Jocelyn Curry

I winced when I logged on here to Curry Powder because it's been so long since I posted anything. I didn't really want to see the date of the last post, even. There are reasons for the long pause but all of those aside, there's one excellent reason to post the Drawing Group's recent celebration today: WE FINISHED OUR HOMEWORK!

One stunningly perfect morning in August we met up in Edmonds, WA to draw a favorite town haunt: the recently enhanced Old Milltown. The hardscaping and floral plantings took our breath away while the proper row of storefronts created a contrasting background to these. Hence, my suggestion was to create a two-layered drawing. We didn't discuss the intricacies of designing this way so it was only after we all got started that we realized that we had 3-D challenges ahead of us. We spent two hours sitting amidst the planters, grappling with perspective, color, pattern, you-name-it. After this, we took our work home with us and dealt with the next stages by ourselves. We did work on these in our weekly meetings once or twice, but needed to concentrate in solitude in our studios to really put them together.

So, four months later, we had all completed our pieces. One of us completed hers within weeks of that summer experience. The other two of us managed to get ours done last week. That's why we are celebrating! Usually, we spend one two-hour gettogether on a project. Sometimes these projects turn into a more developed one. In this case, we had our "homework." Take a look. Following the photos of the artwork I have posted a photo of Old Mill Town:

A harmonious and muted palette characterizes this "pop-up" version of Old Mill Town. Pen, ink and watercolor were used in all of our pieces. In this one, the plantings are clearly the focal area with the buildings offering a backdrop. (appx. 8"x10")

This member opted to render the scene from a head-on perspective. She exceeded the assignment by adding a third layer behind the buildings: the trees. Behind these: the soft blue sky. We all selectively omitted certain details or created some from our own imaginations. In this composition, the added layers really enhanced the whole. (appx. 9"x11")

As I was photographing our finished pieces, the December sun flooded the room. This member saw how the sun created dramatic shadows so I took a quick photo to show the dimensions.

This is my take on Old Milltown. Compositionally I don't give it a high mark but I loved the entire experience of sitting in the sun, working from photos in my studio, occasionally pulling the pieces out of the envelope to dabble away at it, and then finally resolving the pop-up factor and doing the final construction. It's 5/8" deep by 6"x10".

Here's my photo that best shows the beautiful park and western-style building facades.