Monumental

conte crayon on paper...36 x 22 Giving birth to a child is a most monumental life-changing experience one can have. It was for me, over 40 years ago....and it was, for sure, a most wished-and-wanted-for event. Some things never change. For our three sons and three amazing daughters-in-law, it is even more so...given the careers of the parents, and the challenges that they face on the work front, along with those faced at home. I believe that they want what I wanted....to raise children in a happy and safe environment as well as to meet their own personal goals. Definitely monumental. The standing pose of the most recent birth experience emphasizes this notion of monumental. The drawing is a simple one done in conte crayon on paper. I was in awe during the making of it. And I am in awe of their efforts, so much larger than my own.

Nightshade

Nightshade   conte crayon   19.5 x 12.5

is a drawing done with conte crayon on an unknown kind of paper from my storage box.  I am trying to remember to label all of my papers, but am not always good at it.  As previously written, these sessions with the young dancers from Ballet Excel Ohio have provided the opportunity for me to break out of my usual routines with some experimentation...for me, having a few unknowns pushes my boundaries and provides stimulation in my R-brain.  The lighting, the pose, and yes, the model herself in her ability to relate to the artists provide variables to which we must adjust.  I look for lights that lead into each other in a sort of pattern.  Likewise with the darker shapes.  I like spontaneity as well as its polar opposite, deliberate refinement.  This particular drawing works for me.

The costume for this young dancer is that of a nightshade, a dark dancer that is a kind of minion for the queen, as I was told...a nightshade plant being that which is poisonous.

Darks.  Lights.  Makes for a good drawing.

Lost and Found,

Lost and Found   conte and pastel on Rives BFK   18 x 21.5

picking and sorting, organizing....the stuff of which my life is comprised...constant evaluation:  weeds vs. flowers; healthy relationships vs. the toxic; and that which we deem necessary vs. that which just takes up space.  It is, I think, a perpetual process that helps us find ourselves.

This drawing was referenced from a photo shot last September at a family wedding, where our granddaughter, just two, was given the responsibility of being a flower girl.  During the long wait, she dropped the basket a couple of times, and patiently replaced the petals into the basket.  She took this job quite seriously.

The biggest challenge during this work was to push and pull those hard and soft edges for the purpose of movement throughout the composition.  This is a process that I particularly enjoy, along with a manipulation and shifting of values in an attempt to create work with strong design, while remaining soft.

Initially, I had planned only a light sketch.  The project morphed into a more complete painting-like drawing, in which the Rives BFK (a printmaking paper) was pushed as far as it could go in terms of workability.

I take my job quite seriously as well.

Free Time

Sheri   conte crayon and pastel on paper   18 x 14

One of the responsibilities in a cooperative gallery is, of course, gallery sitting.  My shift is usually a 5-hour period on Saturday afternoons.  While I have never in my life suffered from want of things to do....it seems that each day I have more to do than is humanly possible....and I realize, more than ever, that this is my choice.  Mostly I read, I sketch, I organize during this time slot.  A few weeks ago, I asked artists in my classes if they would mind sitting for a few hours at the gallery so that I could practice my portrait skills.  While I am mostly a figurative artist, where facial features defer to an overall gesture, it never hurts to hone these skills.  Likewise with painting flowers.  Sherri was a willing participant.  This portrait was rendered in conte crayon on a heavy watercolor paper.  After the session at the gallery, I used a photograph to work on the piece at home.  I liked the original very much at the end of the life session.  During the studio session at home, the work was fine-tuned.  A pastel block was added for color.  Always for me, the life work seems more honest, more energetic.  Fine tuning later enhances the likeness but, in doing so, renders the work more staid, more static, with the addition of more pigment.  Which do I prefer?  I really don't know......maybe a work somewhere in the middle would please me more.  Sherri was pleased.  What more can I ask for?

Brown....

Julie   conte crayon and pastel on toned paper   17.5 x 10

has always been my least favorite color.  This time of year, even though summer still reigns, we are seeing bits of the yellow and orange that precede the brown.  I think that I have been over-browned.  Our old farmhouse had exposed beams of brown.  All woodwork in the living area was painted brown, including wainscoting. It took us over 20 years to work up the courage to paint over all of the brown.  The lightness that exudes from the Scandinavian palette we selected has definitely put us all in better moods.

However.....there is one exception that keeps brown in my vocabulary.  Portraits that result from the use of the great variety of earthtones are among my favorites.  The warmth of these tones softens a face and warms the soul.  (Those same works rendering in black charcoal lack that warmth but make up for it, in my opinion, by their great power) Ochre.  Umber.  Sienna.  Yes.

The power of Black

Angie   conte crayon   20.5 x 14

I love working in charcoal! The medium is messy, smudgy and bold. Charcoal drawings capture my attention with their directness and simplicity. Perhaps the power of an image is diffused by the addition of color: the more colors, the more diffusion. This week I have been working in charcoal. It is what I needed...to get away from complexity and back to basics. "Angie" is a drawing done many many years ago in my living room during a summer heat wave.....the fans were blowing and we were all uncomfortable. To me, there is a freshness here, an unrefined honesty that is hard to perpetuate deliberately. Angie is the delightful young woman who manages my website.