season of gold

All that is gold does not glitter,

Not all those who wander are lost;

The old that is strong does not wither,

Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

J.R.R.Tolkien       The Lord of the Rings

experience

"Nothing is a waste of time if you use the experience wisely."
Auguste Rodin (1840-1917)
(A quote from the label on my Good Earth tea bag, one of my favorite reading venues.)


I have had the time to attend several sessions lately where I can draw or paint from the live model. Instead of falling back on pencil drawing which is easier for me, I have been bringing canvas and Golden Open Acrylic (supposedly slower drying and better blending) with me to class. And I have been setting up and painting during the long poses. This is new for me and very challenging.

It seems that the harder I work at painting in my Life drawing class, the less I am happy with the result. So I am waiting for all the "experience" to kick in. I am sure it is not a waste of time, but a valuable learning opportunity.

last night

I met a fellow artist and long-time Daily Painter and fellow blogger last night! I was interested to meet him and had heard that he frequented the same live model head painting group/class that I have been working with.  Here is his blog; http://michaelnaples.blogspot.com.
I have great respect for Michael and his painting skill, and so it was a pleasure to be able to work in the same room and from the same model as he did.
And the really amusing part of the whole evening?  My own son, Samuel agreed to be the model for the session last night. I do think he is quite a handsome young man if a mother can say so herself. He did a very good job of sitting for us.
 If you go to the link for Michael Naples' blog today you can see his version of Sam. I was greatly impressed with the likeness and feeling of the work.
I was not able to finish my portrait, but Sam is posing again so I hope to get a good one for myself. Here is the unfinished part to show this week.
I am learning so much personally as I have been going to two sessions of Life painting a week lately. Painting in a class from the live model is HARD work. I make so many mistakes but I do learn from them so there is progress. Michael Naples portrait  was more successful last night for a few reasons; he worked in oils and I have been using acrylics, he worked smaller, half the size of my canvas, his color scheme was more organized than mine, and finally he had a better grasp of light and shadow than I did. I am learning, always learning.

if I lived in Hawaii

...or San Diego, Florida, or Santa Fe; I wouldn't be in such a hurry to draw these hibiscus from life in my own garden. But I must hurry, October has its own deadline here in the Chicago area.

Hibiscus twins

Off to a great start today. I had two lovely blossoms remaining on my summer plant. Around here these are just annual flowers and since we are rapidly moving through October, these will only be around for another day or so.

I drew these from life this morning, just my favorite way to work. Celebrating the line, the lovely line.

try again

"Success is not final, failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts."
Winston Churchill






I have to remember that not everything turns out as I envisioned. I threw away two paintings this week when techniques I tried failed. This flower which I drew from life, was one of them. I thought it would be interesting to draw with brush and ink but then I was disappointed  when I applied the washes of color. I rescued it from the trash a day later and did some experimenting and playing with textures.

life from the back

Sometimes the back side of my subject is as fascinating to me as the other views. Here, a life drawing posed from the back.

And another of one of my favorite subjects showing all the intricacy of the back view.

faces

After the modeling session ended, this gentleman revealed to me that he is 85 years old. I would have thought he was younger, maybe at the end of his 70s. Shows how incredibly different the aging process is for each individual. As it is with the endlessly different life stories written on each face.

old life

(edited life drawing from one of my class sessions)
A thought I have been mulling over is about my attraction to the withered and old in my art. I like to draw a flower that has been around for days or even weeks in my studio. Every day that passes gives me a changing subject to look at, consider from different angles. I sometimes wait until a petal is drooping way over and the edges are curled up before it becomes so interesting that I just have to stop everything and draw it from life.

And the same thing is with people, as I visit the nursing home several times a week, I see people who have, with the passing of time, become so visually interesting. I am constantly looking and thinking, how would I portray that? How do I paint or draw that fascinating withering and drooping to show what I really see and feel.

under the weight of the September sky

That bright and intensely deep blue September sky, so ominous, so heavy with promise.
The brisk tingle of cold weather to come bends the heads of the flowers.

I bought some tiny plants at the hardware store last May. They only had a leaf or two each, but they were labeled "Moulin Rouge Sunflower". That was enough promise for me, I could hardly wait to see what they would look like.

The first blooms took me aback. They were black sunflowers, black center and black petals with just a hint of dark red. Now, at the end of summer, I am finding some blooms with a lot more of the dark red and a tiny gasp of gold.