A little more work on the structure of the painting has made the shape of the piece even clearer, and I’m really enjoying the process. Continuing our work of using chalk and blue pencils to establish different features of the composition, now we’ve lined the cracks between the slabs in the marble courtyard in which [...]
With a little sketching and contemplation the composition is becoming clear, and more lines are on the canvas to guide the drawing of the Virtues. My students have been invaluable help because much of this work requires three people simply to draw a straight line across the wall! I’m very excited about working with them. [...]
I’m moving from Amelia’s verdant green springtime to winter leaves, blown to the feet of the angel of death. So far I’ve painted the base of a grey brown, and begun to render the richer orange browns in that delicious Iron Oxide Red that I like so much. The colour is a little intense at [...]
Both hands have been repainted in white, and now I’ve detailed the left of the two in Van Dyke Brown, making it feel more united with the arm and body than it did before. It’s not terribly difficult work, being monochrome and mostly already rendered in the white, but it’s labour intensive because there’s a [...]
I’ve finished the brown layer of the skulls, which means that everything should start moving a bit faster now. I’m very pleased to see how much the painting has opened out, with the skulls streaming out off the sides of the canvas. I’m also very happy with the skeleton’s legs, which I extended so that [...]
We’re crazed at the university these days, in the midst of exam week and a frenzy of grading large stacks of drawings and paintings, but I squeezed in a few hours of painting time today, enjoying the company of my students Kiah and Payton, both working on learning en grisaille technique. It’s particularly good to see their efforts [...]
. . . . . . . . . It’s strange that time can evaporate so quickly when we are absorbed in tasks that occupy our attention above all other things – I spent two or three hours painting these daisies and roses without noticing that the whole morning was gone. On the left I’ve [...]
My student Cameron pointed out that the lush foliage in this painting reminds him of Millais’ Ophelia, which is exhibited at the Tate National in London. It’s a beautiful painting of the drowning of Hamlet’s lover, described in poetic detail by Shakespeare in the play. “There is a willow grows aslant a brook, That shows [...]
Bert asked me to leave some of the crows with him at the gallery, so we put together a nice little flock of the birds ascending a wall. If you’re near Fifth and Spring and want to pick up a few of them, drop into the gallery and enjoy spending some quality time with the [...]
Last weekend I had the chance to visit the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. I found this visit disturbing because my perception of the art in the gallery was that everything seemed old and shabby. A collection of photographs by the renowned Diane Arbus seemed to have faded and browned over the past fifty [...]
