EH Sherman 10/8/18 EH Sherman 10/8/18

The Scrap Box; my childhood paradise, my artist playground

The Scrap Box has been a staple in Ann Arbor since the early 80s, and was my absolute favorite place to go as a kid. Whenever there was a special event to celebrate, or I had a few extra bucks from chores - this is where I begged my parents to take me.

The Scrap Box is is a donation-based creative reuse PARADISE, filled with all sorts of odds and ends, like thin-chopped white tubing, fantastic spongy shapes, nylon in every color of the rainbow, green nettings, yarns, papers, pieces of wood…. I couldn’t attempt to name everything they have! It’s all been donated by area businesses/individuals and provides kids/artists/educators/explorers with access to neat materials for very cost.

As a child I would make 3D paintings, sculptures and scenes out of these bits and pieces - now as a working artist it is my haven for still life supplies. Especially when I’m teaching a class or breaking down my process, having access to all this weird stuff is amazing.

And if I’m setting up a still life for just me, I really appreciate having a cache of items that I don’t necessarily understand (or know what they are!) to scatter on a table. It keeps me from assigning meaning to their placement and sketch.

I usually combine the Scrapbox treasures with a few vases/cups I picked up at our thrift store add some crumpled paper, then get to work.

This is one of my favorite exercises to start the day with, or if I’m feeling just a little stuck - making some interesting (not necessarily pretty!) arrangements and sketching from these tends to yield some results that beg other questions, that warrant more sketching and exploration.

On Saturday I’ll be taking these supplies with me up to the MSU Broad Art Lab - where I’ll be setting up a few of these still lifes and teaching a little workshop on my contour drawing process. There’s still a few spaces left if you are in the area!

It was so wonderful to walk into the Scrap Box this week and gather a few extra items for Saturday’s class. This is the first I’ve been in since we moved back and I already have plans for more of the materials I saw there. Walking through the barrels in the bulk room gave me the same feeling as way back when; (except that now I am tall enough to actually see into the barrels!) endless inspiration, limitless possibility and knowing that I’m about to need A LOT more glue.

EH Sherman 10/4/18 EH Sherman 10/4/18

Art Studio Renovation (part 1 of what seems like a million...)

I work out a studio in my home. Most of the time I love it; there’s no commute, no dress code, no weather to handle, just a groggy walk across the living room floor to the kitchen for coffee and a slow shuffle into the welcoming walls of my studio.

But it’s not always ideal.

In-home studios come with their own unique challenges and complications, and as I’m currently displaced from mine — I thought I might share a little bit about the current project.

We’re in the process of fixing/replacing the caulked and painted shut windows in the house, and the next batch up is my studio.

I’ve spent the last few days clearing everything out of the room to allow the work to begin, while simultaneously wrecking the living room with an influx of supplies.

Clean and empty studio! (yes, that’s PLYWOOD standing in for a storm.)

I know the windows don’t look too bad in the nice bright photo, so here’s a close-up; they definitely are in need of some love.

As an artist that relies so heavily on light and patterns in the light I’m so excited to get these restored. To have the broken glass replaced, the paint spattered panes cleaned, the mechanisms fixed so I can actually open them. The few we’ve already done look so incredibly clear, I can’t wait to see how much light will fill my workspace.

But for now, this means meetings are conducted somewhere else quiet (in the car!) and I’ll be painting outside until the carpenters finish their work.

In the end I know the hassle will be worth it.

Renovation in the studio - means meetings are held in the car!

EH Sherman 9/5/18 EH Sherman 9/5/18

From the Beach - Kona

I had a little bit of extra time on my hands in Kona today so I packed up a few supplies and walked down the street about 20 minutes to find this little beach.

2 gessoed canvases just waiting for the right beach <3

This is the first time I’ve unrolled these canvases and I’m anxious to see how they hold up.

Here I’m using my watercolor pastels as I only brought carry-on bags - so no liquid paint. The watercolor pastels are great for this case as I can use them like a colored pencil and then apply water - turning them into nice pigmented washes.

And here is where I’ll stop for today - we’ve got dinner plans later so I want to make sure I’m back at the hotel and showered after this incredibly hot painting session!

EH Sherman 9/3/18 EH Sherman 9/3/18

What's in My Art Bag; Hawaii Edition

Tomorrow we head out for a little Hawaiian adventure. We’ll stay on the big island this time, rent a car and just sort of explore and venture out as the winds take us.

I’ve packed a slightly condensed bag because of this - mobility will be key and I don’t want to drag behind because I’ve overloaded my bag with supplies I won’t use.

This is the paired down collection;

1.) Plastic tube.

Surfaces;

2.) Pre-stretched and gessoed canvases.

3.) Strathmore 9 x 12 Acrylic pad

4.) Fredrix 9 x 12 Watercolor Canvas

5.) Strathmore 9 x 12 Toned Mixed Media pad

6.) Moleskine Watercolor sketchbook

7.) Canson lay-flat sketchbook

Media;

8.) Fredricks and Mae circle watercolor palette

9.) Golden hi-flo in White

10.) Winsor and Newton Indigo

11.) Winsor and Newton Burnt Sienna

12.) Winsor and Newton sketching pencils

13.) Derwent graphitone watersoluble pencil

14.) Caran d’Ache watercolor pastels

Brushes;

15.) Rubber wedges

16.) Long-handled hake

17.) Niji waterbrush

And - it all fits!

So we’re off - I’ll check back in when we’re in Hawaii!

(Orders placed between today and the 13th won’t ship until the 15th, just FYI)

EH Sherman 7/23/18 EH Sherman 7/23/18

A Look into my Composition Book

The other day I posted a look into my composition sketchbook on instagram and received a few questions on the process, materials and ideas behind keeping this collection. Rather than write out paragraphs to respond there, I thought I’d take some time to explain it’s purpose a bit here.

This book cover has seen a lot of paint/chalk/pencil.

The Book:

I’m a big fan of keeping multiple sketchbooks at one time - each with a very clear and defined purpose. Color tests, travel sketches, morning sketches, still life contours, and a composition book. Keeping things separated like this allows me to reference sketches and images faster and it just appeals to the side of my personality that likes to have a space for everything, and everything in it's space.

For the Composition book I use a large sketchbook from Canson. This book serves two methods of organizing compositions;

1.) Collecting sketches from other books/cut paintings with particular compositions that I feel could use more exploration and gluing them in.

2.) Creating purely compositional study sketches on the pages.

By adhering to these two tenants I end up with a book of painting ideas divorced from color (mostly) and subject - but focused on rhythm, movement and motion.

The Why:

I use these pages to explore ideas for paintings in a pre-sketch phase. If I’ve got an idea that I want to work with, but it lacks form I open up this book and search through the studies until something clicks. If nothing does, I make however many more studies are necessary.

The Result:

Often times at first glance the final painting doesn’t look very similar to the composition work. With so many layers and lines making up the final piece the initial blocking out can be hard to spot - but if you look close enough most of the time it becomes apparent. (I say most of the time, as there are definitely cases when the final work morphs into something totally diffferent!)

Looking back on years of composition studies has been pretty enlightening as to the evolution of my process. The forms I work with are so dependent on location and my surroundings that’s it’s pretty easy to pinpoint when I moved from Miami, when I spent time in Ireland, Thailand and Japan, when we were snowed in last year and couldn’t leave for 4 days… at this point it functions almost as a journal with no words.