The Chair

The Chair. I'm reminded a bit of Joseph Kosuth, but only slightly.

This particular chair is often occupied. At this particular moment, it is not. What you're seeing is the middle of the first session of a portrait, during one of our breaks.

Welcome to New York. Thanks to Lyndsey for agreeing to take a turn as a subject. Painting the portrait of a photographer is pleasant evening.

This first stage was an exercise in proportion and composition. Stage two is scheduled for this week, where we'll hopefully settle in on local color.

A Curve in the Norrkoping Library

A Curve in the Norrkoping Library. Libraries are warm and free. The library in Norrkoping not only had books and windows for walls, but also a stone statue carving of a curve.

Which is nice.

This library also had an indoor water fountain. I can only presume that placing a statue of a curve next to the water was an attempt to evoke a three-dimensional manifestation of a ripple.... We'll say, "A Ripple as it Emerges in Time". But, maybe not. I can't read Swedish... Actually, that's what's so nice about curves... they can be used to model lots of things...

Notice the English Bookshop bookmark?

A Museum Visit - Moderna Museet in Stockholm

A Museum Visit. Moderna Museet in Stockholm. The Four Elements by Alexander Calder.
Calder distills form and movement into essential symbols like few other people. I'm surprised he's so often associated with the Surrealists...

I'm also surprised at the artificially driven kinetic motion of each element. I had no idea....

The English Bookshop Guestbook

The English Bookshop Guestbook. We were wandering around Stockholm, looking for a warm place to have an adventure. Enter the English Bookshop in old town Stockholm.

"Yes! Julie, they have a guestbook... Grab a book to read..."
-Which book?
"Any book... You only have to pretend to read it anyway..."

Little did either of us know that she would pick the Horrible History of the World. Which is my least favourite type of book. Hers too...

-Do I have to keep reading this? I hate it.
"Yes! You picked it... Just pretend that you like it."

Sometimes I have a demanding personality. But fifteen minutes is not so long, is it?
The English Bookshop. Old town Stockholm, about 8pm. Fifteen minutes later, we were warm. Time for Julie to sign the guestbook too...
...so she signed the guestbook in the guestbook... get it?

Old Town Stockholm, Drawing in the Street

Old Town Stockholm, Drawing in the Street. Cold. I was hanging out with Julie in Old Town. We had been walking for hours, so I begged to take a break and make a drawing of some buildings in a particularly picturesque old town plaza. Which meant sitting on the street. Which was cold. Ice cold.

My use of the word picturesque is a bit of a play on words.... only later did I realize that every painting, photography, and postcard shop in Stockholm has their own version of exactly the same buildings. It is impossible that I had not seen those pictures earlier in the day... We were scavenging through shops looking for the perfect viking t-shirt.

Which begs the question: Was I compelled to draw these buildings because they had an original glow? Or, was the glow a consequence of my seeing all the other pictures of the same four colorful buildings in old town Stockholm?

Julie with Blue Scarf

Julie with Blue Scarf. Sweden. October, 2008. A watercolour sketch. A pencil drawing. And nice wallpaper.

Waiting in Heathrow Airport

Waiting in Heathrow Airport. I was waiting in Heathrow Airport, waiting for a trans-Atlantic flight from London to New York. December, 2007. One of my last drawings from 2007, in fact.

From the Warm Blanket sketchbook.

A London Phone Booth

A London Phone Booth. From January, 2008. One of the first drawings from my Warm Blanket sketchbook. I was doing loads of drawings in red pen... like Two Chairs in the Camden.... call it a glow from the fire...

I'm still in Sweden.

Women Watering Plants

Women Watering Plants. A women watering plants. North London, late-July, 2008.

I'm in Sweden right now.

Ewelina In Islington

Ewelina in Islington. The first drawing from our sessions. Black and White. Pencil on Watercolour paper. The Kings Head in Islington. June 4th, 2008.

I'm going to Sweden tomorrow.

Putting the Pieces Together

Putting the Pieces Together. Meg is amazing! I came home tonight and found a box sitting on the shelf in my anteroom. Postmark: America.
Not knowing what to expect, I carefully ran a slice around the perimeter of the box lid. Meg had taped everything together rather carefully.
Hmm. A puzzle. I knew exactly what to do.

To read the letter, I had to put the pieces of my puzzle together.... so I did.

I love getting packages, and my favourite packages contain interactive art...

...Jackpot.

Interactive puzzle art via post. Never have I received such a package, such a letter, such an experience. A little adventure, sent to be had at my leisure...

Thank you, Meg :)

Sketch for Biba II

Sketch for Biba II. Another sketch in oil from the same night.

Next week we'll start on the formal painting.

I wonder what that will look like?

Sketch for Biba I

Sketch for Biba I. It's been a long time since I've painted a painting with a pallette knife...

And, when I'm not drawing Teddy Bears, I'm painting and drawing women I don't know.

This is a quick sketch in oil for Biba, from last night: Thursday, October 16th, 2008. We're trying to work out the right composition for her formal pose.

Discrete Drawing: Architecture

Discrete Drawing: Architecture. Lesson #5: Architectural Studies Beneath Blackfriars Bridge.
It's easy to see the discrete, line-based marks within the images printed onto these tiles.
Also, what better way to further your studies than to take a field trip?
So, we went drawing under the bridge. But the music was too loud. Nothing like an accordian in your ear to distract from learning...

Five Sketches of One Nude

Five Sketches of One Nude. From the Long Dark sketchbook, sometime in January or February 2007. I like the way all five drawings exist on parallel planes within the same page.

Ewelina Has Many Faces

Ewelina Has Many Faces. September 27. 2008. We were going through my briefcase.


Ewelina was wondering why I carry so many sunglasses. So I explained how each pair carries a different personality. Which is when our conversation began to focus on image and projecting a certain character.
Which is when Ewelina admitted to having many faces.
Recently I've been fascinated with putting portraits and drawings together with thoughts... When I make this into a painting, I'm going to paint both panels and show them together. The portrait. and the context of our thoughts.

Sorph and Bobby at the Sunrise Festival

Sorph and Bobby at the Sunrise Festival. From the Sunshine sketchbook, June 2007.

Jeff Koons at the Met

Jeff Koons at the Met. The beginning of August, 2008. The roof of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York.
I like the way Jeff Koons makes a cartoon out of everything.
The Manhattan skyline certainly puts the commercialism in context.

I like the way he embeds our reflections in these sculptures, not just by his choice of subject matter.

Katerina and the Church

Katerina and the Church. A different day in Hampstead, we kept our feet in one of the ponds.

Walking back, we found a church. And some steps.

And a blue door. Blue is often my favorite colour.

This summer my favorite colour was yellow. You can see my new adventure pack on the steps.
We found it too distracting with people walking by. So, no drawings that day. But, here is a drawing from earlier in July.

Cups

Cups. I drink too much coffee. And sometimes, I drink wine out of coffee cups. The combination means that I often have a tower of cups watching over me. I can't help but see the beauty, the story behind each vessel.