untitled by Aaron Valentin

This past Saturday, my friend Laurie Markiewicz co-produced the show Across the Board: Artists for Autism Awareness. Participating artists designed their own skateboards and created  incredible works of art available for sale at the Soapstone Gallery in New York City. A portion of the  proceeds from the sales went towards Autism Speaks, an organization that promotes advocacy and research towards treatments for Autism. The show was a huge success for Laurie, who’s son Jack was diagnosed with PDD-NOS(a non-specified type of autism). Since his diagnosis, Laurie has been a fierce advocate for educating the public about autism.

While many of the skateboards did sell, there are still some available for purchase with partial proceeds going to Autism Speaks. You can view all the available boards here and contact Laurie at laurie.markiewicz@gmail.com.

I am all html’ed out! After I got done setting up the online store, I figured, “Why stop there?” So I went ahead and re-did my portfolio site, too. I’ve been meaning to do it for a while ever since I go this here blog up and running. I wanted each site to be consistent in terms of using the logo and style, but still have it so that each page has some sort of individuality.

At any rate, I’m happy with the new layout and I hope you like it too. And now, it is high time I get my butt in the studio and start throwing down some paint!

I’m excited to announce that I finally have my new online store up and running through Big Cartel! I’m so geeked about this new site for it’s customizable format, including my very own domain. More importantly, it’ll be a place for people to get affordable prints to add a little color in their lives! So, please do stop by and make yourself at home at http://shop.jaimeetodd.com. I will be updating the store frequently with new pieces so if you’d like to stay in the loop, be sure to tune into my blog.

A very special thanks is to Corey Bryant, the talented designer behind the “Who is Jaimee Todd?” logo for my blog and online store. If you’d like to utilize Corey’s tremendous graphic design skills, you can email him at cbryantdesign@gmail.com.

Argh! This past weekend I went to Baltimore to attend my friend Pooja’s baby shower. As a gift, I did a painting especially for her soon-to-be-born daughter.  Unfortunately, in my haste and absent-mindedness, I forgot to actually photograph the it to share with you all. Well, actually, I did photograph the piece but with my camera phone to send to my friend. I could upload it here but it would look fuzzy and crappy and would not do it justice. But, have no fear, pictures are a-coming from the nursery itself. In the meantime, I will share with you a similar painting that a co-worker commissioned for her son’s birthday several months ago. As with Pooja’s daughter’s name, I incorporated the name into the actual painting itself, trying to make it subtly personalized without beating someone over the head with the name.  I love personalizing cards and paintings with people’s name, so if you’d like to see your name or a special someone’s done up all nice and artsy, please shoot me a line at jaimee@jaimeetodd.com or drop me a note via the Contact Box on my blog.

10-minute watercolor sketches by Jaimee Todd

Yesterday was my last class at the Art Students League. So soon, you ask? Yes, it was only a month-long class and while it was rather short-lived, I did learn quite a bit. For starters, I did learn a lot about figure painting, which was big for me since, as I stated in a previous post, it’s not exactly  my forte. I was planning on writing more about the class as it progressed but to be honest, there wasn’t a whole lot to update about. Every class was the same; you had a nude model come in and do a series of poses that we had to sketch in various time increments. Initially, we had to do four sketches of different poses; each pose lasting only five minutes. Then two sets of poses in 10 minutes each, two twenty-minute poses and then an hour-long pose. While it sounds repetitive, that’s pretty much the only way you get better at learning how to draw the human body and all of its nuances. I would have preferred some variation in subject matter and would have liked more instruction on technique but it seemed like it was one of those “to each his own” type of style.

In spite of this, it was nice just to be able to devote time out of my schedule to sit down and get lost in the process. I enjoyed challenging myself by accustoming to capturing the essence of forms of different shapes, sizes and ages. It was also great getting to see how other people worked and observe different styles and techniques. While many students were beginners, there were quite a few advanced students that brought a lot of innovative approaches to the human form. The interesting thing about art classes is the subjectivity of them; unless you’re really trying to get your proportions right and shading  (especially when drawing figure), there doesn’t seem to be a lot of room to say what looks “right” or “wrong”. In the case of this class, the instructor seemed to prefer really soft forms that require a lot of wet-on-wet work. I, on the other hand, have a penchant for using strong  sharp lines in my work, with a few exceptions. So whenever I threw in a bold line in my figure drawing, my instructor would fuss that it was so sharp, that “you could cut something with it. ” Gotcha.

Five-minute watercolor sketch by Jaimee Todd

Another interesting, and perhaps somewhat humorous, thing I noticed about the class were the personalities that populated it. If anyone suspected that artists have a diva-like streak to them, last night’s class would have definitely confirmed it. From the first day, I could see there were some older students who really like to engage in histronics, including one woman that tried to pick an argument with me because I accidentally moved her stuff to another table. This same woman seemed to grate the nerves of another watercolor diva in class last night because she was being “disruptive” by coming to class late and moving the still life of flowers. Ironically, the offended watercolor diva had a penchant for disrupting the class with her chronic complaining about the class conditions, the model, the planets falling out of alignment, etc. Some of the other students seemed pretty anti-social or very maybe just competitive whenever they caught you studying their work (which is pretty typical in every watercolor class I’ve taken. The idea is to learn from other, last I checked) because they would glare at you and quickly flip over their finished pieces so you couldn’t really see what they were doing. I usually found these types to be highly entertaining.

Anyway, I’m glad that I took the class and am looking forward to taking more in the future. I would recommend the Art Students League to anyone who is genuinely interested in honing their craft or just want to get their feet wet.

"Untitled", Nina Chanel Abney

I was pretty thrilled to see Essence post this to their site. While I am not a fan of every style represented in this slideshow, I’m happy to see that black female artists are getting some recognition for their contributions to the art world. You can see more by following this link.

The Blue Marvel by Jaimee Todd, watercolor,18x24 inches. Available for sale.

If you like my art, you can see more of it in person at Broadway Suites. Three of my larger scale watercolors are on display as part of the Color, No Apologies exhibition until September 27th at Broadway Suites at 192 Lexington Ave, New York City. The space is open to the public from 9-7 every Tuesday and by appointment Monday and Wednesdays through Friday. For more information about the exhibition or to schedule an appointment, please contact Jessica Marks at Broadway Suites at 212.802.1400.

So here is the first of many designs I will be working on for the line of greeting cards that I will be uploading to my Big Cartel site, which is currently under construction. I’ve been designing cards for people ever since I can remember (some people tell me they still have kept the ones I did for them many years ago) and decided to take it to the people, In the meantime,my first offering demonstrates my trademark style of incorporating lettering into my artwork and shows one of the many ways you can tell someone “Thanks”!

artwork by Jaimee Todd, Copyright 2010

photograph by Jaimee Todd

There’s nothing like having time away from work and painting with the windows open, the jazz from my Pandora radio station blowing  (for some really great songs, create the Esperanza Spalding station. Thanks Charles!) and just being to feel carefree. I’ve finally secured some time to work on some projects that I shall be sharing with you all very soon. I’ve hit such a groove that I just might have to play hooky from art class tonight!

photograph by Jaimee Todd

I love clouds! They bring out the wide-eyed kid in me, making me wish I could fly so I could reach out and touch them, especially those big cumulus ones like these guys here. I was on my way to work the other day when I spotted them hovering over the train tracks like big white pieces of cotton candy. I once tried painting a mural of them  with my sister as a “gift” to my mom. Um, they didn’t turn out so well, much to my mother’s disappointment, but it taught me an important lesson: you just can’t compete with Mother Nature.

Anyway, here are a few more clouds for your enjoyment!

photograph by Jaimee Todd

photograph by Jaimee Todd