June 24, 2009 by sandihester
This was my third week of teaching beginner watercolor classes and I’m enjoying it WAY more than I thought I would – part of that is because my students are GREAT!!! They are a lot of fun and I can’t believe how fast they are picking up the techniques – it’s a sharp group. I’m going to be sad when our 6 weeks together is over (class, we hit our halfway point today – can you believe that?!). We aren’t meeting next week because of the 4th of July holiday. And I didn’t post last week because my pictures turned out bad. Last week I taught them different ways to apply the paint and we painted flowers using those techniques. Today I showed them how to make rick darks and taught them how to paint different types of trees. Let me just say for the record – trees are hard!!! Did I hear some “amens” from my students? I thought they did a great job though. I took some ‘action’ shots today of my students working away – they were in deep concentration. You can also see some of their work from today. I have told them each week when they are in class to just practice the techniques I’m teaching – don’t try to paint a master piece – work more like a sketch journal. Great job class! You guys are growing on me – it’s going to be hard to let you guys go!
I have been doing a little painting here and there (maybe I’ll get around to posting some of those things soon) but we’ve mainly been working like crazy to get the house ready to put on the market. Everything should be ready by next week. I do have some thoughts that have been rolling around in my head and heart lately that I want to get down on ‘paper’ for you guys – hopefully soon!
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June 11, 2009 by sandihester
Yesterday was the first day for my beginner watercolor class and you would never know these guys were beginners! I’m not kidding – I was SO impressed – this is going to be a fun 6 weeks with these guys. For week one I talked to them about supplies, color theory, mixing paints, and color charts. Learning water/paint ratio and how paints get along with each other is super important in watercolor painting, so I taught my students how to do color charts so they could start to learn what the paints do, how much water you need in your brush, and what paints play well with others and which ones like to be left alone. Below is a picture of my class (minus one who had to slip out early) and some of their practice color charts. Next time I’ll take a better picture of their work – the room was too dark where I took this picture - the picture really doesn’t do justice to their work (sorry guys – I’ll do better next time). Once they’ve completed their color charts and made them into journals they’ll look something like the last picture. I’m hoping to do a post once a week of my class and their progress.
Posted in Classes/Workshops, Sketch book | 4 Comments »
June 10, 2009 by sandihester
Our final day went by WAY too fast! I hated to leave all the new friends I had made and I was really enjoying painting all day – the inspiration was flowing like crazy and I just didn’t want to leave! I didn’t know what we were going to do on the last day – I just thought we would continue painting from photographs, so I was in for a big surprise when Charles set up a beautiful still life to paint from. Watching him paint shadows was great and I learned a lot from this demonstration. After he painted we broke for lunch and then they did 3 different tables of still life set ups for us to paint from. I SOOOO wanted to paint one of them since I was so inspired by what Charles painted, but I had to work on my black and white photograph painting because I really needed Charles to help me.
The picture I brought to paint from is one of my all time favorite pictures of my grandmother – she’s the one on the end (right side). I love the ladies hair do’s and their dresses are so much fun in this photograph- they were a lot of fun to paint too – since I didn’t know what color their dresses were it was a lot of fun to make that up! I finally finished the painting after working on it several more days after I got home. I’m fairly pleased with it – there’s lots that could be improved on it – but I like how the colors turned out – it feels like a bright fun cheerful painting. I still have a long way to go with figure painting but I definitely saw some improvement from day one. I’m going to try my best to keep practicing and seeing if I can keep improving.
Posted in Classes/Workshops, Trips | 7 Comments »
June 7, 2009 by sandihester
Day three and four of our workshop we were suppose to bring old black and white photographs to paint from. Most of us, including Charles, worked from the same photo two days because the paintings took us more time. Charles took two different old photos and combined them into one painting. The first photo he worked from was of a couple in a great old car and the second photo was from a local log cabin store. I worked 4 plus days on my painting from an old photo – I had to finish it once I got home because it took so long. I’ll show you the photo I used and tell you who it’s of and show you the finished painting in the next post, but you can see the beginning of it below of the three ladies. I was exhausted by the end of the third day so I did a quick landscape painting – I needed a break from figure painting and wanted to go to something I was a little more comfortable with. I’ve also included a picture of our second critique – you can see some of my other fellow painter’s work – it was a very talented group. You can click on any of the pictures to see them larger.
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June 4, 2009 by sandihester
I could barely eat breakfast on day two because day one was so good I was just way too excited and couldn’t wait to get to the workshop. We had two African American models come in on our second day. The morning model was the niece of our afternoon model (the lady I painted). In the first picture you can see Charles in action and our lovely model in the back. I’ve included a close-up of what Charles was working on – the way he brings out the form in the face is just amazing. The third picture is his finished painting. The last two pictures are of my painting in progress (you can see our model in the back) and my finished painting. Charles makes figure painting look SO easy, but it is incredibly hard! I think it’s the most difficult thing to paint. At the end of day two we had our first critique. We put all our paintings up on the wall and Charles went one by one and told us what we did good and where we could improve. He was very gracious and critiques are one of my favorite things because you learn so much. For the last picture I’ve added some of the class pictures from the first critique – I couldn’t get them all in one picture so this is just part of them.
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May 30, 2009 by sandihester
Grady and I just got back from the most wonderful week! I took my first watercolor workshop. I started at the top by taking a workshop with the world renowned Charles Reid – he is one of my all time favorite watercolor artists and he’s one of the masters. It just doesn’t get any better! It truly was a once in a lifetime opportunity because Charles is in his 70’s and I’m not sure how much longer he’ll be doing workshops. There were 20 of us in the workshop, it was for 5 days, from 9 am to 4 pm, and it exceeded all my expectations! So, I’m going to do a post on each of the 5 days I was there. You’ll definitely see some improvement in my painting as the week progresses – it’s quite obvious – or at least I hope it is! We stayed at a great bed & breakfast that was on top of a mountain – we had GREAT views. They fix a homemade breakfast each morning that was delicious and homemade dessert every night for the guests. I’m serious when I said this was a GREAT trip!
The first two days we had a live model come in for us to paint. Charles painted Jenny in the morning of the first day, then we had lunch, and then a new model came in for us to paint in the afternoon. The first picture is the contour drawing Charles did of Jenny. The second picture is Charles showing us how he mixes his paint on the palette. You can see the model in the background – I loved her cute glasses.
This is the beautiful finished piece that Charles did. (Don’t forget you can click on any picture to see it larger.)
I can’t believe I forgot to take a picture of my model the first day – I was quite overwhelmed by the whole day and didn’t take many pictures – but here’s my finished painting – trust me – they get better as the week goes on 
!
Posted in Classes/Workshops, Trips | 2 Comments »
May 11, 2009 by sandihester
For those of you who like to get out and walk or run I wanted to let you know about something exciting coming up this month – the 3rd Annual Hendersonville Classic. This event supports the Cumberland Crisis Pregnancy Center which we are HUGE fans of. It’s a great ministry that is making a big difference in our community and for the Kingdom! Grady and I are very involved in this ministry – it’s near and dear to our hearts. You can find out all the information about the race here. They commission a local artist each year to do the art work that will go on the t-shirts and on the posters for the sponsors. They asked me to do it this year!!! Below is the picture that will be on the shirts . If you’ve participated in this run/race in the past leave a comment about your experience in the race.
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May 4, 2009 by sandihester
He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. Matthew 5:45
It was like a monsoon this weekend! Grady was on a fishing trip all weekend so I was home alone during the soggy weekend. I did a little painting here and there in between working on the house. I did another painting for Different Strokes (a blog that posts one picture and artists paint their version of that photo) this weekend. It seemed appropriate to do a wet scene with all the rain this weekend. I did two versions and posted the first one on the site. Grady had a great time on his fishing trip. I was so thankful they didn’t get all the rain we did – they had great fishing weather. I know this is a painting blog but I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to brag on my husband – check out one of the whopper fish he caught .
Posted in Other, Scripture, Sketch book | 13 Comments »
April 30, 2009 by sandihester
A better question is Who is your house built on? Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. Matthew 7:24-25
I actually painted this one a while back. I had this image in my mind right before we went on a trip and I had to get it on paper. I felt like I spewed it out of my brush one night as I was packing. I wish I had taken a little more time with it, but it was one of those that I had to get down on paper. I’ve just now decided to bring it out of the archives because I have houses on my mind a lot lately. We’ve been looking at houses for 3 1/2 years now – we take forever to find what we’re looking for – and it’s kind of a hobby for us. We’ve been wanting to get Grady closer to work (Green Hills). It’s been taking us a while to get the house ready to put on the market, but we’re hoping to have it on the market in the next month or so. We really want to downsize, minimize, and declutter everything we have. Life is too short and Christ too important to be caught up in things. I could easily sell everything in a yard sale tomorrow and go on the mission field… hopefully one day. It will have to be on the Lord’s timing – His calling – His plans. For now our calling, as far as missions, is short term trips and supporting other missionaries on the field. I’ll keep you updated on the house stuff – let me know if you’re interested in buying a house !
Posted in Scripture | 4 Comments »
April 18, 2009 by sandihester
Whhhhooooos signed up for the summer painting classes?
Well, I only left the house a couple times this week because I’ve been working non-stop on a project/paper for my hermeneutics class in seminary. Man alive I will be really glad when I have it completed – writing papers is NOT my thing. BOTH sides of my brain got a work out this week – one side more than the other – the side that doesn’t get used much . I would crank away at my paper for 2-3 hours and then go take a break and work on one of these cute little owls (and another project that I’ll tell you about in another post). It was a nice balance all week because painting really gave the other side of my brain a refreshing break.
So, you may be wondering what a class on hermeneutics is – I was wondering the same thing before I took the class. It’s a big word, but a simple concept. Hermeneutics is simply the practice or discipline of interpreting the bible. It’s basically studying the bible with the bible. One of the best books you could ever read to understand how to read the bible is “A Basic Guide to Interpreting the Bible” by Robert Stein. It’s a book on hermeneutics and it’s on “pea brain” (that just means even if you have a brain the size of a pea like I do you can understand it) level – seriously – trust me on this one and it will transform the way you read and understand the bible.
You can read about the best hermeneutics that has ever been done right here (you can read the whole story in Mark 24:13-27)… “Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus…they were talking with each other about everything that had happened. As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus Himself came up and walked along with them; but they were kept from recognizing Him. And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures conserning Himself.” How amazing would that have been??? Jesus started at the beginning of the Bible and went through the whole thing explaining how it ALL was telling about Him! It’s the best example of hermeneutics that’s ever been done!
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April 9, 2009 by sandihester
This is something I never thought I would be doing, but this summer I’ll be teaching beginner watercolor painting classes at the Hendersonville Arts Council! I’m really excited about this new opportunity the Lord has opened up. Here’s the scoop on the classes…
The class will meet for six weeks (see registration form for dates and times) and will be for beginners. In this class you will learn the basic skills of watercolor painting: materials, how to mix colors that are fresh and not muddy, how to make beautiful darks and neutrals, different ways of applying the paint, contour drawing, and much more. The focus of the class will be painting in a loose style. In the class you will learn how to let the brush and the paint do most of the work and how to suggest things instead of state every detail. You’ll learn how to paint flowers, trees, skies, landscapes, buildings, people and much more in a loose painterly style.
If you’re interested in the class here’s the registration form and supply list. Just print it and mail in the registration form to the Hendersonville Arts Council with the payment. You can also get the registration form and supply list from the HAC website.
Below is a sketch I did in my small (5″ x 3″) sketch journal of an old house.
Posted in Classes/Workshops | 4 Comments »
March 29, 2009 by sandihester
…the two shall become one… Ephesians 5:31
I’ve been working on a wedding gift all this week. It’s for a dear friend’s daughter. I tried some new things out on this art piece. I was inspired by another artist I admire who is a bookbinder - she does amazing things with paper. For this wedding gift I used the brides’ invitations for the focus of the art piece. I made a library card pocket out of her shower invitation and I made the “library card” out of her wedding invitation – both are usally things a bride saves because they are special, so I thought I would use them in a way she could always display and be reminded of that day. I added some texture by doing some hand sewing on both pieces. I also got brave and used my vintage hand-carved letterpress letters (you can see the beautiful wooden letters in the picture) to stamp their name onto the mat and then I wrote one of my favorite marriage scriptures across their name. I am really pleased with how it turned out and will be trying this again. Speaking of weddings, Grady and I celebrated 11 years of marriage this weekend! Praise the Lord!!!
Posted in Cards, Gifts, Scripture | 10 Comments »
March 19, 2009 by sandihester
I have hidden Your Word in my heart that I might not sin against You. Psalm 119:11
Memorizing scripture has been part of my daily quiet time for years, but I have always struggled with retaining those scriptures long term. For those of you who know my brain is the size of a pea I’m sure that doesn’t surprise you . I’ve had people tell me that you have to go back and review the scriptures you’ve memorized, but that always seemed so daunting and quite overwhelming. A friend of mine shared a GREAT scripture memory method that I’ve been doing for several months now that I LOVE and it works!!! For the last several months I’ve just had this written down on a sticky note in my bible (so don’t think you have to have a nice organized colorful card like mine – I’ve been using a sticky note for quite some time) and have been going back through old scriptures I’d memorized and adding some new ones. It’s a really easy method so I hope I don’t complicate it or make it sound hard or confusing.
As you can see on the card at the top I have what’s labeled my “daily” scripture. Let me share with you what I do with that daily scripture before I explain the review part of this method. On the first day of my new verse(s) I read it out loud 10 times. If I have more than one verse in that chunk of scripture I just work on one verse at a time in the chunk – sometimes I even break-up the verse if it’s really long. So after I read it out loud 10 times I cover it up and try to say it out loud 10 times with out looking at it – of course you’ll most likely have to cheat a few times and look at it but that’s part of the process. After I’ve read it 10 times and said it 10 times without looking at it I’m done for the day – it’s that easy.
The next day I try to say it 10 times without looking at it. I do this for a couple of days until I have it pretty good and then I move on to the next verse of the chunk of scripture and read it 10 times and say it 10 times. Each day you say out loud without looking the part you have completely memorized before you go on to your new part.
Once you’re completely done with that chunk or single verse and you know you know it well, you move it down to reviewing it three times a week. If you’re using a sticky note just erase it from your ”daily” slot and move it under your three times a week slot. So once I have 1 Cor. 1:18-31 memorized I’ll move it down to the section marked “M W F” so I can review it three times a week. Once I have a new chunk of scripture to go there I move the “M W F” verse to two times a week “T H” (that stands for Tuesday and Thursday) or “Sat/Sun”. Then you move those verses to reviewing them one day a week and then to three times a month and so on.
It may sound like a lot but it really only takes me a few minutes each morning. You will be surprised how quick it is. So let me give you an example of what I worked on this morning. I worked on my daily scripture (I Cor 1:18-31), then I reviewed my scripture under “T H” since it is Thursday (Proverbs 10:19), and then I reviewed my scripture under “Thursday” (Romans 1:18-35), and lastly if I had something under the 19th for the month (which I don’t at the moment) I would have reviewed that. I have been amazed at how well this method works. I encourage you to try it – or at least some scripture memory method. It’s one of the most important things we can do in the day – hide His Word in our hearts. We live in a day that our Bibles are at our finger tips, but I don’t think it will always be like that in our country. However, our Bible can easily be at our finger tips but never make it into our hearts where it needs to be.
Posted in Scripture, Scripture Memorization | 6 Comments »
February 22, 2009 by sandihester
One of the things we love most about our church is the worship. David Moffitt has been our worship pastor for the last 10 years. He and his wife, Susan, are precious to us. They have blessed us tremendously with their worship and their lives. To honor and bless them at their 10 year anniversary our church contacted me about doing a piece of art for them as a gift. YIKES!!! PRESSURE!!!! That’s what would normally be going through my head… but before the church contacted me the Lord had already laid something on my heart to do for them as a gift of appreciation to them – so I already knew exactly (well sort of – at least had a concept in my head) what I was going to do for them. I knew I wanted to do something with an old hymn from some of the old hymn books I’ve collected at antique stores. This one was from a hymn book from 1908. A friend of theirs gave me some suggestions of some hymns that would be special to them and I decided on “All Hail the Power of Jesus Name”. It was a hymn they had in their wedding and I think it speaks of their heart to call all to look to Jesus because He is Lord of all.
Susan was at my house a while back and fell in love with some old frames I had, so I used one of those to frame their art in. I knew if nothing else they would like the frame . I wanted to do something that highlighted the hymn and something that was simple and beautiful. I had the idea of doing a layered thing – I wanted the hymn to “float” and be the highlight, but I wanted the background to be simple but pretty at the same time. It took me a while to get it the way I liked it, but I picked some pages from the bible (from the Psalms of course since David is a worship pastor) and I did some layering. I wanted to soften the background and came up with using… are you ready for this… dryer sheets to layer on top of the bible pages. I dyed the drier sheets in tea to color them and they worked perfectly – it gave the piece the soft look I was going for and some texture. As much as I wanted the hymn to be the focus, I wanted the focus of the hymn (Jesus) to be the main focus. So I painted that as the highlight of the piece.
I pray it will be a blessing to them, because they have blessed us and our church tremendously over the last 10+ years. We love you guys!!!!!!! As always, you can click on the picture to see it close-up.
Posted in Gifts, Scripture | 23 Comments »
