Laraine Armenti

visual artist

Evolution

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When I was in high school I elected to take a class in isometric drafting, becoming the teacher's first female student in 1975. Learning technical drawing could have led to a summer internship in an engineering department at Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). Instead, despite parental protest, the summer assignment was awarded to a boy in my class because, the teacher said, "Boys will marry and … [Read more...]

Tempus Fugit

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This month marks ten years since I stopped working as a graphic designer for international meetings to devote more time to painting. My hectic pace of life, of client deadlines and to-do lists, kept interrupting painting. The change led to forks in myriad unmarked roads. I had wanted to discover what might be possible, to cultivate my potential, and I was motivated to make the change by nearing … [Read more...]

Danforth Drawing Classes

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Drawing classes begin on Tuesday, April 7 at Danforth Museum School in Framingham, Mass. Emphasis on seeing shapes of light and dark within a compositional frame is presented. Learn to observe the direction of light on objects in space. Warm-up with gestural thumbnail sketches from observation and from memory. Translate complex forms into two-dimensional compositions using line, value, edge and … [Read more...]

Drawing Class Demo

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This week students worked on drawing heads in the observational drawing class I teach at Danforth Museum School in Framingham. We have progressed from drawing individual objects like the tea pot to complex forms such as the plaster bust of a man. The outlined features on the balloon help students see the difference between drawing flat, isolated features on a sphere in comparison to representing … [Read more...]

Visual Poems

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Some graduate school assignments are given to expand use of materials, to produce unexpected results, and to reveal untapped aspects of ourselves. In one assignment, we were asked to select two poems and make a drawing of each. One of the poems I chose was "Daddy" by Sylvia Plath. I stitched together two pieces of fabric along the center line, and stretched it by wetting and stapling it to the … [Read more...]

Three Trees — Final

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I returned to this painting mid-month, mainly to work on the lower third. I limited the use of white in color mixes, instead using nickel yellow, which turned out to be just as chalky. I like the way the space in this painting forms a box, top and bottom, front to back. ABOVE: Three Trees, oil on canvas, 16 x 20 inches (41 x 64 cm), 7/18/12 … [Read more...]