Struggling to Write
Although there aren’t many details in this sketch, one can feel the intensity.
Tag Archives: emotion
Asymmetrical Man
What attracts me about certain subjects is posture and gesture. Gesture typically involves a person’s limbs. This person’s pose transmits a feeling of relaxation, even though he is asymmetrical..
Man Happy with Music
I’ve noticed this gentleman quite often in the store. He is a frailish, gaunt person, shy and quiet for the most part. Sometimes, when he writes he grips his pen very tightly and with his head down, seems to wrap himself around the implement as if the most important thing in the world is to […]
Self Portrait – Indecisive Moment
Some say creativity ebbs and flows. For me, it’s no fun when it is at low tide. Today’s sketch is a self portrait. Instead of looking in a mirror, I used my phone camera. I snapped a couple of pictures of myself. They were backwards, when I looked at them later. The lighting was good […]
Expressive Hands – Quiescent
Mike’s* hands at rest, were very delicate. I’m sure they still are. I haven’t seen him in a long time, since I moved to California, quite a distance from where he lives. Below is a photo I shot during a visit to his old group home. While his hands are a strong visual element here, […]
Don’t Paint When Angry
Memory and Painting
Matisse, his Notes of a Painter he does not endorse working purely from nature or purely from imagination. He states, “… I think that one can judge the vitality and power of an artist who, after having received impressions directly from the spectacle of nature, is able to organize his sensations to continue his work in […]
Rescued Cacti
For the longest time, the bowl of cacti sat by the side of the house. Most of the other plants in my cactus/succulent garden had died. I thought the cacti were dead too. They were half submerged in the dirt, gray looking, no green anywhere. I put the round pot back in the sunlight on […]
Pointy Free Form
I think of free form drawing as a smooth, easy going process. The hand wanders, the pencil or pen follows and makes a record of the languid movements. The mind empties of thoughts. Today’s visual record betrays an agitated state of mind. Outlines are repeated, even scrubbed into the page. Smooth, over-lined contours threaten to […]
Mike Portrait No.2, June 2017
For a change of pace, I will return to portraits of my brother Mike for a while. He is autistic, low functioning and nonverbal. Mike currently lives in a geriatric group home back east. I took photos of him for many years; since I moved away I’ve been painting compositions related to my experience with […]
