In My Garden

... a rare two-headed golden-crowned kinglet!

Of course, the bird had one head; I was trying to take photos with insufficient light and this is how my digital camera tried to solve the problem. Multiple exposures have been around since photography was invented; it was a widely-used technique for producing fraudulent "ghost" photos.

Here's a somewhat better photo:

A small flock of these lovely little birds were busy in my front garden (they especially liked the seeds of the garlic chives), but by the time I remembered to get out there with a camera, it was twilight. I keep hoping they'll show up again in better light, but while I'm waiting, here's the photos I got.

Completed Still Life

I hope to get better photos when we have decent weather!

Wednesday Life Drawing

Saturday Life Drawing 5

The model is a retired dancer who takes wonderful poses.  How he managed to hold this one for 20 minutes at a time is a mystery.

I didn't get too far with this drawing because I had it pretty well-developed, only to discover I was about to run the head off the page (again!).  I wiped it out and started over.

In My Garden

a black swallowtail butterfly caterpillar.

Saturday Life Drawing 4

Wednesday Life Drawing

Saturday Life Drawing 3

When you get the figure right, it seems to relax on the page. I was happy with this one.

Saturday Life Drawing 2

Saturday Life Drawing 1

In My Garden

A painted lady butterfly, I believe.

Wednesday Life Drawing

I'm sorry to say this was our last class 'til October.

I actually left class a little early because I got the drawing to this point and realized I would do nothing but mess it up from here. The pose has a Joan of Arc feeling that I like a lot.

Still Life So Far -- 4: King and Queen

My genre of painting has become "populated still life." The painting has a whole different feeling once you get a little figure in there.

The king and queen are based on Isle of Lewis chess figures. I own a resin replica set which I use for my still life constructions. I visited the originals recently at the Cloisters. The queen's pose, with her head resting on her hand, is repeated in other queens found on the Isle of Lewis. I think of her as my stand-in.

Wednesday Life Drawing

This drawing has a directness that was pretty much forced on me by the medium, namely vine charcoal and stretchy eraser. I like it, though.

Still LIfe So Far -- 3

I

Still Life so Far -- 2

Wednesday not-Gouache 16

Now that the Saturday class is over for the summer, I am pathetically out of practice at drawing the figure. So I've decided to use the Wednesday class for drawing practice. As you can see, I was just starting to shade this drawing when I ran out of time. I'm happy with the head, though.

Still Life so Far -- 1

Wednesday Gouache 12

Wednesday Gouache 11

Saturday at PAFA 12

I'm sorry to say this was the last class. Back in September!

Wednesday Gouache 10

The good news is that we'll have the same model, in the same pose, this week, so I'll have a chance to finish this.

Saturday at PAFA 11

Wednesday Gouache 9

This tight, clumsy sketch is the kind of thing that happens when you haven't had class in 4 weeks. Onward! Keep painting!

Saturday at PAFA 10

Set-up for the Next Still Life

The tricky thing here is the background. I'm thinking about a pale grisaille of botanicals from my garden. We'll see ...

Saturday at PAFA 9

Honorable Mention

I used to think someone had passed a law against my ever winning a prize. The last time I was in a show at PAFA, the jury awarded no less than 10 Honorable Mentions (to paintings that sure wouldn't have been my choice), and zip to me. This time around, there were only 3 Honorable Mentions, and I got one! We artists are supposed to be above this sort of thing, but I'm thrilled.

Here's how the painting looks on site:

Saturday at PAFA 8

This is the same model that I drew here and here.

For the PAFA Show

to be submitted to the PAFA Continuing Ed Show on Saturday. I hope it gets in!

Saturday at PAFA 7

Wednesday Gouache 8

This figure is headless because I ran out of time. The model arrived late, etc.

Wednesday Gouache 7

There was a "Wednesday Gouache 6", but it's such a muddy mess that I'm embarrassed to post it! Instead, here's #7.

Saturday at PAFA 5

You might think it's twice as hard to draw two models as one, but it's really more like four times as hard. Both figures have to make sense, and the relationship between them has to make sense too. I really struggled with this one, as you can see by all the erasures.

Wednesday Gouache 5

Saturday at PAFA 4

Today was a strange class. The instructor, John Horn, was out sick, so it was just the students and the models, a man and a woman. The female model showed up late and posed for one twenty-minute block. During the break, she picked a fight with the male model and then left in a huff.

So we all wound up drawing the male model. He's the same model, in the same pose, as last week, so I drew him from a different angle this time.

Wednesday Gouache 4

This is week 1 of a 2-week pose; I'll put colors on it next time. She is actually the same model that I drew in my first Saturday class at PAFA!