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?

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.

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.

Katerina I

Katerina I.

July, 2008. Pencil. Black and White. A sketch.

Black Lamp on the Southbank of the Thames

Black Lamp on the South bank of the Thames. Today was beautiful. Sunday, 21st September. 2008.
Blue skies and happy people walking along the river Thames.
I've decided to focus on some of the non-ubiquitous iconic Londonesque imagery...
... like this black lamp from the South bank of the Thames river. There are the most amazing fish at the bottom of each lamp.

Incidentally, this is what I was watching just before I decided to draw...

Katerina in the Park

Katerina in the Park. Hampstead. July, 2008. A sunny day. We had an orange blanket which we used to push down the wildlife long enough to make some drawings.

Circles are my favourite shapes.

Notice the use of symbols to approximate form. This is my favourite drawing with Katerina.

Katerina with Sunglasses

Katerina with Sunglasses. You may recognize these sunglasses. Here, they're sitting in my briefcase.

Here, they're being worn by Katerina in July, 2008.

Sketch for Gabriela on the Couch with Pillows

Sketch for Gabriela on the Couch with Pillows. Oil. A painting. Black and white. A sketch for this painting.

Gabriela. On the couch with pillows. But this is the sketch. The real painting isn't finished yet. We just finished the sketch tonight. It's nice.

I'm allowed to say nice about this painting. I'm the artist.

It says so, right here:

Sometimes "nice" is the right choice, no matter what they say.

Ewelina in a Chair

Ewelina in a Chair.

Black and white pencil drawing on paper. Oxford Street. June, 2008.

Pencils are People Too.

Pencils are People Too. I did not, in fact, neurotically sharpen seven pencils in a quick succession. I did however sharpen seven pencils in a quick succession. To prepare for some preparatory drawings of Gabriela, I had to explain the benefits of a full range of ready-access graphite.

She listened intently. Then said, "I didn't know that."

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paintings.drawings.arithmetic.

Girl on the Chair with Hand

Girl on the Chair with Hand. She's sitting on a wooden chair, with her right hand leaning across the top. This was a warm-up sketch with two pencils.

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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

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.

Voyage Countdown Video Trailer

Voyage Countdown Video Trailer. Contains absolutely no drawings from London. Instead, a collection of thoughts, phrases, pictures, and places from the spring and summer of 2006. New York, Washington DC, friends, enemies, bottles, whirlwinds, the list of people to whom I gave over 200 paintings at my going away party... I drew numbers from a top hat (so as not to introduce favorites) to decide who would choose when... It's fascinating to compare the order of the draw (and more interestingly, the order of the choose) with my own estimations of a paintings strength...

Three Images of a Nude Man

Three Images of a Nude Man. I was going to alumni life drawing sessions at VCU. Not that I was an alumni, but who cares. At the time, models were hard to come by... 2002.

Working within the context of a decomposition of form by notating fundamental geometric relationships, I drew three black and white sketches of the same male model in three different poses.
The rectangles should be enough to let you know that the model was male.

Meral

Meral. Lesson #4. Figure Drawing. After the first three lessons, we decided that it would be best to concentrate on figure drawing. Five drawings later, I decided that this would be the pose to paint. It says so at the bottom of the drawing: "Painting Pose" Except that when it came time to put pencil to canvas (board, actually) I went with a completely different pose.

The Red Chair and Its Shadow

The Red Chair and Its' Shadow. You may recognize this chair as the one that I found in an alley (the one behind my studio-in-progress). However, I have since painted it red.


I found another chair on Thursday, one hand-crafted and with an elegantly curved back. I can't believe how lucky I've been with finding chairs! This new find has me thinking blue....

Self Portrait in Dining Room Mirror

Self Portrait in Dining Room Mirror. What can I say? It's me in the mirror, the mirror in the back of the dining room cabinet. A self-portrait, me and the chair. Drawn two weeks ago, I no longer look like this. A barber cut my hair last Thursday.

The Speakers in the Corner with Yellow Vase

The Speakers in the Corner with Yellow Vase. Snowing. Then bright sunshine. With hail. Followed by bright sunshine. And wind. Don't forget the wind. I left my window open for two hours. And guess what? Little particles of ice and snow covered a lot. Including this shelf. And the associated speakers, books, and yellow vase. That was yesterday. Today is only white grey. With a little wind. And a little drizzle.

Ketchup and Hot Sauce on the South Bank

Ketchup and Hot Sauce on the South Bank. Lesson #3. We had to take another look at Man-made Objects, Meral and I, so we made our way to a rather bright pub on the South Bank of the Thames. We got to taste two guest ales, and decided to try one of each. We should have had a pint a bit earlier...

The lights were bright and direct, the bottles both filled with different hues of almost solid red. This lesson was the test. No questions, no directions, only drawing. I like talking to people at other tables when I'm drawing, it's nice to be able to focus on both.

Of course, I never use an eraser. So, neither should my drawing students. Which tends to frustrate people.... I think that I was teaching her to draw like me. Which is also a bit contentious...

Lesson #1: Flowers in St. Jame Park- Organic Forms
Lesson #2: Coffee on Regents Street- Man-made Objects
Lesson #3: Ketchup and Hot Sauce on the South Bank- Man-made Objects II