Studio Update:

I have begun work on a major new work. It will be a life-sized portrait/nude of Kimberly. I will be making several studies: line drawing/composition, light studies, color pastel drawings, and painting directly from life.

 

Notice the straight access lines. They line up landmarks on the body. Martine Vaugel, sculptor, developed a radical approach to measuring proportions. You locate two major points on the body, and line up a third point by its angular relationship to the other two. BTW, I have worked on this line drawing about 30 hours with the model. In my last studio up date I posted several landscapes, about 30, oil sketches, they take me about an hour and 15 minutes. A realistic work from life requires a great deal of time. That is why many artists work with photos but I find photos hopeless as far as a source for painting: I love way too much the vibration, form, color, and mood that I get from direct perception. A good eye can see whether the artist is working from a photo or from life.

 

 

Kimberly, work in progress, 19 x 24”, pencil on Rives BFK paper.

I will continue to tweak this drawing, pushing and pulling forms through space.

 

Kimberly, work in progress, pastel on red paper, 19 x 24”.

In many ways the portrait, Kimberly, will be neo-classical…my influences for it are coming from the Mona Lisa, Botticelli, Raphael…the idea of a beautiful woman silhouetted by a landscape. I hope the similarity with them will end when I begin with color. I love drawing on bright red paper with pastel…but I will try a few other colored papers as well, like lime green, and see what kind of color harmonies I come up with.

 

 

First idea for Lovers.

I started this idea a few years ago, living in Greece. I love the idea and now, in Florida, I have two models perfect for it. It will be a major life-sized painting; a woman in the foreground and man behind, they are jumping into water just beneath them, like two happy eight-year olds.

I am building up the bodies by the bones out. It is an extremely difficult pose for both the model and for myself. We have to work in sections, posing only for a matter of seconds. Try holding your leg up horizontally leaning forward and keeping your hips level!

 

 

The following three oil sketches were painted on an incredibly foggy day at the beach.

 

 

 

The fog and the dark trees then inspired the idea of silhouetting a man with intensely dark skin against a white background. To compose this piece I stood on a chair and painted the model below.

Composed, 2005, oil on archival panel, 12 x 16”.

 

I continue to work Toucan, I want it highly polished, like glass and enamel.

 

Non-Studio Updates:

I will be painting landscapes in California this month.

 

And I have overhauled The Foundation for the Advancement of Art’s web site. www.ArtAdvancement.org

I, personally, could not negotiate the old site, so I reformatted it to enable me to make additions and changes at will. It is still a work in progress and I hope to update it on a weekly basis.

 

That’s it for now.