Louis Harrison Barnard’s Japanese Tea Set, with cosmos and calendula blossoms.
Posts Tagged ‘drawing’
New work
Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010New work
Saturday, February 6th, 2010
Birch St., Bangor Maine
Study on Jacopo Carucci Pontormo
Tuesday, January 26th, 2010
“The Deposition”
And now, for something completely different, my warm-up page for this drawing. Sadly, I didn’t get to use the hat.
Study on Rubens, via Loomis
Wednesday, January 20th, 2010Andrew Loomis wrote a lovely, useful and rather dated book entitled Fun with a Pencil – How Everyone Can Easily Learn to Draw. It’s a wonderful book, and he’s not lying. “Start with a circle”, he says, “it doesn’t matter if it’s as lopsided as the family budget, it will work”. He continues to chatter and encourage through nose lines and foreshortening, mocking up whole interiors in two point perspective and illustrating types through racial stereotypes. His books are a rare sort of useful fun; a combination of how to draw big ears and freak hats with accurate information about how the human body hangs together – and how to draw its shadow.
I took a few nights off and drew exercises out of the book. When I’d had my fill of bushy eyebrows and huge ears (Loomis is inordinately fond of drawing old men), I tried a study of Rubens, “Rape of the Daughters of Leucippus”. Sisters Phoebe and Hilaeria were abducted by Castor and Polydeuces, and of course their cousins Idas and Lynceus avenged them, killing Castor and starting the chain of events that led to the Trojan War. This is the most popular scene in that long chain because it involves beautiful half-draped women being swept up on horseback, or grappled with, or clinging to, swarthy men. I think this Rubens is the most intimate interpretation: note how Hilaeria’s and Lynceus toes are rested together, and her hand on his foot. In many places the participants are locked together like puzzle pieces, trapped by the horses rearing dangerously close.
The painting suited my purposes nicely – all that force and direction expressed in twined limbs and rounded flesh is the perfect exercise for the theory that all animal action can be drawn from a foundation of spheres and dissecting lines. So, Rubens via Loomis:
The one that got away, part 2
Monday, December 21st, 2009
Land O’ Lakes Iris and Sunflowers 18 x 24 pastel 2006
The “one that got away” series is all about work on its way to the dumpster. I have one more chance to record the remains, and this is it. “Land O’ Lakes” was my first pastel after a long period of working in oils. My schedule does not allow long stretches of time to set aside for painting and I was continually grousing about dry paint, dry canvases and ruined brushes. My husband, and fellow painter, suggested I try a medium that was dry to start with and eliminate the problem at the root. I love living with another painter – it would have taken me another year to figure that out.
“Land O’ Lakes” was named for its resemblance to the actual lakes and not the butter. I have another yellow iris called “Evening Sky” – it’s very confusing. That pale blue translucence makes a beautiful flower but a very difficult drawing. And there are other problems: the composition is large and sprawling, the figures complex and the color range much too close for my inexperience. Also pastel is very fragile, even on the very forgiving surface of the Ampersand board. You’ll notice the turquoise vase is looks flat and unconvincing because I added layers of chalk to get it right. Doesn’t work, does it?
Another day, another drawing to Strawberry Hill.
New work
Monday, December 14th, 2009
Fortunately, I live with someone who can code, heck, someone who speaks DOS. Not that he needed much of his expertise to show me how to link the small image above to a larger version. It was actually pretty easy with WordPress. Go ahead, try it out – this little 9″ x 12″ drawing can be seen almost full size, with all it’s marks and faults in evidence. Yikes.
Still life painting is a wonderful way to interact with objects. The fruit, or flowers, or dead birds and whatnot are certainly vital – a way of demonstrating the passage of time and fleeting nature of existence. The vase, the plate and the Mason jar represent the inert – rocks and earth – and provide contrast to petals and feathers. I use old things; dishes with chips and huge antique sugar bowls with brown spots and worn handles, slumped glass and pewter. The willoware plate in this drawing is so old the decals have flowed together to mute the edges of the pattern. It has endured a century of casual use and outlived all its set-mates to end up in a painting – fragile yet enduring.
New work
Sunday, December 13th, 2009
Hansa Roses, 18 x 24, pastel on board.
Rosa ‘Hansa’ Rose 7×7′ Unknown parentage. Schaum and Van Tol, Holland, 1905. Large 3″ very fragrant full (25-30 petals) purplish-red flowers bloom throughout early summer with rebloom in fall. Large vigorous vase-shaped mounded shrub. Glossy dark green disease-free foliage turns yellow-orange in fall. Prolific large showy red-orange hips. Hardy to Z3.
New work
Tuesday, December 8th, 2009
Apricots on a Green Plate
Small paintings are really hard. I had no idea. I have a feeling I wasn’t a very good painter the last time I tried to go 9 x 12 inches, and with some increase in ability comes the need for enough space to swing the arm from the shoulder – get some muscle into it. I have some plums set up next, on the same size board, so that when I start an 18 x 24 drawing next week it will feel huge.
New work
Sunday, November 29th, 2009
Berries in a Dish, 9″ x 12″, pastel on board
This will be a series of (at least) three small panels. I started out with the motive that I would study the more complicated passages in some of my new set-ups (blackberries are not to be approached for the first time without a dry run) but the drawings took on a life of their own. The largest size panel I work on is 18″ x 24″, which is plenty large for my studio space. If I went any bigger no one would be able to get into the bathroom. Still, 9″ x 12″ feels tiny and has required a change of technique – a broadening of my marks. Odd that such a small space must be filled with ever larger areas.
Next up, apricots on a green plate.
One of many that got away.
Sunday, November 8th, 2009
I produce about 24 drawings a year. They don’t all turn out well, which is neither surprising nor heartbreaking. This piece is a dud. The composition was dramatic with beautiful color and familiar material – I’ve drawn a lot of nasturtiums over the years – but the final product failed the “can this leave the house?” test, so it went to the Strawberry Hill Transfer Station rather than the gallery.
In order to pass the test, the painting must be entirely “meant”. van Gogh’s “Sunflowers” passes the test – every passage is approached with the same degree of confidence and finish. The viewer doesn’t doubt the wall behind or the surface (a table?) beneath the vase and flowers. The painter didn’t piddle off in the corner, where he wasn’t sure how to indicate a further room. A great painting might be drawn badly (Velasquez drives me nuts) but the passage is carried through like a knife though water – we are unfazed by any discrepancy.
Tonight I have a small crystal bowl full of huge purple blackberries to start on; we’ll see where it ends up.