Paint Brushes...not guns...creation::destruction

Paintbrush(Labor Series)   watercolor   8.5 x 14

Last evening we watched a program dealing with gun control that featured a cream-cheesy family from Utah doing target practice with their young children....all the while claiming that gun-owners are misunderstood.  The final shot of their family was at the dinner table eating venison that had been procured by the hunter-father.  Quite frankly, I have to question parents who choose target-practice as a shared activity.  I have to wonder just how much violence could be stopped if these same parents immersed their children in acts of creation, rather than destruction....music, theatre, visual arts, reading.  Creativity saves lives.

You can't talk peace and have a gun......Francis Magalona

West meets East...calligraphy...

Last evening at our local art club we were treated to a wonderful presentation on Chinese painting presented by Mina Huang and Manna Huang.  Mina provided a power point presentation on the evolution of the characters showing different styles and varieties common during particular dynasties.  The characters we see today have been around for 1700 years!  Then Manna, who is classically trained, demonstrated the actual painting process.  For me, two amazing things stood out:  first of all, the economy of stroke-making (every stroke counts...and none will be covered over) and secondly, the ease and care taken to mix the ink/water solution properly and load the brush.  It was simply superb!  And each of these artists has carried over their talents to accommodate our Western way of painting.

Many years ago, I practiced using the brush this way to form our western alphabet.  I can remember putting my young boys into the tub to play, while I sat nearby practicing the push and pull of the brush to and from the paper surface.

Let's hear it for stroke-making!

Quiet...a watercolor of pinecones

Quiet Conversation   Watercolor   9 x 13

is a wonderful way to spend time...with my dear ones and by myself.  Quiet allows the creative brain to work its wonders.  Quiet provides focus and a sense of calm.  The dormancy during the dark months morphs into the energy of what-is-to-be.  While I do welcome a festivus or two, and certainly relish the bright lights, I absolutely relish the quiet season and its opportunity for self-definition. 

Heavy Frost.. recording seasonal changes

Heavy Frost   watercolor   3.5 x 17

marks a passage for those of us who live in a geographical area marked by seasonal changes.  Rhythms change and, along with them, changes in what we wear, what we eat and how we spend our time.  This very small watercolor records that change from my view of our back yard where I drink my morning java.  Endings.  Beginnings.  Preparations for the December holidays....plans to spend precious time with family members who visit from afar; lots of baking; lots of plans; and the bringing in of greens to satisfy our needs for it when the environment is lain dormant for a while.  Small painting.  Big idea.

Live..a musician in mixed media

Live   Mixed/Paper   19.5 x 24

is the second result from an experiment using different materials and a very poorly-lit photograph of one of my favorite musicians taken during a live concert.  I was looking for a vague overall-feel with a great merging and graying of shapes.  (The first one didn't work out at all).  I used vine charcoal, water and a bit of watercolor on a large sheet of heavy watercolor paper.  I worked watercolor-style, from light to dark and tried to stay light-handed.  The shapes were difficult to understand in the darkness of the reference, so I had the job of interpretation.  I ended up with a very hazy gray picture with great mood but no punch.  Something needed to be done............the magenta gouache was added flatly at the end.

"Live" is a difficult and exciting way to perform...and to paint as well.

Two-Point Perspective...a drawing of a rocking chair

Rocking Chair...a sketch

I believe that a fair understanding of two-point perspective is necessary in order for drawings and paintings to be convincing.  Sure, we can copy photographs to the "T", but, sooner or later, errors will result, usually after that fixable point is reached, and the work will be forever marred.  (been there...done that) I did lead a complete class on two-point perspective a few years back at the art center, but the participants did their work with drudgery.  However, we all ended up with a better understanding of the rules.  To be honest, it was dry, dry, dry.  Our current drawing class tackled a chair.  The chair on the podium when we arrived was a 1950's style chair with simple planes and cushions.  But the class decided they would like to try this rocker which, to them, was far more charming.  Gads!  And much more difficult!  By visualizing each side of the chair as a flat plane, and by continual measuring and eyeballing plumb lines, a fair understanding is possible.  Even the slats that made up the back were affected by this convergence....similar to railroad tracks and fences that wind away from the viewer.  To top it off, the chair was on a high stand, which made the bottom of the chair visible.  Add to that the softening of edges for the three-dimensional result to be plausible.  Trust me, it was quite a work-out!

I guarantee that chairs will never look the same again!

A Freath of Bresh Air...drawing a portrait from life...Tanner Dionne

Tanner...a sketch

is how I would describe our young model Tanner.  (I had a friend in high school who would interchange consonants on word phrases....it was playful and fun....a sort of word game....after all....who doesn't love flutter-bies?) Tanner posed for our drawing class.  An interesting-looking free spirited art student, a senior in high school.  After the sessions we proceeded to comment on our work for the evening.  Tanner's comments were so fresh and elegant that I handed over the critique to him.  He was astute, complementary, and had that beginner's zen eye.  A marvelous experience.  Thank you, Tanner.

Simple...yet complex...

Simple Chair with Detail   oil/canvas   60 x 20 x 1.5

is how I would describe this chair that I love so much.  It was purchased many years ago (actually another as well) at an antiques store in Ravenna.  Who knows why something catches one's eye and becomes the object of affection?  It has so many of the qualities that I enjoy:  layered and chippy paint, a simple design and complex floral patterns decoupaged on top.  Attempts to "antique" it are apparent, yet actually fall short these days, as age and wear have actually "antiqued" it.  It is rarely used to sit on.  More like to stand on to water plants and to reach top-shelf items.  Maybe to install a new curtain rod.  At any rate, it fits into my love of the polar opposites:  simple...yet complex.  It really is more valuable than this tribute.  It delights my eye.

Yellow Rising...combining realistic painting with patterning

Yellow Rising   watercolor   27.5 x 15

is the painting that resulted from our watercolor class challenge of architectural detail.  I do love houses...especially old ones.  In this case, I chose a view of a home just up the street, featuring only the part of that home that I enjoyed the most...the windows.  Painting objects in their entirety along with their surrounds (i.e. gardens, walkways, backgrounds) is not nearly as appealing to me.  For me, more forms in the work diminish the power of each and every form.  This approach reflects my current aesthetic of simplicity.  On a whim, I chose to embellish the work with with a detail from a salvaged piece that hangs in our home with, I believe, a carving that would have appeared in a home of about the same age.  I began with a sketch that guided the movement around the page and followed it closely during the painting process.  I am satisfied....

....for the moment.

A Rare Treat...enjoying the music of The Speedbumps...Cellist

Cellist   pastel/paper   20.5 x 13

is, for me, witnessing, experiencing, seeing and listening to something completely novel...a journey into the new and different.  We become so accustomed to the usual these days where our brains are constantly bombarded with stimulation.  It takes a lot to stand out.  We have always enjoyed the music of the Speedbumps, a local band with a new sound.  The symphony, not so much.  Although symphonic selections are quite lovely, I always re-experience childhood piano lessons...the same...again and again.  Hybrids have captured my interest...in vehicles, foods, in visual art and in music.  Combining the staid with the new provides a certain-something that captures my interest.  Mixed media.  Cafe au lait.  A partially destroyed painting providing a new path to resolution.  And so it was when the Speedbumps joined forces with the Canton Symphony this past Friday evening.  We were stimulated, excited, blown away.  A Prius of an experience.

Line:Mass...a self-portrait

The Devil in Disguise

There are really two distinct approaches to drawing:  line and mass, and I believe that, for each of us, one excites more than the other.  Line involves line-making, all kinds, in order to build the surfaces and to define the subject.  Lines can be overlaid; hatched and cross-hatched.  Line drawings can run the gamut from simple to complex.  Lines are strong and resilient. Lines are produced from the the drawing tool, the pencil, from its stylus end.  Mass, on the other hand, results from often using the sides of the tool, with lots of mushing around.  Blending stumps are used, as are erasers.  The end result is, in my opinion, softer and more painterly.  I am definitely a mass-person.  However, as in most aspects of my life, I am a hybrid.  I like to use the power of the line to add a bit of punch (I like to think of it as punctuation) to a softer mass drawing.

The Devil in Disguise was drawn while looking in a mirror.  I am very satisfied in its ability to convey what I wanted:  that the mask is indeed separate from the head and that is presence has squished my eyes into an uncomfortable position.  I am also satisfied with the mass and mark-making, a good combination, I think, of the two approaches.

Blue Pumpkin... celebrating the unusual

Blue Pumpkin with Japanese Lanterns   oil/canvas  20 x 16 x 1.5

reveals my fascination with the unusual, the different.  Sure, I like orange pumpkins.  Who doesn't?  But a blue pumpkin challenges our "pumpkin notion" and, perhaps, in this color shift, enables us to see this grand harbinger of autumn in a new way.  Paring the heaviness of the gourd with the light, papery Japanese lanterns and the berries was a good thing, I think.  This year my husband brought home a white pumpkin for our buffet.  Different is good.  Different excites.

Mini Pumpkins...observing the to's and fro's of light

were the subject of our very first drawing class.  They provide drawing material before the class survey is taken whereupon we decide which direction our class will take for the next 10 weeks.  These small gourds are greatly segmented and lightly textured, providing a tool to study the light and shadow that defines form, the rise and fall of light that creates a powerful 3-dimensional drawing.  Granted, the most valuable light for the artist, and the form, comes from a single light source at either 10:00 or 2:00 in relation to the object.  This positioning sets the scene for the most favorable pattern of light/shadow for description.  In this case, the art room lighting comes from directly above, from the ceiling, where there there are banks of fluorescent lighting shining down from above.  Such is the case in most classrooms and art centers.  We use what we have.  We then understand that the lightest lights will be on the tops of all of the forms...and, likewise, the darkest darks on the bottoms.  The biggest challenge is trying to rid ourselves of the simplistic pumpkin drawing that our six-year-old brains have memorized, where the indentations become much too solid, and shapes much too rigid.  We have to be able to "feel" the shapes, and "feel" the individual segments.  And yet, these very segments must become supporting actors to the grand gesture of the gourd itself.  Tall order.  Simple Object.  The simple mini pumpkin provides a most complex lesson for those who wish to commune with it.

By the way, the class voted on studying the human figure for the majority of class time.  Hopefully, the pumpkin lesson will translate well.

Stem to Stem...painting a group gesture of pumpkins

Stem to Stem   oil/canvas   20 x 10 x 1.5

is the result of a visit to a local farm....Dussel's...that really does it up for Halloween.  Pumpkins!  I love all-things-pumpkin...bread, cookies, truffles and pie.  Oh, yes, also the ale.  I love their look, their shape and their thick skin.  But I especially love them for their role as a harbinger to my favorite season.

"Stem to Stem" can be seen in person at Hudson Fine Art and Framing in picturesque Hudson, Ohio.

Seedless...mixing it up

Seedless   Watercolor/Mixed on paper   7 x 10

is my response to our first project in watercolor class.  That first week presents time limitations due to our discussions of materials and goals, so I usually bring some sort of subject along (usually some kind of produce) which gets our brushes wet, our minds realigned and our preferences stated.  One of our quests is self-definition which allows us to think about just which design principles provide us with a thrill.  Each artist is thrilled in his or her own way.  By prioritizing those principles a bit, we are more clearly able to focus on the kind of work we choose to do, the language we wish to speak, the ways in which our paintings become our own.  A unique translation, so to speak.  My own thrills involve a bit of "messing up" and some layering that allows for both transparency and opacity to work their magic.   After painting quite a while, making some of the individual grapes both solid and well-defined, I turned to printers ink which was rolled onto a plate and pressed onto the background.  Ah, yes.  It's me.

Organic Curves...sketches of my feline friend Sophia

are everywhere!  Such is nature.  There are no straight lines in the human body.  The only straight lines describe the man-made.  The yin and the yang.  In calligraphy, the S-curve is one of the most difficult to master, it seems to me, as it involves a release of control.  On our recent trip to San Francisco, we apartment-sat our son's place.  Two amazing felines filled our days with delight and warmth.  Sophia is a lap cat to the max.  On two separate occasions I studied her form...the first a circular sleeping pose and the second a study of the way the hair grew on her haunches.  Muscles, fur, the soft pads on the paws....all delightfully organic.  I became totally absorbed in the drawing of each of these small sketches....each took about an hour.

Two hours well spent.

Reunion...inspired by vintage photos

Reunion   oil on canvas   40 x 30 x .5

is my entry in The Akron Art Prize competition.  As artists, we are quite familiar with competitive exhibition, along with its inherent subjectivity.  While I love to have my work included in any exhibition, and certainly do enjoy receiving a nod from the juror, I am in complete agreement with Robert Genn when he says:

One's art needs to be personally elevated and seen as its own reward.

Competitiveness seems to be flourishing in our current culture with "VOTE FOR ME" television shows and best-of-lists that pepper every community from burgers to spas.  The last time I tried to fill one out, I had so little knowledge of most of the businesses that my vote was not eligible.  We prefer the simpler life of cooking and spa-ing(yeah, right) at home.  This voting rage appears to be a boon for all venues, however, as the participation of the public seems to multiply both enthusiasm and involvement.  "The Voice" has been an amplifier for the music industry.  OK.  Good.  Great.
My own problem stems from the "VOTE FOR ME"-thing that is so very foreign and repellent to my being.  My mother had to push me out of the door to sell Girl Scout Cookies.  And I guarantee that my parents didn't sell any in my support.  I have even received "VOTE FOR ME" emails from other artists who have neglected to check their e-mailing lists for other participating artists which seems a bit insensitive.  Quite frankly, I am a bit like Harry Chapin's Mr. Tanner.....who did not know how well he sang...it just made him whole.

So....vote for me...or not....as I have quite happy to be among the 135 entries in this exhibit!

Meet the Watermelons...some vintage watermelon lovers

                                                                                        

Madame Watermelon   oil on canvas   24 x 8 x 1.5

                     

Monsieur Watermelon   oil on canvas   24 x 8 x 1.5

The Crayola Girls..jazzing up some vintage photos

The Crayola Girls   oil/canvas   40 x 30 x 1.25

A year ago, six months ago even, I would never have guessed I would be using cad yellow deep as a major color shape in a painting.  But...I do pay attention to what catches my eye visually, those little glances that give me a minor thrill.  And, in this case, it was a magazine cover that sparked the excitement.  Originally I had planned to give each of the skirts a different patterned treatment.  But the simplicity of the skirt forms won me over and I decided to wait a while on that decision.  Another prospect was to paint a dark horizontal behind the shoulder blades in order to bring up the hands resting on the middle girl's shoulders.  That, too, was considered and sent to the possibilities file.  A month later, I was still happy with the simplicity of the work.  As every artist knows, changing just one thing in a work sets up a domino effect of changes that must be made in order to make the work consistent, appropriate and balanced.  And so, this is my final answer.  "The Crayola Girls" can be seen at Hudson Fine Art and Framing.   

P.S. My Grandma Daisy is the sister on the right.

The Drawing of the 10,000 Things...small drawing of a crushed Coke can

Coke can sketch

class ended last week.  Our goal was simple:  to draw as many small objects as possible.  And, by doing that, to be able to transfer our lessons learned to the understanding of drawing other things....or anything at all.  The problems we faced were:

* drawing things within transparent packaging or glass, and the resultant distortions

* considering 2 point perspective and the importance of eye level

* the importance of drawing what we see versus what we "think" we see....a carryover from our   L-brained " 6-year-old way of knowing" which is often in error

* holding off on the drawing of detail in order to first consider larger forms

* how to best represent various materials and their inherent qualities:  cloth (light vs. heavy); straw, plastic, iron, glass, cotton, etc.

* gestures...even toothbrushes have them

* forms spiraling and forms symmetrical

* line versus mass

* surface variation and texture

* and ellipses, ellipses, ellipses

The small slide show features the three favorite drawings by each artist.  I think we did a wonderful job!

Rockamelon....summer delight

Rockamelon   oil on canvas   8 x 16 x 1.5

Summer's lease hath all too short a date.

                                                                                             William Shakespeare

  
Aficionados of August revel in relinquishment.  When it's one hundred degrees in the shade, it's too hot to be anything but receptive and reflective.  Let a seasonally sanctioned sojourn of slow joys refill the authentic reservoir of creative energy.  This month on the Simple Abundance path we commit to discovering, acknowledging, appreciating, owning, and honoring our authentic gifts, transforming no only our own lives, but the lives of those we love.

                                                                                                        Sara Ban Breathnach

                                                                                                        Simple Abundance

Watermelons are fun.  They have fun colors, fun textures and funny shapes.  Biting into an ice cold slice is definitely one of my summer pleasures.  "Rockamelon" is my tribute to this simple, yet luxurious, fruit.

Sara Ban Breathnach's Simple Abundance A Daybook of Comfort and Joy is a constant source of reference for me.  It's simple message of spirituality has gotten me through the worst of times.  And it's always there on the shelf during the best of times.

Picket Fence...the American Dream

Picket Fence   oil/canvas   40 x 30 x .75

is a notion that has been around a long while...the desire to own a safe and happy place of one's own...a place to be and a place for family.  The woman in this painting is my maternal great-great-grandmother Elizabeth Pitchford Black Kannard.  The reference photo shows her in front of a log cabin home with, yes indeed, a picket fence out front.  The children in the photo are not relatives....they are her children with her second husband.  My great-great-grandfather (her first husband) Adam Black did not return from the Civil War. She was pregnant when he went off to war.  The picket fence dream hasn't changed much.  The notion of what constitutes that dream has changed drastically however.  The average American home was 983 square feet in 1950, the year of my birth.  In 2004, that average had climbed to 2,349 square feet, an increase of 140%.  Since then we have seen the advent of garage mahals, Hummer houses, starter castles and McMansions.  It appears that we have become greedier and greedier, moving from a "being" mode to a "having" mode.  Even Don Draper in the popular series "Madmen" cannot understand his wife's serious emotional problems since he has provided her and their children with just about everything a person could want.  Being.  Having.  A continuum along which we must all declare a point.  Erich Fromm's book The Essential Fromm:  Life Between Having and Being is a good place to start.

Hydrangea Bloom...the first fresh stroke

Hydrangea Bloom   oil/wood panel   9 x 9 x 1

I love the blooms that spring from hydrangea  plants!  This was my first time painting on a gessoed wood panel and found it to be much like painting with watercolor on hot press paper.  Strokes are much more hard-edged...crisper...not bad...not good...just different.  I had a difficult time finding a place to put the bloom for painting.  I settled on putting it in a water glass right beside the painting on the easel stand.  The first session revealed lots of negative space where the blooms had not yet reached maturity.  The following day the blooms had opened further...much more beautiful...but lacking the artistic aesthetic of having the background show through those spaces.  I chose to keep painting from my day #1 memory.  My goal was to load up the brush to mimic the direction and stroke of each petal and allowed myself very little diddling around.  For me, for flowers, the first fresh stroke is the best.  Ah....experience.

I am not a painter of flowers...but....

Knock Out   oil/canvas   12 x 9 x 1.5

every summer I manage to complete a couple of florals.  I don't believe that any subject matter is quite as complex...they teach the artist about convex/concave; slight variations on the warm/cool temperature gauge; and prioritization supreme.  One of the reasons why florals do not call to me is indeed those very complex forms....with that kind of detail, things must be rendered pretty true-to-life in order to be understandable.  Painting them is an exercise that stretches me and takes me out of my comfort zone.  My preference for larger simpler forms allows for a more creative and expressive use of paint.  OK.  My own like-to-dislike scale of bouquets  would be:  random bouquet without container laying on a surface; followed by monochromatic simple blooms in a clear simple vase.  The scenarios continue downhill from here:  multi-colored bouquets; patterned vases that demand attention; and classical bouquets that appear to have been sprayed with hair spray.  That being said, this bouquet of knockout roses caught my eye.  Knockouts are a recent addition to the rose family....they are easy to grow, disease and deer resistant; heat tolerant; and have a generous bloom cycle.  AND THEY HAVE SIMPLE BLOOMS.

"Knockout" was painted a couple of weeks ago, after my exposure to these glorious blooms.  Will I grow them?  Probably not.  Will I paint them?  Just did.

Flowers are cheerful.  That plop of color would be welcome on any wall.

Reunions...

Reunion   oil/canvas   40 x 30 x .5

are abundant this hot time of year.  Every year.  Every other.  Every five.  My friend's annual reunion is called the "Am Slam Jam" stemming from the Ammerman family name.  Our own, which is less frequent, has become "Hutch Fest".  A few months ago, I found some older family photos...the one that inspired this painting.  All of the people in this photo have passed, but the similarities in their facial structures and their personalities urged me onwards.  I have been searching for so long so find a way to create a universal human experience without pinpointing a particular face, a particular place in time.  Without, I might add, the homogenization that sometimes makes a work just too generic....like the sweet little girls or the angel faces that become the greeting card generic.  I found such similarities between this reunion of yesteryear and the photos that we have taken at our own festivities...the alpha male, the retiring and overdressed female, those who "jump right in", and those on the fringes.  Different photo.  Same scenario.  Everyone has an Uncle Henry.

For this group gesture, my goal was to reduce the importance of each face, while, enhancing the importance of the group gesture....its flow, its animation , its negative spaces.

Roller Coasters are no longer constructed of wood.  High "divies" have been removed due to liability.  But there is always an Uncle Henry.

Gesture...

Brooklyn Beat   Watercolor/Mixed on Paper   20.5 x 28

spins my fan.  It is really the invisible line that defines the energy of the figure's position, its weight.  Gesture is often based on an S-curve, an organic line that leaves and returns, a staple of calligraphy.  Group gestures use this line as well.  Individual gesture takes a back seat to the gesture of the group.  Last evening on "So You Think You Can Dance", there was a lovely bit of choreography done by a former winner of the show that was performed by the top 10 females which described going into the light.  It truly was one of the most beautiful dances I have ever seen.  The group of dancers moved as one, as an amoeba, to and fro, up and down, sideways and back.  I was moved and inspired.  The group gesture in "Brooklyn Beat" was a slight diagonal, with each percussionist in a backwards tilt, supporting the weight of the drums and cymbals.  This work was executed with a very large brush in watercolor and gouache.  The drums are basically the white of the paper showing through with a light glaze of Chinese White over top to soften the look.  I wanted to recreate this wonderful experience and to hear...hear...hear...the beat...beat...beat.

Then it follows that the windows are the soul of the home

Fenetre   oil/canvas board   8 x 8
It has been said the eyes are the windows of the soul.  Attributed perhaps to Shakespeare or Leonardo.


The eye is the window of the soul, the mouth the door. The intellect, the will, are seen in the eye; the emotions, sensibilities, and affections, in the mouth. The animals look for man's intentions right into his eyes. Even a rat, when you hunt him and bring him to bay, looks you in the eye. Hiram Powers, American sculptor (1805 - 1873)


The window is the twixt-tween between the interior and the exterior, the entrance or the exit.  The yin and the yang.  We are either outside looking in, or inside looking out.  Simple yet profound.  While wandering on the grounds of the John Brown home in Hudson, I came upon this small window in one of the out buildings.  The lace curtain told me a bit about the owner.  The window itself reflected the warm green of the surrounds.  The shutters hung imperfectly.  This simple image is very beautiful to me.  Stream of consciousness might have something to do with it as I have spent several summer weekends re-painting the shutters of our own 150-year-old dwelling.  Those same shutters.  Constructed from wood.  Hand-doweled together.  Layers of paint telling the story of many updates.  Genius in fact.  As I scrape and paint, I think about how long it took just to make one shutter.  Patience.  Endurance.  Part of the Past yet living in the present.  So many stories.  It was my own story, I think, that connected me to this one.

Plein Air!...Tannery...John Brown's home in Hudson, Ohio

Tannery   oil/canvas   14 x 11 x .5

This past weekend I painted en plein air on sites participating in The Hudson Home and Garden Tour sponsored by Hudson Fine Art and Framing.  This is a daunting task for me, a studio painter by choice, especially when joined with such fellow artists as:  Mina Huang, Chuck Kovacic, Andrea Orr, Peter Brent, Mitzi Lai, Sarah Greer, Carolyn Lewis, Judy Gaiser and Adam Clague.  The weather cooperated.  This year's tour featured the historical home of abolitionist John Brown who was born and lived in Hudson for much of his life.  Although the original log cabin home is no longer there, the current century home, rolling acreage and lush gardens provided much for the artist's eye.  My usual process, which centers on layering, and the create/destroy mode of working definitely had to be revamped for this outing.

"Tannery" was painted on site at the John Brown home.  This painting, and many many others, are currently on exhibit and for sale at the gallery.  Check it out.  You might even find some small bugs or bits of grass in the paint....all for the same low price.

Secrets...from a garden statue

Secrets   Watercolor/Mixed   17.5 x 12.5

The subject of our last watercolor class of the year was architectural detail.  There were stained glass window, archway and garden post paintings.  As this has been a particularly busy time for me, I elected to search my photo archives....and chose a photo taken of this cement garden sculpture that I found on the grounds of an antique shop in Ravenna.  This lovely maiden was found lying down on a dolly.  I began by painting what I saw...the curves of the torso, the hand-carved clumps of hair and the motionless eyes.  A woman in stone.  Silent.  Wow.  My mind wandered to where this maiden had been, where she had been perched over time, and to the her future.  My only directive to myself was "pocked"...a surface characteristic that was, I deemed, essential to the story.  I was in luck.  This scrap of watercolor paper had been soaked and re-soaked...scrubbed and re-scrubbed.  In fact, as I soon discovered, the sizing was gone and pocking occurred each time the brush hit the surface.  Oh, the thrill!  It needed more.  Gouache and slight pastel strokes were added.  The calligraphy was added with watercolor pencil and with line direction in mind.  The small heart above the breast is applied gold leaf.  Silent as she was, she revealed her secrets.  I am pleased.

Secrets...we all have them.

Goal Setting...

Cellist   Pastel   20.5 x 13

is a good idea, I think.  There are so many things to think about when painting and drawing...too many things.  By focusing on one or two elements, I believe that we can feel success more readily, as well as expand our visual repertoires of problem-solving.  Pushing the envelope, so to speak.  For our last group model session before the summer break, I chose to come armed with a minimum of supplies....a pastel stick in inky blue, a wide flat watercolor brush, a water container, and a slice of watercolor paper.  I worked back and forth between drawing with the pastel stick and softening with water....a way of destroying, of dissolving a bit of the less-important.  I had a wonderful time.  The largest hurdle, I found, was the complete intensity of pastel as a medium.  It is the purest medium and, as a result, darks were achieved much more quickly than I am used to in either watercolor or oil.  Savoring the whites was more difficult.  I guess I am used to a slower build-up.  But the whole purpose of the challenge is to keep myself fresh by switching up some of the variables.

I was satisfied with the result and the experience took me out of my comfort zone.  What could be better....inky blue + musician?  Nothing.

The ebb and flow...

The Piper   oil/canvas   30 x 24

Painting ebbs and flows.  Good fortune ebbs and flows.  Life ebbs and flows.  So does community.  I have been blessed to live in a visually appealing area.  Many of my paintings are the result of what I see around me.  Such is the case with The Piper.  Diane and Harry have lived up the street from me for years.  Our children attended school at about the same time.  And we commonly share a love for century homes and their resultant quirks.  Theirs is a lovely yellow Victorian at the center of town.  Ours is a gray Greek Revival farmhouse further down the road.  A couple of weeks ago I noticed a "for sale" sign in their yard which both concerned me and piqued my interest.  On my daily exercise round yesterday, I stopped by while a moving van was loading up.  They are moving to Florida, a small community with a Scottish name.....so appropriate.  Diane is one of the most positive persons I have ever met.  After a bout with polio at age 6, she feels that the rest of her life has been uphill.  Her enthusiasm rubbed off and I felt instantly uplifted.  She has an amazing gift.  After a hug and some well-wishing, I was on my way, with a lilt in my step, I must say.

Thank you to Harry for posing for our art group a few years back...........a difficult standing and weighted pose I might add.  I was blessed with that communal opportunity.

Graduation!...

Proud Parents  University of Virginia

 is the perfect sketching opportunity.  A few weekends ago, our son received his masters degree in exercise physiology from the University of Virginia, founded in 1819 by President Thomas Jefferson.  The graduation was held on the lawn behind The Rotunda, the original college, teeming with graduates, balloons, expectancy and balloons.  As luck would have it, we ended up on the lawn quite a distance from where the graduate students entered, (ah, that dreaded bread and butter theory) so seeing our graduate enter was out of the question.  We just plopped down to watch the thousands of undergraduates file into the seating area.  Filed and filed and filed.  Thousands of graduates.  Over one hour of pomp.  Lucky for me......my sketch book was in my bag so I was able to entertain myself during the three-hour graduation ceremony and speech given by Katie Couric.  We were so proud.

Detail noted during the event:  the graduates in all of the almost all of disciplines filed in organized lines with a noted degree of maturity and sophistication.....until the end.  Those graduates in liberal arts seemed to immediately break line and move forward with no sense of order whatsoever.....some wearing shorts and sandals, graduation gowns not fastened, with no sense of seriousness at all.  It was at that very moment that I was most proud to hold a B.A degree!

I want to paint like a person...yin:yang

Grande Dame   oil/canvas   30 x 40 x 1.5

For more years than I can count, the voice inside me declared that I wanted to paint like a man.  Why?  Because I loved the certainty, the broad loose brushstrokes and the bravado that seemed to ooze from the work that I admired so very much.... all painted by men.  My inspirations came from such painters as:  H. Craig Hanna, Alex Kanevsky and Randall Tiedman. I must add that there are many local, regional and national artists whose work I enjoy, but inspiration goes a step further into enticement, excitement and stomach flutters.  Time has passed.  There are now so many women artists whose work is inspiring to me:  Stanka Kordic; Rimi Yang; Jeannie McGuire; Jenny Saville and Carla O'Connor.  These female artists are, for me, grandes dames.  For the first time ever, for me, I can honestly say that gender-bias has been removed from the equation.  I want to paint like a person.

"Grande Dame" was first painted from a reality....everything in its place using local color.  Boring, boring, boring.  After a year of living with it, I attacked it with my own sense of aesthetics.  I am relieved.  I am purged.  I am totally happy with this work.

Grande Dame has been included in the 36th Annual Art Exhibition sponsored by The Fairmount Center for the Arts.

  June 3 - June 14

8400 Fairmount Road   Novelty, Ohio

The Drawing of the 10,000 Things...

This summer I will be leading a drawing class that is a bit unusual - The Drawing of the 10,000 Things via Journals.  This whole notion spins off of the zen notion of drawing, drawing, drawing in order to perceive and understand the nature of things.  We will combine drawing realistically from nature; observations, writings, notations, page design, border design and hand-drawn letters.  Our goals will be:  better drawing skills (utilizing value, perspective, texture, line and variety); self-awareness; self-definition and the use of drawing and writing to interpret everyday reality.  The goals and subject matters will be individual to each artist.  We will incorporate critique and goal-setting as a means of self-improvement.  We will be using the Zen notion of drawing a great variety of everyday objects and drawing conclusions that will, hopefully, transfer to drawing anything at all.  A greater awareness.  The class begins on June 18, Mondays from 6:30-9 pm for 8 weeks...all at the Cuyahoga Valley Art Center.

This drawing was done some time ago at a similar class.  I discovered that rumpled and squashed things are often fragmented into triangle shapes.  Also, that the description of the key junctures of these fragments was crucial to the understanding of the drawing.

Redux...the re-making of a watercolor painting using gouache...Canned Beauty

Canned Beauty   Watercolor/Gouache   10 x 6.5

From time to time, I reconsider older works that have lain fallow.  "Canned Beauty" was always a favorite of mine, but lacked sparkle.  It was rendered totally in transparent watercolor with a navy blue background.  Something about it tickled my fancy.  I decided to rework the background including gouache, a much more opaque water medium.  I used a bright blue-violet on top and a creamy white below.  These older works are exactly the ones on which  to experiment as the emotional attachment has usually waned.  In addition, improvements seem to appear quite simply given some distance and, perhaps, more experience.  I reworked 4 paintings that day....each was improved in my opinion.  The resultant work has a primitive chunky quality that I admire and is definitely more colorful.  Sometimes the reworks provide solutions that will help expand the visual repertoire for future work.

In watercolor painting I usually hope for a transparent solution.  In oils, solutions are often reached after layers of attempts.....and I always appreciate those earlier layered attempts showing through a bit.  I enjoy seeing the struggle, the adventure.

"Canned Beauty" became a different work.  Different is good.  Nothing Ventured Nothing Gained.

Nevah say Nevah...on using Chinese White watercolor...April Cove...a Portage County landscape

April Cove - Portage County   Watercolor   20.5 x 13

Nevah say nevah is Bostonese  and is a bit of a conscience call to small-mindedness that creeps in when we think we have the correct solution for anything.  Just a few months back, I advised a watercolor student to pitch, yes, throw away, the tube of Chinese White that came with his set.  I am sorry, Chris.  Up until that point, I had seen far too many applications of this opaque white used in lieu of cherishing the whites of the paper which is my preferred technique of working in this transparent medium.  But recently, in our study of reflections in class, I used a thin application of Chinese White to smooth over some areas where the strokes seemed to be bothersome to me.  It allows a merging to occur.  And, I must say, I wish I had discovered this application many years ago!  Gouache is far more opaque and goes way too far in the destruction of the transparency.  I often use gouache in painting in the water medium, but usually in the background in order to intentionally juxtapose the polar opposites transparency:opacity.  And so I welcome this new bit of knowledge.....there have been many occasions where I wanted to quiet certain passages....and now I know how.  And, by the way, the visible whites in this work are cherished whites.

Evolution Revolution...interpreting the past...Catch...a painting of my father

Catch   Oil/Canvas   14 x 10

Personal evolution keeps me working, keeps me interested, keeps me painting.  During the past couple of years, I found myself less interested in working from a life model with its inherent reality and emotion, which is inevitably connected to the sitter's openness and disposition.  Often, in group situations(which is economical to be sure), costumes are added for visual interest.  But those costumes were, in a sense, distancing, especially those that are historical or overly romantic.  Or especially, for me, those involving military uniforms.  And so, I have been using old family photographs as reference.  These allow me great freedom in their interpretation and a sense of connectedness that results in commitment.  My goal is to reduce the amount of given detail to fairly simple shapes, especially in the visage, in order to make that figure more universal, more approachable.  Definitely not a portrait.  "Catch" was painted from an old family photograph of my father at an early age.  The resultant joy from a young fisher-boy is, I think, timeless.  I am pleased.

It's Art Walk Season!...and time to play three-handed euchre on the grass

Three-Handed   Oil/Canvas   24 x 48 x 1.5

The temperature is climbing....which signals the beginning of summertime activities.  The Akron Art Walk is this Saturday, May 5,  from 5-10 pm.  There is a host of activities within the downtown area which are more fully described on the Downtown Akron Partnership website.  Just click on Downtown Art Works Event Series.  And while you're at it, stop at Summit Artspace, located at 140 E. Market Street at the corner of Market and Summit Streets.  There is fine exhibit in the downstairs gallery of local award-winning artists and several studios on the 3rd floor as well as the grand studio of Akron Society of Artists.  Shirley Blake, our president, will certainly be there to greet you.  As for me, I will be attending "See How They Run", a British farce at Weathervane Playhouse.  My good friend Jo McGarvey is one of the performers.  So much to do...so little time.  All provide a stimulation and awareness that make our lives so wonderful!

Back to where I started..opacity:transparency...Adam Connected...a figurative work

"Adam Connected" is the result of a live model situation at our last watercolor class.  Adam is a high school art student who will be off to college next year.  And, of course, he came along with his phone, the constant companion that he caressed during the pose and more actively interacted with during the breaks.  The face and hands are painted transparently.  The clothing becomes 2-dimensional as a result of underplaying all of the wrinkles, patterns and shadows that, for me, become just too complex visually.  I guess these days I am delving further and further into simplification, which allows for more creativity throughout.  The background shapes and values simply happened, in my own consideration and re-consideration of the picture plane.  I have no need to paint all of the minutia involved in the reality of the scene.  The background is painted opaquely with the addition of gouache, which allows for almost endless reinterpretation.  So here I am again.  Fiddling with the polar notions of opacity and transparency.  It seems right to me.  Back to where I started....but, of course, with more experience and, I believe, more confidence.

ya know it don't come easy...a painting that took years to resolve...Deference

Deference   oil/canvas   40 x 30 x .75

 Sometimes paintings paint themselves.  Rare but it happens.  Sometimes paintings go on and on forever with no satisfiable resolution in sight.  Sketches help, but are not guaranteed.  My goals in this work were to shift attention from the face and figure to the foot of this seated dancer.  After years and years of figure painting, I know that this was a lofty goal.  The face and hands are nearly always the focal area.  So, in effect, I was reversing the norm as well as the norm-in-my-brain.  The model for this work posed in late autumn 2009.  Since those sessions she:  graduated from college, married, moved to New York, moved back, bought a home and had a baby.  All those changes.  And all of those changes virtually mirrored those changes taking place on the canvas.  Although I feel that I have achieved resolution, I wouldn't want to go through this painful process again.

Enough of the upending.  More sketches.  More planning.  More thinking.

Have I learned my lesson?  Probably not.

Food For Animals...and for thought...Pearody

Pearody   oil/canvas   8 x 24 x 1.5

Who among us hasn't experienced extreme love and attachment to a pet?  These are some of the strongest bonds we experience in our family lives, sometimes ever-so-strong due to the simplicity of the bond.  Well, Kathy Johnson of Hudson Fine Art and Framing does her annual thing to support The Humane Society of Greater Akron where a percentage of the proceeds goes to provide food for these animals who are often victims of abuse or neglect.

Where:  Hudson Fine Art & Framing; 9 Aurora Street; Hudson Ohio 44236  (located in The    Brewster Mansion right on the square)

When:  Wine and Cheese Opening; Friday, April 13 5:30-8:30 pm

What:  This year Kathy is exhibiting food art....appealing to all

Hope to see you there!

One in Every Crowd...a celebration of self...and small chicks

One in Every Crowd   oil/canvas   8 x 24 x .75

 What a wonderful notion it would be if each person, each artist, was able to grasp the beauty and strength of his or her own uniqueness!  Gone would be the petty jealousies, the competition and the rivalries, both outright and hidden, that plague us.  No more "he's got something that I want".  Instead, "I'm good with what I have.  It's different than what she has.  It's all good".  Going along with the crowd, understandably perpetuates cultural mores that provide for a smooth functioning of society.  Eliminates snags and questions.  But, in my opinion, it is only when we think for ourselves that we can rid ourselves of the standards of the "other", that we can make choices that are emotionally viable for ourselves as well as others, that we are able to arrive at a sustainable balance.  Question reality.  Our own self-made reality is as good as it gets.  It is when we feel good enough about ourselves and our own work that we are able to appreciate the work of others, even though it is different from our own.

Something to work towards.  A celebration of self.

the minor fall...the major lift...mood is very important to me...Daisy Play

Daisy Play   Watercolor 9 x 9

ah...some of my favorite lyrics from one of my all-time favorite songs...."Hallelujah" by Jeff Buckley.

This past weekend some of our extended family was in town and so we met for dinner at a local restaurant.  There was an entertainer...kind of a lounge singer....who sang popular songs and played guitar.  The first few were quite nice.  His voice was pleasant, as was the strumming.  The amps were turned up way too high and we were seated oh-so-close.  (I know....if it's too loud, then I'm too old....perhaps)  When he started singing this favorite song-o-mine, I cringed.  "Hallelujah" gets its power, in my opinion, from its hymn-like mood....a softness and a slowness that transcends popularity.  The delivery was the same as all of the other songs he sang.  And what did I realize from this experience? 

...that mood is a major purveyor for all kinds of art.  Even though all of the design elements and principles are carried out to perfection, ignoring the mood of a work is a huge flaw.  By using all of the tools we have to create, a painting or a song, we have the ability to manipulate the mood.  We can create a slow soft mood by using similar values, subtle hues and softer brushwork.  We, as artists, can benefit from consideration and contemplation before laying down the first stroke.

Strings...connectedness...heartstrings...an oil portrait of Nate

Strings   oil/canvas  30 x 40 x 1.5

Our lives are full of connectedness, those strings which lead to others, those strings that tug at our hearts.  Strings is a work that seemed nearly effortless, due, I believe, to my emotional connection to the guitarist, my son.  A fairly detailed sketch helped to provide a map for what I hoped to achieve....at this point I am concerned only with values and their movement throughout the work.  My color notations included:  violet, green and yellow.  This hues would help to support the moody feel of my perceptions.  I love the implied motion of the guitarist's right hand.  For me, this amount of indication is right on target.  Sometimes, for me, continued rendering leads to a tightness that becomes just too self-contained and seems to lose its service as a pathway to other areas of the work.  I am quite satisfied.  I am quite happy.

Strings.  Happy Birthday Nate.

Add...subtract...construct...deconstruct...create...Birch Brothers

The Birch Brothers   Watercolor   20.5 x 13

The painting of trees is something that painters do on a regular basis.  Those plein air painters seem to have it down to a science.....the lightest most suggestive trees in the background and gradually more suggestion in the middle and fore-grounds.  Those trees are usually just a part of the story, so their suggestive nature is a given.  Painting a singular tree or grouping is yet another matter, where the story IS the tree....where animation and gesture are oh-so-important.  The tree becomes a figure of sorts.  When we tackled the subject of trees in a current watercolor class, I chose this grouping that I pass daily.  The focal area on the birch bunch was wonderfully manageable.  The upwards cluster of tangling branches not-so.  My goal was, of course, an overall feel of late winter.  Those top branches weren't nearly as important.  Yet the push and pull of branches over and under, branches hidden and viewed, became very difficult as every effort to describe them was just too deliberate.  Addition.  Subtraction.  Construction.  Deconstruction.  Every bit of my work includes all of the above.  It is part of my process.  It is who I am.  A forceful spray from the basement hose (kept carefully away from the focal area) provided the effect I needed as well as the additional bonus of sparkling frost-like texture.  Nothing ventured.  Nothing gained.

The Birch Brothers is the result.

Guilty as Charged...on taking time to pose the model...Denim Coat

Denim Coat   Watercolor/Mixed   13.25 x 9.5

Yes, there was mutiny aboard our watercolor class boat!  I quickly set up our model Jessica with a pose that I thought was different from the week before..straddling a chair with her denim coat hanging between her legs.  I have very little patience for the nit-picky positioning that takes place when more than one artist is directing.  (ah....too many cooks)  In fact, there have been several occasions when this process has taken at least a half hour....a half hour of painting time.  The tasks in my life have been subdivided into two categories:  those things that need to be done so that I can paint, usually done with great impatience; and creative painting time, where I have all the patience in the world.  As the class artists pointed out the following week, the pose was definitely not a good one for those learning to paint the figure...too much was hidden from view...too many assumptions.  I, on the other hand, have spent my life making lemonade....working with what I have, even though it is less than ideal.  So....my apologies to all of the art center painters.  I will try to have more patience next time....and perhaps delegate some of the requisite tasks, such as lighting and taking money, to others.

"Denim Coat" was painted transparently.  Since there was so much darkness and little variation, I chose to accentuate the patterning on the blouse and then pull it into a side border.  Tinted gouache was added to the background.  Lemonade.

Note to myself:  pose the model at least 15 minutes before painting time begins.  Arrange a pose that sufficiently portrays most of the body parts, and includes some counter or negative space as well.