LARAINE ARMENTI

Vermont Gouache

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In July I took a road trip to paint outside in southern Vermont. Choosing to use watercolor and gouache on paper solved numerous itinerant-painting related issues. Watercolor and gouache dry fast, have quick set-up and clean-up, and need very little storage space. The paint doesn't melt in the heat or threaten to ignite within a baking car. There are no combustible rags to dispose. These … [Read more...]

Handmade Sketchbook

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Seeing a friend's field drawing done in a handmade sketchbook inspired me to reacquaint myself with bookbinding. Past project materials were on hand to assemble a simple casebound book: a few full sheets of drawing paper for a single signature, decorative end pages, bookboard, cover fabric, and glue. Relearning the steps was slow but satisfying to complete. Now if I can find a dead rabbit to draw. … [Read more...]

Drawing Bruegel

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Drawings from Pieter Bruegel using recently acquired Namiki Pilot Falcon fountain pen with carbon ink in a Moleskine sketchbook, 8x5 inch. Above: Peasants Dancing (1568). Pieter Bruegel, The Dark Day (1565) and other paintings Pieter Bruegel, The Land of Cockaigne (1567) and The Battle Between Carnival and Lent (1559) Pieter Bruegel, The Battle Between Carnival and Lent … [Read more...]

Edwardian Schema

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To celebrate the arrival of a new drawing pen, I used my Moleskine sketchbook to copy lessons from Drawing Made Easy by E.G. Lutz, originally published in 1916. His method is simple. He starts with geometric guidelines of outside shapes, then divides big shapes into smaller ones. Instruction in this type of schematic drawing was largely abandoned in the 1950s and 1960s in favor of supposedly more … [Read more...]

Goodbye Shanghai

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ARTIST RESIDENCY CHINA — SHANGHAI, no. 46 It seems appropriate for friends and food to be at the center of my last night in China. Wang arranged for himself and his three students who were my guides to meet for the evening. After finding the first choice closed, we had dinner at a Xinjiang-style restaurant. Later walking in the dark, we passed a group of people crouched in a dimly lit area … [Read more...]

Shanghai Old City

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ARTIST RESIDENCY CHINA — SHANGHAI, no. 45 The area within the original city wall of Shanghai remained exclusively Chinese during the period of foreign concessions that followed the defeat of the Qing dynasty by the British Empire in 1839. Unfortunately most of the old city has been replaced by a new city that pretends to be old — in a completely artificial way. It is a commercial development … [Read more...]