art, and a desire to learn. sheltongail@hotmail.com |
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| A little Valentine fun today in my art class...They made cards out of heart shapes. And then we made some "goop"...with corn starch and water, and red food coloring. They had a blast...got a little messy, and giggled a lot! Hope you all have a fun Valentine's Day tomorrow! Love all around. sheltongail@hotmail.com |
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| In our Tuesday art class today, Dana finished her egret painting. I thought she did a nice job. |
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| This is her next project...a white iris. She applied the masking fluid onto the paper, covering up the drawing of the flower. She will continue on it next week. |
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| This is Jordan's "Louisiana" montage piece. She designed the whole thing. It is for a contest, and has to have a Louisiana theme. I think she got it all in there! She will keep working on it. |
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| I have two new students in the group...a couple of friends wanted to learn some basic things, and today was their first day. I started them off with some pen and ink. Students always have some success with it. They both did very well, drawing this little bird using different techniques with the pen. |
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| And this is my finished egret watercolor painting. It is about 12 inches by 16 inches, and I would like to sell it. I would take $40 for it if anyone is interested. I can ship it free! Just leave me a comment or email me: sheltongail@hotmail.com Info on Adult Art classes: Tuesdays from 4-5 pm $10 an lesson Call the gallery to register 318-628-3560 |
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| still working on some "Texas" designs...I like some elements, and some don't work. So, I keep sketching, and changing ideas and locations of things. I will keep on till I am satisfied! sheltongail@hotmail.com |
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| birthday goodies |
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| party goers doing a "Hello Kitty" craft |
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| More crafters...cotton ball fun We rented out the deck today for a "Hello Kitty" birthday party. The little girls braved the chilly weather, and had fun finishing a craft project, playing some games, opening gifts, and enjoying some delicious goodies. A great day! The deck is available to rent for parties, showers, weddings, receptions, etc. We can set it up to fit your needs. We can also rent it at night...there is electrical out there as well. Just let us know if you would like to host your next get together out on the deck! sheltongail@hotmail.com Pea Patch Gallery Winnfield, LA 318-628-3560 |
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| One of two options for the boot bag...kinda plain. The bag is that greenish turquoise color, so I don't want the design to be too turquoise. |
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This bag is a little bigger, and could be used for a weekend getaway bag. It has velcro tabs at the top. This design has a little more "spunk". Is it hard to read? I will keep working when I can squeeze it in between everything else! I heard from two cupcake bakeries that may want some of my cupcake bags...to use for corporate gifts as well as regular gift bags filled with their yummy cupcakes! One is in Alexandria, and the other is in Lafayette, Louisiana. Hopefully we can do some business together! Keep you posted. sheltongail@hotmail.com |
