Some new watercolor notes

Try as I may, I still find it so hard to update this blog in a manner that is more frequent…

Here are a few studies done lately, here and there, taking up watercolor again -- as I tend to do every now and then -- my favorite medium for what I call  "nervous relaxation".

This first one is a one and a half-hour (maybe two) sketch of the statue of Goya that presides the north facing entrance to the Prado Museum here in Madrid. I remember doing this same statue a few years ago, from another angle. I enjoyed painting it then as I did now. It lends itself well to be painted...

This one is a view of the beach at Sesimbra in Portugal...

…and a side street in Toledo city...

…and finally, a couple of strollers at that beach in Sesimbra again...

Hopefully, I will be able to do more this summer, who knows…

BUT, if you want to feast your eyes on REALLY good watercolor stuff, check out this link (click here) to my Pinterest page. All of the pieces featured here are truly exquisite and clicking on them will lead you to other exquisite examples. You know how it works...

Painting with another purpose

Despite the "lean years" being still very much a thing of reality, especially in the Art world, I still do manage to obtain the occasional commission for sacred, devotional paintings. The Church, as it is known, has always been historically one of the main patrons for artists and, thankfully for those of us who still insist on choosing this way of earning a living, it still continues to be. A symbiotic relationship, I think it is: the artist serves the need that the Church has to evangelize by converting the mystical and spiritual into something tangible and graphic for the faithful, and, in this way, the hunger that the artist has to create and be poetic in his creation is also fed. His main aim from the client´s point of view is to invite meditation and to offer the faithful something "real" so as to make the sublime more accessible and something to be reached.
 One of my more recent ones were these three pieces I was asked to execute for a chapel in Rome, no less…quite flattering for any painter, I think.

And this is how the pieces looked in the workshop before shipping. The client wanted a background that was quite undefined and just  a juxtaposition of quadrilateral shapes with gold-ochre tones to sort of  imply light and lend an ethereal character to the figures.

Quiet presence

Another new piece I´ve managed to work on in spurts and have finally finished. Sort of like a "spin-off" from my last one, like those characters in sit-coms that go off and start a series of their own. I used one of the carnations from my last piece. I only hope that, unlike the TV spin-offs that usually bomb out, this one actually succeeds…. I like it, at least.

"Even in the quietest moments,

I wish I knew what I had to do…"

--Supertramp

"Even in the Quietest Moments"

"Quiet presence"

Oil on panel, 33 x 24 cms

 …and a bit of sourdough from last week.

First piece for ´14

I have this penchant for small works. The ones you have to come up to real close to look at but, at the same time, they also ask you to step back and check them out from afar.
This one took me almost two weeks to complete, not for its complexity nor for its unusual difficulty, I blame my double life which takes up most of my time. Also, the very limited winter daylight was a factor.

"Carnations, glass bowl, winter light"
Oil on canvas on board, 27 x 35 cms.

Since I work from right to left, the original position of the carnation on the extreme left had to be adjusted as it had wilted a bit, but at least the light was pretty constant all throughout. And my dog cooperated and let me work...

New sanguine drawing

Not having been able to work on what I want lately, I am always grateful for little opportunities that allow me to keep my hand (and eye) from going rusty. This is one of those opportunities. Little Eva is Mike McCarty´s (author of "The Adventures of Alex, the Vegetarian Coyote") two year old granddaughter. I worked from a photo, sometimes inevitable, and I was grateful for the excellent photograph that Mike, an excellent photographer, had taken of his little Eva.

Sanguine and white chalk on toned paper. The tones were several washes in watercolor on originally white Canson Ingres paper.

Personally, I prefer working on paper I´ve toned myself rather than buying colored, toned papers such as the ones that are sold in pads or blocks and come in a variety of colors. I think the original whiteness of the paper offers a luminosity that shows through the layers of washes, something that the store-bought papers don´t have. In any case, toned at home or ready-toned-store bought, the white chalk does what it´s supposed to do better on these surfaces. 

Still life

My website has been down for a while now and until I can get a new and/or updated one up and running again, this blog will serve as my temporary showcase.

The still life is a special genre in painting that has its appeal to just about any painter as it lends itself perfectly well to the study of light, color and texture with the added bonus of being easily on hand and inexpensive to create. From the old Dutch masters, to Zurbaran and Melendez; from Fantin-Latour to our contemporary, living artists; the still life has delighted the art lover for centuries and artists will forever resort to this subject every time they don´t have a sitter available or the weather is too inclement.
Below are some samples from those mentioned as well as some of my own from the recent past.

Pieter Claesz (Dutch)

Francisco Zurbarán (Spanish)

Luis Meléndez (Spanish)

Henri Fantin-Latour (French)

MIchael Klein (American)

Jacob Collins (American)

Ilaria Rosselli del Turco (Italian)

Jeremy Lipking (American)

….and here are some from yours truly from recent years:

Esqueje (2005)

Bodegón con clementinas (2005)

Ocho cebollas (2008)

Grapes (2009)

Alive again

About time something is done to resuscitate this blog.

A lesson in drawing, I think, would be quite apt.

Michelangelo´s preparatory studies, sometimes holding more appeal than the corresponding finished works, many would agree.The study for the Sistine Chapel´s Libyan Sibyl, in particular, has always been a favorite and I remember looking at this image in books as a child for long periods at a time and admiring the twist of the torso and the tension of the muscles and the flawlessness of the handling of the red chalk.

I´ve copied  bits and details of this drawing since as far as I can remember. Always a good lesson. In this, my latest attempt, I´ve attempted a closer likeness by toning my paper before hand with a wash of diluted black coffee (my son´s idea, I had never heard of this before, believe it or not) and I´ve found that it gives the perfect tonal match for red chalk drawings. I would imagine for sepia as well…
My attempt is, of course, a product of mine, hence the imperfections. I did, however, enjoy the exercise immensely.