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My Ally

My Ally is not feeling well today. She is just getting over a cold and so I tried my hand at charcoal. I think that this may be the first charcoal that I have done since my first drawing class in Boston almost twenty years ago! About two months ago, I bought a book on charcoal portraits, a drawing kit that contained charcoal pencils and a stack of charcoal paper. I did make one study of a John Singer Sargent so I guess this is my first charcoal from life in many years. It is not finished but Ally posed for about an hour. She liked the way it was coming out so she would go back to posing after little breaks. Maybe we can finish it tomorrow. Still beautiful as always, she does look tired. Thanks, Ally!

Tea Pot and Scale

Tonight I made a watercolor of a teapot on a scale. I was in the kitchen with James. He was drawing and I was playing with a little Winsor and Newton paint box. I was drawn to painting this teapot because I love tea and all the accessories that go with it.

James

Soft pencil sketch of my son, while not a painting is all that I created today.

Teen Girl A

Once again it is my daughter who is the model. She is handy and has great bone structure and she is such a sport about having her portrait done. My son helped with the composition idea. We wanted something that looked timeless so we used a scarf to hide her modern haircut. We gave her a frame to hold to give it some solidity and grounding. James liked the idea that it made her look like she was looking at us through a window. You can click on the image then click on it again to see it blown up many times greater than life. I love the way the fingers are just mere suggestions! You can see all the brush work on the face. Ally really likes the likeness and that is all I need, to know that I did a good a job!

Homage to John Singer Sargent

Today's Daily Painting was made in homage to John Singer Sargent. I used a painting that Sargent made for Jacques Barenton of a little girl in a sailor outfit. I modernized her by putting her in a red shirt, made her a brunette and tossed the big outdated bow for my study on my tiny 15 X 15 cm panel. It is a good exercise and I would like to try it on a larger scale. I do like the small scale because it forces me not to get too fussy about the details and just focus on the major impression.

Portrait of girl in sailor outfit by John Singer Sargent for Jacques Barenton.

Liz Taking South Park Nap

While James and Liz watched an episode of South Park, I took the chance to paint them. James said that the south Park episode was about 20 minutes long which means that I painted both in this time. I am guessing that I spent not more than 5 on James and the rest on Liz. It was very fast work. It had to be. It is a cloudy day and at 7:30 in the evening we already are loosing the light. Liz took a nap and James of course was drawing through it! They had both seen the episode before. Only four days until the new episodes! Yeah!

P-town Beach Model Sketch

Yesterday had me back in P-town to discuss with the Egeli's my options for studying this fall in Annapolis. The Egeli's were having a class and their model, Christa, was posing again so that the workshop attendees could finish the paintings that had started earlier in the week. I was just there for the afternoon but they invited me to stay until morning. I wasn't sure if I was going to make a start at a painting or if I was was just going to sit and watch them on the last afternoon of the summer workshop series. I ended up doing a few sketches of the model and of some of the painters. This is one of the sketches. My sketch book is also a great place to keep quotes that I hear as I am working. The clouds were rolling in as we were all getting started and a drop or two fell before the big clouds rolled away. Some of the painters were concerned and the instructor gave a great quote and it is there at the top of the page.

The Wedding Dress

This post is definitely NFS. I am back to painting and drawing. That is the good news. The bad news is that it came at such a high price. Nine days before the wedding and I am released of any promise that was made. Yes, I was shocked to say the least. I think it was the closest I ever came to fainting. But I survived it and now I have this dress as a memento. I am sad that it did not work out and I am still in shock, I am sure, but I have a great group of friends and family who can console me in this confusion. I don't understand fully what happened but I do know that it is time to pull up the old boot straps and regroup. Yes, when it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. I have no hard feelings..OK, one or two but overall he was a very good man and he knows what he wants and it is not me! Just wish he could have figured it out a little sooner. As for the dress...I am not sure yet.