TRICIA TOONE | artist & teacher

Jessie Krause at the Netherfield Gallery

Sketchbook club just paid a visit to Jessie Krause at the Netherfield Gallery in Frenchtown. Jessie has a beautiful and diverse body of work: all personal, inspiring, and full of life. 

Sketchbook Club hiked to the gallery after school. It's so wonderful to have great artists like Jesse so close to home. We stepped in and students were immediately drawn into her work. Quite a few students said something like," I've walked past this so many times, and never realized what was inside!"

We sat and she showed us preliminary sketches for her work that later turned into beautiful, large-scale paintings. It was fascinating to see the original idea that was quickly sketched in oil pastel and compare it to the final oil painting. She discussed where her ideas come from and where she looks to for inspiration.

One of my favorite quotes from her talk was something to the effect of, "A sketchbook is like a filing cabinet of ideas". This was especially important to me since my primary goal for the Sketchbook Club is that they learn to grab inspiration when it comes. 

Each student then chose an aspect of one of her paintings to inspire a sketch and "make it their own". There was silence as they were each absorbed into their sketches. 

I think all of the young artists were inspired, as am I. Sucked into the right hemispheres of our brains, it was hard to leave at 4:00. I feel artistically refreshed and am about to dive into a new painting.

Pinhole Photography and Frenchtown History

Frenchtown Elementary School has been in the process of creating a documentary about the history of Frenchtown. Seventh and eighth graders have researching the local Frenchtown Cemetery including prominent families, civil war veterans, and monument symbolism and construction. 

In art, they created pinhole cameras from oatmeal containers and shoe boxes. We discussed the basic concepts that make a camera function. After some practice at school, we took a trip over to the cemetery to research the area and take photos with our pinhole cameras. 

Photos were taken with their cameras, then developed in the "Mobile Darkroom" aka van wrapped in black paper. (Please refrain from the "free candy" jokes. Heard enough at this point. Thank you 8th graders. : )

Students quickly got a sense of the factors and technical difficulties associated with photography, a nice contrast from the ease of the digital cameras and cell phone cameras they are used to.

The film stills shown were taken by Keith and Laura from River Union Stage, who are coordinating the Frenchtown Documentary. The Frenchtown Documentary premier will be shown on June 12. More details to come.

Raku Firing at Frenchtown School

John Fulwood of Kissimmee River Pottery came to Frenchtown School to raku fire the ceramic work of grades 5-8. Despite the rainy day, I have to admit I personally had fun spending the day outside huddled around the kiln with John, and his assistant Marion. John brought a canopy for the students to stand under, although most decided it was more important to get an up-close look at the action than to be comfy and dry.

For most of the students of Frenchtown School, this was their first experience with ceramics. From raw clay to the raku firing, it was fun to appreciate the wonder of the ceramic process with them. I hope to have John back again next year!

Thank you Frenchtown PTA and Board of Education for making it possible!

Skele Guitar Painting Complete

Skele guitar body is ready to go. I've worked on lightening it up overall and making the texture a bit more gritty...as a pirate guitar should be. Once fully dry and varnished, Rick will assemble the custom built neck, electronics, and decorative pieces.

The guitar will come complete with a removable rum flask that fits in the guitar body made by tinsmith Carl Giordano. I think "His Noodliness" would be delighted.

Do Schools Kill Creativity?

"If you're not prepared to be wrong, you'll never come up with anything original."

- Sir Ken Robinson

Sir Ken Robinson asks important questions about the purpose of education and the 

role of creativity. He describes how we may be educating children out of their creative 

capacities because we reinforce a fear of making mistakes.

New Group Portrait

I just finished this portrait of four sisters. This portrait was commissioned as a surprise gift from family members. So the it ended up being a tough one because it was done completely from photographs and I have never met the women being painted. I usually like to work at least in part from life. Photographs just don't do justice to real life. I know there are a lot of artists out there who comfortably work entirely from photographs and it's typical that they never meet their subjects. 

As I worked on this project, it almost seemed like I did know these girls. Perhaps staring at their images long enough, I constructed imaginary personalities in my mind. Either way, it was a fun painting to do. I think I'm going to miss them when they're gone.