Unfinished Petunia

Practicing for Thursday’s plein air painting outing.

Magenta Petunias, unfinished
Oil on canvas

Scott Again

One of the many poses provided by semi-regular model Scott at last week’s drawing session.

Q: Is it a pose or a break between poses?
A: It’s a pose. If it was a break he’d probably be wearing a robe.
Or maybe not. 

Tree Memories

Next week I’m going to a lavender farm in Albuquerque with several other plein air artists to paint on location. Ergo, I need to practice slopping oil paint onto a canvas. As usual, I couldn’t resist adding a little Photoshop enhancement to a photo of the original oil-on-canvas.

The first oil painting I ever attempted was of a tree, when I was a freshman art student in college. It was so terrible that I barely lived through the critique the next day. On the bright side, any combination of brush strokes on a canvas is an improvement since then.

Tree Memories
30" x 24"

London Morning Coffee

While organizing some files on my computer, I stumbled across some images from our London trip of several months ago and couldn’t resist experimenting.

London Morning Coffee at Le Pain Quotidien

Semi Plein Air

I suppose this watercolor is more plein photo than plein air. I wanted to experiment more with on-location watercolor but it's blazing hot out in the sun. So I opened a photo on my iPad that I took of a nice shade tree in Stowe, England, and painted from that. I was, however, sitting on an outside patio, so I think that surely must qualify as plein air painting.

Tree in Stowe, England

Detail

Plein Air Watercolor

Hill

Yesterday I stopped by the Arroyo Hondo Open Space trails to visit some friends who invited me to join them along with a group of plein air painters that meet at a different location every Thursday to paint landscapes (watercolor, acrylics, oil, pastels, or whatever you want to do). I didn't take any art supplies with me but it was nearby and I wanted to just check it out for future consideration.

It looked fun and I thought watercolor would be easiest to deal with while on location, so when I got home I dragged out what watercolor supplies I could find: an ignored collection of watercolor supplies that belong to Robin, a nice set of watercolors she bought for me at the Tate Modern several months ago in London, a set of watercolor pencils, and a pad of watercolor paper.

I’ve been wanting to experiment with watercolor, and I definitely want to experiment a bit before I paint with a group so I’ll have at least some vague idea of what I’m doing and what supplies I should take with me. 

This is the view of a small hill, extremely exaggerated, in the northwest corner of the property as seen from the front patio. This was fun. I think I’ll go along with the plein air people in the near future on one of their field trips, including a trip to some lavender fields in a couple of weeks.

Yoga Model

This week’s model was a Yoga kind of guy. Many of the poses looked stressful and hard to hold. The drawings below are some of the more relaxed poses.

Rose Studies

Sideways
46" x 24"

Rose in Profile

Rose Study
36" x 34"

Facing Down
44" x 34"

Rose & Spikey Hair
30" x 24"

Seedless Watermelon

Seedless Watermelon at Mermaid Tavern

Jesus Color Study

From charcoal sketch to color print.

30" x 24"

Jesus Likes Us

Jesus, one of our favorite male models, likes posing for us because we engage in friendly chatter during poses and we usually bring snacks or dessert for the breaks.

Windy

Transformation of a sketch to a canvas.

Windy
30" x 18"

Charcoal & Chalk

When a local artist needed a special pose for one of her art projects she made arrangements with Argos Gallery to schedule a model and host a drawing session. There was room for several other artists to take advantage of the 3-hour pose, so I signed up for the extra session.

After a couple of drawings of charcoal on newsprint as usual, I switched to charcoal and chalk on gray Canson paper.

Charcoal Joey

Charcoal on newsprint.
I usually cleanup the newsprint texture. This time I enhanced it.

Experimenting with a colorized version.

Big Joey

A big portrait of Joey, the live model from last Tuesday night’s drawing session. Not a great portrait, but good enough for a police sketch. No offense intended Joey.

Male Models

When drawing a female model I tend to stress over my drawings not doing her justice. With male models it’s easier (for me) to just draw and not stress about the results.

Basketball Sketch

It’s NBA Playoff season, which means there’s some pretty cool poses on the sports page that make great reference for a quick charcoal sketch.

Later I’ll experiment with transforming this sketch into a color version.

Detail

Lely’s Venus

During a recent London visit, I sketched a marble statue of Venus in the British Museum called Lely’s Venus. Lely was an artist and collector during the reign of King Charles I; the sculptor is unknown.

My goal was to combine the traditional character of the original sketch with a contemporary style, abstract coloring contrasted with muted and subtle colors, and graphic boldness. 

I didn't actually know that was my goal at the time, but I’ve decided it was since it pretty much turned out that way. 

Lely’s Venus
28" x 40"

Lely’s Venus detail.

Color Studies

After spending the past two weeks sketching with a felt tip pen, painting with color seems more like a treat than usual. Here are a couple of digital paintings based on photos I took while in London.

Every morning we went to Le Pain Quotidien for coffee. I grabbed a photo of three women sitting next to the window. This is a detail of the image that I’m working on.  

Two Women from Kew.

On the train back to central London, after a day-trip to Kew Gardens, the different ages, fashion styles, and demeanors of two women across the isle caught my attention. 

London Sketchbook

We just returned from a 12-day trip to London, and while there wasn’t a lot of time for drawing,  I did manage to average a drawing per day. 

The Black Friar pub, built in 1905, is an art nouveau masterpiece.

Jimmy’s reaction to taking our food order.

A large 1500s marble sculpture in the British Museum. Lely, an artist and collector, acquired the statue from the King Charles estate when Charles was executed and the Commonwealth put in place.

Sketching in the park. Grovesnor Square is surrounded by embassies, including the US Embassy.

The Thames River and Millennium Bridge, from the 6th floor coffee shop of the Tate Modern.

A sketch inspired by a visit to the Lichtenstein Retrospective exhibit at the Tate Modern.

Robin reading on the flight home.

A colossal bronze statue in the St. Pancras international train station.

St. Paul’s Cathedral, from the Tate Modern coffee shop.

Another sketch in the park.

The cellar bar in Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, near Fleet Street. Rebuilt in 1667.

Curtains in our hotel room, The Academy.

Self portrait.