Seated Figure in Red 1; Gestures in Gold and Purple

Seated Figure in Red 1 is pan pastels, ink and Tombow marker on approximately 8" x 8" sanded paper.

Drawn from life, Tuesday morning.

Gestures in Gold and Purple is pan pastel over ink and Tombow marker with brush and water on 9" x 12" watercolor paper.

Three-minute poses.   Drawn from life, Tuesday morning.





 ____________________________

NATURE WATCH:

A doe full of promise.

Seated Woman in Ink; Storing Drawings

SEATED WOMAN IN INK

Drawn from life in 2006, ink on 18"x24" white drawing paper.

One of my favorite drawings from life.

                                                 

STORING DRAWINGS

We are scheduled to have a house guest in June, so it's time to organize and stow some artwork away.  That way, our guest gets enough space to be comfortable.

I want to store the papers flat, ideally in portable, sturdy and inexpensive containers. 

My latest idea for portable, relatively cheap storage for my drawings are the acid-free cardboard boxes sold to store things like wedding gowns in.

I bought four archival boxes from The Container Store for this purpose. I've assembled the boxes--easily done, once I  ignored the instructions, with their Tabs A and B and C.   The boxes are fine for the purpose.

But I still need an even larger box, for my widest pieces.  It appears that a business called PrintFile has boxes that meet storage needs for my larger drawings.  And the boxes are sturdier, with metal reinforced corners.  Problem approaching solution, yippee!

                                                                

NATURE WATCH:  

Sometimes, deer bed down in our meadow.

Green/Yellow; Gestures on Brown Paper; Daniela Rossell (Ricas y Famosas)

Drawn from life, different days, different models.

Green/Yellow is black ink over Tombow marker with brush and water, on watercolor paper, about 5"x8".

Gestures on Brown Paper is drawn from one-minute poses.  Charcoal on cut open shopping bag

                                                  

SFMOMA, where I found some Lichtenstein imagery for my last post, has a fascinating feature:  Short video interviews with artists.

Check out  Daniela Rossell, on her book of photographs, Ricas y Famosas and on femininity, to get you started.  Gorgeous photos and interesting genesis for her project.

I now have a copy of  Ricas y Famosas.  The photos are gorgeous and the context of the work is much clearer.  The photos, taken together, are about wealth in Mexico; how the very very rich live.  Rossell is a member of this privileged group.  The photos started with close friends and family and grew from there.  The subjects decided how and where and with what they would be photographed.

Purple/Red; The Lichtenstein Retrospective

Purple/Red:  

Drawn from life, two weeks ago, in Chicago.

Tombow marker and pastel on watercolor paper, 8"x8".

The Lichtenstein Retrospective:

While I was in Chicago, I attended the members preview of the Roy Lichtenstein retrospective at the Art Institute.

I was familiar, of course, with his pop art cartoon images painted large.  Like Andy Warhol's soup cans, Marilyns and Maos, these are works that have enlarged the vocabularies of fine art and commercial art and are part of popular culture.

Like Warhol, Lichtenstein had fine art training.  Over his long career, he painted and sculpted in many different styles and was able to return to certain themes repeatedly, each time with greater maturity and skill.

This is a fascinating exhibit.  I recommend you visit it, if you get the chance.
For Lichtenstein bio, see wikipedia.

For fun, click on some samples of Lichtenstein's unique takes on famous artworks,   here and here and here  and here

Nature watch:  Check out the photos at my other blog.

Flower Seller on a Cool Morning (Work in Progress)

Update:  One thing I'm thinking of is changing the composition to enlarge the bouquet, so that it fills the upper right quadrant of the painting, something like the mock-up, above.

Below, is the painting as it looks, now.  Still a work in progress.

I'm going to put it aside for awhile and then re-evaluate the composition.

 


Flower Seller on a Cool Morning: oil paint on 30"x40" canvas. Still a work in progress.

 Meanwhile, be sure to check out the swimming turtle, on my other blog.

Sleeping in Gold and Purple; Artists and Model

This week, I was in Chicago and got the chance to visit Palette & Chisel .

These sketches were drawn from life, at P& C's open studio, May 14.

P&C conducts an outstanding open studio, with natural north light and superb ventilation.   I was traveling and brought only small sketchbooks and a few pens and pan pastels.  But the studio is well designed for oils.

Sketch is on watercolor paper, about 5"x8"

Sleeping in Gold and Purple is pan pastels, ink, Tombow marker, brush and water.


               * * *
Nature watch:
I haven't seen any fawns yet, this season.  But here's a snapshot of last year's model.

Woman in Smoke

Drawn from life, in 2011.  On four pieces of Bristol paper, each 11"x14", total 22"x 28".

Tombow marker, brush and water.

I did Woman in Smoke the same morning as this.

About the smoke:   I was letting my  pen and brush play.  The title came after.

Body in Motion

Drawn from life, charcoal on 18"x24" paper.   Gestures.

One of my favorite life drawings.

Even though lovely model and good drawing needn't go together, in this case it all worked for me, and I had a big enough piece of paper to capture my response.


The charcoals in this are mixed, some soft willow that I wiped a bit to produce the shadowy figures, some harder charcoal stick and some sharpened charcoal pencil.

Pink/Blue

Drawn from life, this morning.

Pastel over Tombow marker on watercolor paper, about 3"x5".

 I just got a few new Diane Townsend pastels, three of which I used here..

This drawing has a watery, swimming feel, which has made me think of going back to painting swimmers in water.  I don't think I'll be suiting up, though, like the painters here.

Brown/Blue 1; Seated Figure in Green; Gesture Orange

These three drawings are each on 5"x8" watercolor paper, sketched this morning, from life.  The middle drawing is cropped to about 5" square.

These are posted in reverse order of drawing, so that the top drawing is the last one I drew, the bottom is the first drawing of the day.  I arrived very late and couldn't stay to the end, so these three drawings were all I did.   I think one can really tell with this group that I got more into it as I drew.

Sleeping Blue; Seated Red; Gesture Red

 "Sleeping Blue" and "Seated Red" drawn this morning, from life.

Sleeping Blue is Tombow marker with water and brush and pastel on 5"x8" watercolor paper.

Seated Red is Tombow marker with water and brush and black ink on about 5"x7" watercolor paper.

Finally, "Gesture Red" was drawn yesterday morning.  A male model.  One minute pose.  Tombow marker with water and brush  and black ink on 5"x8" watercolor paper.