March 2025 Newsletter

Drawing our feathered friends

This past session, we studied drawing and painting birds. Although I've taught this subject before, I found this time around, I actually learned more than I taught. Part of the reason why is I again returned to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology anatomy page. As you can see in the screen shot shown below, this interactive page helps you learn the different parts of a bird, including the skeleton.

While I don't consider myself an expert at drawing and painting birds, I did find that this site helped a great deal by giving me a deeper understanding at how everything works. Click on the above link to see how interesting the site can be.

We also covered some amazing artists this session (I always highlight an artist each week). Especially interesting is Giuseppe Arcimboldo (1527-1593), who is famous for his serial paintings. One in particular is The Four Elements: Air, Earth, Fire, and Water. (He also created a series called, The Four Seasons). In our class we were  interested in his use of birds in the Air panting. Granted, it's a little different because his whole portrait is made up of birds. Just incredible. 

Air by Giuseppe Arcimboldo

Lastly, after spending four weeks of drawing/painting birds, we ended with breaking all the rules and going with an abstraction/cartoon-like drawings the last week. It was fun. Here's an example of some fun characters.

A great project created by student Darlene Van Luvanee:

And some from me...

 Using a method called atmospheric painting.

 Just having some fun.

I really enjoyed this session and am looking forward to our next session, which begin April 9th. See below for details!  

February 2025 Newsletter

Reflective Colors and Light

During our last on-line session, we covered light, shadow, shade and reflection. It was a good lesson, not just for the students, but for me as well. It's good to review the basics, such as: 

• chiaroscuro (sounds like kyaro skooro), meaning the treatment of light and dark,
• the anatomy of a shadow, 
• shade vs. shadow; there is a different,
• Notan (Japanese approach to light and dark),
• and lastly reflective color and light.

We also studied five separate artists that offer great examples of light and dark, including Johannes Vermeer, Gerard van Honthorst, Francisco Goya and so on.

I was surprised at how much I forgot and how much I learned as well.  But the most fascinating part was the last class when we covered reflections. We usually attribute reflections to water (trees, buildings or boats reflecting on the river) or on shiny objects (coffee pots, glasses, etc.). But there's more to see than that.

Have you ever really looked at a reflective object that's not necessarily bound by water or a shine? For example, here's an orange on a white surface.

Underneath the orange, what color(s) do you see? That's reflective color. What about the bottom of the orange, is there a lighter color there as opposed to the rest of the orange? That's reflective light. They are both influenced by the light bouncing on the paper and/or the orange.

Let's try another. 

What do you see, reflective light, color and maybe more? How 'bout the next example. Where is the light bouncing? Instead of looking, try really seeing.

Speaking of which, in my classes, we don't just study the medium or theme for the day, we also review:

• A weekly artist
• "Seeing instead of looking" exercises
• Three-minute sketches 
• Commentary on what we are studying
• A choice of projects.

It's more than a drawing or painting class, it's an art class that expands your knowledge and skill.

So what's up for the rest of the winter? 

If you're interested in these class, please contact me at jjgoodell@gmail.com.

See you soon.

Jill Jeffers Goodell

Glastonbury Studios

 Neurographica art

Happy New Year!. I thought I'd start the new year off with a discussion of Neurographica art, developed by Russian psychologist Pavel Piskarev in 2014. Last issue I quickly touched upon the subject by stating that it's a great meditative form of art, while also a boundless way to maintain mindfulness.

To give you some background, I tumbled this past summer and have post-concussion syndrome. This artform is supposed to help with your brain neurons. I can't say I'm getting cured anytime soon, but I do find that my brain seems a bit more relaxed after a neurographic workout. 

Here's a step-by-step process.

Step 1--draw lines from the edge of your paper in all directions.

Step 2--add circles if wish and then go to each intersection and curve it out.

Step 3--complete with color (watercolor, colored pencil, gouache and so on).

Here's a video with more details.

I love this art form. In fact, I'd say I'm a bit obsessed. I already have filled an entire folder with pieces and tried my first on my new iPad (a gift from my son). Here are some examples

One of my first tries.

Another try with a tree.

Playing with a spider web.

Even created Christmas card.

Finally...first try on my iPad.

Take a few minutes, pull out some paper and try it yourself. But be warned, it can become addictive.