Descending Ashtray

We just returned from our trip out east and even though we had a great time it is good to be home.

I went to a show in Boston at the MFA called “Americans in Paris”, it was compiled of impressionist painters from the US who went to Paris to study art. Among them was one of my favorites John Singer Sargent. It was a good exhibit.

After looking closely at the paintings in person, I was inspired to focus more on light and how I apply color to my drawings and paintings. On the way home we stopped at a park in Pennsylvania and went for a hike on a trail that had more than 24 waterfalls. I stopped and did a drawing of one of them.

You can see that the application of charcoal is rough and almost scribbly but if you squint your eyes it looks a little more realistic.

Here is a picture I took at the sight were I did the drawing. Looking at it in the picture, it seems I could have used a more darks in the drawing.

I spent the last 10 days or so working on this new drawing, which was inspired by the yellow cedar carving I’d been working on, with its alternating tool marks. Above is a much-magnified look at a drawing that is about 15 inches square.

Above is a pretty terrible photo of the whole drawing. I think I can get a better photo once it’s framed under glass.

One funny thing that happened when I was working on the vertical areas: I used the horizontal sliding bar on the drafting table (bottom of second image) as a reference on the horizontal lines, and a the vertical side of a 45-degree aluminum square rested on it for the vertical lines. After hundreds, maybe thousands of vertical lines, the aluminum square literally cut the pen tip on the left, causing the tip to eventually bend over. Thankfully, it fell apart gracefully and I replaced the pen before it caused a drawing accident. Entropy at work, I guess.

I did this drawing last weekend when Brandy and I were camping in Nebraska.

I can’t wait to finish this one. I think the contrast between the black of the burned cedar and the revealed raw wood will be incredible. The burning is, predictably, a lot of fun. I used a propane torch like you’d use for plumbing repair.

This is a collaborative drawing that Scott, Josh, Brandy, Megan, Haley and I all worked on at the dinner party.

… once asked me if I ever thought about how much easier my life might be if I had gone with a 3×3, a 4×4 … anything less than 25 squares. Sometimes I think of it and chuckle when I’m midway through something. There is something really … zen? or meditative, I guess, about doing the same thing 25 times in a row, or 125 times, or whatever it is. But yes, I’d probably be closer to done right now. I drew all the stars by hand.

This is a work-in-progess, a gouache of a 5×5 with a US Air Force theme, circa 1942. There will be white stars in blue circles, with a blue circle contained within the stars. Just like this one.

Heard from Seth lately? I used to talk to him on the phone every once in awhile and last I heard he was stationed in San Diego.