Visual Art League of Lewisville

March 6, 2006

1:11 am

Doris Cain, Photographer Art Talk, April 4th

Doris began her professional career in 1980 as an assistant producer of television commercials in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area where her career grew over the next 17 years. By 1985 she was a full time producer of major film, video, and television shows and owner/operator of three companies: The Edit Suite, a full service video editing and 3-D graphic facility; Tele-Visions Corporation, a video production studio, location facility and service company; and Dynamite Films, a high end film production company.

Some of her more distinguished jobs included producing the Dallas Cowboys coaches and owners shows, producing the number one hit music video “Ice Ice Baby”, producing films for Disney’s Epcot theme park and countless award winning commercials, corporate videos, and documentaries for fortune 500 companies including Kodak, Motorola, Apple Computer, Sun Microsystems, Adobe, Sony, IBM, and Frito Lay.
She was producing a piece for Kodak in the mid 90’s and the film called for still photographs. After hiring and rejecting the work of several professional photographers Kodak expressed their disappointment so Doris showed them some of her pictures and that began a long time relationship with Kodak. Today when you visit Kodak Imagination pavilion at Epcot you’ll see her work proudly on display. Doris’s photographic work has since shown up in countless productions, brochures, video covers etc.
She began shooting still photographs as a hobby in the mid 80s. At first her passion was shooting 3-D and she quickly mastered the artistry of shooting in the 3-D environment but the limited viewing opportunities left her with very few options to display her work so she transitioned to a 35mm camera.

After recently moving back to Texas from San Francisco, Doris decided to end her producing career and focus on her passion, photography. Doris jumped in with both feet. She’s currently a member of NAPP, National Association of Photoshop Professionals, and CLAG, Canyon Lake Art Guild. She is also an active member of Professional Photographers Association, Texas Professional Photographers Association and her local San Antonio Professional Photographers Guild. She’s accomplished her professional photographers certification requirements and working on earning credits on her Masters of Photography Certification. She’s great at shooting all types of photography, but she loves shooting children and families in their natural environments. She loves shooting with a photojournalistic style where she can capture the real character of her subjects. She utilizes her previous video production skills and creates “Day in the Life” slide shows.

Doris also has a passion for art photography. She has an extensive background with black and white photography and printing. Ten years ago she changed her format to digital and hasn’t looked back. She continues to study digital darkroom techniques using Photoshop to give her images a unique look. She is constantly stretching her abilities and trying new things. Her latest endeavor is infrared art photography and her pictures are already drawing great reviews. Doris will show you some of these images and share some of her secrets that can take a good photograph and make it great. Feel free to bring your digital camera, she will show you some camera tricks to improve your images.

VAL would like to thank our demonstrator from last month, Dave Maxwell

Dave spent his early years in Illinois and Fort Worth, graduating from Arlington Heights High School in 1952. Upon graduation he attended TCU for two years, and worked as a Cabinet Maker for a period of time after that. He then completed a degree in Industrial Arts from North Texas State in 1958.

He was employed by a Major Oil Company as a draftsman for ten years, then for the next 25 he held various assignments in their Purchasing Department, living in various West Texas and New Mexico locations. After living in Houston for many years, he retired in 1993.Travel became a primary activity until his wife, Mary, decided that it was time to slow the pace a bit. She and an artist friend convinced him to take some free watercolor lessons, which he reluctantly agreed to. He soon became fascinated by its challenge, and began a serious study in 1999 through professional lessons and various workshops sponsored by the Watercolor Art Society-Houston. During that time, he began entering local shows, and had a satisfying degree of success in winning ribbons and various awards. He and Mary moved to Fort Worth in 2002.

A life-long love of automobiles provides the subject matter for many of his paintings. His teacher in Houston, Gerry Finch, recommended that he follow his automotive love for subject matter, even though she is a painter of still lifes and florals. He loves developing mechanical shapes and reflected surfaces on paper, through employing smooth flowing washes contrasted with the crisp line work that reflections require. About the time he moved to Fort Worth he began having success in National Shows, and gained Signature Membership in the Watercolor Art Society-Houston in 2004. Additionally he began study with Mary Kay Krell, and has attended various area workshops sponsored by the Southwestern Watercolor Society and the Society of Watercolor Artists.

During 2005, his efforts were recognized through the attainment of Signature Membership status in the Southwestern Watercolor Society as well as the Society of Watercolor Artists in Fort Worth. One of his works was accepted in the recent VAST Member Show, and he has a painting included in the VAST 2006 Calendar. Additionally in 2006 he has had paintings jurored in to the Spring Shows of the Visual Art Society of Texas, the Houston International, the Society of Watercolor Artists International, and the Artists Showplace Jurored Exhibition in Dallas.

November 1, 2004 — “It’s All About the Drawing”

Like most artists, I have worked in just about every medium known to man. Oils, watercolor, Prismacolor pencils, acrylics, china painting; I’ve done it all. I’ve been a potter and done clay sculpture, but drawing has become my passion and pastels have become my medium of choice. I found that once you learn the “particulars” of each medium, all things go back to the basics…drawing.

It’s been very interesting to teach drawing and pastel classes and see people’s apprehension and collective fear of drawing. I’ve had beginning students come in to class with oil paints, brushes and canvases and tell me they want to paint a picture of wolves or of a family member. When I tell them that you have to be able to draw those wolves on the canvas, because there is no wolf paint that magically makes them appear on the canvas- they tell me they want to paint, not draw.

It’s natural that all beginners can’t wait to get to color. A color portrait is very impressive but without a good drawing underneath, all the color in the world will not produce a good painting. This brings me back to the point of the discussion in November…it is all about the drawing.

If you love art as much as I do, you want to get better with each picture, and the best way to do that is taking the time to learn to draw.

There is a method to drawing. It’s not based on luck or God-given talent Once you get past the individual nuances of each unique medium, a good painting always comes back to composition, perspective, and all the basic rules of drawing. A painting based on tracing or copying a picture does not have the “life” that a drawing done “from scratch” has.

I have been drawing and painting basically for a lifetime; professionally for the past twenty-two years. I have been teaching for the last few years because I believe in Winston Churchill’s quote: “What you get is a living, what you give is a life.” It has been a joy to share a God-given talent with others and watch them progress, grow, develop and do things they didn’t believe they could do when they started.

It’s not like me to talk about myself, but for the sake of introduction, let me say that I don’t just enjoy art, I am passionate about art. I tell people who ask that I love to do two things; I love spending time with my wife of twenty years, Karen, and I love to be in front of my easel. They go hand in hand because without the support of Karen, I would not be a professional artist. I cannot tell you how much that support has meant to me in my life.

Through the years, I have done the Fort Worth Main Street Arts Festival, the Grapevine Grapefest Show for 19 years, Texas State Arts Festival in Kerrville, Scarborough Faire, Texas Renaissance Festival, Salado Art Fair, and shows all over the Southwest. I have done commissioned work for the State Fair of Texas, painted murals in a number of restaurants, and done hundreds of commissioned portraits. I have worked all over the world, having had a studio several years ago at the West End Marketplace in Dallas and selling my artwork to visitors from China, England, Spain, and Italy. Until recently, I had my work on display in the Visual Expressions Gallery in Cedar Hill, TX. My work can be viewed on my website at www.tomnorrisart.com.

I hope you will join me in the passion at my demonstration November 1. We’ll discuss drawing and pastel techniques, and I’ll be happy to answer any questions you may have on what makes a person crazy enough to be a professional artist!

A native Texan, Jo Williams spent her childhood growing up in rural North Texas among the woods and prairies. “Although I love to travel and paint the more exotic scenery of mountains, desert, and ocean, I still love to paint the gentle scenery of my native area.” Williams has painted a gamut of subjects including florals, figures, abstracts, and landscapes. Williams has lived in Denton, Texas for thirty years where she is very active in the arts community. She has a degree in art education from the University of North Texas and has taught public school art. She has been teaching privately for about twenty-five years and currently teaches classes at the Center for the Visual Arts in Denton. She also taught community education classes for the University of North Texas for many years and teaches workshops throughout Texas, New Mexico, and Oklahoma. She is teaching a workshop in Oaxaca, Mexico this month. In addition to teaching, she gives demonstrations for area art organizations and judges regional art exhibits.

Williams has been a signature member of Southwestern Watercolor Society since 1992 and a signature member of Artists and Craftsman Association since 1987. She is also a member of the Kingston National Registry of Who’s Who in America. Her work has been exhibited in numerous regional and national juried exhibitions. She has won a number of awards including Best of Show in the Texas Neighbors Art Competition in Irving and the North Texas Area Art League Annual Juried Exhibition 2000 in Denton. She has had several solo exhibitions including invitational exhibits at Culver-Stockton College in Canton, Missouri, the Center for the Visual Arts, Denton, Texas, Texas Woman’s University, and the University of North Texas Student Union Building.

Her work is included in many private collections and public collections including Raytheon, Ben E. Keith Co., Denton Publishing Company, City of Denton, and the Greater Denton Arts Council. Williams’ paintings may be viewed on the web — the web site might be down already. For the November 2 meeting, Williams will bring a small printing press and will be demonstrating monotypes using a press. There may be an opportunity for a few of us to print something in conjunction with the demonstration, depending on our time constraints. Vote early! And, be sure to attend this meeting with Jo Williams at 7pm, at the VAL Art Center.

Insets – Watercolors by Jo Williams:

1. Afternoon at\_Cimarron II, 15 x 22 (top)
2. Among the Cattails, 22 x 30
3. Caddo Reflections, 15 x 22
4. Caddo Enchancement, 22 x 30

A presentation by JoAnn Vincent on the works of the Russian Impressionist, Sergei Bongart. We invite you to join us for this presentation on October 5 at 7 p.m. Sergei Bongart is considered one of the most influential artists and teachers of the 20th century. His legendary painting workshops were attended by the elite of artists currently working in America today. His work has the emotional quality of Russian Realism tempered by the light and brilliance of Impressionism. He has been described as “flamboyant, colorful, an ardent spirit, a poet, now sensual, now spiritual.” His work is in prominent museums, and has received many awards, including a Golf Medal from the national Cowboy Hall of Fame.

Sergei Bongart (1918-1985) was born in the Ukraine, and studied art in his native city of Kiev, as well as in Prague, Vienna and Munich. In 1948, he emigrated to the U. S. and spent much time painting in California. In addition to a slide presentation, a photo album of his work will be shown so everyone will leave feeling like they know the artist. Also, information is available about the new release of a book written about the artist by Mary Balcomb, for those who are interested in learning more. It has gotten rave reviews.

JoAnn Vincent, VAL member will be giving the presentation on Sergei Bongart. JoAnn has been interested in art all of her life it seems. She started working with oils in high school and began selling paintings in 1975. JoAnn attended 3 colleges for art classes, including the Valdes School of Art in Santa Fe and has attended several week-long workshops at such places as the Hill Country Arts Foundation. She has studied with internationally known artists Kevin McPherson and Joe Anna Arnett, also Ann Templeton, Lee Rommel, and several others. JoAnn’s introduction to Sergei Bongart came from a friend and artist, Marilyn Yates, in Santa Fe. She studied with artist and teacher, Van Waldron, in California for 7 yrs. Van was slated to become a teacher in Sergei’s schools of art in Idaho and Santa Monica, CA.

He took lots and lots of slides and photos of Sergei’s work to study his methods. He sent some of them to Marilyn and she in turn sent me (duplicates). JoAnn remembers, “One day I said to Marilyn, I think I have enough information to do a demo on Sergei.” and her friend sent her even more information plus two tapes on him. “Now I could hear him speak with his Russian accent and felt like I knew him better. He was a great teacher and a fascinating man and I feel he deserves to be remembered. It’s been an intriguing walk through his life with all of this information on him. I hope our members and friends will enjoy the journey from Russia to America as much as I have.”

Featured on the top-left are two of Sergei Bongart’s works: “Girl with Red Shawl” and “In the Galleries”. The image on the top is a detail of “Russian Shawls”.