Tara at an Exhibition

Tara at an Exhibition

One of our favorite Tuesday Night Drawing Group models, the multi-talented Tara, was fabulous performance art at the CCA (Center for Contemporary Arts) inaugural Art Bank exhibit. This is a piece of art of her art at the art exhibit. 

Spikey Hair

A favorite model returned this week, after a brief-but-too-long absence, with her awesome spikey hair and nice poses. 

Holly at Betterday

Friend and fellow Tuesday Night Drawing Group regular, Holly Grimm, has a beautiful exhibit of pastel landscapes at Betterday Coffee in the Solano Center on West Alameda Street (Santa Fe).

The images range from impressionistic to abstract, all featuring beautifully clean colors and color harmonies that reflect her skill as an artist in general, and specifically as a colorist.

The exhibit opened Friday, December 9 and will remain up for the month. 

Holly Grimm at the opening reception for Color Spree, her exhibit of pastel landscapes at Betterday Coffee Shop.

Open Drawer

Drawer Draws Man on Stool with Open Drawer

Hair Flow

Hair Flow
Digital print on paper
18 x 18 inches

A favorite Tuesday night model. Original charcoal life drawing, scanned and digitally enhanced, printed on paper.

Woman on a Stool

Woman on a Stool
22 x 12 inches

A charcoal drawing of one of our favorite Tuesday Night models, scanned and shaded digitally.

Oil portrait

Is just me, or is oil more colorful than charcoal? I've been trying to find time to get back to the studio and paint, but unexpected freelance projects keep showing up. Even so, I at least have been able to use pliers to force open some neglected tubes of oil paint and splash some color on canvas.

Oil portrait, detail

Cosplay at CCA

Santa Fe's Center for Contemporary Arts will host a special drawing event Saturday, October 29. Cosplay (short for "Costume Play") involves people dressing as their favorite comic book characters. This makes the third annual Fall special drawing event hosted by CCA. 

Visit the CCA website to learn more or to pay in advance and reserve a spot:

www.ccasantafe.org/visual-arts/public-programs/807-drawing-on-cosplay 

October Poses

Recent poses from our Tuesday Night Drawing group.  

Studio Stool

Over-the-Shoulder Gaze

A Gourd for Fall

Curly Hair

Woman with Curly Hair
Charcoal on Newsprint
24 x 18

Nose Bleed

Several drawings from recent Tuesday Night Drawing Groups.

Woman with Nose Bleed

Red Cloth

Arm Shadows

Hair and Back

Woman with Red Shoes

Cape

Standing Pose

Two Pillows

Woman On Two Pillows
32" x 28"
Print on Paper

In a drawing group, your view of the pose is pure chance, determined by where you set up and the model's position. With most poses, there's seldom an uninteresting viewpoint, no matter where you've set up. With some models, the pose always seems classic, from anywhere in the room.

Back in Santa Fe

Back in Santa Fe after three weeks in Japan and several days in Seoul, South Korea. Last night I passed out Japanese souvenirs to the Tuesday Night Drawing Group artists: sushi erasers and small notebooks from the 100 Yen Store in Tokyo (100 yen equals one dollar, or close enough). Just one more reason, I suppose, that the group is getting a reputation for being “notorious,” according to the local rumor mill. Even though the definition of “notorious” typically means famous or well know for some bad quality or deed, it can also include good qualities and deeds. As far as I know, the only qualities of our group that some artists consider “bad” are the non-stop chatter and the background music that happens during (and between) poses. Some artists hate that. Now that I think about it, the group was founded by Eli Levin, and that’s reason enough to be considered “notorious.” Thank you for the inspiration, Eli.  

So Long Seoul

We spent our last day in Seoul walking to bottom of the hill where the Seoul Tower is located, taking a tram to the top of the hill, and going to the top of the tower for 360° views of Seoul. This city is about 100 times larger than I thought. It's divided by the Han River.

While we were visiting the tower and a National Art Museum (an amazing exhibit of Rubens, van Dyck, Brueghel the Younger, Brueghel the Elder, and others), Elizabeth took a tour to the DMZ, the zone that separates South Korea and North Korea. No photos allowed. Darn it.

Walking towards the Seoul Tower.

A tram took us from the bottom of the hill to the Seoul Tower park at the top of the hill.

These chimneys are at the top of the hill, Beacon Hill. 450 years ago they, and others on other hills, were used to communicate warnings of invading armies, just like in the Hobbit movies. This probably where the Hobbits got the idea.

Jimmy stands next to one of many places on Tower Hill where lovers have placed padlocks to symbolize their love. Robin knew about this custom from some of the Korean TV series she has watched at home. Hmm, that looks like an International Shakespeare Center T-shirt.

Jimmy found a love lock for golf. Awwww.

This photo doesn't show it, but, according to a quick count I made, there are at least a billion locks hanging all over the place up here. Hey, where did he get that International Shakespeare Center shirt? It's strange, but I've seen shirts like that everywhere I've gone in Japan and Korea. I guess they really are international.

USA is over that way. We head that way tomorrow afternoon.

The Han River and the rest of Seoul is over there.

A typical Korean couple doing a traditional heart pose in front of stacks of love locks. You'd never catch me doing that.

More locks. After putting a lock up here, it's traditional to throw away the key. I wonder how often an ex-lover comes up here with bolt cutters.

After the Seoul Tower (shown in the background) visit, we took a taxi to the National Museum of Korea.

Relaxing at the Rubens and Other Masters exhibit. This guy insisted on posing with me.

Thai Tea for two. Unfortunately, we didn't know it was for two and in a bucket. That, along with the spicy shrimp, fried chicken and curry, made for some blog material we won't go into at this time.

Signage on a door alerts you that there are no babies, smoking, kissing, dogs, ballet, or guns allowed inside. Just obey the signage and you shouldn't have any problems.

Yesterday in Seoul

We did a lot of walking yesterday. Almost 15 kilometers according to Jimmy's app. And, as usual, we did a lot more and took more photos than I've had time to include in this blog. But that's a good thing. I've shown a lot more food photos than I ever thought I would. Sorry about that.

A giant calligraphy brush bronze sculpture reminds me that I haven't had time to sketch.

After visiting the palace mentioned in a previous blog this morning, we found a market that a friend of Jimmy's told us about. It's a long alley of food shops. You go to an upstairs dining area in the middle of the market and buy a handful of tokens (5,000 won for 10 tokens: approximately $5). You're given a plastic plate and then you stroll through the market picking out food from stands that have a special sign saying they are part of the food deal. Most items cost 2 tokens. Then you take your plate of food back to the upstairs dining area and try to find a place to sit. Or you can eat as you go. 

The dining area was crowded, but we squeezed in.

Items, left to right: don't know, don't know, don't know, WTF, fried chicken, don't know. Very Yummy. 

An hour or two later we found ourselves far from the big city stuff and stopped at a small, very cool looking coffee shop. There was a cool looking guy sitting out front. I almost asked him for a photo, but decided against it. After we relaxed and paid for our coffee, the woman owner gave us a bag of fresh ground coffee and said the guy outside had given it to us. Turns out he's the coffee grinder, an artist, and musician.

Robin asked him to autograph our bag of coffee. I used my Google Translate app to tell him thank you for the coffee.

When in Korea, I like to hang out with cool guys. Jimmy noted that not just anyone can pull off the Lennon-glasses look, but this guy owns it.

The coffee-grinding station in the coffee shop.

Last night we checked out a lot of menu signage as we walked past endless food shops. This is one of the options we passed on. 

We ended up at this small-but-great place located in a small alley across the street from our hotel. Lots of different kinds of fried chicken.

Soul Food in Seoul

After landing at the airport we took a cab to our hotel in the older downtown area of Seoul (the newest downtown area is the Gangham area on the other side of the river from where we are). The Korean lady at the front desk, whose English is better than mine, told us we could find restaurants and bars just several blocks away. After walking through an interesting alley of small cafes we came upon a modern, big-city street, crossed the street, turned down a side street and found the Seoul that  Hollywood location scouts look for. We've realized that in both Japan and Korea, there's at least one restaurant per person. 

We picked a restaurant that featured grilled meat, mostly pork. I didn't get the camera out in time to get an actual photo of meat. The green bottle is soju. We had several of those. Several too many. Very tasty though. Our favorite alcoholic drink.

This building is near our hotel and makes a nice landmark as we roam around the city, day or night. I think it's either an office building or maybe the galactic headquarters of an evil genius.