April07

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	Click Here To See Where Woody's Watercolors Are On Exhibit in 2008
Order Woody's Quality Lessons on CD	May 2008 Blog: I've been adding to this blog for over a year now. The subjects will vary with the changing interests of this old retired middle school art teacher. I hope you continue reading my blog and will send me any comments you have via e-mail to: woodyduncan@comcast.net if you want to inquire about me doing workshops for art teachers click here	Order Woody's Watercolors on Notecards
	Blossom in the Blossoms (5/14): As I shot pics of my poppies this morning, Blossom nosed around the flowers. She is turning into a better behaved dog every day. Tomorrow we will load her into the car so she can ride back to Kansas with us. I hope she remembers the triplets. She hasn't seen them since Christmas. Even with Blossom noseing around, I still managed to get several decent photos of my poppies to paint watercolors from. Smelling the Flowers
	On the Web (5/11): The New Mexico Watercolor Society (NMWS) is starting to post individual web pages for it's members. Our wonderful Web Mistress Mar Wagner, creates the pages. She does a fantastic job making us look good. Here is the link to the page she created for me. She has pages for other members at http://www.nmwatercolorsociety.org/Gallery.html Thank you Mar, we are blessed to have you. New Mexico Art Teachers: Recently, I updated the web site for the New Mexico Art Education Association (NMAE). I posted a letter from our president Ken Girdner, about our 2008 state conference, November 7th and 8th, at the conference center in beautiful Glorieta, New Mexico. We are requesting educators and artists to submit proposals for workshops and presentations for this conference. Click Here to download a presenters proposal form, or go to this page on the NMartED website. I've presented workshops at the last three NM conferences. The art teachers have been very receptive. Art teachers are always hungry for new ideas to stimulate their students with.	I'm glad my poppies decided to bloom before we leave for Kansas so I can enjoy them for a few days click on the poppies for a larger image
	Saturday (5/10): I handed out the awards last night, as president of the NMWS, at the opening of our Spring Show. As luck would have it - our juror Jane Hofstetter, picked paintings by my friends. It's great to see your friends get awards for their watercolors. Of course they deserved every award they received. Beautiful Music Too: Hector Pimentel played his beautiful music as artists and visitors enjoyed the watercolors on display. Our NMWS exhibitions are getting better every year. The exhibition continues until the end of may at the Hispanic Arts building at Expo New Mexico. I'll be sitting the show this Sunday morning.
Day 5	Last Day for Workshop (5/9): Before I get cleaned up for our opening tonight - I'm posting todays watercolor. It was successful, dramatic and a powerful statement. The story behind the image makes it such a powerful painting. This church was destroyed by the United States Army in 1848. It's remains are preserved as a memorial to those who died inside the church walls when the US army shelled the church. My First Poppie: I came home today to find my first poppie in bloom, and it's a big one too. Then on the morning of the 10th - I had two huge poppies in bloom. I'm sure this is an omen of a wonderful year of painting. click on poppies for a magnificent view	First Poppy
Day 4	Workshop Day Four (5/8): I painted from my heart today - even though it was abstract, it was still of those beautiful triplets. Today is also special because it's my sweethearts birthday - Happy Birthday Frani !! <<< morning demo Spring Show Opens Friday: Tomorrow night from 6 to 8 is the opening of the NMWS Spring Exhibition. It's in the Hispanic Arts Building at Expo New Mexico. It looks like a wonderful show and my last one as president of NMWS. Best of luck to you Mary.
Day 3	Workshop Day Three (5/7): This morning I had to miss the first half of my watercolor workshop to attend my class at UNM. Today I was scheduled to do an oral presentation on my final paper. This class, "The Art of Teaching in the Museum" has been a wonderful experience. When they offer it again - I will highly recommend it to my fellow docents. Below is a photo I took today of our workshop. This evening we are going to take our instructor, Jane Hofstetter, out to dinner.
Day Two	Workshop Day Two (5/6): We worked on watercolors today using a water soluble white called "Pro White". It can be lifted from the paper if you decide it's not working right. We are to work on design and color tomorrow. But, I'll miss the first half of the day because I have my class at UNM. Tomorrow I'm to do a 15 minute oral summary of my final paper in the course. NMWS Spring Show: Artists who were selected for our spring exhibition, dropped off their watercolors today. Our week long workshop is in the same building so I got a sneak preview of the show. The quality looks top notch and their is a lot of diversity in subject matter as well as approaches to watercolor. Our opening is this Friday evening. As I mentioned before - we had a great writeup in the Journal on Sunday.
Today's a Beginning	Watercolor Workshop (5/5): Today was the first day of Jane Hofstetter's watercolor workshop. She is an excellent instructors with sound ideas and lots of "rules" about how to create a great painting. Frani knows me and "rules" so she warned me to do it the instructors way - so I would learn something. My attempt is on the left. Today we did flowers - tomorrow it's waterfalls. No Longer President: Tonight I turned over the gavel to Mary. It was my last meeting as president of the NMWS. It's been a wonderful experience, bumps in the road and all. These watercolor types are great folks and very supportive. Now I hold the office of past president for one year. I'm there for advice and counsel or some such thing.	Jane Hofstetter's Demo
click on drawing for artist's web site	Drawing Class (5/4): Yesterday I completed the last of the three Saturday's of figure drawing class conducted by Donelli J DiMaria. It's been a very long time since I drew from a nude model. It was something I sorely needed. Dan is an excellent teacher. He basically uses the Riley Quick Draw method he learned years ago in New York. Now I just have to practice and apply it to my paintings. Dan has a few of his demos posted on You Tube if you are interested in viewing them. Front Nude Drawing Demo Rear Nude Drawing Demo Watercolor: Tomorrow, I begin a five day watercolor workshop with Jane Hofstetter. She is the juror for the NMWS Spring Exhibition which opens Friday night at Expo New Mexico. We got some great publicity in this mornings Albuquerque Journal with an article about the exhibition featuring an interview with Robert Gutchen. Bob is affectionately know, among his friends, as an excellent "butt" painter. You can click on the painting on the right to see an example of Bob's work. Frani and I are the proud owners of that painting.	Our Own Gutchen
	Blast from the Past (5/3): I received a wonderful e-mail from a student of mine from 1980. Thank you Jayana for the very kind words. I had sent her a few questions concerning museum trips we took when she was in my classes a Rosedale Middle School. I included her comments at the conclusion of the final paper I was writing for my class at UNM about my search into how to create a memorable “museum experience”. The course is called "The Art of Teaching in The Museum". My paper and an oral summary is due this Wednesday. Jayana was an eight grader in 1980. I remember she created a fantastic soft sculpture of a Japanese warrior. We were using pantyhose and pollyfill to create faces. I decided to push her class to create an entire body as well. I also assigned my students to watch the mini series “Shogun” that was on TV that fall. Jay’s soft sculpture went on to win acceptance in the Scholastic Art competition. Jay still lives Kansas. She has a grown daughter and is a proud grandmother as well. She found me on the web a few years back when she was doing a Google search for a friend we had in common, Matthew Monks. I had mentioned Matthew on my web site, so the search engines found my site. I quote her e-mail to me below: “I am proudly able and willing to answer these questions! Honestly, the classes I took from you had more impact on my life than any other since! Of course I use math and english, etc... everyday; however it was what I learned in art classes that shaped my point of view. In fact, I discussed right/left brain functions just today when I was speaking to a women's group! That was all you!” When Jay was in my classes, at Rosedale Middle School, I was using Dr. Betty Edwards methods to teach drawing. I also explained a lot about Right / Left brain research and how it related to art and creativity. I remember when Jay was in high school she came back and borrowed by notes for a report in a Biology class. She later told me that her teacher could not understand why she was learning about this in an art class. One of my questions to Jay was: What do you remember of any museum visits you took while at Rosedale ? Her reply is quoted below: “I remember the exhibit of Japanese pottery/clay pieces. The most fascinating being the miniature town all made from clay. I found it interesting how a media which comes from the earth (clay) and is used by other cultures to construct real dwellings was used as an artistic means to mimicked life. I could imagine people living in the town and conducting daily business! I also was in awe of the reconstructed temple!” Jay went on to say: “I also remember another visit where we walked through the museum and saw old world paintings on up to modern art. That is when I fell in love with Monet and Van Gogh! How up close it was a bunch of chaotic colors with seemingly no purpose but from a distance it was a captivating scene of people and landscapes. I remember thinking how it was like our lives; walking down the hallway at school it is just a bunch of kids, books, chatter, colors but that from a far it all had meaning and purpose you couldn't see because each of us was in the middle of all the chaos. That trip also opened my eyes to the variety of artistic forms. I remember seeing the large 20' x 20' blank canvas with a red dot on it right across from those real looking wax sunbathers and the wax guard standing near by. To me, that wasn't art it was replication. I didn't feel anything because of a red dot or a fat lady sunbathing.” Another question I posed was: Later in life, have memories of those visits come back to you ? If so, describe how or when this occurred. My student from the past replied: “Absolutely! I have raised my daughter with a trip to the museum being a cherished mom & daughter outing! I reflect on how my feeling for certain pieces has grown since first seeing it. or how my opinions have changed as I get older and my life experiences affect what I see in a painting or sculpture. I use artwork as metaphors when I do public speaking and often encourage business owners I do consulting for to include some more provocative or conversational pieces in the office. Why, because I believe art can motivate people and posters of eagles with inspirational words are trite and cliché!” Thank you, Jayana, for giving me a delightful and insightful way to conclude my search into how to create a memorable “museum experience”.
	Paper Finished (5/2): Whew !! - it's over at last. I'd rather be painting, and I will be soon. I printed out two copies of 30 page paper this morning. I turn the paper in Wednesday morning and do a short oral presentation about it then. The timing is good because next week is busy, busy busy. This Saturday I have my last "Riley Drawing" class. Then all next week, I'm taking Jane Hofstetters watercolor workshop. Monday night is the May meeting of the NMWS and on Tuesday we turn in paintings for our Spring show. Thursday, we go to the bank to update signatures for the new NMWS officers. Then Friday night we have the official opening of our Spring show. I'm holding on until May 15th - that's when we leave town for a couple of weeks heading back to Kansas. It will be good to see the triplets and not be concerned about what's happening back here. We requested advance voting ballots in case we don't make it back for the primary. My last class at UNM is on the 14th - so we head out at 2 AM the next morning. I'm taking the cell phone, but I think I'll leave it turned off most of the time.
	Typing Away (5/1): I've been neglecting my blog for a few days because I have a final paper due in my class at UNM. I'm taking a course called, "The Art of Teaching in The Museum." The class is being team taught by Sara Otto-Diniz and Beth Maloney. It fits in quite well with my docent duties at the Albuquerque museum. For someone, like me, who has earned his last 40 plus graduate credit hours dragging a brush across a sheet of arches watercolor paper - writing a 22 paper can be a real chore. But I'll get through it somehow. My paper isn't due till May 7th, but Saturday I have a figure drawing class and then next week I start a week long watercolor workshop. I'm about 2/3 done. Perhaps I'll complete my first draft today so I can get someone to proof it for me. It's so difficult to see your own errors since you mind reads what you meant to sat rather than what you really put down on paper. Proud Jayhawk - But Broke: This morning I got a request to donate money to the KU Alumni Fund with a great photo of our basketball team celebrating their fantastic win in the final four. I have to admit that it's a great way to advertise. Send Money - Support A Winner I'm not exactly broke, but I just can't spare funds for my beloved school. Perhaps those who went into law or medicine will pitch in for those of us who decided to become underpaid teachers. I must admit, it's a great photo and we Jayhawks have been waiting for 20 years for that title.



	let me know what you think woodyduncan@comcast.net