calling

calling my name

So much to do and yet these daffodils are calling my name. I had to stop and look, and then, paint.
Just had to.

pomegranate

I have been itching to paint a brilliant jeweled  pomegranate for months. I want to paint it with big juicy blobs and strokes of paint.

I am still not sure if I really got what I wanted here. I am on a trend toward more pomegranates, painting, observing more. Acrylic on canvas 9x12.

No Sketching Allowed!

Yesterday, I was visiting the Art Institute of Chicago to view a special exhibit of Renaissance and Baroque Italian drawings. This was a wonderful chance to see working sketches, studies, and life drawings by artists who dedicated their lives to perfect this skill. This exhibit  "Capturing the Sublime" http://www.artic.edu/aic/exhibitions/exhibition/capturingthesublime is from a private collector who collected these master drawings.
I moved about the galleries feeling overwhelmed, dazzled by the drawings, the insight into the creative process of these masterful draftsmen. So I did what I usually do to capture the process better. I go from my eyes to my hand to absorb the sight more intensely into my brain. I pulled out my little sketchbook and started some quick sketches. This is absolutely the best way to study art, for me at least. I can't just walk from one small work to another without losing track and focus. I like to use my own hand to  aid my eyes in really looking hard at the art, thinking more about the process and decisions that this artists must have made as his pen moved.
To my surprise, a museum guard walks up to me and announces "No pictures allowed".  I had already heard her say that to someone else with a camera and of course assumed that protecting these drawings on paper from flash photography was necessary. I looked at her stunned, "Are you kidding?" "But I am sketching, that isn't the same as a photograph" How could a little sketch harm the artwork?  I couldn't be possibly even making a copy, my sketch isn't that good. I showed it to her. She insisted that no sketching was allowed in this exhibit. Although she added helpfully that I could sketch in other galleries in the museum, just not this one. Later she brought her manager over to explain to me that, really, truly, No Sketching Allowed. It was also offered to me, helpfully that a large catalogue of the exhibit was for sale at the museum shop for $65.
So here is as far as I got, before I was told to stop. The left sketch is from a Tiepolo pen and ink, (one of my heros from back in art school days). And the right sketch is from a workshop of Fra Paolino, a small photo of the oil painting that became an altarpiece using this sketch was shown, fascinating.

the aftermath

My dining room table on the day after. (Notice the flowers I picked and arranged to draw before I cleaned up!) Last week was a whirlwind of activity, getting ready for the big Easter Vigil and Easter celebration. Easter is a bigger, more important holiday in our house and at our church  than Christmas. I like it that way. I have written about this before, how involved I get in art work projects that Church of the Resurrection uses for worship. I love being a part of this.

Here is a section detail of one of the six canvases that we finished last week. Sort of looks like the whirlwind of life. We used lots of texture to enhance the art, very cool, very exciting to work with.

At some point in the future, I will be posting about the process that we went through to make these paintings of the Old Testament Scripture readings.

just picked

Someone heard me complaining about the weather earlier in March! My punishment has been severe allergies to everything blooming at once. In compensation, we are having the longest sweetest spring. All of this jumped out early but then cooler temperatures have kept it all from fading too fast. 

This is my sketchbook entry today, I have so much cleaning up to do after last week's intense painting for the Easter service. My studio and every other surface in the house is covered with dirty brushes in dirty water and containers of color mixes next to wadded up paper towels.
My motto; always draw first, clean up later.

Alleluia

Alleluia, Christ is risen.
The Lord is risen indeed.
Alleluia.

waiting

Two hours in the patient room waiting for the doctor. That's why they call us...patients.

Hey, it's not boring if I have my sketchbook. It's an opportunity.

Palm Sunday

Your Palm Sunday on-the-scene action reporter here. I sketched this live (!) as it was happening yesterday morning.

And later, I sketched the waving palm branch of my seat neighbor during all the singing. I was so interested in the shapes that the frond made as she waved to the music. Oh yes, I was singing too.