Strange Tales From My Little Black Book #12

This week's installment of the Moleskine sketchbook drawing in pencil, about 8 x 11 inches (I do need to measure these):

The Weight of the Carapace

I am thinking about framing these folded-page sketches with stitching/string in place just like they seen are in the sketchbook.  Perhaps stitching them to a piece of Arches and then linen tape on the back to keep the pages down, then a 1/4 inch border between the sketchbook drawing and the mat board, inside a 3 inch mat.  I believe it will work, but I have to trek off to the craft store to get thread in a color that matches the binding thread.   I have a stash of the 8-ply mat board (the good stuff that is archival) left over from framing some large scale drawings, so I will experiment before I make a decision.  I am also thinking that I will not be spraying these with fixative - the Moleskine paper is too slick to absorb the spray evenly (which I think will be fine since the pencil is stable and the pieces will be under glass).  

I have much to do and about 10 weeks until the studio tour...sketches, drawings, and cleaning, oh my!

Strange Tales From My Little Black Book #11

Moleskine sketchbook drawing in pencil, approximately 7 x 10 inches:

Isobel and Daphne

 

I have decided that I prefer drawing in my smaller Moleskine sketchbook rather than the larger folio book (the one that is 8 x 12 inches).   The paper in the large sketchbook is actually thinner than the paper in the smaller sketchbook - not a lot thinner, but enough that I'm having princess-and-the-pea-style sensory issues and I do not find the feeling of drawing in the big sketchbook pleasant.  It is a bit like the difference between the thickness of a 150# paper and a 90# paper...this probably would not matter to some, and it is still good sketchbook paper, but it is just a little too thin to tolerate my aggressive mark-making.  I keep gouging up and denting the surface with my pencils.

 I have to say that I rather like the shape of this format and I even like the stitches from the binding showing in the drawing.  I will definitely be doing more of these across-the-fold sketchbook drawings.

 

Strange Tales From My Little Black Book #10

From my Moleskine sketchbook, Strange Tale #10:

The Apparition that Instigated the (as yet unfounded) Order of Benevolent Handicrafters

Approximately 7 x 5 inches, pencil on paper. 

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And now, in anticipation of the transition from Winter into Spring, some photos of melting ice on shrubs and trees in my garden:

 

 

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Finally got my head out of the 12th Century and finished Ken Follett's Pillars of the Earth (!) and I am currently reading, for the gazillionth time (but the first time with one of my children):  Lizard Music by Daniel Pinkwater

Currently listening to (trying to absorb):  Joanna Newsom's triple album magnum opus Have One On Me

Oh, and I am officially done with snow: goodbye and good riddance.

SOMA Artists for Haiti

I have not been too altruistic when it has come to donating artwork over the past year or so, but I have enthusiastically donated artwork to the SOMA Artists for Haiti (while only a drop in the bucket, every drop is so desperately needed).  The auction and event takes place this weekend ~ full details and links below:

SOMA Artists for Haiti

An event to raise money for vital healthcare in Haiti by utilizing South Orange & Maplewood arts.

As a global community, we have all been shaken by the earthquake that struck Haiti on January 12th, 2010. Now is the time for Maplewood and South Orange to show our solidarity with the nation of Haiti and the Haitian Diaspora by utilizing one of our township's most distinctive qualities: the arts.

Please join us on Saturday, February 27th when local artists, musicians, performers and community members will gather at St. George's Church in Maplewood to raise funds for Partners In Health (PIH), an organization that has been working on the ground in Haiti for over 20 years to provide a preferential option for the poor in health care.

From 4-7pm, this event will consist of a silent art auction as well as family friendly performances & activities featuring Stories In Motion and Express Yourself Studios, followed by local musicians and performers who will take the stage From 7-11:30pm. Delicious food and beverages (non-alcoholic) will be for sale throughout the evening, and admission is a suggested donation of $10-20.

DATE | Saturday, February 27th

LOCATION | St. George's Church (MAP)

TIME | 4-7pm - silent art auction & family fun activities...

         7-11pm -  live performances

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This sketch (#7 from My Little Black Book) -  is up for auction, along with other artworks from quite a few of our curiously copius bevy of first-rate local artists.  Please drop by, donate to the event, and consider taking part in the silent auction.

(I have worked on this since the last post, adding india ink and more graphite to push the values and make the surface much richer).

Strange Tales From My Little Black Book #9

A new sketch from the Moleskine ~ pencil and india ink on paper, approximately 7 x 5 inches:

Oceans Of Lotion, But No Magic Potion

My husband's comment when he saw the above drawing was "you look like you are coming off of a 3-day meth binge in that sketch", so this little drawing has been unofficially retitled "the meth portrait".  He has quite a few amusing alternate titles for my work, my favorite being "one day I am gonna kill that man..."

The studio clean out is starting to wear me down, but it has been a long time coming and I am happy for the space (and, by golly, I found one of my missing circle templates, as well as a treasure trove of oddities...but more details on all of that when I am totally finished cleaning/organizing and get around to doing the blog post documenting The Great Studio Clean Out).

I have a lot of in-progress drawings in spite of the clean out going on in the studio, but nothing is finalized.  I am still working on the Conversations with Goya self-portrait series, but I had this irresistible impulse to do a new piece for the Exhibitor's Co-op's Cube and I show slated for March/April at the Gaelen Gallery East at the JCC in West Orange, NJ.

This new cube drawing started simply as a Moleskine sketch, but then I realized that I wanted to do a fully rendered drawing, so out came a fresh sheet of Arches paper.   This is a smaller drawing - 14 x 25 inches - so it should be done in a couple of weeks.  A little detail snapshot, grey and fuzzy, as usual:

As far as the first Goya self-portrait, the values have been totally reworked (thank you Barbara!!!), the drawing sprayed, and I am starting a subtle black-on-black lace mantilla background for the negative space.  I was wavering on the background for a week or so - I was originally going to do the lace in yellow gold or white gold leaf, or possibly a red glaze, but was not fully at ease with any of these ideas, and as serendipity would have it, while at the National Portrait Gallery a few weeks ago, I saw a portrait of Queen Elizabeth I in which the anonymous artist had rendered a totally gorgeous pattern on her dress using black-on-black:  this pattern was not at all visible from a distance or in the reproduction of the painting below. Only by the light in the room and directly in front or to the side of the painting is it really evident that the dress has a floral/print patterned black-on-black:

FYI:  This Elizabeth painting is one of a few done around the same time that are referred to as the Clopton portriats, all with generally the same pose (details if you click that link - the Queen was apparently aware of the importance of getting her image "out there" by the way, totally on a side note, I recommend a dual biography about her and Mary Queen of Scots called "Elizabeth and Mary" - a bit of an English slant on the relationship between the two, but enjoyable and, as usual, I digress, but I don't pass up the opportunity to mention a good book here or there).

So, black-on-black it is, and I have a few ways to pull this off, but some Goya contemplation comes first - contemplation on lace, the presence and visual weight of darkness, the magnificent Maja, and then the technical ways and means.

Truth be told, in the end this series of drawings will have everything and then absolutely nothing to do with Goya...

The second Goya self-portrait is started, too - and, thanks to The Great Studio Clean Out, I have all of the above drawings spread out in my newly spacious studio, I can get to all of my art books, and I can easily access that precious circle template...

Currently Reading:  Ken Follet:  Pillars of the Earth