Monday, May 28, 2007

More American Art Pottery

I drew some more of my Arts and Crafts/American Art pottery collection. On the left is an antique copper box with a raised/embossed lid. The middle vase is a Brush McCoy with a mottled vellum glaze.

The pot on the right is my very favorite of all my pots. It's a Peters and Reed piece that has a raised organic, leafy design on it. The pot is quite heavy and has a wonderful matte green glaze (darker than I've painted it here). I remember I bought it about 10 years ago in Vancouver, WA and paid $125 for it - my most expensive pot.

When I first started collecting in the early 1990's, art pottery was just starting to get expensive. Matte green pots became really popular and spendy. Now there are so many reproductions and fakes being made, it's hard to know what is "real". I was watching PBS "Antiques Roadshow" and they showed several pots that were recently made in China. They were made to look old, had dirt in the glaze, the clay bottoms were scuffed and darkened, and they were reproductions of TECO and Grueby. Ebay is full of items called Arts and Crafts "style" matte green pots.

Before ebay, I used to find some great deals in little towns between Oregon and South Dakota. We would drive home through Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, and Nebraska and stop at antique stores in little towns along the way. Because of their remote locations, prices were usually low. That all changed with ebay.

Emma Pod

Saturday, May 26, 2007

EDM Challenge #120: Draw a Flashlight

 This week we were supposed to draw a flashlight. Now, I know that we own a number of flashlights - a bright pink one, a black one, a couple of small red ones, a tiny key chain one, and at least one large yellow or orange industrial one. But, the blue one is the only flashlight I could find this morning. I drew the sketch at left - which I didn't really like.

Then later in the day I found the pink flashlight, so tonight I drew both of them together, below. The pink one is a bit off on perspective, but oh well.....I'm not gonna draw a third time.
Emma Pod

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

EDM Challenge # 119: Draw Some Rocks

This is my drawing for the EDM Draw Some Rocks challenge. It was fun to do!

I didn't have any good rocks nearby, so drew this from a photo I found online.

It's watercolor and sepia Micron pen.

Emma Pod

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

EDM Challenge #118: Draw Some Hair

Ok, I'm cheating with this one. I drew this a couple of years ago and posted it a few days ago with my tag post. It's the only thing I have with hair and I don't feel like drawing hair. So there....


For Halloween I wore kitty face paint and kitty ears. My co-worker in the business office took the photo above. For drawing class we drew 1/2 inch grid lines on a copy of our photo. Then, on a very large piece of paper, we drew corresponding grid lines that were wavy. As we drew each grid from photo to paper, the face got skewed.

This is charcoal on some kind of very heavy paper. It was fun to draw. Some people's drawings were really hilarious with huge eyes or giant foreheads. Our Instructor told us it is easier to draw a self-portrait this way to start with.

I think the hair looks pretty good on this drawing.  Below is the original photo I worked from:



Emma Pod

Saturday, May 12, 2007

I Got Tagged

I just found out that I was tagged by Casey Klahn of "The Colorist", http://thecolorist.blogspot.com/, a terrific artist from Washington State! He does beautiful work - especially landscapes in pastels. I love his vibrant tones. So, the gig is to tell 7 things about myself that others may not know. HMMmmmmm....here goes:

1) I live in Portland, Oregon and am an academic advisor at the community college here. We've lived here since 1992. Before that we lived in Iowa City, Iowa and I worked at The University of Iowa for 7 years. Before that we lived in St. Paul, Minnesota for 4 years. And before that we lived in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. I'm originally from Brookings, South Dakota - home of the SDSU Jackrabbits! When I came to Oregon I thought it was odd that the prominent college mascots are Beavers and Ducks, but I guess the Jackrabbits and Coyotes from South Dakota are pretty weird as well.

2) I have a master's degree in theology from Luther Northwestern Theological Seminary. At one time I wanted to work in the church or maybe be a pastor. I got into higher education instead.

3) I'm 52 years old and have been married since 1979 - how many years is that???? I'm not sure, but I know it's more than 25.

4) I love to read. I quit buying books and now use the library. I check out 6 or 7 novels at a time and sometimes come home with books I've already read, but forgot. My Dad does that and I used to think it was crazy, but I guess aging will do that to you. After turning 40 a co-worker told me she has CRS (Can't Remember Shit). I think I'm getting that too!

5) I used to think I'd get a PhD in higher education administration or some such thing. I wanted to be a Dean of Students in a college. But now I'm not sure I want to work that hard. I think I'd like to earn an art degree instead. I've always loved color and shapes and design, but never thought I had any talent. A few years ago I took two drawing classes and realized that I can LEARN. What a concept! I'd like to learn more and do more art in my spare time and on into retirement.

6) I am just learning to golf and am pretty bad. But, there is hope! We went out today with some friends who do not believe in keeping score. Now, that's my kind of golf!

7) Last summer my sister came to visit and taught me how to blog. She's The Old Bag, http://oldbag.blogspot.com/. It seemed fun. Later I found the Everyday Matters Group and have been having a blast with it. My office neighbor and I had been joking about being drones and pods in a big organization. I had used the pseudo-name Emma Pod for something as a joke and decided it would be a good blog identity. My real name is Mary.

Now, I have to tag 7 other folks, so here they are. You can let me know if you've already been hit:

Brenda at http://amberridgedesert.blogspot.com/
Teri at http://painteddaisies.blogspot.com/
Casey at http://caseytoussaint.wordpress.com/
Ronell at http://rnllvanwyk.blogspot.com/
laserone at http://pookieart.blogsome.com/
Lin at http://viewfromtheoak.blogspot.com/
Platitudinal at http://loocheeta.blogspot.com/

Emma Pod

Green Pots....

Here are a few more pots from my collection of Arts and Crafts/American Art Pottery. The left turquoise pot is a brush McCoy. It got it when Ross Perot was running for president and it's got ears that look like his, so it's my "Ross Perot pot". The front pot with pink flowers is a Roseville "Clematis". The taller green pot in the back has no marking and I'm not sure who made it. And the far right pot is a Roseville "Carnelian". It was an anniversary present.

EP

Saturday, May 05, 2007

EDM Challenge #117: Draw Something Round

Here is my something round for the Everyday Matters challenge of the week. It's one of my antique green pots that looks a little like a speckled bird's egg. It was harder to draw and paint than I expected. It has a round opening, a round bottom, a round body, and a round shadow.

My cold from last week is much better. I still have a bit of sinus trouble, but am getting back to normal. I didn't draw anything else all week and didn't even go to my exercise class. I just went to work and came home to sleep.

The Moody Blues are coming back to Portland this summer and we just got tickets for their July concert. I'm very excited about that! When we saw them in Las Vegas, we sat in the balcony - which is so far away.

Not much else is new here.....it's been cold and rainy all week.

EP