Winter Pantry

Winter Pantry   oil/canvas   8 x 24 x .5

This holiday season we were the lucky recipients of luscious canned goods from neighbors and friends...pickles, salsa, apple butter and jellies.  These gifts from the kitchen really warm my heart.  As they were all lined up on the kitchen counter, I decided to give them a "paint".  By the time my brushes were warmed up, we had already delved into the pickles.  This work is currently on exhibition at Group Ten Gallery in Kent, Ohio.

Thank you Glenn, Julie, Ann, Scott and Bunky for your generosity!  Ohhhhh...so very tasty.

Happy Father's Day...N and S

N and S   conte crayon, charcoal and watercolor on paper    10 x 10

This is a mixed media work on paper of my son and his infant daughter.  Nothing beats subject matter from the heart!  While the reference itself provided a diagonal movement, I strove for a horizontal melding of the two subjects by manipulation of the pigment.  Horizontal=Status=Restfulness=All is Right with the World.  Patterning within patterning.  Two become one. 

Repose

Repose   oil/canvas   8 x 24 x 1.5

is sometimes welcome.  Sometimes it is forced upon us.  The model in this work was languishing in the heat of summer.  But this week I felt great empathy for this pose....too much gardening...too much exercise...too much disregard for the limitations of my body.  BACK PAIN.  Forced repose.  Forced time away from the easel.  Luckily, my son is a physical therapist who has helped me out with suggested exercises and many many admonitions.  Can't wait to be vertical again.

I have always loved the loose expressiveness of this work.  Loose.  Yes.

Figure Drawing...using a horizontal format...Ethereal

Ethereal   Charcoal/Pastel   5.25 x 17.5

For the last session of our drawing class, we elected to draw the figure.  The art teacher whose room we borrow at night was happy to recommend a high school art student willing to pose and make a few Christmas dollars.  Yeah!  Maggie was athletic, long and lean.  She was able to relax well for us in this extremely horizontal pose.  Results can be seen in the accompanying slide show.  I felt that we all did well as far as simple shapes and proportions.  There were a few angles(especially for the pillowed head) that were slightly off.  Judging angles visually is difficult but can be aided by using one's pencil at arm's length to find it and replicate it on the paper.  An angle that is off just a smidgen causes the head to lose its state of relaxation and appear to be full of tension, as if getting up.  Once figure drawing is mastered, an artist will be able to use photos for reference without point to point copying without anatomical understanding thereof.  Another problematic area occurred for those whose perspective involved the foreshortening of the head area.  I recommended treating this head and shoulders area as a shallow bowl, with a losing of edges and slight shadowing in the middle with the more complete rendering around the diameter where most of the light would appear.  A difficult, but interesting illusion.

For me, nothing is more rewarding than the curves of the human figure.