Pastel Woman (2007)

Pastel on paper, about 20"x25". Drawn from life.

I've been away from the internet, taking lots of photos and seeing new things. One place I visited was Santa Fe, which is full of artists and art galleries and, at this time of year (the Indian Market time), full of people shopping for Southwestern art. (I wasn't shopping--just happened to visit at the same time.) As I get a chance, I'll share some of the sights and experiences.

The light in Santa Fe is amazing. Our host told us that Mabel Dodge Luhan, a wealthy Eastern transplant to New Mexico who became a famed patroness of the arts in Taos, is said to have demanded "Why was I not informed of this?" when she first laid eyes on the Southwest.

Man at the Museum (work in progress)

This is my start on a 12"x16" oil painting inspired in part by a recent visit to the Norton Simon Museum.

Tuesday's drawings

These are drawings from this past Tuesday, the last uninstructed modeling workshop of the quarter at Art Center. Once again, these were poses in the 5 to 15 minute range. The drawings are on 18"x24" paper, each figure occupying about a quarter of that space. The first two images are of graphite drawings; the last three images are of ink drawings.

I am glad I took this summer to focus on quick drawings from life. In the fall, I want to focus on longer poses from life, the so-called painting poses, where the model returns to the same pose throughout the entire modeling session.

Head and Hand

This is a 12"x12" oil on canvas that I painted this morning from an old black and white photo.

It's a painting with no white. Winsor yellow, Naphthol red and Ultramarine blue were on my palette.

Seated Man and Seated Woman

These are two drawings I did from life in 2008 at Spring Studio in New York.

At the Stables (work in progess continues)

I did some painting this morning. So I'm posting what I did, and now will give this painting a rest and look at it later to reassess. It's time to get some other paintings going.

On an unrelated topic, except that it involves rocks, as does this painting, I recently saw the eagle in Eagle Rock. It was about noon and I was a passenger in a car headed up Figueroa and onto the 134 freeway west, and I looked up at the big boulder and saw why it is called Eagle Rock! Small mystery solved.

Sleeping Woman (2006)

This is a charcoal drawing, done from life, on 18"x24" paper.

We've been talking recently, in the comments section of the previous post, about models falling asleep while posing. For this pose, at least, it was entirely appropriate.