Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Sunday, September 14, 2008

The sketchbook



Am in a sketchbook kind of mood lately and its never a bad thing to keep your drawing skills sharp. One of the great things about when I did the Artist-In-Residency (see way back posts) last year, I got back into the habit of keeping a sketchbook. Almost all of the sketching that I do for commercial work is done on tissue overlays, so while I have piles of sketches they're mostly just that....piles of sketches. The sketchbook however feels like a personal record, a diary of drawing so to speak. This little sketch of Bodhi I am posting was done just a couple of days ago. Bodhi, out of all the living, breathing creatures that reside here is always the most agreeable model. Unlike those felines who care not to suffer for art by being imposed upon to model, as they will undoubtedly move when they realize that they are being observed. Ingrates.

Lately a lot of my sketches have been in mixed media - mostly a combination of 30% grayscale markers and a 90% prisma pencil. I like the saturation of the marker as its a bit like painting, plus its about having to get shapes down accurately the first time.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Joe's Farm



And just how do I know that this is Joe's farm?
In my quest to connect to the landscape around here, I've been heading east towards Lowell. The attitude of the land is beautiful,
rolling hills peppered with barns. There is a little site that I've been painting at recently in this little non-dot-on-the-map Parnell. Parnell consists of three major landmarks; a church, a convenience store and a cemetery. (Like a weird Bermuda Triangle of sorts!) Anyone who thinks a cemetery is a quiet/lonely place ought to head out to Parnell. So much for painting uninterrupted.
Fellow artist Holli Sturges and I met a number of people while painting in the cemetery. One of which was Joe's brother who promptly called Joe to tell him that I was painting his farm, who then said we were welcome to come on over to the farm and paint sometime. Definitely am planning on taking him up on that.

Tuesday, September 2, 2008