Portrait w/charcoal, watercolor and graphite

2013/First Post

So, this is a watercolor I did about four years ago.  I worked from a charcoal drawing I'd done about three or four years prior to this rendering.  It's a favorite of mine and many family members; it suggests or reminds us of a particularly challenging and stressful period during which medical treatments, hospitals, and hope saturated our lives.  That hope and treatment brought rewards and viewing this image rekindles a place of strength, warmth, optimism and successfully pushes worry to the side while it's delicacy acknowledges that we are all frail when living in time.
Although I've been silent here for just about a month I've spent time working on several larger pieces.  I've not neglected the art but have not done much of a job recording my activities.  That will change in the days to come!  I have lots of work to present and will, I hope, have lots to say about it, too.
Oh, and the image above is one I'm hoping will displayed in a local figurative show which opens shortly.

Report: Page Seven (Is this all you've done all summer?!)

Untitled
Watercolor/charcoal/gouache on paper
18" x 24"

Haven't been here for a few days.  Away at the beach gathering shell subjects and swimming, reading and doing some occasional sketchbook drawings.  The picture above was done maybe in June I think.  On a side note I've become (this will be of no interest to anyone I imagine-so the self assessment which follows must be proof positive of its accuracy) a Morrissey fan to the exclusion of just about all other music I listen to while working.  Who does that other than an obsessive, groupie sort of personality which I fear, at my "advanced age", I have become!!  Wish I had discovered him and The Smith's twenty-plus years ago!
On the subject of painting, particularly the piece above, I'm reminded to suggest to myself again and again:  "thing slowly, paint fast".

Blue Figure

Watercolor, charcoal and gouache on cardboard
2010

Landscape: watercolor and ink

Detail from sketchbook drawing

Three recent figure pictures

Watercolor on paper
5"x6"

Watercolor and ink on board
4"x4.5"

Watercolor and gouache
on foam board
4.5"x 7"

Beach @ Rockport

20" x 30" watercolor on board.  I don't think I've posted this before.   (Maybe I ought to keep track??)  I did it several years ago; the location is a favorite subject mostly because the beach is beautiful, the water always very cold even in August, and I spend far too little time there!  The board got damp in my studio so it has deteriorated and the image is smudged, maybe even has a bit of mold on it.  So, I'll return to Rockport during the summer and make this again and do a better job of storing it, I hope.

Lonely

My oldest daughter has this picture hanging in her home.  Watercolor on paper.  She named it.

Sketchbook

#41

Something new

Faces

Oil on canvas

Watercolor, gouache, charcoal on paper

Watercolor and charcoal on paper

I cropped these from some larger pieces.  Just wanted to study the faces without the distraction of whatever surrounds them.  To suggest that the face is most suggestive of mood (subject's and/or picture-maker's) is, well, almost silly, huh?  Body language is suggestive but the face...well.

Two pieces

Figure

Sketchbook/Conway/Fall

I'm working on a picture of the scene represented by the two ink drawings at the bottom and have been using them (and the exercise of doing them) to understand the value possibilities and where I'd like to head with color, too. I took some photos one day while driving around Conway and Ashfield and have decided to try and do a series of watercolor pictures. Above them is a watercolor sketch of that scene; the other an ink and watercolor sketch of another piece I plan to do.

She reminds me of Wyeth's Helga

Wyeth, in something that I recall reading, referred to himself as making abstract work. That may or may not be a difficult self-observation for some to swallow. I can see it, I think; his work was so amplified, super-real at times, that it seems he went beyond duplicating what was before him. The lines (which of course don't exist in the observable world) that he was required to make to construct the image expressed a quality in the subject separate from the subject itself. I think that is abstraction. When I made this I was attuned to what I felt; an energy, attitude or emotion, an ethereal expression.

Quick brush; pushing to be expressive...maybe this is where I will "settle" my work?

I've been making a conscious effort to be loose with my brushes and, to the extent I remain committed to that objective while I work on something, to also simplify lines, curves and "definition" by making quick gestures. Trouble is, sometimes I find myself putting layer after layer of stuff on (no examples of that here). Maybe if I don't post the "layered" work I'll stop doing it!! Unlikely. Anyway, here are some life drawing images in watercolor and gouache.

Just fun!

Self-portraits, flowers, buildings, model

Spring/Renewal/Growth/Change

The top four pieces were done within the last week or so and are clearly a departure from most all of my previous painting. They are a combination of water media: transparent watercolor and opaque media. The figure in a wrap (charcoal) was done just a few weeks ago at the Sunday morning life drawing group I attend. The second figure was done at the same venue but about six weeks ago. The pastel road/woods/field scene was completed during the spring of 2007 and I just photographed it to scan the other day. It is a location I particularly enjoy in Shelburne Falls. When the weather is good I like to set up my easel on location and either paint or work with pastel.

The abstract/subjective works were based on sketches I did previously; I posted two examples just prior to this posting. I haven't worked in that fashion too often, that is, to prepare something of a preliminary rendering to execute in another medium. The techniques used in one medium don't necessarily translate easily in another! So, I took some liberties....and why not, it's my work, huh?