rework candlestick

Boris Putterman said that as long as you are moving forward keep working. If it feels like you are moving sideways, quit...move on to something else. I think I am done with this...perhaps a painting.

Brass candlestick and silk rope tie-back

12" x 16" pastel on suede board
I have drawn this silk rope about 5 times...this is the closest I have come to getting it yet.
I used to doodle convolutions of the brain...(least that's what they looked like to me...repetitious curves that with tight changes could change directions and give a sense of volume. I haven't fixed this drawing, but I may so i can keep working it. The suede board gives an interesting feel to the charcoal under-drawing....but it doesn't hold as much pastel as regular charcoal paper does.

Apple with Napkin Still-life

Pastel 24" x 18" Still life on wooden surface.
This is probably my first venture into examining textures.

Horse Skull

pastel on suede board 18" 12"
I am not wonderfully happy with this but it is good to be using pastels again.

With more work:

Maddy's Tea Pot

oil on canvas board  12" x 9"
Maddy's teapot and some odds and ends around the studio. Painting the colander was fun.

Irises in Mark's Graden

 Click to bid
Oil on canvas  9" x 12"
I stood in Mark's driveway and painted last spring. Neighbors, children in tow, paused to ask about the image and marvel that it "looked real" Traffic slowed, which was kind of fun. Objective art is curious...just to what degree will we accept something as real? One would think that with all the access to fool proof photography people have, their definition of "real" would be more sophisticated...or at the very least something approaching that which is created with a mechanical lens.  I think if more people saw painters painting, they too would be able to achieve some degree of likeness.

Original Autumnal Still Life painting framed and ready to hang for holidays

Acrylic on canvas 12" x 9" framed.
I am taking my first stab at e-bay. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Dancer (3/4 portrait)

19" x 25" Pastels on Canson paper
This portrait took about 12 hours. What I learned was to meticulously measure and align every shape in the charcoal drawing stage...then apply color. Hate the expression...but got all the body parts in the right place. Damned I love drawing toule.

Portrait of Dancer

 

10" x 12" pastel on dark grey Canson paper

I am getting better at the proportions of heads and faces...still rather  bad at whole figures. Oh well.

Driving out of Manhattan

 

6" x 4" pastel on canson paper

This is a color memory exercise. I saw these colors while riding a bus between Manhattan and the Bronx. NYC is wonderful on a sunny day.

Flip-flops

 

19" x 12" pastels on elephant grey Canson paper

I am not so certain I like working on this color...but it may be all I have for tomorrow. It does yield a certain glow and it isn't as harsh as black paper.

Pastel sticks

Nupastel and Canson paper 12 x 9
I am working really hard to not over work my drawings...also to not break my pastels...also to keep the numbers recognizable and keep them clean. I have an old box that only has about 4 unbroken ones...and a few that still have their numbers on them. 

Artist Sketching

Click here to bid on this drawing

Colored pencil on black paper

9" x 12"

sold unframed

I was sketching at the home of a member of my sketch group...the model was in a rather uninspired pose...my fellow artist was far more appealing so I drew her.

Bouquet

 Click here to bid

Pastel on Canson smooth paper
12 x 9"
First pastel drawing since the workshop...I keep dropping (breaking) them...I need to work slower. Oh well. Perhaps I'll paint this.

Twisted Rope

18 x 12" metallic pencils on black paper

Chunk of old wood with satin rope curtain tie back

Pastel Portrait...Art Students' League of New York

20" x 26" pastel on grey canson paper (smooth side)

I took a workshop in portraiture at the Art Students' League conducted by Ellen Eagle. The model was wonderful...what a luxury to have someone stay stock still for 15 hours. It was a joy to be at the League...most of the work done there is representational. The atelier has been in existence 137 years...Georgia O'keefe, Edward Hopper and Charles Burchfield  are some of my heros who studied there. The only drawback is that the students are packed in...I worked large because I was standing so close to the model....however I couldn't get the distance to really see what I was doing. Ellen suggested that I view turn around and view both the model and my image in a hand merror. A great tip.

Last of the irises

graphite on paper
9" x 12"

This is the final iris drawing for this year...June 3; last week in NY at the Art Students League...came home to no more irises, but a huge new sun splashed bed to grow roses, lavender, and more irises in.

Tomato still life

Watercolor and colored pencils
10" x 14 on hot pressed watercolor paper

The goal was to make these tomatoes jump out and grab the viewer.

iris drawing

graphite and paper
9 x 12
sketching the iris stalks that were trampled by the rain

colored pencil and black paper

garden pastels

Iris Buds
9 x 12" pastels on colored paper

My iris bed is in full bloom...I read Charles Hawthorne notes to students last night. I am trying to work with color and shape. The negative positive (figure/ground) issues in iris beds are a delight.

Maggie's Dianthus bed
9 x 12" pastel on colored paper
I see this bed from my kitchen window, over the sink. The little red flowers are charming.

Tulips

9" x 12"
oil on canvas
The tulips and lace work well...the window sill is a mess. Oh well. Too much wet paint to keep on working it...it is over worked in the bottom quarter.

Tulips, Iris buds

Graphite on paper
9" x 12"
prep for painting

 

 Colored pencil and paper

iris bud from photo

Iris Bud

2.75" x 3.75"
colored pencils on paper

Marbles on the Kitchen Floor

9" x 11"
silver and gold colored pencil with gauche on black paper
I love to draw...it's a shame the end product is such a nuisance to market...framing is more expensive and for some reason people won't pay much for drawings or watercolors.  There is a soft, shimmery quality to the metallic pencils that (unfortunately) the scanner can't quite capture...though if you move your head around while viewing a plasma monitor...the colors will shift...sort of the same effect.

Hostas coming up

pastel
9" x 12"
Pastel on black paper
The hostas come back every year. This year I am leaving the leaf mulch.

Blue glass and pepper

Click to bid

Oil on RayMar board
6" x 8"
I think I have settled on some textural combinations that I'd like to explore for a while.
Glass, fruit, fabric...or glass, fruit, wood or glass,  fruit, fabric, wood....though at this size it is important to restrict the number of elements in a painting.
I am fighting the urge to go back in and refine things...the shape of the shadow on the right is off...some of the fabric texture to the left isn't parallel...and that light streak  along side the cast shadow on the left is too light....but the gist of it is what I want it to do....save refinements for larger "finished" works?

Apple Still life
Acrylic on canvas board
12" x 9"
I am playing with pattern and texture.

Peppers
8" x 6"
oil on RayMar board

Acorn Squash

Acorn Squash
Pastel 10" x 8.5"
I am not so certain about the   background...the squashiness is there, but the background is distracting. Perhaps do this again.

Horse Skull

Gift from a friend...it is harder and harder to find things like this. It's a "bio-hazard". Sigh.

Sunday drawings

 

A drapery tie-back and curled ribbon. I like the way the tie-back catches the light, though I haven't nailed it yet. The curly ribbon has to be done in color, and the sheen has to be spot on or it won't be recognizable.

Faculty Show Opening Tomorrow

Gourds

Ok . This is truly a one day painting. I will not touch it. Whatever I don't like about it as I live with it, will be corrected in another painting. It certainly helps to draw first...that way the proportion issues aren't as deadly. I don't yet have the urge to do anything to it, though there was a half hour at the end when I was messaging highlights. It is almost like you have to put down the paint, just so you can move it around and make color adjustments. I learned that Veridian green is deadly...a small amount of it will totally take over other colors....somehow when one is glazing , it doesn't feel quite as powerful.
This really is a departure from how I usually paint. But I think a good one.

My sort of daily painting

8" x 6"
oil on RayMar canvas panel
this is finally done. Actually, if you put all the time together (3 sessions) it could be a one day painting.  The difference between this and the last post took about a half hour. Well, as long as one moves forward and not sideways.

Just hung the paintings for this show. Nice space, the other artists' paintings are superb. I look forward to the opening.

Well, I hope it is getting better. Things are in more accurate proportion. I miss the clarity of the color I had original...particularly the green. Perhaps wait a day or two and redo the green? No What happened to a painting a day? Move on.

First Daily Painting

Dying daffodils.
oil on RayMar linen panel
8" x 6"
It's a bit raw...I'm unaccustomed to working so small...also the idea of working in one sitting. But it is exhilarating even if the end product isn't so hot. Perhaps something less ambitious  tomorrow. Imogene Cunningham when asked which of her photographs was her favorite, used to reply, "The one I'm making tomorrow."

Parot Tulip Shopping

I purchased a silk parrot tulip for a friend...thought I would draw it before I gave it away.

Painting for faculty show Newbury College, Brookline, MA

This is one of 4 paintings that will be on display in the library at Newbury College in Brookline, MA.
I frequently use wood grain in my paintings. The shoe lasts were purchased at Brimfield Fair last fall. The chunk of wood with the square nails is a chunk of old chestnut that was from the framing of an antique house a friend was working on. The square nails were hand forged sometime in the late 18th century. The box that the chunk is sitting on is nothing special...an old packing crate that was stained...however the old plank in front under the marble is also old chestnut.

Second parrot tulip

Ok I am procrastinating. Pastels are fun, but they are wicked costly to frame, hard to store unframed, and toxic as all get out...also I think my use of the media is too raw. I am walking around avoiding painting. The drawing yesterday begins to approach the silveryness....but the paper I am working on (el cheapo acid free sketchbook stuff) isn't doing much for me. Any suggestions regarding paper for graphite sticks? I'd like to get that silvery quality from the graphite. I haven't used Bristol because you really can't erase it.

I also think I want to use real tulips...what would be cool would be to get that silvery quality that they have just before they fall apart. How's that for a comment on being in one's 50's?

This is my first blog

Well, after much hemming and hawing (mostly hawing) I have gotten into the rhythm of drawing daily. I have recently completed a painting to include with four others in a faculty exhibit at Newbury College, Brookline, MA.  I have dabbled in watercolors, acrylics and oil for years. The only really consistent work I have done is my sketch book. I am hoping that by painting one ala prima painting daily, I shall start to see development in my work and can take myself seriously as an artist.

I guess I should write about the work.  The first drawing is a of a silk parrot tulip as seen from above. The floor below and behind it is a dark walnut stained oak floor. I find myself drawing wood grain frequently.   I was mostly intent on defining the flower and creating some depth within a rather tight greyscale range. My sketches are mostly notes I think...I do them in preparation to paint. I am generally looking down or down and away (45 dgree angle) This is habitual.Perhaps I'll change it. Michael Naples painted the back of a gerbia daisey...a delightful and interesting painting.

Yesterday I drew the gourds and knitting wool. I may or may not paint it, though I believe I will paint the tulip. I have started to work with textures. My earlier work was not as concerned with the textures of my subject matter.

The onion is an old pastel I did a couple of years ago...I still like it. I especially love pastels as a preliminary to painting. It is much like painting in as much as you are laying down layers to support layers that will be applied later. One also works from the dark to the light, mass to detail.