8/12-15, 2013, A Week of Sketchbook Adventures

Sketchbook page, Finlay Park #3, 8/9/2013, marker, 

 and pen on paper, 9" x 12"

Sketchbook page, Finlay Park #4, 8/9/2013, marker, 

 and pen on paper, 9" x 12"

Sketchbook page, Still life of Roses for long term drawing #26, marker, 

 and pen on paper, 9" x 12"

Sketchbook page, Figure Study for long term drawing #27, marker, 

 and pen on paper, 9" x 12"

Drawing is putting a line around an idea.  - Henri Matisse

8/9, Hot outside, but cool in the shade...

...cool enough to continue to explore plein air work at Finlay Park.

Sketchbook page, Finlay Park #1, 8/9/2013, marker, 

 and pen on paper, 9" x 12"

Sketchbook page, Finlay Park #2, 8/9/2013, marker, 

 and pen on paper, 9" x 12"

Literature expresses itself by abstractions, whereas painting, by means of drawing and colour, gives concrete shape to sensations and perceptions. - Paul Cezanne 

8/5 - 8/8, This week's indoor studio time..

...is a slow ending and a fast beginning.  Working on the long term work is taking more time each day than I expect, and that is OK.  Decided to balance the time by working on a painting based on the pool side sketches.

Imagination is more important than knowledge.  Knowledge is limited.  Imagination encircles the world.  - Albert Einstein

8/2, Pool side plein air ride.

Sketchbook page, Pool side #1, marker, 

 and pen on paper, 9" x 12"

Sketchbook page, Pool side #2, marker, 

 and pen on paper, 9" x 12"

On matters of style, swim with the current, on matters of principle, stand like a rock.

-Thomas Jefferson

8/1, Another zoo day today...

Kicking off August by going outside instead of inside.  Will return to the long term work during the next couple of days, but for the next 48 hours indoor studio "vacay."

Sketchbook page, Riverbanks Zoo for long term drawing #25, marker, 

 and pen on paper, 9" x 12"

Don't wait for ideas, they come with production.  - Chagall

7/31(the AM), A morning at the zoo...

...drawing bamboo. 

Sketchbook page, Riverbanks Zoo for long term drawing #24, marker, 

 and pen on paper, 9" x 12"

For me nature is not landscape, but the dynamism of visual forces.  -Briget Riley

7/30 & 7/31 (the PM), It always feels good...

...to be in the final stages of a painting.  This one is coming together this week, but I can get a bit anxiously excited, and not wishing to take a wrong turn, I might pace myself by leaving it for another work for the next couple of days.  The "7/22, 723, & 7/24 (the AM)" of this blog is the last comparable post of this painting at its previous stage.

I carry my ideas with me for a long time, rejecting & rewriting until I am satisfied. Since I am conscious of what I want, I never lose sight of the fundamental idea. 
- Beethoven

7/29, Figuring it out

Much of the early sketchbook work featured on this blog has been devoted to the environment and atmosphere of the long term, large scale work.  Now that the work is in the final stretch, the figures need to be finely tuned.

Sketchbook page, for long term drawing #22, marker, 

 and pen on paper, 9" x 12"

Sketchbook page, for long term drawing #23, marker, 

 and pen on paper, 9" x 12"

The artist does not ascribe to the natural form of appearance the same convincing significance as the realists who are his critics. He does not feel so intimately bound to that reality, because he cannot see in the formal products of nature the essence of the creative process.  - Paul Klee