Saturday, July 31, 2010
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Life drawing...and what's that in the sink?
It's weird with drawing--sometimes I feel like it'll be a great drawing night and it isn't; other times (like tonight) I go in in a bad mood and the feeling I won't be able to do anything, and things turn out well. There seems to be no predicting the outcome based on mood or on sense of ability going in.
After the quick warm-up sketches (above), the instructor had us divide our paper into quadrants (below) and in each quadrant, we had 10 - 15 minutes and a different pose, and were supposed to do something quite different each time. The lower left one is my favorite of the night.
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I almost had a heart attack this morning when I went to brush my teeth and saw this in the sink:
...It's the fake "squirrel tail" toy that Lynx likes to play with.
(He likes to "drown" things, actually, and we've had to learn to keep the toilet seat lids closed all the time, or we'll find lots of surprises in there.)
And lastly, there's something about the new dog bed...
Saturday, July 24, 2010
The many moods of Rumi
I have several paintings in progress but nothing new to show yet. In the meantime, I know you need something to look at. So here's the rock star himself, in some of his many different moods.
Relaxed Rumi.
Coy Rumi.
Goofy Rumi.
Demon-eyes Rumi.
Disgusted Rumi.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Life drawing...and an unwelcome visitor
The really fast, warm-up sketches always seem to be my favorites.
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Can you guess what kind of incident we had here the other night? Yep. My reconstruction of the event is as follows: Miss Lemon was enjoying the night air out on our front deck; along came a little black-and-white creature, aka Pepe LePew; the two creatures were startled to see one another; Pepe did his thing; Mojito heard something and demanded to be let out to go save Miss Lemon; Pepe did his thing again. The worst thing is that it happened about two feet from our front door, with all our house windows open, and the deck is wood, and the house is wood, and all the skunk spray sank into the wood, to permeate it, though I hope not permanently. It is, as you might imagine, and as Larry David would put it: pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty bad.
Who knew the windowsill was such a good place to work on one's stretches?
Monday, July 19, 2010
Untitled 20 (oil)
This third one has a bit of a peachy-gray color in it. I think they're not meant to be a triptych in the sense of lined up right next to each other. But I do think they'd look great in the same room, on various walls.
I'd put them in my beach house--if I had one.
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Rumi's favorite place is always in the middle of any activity. He has no self-preservation instincts. We had to teach Mojito (left side of photo) that it was okay for this insane little white creature to come running up to check out his food bowl in the middle of his dinner...or to sprawl out next to his bowl and watch the show as food goes from bowl to (slobbery) dog mouth. It was a bit terrifying when Rumi was really little, especially since Rumi can't hear a warning growl. Mojito's fine with it now; he seems pretty much resigned to how nutty Rumi is. (Jazz has always been too mellow to be even the slightest bit bothered by anything like this.)
Oh, the little crossed paws! They kill me.
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Untitled 19 (oil)
Friday, July 16, 2010
Untitled 18 (oil)
I've been working on 3 paintings that have the same size and similar palette. There may or may not end up being a diptych or triptych. Each has to be able to stand alone in any case. Here's the first.
24" x 24".
I've been neglectful of responding to comments and visiting others' blogs. Things are so crazy.
And it's hotter than hell outside (perhaps sparking the desire for cool colors?).
Whine, whine, whine.
Lynx and Rumi usurp the new dog bed (complete with dog ball).
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
More life drawing
This was 17 minutes.
And the following two were actually the super-quick ones from the beginning of class, 1 or 2 minutes each. These often turn out to be my favorites.
Box o' Lynx.
In Jaipur.
Monday, July 12, 2010
Life drawing
So thrilled to be back in a life drawing class again, even though it's just four sessions. Hoping the instructor will decide to continue; this is just a sort of mini-course for July. My only complaint is that it's going to be the same model every time. I like variety.
The technique on these was to spend just a few minutes per drawing, continuously moving the charcoal in geometric shapes as we saw them, not using line. It was interesting.
Mona Lisa's got nothin' on my boy Rumi's smile.
Miss Lemon. It's too hot to have any bones.
Friday, July 9, 2010
Untitled 17 (oil)
36" x 36".
Yet again the upper-left glare problem. No, I don't take these with a professional lighting sort of setup. But they mostly come out well regardless.
He sat like this for a long time before I noticed he was in there. He then waited some more, making sure I was going to take some pics of him. Some of you may wonder, why not more photos of Lynx, or Miss Lemon, or Cleo? It's because Rumi is a total camera ham. He adores being the center of attention in any situation. When the camera gets pointed at them, the other cats shy away immediately. Rumi, on the other hand, looks straight into the camera and even offers you multiple poses when you start shooting.
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Monday, July 5, 2010
Untitled 16 (oil)
So nice to work in oil again...
The Rothko-esque form may be derivative, but endlessly fascinates me, and I find it holds so much potential for (color) expression.
This is 24" x 36".
(The photo has some unwanted glare in the left upper area.)
It's good to have a fainting couch available for art-viewing fatigue.
The sky here at sundown the other evening was amazing. All I could think was, Sonya Johnson would've really known what to do with a camera to capture the effect.More art on my website: jalapfaff.com
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