Are We There Yet?

Spring that is. Today was sunny but cold and windy here in the North Georgia mountains. This after a Saturday and Sunday that was warm and quite spring-like with spring fever running rampant. I mean the daffodils  and crocus are about a week away from blooming; our neighbor has a tree in their yard that is full of pink blooms. I'm longing for warm and it seems so far off, like looking down a long corridor.

Hallway, ink on paper, 18" x22"

Hold out for Spring dear friend and have an exciting weekend.

Brad

Revisiting an Old Drawing

Dear Friend,

As I said in my previous post, I am revisiting old studio drawings, working on my use of hatching and value. I am trying to achieve depth and a greater feel of volume. Don't get me wrong, I am deeply enamored of the simple line drawings of Matisse but, I am a bit of a fussy worker liking to push and pull at the media working and working it. It gives me great pleasure to manipulate it.

Nude, Charcoal, 8x10

This is my original drawing, a fifteen minute studio drawing from life.

Nude, Conte on Newsprint, 24x36

Any comments or suggestions, either techniques or practices, would be appreciated. So, have a lovely afternoon.

Brad 

Back in Black...

and white. I apologize for my lack of postings for the last while but, life gets in the way, sometimes. I'm working on drawings again trying to get my sea-legs back. I am working on my hatching and changes in value leading up to doing some painting. This is a charcoal drawing of sweet wife and I am revisiting old studio drawings, redrawing them again with hatching and more value.

Laura, Charcoal, 8x10

Thanks for stopping by. Have an exciting weekend.

Brad

Friday Evening

Good evening friend,

On a Friday evening I thought I would tell you that if I hadn't started my art career so late in life I would certainly think about carving marble as my primary medium. At my age though, the amount of work involved daunts me. I might use it as a diversionary medium as I do love the tactile sensation of working the marble.

The photos are of a marble sketch, my first experience with cutting stone, I executed for a 3D class. I had a small piece of marble for the sketch and a limited time to work on the piece so, I decided to base my design on references such as the Elgin Marbles, fragments of classical stone carvings that could look finished with a minimum of effort. It still required several hours of effort.

Anyway, I thought I would share my love of the medium on this lovely, rain-free, yehh-h, evening.

Brad

The Sunday Prints

Dear friend,

On a lovely fallish Sunday afternoon I'm posting a couple of experimental prints. The first is a version of what I call gasoline prints. The plate is made by engraving the image with sand paper. I inked the plate with black Akua Intaglio ink and then rolled the plate with gray intaglio ink. The image is from a still from Casablanca, when Rick is at the airport at the end of the movie.

The second is a sugar lift print with aquatint. The plate was inked in green and then rolled with gray.

Well, just a quick post for A Sunday. Have an exciting start to the new week.

Brad

Copper Pots

Dear Friend,

On a late summer afternoon, a time when the long rays of the summer sun are tending more to a fall-like sensuality, I have a post with a tactile sensibility. First is a detail of one of my paintings that showcases a copper vase that pleased me more than a little when I completed it. It is purely a mental fabrication based on a copper canister from our kitchen. 

1670 (detail) acrylic on paper with transfers

A drawing of the canister gives a sense of the surface quality of the spun metal. It is a quality that can be copied and transfered to a credible facsimile of an entirely different vessel.

Copper Canister graphite drawing on Arches paper

Have a lovely weekend.

Brad

Labor Day Labors

For Labor Day I decided to prepare a southern treat, muscadine jelly. Muscadine grapes, Vitis rotundifolia, is a wild grape that grows throughout the southeast. It is probably the grape that prompted the Norse to call North America, 'Vineland,' my guess as the grapes are quite prolific in the South.

On the vine.

The grapes have a lovely musky flavor, and quite tough hulls. The Country Store at Callaway Gardens sells wonderful preserves made from the muscadines grown in the gardens. They serve them in season with buttered biscuits for the breakfast menu in season.

Black beauties hanging in the sun.

And in the bucket.

The juice being stirred before adding the sugar.

And the final product. I've picked enough to make six more 12 oz. jars and we have begun sharing them around the neighborhood. It's a wonderful if somewhat laborous tradition of the season.

Hoping you have an exciting week.

Brad