Cassie Marie: In and Around the Studio

I probably sound like a broken record, but we've been super busy lately!

I've been working hard to chisel in some late-night painting sessions, but as any of you studio artists out there know - it is tough business to put in hours of work after working 8+ hours at your day job (especially when your day job is teaching). I have trouble balancing everything just like every other human being on this planet. :)

But, I'm trying by best to make it happen. Here are some shots from my studio from the last few weeks.

Just started this little kitten (a gift from my Grandma Joanne - who is one of my biggest fans/followers - hi Grandma!!). I did a watercolor of this figurine, and was so smitten, I'm taking it into oil paint next.

I also finished this fine fellow:

He was tough - he had a crooked face, and it was hard to balance out his features! But, I think after struggling for a few hours, I have captured his full quirkiness. :)

Bought some gold gouache last weekend - can't stop making shiny paintings.

I've also been plunking around with some abstract pieces. I bought some gold gouache (Holbein Brand - it is awesome) to play around with, and have been incorporating it into these compositions. It is such a weird thing to play with actual reflective material (not just to paint representations of it).

Doodles? Illustration? Sometimes I am just pulled towards making things and I completely give in.

I've also been playing around with illustration a bit which has been fun. :) I'm hoping to cobble together a small portfolio over the summer, so be on the lookout.

In the classroom I'm teaching my students how to use a 6 color system of primaries (instead of a 3 color Red, Yellow, Blue) to accurately mix colors. It teaches them to recognize the properties of certain colors, how to quickly mix neutralized colors, and how to get the colors they want, not just the colors they happen to mix.

My students did a great job with their color mixing group exercises. They got 6 swatches and learned how to use a six primary mixing system to accurately match colors.

For this exercise they split into small groups and had to find the parent hue of a color, determine if it was a hue, tint, tone, or shade and then theorize how to mix the color.

Snapshots from class today. The color mixing and matching process.

They were pretty successful in their first go at it, and they'll be using the process in the next few in-class assignments.

In other highly relevant news, here are my cats enjoying some lounging time:

We've also been taking some time to re-organize and slowly clean our house - we try to tackle a small to mid-sized project every weekend.

Last weekend I organized all of my shoes into this great little shoe cabinet and replaced our hideous huge 1980's wood and brass ceiling fan with a much more calming 60's style ceiling light.