Learning from the Masters 1

There is so much to be learned from the masters.  Rodin when sketching his models his eyes never left the model.  He understood human anatomy and he wanted each and every line to flow from his eyes to his hands to the paper.  Sargent when painting watercolors was most interested in how light played off of objects and forms.

Portola Vineyards

I spent a beautiful day Plein air painting with a group of artists that meet regularly.  Today enjoyed the sun, scenery, and wine of Portola Vineyards.  Here is an 8x10 oil painting after about 4 hours of work.

Classic Greek male torso

it was a beautiful day in California today so after my morning jog, a little work, and some lunch I headed down to the Stanford Cantor museum to hang out in the Rodin garden and read a book.  After a while I went into the museum where I enjoyed a display of Souix Native American drawings that told the story of the Battle at Little Bighorn (Custer's Last Stand).  Then I stumbled onto a sculptor of a classic Greek male torso circa 50 B.C. and decided to sketch it.  Here is my sketch.

Salsa dancers 1

I have taking some Salsa dancing lessons off and on and admire those couples that turn, spin, and step with such rhythmic beauty.  Here is a sketch were I first did a gesture drawing and then refined it with some line and form.

Antenna

It's been about a year since I did my last plein air painting.  I met up with the Burlingame Plein Air Painters Meetup group at Princeton Harbor in Half Moon Bay to exercise my artistic abilities and get some fresh air.  Here is the result of a few hours dabbling with my oil paints.  A few people walking by complimented me on the painting and as I was packing up my supplies one couple offered to buy my painting.  Maybe I'm not so bad after all.  Anyway, I do it more for fun than anything else.  If I had more time I would have worked out the values and forms a bit more.

More figures

It's been awhile since I did some figure drawing so I was feeling a bit rusty.  My daughter Marcie was in town who is an excellent artist so I invited her to join me.  Here are a few of the 20 minute poses I sketched.  Hope to do many more in 2016.

Friends

Can a still life represent friendship?  That was one of the questions I sought when composing this painting of a pear and garlic.  At a distance and in the shadows the pear and the garlic appear just as acquaintances having a conversation.  But as we look at their true nature we see they are literally very close to one another and that there is a clear affection as the pear leans into the garlic.  They come from very different backgrounds as the garlic grows up in the ground and the pear matures in the canopy of a tree and yet they find themselves together here - possibly in someone's kitchen.  Allegorically speaking the two represent people from different cultures finding each other in unlikely places and bringing beauty to the world as represented by the harmonious triangle of the composition.