Artist Spotlight: Nancy Cook - A Sense of Scale

What happens when you take the sketch of something you've drawn... something nice and small and detailed... and you blow it up REALLY BIG!?

Burr Oak sketch by Nancy Cook

Maple Seed Design by Nancy Cook

Scale is a basic principle of design and composition. It always relates to the size of the work of art in comparison to the size of us as human beings. Taking something tiny and often overlooked and spending the time necessary to draw it in great detail gives an artist a deep appreciation for the beauty of the form. I'm constantly telling my students that sketching is more about seeing than anything else. 

How do you convey that sense of beauty to your viewer - the wonder and awe of the complexity of nature? One way is to create your work of art on a scale much, much larger than the object you are rendering. Nancy Cook takes a seed, a leaf, a branch - and blows it up larger than life with beautiful details in her textile work. She gives us an easy window into the understanding of nature's beauty.

Burr Oak by Nancy Cook

I was very fortunate to see an exhibit of Nancy Cook's work at the North Carolina Botanical Gardens in Chapel Hill this week. (Unfortunately it comes down next Tuesday the 28th.) It's worth seeing - and then wandering the beautiful landscape - sketchbook in hand.

Echos of Tulip's Summer by Nancy Cook

So as you sketch, as you observe, keep in mind a sense of scale. Might your sketch be a study for a final work of art? What scale would you like to work with? What will your final product be?

Sketch-a-Day 10

The element of water - remnants left on land.
I have a collection of shells in a bowl on my dining room table.

Sketch-a-Day 8

The element of water.

The element of air.

The element of fire.

It's hot and humid here at the pool.

Sketch-a-Day 7

The element of air - a seeming defiance of gravity.

I want to fly too.

The Sketchbook Challenge - July's Theme

Fun Stuff over at the Sketchbook Challenge this month!

sketch by Lyric Kinard

It's my turn to choose the theme and I think it's a good one. Of course there haven't been any bad ones.

You can read more about it here - but the short version is that I'm going to focus on the word

ELEMENT

So many possiblities.

Of course if you've read my book, or know me and my relentless soapbox (YOU can learn to be an artist!) you know one of the things I'll be thinking about are the elements of art.

I thought I'd do something fun and post a sketch a day this month. I'm going to take five minutes each day and look at the world around me. Find interest, find beauty. Think about it and absorb it as my pencil follows the path of my eye. One little visual thought each day. 

You don't have to find anything grand. A waste bin can have beautiful lines. 

LINE is one of the basic ELEMENTS of the visual language.

What is a line?

Faces on Friday and Creative Students!

I spent time this week with the Peninsula Piecemakers Quilt Guild. These pictures were taken during our class "The Elements of Art." After a long day of play and design each student searched out an object and brought it back to the table. Each was then given a basic design element (texture, shape, line, color value) to concentrate on while they quickly interpreted their tableau. I love seeing the creativity and playfulness that expressed itself in each piece.

 tulips, basket, fly swatter

 branches, dandelions, sweet gum balls

tulips, cookie 

pot, glue, bowl of water 

floating leaf, plant

 tongs, water bottle, magnolia pods

These exercises were seriously "out of the box" for these lovely quilters and I am so impressed with how they willingly opened up and gave it their best. Their work was playful, lovely, creative, and wonderful.

This is why I love teaching!

And because I promised myself I would.... here are the week's faces.

Almost all of these are very quickly done.