Woman with Bird

Woman with Bird, 33cm xc 40.5cm, 13" x 16", acrylic, graphite, acrylic inks on archival paper, 2011. It may be finished; it may not. It was a sketch for another piece but may hold its own. I photographed this in full sunlight and then adjusted the colours. The paints are iridescent, so they catch the light more than this photo shows.

She insisted, when we began, that it not look like her - and it doesn't, although it does a little. I only spent half an hour drawing her, and should have spent longer. I feel perhaps the word is blocked, not sure, that drawing is more effort, which might sound odd to those who knows my work, but things aren't breaking through in the way they used to.

So I persist, and wonder when the energies will, once again, shift; they always do.

                              

Altered Lifedrawing2

Altered Lifedrawing3, 28cm x 35.5cm, 11"x14", India ink, conté crayon, 100lb archival paper.

Words written in the drawing:

age comes whizzing in on us

caterpillar woman

_
If this image becomes an opportunity to dialogue with yourself about various issues, perhaps age-related, perhaps grandmother or elderly mother, or who knows, the crone, or perhaps death itself, reaching the edge of the lifespan and finding your body becoming larval and the wings that will take you out, enable you to flee a collapsing body, then ... yes...

(With thanks to Bent Lorentzen for eliciting this response from me to some of his comments on the drawing.)

                              

Life Drawing at TSA

Finally, went to a life drawing session at TSA (Toronto School of Art) last night, and only because my niece (who's 20) said she'd go with me. She found the short poses difficult and erased all her drawings but three! Oy! She is very talented and wants to do an art degree.

The model was older, I estimate about 70. I don't aim for a likeness, rather looking intently at the form and letting my hand draw. Anyway, thought I'd share. First session since 2006!

The room was packed, nearly every table taken. While I hadn't planned to create backgrounds for my sketches, I found myself hurriedly sweeping coloured conte crayon over the next page in between poses. Then quickly rubbing with a paper towel to blend and wipe the excess pigmented dust onto the floor behind me with paper towels!

The conte crayons are similar to chalk pastels, brightly coloured, though a little less dusty.

These are the sketches as is, untouched, simply photographed in late afternoon sunlight, and slightly colour-corrected to more closely match the originals . There are more, some I don't like, some awaiting colour.

All Life Drawings, 28cm x 35.5cm, 11"x14", India ink, conte crayon, 100lb archival paper.

 Four one-minute poses- I've always liked drawing them as a crowd.

This was the final 15 min pose- I liked this drawing as is, so did another drawing of the same pose in the next slide.

Or view as a slideshow...