Tag Archives: flowers

Forsooth, forsythia!

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I’ve lamented and moaned on how fast spring passes.  You’re probably sick of it, I’m sick of it, but I’m going to do it again.  Why?  Because it’s another spring, and by the time I draw the daffodils, the tulips are gone. Damn.

So this spring, I’m going to get away from my usual MO, and draw a few more spring pictures, although we’re quickly passing  into early summer.

So the drawing I just finished….

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Why the bicycle?   It’s just a great spot of color, which I needed there.  It also adds a carefree subject matter to the drawing.

I’ve had many people try to read my artwork, as they would a book full of meanings and symbols.  The truth is, I try to establish a mood, and the individual objects are just there because they add to it.  If there is any meaning coming from the objects, I’m not aware of them, except as the trickster of the subconscious mind may suggest.

In other words, stop trying to make it so hard, and just enjoy.

On another subject, in many apartment moves, I’ve lost or discarded a lot of artwork.  Many I still regret, but the moves were stressful (aren’t they always?)….so,  that’s that story.

One piece I was sure I lost was a drawing that was the first in colored pencil. It was one that I sill love, and feel is one of my best.  Low and behold!  As I was going through my artwork to show at an art fair, I found it. I still have it!  What is old, is new again.  It has on title (or symbolism for that matter).

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Hit the Road, Rox…..

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I’m really looking forward to Spring. I probably said that last year, and the year before…..but it bears repeating.  C’mon Spring.

I thought about it and I miss doing art fairs.  I managed to score a white tent on Ebay, and as time goes on find creatively inexpensive display items. i finally found a niche for a product that actually sells!  Hand drawn greeting cards.  I intended to start with an autumn holiday show,  but I saw an opportunity for a show on Mothers Day.

I started out doing winter seasonal cards, but have now switched over to spring/flower imagery.  The drawing above is a new example. Im a little rusty doing flowers. Ive got to get back up to speed.

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So,it may be a month early, but in my studio, it’s already Spring!

 

The Devil is in the Details

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My father was a detail man.  He was a commercial artist, and his specialty was filling in the designs on the fabric of shirts, pants, diamonds, and just about anything else that was advertised.  I can’t imagine how he had the patience to do such a thing, but, perhaps it’s just that it was income, and you do what you can do.

So, I think I’ve started channeling my father, the detail man.

I really, really used to think detail was boring.  I would do drawing with large flat spaces, and details, as a touch.  After all, that’s what I was taught was good composition.

I’ve switched to loving detail.

And letting the details lead the story…..

 

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Can you find the kitten?

So, at that point, I took a loose idea…..and just let the detail flow.

As my drawing progressed, I realized I enjoyed detail. No longer boring, just put on some music and dance. Or, in this case, detail, detail, detail.

 

More recently, I’ve kept spaces for detail.

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Yes, I filled around each clover blossom on this.  I didn’t mind it.  A few  years ago, it would have driven me out of my already somewhat insane mind.

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A few years ago, this is when I really details really took off…or dragged me down to earth as the case may be.  I wanted to make my artwork more painterly, but I was fighting, tooth and nail, against the medium,

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However, the details started sneaking in. Thanks, Dad.

So, I’ve taken a new direction, in my work.  Let the details rule! Or rock and roll, if you prefer.

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My motto in life has become, “Let It Flow”, both in my dealings with life, and in my artwork.

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And What I Mean by That is..

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I guess I didn’t make that very clear.  I certainly would have understood what I meant, and I”m me.  Start with what you know, indeed.

What I mean, is that when starting out a piece of artwork, there are some areas that you already know how you’re going to handle them.   For instance, in the new drawing above, I knew how I was going to draw the people.  Started there.  Which gave me an idea of how to handle the branch, which gave me an idea of how to handle the middle ground, and so forth, so on, and blah, blah, blah, etc.

The drawing may look a little weird the way it looks here.  It’s a small drawing, that the WordPress format blew up in size.  Every little stroke of the pencil is visible here, whereas it really looks muted.

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Just a personal note about my life at the moment, my tremor has gotten to the point that I can no longer control the pencil well enough to stand at my easel to draw.  So, I’ve made a different approach, working smaller and in a way to brace my hand better.  True, it’s a little dull doing small pieces, but I tell myself if there’s something I really like, when I figure out how to do it, I’ll make a statement piece out of it.  Also, I’ll have a lot of little accent pieces.  See if that’s any better for sales.

But thinking about it, I wondered what of the drawings I have already would make a good accent piece.  My first choice is an unassuming sketch of mine which I am now naming “Mind Games”.  That’s firstly because it resembles the intricate working of a person’s mind and also, I was listening to John Lennon a lot when I drew it.  Okay, to refresh your memory:

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Yes, it needs a little tweaking, but with figures of children added to it, I think it would me a damn good huge, huge, I’m telling you, piece.

But there are others that I think would make a good statement piece.  For instance, this:

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It’s actually a nameless little piece that I did as a label for a friend’s line of natural products.  But can you see this 5 feet, by 5?

And then there’s this:

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My old logo, Cheshire Cat like.

Going back to my small, paradise works:

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Now, I’ve gotten so many statement piece ideas, I can’t make up my mind.  Mind?  Mind Games again?

I’m going to bed.

 

 

Turn, Turn, Turn

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There was  a song big in the sixties, during the folk music era.  The lyric went something like this;

To everything, turn turn turn…there is a season, turn turn turn, and a time to every purpose under heaven.

Some of you, I know, remember this song.  Some of you, will remember it because your parents played it.  I think it was made popular by Peter, Paul and Mary, but I’m to lazy to Google it to be sure.

 

For me, the season has been spring, but the purpose of the time wasn’t art.  I had family issues, a new job that turned into a horror show, and all sorts of sundry events and mishaps that life takes from time to time.

And so, finally,  I can turn, turn, turn back to my artwork!

The Flowers That Bloom in the Spring..Tra la

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So, in the time that I so looked forward to, spring, I’m stuck with a stubborn case of artist’s block.  You’d think, with all the time off I’ve had, I’d be fruitful as fruitflies.  I’ve made attempts, but nothing that I’m excited about..at least excited enough to do the hard work behind doing a drawing.  I’m left wondering WTH happened, and what do I do now.

Then, gazing at the beautiful spring day, I realized, not only is spring beautiful, it’s also pretty.  It’s the type of pretty that brings out the cliches in everyone.  Doing something original is about impossible, with all these darn flowers everywhere!

“Floral Overload”

20 x16 inch image. Lightfast colored pencil on archival cotton rag paper.

$200.00