I Only Know People I Know Through Other People (If You Know What I Mean)

I Only Know People I Know Through Other People (If You Know What I Mean). This sketchbook was a gift from Holly (Christmas, 2006) and really impressed me at the time. Because it was perfect for me. Only, I didn't realize it at the time.

In January, I began the process of shutting down my second Richmond, Virginia art studio. The first one was shut down by redevelopment. This studio was shut down because I had lost all control. Hence, this particular sketchbook is entitled: "On Shutting Down and Starting Over. or. The Gaslight Search Engine Takes Control"

Travelling without a studio, sketchbooks have become my art for the last two and a half years (interrupted every now and then by the most beautiful paintings I have ever painted).

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paintings.drawings.arithmetic.

Second Letter to a Lost Love

Second Letter to a Lost Love. I really, really enjoyed putting this letter in its package. The people in the post office liked it too... I also included chocolate. and sprayed the pages with cologne. Dior. Fahrenheit 32.

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paintings.drawings.arithmetic.

Last Letter for a Lost Love

Last Letter for a Lost Love. Friday, May 23rd. 2008. You may have noticed that I'm not in Istanbul.
In fact, when my plane was supposed to take off (7:50pm), I was on the Millennium Bridge, opposite the Tate Modern museum on the southbank of the Thames river in London.
Luckily, the sun was guiding me. Bright and opalescent, I let the energy ride the wind and bring me peace.

It was really loud walking across the bridge.

The pages stayed together from the Millennium Bridge to the London Bridge, until they became bright lights in the waves.

I hope that these pages find their way home.

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paintings.drawings.arithmetic.

Two Blue Bottles and One Bottle with Tulips and Roses From Turkey

Two Blue Bottles and One Bottle with Tulips and Roses From Turkey. I leave for Istanbul on Friday. 45 hours from now. Part of me thinks that I'm not going to draw at all while I'm there, which is a constant danger when I travel. Another part of me thinks that I'm going to be drawing non-stop. I'm not sure which is better...


If I don't post for a while, it's because I''m lost in Istanbul. If I don't post for ages, it's because I didn't come back... and if so, come and look for me. It would be nice to see you smile.

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paintings.drawings.arithmetic.

Discrete Drawing: Lessons in Black and White (part II)

Discrete Drawing: Lessons in Black and White (part II). This time in Angel, we were at Tinderbox. A new recruit, Ollie did pretty well for his first lesson in Discrete Drawing (which is a short course I'm cooking up. It's geared toward bridging the gap between math and drawing). Again, these are not my drawings.

This lesson concerned value, the contrast between light and dark. Chris, Ollie and I went to the V&A the next day so that they could practice on the figure by drawing sculptures.

By the end of our two hours, they had accomplished a lot. And I was able to enjoy a delicious ice coffee.

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paintings.drawings.arithmetic.

Two Tiles Forming a Decorative Arch (From Turkey)

Two Tiles Forming a Decorative Arch (From Turkey). At the Victoria and Albert museum in South Kensington, I went drawing today in the Islamic Middle East section. On Friday, I'm flying to Istanbul. Well, Zurich first. Then, Istanbul. Consequently, I have decided to start a new sketchbook, tentatively titled: Istanbul.

Islamic designs can have so much symmetry. Since I don't erase (even when drawing with a pencil), I was very conscious of maintaining a well-defined symmetric balance to this pair of Turkish tiles from the Anatola region of Turkey.

By the way, those portable museum drawing stools are not so comfortable.

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paintings.drawings.arithmetic.

The Square Tree, an Approximation in Green Park

The Square Tree, an Approximation in Green Park. Last weekend, May Day bank holiday, and I was in Green Park with my friend Bettina from Barcelona. Sometimes people look at my paintings and wonder where all the shapes come from.

Sure, there's always a choice in what you see, but my mind can be quite persuasive.

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paintings.drawings.arithmetic.

Brown Corduroys (Recursive View)

Brown Corduroys. I was in Camden, on the upper patio at Lock Tavern. This time, no hail. Waiting for Deniz, I decided to write to Meral. Instead, I drew my brown corduroys. There are lots of implied shapes in this picture. FYI.

Kew Gardens Mural (Wall Enlargement)

Kew Gardens Mural (Wall Enlargement). Pictures from the left wall of the London Bridge Hostel Murals.
I like to approximate form with ideal geometries.

I like to draw the mathematical relationships which connect different objects.

I like to simplify things.

Discrete Drawing: Lessons in Black and White

Discrete Drawing: Lessons in Black and White. Chris and I met at the Spiral Id, cafe of choice recently. Cool djs. Loads of different types of tea. Big windows. By the way, none of these drawings were drawn by me.

Instead, each of these black and white pen drawings are from the right hand of Chris, from SomeMaths. Our topic of discussion was his first drawing lesson. And so we began his first lesson in discrete forms ie. black and white solid lines.

The lesson: Understanding Unfamiliar Media while Developing an Intuition for Parallel and Perpendicular Forms

First, ten one minute sketches. Warming up, developing a general sense of form...

Followed by two ten minute studies. Further specification of form, further refinements of volume..

And concluding with one thirty minute drawing.

Girl on the Floor

Girl on the Floor. Laura is from Budapest, but we met in the Outer Banks of North Carolina (you may recall that I once called the Netherlands my European Outer Banks. But I digress...). It was 2003. But, I didn't tell Laura that I had already drawn in this style way back in 1996. I didn't even realize it myself until I was flipping through some old sketchbooks. If you look closely enough, you can see a painting of Laura lining the wall's of Detroit Transit Railroads rehearsal studio.