New Voice for 21st Century

Alex Kanevsky ... this is complete freedom. This artist was suggested to me as a fresh original voice for the 21st century. I agree. I see a great freedom of expression in his work.

Back to Art....

Note: the color is off...but that is really not important....didn't take the time to correct them.

Sketch #1 - 30 minutes conté crayon compressed chalk on strathmore 200 series ivory.

Sketch #2 - 1 minute gestures on newsprint - warmups
Sketch #3, #4 - 15 minutes newsprint.

Gestures and Notans

I think I've discovered something. Go look at the side bar at right under the topic Notan ... after it is opened, scroll down to the "Notan" examples... open up and look at these.

Now look at my are gesture drawings focusing on my quickest drawings. Both of these methods are principally designed to do similar things ... namely create dynamic figures and powerful interesting compositions in paintings bringing out the central focal point and the composition's power to speak.

The gesture is designed to create a dynamic figure from the beginning as a primitive drawing that has accurate Proportion, Balance, and Movement even in the crudest sketches .... with as little as possible drawn.

On the other hand the Notan exercise is designed to find that same dynamic force in the composition ... in a landscape, portrait, or figurative genre setting .... starting with a set primitive set of black and white drawings drastically simplified. And in so doing the cards revealing another kind of dynamic power in the composition ... telling the same story in so many different ways and so many possibilities. Movement, balance, proportion is also found there. Both are designed to bring dynamic powerful paintings and figures forth. This is how it is done.

I'm beginning to understand how important this is.

This is art otherwise we are nothing more can a zerox machine.

Watercolor study #1

This is a study . . . to learn to control watercolor. In this case, the secret is controlling the water first, the color and then edges.

Charcoal Drawing Commission

This is a commission I just delivered to my client today. She was very happy with it...and that pleases me.

Returning to Art . . .

Here are some recent sketches.

I'm working on giving weight to the figure, balance, proportion, and movement.



Last figure drawing class, I had a really good night and there wasn't any good reason for that because I hadn't drawn in over a week. I was just on. I truly think I was given a bit of grace and favor to encourage me a bit...I wasn't expecting to do any good at all.

August 2010 - Drawings

This series of drawings are 5 minute sketches. I'm pretty happy to get the whole figure and it be in proportion but better yet the right gesture that is in balance.

Progress....at last. These are loose and quick and I really think they are some of the most expressive work I have done in a while.

These in color are 20 minute conté compressed charcoal sketches.

Winter Sculpture Session

The sculpture below is my first representational female torso. In the past at college, I sculpted abstract forms but never realism. The figure was taken from a living model...a wonderful and experienced model. This class was a real learning experience and I can see that it is helping my life drawing greatly.

This piece is unfired clay at this point. I'll post the finished piece soon.

I wanted a more dynamic pose but did not have control of it since this was a class project. Often I take people literally and so when my instructor focused on accuracy, I feared to exaggerate....but then my instructor wants me to to exaggerate on the next piece. I feel a little bound up.



Gesture, gestures, gestures ... the key to life drawing.

A Page Turner

Modern Art & the Death of a Culture
by H. R. Rookmaaker

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0891077995/ref=ord_cart_shr?_encoding=UTF8&m=AHNEEZ9CVAP3Q&v=glance

Walking through the front gallery of our local art center on the way to life drawing studios, a recent exhibit of contemporary art by local artists intrigued me for each stroll through left a different impression.

The first impression, I thought "this is really top flight work and well done. I'm so proud."

Second time through, my impression began to turn negative. I began to say, oh, that looks like this great artist of the past, or that great one. Where are the new images? This is not original. Creative yes; original no. I'd seen all this stuff before in one exhibit or another or from history. The art began to look dated to me. There is simply nothing new.

Third time through, I thought, this is really feeling empty and meaningless. These artists really seem to me to have nothing to say. Now, I am feeling very negative. My inner voice shouted, "Stop it! You can't do that. You have to LOVE this stuff. What is wrong with you?"

In my view, this art work is very well crafted. Crafted in that it was professionally produced and thought out. I've seen no art in New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art any better constructed and that is saying something. It's professional.

However, I came to a truthful conclusion, the art here is simply projecting the pursuit of "ugly." Images of distorted figures ill-drawn to hide the inability to draw. You can be an artist but you don't have to draw. Well that is true. BUT, you have to have something to say.

The questions arose in me: "Is this real." "Is this truthful?" Contemporary masters, I've read have been searching for "the real." Most of the greats.

These movements in art of the 19th and 20th Century were no doubt a reaction to Impressionism, Romanticism, Classical and Religious art, and the "junk" produced in the ateliers and studios of the time but it still baffles me for to me it is praising the ugliest and darkest images of this realm of reality. It is certainly "real" and a lot of it is disgusting but is that for me? What is happening?

I have studied for literally years (with little success) in understanding though I have applied myself with great earnest. The "real" in life does have its balance. Reality is BOTH ugly and beautiful.

Representational art has always been a passion, especially in my idealist youth, for I have searched for beauty in living. For years, I thought maybe I was just not very smart to comprehend all this lofty arty stuff and could not grasp these deep deep concepts.

Bull crap. (An appropriate intellectual educated response.)

At last, I have found an author who puts this all in context and having lived through the sixties and seventies, being in a relationship with God Almighty, I see what has happened.

Culture has lost it's soul and is spirit-less. Art is reflecting that. Our culture is dying and some (and I say SOME) very good contemporary art is reflecting that death. The death of the pursuit of beauty. Rookmaaker has it right.

At last I have some understanding. How short changed I have been in my art education. No wonder the philosophy of art intrigued me but confounded me at the same time.

John Ruskin, the great art critic, made a very profound statement that has never left me in my journey to art knowledge. He wrote, "All art is praise." That is a very profound statement. I almost want to write the word "Selah" (meaning pause and meditate on this.) Ruskin was a very devout Christian and intellectual and he sung the praises of the great landscape and seascape master, J. M. Turner. If you look at Turner's greatest works (late) you see great abstract powerful shapes especially in his seascapes. He was painting for his time declaring the power and majesty of God's creation, the beauty, and glory of it; he discovered abstraction as a way to tell that to us pounding his images into the surface of his paint. This was his expressive voice. He made his sun blinding with brilliance by applying his intellect, and so his suns glow brightly.

Then the wheels came off. Man turned from God when he proclaimed that "God was dead" and so it is reflected in society's art.

This book by Rookmaaker has truly inspired me to produce art for my age and with a spiritual voice of my age. I have no desire to create "realism" as a camera would, and I want to give voice to my ideas that the viewer can relate to. I am in pursuit of the "real" beauty of our time; the praise of our age. For God is indeed not dead. I want to voice the "real" ugly of our time but from the standards of a spiritual person. I desire to experience true inspiration...a noble pursuit.

There is an honest voice and an independent voice developing in me. Yes, I am finding my artistic voice.

October Gesture & Slow Contours Drawings

One minutes gestures....


Contours, negative space within frame...


Slow, blind, contour drawing 20 minutes....drawing contours very slow without looking at paper.

Line Drawing of Times Square

While in New York, I drew this from my hotel window. Times Square NYC. Felt tip pen, 9x12 sketchbook 400 series Strathmore.

OKC Museum of Art - Paris 1900 Exhibit

Here is a drawing (below) as a study I did after a beautiful litho poster (at left) by one of the great artists of this time. To appreciate these giant posters and the artists who created them, one needs, really, to have done some lithography. 

An image is drawn upon giant five inch thick stone slabs ... yes stone slabs ... that have been polished silky smooth. (These are very special stones quarried and sawn into flat slabs upon which images are printing.)  The surface is "opened" with acid and the artist then draws the image on with either wax litho pencils or painted with a thick masking litho ink to make a resist; then the stone is closed causing the background to resist ink and remain "white" or "closed" during printing ... meaning that it repels ink and keeps the area from taking ink. The drawn area is inked with and the edition is pulled.  Paper is dried and re-moistened and the next color pass is made. Therefore every color requires a different stone slab very similar to modern 4-color separations. (My prints were only done in black ink so I can just imagine.)

The stone and paper are run thru a printing press for each color. To make an edition is no small task for all of the color must register perfectly in every color pass and be printed evenly throughout the run.   It's a big difficult chore.  

This Paris 1900 Exhibit is, unfortunately over but you can find current exhibits at this link:
http://www.okcmoa.com/exhibitions/currentexhibitions

I enjoyed the exhibit. Having done lithographs, I appreciated what went into those monumental posters. I love art nouveau and the decorative work from that period.

Here are more drawing from my sketch book (I always do this because it helps my recall) of the other art work on exhibit that I .  

Drawings

The following are some tonal studies (about 8x10) from photos of great masterpieces printed in a book of about the same size. I did these to work on the five tonal ranges: Highlight, Halftone, Reflected Light Values, Shadow, Cast Shadow. I also attempted to "see" the expressions and replicate the feeling. Can you guess which drawing was the hardest?
#1
#2
#3
#4
#5
#6
#7
#8border="0" alt="Girl In Red Hat after Vermeer">


The fourth one was the hardest. The object was to express the height of femininity. All the edges were soft except for a very few. It took me many hours to draw this one. The last one number eight was also difficult because Vermeer is so complex and without color chroma, it was almost impossible to provide the punch it needed. All in all this was excellent exercise. I intend to do more especially since I finished Riven Pheonix five DVD on the structure of man...that is a real milestone. I can already see the mistakes I have made in these faces but I am getting there. Gee I am happy. January 31st I head to Cennini's Art Boot Camp and I am so ready to go.

January Drawings

This of course is not a drawing, it is a watercolor of "Rebecca".














































Here is another pencil drawing. Self Portraits are very difficult.




This is a quick self portrait. It's done with watercolor pencils so technically it is a drawing. I exaggerated my features...like a fish bowl...chin/mouth too big; upper part too small...it is so distorted...but I like it for some reason.

Self portraits are very difficult for me. To exaggerate and make myself look either better or worse is dishonest. Too much information; too little. The truth is, I've never really studied myself and I don't really know what I actually look like. That makes drawing self portraits extremely difficult to do and difficult to judge.



Here is a complete drawing. This image is of very poor quality for it looks like I have drawn on 40% grey paper when in fact it is white. I am still trying to learn how to take pictures with my new camera...I thought I had the right exposure...guess I thought wrong. I shot it in RAW format and tried to adjust the exposure ... I think I made it worse. Soooo....I will be updating the image as soon as I can figure this out.

I am very frustrated because this image does not show the subtle rendering on the face....especially the expression and eyes which really is not coming across in this image. In fact I am not happy with any of the images that I have posted. I guess I simply don't know what I am doing...but I will figure it out eventually.

Beauty and Sadness

A study. My intention was to give a feeling of sadness.

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.