Lemon and Empty Vase

Lemon and Empty Vase

The flowers weren’t placed in the vase. Instead they were left to die in front of the lemon. I’m not sure of the strategy behind this still life, but I painted it today, anyway.

18”x 14” Acrylic on canvas panel

Other Painters

Other Painters

I did pastel drawings of a still life today, a couple of times. I even did some sketches of the same still life earlier in the day. But I still had time later in the session to sketch others in the studio. They were more interesting than any of my versions of the still life I’d set up for today. Their still life’s must have been more interesting. Or maybe they were sketching each other too.

14”x 11” Patel pencil on 70# paper

Coffee and the Others Again

Coffee and the Others Again

This is the second attempt at the same still life I showed in the previous post. I moved a bit, to a slightly different vantage point and started again. This time I didn’t do an under drawing. I laid out shapes in color, and continued to move the colors around, until the still life looked finished, and a little more alive.

17”x 14” Pastel on Bristol paper. I forgot to sand.

Coffee Fruit Bucket

Coffee Fruit Bucket

This was the first of two pastels I did today, of the same still life set up. The models weren’t very interesting at all. The fruit wasn’t even real, just plastic look-a-likes. There was no drama raised by any of them. They posed in silence, all day long.

I did an under drawing for this attempt, before applying color. I think this contributed to a stiff, sort of dead appearance. It should have been enough for a still life. But it didn’t turn out as well as the second attempt, being shown in a future post.

17”x 14” Pastel on sanded Bristol paper

Coffee, Others and Some Life

Coffee, Others and Some Life

I did some pastel drawings of a still life today. Before I brought out the pastels, I did the sketch above too. It started as a preliminary sketch to assess the subjects being interviewed, viewing their best angle and such. It was early in the morning. I was a little bored, not looking forward to looking at the dead objects, for the rest of the day.

I was envisioning these explorers coming upon the huge coffee pot, and mug, and turned over bucket, and plastic fruit, maybe in some vault a few million years ago. Unfortunately the two heads, of a scale in between, in the background, became difficult to explain. So I started over and did the boring sketch below.

14”x 11” Graphite on 70# paper

Frozen Ageless Time

Frozen Ageless Time

A view I remember

It always looks the same

A lifetime flows through

The life

I lived

Would live

And eventually will

Contemplated each time

I stand looking out

Into the light

The frozen lake

The steel grey sky

There

Only for me

Painted today from memory. Memories of standing alone looking out over Lake Huron in winter, to the islands within view from the edge of a familiar rocky shore.

Some years I made it to this same shore, to see the lake frozen out as far as these islands. This year I’m told the lake hasn’t frozen, yet.

Seen through the eyes when once a child, and now as an old man. The view remains ageless; as do the ageless thoughts the view evokes each time, even if only now, in my mind.

18”x12” Watercolor on 140# cold press

Model "R" On Saturday

Model “R” On Saturday

I attended the Saturday morning drop in life drawing session this morning. Here are some drawings of a few of his poses today.

All: 18”x 24” Charcoal on pretty good paper

Sculpture in Hiding

Sculpture in Hiding

This doodle came to me while sitting on a stool in the studio where I eventually spent the day painting “T”. I was early, and “T” showed up late.

My thoughts were in the past, back when actively practicing architecture. I was thinking about facades and sculptures, and hidden urban spaces created on paper, never to be built.

I included a bit of the binder rings at the top of the page when photographing this. They seemed to add to the sketch.

3.5”x 5” Ink on card stock

Model "T" Study

Model “T” Study

I spent the day painting “T”, starting with this study from an hour pose. Then she posed for the rest of the day. I like the study better than where I ended the day on the main pose. I included the painting in progress below. I’ll be working toward finishing it next week when “T” will be in the same pose for another day.

The other character in the painting below is a mannequin that decided to posed with “T”. She will be back too. I think I might have finished the painting today, if I hadn’t included the mannequin. I’m not sure she helps the composition. She does add to the story though, if I come up with one.

Above: 12”x 12” Acrylic on canvas pad

Below: 24”x 18” Acrylic on stretched canvas

Explanation and Wonder

Explanation and Wonder

I’m not sure where she went

The last time she’d had enough

The explanation

When she returned

Didn’t include places

I guess I’ll always wonder

Of this void in time

Probably the same place

She’s going to now

And another doodle conceived and completed as it is, in the same waiting room, from a number of days ago. I’m not sure who she is or why she is here. Guess I just didn’t want to ignore her now.

5” x 3.5” ink on card stock.

Discovered

Discovered

You probably remember when they smiled

Maybe said your name

Putting you in some form of record

Kept for histories sake

In case you drop below the surface

Don’t stay afloat

The times you came to the surface

Has it been that long

maybe the body of water

wasn’t the same as mine

maybe I missed

when you surfaced again

maybe you never did

Discovered at the end

Isn’t the same

Another doodle, probably followed “Port Nowhere”. Must have been where my head was that day in a waiting room.

3.5”x 5” ink on card stock. 

Port Nowhere

Port Nowhere

Another doodle sketch while waiting in a waiting room a few days ago. The place, and the boat sort of emerged out of nowhere. I wasn’t thinking consciously about such things at the time. It might turn into a future painting. Some of these doodles do.

5”x 3.5” Ink on card stock

Model "M" Firelight

Model “M” Firelight

Yesterday in the evening I drew from a costumed model. “M” posed wearing what she wears when she goes hiking and camping in national parks. She mentioned some she used to visit. She did some short poses with a pack on her back and a long walking stick. Then she posed for over an hour with firelight in her face.

Above is my drawing of the long pose. A spotlight was placed on the floor in front of her and shined up into her face to simulate her sitting in front of a campfire.

Below is a page of sketches of some of her shorter poses, used to warm up.

19”x 24” Charcoal and white chalk on steel grey colored paper. 

Model "MA" Between Dances

Between Dances

Between the dances in her life

She now sits sometimes

to rest

She used to stand

waiting for the next song

She used to have partners

waiting in line

Not giving her the time

Between the dances the partner

The one with her most of her life

He would insist she sit down

Not able to keep up with her

Later in life

Now she dances

mostly alone

Sits sometimes between

Remembering when there wasn’t

So much time

between the songs

She is actually posing in all the images on the page. The seated pose, the one I developed a little more, just happens to be “MA” in a sitting pose. It was a bit longer pose than the others.

There are many more drawings of “MA” on my blog. I have drawn her many times.

24”x 19” Charcoal and chalk on steel grey colored paper

Model "MA" Sitting Down

Transition

It goes slowly

Seems to last forever

Living in the moment

Drawing their attention

And then

It’s a memory

The transition

Seems to happen

Overnight

Sitting and waiting

Too much time for

Reflections in the mirror

Waiting it seems

To live in the moment

Again

Knowing the reflections

Draw more memories

Now

Than attention

This morning “MA” posed for a number of mostly quick sketches I did. The one included here reminded me of some of her poses from a year ago. I took some of the sketches I had done of her then and compiled them into a drawing, along with images of younger women. It was placed in a May 1, 2011 post titled “

Transition".

I had placed her with images of women she might have looked like, when she was very young. The words above were included in that post. I was remembering the previous drawing and the words. It is a little odd, how the smallest gesture, like “MA” sitting down, can spark a memory of these obscure thoughts, both the words and where she sat.

24”x 18” Sanguine on 65# paper

Coffee with a Doll

Coffee with a Doll

This morning the coffee pot and cup proposed their intent to be a still life. Others noted a lack of interest drawing or painting only the two. They wanted more life and excitement for the still life today. A couple of oranges were suggested. There were a few in the studio waiting to be interviewed. Then the doll showed up, out of nowhere, as dolls always seem to do, and of course, got the part.

Those artists not mesmerized by the doll, took the oranges and a bottle of wine and created their own setting, in another part of the studio.

I of course stayed with the doll, mainly for the potential title.

But in time the doll wasn’t as colorful as expected. I admit my loyalty was tested. I ended up drawing the “Wine and Oranges” too.

14”x 17” Pastel on sanded Bristol paper

Wine and Oranges

Wine and Oranges

I did this still life later in the day today. The oranges initially auditioned for another setting with a coffee pot and mug, earlier in the morning. They were dismissed for a doll that showed up and mesmerized a few of the artists in the studio, including me.

It wasn’t till later I realized the doll was not as colorful as the oranges.  I left the doll as soon as she was drawn in and did the drawing above too.

17”x 14” Pastel on sanded Bristol paper

Sixty One

Sixty One

A place visited often

Memories like this

Still exist

Though I was young

in the summer

Or spring

Revisited in middle age

Even more when starting over

In the time between

Now at sixty one

The place I see in winter

A place I know I will visit

Again when feeling even older

Than I feel now

I painted this from a doodle I had quickly sketched earlier in the morning, in a doctor’s waiting room. I was the driver, not the patient, so I had time to do a number of these doodles.

The painting took place later in the day, followed by the words.

I find myself escaping to this place I remember though I’ve never been there before in winter. At sixty-one, a place I think I would like better now with snow.

18”x 12” Watercolor on 140# cold press

Sixty One the First

Sixty One the First

A doodle from this morning while waiting. It reflects one of the images that started floating around in my head last week soon after I turned sixty-one. 

5”x 3.5” Ink on card stock

Floating

Floating

A conversation without words is taking place. She floats in her world, understood by all. I wish this sort of conversation were as easy for me.

Some preliminary sketches that sort of floated along, not going anywhere.

12”x 18” charcoal and chalk on the back of another drawing. 

Observers Between

Observers Between

I feel like I’m between

Looking where I’ve been

As everything evaporates

No longer including me

Now only memories

And where I’m going

Through those older than me

Experiencing now

What is beginning to include me

Between what I had

And what would not

Happen to me

The doodle took place during a conversation on the phone, earlier today. I’m not sure I should admit all my attention was not on the conversation.

The water appeared and then the buildings and then all these observers joined me to observe what I was remembering.

3.5”x 3.5” Ink on graph paper

Model "S" Sitting

Sitting

Looking into the distance

Enclosed within four walls

Shades down for privacy

Of anyone passing by

A tack in the wall

The back of a pad

Mounted in on an easel

The bald head of the guy

Peaking for a moment

Then drawing like mad

Sitting

Contemplating her place

In the world

Or maybe

Just holding on

Waiting for the time

to pass

For her next break

I attended the drop in life drawing session this morning to draw “S”. Above are from some of the poses “S” provided while sitting on the stage and then on a stool on the stage. The top drawing is from a thirty-minute pose. the others two were each fifteen minutes long.

Until fairly recently I would describe the thoughts I have while drawing from a model. There used to be this interaction, this conversation, completely with myself that I had when drawing them. I’m not sure I have the same interaction now. I’m not sure when it went away. It happened, I think,  about the time I started drawing from a model, almost every day.

Now the conversation I have is usually the same with each of them. I think about where the shadows are, where I want to show an edge or change a value. Before I was thinking more about who each of these models were, what they were thinking, even if I was making up who they might be, knowing I would probably not get to know them much more than what I observed.

The sitting poses above each deserve a story of some kind. There should be a better reason for the drawing, the time taken to pose, than to just create a likeness, a representation of what I saw.

Maybe the drawings are enough? Maybe the emotions, the drama, the story for each of them, should be left alone? Or maybe as the artist, I shouldn’t interfere with how each drawing is seen and felt by everyone else.

All drawings are 18”x 24” Sanguine on pretty good paper. 

Model "S" Stretching

Model “S” Stretching Out

Above are drawings of the two poses “S” provided today when she stretched out on the stage. They were drawn this morning at a drop in life drawing session.

Other drawings of “S” are in the post above.

Both: 18”x 24” Sanguine on 80# paper

Model "D" Second Week

Model “D” Second Week

I did another painting of “D” in the same pose she was in last week. The painting is from a slightly different vantage point in the studio. She looks more like her, in today’s effort.

16”x 20” Acrylic on canvas panel

Back Story

Back Story

She went to him

Cried on his shoulder

I watched him fall for her

Caving to her tears

And remembered

When we all were young

The stories she would tell

That only I believed

A true doodle sketch, almost. I did start this, sketching the back of a demonstrator’s head. He was showing off, doing a painting of “J”. (See previous posts from the day)

3.5”x 5” Ink on card stock

Following

Following

I’ve decided this is a doodle sketch too. There was a woman modeling in the studio. But when the mustache began to form, I let the model off the hook and sketched instead a man being followed by himself.

3.5”x 5” Ink on card stock

Within

Within

I know what she’s thinking

I can see the screen

Within her head

Her thoughts are playing on

They are so clear

Almost a projection of light

Against a dark cloud

Floating above her head

Standing up to the world

Has to be the theme playing out

Followed by running away

As a hooded reaper

From within

Sucks away the cloud

And the light

Within

Has nothing

To shine upon

This is not technically a doodle. I was actually sketching her, a woman watching a demonstration from the other side of the studio. I couldn’t imagine all her thoughts being on the demonstration. Mine certainly were not.

3.5”x 5” Ink on card stock

Model "J" Quick Portrait

Model “J” Quick Portrait

This portrait of “J” was drawn a few days ago, in pastel. She had been posing all day, but it was in the last two hours this quick study was done. I did spend the morning watching “J” pose. Below are a couple of the small sketches I did while watching someone else paint her.

Top: 19”x 24” Pastel on sanded Bristol paper

Below: 3.5”x 5” ink on card stock

Model "P" Evening Dog Man

Model “P” Evening Dog Man

I don’t have a good explanation for this. “P” created the costume for this drawing session. He was wearing the skulls and some of the other bones from dead dogs he had found, obviously a long time ago. He also had made and was wearing a skeleton of wire, plastic tubes and metal that trailed down his back into a long tail. And you might notice also some elbow pads and gloved claws.

The claws on his feet I made up. But the rest was all included in his pose.

Okay, I made up the skeleton dog in his hand too. He had to be traumatizing something. 

24”x 19” Charcoal and chalk on steel gray colored paper

Model "P" In the Morning

Model “P” In the Morning

Yesterday in the morning I did some drawings of “P”. Above was from his longest pose.

24”x 19” Charcoal and chalk on steel gray colored paper

Jug and Lemon

Jug and Lemon

I’m not sure why they are together by themselves in this still life. I’m sure there are others who wanted to pose with them. But here they are, by themselves, sort of in their own desert, alone.

14”x 18” Acrylic on canvas panel

A Following

A Following

There are a lot of them

More every day

I see them

I feel them

When words are heard

Something they once said

When music is played

A poem is read

When the guilt is high

When I’m tired

Of doing the right thing

I image them like this

With nothing else to do

Maybe drinking a little wine

Waiting for me to fix

What I just did

One of many doodles while waiting again. They began to appear as I sketched. I couldn’t get them all in. They gathered for a group portrait, but I missed some of them.

I miss all of them.

There are so many more of them now, to remember.

3.5”x 5” Ink on card stock

Sixty First Find

Sixty First Find

The time of year

The time in life

It just came to me

Where I should be

A few days from now

Even if I don’t

Actually go

I finally found a way

The place

Anytime

The sixty first find

Why has it taken

So dam long

I did do a sketch to determine what I was seeing in my head, before painting this. The painting continued to evolve as I mostly guessed where to save the white areas on the paper. I attempted using wax again, with mixed results.

I do like where the painting took me, and how easy it was to finally escape to a place I wouldn’t mind being, even if I’m not.

15”x 11” Watercolor on 140# cold press