Maybe Amused

Maybe Amused:

The sketch study above is from a photograph I took last summer at a carnival type fair, that passes through town each year. The woman in sunglasses obviously saw me photographing into the crowd, in her direction. I wonder if the other woman in the distance noticed too? I wonder if either was amused?

16.5”x14” Graphite on pretty good paper. 

Participation

Participation:

The drawing was done a couple of days ago, while taking a break from being with holiday guests. I was getting moody, too much interaction taking place. I escaped up to my studio to draw, for a while.

The reference photo looked pleasant, inviting actually. She either wanted to talk to me, invite me to sit down, or was wanting a refill. I wasn’t comfortable sketching myself in next to her, but ended up being happy with her in the drawing. It would be difficult to stay moody in her presence. I can’t imagine her not being fun. Being with her for a little while was enough for me, to consider participating, being with our guests again.

14”x17” Graphite on mixed media paper

Yesterday or Tomorrow

Yesterday or Tomorrow:

The reference photo for the drawing above was of an artist at an art fair. The fair took place in the fall, a day of grey clouds and drizzling rain, very gloomy, very cold and overcast. I took the photo from a distance as she sat in her booth, behind a jewelry display. I photographed her for the expression on her face. With the crowd flowing past her, she appeared to be somewhere else.

So I sketched her in a landscape away from the crowd, by water, maybe a park somewhere, a place she could be with her memories, or to think about tomorrow. My guess would be memories. I see her feeling alone, missing a partner, a friend, someone who once enhanced her life. She is actively living each day, but tomorrow isn’t as important as it once was. I like the expression on her face. I should have looked at her art, talked to her. I should have done more at the time, then just covertly take a picture.

16.5”x14” colored pencil on paper

Finished

Finished:

The figures in the painting above, I have used before, in almost the same composition. I posted the figures together in August with the title: “No”. Even words were included, sort of a poem.

The other days while working out colors for a larger painting, procrastinating, I painted what is above. I practiced painting figures into a green background. Eventually I worked on the larger painting some more. It was posted last week, titled: “ Trail Dolls”.

I’m not sure why I’m writing this down, maybe only to explain, where the painting above came from.

I became attached to these two once again, and though I didn’t take them further, finishing the other painting instead. 

Where I stopped though, was probably a good place. They both look to have finished dealing with each other. I’m not sure more detail would have helped resolve what is wrong.

12”x12” Acrylic on canvas paper

Passenger

Passenger:

Another sketch playing with colored pencil on a rough pastel paper. The two images are from reference photos of faces, collected a while ago.

The woman was drawn first, looking over her shoulder. When I finished she was alone on the page, but unfortunately she appeared to be moving away from me. I added the stranger in profile and she still appears to be leaving, but no longer on her own. She is following instead, leaving with the mysterious man. She became a follower as I finished, a passenger on someone else’s journey, instead of mine. I guess she was moving away from me all along, even before I started drawing her. I should have known.

At least she looks sad, reluctant to go.

12”x9” Colored pencils on pastel paper

Winter, Ageless Time

Winter, Ageless Time:

The drawing above, sketched the other day, had me thinking about winter, the end of the year, not so long ago, when I was ageless. The connection I guess is her youth, the look, or how I remember wanting what had been missed before the ageless period began. The period between midlife and before starting over again.

9”x12” Colored Pencils on paper

Winter, Ageless Time

There was a place

I’d go in winter

Before starting

Each new year

In the ageless period

After midlife wars

Before the treaty

Or the surrender

Not sure anymore

It lasted many years

When foolish decisions

Had time to recover

What had been ignored

What caused the wars

In the first place

The ageless time

Before who I am now

Trail Dolls

Trail Dolls:

I have decided to stop working on the painting above. I spent more time today, painting over what I had painted a week ago, and in the end, not really changing much. So here it is. I’m finished for now.

I posted the painting the first time, in November without the figures, titled: “Flushing Park Trail” based on reference photos I had taken on the trail back in August.

This is the trail I used to run along back when I was in high school, when on the cross-country team.

Sometimes when running, I used to pretend, no, it was more like a dream. I dreamed I’d meet someone other than another team member running faster then me, or and old guy walking his dog, or anyone, for that matter, other then some trail dolls. I would have been satisfied, just meeting one.

On those days, I was preoccupied, usually wondering why I was on the cross-country team anyway. The football team had cheerleaders, and crowds cheering them on. So I’d come up with trail dolls. I thought of the them being similar to mermaids in the ocean, but living in the woods, not quite human, but almost, congregating together sometimes, to sun where the sun shined through, onto the trail. They would hide just as I reached them, within the shadows of the forest, the trail passed through. I never saw them as I ran, but did like the idea of them, looking out through the foliage at me as I passed. Above is how they must have look before, and again after I was gone.

24”x18” Acrylic on stretched canvas

Model "H" Second Week

Model “H” Second Week:

I did the painting above last Friday morning. “H” was modeling for the Independent Painters Group for the second week in a row. The painting I did of her the first week was posted too, the week before. The painting above was worked on for less then two hours. Usually we have three, but Friday was the last session until next year, and there was a birthday party for one of the member artists who just turned 90. “H” ended up joined in on the party too.

14”x18” Acrylic on canvas board. 

Art Fair

Art Fair:

The woman above is going through photographs at an art fair downtown that took place in September. It was a cold overcast fall day. The sketch is from a reference photo, I took from a distance. I’m not sure why I stopped and took her picture. Maybe it was the stocking cap, or her look, the cast of her eyes? I’m not sure now. But when going through photos to sketch from the other day, she again attracted my attention, over a large stack of people photos, I keep on hand. The sketch above I’m sure will be the extent of our encounter. She is oblivious to me. I don’t exist. Me, I was lost for a moment in her look, thinking about who I might want her to be, in the imaginary world running through, while I sketch. The drawing didn’t take enough time though, not long enough to have much of a story together at all, a moment really for the sketch, and the time to write this down. She was soon forgotten as I picked up another people photo, to sketch another person I’ll never know. This is how fickle I have become.  

7”x12” colored pencil on waxy paper

Model "RD" Last Time This Year

Model “RD” Last Time This Year:

This Morning I attended the last drop in life drawing session at the art center, until after the New Year. “RD” was the model. He has posed for sessions I have attended a lot over the year. I posted drawings of him last on October 28^th, titled “After”. His poses today sort of went with the mood of the day. It was cold, and damp, and grey. A little snow from yesterday morning still showed below the trees. Those that came to draw seemed tired too. And “RD” as healthy as he appears, still after a certain age has a sad-too serious look, that just doesn’t go away. “RD” had the look big time, today.

He held some good poses though. The pose for the top drawing was sort of intense for me, especially since he was looking directly at me, with Picasso type eyes, dark and black.

The sketch above, in the middle, is from a ten-minute sketch, sort of the classic thinker pose. He does the pose at least once in every session. Today I got to draw the pose from behind him.

For the hour pose, I did the drawing at the bottom. Like many of the models lately, when they know the pose will be an hour, they lie down. It doesn’t make sense why they do. They still usually take breaks during these long poses too.

I finished the long pose early. It was the last pose of the day. I left “RD” laying there, thanking him, wishing him and everyone in a sort of whisper, a happy holiday. “RD” remained in his the pose. One or two others still drawing nodded. Others who were packing up too, replied with similar tired whispers as the session ended, as another year of drawing nudes came to a close.

Top: 18”x24” Sanguine on 80# paper

Middle: 18”x24” graphite on the cheep stuff

Bottom 24”x18” Sanguine and colored pencil on 80# paper

Model "R" With Flowers

Model “R” With Flowers:

Today I painted “R” modeling with some flowers. She posed as I have painted her above, for three hours. She took some breaks in between. With her evening gown she looked out of place in the studio. But once I started painting her against the red background, I soon had her in another time and place.

She is at a party where she only knows the date she came with, and he has left her, saying he would return with some wine. It will probably be red. He is gone for three hours, leaving her among the flowers, alone in the crowd, with guests like me staring at her the whole time. She looks very uncomfortable, worried maybe?  I hope I wasn’t the cause.

I like the dated look of this painting, okay maybe the pose. It reminds me of those portraits found in old mansions or castles, above the fireplace, maybe taken further, finished. But “R” only gave me three hours, so you’ll have to use your imagination a little more.

18”x24” Acrylic on canvas board.

Books and Journals

Books and Journals:

A book on seamanship, the third edition of “Architectural Graphic Standards, two journals with mostly blank pages, and a book in the background that I just made up. These books, my willing models, posed today for me. Above is my still-life painting of them. Except for the book to the right, the one I made up, the others regularly look back at me from the bookshelves along the south wall of my studio.

The book on seamanship I read over and over again, especially when I was younger, usually when fed up, planning to sail away someday, after the kids had lives of their own, to be free of the life I was caught up in. But life is much better now. I sail but not to get away. I haven’t looked at a page of the book in years. 

The “Graphic Standards” the third edition was printed in 1946, yes, before I was born. I have later editions too, but the third edition is the best. I open it occasionally, to remember what I once knew so well, and to remember when I enjoyed the profession more.

The journals have a few sketches and some writing in them, but for the most part they are empty. I purchased them about the time I started doing most of my journaling on a computer. I take one or the other with me when traveling still. So there are entries and some sketches with dates that are months and sometimes years apart, at the beginning of each one.

Most of the others books on my shelf, would have modeled too. Many are covered in dust, not touched for years. The stacks of filled journals (before the computers), the novels, the art books, the rest; they aren’t neglected, nor forgotten or ignored. I wish they believed me. I think of them often, remembering how much of who I am, came from them. I’ve just said this too them, again…

But they weren’t picked for the painting above. I avoid now, looking at the south wall of my studio. The painting, I am storing, already, in another room, until the south wall stops feeling so cold. 

20”x16” Acrylic on canvas board 

Best Model With a Distraction

Best Model with a Distraction:

I decided to go ahead and add myself to the drawing of my best model after all. It has been tacked to the wall of my studio since I posted her on November 27^th. She looked quite happy on the page, all by herself. But as usual (she will say) I couldn’t just leave her that way.

The drawing is from two separate reference photos taken in late August, on the same day. We took photos of each other, with Niagara Falls roaring in the background. I didn’t include the Falls in the drawing, thinking I was more then enough of a distraction, to a pretty good drawing of a beautiful wife.

17”x 14” Graphite on pretty good paper

Model "J" Routine

Model “J” Routine:

Yesterday morning I was at the Saturday drop in life drawing session. The model was “J”. She followed the same routine, with two minute gestures at the beginning, to warm up, some ten and fifteen minute poses in the middle and longer poses at the end. The day was overcast and cold. The studio seemed subdued, not a lot of talking. Classical music played in the background and “J” went through the routine. I don’t think us attending the session were really looking for much more.

The top drawing was from a ten-minute pose. I wish the pose had been longer. It was sort of dramatic. It ended too soon.

The second was from an hour pose. I struggling with foreshortening.

The rest of the drawings I did yesterday were even less exciting.

Top: 24”x18” Sanguine on cheap paper

Second: 18”x24” Sanguine and colored pencil on 80# paper

Model "H" A Portrait

Model “H” A Portrait:

This morning I painted with the Independent Painters Group. The studio was full. “H” posed sitting on the stage. A typical three-hour session took place today. Above is where I was when the session ended. She will be in the same pose next week. I’ll probably do another painting of her, if I can find another place in the crowded studio, to have a different view.

16”x20” Acrylic on canvas board 

Escape

Escape:

The drawing is imagery from my head, sketched out and expanded on, a dream I woke from, this time put down on paper, before letting it fade away. I usually don’t get up and draw in time after a dream wakes me. Instead I grab a book and read half the night, to make the thoughts go away, thinking once the image is gone, I’ll be able to go back to sleep. And in the case above, the story, if there was one, it drifted away as I was drawing, making me think I should have written out the vision, rather then sketched. Very little of the drawing is what was in the dream. The hanging woman and some faces is what I remember. The woman was hanging as the faces passed by. No one was helping her down. The rest appeared as I was sketching. The figure behind the hanging woman (Some hero, maybe I, cutting the woman down), the hand in front, and the hint of shelters behind, all came after.

I’ve been told by more successful artists then I, when showing similar sketches, that if I were to take these sketches the next step, into a painting; the paintings would be much more successful, if I didn’t include a story or explanation, especially like the one above. The mystery of what an artist is thinking is better usually then the facts. So, as I want to be more successful, no more can be said.

I will note, however, that the title is misleading, as the hero is obviously rescuing the woman in the middle. And though rescuing leads to escape, it’s not the same as escaping on her own. The days of the man saving the damsel in distress are not past yet, especially in a crowd of idiots. The faces, they probably didn’t help, for fear of being chastised in the scenario above, for not letting the woman figure out how to escape by herself. I don’t know. It didn’t happen in the dream, at least not before I woke.

9”x12” graphite on good paper. 

Guys on Stools

Guys on Stools:

The top two drawings are of poses the model “JO” posed for earlier in November. I’m not sure why I didn’t post them then. The third is of “S” a few weeks ago posing on a stool too.

The bottom is me not posing, but being photographed, while painting “Empty” a still life I posted a few weeks ago. I was sitting on a stool too, in a different studio, minding my own business, when a better artist then me snapped the picture.

I didn’t draw or paint today. I didn’t do much of anything, including think. This doesn’t explain the guys on stools, or maybe it does?

Top: 24”x18” Sanguine on 80# paper

2^nd: 18”x24” pastel and white chalk on colored pastel paper

3^rd: 18”x24” Graphite on flimsy paper