Some graduate school assignments are given to expand use of materials, to produce unexpected results, and to reveal untapped aspects of ourselves. In one assignment, we were asked to select two poems and make a drawing of each. One of the poems I chose was "Daddy" by Sylvia Plath. I stitched together two pieces of fabric along the center line, and stretched it by wetting and stapling it to the … [Read more...]
Gouache Copies
Periodically I paint small gouache copies of great artists's work. The copies are made using a limited palette — red, yellow, blue, and white — to create approximations from print reproductions of the originals. Aside from learning about subject and relationship, design and facture, the act of copying reveals my emotional response as each aspect of the original is encountered. Temperaments and … [Read more...]
Food Drawings
The search for interesting shapes and colors in the grocery store, for subjects to draw and paint, has brought about greater diversity in what I eat. Tonight the acorn squash transformed from actor in a table-top still life into a nourishing side dish. I've read that when Matisse lived on the coast in Nice, there was a restaurant downstairs from his flat. A waiter would bring up oysters or other … [Read more...]