August

August  oil/canvas   16  x 20 x .5

floral displays include a profusion of hydrangeas....all sorts, all sizes and many colors.  The blooms are grand...some larger than a human head.  Nature is most mysterious.  

This canvas was toned with a light wash of red brown.  The painting was done from life with the blooms on a table before me.  When finished (is it ever?), I was overwhelmed with the darkness of it all and I just couldn't live with it.

My own sense of artistic "correctness" has evolved greatly over the years.  Given that, I decided to create some hydrangea stripes,, making the resultant shapes more interesting, I think.  

I am pleased.  FOR NOW. 

The Yellow Sofa

The Yellow Sofa ArtGraf graphite block 36 x 29

Our mornings begin with reading. The simple shapes and backlighting of this scene were too much to pass up. Photo references were shot and I relished the opportunity to experiment more with ArtGraf graphite blocks. This medium is DENSE...and then some. My previous attempts were far too dark, far too opaque and I yearned for more of a continuum from softly rendered to opaque and dense. I find that these are unlike any other drawing mediums...adding water makes them even more dense. It really did take a while to find my footing....and some semblance of a comfort zone. While most mediums thin out and become more transparent with the addition of water, these graphite blocks are the exception. I quickly became more judicious about crossing the surface with a wide brush loaded with water. This work was done on 140# hot press watercolor paper. I like the final result, which has a bit of everything, yet reads boldly from a distance. I am not sure that I would use this medium on a subject with a softer inclination. And, typically, true to me, I seem to yearn for that which I do not have.....my next work will be a more softly rendered one using softer drawing tools.....conte crayon, charcoal or pastel.

Gouache Redux

OH-585 S   watercolor and gouache   8 x 21

Many years ago I created several works in watercolor using a white gouache base that has been left to dry.  The colors become milky.  Pigment moves around, as this gouache layer acts somewhat as a gesso underpainting.  Whites can be retrieved, up to a point.  The delightful surprise this time around was that the resulting strokes left their own marks, leaving the work much more interpretive. I was less impatient to achieve reality.  I chose a simple layout with simple shapes.  The brush barely touched the surface.  Pie crust.  Darks are understated. 

This method provided the perfect atmosphere for a scene spotted on a beautiful spring day on OH 585-S while on a road trip to Wooster.

The brighter blue passages tickle my fancy.  I am pleased.

Keep Those Hands Busy!

 

I am a fidgeter...real and imagined slight discomforts arise when I try to sit still for longer than, let's say, 10 minutes.  So, drawing while listening provides that needed nervous release during the long evenings of critique.  And, I must say, that doodling also allows for a more intense listening.  My mind doesn't have the opportunity to meander, as both brain parts are functioning.  These small portraits of artist friends were sketched this past week.  Oh so many good paintings were displayed!  So many ideas and so much beauty!  My favorites this time around were three powerful works that shared the element of simple shapes:  the wondrous dark 6 am clouds of Judith Carducci done in a narrow horizontal format (one of my favorites); an early morning patchwork Irish landscape by Ann Emmitt (small but packing a large punch); and the almost-abstract work of three warehouse garage doors by Dan Lindner, the color being pushed to the max.  Perhaps my adoration of these works arises from the fact that these were so very different than my own paintings.  Perhaps I just like them.  But what they all shared was a powerful simplicity.  And our critique leader Jack Lieberman peppered the evening with so much knowledge....knowledge that has accumulated from a lifetime of work and study.  We are a lucky bunch....support and constructive comments.  A perfect evening, methinks.

Isn't that Mary?...

Mary Sanders...a sketch

Every now and then I browse through the small drawings that have been uploaded onto my computer.  I came across a drawing of the back of Mary Sanders' head.  Yes, it has to be her.  You know, the Yupo guru?  I have come to realize that more and more, likeness has a whole lot to do with the simple geometric shapes that make up a face, a head, an arm, a body.  We recognize our friends from the back.  We even recognize them from very far away as they approach.  When we take the time to "nail" these simple shapes, we are rewarded.  This also explains my dislike for "the portraits of a thousand wrinkles", as if the aging of the face tells the story.  Simple shapes rule.

Of course it's her.  Why I'd recognize her anywhere.

It's all in the shape of the hairdo....not the individual hairs.