Small Wonders in TDS Gallery(Group Exhibition & Art Sale 2015)

Work will be shown and for sale in the exhibition!

"Small Wonders" is an annual tradition that reflects a variety of media and sculptures with a multitude of subject matter. All original artwork displayed will be smaller than 11x14 (including the frame) and available for sale. Each original is priced at $200.00 or less.

Blue & Orange. 5x7. Gouache on canvas by Christy Olsen.

English Rose. 8x10. Oil on board by Christy Olsen.

Charity Exhibition & Art Sale

This event is open to the genreal public. Admission is at no charge. All sale proceeds directly support the Drawing Studio and will benefit scholarships & summer programs for kids.

Dates

November 14 - 23, 2015

Artist's Reception

November 14, 2015 (6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.)
Refreshments served.

About the Host

The Drawing Studio (TDS) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that enriches people's lives by providing artistic inspiration and studio art instruction for people at any age (from 9-90+) at any level of experience. For more information, visit The Drawing Studio TDS.org.

About the Gallery

The exhibition will be shown in the gallery on the grounds of the Drawing Studio in Tucson, Arizona.

The Drawing Studio School & Gallery

Location

The Drawing Studio, Inc.
2760 N Tucson Blvd, Tucson, AZ 85716

Special Hours for this Exhibition

November 15th (12:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.)
November 16 - 20 Weekdays (9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.)
November 21, 22, Saturday & Sunday (12:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.)

Hours

Daily (8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.) or call for an appointment.

Sale

Artwork is "cash & carry," which means that if purchased, the piece may be taken home immediately so that clients will not have to wait until the show has ended. This an excellent opportunity to acquire that particular piece or find a unique holiday gift!

For Purchasing Information:
Phone +1 (480) 990-1422

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The Event

Photo taken during the installation.

Small Wonders Show at TDS Gallery

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Open Studio Tour & Art Sale (2015 Fall)

Will be participating in this event!

Artists Open their Studios to the Public

Open Studio Tour & Art Sale

The HotA Open Studio Tour is in its 1st year. The tour supports the Tucson Arts Community, the local economy and educates or brings awareness to the general public about the Visual Arts. The event draws about 10,000 visitors annually to over 200 artists’ studios throughout Tucson and Pima County.

Tucson and Pima County

The public is invited to visit artists within their natural habitat, studio, or workshop on a free self-guided tour. This allows them to see first-hand how artists work or learn more about their process. They may also purchase preliminary work, smaller studies, and unframed or framed gallery-ready original fine art directly from the artists within their studios.

About the Facilitator

Artists & artisans located deep within the heart of Tucson, Arizona band together through the Heart of Tucson Art (HoTA) to celebrate the rich artistic culture of the Tucson Arts District. For more information, visit heartoftucsonart.org.

Dates & Hours

Studios will be open on the following dates and times.

October 31, 2015, Saturday (11:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.)
November 1, 2015, Sunday (11:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.)

Sales

Original artwork is available for take-home on the same-day purchase. Major credit cards listed below, check, or cash is accepted.

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Guest Speaker & Demonstration Southern Arizona Artists Guild (SAAG) (Fall 2015)

Invited to demonstrate and lecture!

Sponsored by the Southern Arizona Artists Guild (SAAG), this event will be held in the Kiva building at the Junior League in Tucson, Arizona. It is open to the general public and members of the guild. Admission is at no charge.

A New Approach to Color

Painting can be lots of fun; however, working with color is highly complex, with many elements to consider. Have you even introduced a new color in your artwork only to discover that something else is suddenly out of whack?

Let's try a new approach, choosing colors in the context of relationships rather than in isolation. With excellent tips and packed with lots of information, Christy Olsen will demonstrate her painting techniques and cover all of the basics needed to create a successful painting using the pastel medium.

Yellow Roses. 9x12. Pastel on sanded paper by Christy Olsen.

Date & Time

September 31, 2015 (9:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.)
Refreshments served.

About the Host

The Southern Arizona Arts Guild strives to provide a forum for the appreciation and advancement of the arts. Members of SAAG meet and socialize to facilitate the practice, improvement, and display of our talents. Composed of painters, sculptors, and creators of all manner of fine art, SAAG welcomes seasoned and new artists and individuals interested in the perpetuation of the arts in our community. For more information, visit https://southernarizonaartsguild.com/.

About the Location

The Association of Junior Leagues International, Inc. is a private, nonprofit educational women's volunteer organization aimed at improving communities and civil society's social, cultural, and political fabric. For more information, visit the Junior League.

Junior League in Tucson, Arizona

Location

Junior League (Kiva Auditorium)
2099 E River Rd, Tucson, AZ 85718

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Introduction to Gouache (Summer 2015)

Use this fast-drying medium for painting on the go, color studies, or to even create a masterpiece. Experiment and expand your knowledge of painting using gouache, an opaque form of watercolor. The reverse of normal transparent watercolor techniques will apply, such as working from dark to light or working on a mid-tone or toned paper. Intermediate to advanced painters will improve their current skills, while beginners will acquire the core skills needed to work with gouache independently.

Gouache study. 5x7.

Visual Art Class

Adults are welcome to register or enroll via The Drawing Studio (TDS).

About the Host

The Drawing Studio (TDS) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that enriches people's lives by providing artistic inspiration and studio art instruction for people at any age (from 9-90+) at any level of experience. For more information, visit The Drawing Studio TDS.org.

Instructor

Christy Olsen

Dates

June 13 - June 27, 2015

Meets

(3) Saturday Mornings (9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.) 3 hours per session

Location

The Drawing Studio
2760 N Tucson Blvd, Tucson, Arizona 85716

Level

No prerequisite. All levels are welcome, from beginner to advanced.

Enroll

Online (The Drawing Studio TDS.org)
Or phone: +1 (520) 620-0947

Course Code

N/A

Tuition

$125, $105 (Associate Members)

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Guest Speaker & Demonstration The Drawing Studio (TDS) (Spring 2015)

Invited to demonstrate drawing!

Sponsored by The Drawing Studio (TDS), this event will be held in Tucson, Arizona at TDS. It is open to the general public. Admission is at no charge.

Open House

The Drawing Studio will be having an Open House at its new location! Come see their new digs! See samples of Christy's work and learn more about the classes that she will be offering. Beginners to Advanced Are Most Welcome! Other faculty will also be present with samples of their own artwork to discuss adult and youth classes offered this summer.

Jug. 9x12. Tinted charcoal sketch on paper by Christy Olsen.

Date & Time

May 17, 2015 (1:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.)
Refreshments served.

About the Host

The Drawing Studio (TDS) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that enriches people's lives by providing artistic inspiration and studio art instruction for people at any age (from 9-90+) at any level of experience. For more information, visit The Drawing Studio TDS.org.

Location

The Drawing Studio (TDS)
2760 N Tucson Blvd, Tucson, Arizona 85716
+1 (520) 620-0947

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Shape Hunting

Authored By Christy Olsen.

Working from general to specific is an excellent approach to representational painting. It will help you stay focused on larger shapes to get the proportions accurate first and map out the value relationships before you hone in on the details.

Using a large brush at the beginning of your painting will help you see the bigger picture and help you avoid getting bogged down in those details. Note this is also why we love charcoal. It keeps us focused on the more oversized shapes, such as the eye versus the eyelashes.

North Light Window. Oil on board. 8x10.

Painting from life is the best! You will have to work harder to translate what you see from a three-dimensional world onto a two-dimensional canvas; however, it's worth it in the long run. The first step is what I call "shape hunting," and it's counter-intuitive because we humans have the remarkable ability to perceive depth.

To paint, we have to translate 3D objects into 2D objects. We are seeing to capture them with a brush. This is a very different concept from creating a contour drawing. You must mentally "flatten" out each object you see with your own eyes to mass in that unique shape with your brush. Pretend you are seeing a cross-section of each object and go for those larger shapes to get started and try not to get overwhelmed on the first pass.

Humans and primates can judge depth because we see with something called "binocular vision," i.e., two eyes merge each image within the brain. Monocular vision is when both eyes are used separately, so the field of view is increased, but depth perception is limited (i.e., eyes usually positioned on opposite sides of the animal's head like a horse).

This is great if you are driving a car. You know exactly when to stop before smashing into something. However, this works against you when trying to translate something from real life (i.e., a three-dimensional world) onto a two-dimensional (2-D) surface. Closing one eye is helpful for beginners. This gives us the monocular vision needed to flatten out the image. This is where good drawing skills come in handy for the more advanced, especially your perspective drawing skills.

For some of us, we do not always have the luxury of working from life, so we have to use photography. The downside of photography is that the color is almost always incorrect. The upside to photography is that it does an excellent job of translating objects into those flat 2-D shapes for us. The work is already done because the camera only has one lens, i.e., monocular vision. So if you have to rely on reference photography, do some color studies on-site with your own eyes to record the correct color. Some more advanced artists may play with the images in Photoshop to correct the color deficiency based on their own experiences of painting from life.

Go "shape hunting" at the beginning of your painting, and you will have more success later on as the piece progresses. Block in or mass in those larger flat shapes first. Afterward, you can always render, model, or blend it further. Blend more for a realistic or photographic look or leave objects less rendered for a more painterly look. 

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Limited Palette Experiment

Authored By Christy Olsen.

Sometimes, if you experiment on a painting at home and it goes terribly wrong, it may discourage you. In the beginning, when you are trying to learn a skill, that's not necessarily what you want. The great thing about experimenting during a class or a workshop is supervision, i.e. there is a "safety net," so if you find yourself having a meltdown using that new color you just purchased at the art supply store, help is on the way!

When I take a painting workshop or a class, I learn from experience to challenge myself. I push myself outside of my comfort zone. That's it. I try to fail on purpose! I know it sounds crazy, but it also gets rid of those high expectations that you might have. If you try to experiment, you will get more from experience in the long run. The teacher is there to help and may have insight into what went wrong or great advice on a path forward.

Still Life Study. oil on board. 12x16.

This study was done in a workshop early this year. I noticed during the demo that the artist only used a few selected colors from the multiple ones that were laid out, so when I went to paint my own, I used a limited palette. I wanted to see what would happen, and here is the result.

I used Rembrandt's Transparent Oxide Red, Holbein's Indigo, and Permalba White. I know using a limited palette can create harmony in your painting but somehow, seeing the concept happen in real-time before my eyes in that particular environment really resonated with me. It also made things much easier. I didn't have to worry about complex color mixing and noticed that I could then focus more on each brush stroke.

Detail from Still Life Study. oil on board. 12x16.

Studies that I do in workshops are my class notes; each time I review them years later, I remember the epiphanies that I had at the time. There are some drawing issues with the symmetry of the pot on this one, but I left it alone to preserve the fantastic lesson that I learned at that particular moment in time.

The close-up detail shows the brushwork on the bottle that made me want to perverse the lesson without the overly rendered look.

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Guest Speaker & Demonstration Tucson Pastel Society (TPS) (Fall 2015)

Invited to demonstrate and lecture.

Sponsored by the Tucson Pastel Society (TPS), this event will be held in Tucson, Arizona at the TPS Art Center. It is open to the general public and members of the guild. Admission is at no charge.

A New Approach to Color

Painting can be lots of fun; however, working with color is highly complex, with many elements to consider. Have you even introduced a new color in your artwork only to discover that something else is suddenly out of whack?

Let’s try a new approach, choosing colors in the context of relationships rather than in isolation. Packed with excellent tips and lots of information, Christy Olsen will demonstrate her painting techniques and cover all of the basics needed to create a successful painting using the pastel medium.

Italian Crystal. 16x24. Pastel on sanded paper by Christy Olsen.

Date & Time

September 5, 2015 (2:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.)

About the Host

The Tucson Pastel Society (TPS) is a non-profit 501 (c)(3) organization established to advocate and promote the pastel medium and have fun doing art in the communities it serves. TPS is an active and vital art organization for pastel artists to flourish, fostering the skills and camaraderie of its members while encouraging community awareness of dry pastel fine art by offering exhibitions and events. For more information, visit the Tuscon Pastel Society.org.

Location

TPS Art Center
2447 N. Los Altos Ave. Tucson, Arizona 85705

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Why Learn to Draw in the Digital Age?

Authored By Christy Olsen.

We are bombarded with images from morning until night via the internet, television, advertisements, and newspapers. As we move into the 21st century, our world becomes more and more driven by visual images. Drawing is a much-needed skill in the world of today and tomorrow.

Drawing is a compelling form of communication! Visual language and the visual arts are now more relevant than ever, and drawing is becoming necessary. A single drawing can communicate an idea, your imagination, a memory, a feeling, or a belief.

Charcoal heightened with white chalk on ivory paper. 8x8.

During the Renaissance, artists, engineers, and architects were in the same profession. The great draftsman was deemed omnipotent supreme because they possessed a unique skill to carry out or implement their own vision. Hatched from an idea on paper into full-blown reality, the great Duomo on the Florence cathedral was built and spawned the Renaissance.

"All of the work of the hand is rooted in thinking." — Martin Heidegger.

Drawing can be used to record, create, design, invent, experiment, organize, clarify, or even learn something new. Think about it, everything in the man-made world came from some type of drawing or blueprint.

Drawing is an amazing process itself that connects us to the outside world. It requires orchestrating multiple brain mechanisms, including observation, planning, processing, visual and spatial intelligence, emotion, motor skills, and personally expressive mark-making.

Preliminary Sketch for Larger Painting. Graphite on paper. 5x7.

"The older I become, the more I realize that drawing is the most important of all the problems of picture making." — Joaquin Sorolla

Drawing is the basis of science, engineering, architecture, geometry, mathematics, painting, sculpture, design, and cinematography. It gives you the ability and skills...

• To conceptualize an object in your mind, then translate it to your hand 
• Sharpen your mind and directly improve your ability to solve problems 
• Study an object from life and absorb the information 
• Create plans, blueprints, or designs

"Drawing remains one of the most immediate means for analyzing, interpreting and imagining our world." —Juliette Aristides.

Using the timeless visual language of drawing, you can convey an idea quickly and efficiently to anyone regardless of their own verbal language. Drawing is essential for engineers, designers, architects, scientists, and doctors and is vital to representational artists.

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Italy in Retrospect in Narthex Gallery(Solo Exhibition & Art Sale 2015)

Artwork will be shown in an invitational solo exhibition!

Italy in Retrospect is a one-artist exhibition featuring original oil paintings and pastels by representational artist Christy Olsen. Subjects revolve around central Italy and its unique characteristics, including history, architecture, artistic legacy, rich traditions, wine, music, and colorful landscapes. Twelve large paintings will be shown.

Santa Maria from Assisi. 24x36. Oil on board by Christy Olsen.

Tuscany is an Italian province surrounded by beautiful rustic countryside with yellow, red, and orange flowers and is also known for its Renaissance history and influence on high culture. However, the lesser-known province of Umbra is the home of the "Umber" pigment originally extracted from this mountainous province. It was used to make the famous Old Master's palette colors such as "Raw Umber" and "Burnt Umber." Original works in this show have umber and burnt sienna.

I didn't realize it at the time but now looking back in retrospect on the last few years, I have been painting a collection of scenery, colors and souvenirs that revolve around my former 2012 trip to Italy, where I visited Umbra, Tuscany and Rome.”

Solo Exhibition & Art Sale

This event is open to the general public. Admisison is at no chage.

Dates

March 1, 2015 - April 5, 2013

Artist's Reception

March 1, 2015 (10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.)
Refreshments served.

About the Gallery

Narthex Gallery is located on the grounds of St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church. Enter the North Entrance marked "The Gathering Place" and walk straight to the exhibition. Or enter the West Entrance marked "Sanctuary" and walk straight ahead exhibition is on the right.

Narthex Gallery

Outside Narthex Gallery

Location

Narthex Gallery
7575 N. Paseo del Norte, Tucson, AZ 85704

Hours

Daily (8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.).

Sale

Artwork may be purchased during the show but must stay hung throughout the exhibition.

For Purchasing Information:
Phone +1 (520) 297-7201

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The Event

Photographs that were taken of the installation.

Installation

Installation

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