RNAC Workshops

Rocky Neck Art Colony’s newest virtual exhibition is called: Up Close: Sketchbooks by Martha Swanson.

Martha (Marty) was RNAC’s Artistic Director for the past 8 years and we thought this would be a great way to honor all she’s done for Rocky Neck — and all the art directions she’s explored.

So…what’s in your sketchbook? Send submissions to RNAC.workshops@gmail.com, be sure to include a brief bit about what we’re looking at. And your name, of course.

From Linda Bourke:

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From Pamela Stratton:

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—Pamela Stratton

From Lynda Fatalo

From Matt Cegelis

From Neta Goren:

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A little different this time. Instead of you creating a new piece of art, look around your house or studio — which one piece is your absolute favorite, the one you would have a hard time living without. It could be a piece done by you, your kids, your favorite artist. It just has to be really important to you.

For this “Share,” you can add a few words about why it speaks to you. But try to keep it to under 50 words. Assignment due by — I like this one so much, I’ll keep it going another week — November 28. Send to RNAC.workshops@gmail.

This charcoal/pastel drawing was made by my son, Jake, many years ago. It shows the strength, balance and resilience that has made him into a fabulous, caring adult!

—Karen Ristuben

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I was touring artists residencies in California when I met a family of potters from Jalisco, Mexico, who made beautifully unusual works. The entire family works together and was enjoying the Montalvo residency in Santa Clara. The father, Gerardo Ortega is the heir of three generations of potters and is considered a Grand Master of Mexican folk art.
I fell in love with this joy-filled car depicting Mary, Joseph and the three kings taking the happy baby Jesus out for a ride.

—Kathy Archer

Painted in 1897 in Australia by marine artist Arthur V. Gregory, it shows my sea captain great grandfather, my great grandmother, and my then 9-year-old grandfather aboard the ship Celeste Burrill. From Australia to Nova Scotia to Minnesota and now to Massachusetts, it connects me to 10 generations of mariners.

— Paul Trefry

This is a taxidermy bird I love. I’ve painted it many times. His name is Petie. Looks exactly like my childhood pet bird.

— Joyce Roessler

This is a painting by my son Kevin Magnan. He grew up around the ocean and has painted a number of seascapes, capturing many different moods. This is one of my favorites.

—Ray Magnan

I fell in love with this the minute my father brought it home. Walt’s been with me a long time, and so have my favorite lines of his:

O to be self-balanced for contingencies, 
To confront night, storms, 
hunger, ridicule, accidents, rebuffs, 
as the trees and animals do.

—Janice Brand

We’re at 25+ weeks of Art Challenge, which has been a great run. I’m sensing a lessening of enthusiasm or at least of submissions, so I’m going to ease up for a while and consider this the Fortnightly Art Challenge. It’s getting colder and there’ll be fewer options for distractions, so maybe things will pick up.

So, you’re not off the hook yet! This fortnight (two weeks), draw with white on a black surface. Simple, but powerful.

Rules are simple:

• Black & white (okay, I added some color)
• 2D or 3D
• Any surface, any medium
• Draw from direct observation preferred where possible

Deadline is November 7. Send submissions to RNAC.workshops@gmail.com. If you have some killer ideas for new Challenges, send those along too!

For this challenge, put aside your pencils and brushes. Make an image using a non-traditional drawing tool (stick, fork, your roommate’s toothbrush…). You can also use a non-traditional medium. Please identify your materials.

Otherwise, rules as usual:

• Color or black & white
• 2D or 3D
• Truly any surface, any non traditional medium

Deadline is October 24. Send your image to rnac.workshops@gmail.com. Send title, but more important this week, identify your materials.

Enlarging is a powerful visual strategy. Otherwise, we would not love Georgia O’Keefe’s work quite so much.

For this art challenge, choose a small object from nature– a seed, mushroom, cherry, shell, etc. Spend a few minutes observing the object’s details. Make an image in which the object is at least TEN times larger than the original (1 inch = 10 inches!). Don’t hesitate to let the image bleed off the edges of your surface to create interesting negative shapes.

Simple rules:

• Color or black & white
• 2D or 3D
• Any surface, any medium
• Draw from direct observation preferred where possible

Deadline is October 10. Send your image to rnac.workshops@gmail.com. Send along a title, or I’ll come up with one (and it’s sure to be wrong!).

This week’s Challenge involves removing from the surface. Scratch, scrape, sand, erase your way to an image! (Personally, I find it one of the most fun ways to attack something — break out those erasers.)

Rules are simple too:

• Color or black & white
• 2D or 3D
• Any surface, any medium
• Draw from direct observation preferred where possible

Deadline is October 3. Send your image to rnac.workshops@gmail.com. Send along a title, or I’ll come up with one (and it’s sure to be wrong!).

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Let us repeat: Repetition. Using repetition can produce a variety of effect, like movement or emphasis. It can trigger memory, create confusion or just result in an interesting composition. In this challenge use repetition repetition.

Rules are simple:

• Color or black & white
• 2D or 3D
• Any surface, any medium
• Draw from direct observation preferred where possible

Deadline for this one is September 26; send to RNAC.workshops@gmail.com. Send along a title or I’ll have to make one up.

Someone mentioned football season starting? We can do that — here’s the challenge: think wide, think panoramic format. (Okay, not the easiest thing to take a picture of, but give it a whirl.)

Rules are simple:

• Color or black & white
• 2D or 3D
• Any surface, any medium
• Draw from direct observation preferred where possible

Deadline for this one is September 19; send to RNAC.workshops@gmail.com. Send along a title or I’ll have to make one up.

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Enough summer laziness. We’re back! This week’s challenge is to merge the 2D world and the 3D world. It’s easier than you think — or not.

Rules are simple, as ever:

• Color or black & white
• 2D and 3D
• Any surface, any medium
• Draw from direct observation preferred where possible

You have until September 12 for this one. Send submissions to RNAC.workshops@gmail.com with your title or I’ll make one up!

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Big Tiny is one of our major fundraisers for Rocky Neck Art Colony and you can help make it a success. The Challenge is to make a gorgeous image in a tiny 5×5″  painting, photograph, mixed media or print. This will be a piece you can deliver to us per instructions below for inclusion in the fundraiser.

Here are your marching orders:

• After matting the visible area must be 5 inches x 5 inches.
• Work on a 6“x6″ piece of watercolor paper, bristol board or photo paper. Need paper? We can provide 6”x6” 100 lb. Bristol stock. Call Mary Ann McCormick at 978-317-6803 to arrange a pick-up time at 4 Hatch Way on Rocky Neck (not the Cultural Center). 
• All 2D media accepted, including photography, collage, drawing and painting.
• We do the matting. Just remember the visible area must be 5×5”.
• Sign the BACK, not the front. One of the thrills of Big Tiny is the buyer doesn’t know who did the piece until after purchase!
• Submission Deadline Update: Final Art due September 7. No excuses now! Please deliver or mail artworks in protective packaging to Mary Ann McCormick, 4 Hatch Way, Gloucester MA 01930.  Artwork pickups can also be arranged.

See the links below to YouTube videos for some inspiration on how to make your tiny masterpiece:

Barbara Moody

Ruth Mordecai

Kat Masella

Loren Doucette

The Big Tiny is all-virtual this year, so people can view and buy online. The website (we’ll post the URL here when it’s up) will be live for three days, Oct. 10 to 12. The artwork will sell for $150 the first day, $100 the second and $50 on the third. We are also offering framed Triptychs of three pieces that go together.

If you want, you can send your image here to Art Challenge for posting (I won’t be running your caption info): RNAC.workshops@gmail.com. More important, though, is to send the completed piece in to the address above by August 31.

Here’s another idea: Repurpose some of your past Art Challenge work for Big Tiny. As long as it has the all-important 5”x5” internal dimension, you’re probably good to go.

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Create an image incorporating distortion as the essential visual strategy. What is distortion? Morphing, blurring, stretching. You play with it.

Rules as ever:

• Color or black & white
• 2D or 3D
• Any surface, any medium
• Draw from direct observation preferred where possible

I’m going to take a bit of a break for August and only update every two weeks (the Fortnighly Challenge?). So you have until August 15 for this one. Send submissions to RNAC.workshops@gmail.com with your title or I’ll make one up!

For this Challenge, you will need a fortune cookie (real, virtual, dreamt). Make an image triggered by your fortune. But, wait there’s more: Many fortune cookies’ fortunes have a feature on the back “Learn One Chinese Word.” An extra challenge is to somehow reference that word in the drawing. (If you’re looking for some inspiration, start here.)

Rules are simple:

• Color or black & white
• 2D or 3D
• Any surface, any medium
• Draw from direct observation preferred where possible

Send your image to RNAC.Workshops@gmail.com along with the title of your piece. Deadline for this Challenge is August 1.

Some energetic souls here at Rocky Neck Art Colony are looking to put together a Colony cookbook. We’re gathering recipes, and we need art too. Focusing on ingredients is easier than, say, painting a salad, so take your favorites as inspiration—eggs, apples, walnuts, even broccoli, maybe a whole pie —and paint/draw/photograph at will.

Rules are simple:

• Color or black & white
• 2D or 3D
• Any surface, any medium
• Draw from direct observation preferred where possible.

Send your image to RNAC.Workshops@gmail.com along with the title of the piece. Deadline for Ingredients is July 26 (extended — I’ll be away the 20th to the 23rd and won’t be able to post your pictures on those dates).

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Sure, it’s easy to draw a model or a tree, something static. Want a real challenge? Pick a moving target. I happen to be partial to chickens, but birds, waves, dogs, people at the beach: anything’s fair game. You’ll be training your eye to get the essentials — fast.

Rules are simple:

• Color or black & white
• 2D or 3D
• Any surface, any medium
• Draw from direct observation preferred where possible.

Send your image to RNAC.Workshops@gmail.com along with the title of the piece. Deadline for Fast Sketch is July 11.

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Phew — glad that Mineral Challenge is over (though if you have a piece to submit, you still can). This week’s Challenge is way more fun: Create a self-portrait that does NOT include your face.

The rules are simple:

• Color or black & white
• 2D or 3D
• Any surface, any medium
• Draw from direct observation preferred where possible.

Send your image to RNAC.workshops@gmail.com. Send in a title or I’ll come up with my own. Deadline for Faceless Self-Portrait is July 4 (July 4th?? Already??).

Figures it would be Number 13: Mineral?? According to Encyclopedia Britannica, a mineral is “a naturally occurring homogeneous solid with a definite chemical compositionand a highly ordered atomic arrangement; it is usually formed by inorganic processes.”

Got that? Me neither.

You can Google “mineral images”— get out the paint box!

If you played along with Animal and Vegetable, this Mineral should be part of that series—or not. Try your best!

• Color (black & white if you think you can!)
• 2D or 3D
• Any surface, any medium
• Draw from direct observation preferred where possible.

Send your image to RNAC.workshops@gmail.com. Send in a title or I’ll come up with my own. Deadline for Mineral is June 28.

Following last week’s Animal Challenge, this week it’s Vegetable’s turn. You did establish a theme for all your images, right (remember, next week it’s the trio’s conclusion with Mineral)? Yeah, I didn’t either. That shouldn’t stop you, though.

Simple rules:

• Color or black & white
• 2D or 3D
• Any surface, any medium
• Draw from direct observation preferred where possible.

Send your image to RNAC.workshops@gmail.com. Send in a title or I’ll come up with one of my own! Deadline for Vegetable is June 21.

This week it’s Animal. Guess the next two weeks’ Challenges: yep, Vegetable, Mineral. The point is to choose a theme to connect your three responses over the coming weeks. Ready to get started?

***Still time to sign up for the online Portrait Workshop given by the juror of our new RNACExhibitions website inaugural show. Only $100 for all four classes for RNAC members Details here. ***

Simple rules:

• Color of black & white
• 2D or 3D
• Any surface, any medium
• Drawing from direct observation preferred where possible.

Send your image to RNAC.workshops@gmail.com. Deadline for Animals is June 13.

Wow: We made it to 10 Challenges!

This week we tackle Isolated Color. Adding a second color to a monotone image creates immediate and often dramatic focus. Have fun using this simple visual strategy.

Simple rules:

• Monotones except for that isolated color
• 2D or 3D
• Any surface, any medium
• Drawing from direct observation preferred where possible.

Send your images to RNAC.Workshops@gmail.com. Include a title. Deadline is June 6.

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We’ve reached Number 9 (“number 9, number 9” for those who remember the White Album). This week, explore colors that are side-by-side on the color wheel (see chart below).

These colors are considered analogous, and create calmer energy than complements. Use analogous colors for this week’s Art Challenge.

• Colors that are analogous
• 2D or 3D
• Any surface, any medium
• Drawing from direct observation preferred where possible

Send your images to RNACworkshops@gmail.com. Include a title unless you want me to make one up for you. Deadline is May 30.

The underlying energy of an image is often determined by deliberate color choice. Complementary Colors are those that are opposite each other on the color wheel (Red and Green, Yellow and Purple, Orange and Blue).  When used together, these combinations create a certain vibration or resonance within the image. For this challenge, make an image that employs this principle of color theory.

• Complementary colors, please
• 2d or 3D
• Any surface, any medium
• Drawing from direct observation preferred where possible.

One-week deadline: You have until May 24, so get drawing! Send your images to RNAC.workshops@gmail.com.

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APOLOGIES TO EVERYONE FOR THE LATE POSTINGS TO THIS ONE. THEY’RE ALL GREAT!

Olive, pea, forest, parrot, spring, grass, lime. This is the moment of the year when green calls to us with limitless variety. Make an image in which green dominates.

Simple rules:

• Color (well, mostly green)
• 2D or 3D
• Any surface, any medium
• Drawing from direct observation preferred where possible.

Send your images to RNACworkshops@gmail.com Deadline is May 17.

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Light and shadow are vital elements in image-making. Shadows define objects and create mood. Make an image in which SHADOW is the most important element.

Simple rules:

• Color or B&W
• 2D or 3D
• Any surface, any medium
• Drawing from direct observation preferred where possible.

Send your images to RNACworkshops@gmail.com. Deadline May 9(ish).

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Uh-oh—I left my house without my sketchbook! Arg! Luckily, I found a paper bag (or a stone or an apple…). For this challenge, draw on a non-traditional object or surface. 

Rules are simple:

• Color or B&W
• 2D or 3D
• Any surface, as long as it’s unexpected
• Drawing from direct observation preferable

One-week deadline: You have until May 3, so get drawing! Send your images to RNAC.workshops@gmail.com.

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Apparently the virus has triggered a surge in sales of jigsaw puzzles and other games. For this Art Challenge, play a game (video, vintage, card, word) and then draw it.

Rules are simple:

• Color or B&W
• 2D or 3D
• Any surface, any medium
• Drawing from direct observation preferable

Two-week deadline for this one; you have until April 25. Send your images to RNAC.workshops@gmail.com .

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Keep a sketchbook and bag of pencils in your car (which you should always do anyway). Stop to draw without leaving the car. Bring a snack, try to park so sun streams into the car, choose some good music, and go for it! Deadline in one week: April 11.

Send your images to RNAC.workshops@gmail.com. Rules are:

• Color or B&W
• 2D or 3D
• Any surface, any medium
• Drawing from direct observation preferable

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Make an image of a chair from your house, perhaps the chair you would offer to a visitor. Let’s visit each other virtually!

• Color or B&W
• 2D or 3D
• Any surface, any medium
• Drawing from direct observation preferred where possible.

Send your images to RNAC.workshops@gmail.com.

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This isn’t a drawing — but it’s drawn from Thoreau. In Walden, in the chapter Winter Visitors, he writes:

There too, as everywhere, I sometimes expected the Visitor who never comes.  The Vishnu Purana says, “The householder is to remain at eventide in his courtyard as long as it takes to milk a cow, or longer if he pleases, to await the arrival of a guest.”  I often performed this duty of hospitality, waited long enough to milk a whole herd of cows, but did not see the man approaching from the town.

From RNAC member Karl Frank

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Here’s where we’ll be posting submissions to the first Challenge: Seeing Outside the Box. Your assignment, should you choose to accept: Make an image that includes one or more eyes (your cat, a potato, a hurricane…).

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This Challenge is closed. But there are new ones here. Don’t feel like playing but want to get your work out there? Get on the Rocky Neck Facebook or Instagram pages. Just send your name, the image, title of the work, medium and a sentence or two about the work to: Rnac.operationsmanager@gmail.com