Ozzie ... a God send.

This is a pastel sketch ... for which I have absolutely no training. I am certain that to the trained artist this will appear technically off but I really like this sketch for it captures Ozzie's special look. He is, we think, part Schnauzer and who knows what else (about 20 pounds). These darling floppy ears often stand straight up on their own translating into jack-rabbit ear status especially when Oz is hopping around the yard chasing squirrels. Maybe he is a Jackanauzer. It's comical but it is not his floppy ears that made him so endearing to me but the feeling between us is quite mutual. You see, this is the stare that I get every single night. Oz plops down next to me and turns his head and just stares at me sometimes for longer than one or two minutes. I've never ever had an animal do that.

You see, returning from physical therapy six years ago, deeply weary of fighting to regain my mobility and ward off the effects of the worst surgery experiences of my life, I was returning home that autumn day when there on my porch was this little white puppy presenting himself before me at the front door as if waiting for me. He was all white and had a small black collar but no name.

Halley, our standard white poodle had to be put down recently so I just couldn't bear getting another pet plus I was too sick to take care of anyone or anything. It was a dark time for me.

This cute little thing looking up with those expressive eyes produced enough pity to offer him a drink for he looked like he needed some care and he was so eager. When I opened the door inside he dashed disappearing around the corner past the dining room. I couldn't see him anywhere. I called; nothing.

Too sick and full of pain to do anything about it, I closed the door behind me and yelled again for the puppy but he was no where to be found. My hospital bed had been moved into the morning room since the stairs were too difficult to manage everyday. As with so much of my life at this point, I just couldn't cope with the pup. "How much damage could the little thing do anyway," I thought. The pain medicine had made me drowsy so I laid down and soon surrendered to unconsciousness.

Who knows how much time had passed when finally I opened my eyes and before me sitting with his two front paws so perfectly aligned and still, the pup at first didn't look real. Our eyes locked and up he jumped onto my lap and into my heart when, as if recognizing what a hard time I was having he placed his muzzle on the side of my neck, collapsed flat on my chest (I'm not kidding), and with his paws literally hugged me.

I wept. Everything just gushed out of me. I had not known how much emotion was pent up inside. It had been a hard two years trying to regain my health and function. My career ended, my life seemed to be frozen in time.

It wasn't long before Ozzie was officially ours after putting out "lost dog" signs and no response thankfully. It would have been impossible to give him up for we were indeed attached to each other and soon Ozzie gave me a reason for getting out of bed.

He's a puppy, right? So every hour on the hour I would have to get out of bed and walk to the door back and forth to let him out to take care of his business. And it was Ozzie who loved to lounge in my lap and make me laugh with his antics. Finally, I taught him how to push open the door and close it all by himself. (Maybe I'll post that video if I can figure out how to do it.) And it was Ozzie who helped motivate me to take our first walks together. Soon, I began to recover and gain strength and I owe a lot of that to the little guy who was definitely one answer to prayer.

So it is with a lot of love that I enjoy sketching Ozzie boy who is truly a critter sent from God.

November Drawings

Phyllis (a local Cennini member and pastel-ist) and I, armed with cameras went out this morning on a hunt for images. Oklahoma is horse country so it was not surprising to find one. Here is a vine charcoal on newsprint...a quick sketch.

It was good to smell the "roses" ... in this case the lovely country side. It was a perfect ... sunny autumn day.

Is it murder to dissect? aka "smell the roses"

AN EVENING SCENE ON THE SAME SUBJECT
By William Wordsworth (1888)

UP! up! my Friend, and quit your books;
Or surely you'll grow double:
Up! up! my Friend, and clear your looks;
Why all this toil and trouble?

The sun, above the mountain's head,
A freshening lustre mellow
Through all the long green fields has spread,
His first sweet evening yellow.

Books! 'tis a dull and endless strife:
Come, hear the woodland linnet,
How sweet his music! on my life,
There's more of wisdom in it.

And hark! how blithe the throstle sings!
He, too, is no mean preacher:
Come forth into the light of things,
Let Nature be your teacher.

She has a world of ready wealth,
Our minds and hearts to bless--
Spontaneous wisdom breathed by health,
Truth breathed by cheerfulness.

One impulse from a vernal wood
May teach you more of man,
Of moral evil and of good,
Than all the sages can.

Sweet is the lore which Nature brings;
Our meddling intellect
Mis-shapes the beauteous forms of things:--
We murder to dissect.

Enough of Science and of Art;
Close up those barren leaves;
Come forth, and bring with you a heart
That watches and receives.

On Cennini Forum, some good advice was given me...i.e. "don't over analyze... observe and paint more."

This is my personality and why I am writing a blog. The problem for me in art is that in the past I always felt I was experimenting all the time. I knew what was in my head that I wanted but I didn't know how to get that down on paper or in paint. So over and over I worked and usually felt I never achieved the effect on canvas that I wanted.

Is it "murder to dissect" when it comes to art. I would say it could be if one tries to be mechanical about painting and forgets to "smell the roses." I don't think that is possible for me now ... but I could spend too much time reading and not enough time painting and observing.

Now, with the wealth of information on Cennini ... I see that there are artists that have forged through and solved a lot of the problems already ... and developed techniques that will help me achieve the results I want. So as one who loves to read and study this new resource is in fact taking a lot of my time.

So my goal is to paint 5 days this next week at least four hours each day. I will just paint and enjoy myself. So that was good advise.

A fellow artist and I will spend time searching for ideas for painting tomorrow. Wahoo.

1998 Still Life

(This is not a very good quality jpeg - its very dark and pixilated and there is glare right in the middle...and it's not in sharp focus. Maybe I need new scanners and cameras. It will have to do for the moment until I can replace it with better quality.)

Ten years ago, I painted this big watercolor which is about 24"x30" D'Arches. Matter of fact it is the biggest watercolor I have ever done. I like challenges so I got as many reflective things, tectures, etc. in one painting as I could. I have dried roses and ferns, patterns and all my beautiful inherited glass. Notice the hand painted wine glass on the left (if you can see it. Now that artist could paint!) And my prized antique venitian glass.

I am hesitant to post it because I would do so many things differently now. (I tend to bash my work and pick it to death. That is why so little of my work survives the axe.) However, there are parts of this painting that do what I wanted to do -- beautiful reflections -- and that pleases me. The bottles are the best part and that makes it acceptable to me. Maybe I should have just cropped everything else out... Aargh!!!!

WIP New Study - Praising the Egg

EDITED AND UPDATED: NOV 18, 2007
NEW WIP PHOTOS/EDITS

At this stage, the painting is still "cool" in temperature. I intend to warm it with glazes in the next layer. Lots of things to fix. Still struggling with my photography; however, I think the problem is in the photo editing software.

re: OIL STUDY - On Praising the Egg - WIP 1 - 8x10 canvas board
(REF Previous Post: "Laws of Fresole" - art is praise.)



This is the first layer. It will be sanded down after it dries. On the next layer I will try to follow some advice I got on Cennini Forum.

WHY PAINT AN EGG STILL LIFE?
I am attempting to praise the egg. (REF Previous Post: "Laws of Fresole" - art is praise.)
My goal is to show the loveliness of those shades of yellow which is surrounded with soft and subtle colors of white and texture. I'm trying to make that feeling you have every time an egg is cracked open ... it is so lovely to the eyes you want to touch it. A little egg -- encasing the potential for a living creature; this little egg is such a necessary ingredient to bolster the taste and texture of food. It gives us so much pleasure -- don't we all "eat to live and live to eat" --- the humble little egg.

NEW SILVERPOINT WIP PHOTO - re: A Silverpoint Egg Study (8 x 10 gesso hardboard)



WHAT IS SILVERPOINT?
A silver rod is substituted for a pencil lead .... and thus silver is deposited on the surface instead of lead or graphite. The silver marks will tarnish in time, and darken to a nice patina . . . this Work-In-Progress (WIP) ....still working on it.

PHOTO SET UP


Stay tuned.

New Cennini Lesson - Story of Merlin

I like the scene from the Story of Merlin:

"And from her brown-locked head the wimple throws, And takes it in her hand and waves it over the blossomed thorn tree and her sleeping lover. Nine times she waved the fluttering wimple round, And made a little plot of magic ground.”




I can see this in my head; the sleeping happy in-love Merlin asleep under a beautiful but thorny tree, and the conniving woman twirling her wimple in fluttering circles over him to cast an evil spell.

Could an image be drawn to create a contrast of vulnerable innocence of love, and premeditated evil conniving deceit in just one scene – like a blossom and a thorn?

I am hung up on the blossoming thorn bush/tree. The fairy could twirl her wimple over a bush but how could Merlin lie under it? So I guess it has to be a huge blossoming tree and she just twirls the wimple over Merlin lying underneath. ohhhhh…big abstract forms.

Rob instructs: "The first thing to think about is the point of view...where is the camera/eye positioned. Is it above, looking down through the trees. I wonder how long a wimple is when it's unfurled? I suspect it would make a big circular shapes if waved deftly, so you can have a strong white circle in a dark field with Merlin's light head in the center.

Think about the big shapes, not the eyelashes!"

Rob went on to say on another post to speak the emotions with the forms not with expressions on the face. Great direction. Did I accomplish this. Will up-load on to Cennini and find out.

BTW - The Thornbush is a flowing tree. It has five petal clusters and three pointed leaves. The wimple head covering: Worn by Medevil times (nuns wear them) a shoulder length scarf to cover the head, neck, forehead of a maiden. A cloth is cleaned, cut into strips and sewn into a sash measuring six or seven inches wide and ten or twelve feet long.

Note: The Cennini Form has gone to subscription only as of November 1st, and is no longer available fully. You can check out the forum as a guest at .

Cennini Artist Technical Boot Camp - Haverhill Massachusetts

This is the Artist Boot Camp Studio with Rob Howard.

Located in Haverhill (pronounced Hayv•rill - long "a" and not too much "r") a very quaint New England town of about sixty thousand. It was a beautiful sunny autumn day in the middle of a picturesque downtown. (pictures take up one way and down the other.)




Meet Rob Howard, Master Painter and Instructor. A brilliant man and fine instructor. His knowledge of the chemistry of painting is phenomenal.

This is one of his paintings that he used to demonstrate how to apply a finish using Gallery Varnish and Wax Medium.

Meet a few of the boot camper, fellow artists…a really diverse group from all of the US and Canada. All of us agreed that this experience definitely improves our skills and abilities.
Personally speaking, this is to me a turning point in my life. I learned so much that I am trying to absorb it today. It has given me some self-confidence that I have never had with regards to actually moving to a (horrors) white canvas with much more deliberation and less experimentation. I learned about all of the different supports available rather than wood and canvas; how to properly stretch and prepare a support, what all the mediums actually do and where to use them, what the brushes are actually made for, how to guild gold leaf properly, how to properly finish a completed painting and pack it for transport to a gallery, the importance of lead in paint, how to do a verdaccio and glaze it, how to glaze under painting, tips and tricks I had never thought of, what is silver point, how to grind emulsions with egg yoke, how to tube paint, etc., etc., etc. (I could go on...)

My plan is to attend the Art Camp and the Portrait Camp...meanwhile, I'm painting!!!!

EDIT UPDATE: Just finished the Art Boot Camp in February 2008. Visit my new review. This also delivered another growth spurt in my abilities and I highly recommend it. See my slide show.