figure drawing

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Vermont Artist Week at VSC

April 29, 2010 in Plein Air Painting | 1 comment

Bivins House

I’ve gotten all settled in at Vermont Studio Center and it’s a wonderful relaxing feeling.  I arrived yesterday and toured the facility and met some of the people.  After dinner, I was so exhausted that I went to bed about 8:30.

What a wonderful night’s sleep!

My alarm was set for seven, but only about five minutes before that I woke up naturally.

With a hearty Vermont breakfast under my belt, I’m ready to begin this wonderful experience.  It’s wonderful to be with other artists and writers, and the staff go out of their way to make it a very community oriented experience.  After only a single day, I can feel that clearly.  I think this is going to be great.

My first workshop is figure drawing, but before it starts, I plan to wander around a bit and take some pictures.

After returning from making assorted mundane purchases at Grand Union, I decided to paint outside.  It was cool this morning, but the day is warming nicely.  It promises to be a lovely day.

I’ve been thinking about the book I’ve been reading, Visual Intelligence.  Looking at things from the author’s viewpoint, I notice that I can see more things than my camera can capture, and I think that’s what for me about painting outside.

Peripheral images while not distinct are an integral part of the whole picture, so I feel surrounded and involved by the totality of the scene.

One of the reasons why I am here was to explore outside of my comfort zone, so I elected to make my first landscape a bit abstract.  The one I’m working on now is a bit more traditional but I’m drawing on a number of the value studies and putting a bit more detail in the trees.

Of course, there isn’t a lot of detail here, so it shouldn’t be that big of a deal.  I’m just trying to capture a sense of the place and the darks and lights.  It’s Spring here and things are just beginning to bud.

The trees largely seem grey but they also have that glowing “bud green” sparkling all over them.  To me this is the essence of Spring: just beautiful.  I hope that I can capture that in my painting.  I’m planning to make at least two attempts.  One against the sky and clouds; one against the trees.

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Are you an Artist?

February 15, 2010 in Plein Air Painting | 4 comments

Something interesting happened today as I was leaving my art class.  I was riding the elevator in the parking garage when someone said to me “are you an artist?”

Perhaps they had a hint from the portfolio that I was carrying and the charcoal smudges on my jeans, but it was kinda cool to have someone walk up to me and say that.  I said “yes,” and we started talking … as long as one can on an elevator.

Nice ego boost.

I’m still trying to hone my skills, the class I just mentioned being part of this, and, but I’m increasingly thinking more and more, “What am I trying to say?” and that brings me back to the physical world verse the spiritual world.  It’s still a struggle.

Even if I can’t find a resolution there, I’m gaining more skills.  I love the figure drawing.  There’s something very visceral and very real about it, and I’m learning so much about the human ability to recognize.  We are evolved to recognize other human beings through form, structure and expression so when you are drawing another person you are communing with that person in a way but you are also sharing with the viewer of your drawing.  They are able to recognize the form and the beauty in the form.  This gives me a kind of metaphysical feeling to be painting another.   Here is the latest sketch from the figure class.

Steve

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Busy Fall, Catching Up

October 25, 2009 in Plein Air Painting | Permalink

It’s time for another blog.  It’s not that I haven’t been inspired but I’ve been taking a number of classes that have been enjoyable, but they have taken time.  One is a figure drawing class in The Fort Lauderdale Figure Drawing School, which is part of Nova Southeastern University.  The instructor is a wonderful, classically-trained artist.  I’m learning a tremendous amount in each class each week the figure looks better and I can see places where improvement is needed.

I’m also taking a water color class from another wonderful instruction at the local high school as part of Palm Beach Community Educator Program.  The class is in an open style so each student can take maximum advantage of the teacher regardless of their skill level.

Another thing I’ve done is applied to the Delray Art League.  I had to bring in three paintings to be evaluated and was accepted as a member.   About the same time, I also joined the Palm Beach watercolor society.   That’s another great group.

Today, I’m spending part of the day at The Green Cay Nature Center in Delray Beach.  Now that the Florida weather has broken, it’s a beautiful clear day.

 

t was a lovely five mile bicycle trip from my home, and now I’m standing in a recreated hut used by the Miccosukee and Seminole tribes.  The roof is covered with cabbage palm fronds.  This kind of building was in use when the Spanish conquistadors arrived in the 1500.  The style was popular because it could be taken down and moved when invaders moved through the area.  It’s also a particularly sturdy construction since this particular hut has survived not one, but two, hurricanes in the past few years.

As anyone who has seen my body of work knows, I’m inspired by nature, and this is the perfect place for me to sit, paints in hand.  Right now, now I’m watching a flock of ducks fighting over some food and mulling how I can capture the incredible dynamics of the conflict in with is essentially a static medium.   I just wish I had the eye of Charles Thévenin in his La prise de la Bastille or George Bellows, who did the classic A Stag at Sharkey’.

Sadly, the recent mini-drought has reduced what is normally an impressive expanse of water to a number of smaller ponds and I suspect the conflict I’m observing will soon be the rule rather than the exception.    Still, it’s a wonderfully active ecosystem, turtles and frogs sunning themselves on logs and a number of alligators arrayed on the shore, mouths wide open, to allow the commensal animals to clean his teeth.   After the fray with the ducks, it’s nice that my last image is cooperation.

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