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!