Hey kids! Sorry about the short hiatus. I have been helping my wife and her brother do some long needed repairs to their Mom's home. Two weeks of exhausting work and the requisite recovery from a strained back. But, thanks for stopping back by. I have posted updates to two pieces I've been working on.
Crows, Charcoal on Paper, 8"x10"
The charcoal painting is coming along nicely. The charcoal makes wonderful blacks. The edges can bleed into nice blurs of transition. The paint, at this point, is being applied with a healthy dose of solvent making it quite translucent. I am going to have to add some alkyd medium for the drying time is way too long.
Laura, Egg tempera on canvas, 8"x10"
The tempera is going on layer over layer. I wish I were a watercolorist, I can see the potential for having facility with applying the paint in competent washes rather than fidgeting the paint as I do. Anyway, have an interesting weekend and all you Moms have a happy Mother's day.
As I said in a previous post, I will turn sixty this month and it is with mixed feelings on my part. I'm not sure what the cause of this is but, the decade of the oughts was somewhat turbulent for me. The decade started with my Pop having health problems which started a general decline for he and my Mom and both of them passing just after mid decade. I have no siblings so looking out for them fell to me in its entirety. I would have liked to have eased into it but that was not the case and I always felt I was two steps behind.
Laura, Charcoal on paper, 8"x10"
During this time I had decided to finish my undergraduate degree also, my work was always in flux, feast or famine, getting paid or not. Work is work, enough said. School was a strange mix of love and loathing, of feeling out of place. Being around twenty somethings really made me feel my age.
So, here I am, through with the oughts. Throughout my life every ten years or so I have reinvented myself and that time has come around again. Its more of an evolution than a metamorphosis and I have no idea how it is going to go but I am getting a little excited. It's always interesting.
So. here to the teens. I hope you are looking forward to them as I am. Have an interesting weekend.
Here are two projects that are in the queue for me. The first is a composition that I am doing in tempera with oil glazing. This is the first of many layers of tempera and the color will build up slowly. I go a bit against tradition so, hang on and see how it goes. It is the same composition as the charcoal drawing in my post 'Back in Black.'
Laura, Egg tempera on canvas, 8"x10"
I have posted this charcoal drawing that will become a painting I intend to do using charcoal and oil medium. I would like to take advantage of the beauty and visual vitality of the charcoal and the translucence of the medium as a glazing over the charcoal. I thought I would use white chalk with the charcoal but, in the end I will probably end up using titanium white oil for the highlights. I will start the project by laying out the drawing on a canvas on chipboard panel. The panel will be fabricated by mounting a primed canvas on chipboard with acrylic medium. I will then execute the first stage of the drawing in charcoal and as with the tempera, fix it with a coat of shellac. From that point I will add depth to the drawing with glaze and more drawing. I'm doing my favorite thing here, groping blindly. If you have done something like this, please chime in with a comment or leave me and my readers a link. I will post progress photos along the way for both pieces as well as more charcoal drawings. I'm still learning from them.
Crows, Charcoal on Paper, 8"x10"
I will leave you with a little appropriate music for a composition with crows.
Have a good evening and a lovely spring week ahead of you.
I do admire the figurative work of Richard Diebenkorn, He produced figurative work for but a few years after doing dedicated abstract paintings. Then, he returned to abstract work and did no more figurative work. Oh, the delightful figures he produced, beautiful blends of abstract and representational themes.
I was born in April 1950, on the crest of the Baby Boom. Now, I am facing one of those milestones that gives one pause. We Boomers have a significant history in that we are the bridge generation for the age of Rock and Roll, the Space Race, and the Era of Environmental Awareness among other significant historical and cultural events. This is all pretty well documented, Vietnam, Woodstock, Apollo 11, et. al., each time a journalist has a touch of nostalgia. Beyond that though lies a significance in that our parents were the World War II generation, a generation that grew up in the Great Depression and then fought a great conflict of moral imperative. The downside was that they thought they were right about everything, little wonder we were rebellious. On the upside, most of what we are is a product of them beyond the misery they gave us by being our parents.
My dad was born in 1921 and was drafted into the army in 1942. Bill Haley as in Rock Around the Clock was born in 1925. Jack Kerouac was born in 1922 and Alan Ginsberg was born in 1926, the writers credited as the nucleus of the Beats. Timothy Leary, the psychedelic guru of the sixties was born in 1920. Malcolm X was born in 1925. More of what we are is a product of our parents generation than just our physical selves. It's a pointer to the fact that our story flows more like a river than like the cars of a train.
Masquerade, Charcoal on paper, 8"x10"
Today's drawing has nothing to do with all of this but, turning sixty is a bit unsettling which in itself is a bit unsettling and touch of youth seems appropriate.
On the Road, an American Romantic notion. Since Jack Kerouac wrote his novel in the early fifties, driving, being out on the road, is an ingrained part of the American psyche. It's reflected in our culture. Television in the nineteen-fifties brought us Route 66, about two friends roaming up and down the iconic highway that runs from Chicago to Los Angeles. Also, the song by Bobby Troup, Get Your Kicks on Route 66, celebrated this same bit of Americana. In the nineteen-sixties, television brought us Then Came Bronson with Michael Parks as a disillusioned journalist (who wasn't disillusioned?) who buys himself a bike and takes to the road. Of course the sixties were the heyday of being on the road as The Easy Rider rode off to 'look for America,' Humbert and Lolita rolled across the country staying in seedy motels, and the rest of us were Hitching a Ride. The nineteen-seventies expanded the scene in novels such as Michener's Caravans, which took on the road global. The list can go on through the eighties, nineties and the oughts.
Maybe it goes back to the frontier west, the wagon trains and the wandering cowboys. Or, maybe its the independence, the anonymity, that is the allure. An article in the New Yorker commented on On the Road and Lolita and how there was a normalness to travelers that would look odd in a normal settings such as a middle-aged Humbert could travel with an adolescent girl and not raise a question that, in any other setting, might.
Rachel, charcoal on paper, 8"x10"
So. let's celebrate the highway and revel in the romanticism of the idea. I'm working on pieces that draw on these ideas for their inspiration and want to hear your ideas of these native romanticisms. Have a good evening.
I have been producing these drawings from photographs and have learned a great deal in the process. Using photographs has the benefit of letting me work quickly because I can short cut the layout procedure by using devices such as printing inkjet images and coating the back with charcoal to make a carbon paper like transfer. Also, I cut the inkjet prints to make masks that I can use a bit of powdered charcoal in a piece of cloth to dab around the edges to give rounded forms to work from. I sometimes prepare what I call an armature in Photoshop and print it. I vary these techniques or combine them to whatever effect on which I want to work. The more of these techniques I use in tandem the more concise the layout and the quicker the rendering can proceed.
Working from a model or a photograph and laying out the landmarks and forms by surveying the model and transferring them one at a time by measurements is a laborious task and can interfere with the learning process. That makes it more desirable to shortcut these and get on to the things I am more interested in.
Jennifer, Charcoal on paper, 8"x10"
Thanks for stopping by on this rainy Sunday. Have a nice finish to the weekend.
In case there might be an uproar for being over the top, let me state that this piece is about conflict. Not conflict in the theatre of humanity but, the quieter conflict that that we all face each day in our hearts, in our heads and in our souls. This is a piece I did, not as a finished work, but as a musing about my own state of being and a way of expressing to myself how I am feeling. Kind of taking my own temperature. The title is of course from the Odyssey, but I decided to give it a twist as the Siren song is usually more personal to us. We all face these conflicts, and as I grow older they seem to be more numerous. I think as artists we experience these conflicts more because our works are so personal to us and it is a huge burden to give up some of this personal connection for commercial concerns.
Tied to the Mast, Charcoal on paper, 8"x10"
On a recent post by Martha Miller, I commented about how we are affected by our works. Her post was about a portrait she was executing of a family member and she was telling about the emotional investment she had in the piece and I gathered from her words that working on the portrait was a give and take between she and the piece itself. I really feel that each piece we make changes us in either a small or a large way. If for no other reason each piece we make teaches us something about our craft. I was thinking more though that through the intellectual investment in thinking through the composition, the learning about the subject, and the interest in the subject leading to the desire to make the work that it insists it way into our psyche and become an integral part of us changing our world view and the way we interact with the world. As with any exploration, you're a different person at the end of a trek than when you begin. As I stated earlier, this work was intended to affect changes, to think through the internal conflicts between what I have and what I desire, between what I want to accomplish and to what I am limited.
I have a friend whose work is in psychology and social work. She is a proponent of art therapy, mainly journaling for which she leads workshops. She looks at it more as being like a therapy where exploring the issues leads to insights into the journalist's motivations and issues. As we were talking one day she asked my take on it. I told her that it was my experience that when I was stressed or at odds with myself that I became hyper-creative. I attributed this to the self-defense mechanisms we all have ramping up their efforts to fend off the stresses by finding creative ways to combat them. Further, you should be able to tap into this heightened self-defense creativity much as a physician would inoculate a patient to bring to bear his patient's immune system, not only to affect change that would benefit the individual but, to glean valuable creative resources due to the condition.
Some of the conflict for myself is that I decided to put my effort into art at a late date in my life so that I feel that I don't have a great deal of time to let it take me where it will. That, and as with all artist there is the conflict between the work and the rest of life, the need to spend time working on art and the demands of the day to day function of survival. Thus, I take the theory I have about the changes that a piece of work can have and use it to set my self up to go on.
I've include this piece of music by Will Hoge for its philosophical value. Have a lovely, lovely weekend.
It's a snowy Tuesday morning here in North Georgia, Looking toward the top of the mountain, I can't see it for the falling snow. The schools are closed today so, Laura is here and that makes Scooter, our silky terrier, very happy.
I've posted another charcoal drawing rendered from a studio study. I've included the study, which I have posted previously, also.
Seated Nude, charcoal on paper, 8"x10"
Seated Nude, charcoal and pastel on kraft paper, 18"x24"
I think I will have some breakfast and watch the snow. It started about 5:30 AM and is now beginning to accumulate. Have a most exciting Tuesday.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Today I'm posting a couple of doodles I did when I started playing with collage and mixed media. They are somewhat planned. the materials are of course newsprint on a support with pencil drawing.
I apologize, I'm not clever enough to add subtext or hidden meaning in the content of the media. If you find some there, serendipity.
My apologies for not posting but, I have been a little under the weather for the past week. I will make a quick post today. First a drawing from my teenage years. My first car, Das Hindenberg.
And a more recent drawing on kraft paper in charcoal and pastel.
Although I haven't been posting I have been reading and following. I loved the posts by Martha Miller from The Artist Studio. Have a lovely Saturday.
I was going through some of my work and sorting it when I ran across these two drawings of the same model. One is on kraft paper and the other is on newsprint. I like drawing on kraft and this is executed in charcoal and pastel.
This drawing is charcoal or conte on newsprint. I like the way tones are easily invoked on both papers. I'm also a nut for defining the space my subject occupies. I like to push the perspective even though it isn't evident in this drawing but can be seen in the drawing I posted last week of buildings on the Dahlonega square. Comes from my drafting side. I read somewhere that it is 'good to exagerate, better to exagerate too much than not enough,' I've taken that to heart.
I'm feeling a little nostalgic for the 1960's so, here are a couple of pieces of music from that decade. The first from 1962.
Odds and ends for a Friday afternoon. First a drawing so there is some artwork.
Then a photograph. This is the ruin of a house on Jekyll Island. The construction is a local variety of construction called 'Tabby.' It is a type of concrete made of shells and lime made from burning shells. Oh, how I would like to be at Jekyll this weekend.
The movie State of Play opens this weekend and seems from the trailers to be a run of the mill conspiracy thriller and then they up the ante with Helen Mirren. What are you going to do? A little clip from 1980. No tittering or reading something into it.
Julita was kind enough to mention my blog in her writing so, for her I am adding a piece by sculptor David smith that inspired me to paint with spray paint.
A quick post today of a perspective drawing of the north side of the Dahlonega Square. Dahlonega is a tourist town with a great deal of history, primarily the gold rush of the eighteen thirties. There is also minor history such as Bill Miner, the old west train robber portrayed in the movie The Grey Fox was captured here in the Dahlonega Hotel.
The following is from the Dahlonega Bluegrass Festival. The musicians are playing on the square.
A drawing for a Wednesday, then out to mow the lawn. The part of living in the south that's not great, air conditioning and lawn mowing are from March to November.
Have fun and do a little dance on a Wednesday afternoon.
