Maybe I'll call it "Expressionism"

Last night, I was tired. I got to drawing late in the evening - after the endless chores. So, I wasn't at my artistic best. Here's the self-portrait attempt from a mirror. As you can see, I was irritated. It doesn't look like me, but I think you can see the expression on the face. Then, I had another go...

As is clear, I got more frustrated. So, while these aren't likenesses in the traditional sense, they are expressionist - for they certainly convey the correct emotion! (At least I had a good laugh looking at them tonight. It makes me want to take pen and paper tomorrow...)

Back in the Whistler Business

Reading my last post, I had intended to post occasionally, but it just didn't happen...between the airport runs, grocery trips, emergency room visits, fence post mending, and general chaos that "vacation with the kids" means there was very little time. All is well with everyone now and we had a wonderful time with my folks in town.

Onto the art...here is the final for my Whistler project this month. I completed this during the "break". It is an alleyway near Copenhagen. I'll be honest, I'm not sure how much this has to do with Whistler. It was inspired by his etchings and loosely based on some of his methods. As for methods...I was rigorous in laying it out and eventually dispensed with the photograph and just went with my memory and reaction to seeing it and how I felt about it. I liked the stonework and how the white crapemyrtles just came alive against the stone. Hopefully I conveyed some of that.

To be truly Whistler-esque, I will entitle it "Song in White". (OK, he would call it a symphony or harmony, but I can't bring myself to do that.)

Should I have time in the next few days, I'll do a final summary post and a quick "completely from memory" work. Otherwise, this is will be it. There is so much to catch up on when the "house fairy" goes on a break!

Recharging the Batteries

For the next few weeks I'll be working more on recharging the old batteries and enjoying family fun than posting to this blog. My parents arrive this afternoon for a near two week visit. And, as I said before, they are two of my favorite people on the planet, so I'll be busy.

But, I will try and post occasionally - I hope to be doing lots of sketching!

There will be another post on Whistler at the end of the month.

Whistler Project WIP 1

Here's the WIP from that value study I posted the other day. I'm calling this my Whistler project for the month.

Having said that, I'm not quite thrilled with this and how it is turning out. Basically I keep getting bored with it as I'm working on it - and if I don't want to look at it, who does? Part of me would like to try a copy or two of some of Whistler's portraits in colored pencil. Perhaps I shall, but my parents are arriving on Wednesday for a visit and that will likely prevent me from posting or drawing much. They are some of my favorite people on the planet and it's been a while.

Facts on Me and Whistler

I was tagged yesterday by Wendy Prior. Apparently, the way you play tag in cyberspace is to mention your tagger, reveal seven things about yourself, then mention the seven people you will tag. Despite this, Wendy is a great artist and nice person, so I'll play along.

Although, I confess that I don't have seven people to tag that haven't been tagged, so I'll give you something else, more on that later.

Here's seven secrets about me:

1. I won my first art contest in 1984, at the age of ten. You can see my second place entry above - it was for the local post office's 50 year anniversary. Sadly, I was naively unconcerned about lightfastness :-). As well, those lines were meant to indicate rugged rock edges - no one ever understands that! So, I'm a misunderstood genius. :-)
   
2. I have won other awards...in junior high "The Bionic Woman" award and in high school "Most Likely To Be An American Gladiator." Both are references to tv shows where people commit great acts of athletic skill (sorta). So, I was a jock and everyone knew it. In fact, I was fast enough on the track to once run against Marion Jones in a relay race. I shook her hand before the race, I didn't see her after that because she was showering by the time that my team got the baton to me!
3. I have a supernatural ability to remember numbers...if I DON'T try. For instance, I can remember a phone number that I have dialed in the last 24 hours. But, it only works if I don't try. If I mean to remember it, then I can't do it. So, my memory suffers from stage fright.
   
4. I don't have a dominant "side". I write with my right hand. I kick better with my left foot. I bowl better with my left hand (which, honestly, doesn't mean much.) Sadly, this means that I can't tell right from left. Even when I do the thumb and index finger trick, the "L" on my left instinctively looks backwards to me. Getting married helped this though, my husband told me "Look at your ring. Remember that I will never leave you. That's your left." So, I'm lost without my husband.
   
5. On a spring evening in 1994, I walked into a room of people talking. I saw a man talking and answering people's questions. In five minutes I thought, "If I ever get married, it will be to that sort of man." Two years later I married him. So, I generally know what I want.
   
6. I read Martin Gilbert's History of the Twentieth Century, all 3 volumes, and was absolutely riveted the whole time - like most people read novels. So, I'm a nerd.
7. Rose is my middle name, not my first name. So, I'm tricky :-)
   

Since I don't have bloggers to tag, I'll tell you seven facts about Whistler that his fans probably won't tell you. (You find all these in Walker's biography of Whistler.)

1. He was born James Abbott Whistler. He later added the McNeill because his mother was from a well-known Southern family called McNeill. He wanted to be aristocratic.
2. He abandoned his only son, Charles Hanson. His mistress, Jo, took care of Charles, until he unloaded Charles on others.
3. He later abandoned another woman, Maud, with whom he had a 14 year relationship and at least one, maybe two daughters. She had called herself "Mrs. Whistler" for many years.
4. He committed perjury. He lied in court, saying that he was born in Russia. He was born in Lowell, Massachusetts.
5. When he grew tired of paying agents their share, he formed his own company to sell his work. It failed - no one came to his gallery.
6. OK, OK, a few nice things to end with. Whistler was the "interior decorator" for several shows and exhibitions. He was entirely successful in that.
   
7. Once someone came to his studio and after wandering around, asked how much for all of it. He said, "Five million!" They couldn't believe it. He said, "My posthumous price!" They would have had a steal.
   

Just a Quickie

Just a quick post today, in the small gap between errands this morning and soccer practice this afternoon. I am starting a pen and ink, looking down a street for my Whistler project. This is meant to be similar to his etching work. I'm not etching, so I don't know how tied to Whistler this project really is, but I have learned alot about him this month. (You can use my labels on the right hand side of the blog to get just the Whistler posts.)

For one thing, he was meticulous. So, I've started cautiously and done some value studies. For my non-artist readers, these are just quick little sketches to see if your darks and lights form an interesting pattern. As you can see, in the two sketches to the right above, I decided that including the shade from the buildings on the right hand side of the street was better. It now remains to be decided whether to include the shade from the tall building that does not appear in the picture. Generally artists don't do this, it's confusing, but at times, used skillfully, it adds tremendous punch.

That's it for today!

Fun Facts on Whistler

Honestly, I haven't forgotten about Whistler this month. I have actually finished reading John Walker's biography of him. The other night I wanted to finish the book, but told myself that I had to create something for the blog first. Here's that attempt. As I said before, I am not good at setting up still lifes. Had I done this at a better angle, that would have helped. But, I got so entranced by translating the values in the painting to my monochromatic drawing that I wanted the whole cover in it. I think this drawing also reveals that I need to do more work in spotting angles - the book is not shaped like that.

A few fun facts on Whistler:

• He made a science of his palette. He would spend at least an hour preparing his palette, before doing anything with the canvas. In fact, for a short while he taught students. He would examine their work by examining their palettes, instead of their canvasses. He defended this teaching practice by saying, "If you cannot manage your palette, how can you manage your canvas?" (Walker, p.141)
• Here's a quote from a lady who watched him paint: "His movements were those of a duellist fencing actively and cautiously with the small sword...He advanced; he crouched peering; he lifted himself, catching a swift impression; in a moment he had touched the canvas with his weapon and taken his distance once more. This would go on for an hour or two, most of it in silence." (Walker, p.93)

From other ancedotes in the book, it does appear that Whistler was very deliberate in his work and a perfectionist. He could easily work for a few weeks on a pair of hands and consider them not done. Also, apparently he destroyed alot of his work that he felt had failed.

That description of his painting reminds me of the descriptions we had of Sargent back in January. Almost anyone you read will tell you that drawing or painting something involves 90% looking at the subject and 10% looking at your own work. But maybe it is the mark of a master to be able to know just how to make a mark to render one small area.

More fun with faces

Here are a few more quickie sketches from around the WetCanvas Reference Library. They were quick with no pencil outlines. That sort of method always feels scary and generally results in less than I hope - but it's good practice. I read Jo Castillo's blog often and she does alot of this kind of sketching to train her eye (she's quite talented already though!). Of course, her sketches are from life and mine are from pictures, but otherwise I'd only draw little boys!

Bustling About

It's been a busy Monday around here. So, just a quick post today. This is one of the posts on my bed. I had fun messing around with the reflections of my bedroom windows in the wood. Unfortunately I went a little too big and ran out of paper, but it was more about just getting busy with a pen and so I didn't stop and change it.

As a side note, I have three impressive brothers. The oldest one made these posts in a wood shop class when he was in junior high or high school. I don't think I could do as good of a job now!

Ink Therapy

Tonight I've been grumpy. So I got out the pen and went for some "ink therapy". I am feeling less grumpy now, yeah! I was looking for a street scene, thinking of Whistler and his etchings. I came across this image of Norwich, England from the WetCanvas reference library.

Not a great work, but tonight is was just about forgetting about life and it's messiness!

Drawing from Life

Again today I felt at a loss at which way to turn artistically. I have been feeling a bit guilty drawing so much from reference photos. So, I ended up in front of my bathroom mirror and well, there you go. It isn't a great likeness. I shall have to find a way to keep my glasses up over my eyes next time - it was all a little too indistinct! But I was trying to get a good line going on the edge of my face. I realized yesterday that some of the appeal of portraits for me is the line of the face. Some of Waterhouse's fascination with line has rubbed off, I guess.

As I realized I was having "wardrobe malfunctions", a thought came to me from my Whistler reading. I've been reading John Walker's James Abbott McNeill Whistler. Whistler painted the Nocturne series from memory (at least some of it). He had some friends who would row him out on the river in the evenings for hours. He would just soak it all in and then describe it to a "listener" (who would offer corrections). Then he'd go home and sleep. He'd get up in the morning and paint. If it was right, it was done. If not, he'd head back out that evening. So, I could have just stared at myself, had a nap, and grabbed my pencil - perhaps next time!

Of course, such a practice would be a help to Whistler's goal of presenting beauty over truth. He wasn't gunning for details, he was aiming at revealing the beauty and mood of a subject. This is particularly true of his later work. His famous mother was done at an earlier stage. He was definitely into patterns and colors at that point, but he departed even from that level of detail in later years.

As Walker says: "He gave the portrait of his mother the title Arrangement in Gray and Black, for as he said, 'To me it is interesting as a picture of my mother; but what can or ought the public to care about the identity of the portrait?' The public, instead should focus its interest on the composition and the beautiful intervals of space; also it should admire the pathos and depth of feeling in the face."

I'm not sure what shape my Whistler project will take. Early on, he did some incredible etchings and many thought that he should have pursued more of that than painting. So, something done in pen and ink wouldn't be out of place. But, truly he is known more for his painting. And he had some interesting techniques...he heated his brushes over a candle! But, a colored pencil copy of his mother would be fun...we'll see.

The Discipline of Drawing Every Day

Today, when drawing time came around I just didn't know what to draw. I had been thinking about it all day, but I just couldn't come up with anything. The easiest thing to do is spend the time surfing the 'Net. So, I didn't allow myself to do that. I wandered around the room, trying to spark something. I tried setting up a still-life - oh boy, am I bad at that! Finally I ended up sketching one of my bed posts, not all that exciting, but something.

I've been doing portraits lately and felt like I needed a change. Ultimately, today I just couldn't find inspiration elsewhere. But, I definitely wanted to NOT have to achieve a likeness or get something to a completed state. So, I ended up doing three quick sketches from the Wet Canvas reference library - not even complete. That was a joy and you see them above!

Final on Ingres

Here is the final version of my dad and my eldest son. It's approximately 9 in x 11 in, graphite on bristol board coated with acyrlic paint. It marks the end of my Ingres study for April.

Things I learned from Ingres:

• Subtle lines make a big impact
• Hard pencils can go very dark on a coated paper
• You can't choose how you will be remembered
  

Things I learned while studying Ingres:

• Not accepting what other people appreciate about your art can make you appear cranky and ungrateful.
• You can stop working on something if it isn't going well, but you might learn something if you persevere.

And finally, I'm very thankful for this blog. I could easily be swept away with "spring cleaning" projects around here and then I would be a very grumpy, overwhelmed woman all summer long.

Looks like the FineLine Artists Group Project for May is James Abbott McNeill Whistler.