Solo Show At the Merc Gallery Old Town Temecula

I will be having a solo show at the Merc Gallery, Old Town Temecula for the month of Sept. 2011
The reception is Sept 9th 5:30 to 7:30 pm

I will be having a concurrant show for the month of Sept. at Lorimar Winery, on Main Street also. Recpetion featuring a band and refreshments..time to be announced.

Positive Though Process while painting....

In working with students my classes, I am constantly dealing with students who are thinking with their left brain, making verbal, negative judgements about their work and themselves. "This looks bad, my trees look like lollipop, I can't paint this, This isn't working, I can't get this to look like..., the clouds look like marshmellows, It doesn't look like an apple, or a chair or a nose" what ever..seeing "things" and describing how they are feeling defeated, rather than, looking objectively at their work as an artist. In keeping a dialog of negative judgement of personal performance rather than thinking in artist terms, they grow increasingly frusterated and progress is hindered.
I suggest then that the students get up out of their chair, don't turn around, grab a cup of coffee, and step far away from their work. Before turning around I suggest a deep breath and then only think in terms of Value, Color, Shape and Line when they are describing what they see, offering no negative input, or their feelings. It takes some effort to break their habit of beating themselves up for not performing the way they want to. Each expect the painting "feel finished" early on, expecting to finish each part of the painting before moving on to the next. Most have a difficult time letting the painting be what it is, a work in progress, focusing on the process, allowing themselves to solve the problems rather than to focus on the negative thoughts and feelings.
I find it helpful to me as an instructor to be the student now and then to remind myself of the struggle of learning something unfamiliar. I am happy to have this next few weeks to do just that.
I have two more classes after Thanksgiving and then the classroom will be closed for the remainder of 2010. Classes will resume on January 24th 2011. A new schedule of classes is posted on the classes link. on my webpage, http://www.gabrielebaberart.com/
I hope to spend this winter break working on my own projects, and doing plenty of study and work from life. I hope to post here regularly to share with all of you. Please join me in my journey and invite others to come along. I will try to share my thought processes and progress along the way...
registration form
Jan 2010 class offerings pdf

Blessings ..
Gabriele

Classes in Temecula, begin April 5th 2010

I just realized I have not made a post in a good long while. Sorry about that. Sometimes life gets in the way. I have been busy working with students in my classes and some home renovations. It just seems like there is not enough hours in the day to get it all in.

Those of you who are interested, I have a new session of classes beginning the week of April 5th. The MSJC classes on Monday morning...(That would be oil painting at Mt. San Jacinto College, Continuing Education dept. 4 wks, $85
Tuesday Morning watercolor Project class, they start a week later with a four week session
Tuesday Afternoon watercolor techniques class,
Wednesday Morning oil painting, and a Wednesday afternoon class if there are enough sign-ups
Wednesday afternoon kids drawing,
I am taking an interest list for a Thursday Morning drawing class..so contact me asap to get on the list.

Those that need art supplies, can go through the links page on my site, and navigate to the Blick link, to Blick U, California, and find Gabriele Baber Art Studio for all my supply lists. EAsy click and shop.

Will be posting some new paintings soon. For more info on classes, go to my website, http://www.gabrielebaberart.com/ Now for me, it is back to the studio..

Vote for the Painting of your choice.

The student art show at Cosi' is still up through March. I have implimented a popular choice vote. Please be sure to stop by Cosi' and vote for your favorite painting. Cosi' is donating a gift certificate and I will be donating some art supplies to the winner.

Don't forget, Classes begin the week of January 25th, so get your registration in early. the complete schedule is on my website, http://www.gabrielebaberart.com/

I have recently become a Dick Blick affiliate. I have a link to them on my links page, so if you need art supplies, be sure to go through my link.

I am hoping to get back into blogging after we get the home renovations done, so hang in there..I will be back at it soon.
Blessings all,
Gabriele

Student Art Show: "Artists in the Making" Meet and Greet Reception

Cosi’, Art from the Hearth presents:

“Artists in the Making”

A collection of works by students of Gabriele Baber

December 9th

6 pm to 8 pm

Refreshments will be served.

Temecula Cosi’

41493 Margarita Rd

Temecula,CA 92591

(951) 296-6208

Student Denise V working on her holiday watercolor painting in my studio

The art works in this presentation are a collection of works from current and past students of Gabriele Baber. The pieces were produced in Gabriele’s Oil Painting, and Watercolor Classes and the entire show is student work with the exception of the pieces representing the instructor.
In the Oil Painting class, students are encouraged to work on their own subject matter at their own pace with guidance from the instructor. Group and private critique helps each student from beginning through completion. Through positive working environment and gentle critique the students are able to achieve positive results.
In the Watercolor classes, the students work together on the same image following step by step instruction with the instructor. Most paintings are completed in two or three class sessions. Students are encouraged to continue work on other pieces using the lessons learned for that week.

"I am extremely proud of my students and enjoy helping then through their journey and grateful to Cosi’ for allowing me to showcase their work here for all to enjoy!”

Gabriele Baber

Working from Photo reference, tweaking in photoshop.

So often when we take photos we are excited about the images, and then when we look at them later we wonder, "Where is that awesome scene I shot?". After plowing through the reference material, we find it, then only to be disappointed that it just doesn't look like we remember. Today though with digital photography, it is much nicer, but still, not as wonderful, had we taken the time to sit and sketch the scene ourselves and take notes. Time doesn't always allow that, so photography is the next best thing.

The original photo that I used for this scene was taken on a family outing to Kommern, Germany. This place was a wonderful place to explore. I hope some day when I get back there, I can go out on my own, and just sit and paint, one scene after another. That day though, I was a guest, and was enjoying the company of my family there.

This is the original photo that I took. You can see te basic idea is there but with some artistic licence, I think I have improved on the scene a bit. In photoshop, I worked up a comp, adding the hollyhocks and doing some enhancement.

I think that you will agree that the changes that I made from the photo, greatly improved the painting. I am doing a series of pieces that I hope to use as greeting cards, or calendars.

Thank you to my family for blessing me with such a wonderful day in Kommern! I have so many fond memories of the time I spent in Germany, getting to know them all. I am looking forward to going back very soon!

http://www.gabrielebaberart.com/

Making use of One's art work...

We all make these paintings and they pile up one, by one, especially those of us who do demos for classes we teach. Each year I work with my students to come  up with an image they can use for their holiday greeting cards. This year, the painting was inspired by one of my good friends, Colonel Max Hegler, retired, US Airforce. He and his wife went on a trip to someplace back east and posted this wonderful image of Max enjoying his lobster dinner. I just knew I wanted to paint it, but originally not as Santa. This is a good example of using our refernece materials as jumping off point for our work. This guy looks like Santa, but not a lot like Max, and intentionally so...but the work was inspired by Max just the same. As I said in yesterday's post that we are all too involved in making the painting look like the photo!

Ok..I am off the track here. The intention of this blog today is to share with you some things that my students came to class with yesterday. Two of them made lovely calendars out of the images that they painted through out the year to give as gifts for their family members and brought them to share. What a lovely idea and they turned out so nicely!  Such a wonderful way to share something you love to do with the ones you care most about! I have always encouraged the students to find ways to use their art work, be it as greeting cards to send to people as thank you's or pick me ups for those who are sick. With the computer and printers we have these days, the images we can reproduce are sometimes hardly distinquishable from the original. Bookmarks, cook books, greeting cards, t-shirts..any number of things can be done with the art work we create. Different designs can be achieved by cropping the images as well. One need not use the whole image but part to make an interesting design come to life.
I am proud of my gals in my Tuesday morning Watercolor class for the paintings they create, and their efforts to share their work with others. Good Job Gals, Keep up the good work!

Painting classes will be resuming after the holidays in my Temecula Studio mid Jan. Be sure to keep an eye out on my website for updates. http://www.gabrielebaberart.com/