Surprise guest

 This is the Snow Queen. Don't ask me where she came from, because I haven't the slightest. I prepared a piece of watercolor paper Friday morning, using pink and turquoise Daler Rowney inks, planning to paint a picture of two little girls reading. But by the time I got back to the paper at 11:00 last night, a couple of things had happened: Our beloved Notorious RBG had died; Mitch McConnell couldn't even wait until she was in the grave before stating his intentions to replace her forthwith; and we had a highly unsettling earthquake.

So when I sat down to distract myself by doing some art before bed, I wasn't thinking any more about little girls reading. Instead, I looked at the shapes and outlines made by the ink and saw this haughty woman with a big upstanding fur collar and masses of curly hair, and before I knew it, there she was on the page.

I messed up her nose twice, and had to gesso the whole thing out; it took three coats, so I had to wait to do one of them this morning. (She is now wearing Nicole Kidman's nose.) Since I had to wait to finish the piece, I distracted myself by reading all the posts online, and ended up staying on the computer until 3:30 emailing all the Republican members of the Judiciary Committee to try to either inspire or shame them into holding off any Supreme Court appointment until after the election. Some may think it's a vain hope, but there are at least four members of that committee whose seats are in jeopardy, and I figure they will be listening more than they usually do (which is to say, not at all) to public opinion. I hope to Ruth that's true. In this time when we should be able to dwell on remembrance and mourning, instead we have to deal with these dickheads and their unstoppable need to desecrate everything we hold dear.

Sorry, I try not to go into too many political rants on what is supposed to be a blog for art, but honestly...I'm up to HERE.

Because of letting the paint stay where it lands, she looks a little like someone kissed her and thoroughly smeared her lipstick, so maybe I should call it "Snow Queen en déshabillé"?

Snow Queen: Pencil, Daler Rowney Turquoise, Fluorescent Rose, and Indigo, India ink, Uniball pen, white gouache, white gel pen, on 140-lb. Strathmore watercolor paper, approx. 7x10 inches.

Despite the best of intentions....

 Yes, I am supposed to be dedicating all my time to getting ready for my class (that starts in 10 days), which includes both prepping my lectures, powerpoints, and readings, and cleaning up my studio, at least the part of it visible behind me when I open Zoom to teach the class. The first is comparatively easy; I taught the class two years ago, and have spent sufficient time updating my lectures and powerpoints for the first three weeks, and can do the rest as I go along. The second is a formidable task, since nothing has left and many things have arrived in my studio (aka the back bedroom) in the past 10 years. And then there's the little matter of getting up to speed on Zoom....

Well, I spent two hours fiddling with Zoom and watching instructional videos and trying things out today, and then I had my lunch and read my book for a while, and then...then I was supposed to be organizing my books. But it was hot, and smokey, and the books are dusty and in complete disorder, and...I had a yen to paint. So I opened up my References folder on the computer to see if there was anybody in there dying to come out.

I came across this little lady from Lisbon, sitting at a checkered table in her red-and-yellow stripey shirt and blue-and-pink plaid skirt, and her face seemed to be the perfect subject for some wonky interpretation. Alas, as usual I worked too large and forgot to mask, so all I captured is her head, shirt front, and crossed arms; but I will perhaps return to her later for a whole body portrait. For now, this is the lady who knows all but keeps her council, and who believes that "a nod is as good as a wink to a blind bat," another translation to this Portuguese saying. The American translation had to make use of a made-up word, which bugged me: "To a good 'understander,' half a word is enough." I think I prefer the more idiosyncratic one.

Pencil, Daler Rowney inks, white, clear, and black gesso, collage, Uniball pen, white gel pen, on 140-lb. Strathmore watercolor paper, 9x12 inches (cut down a bit by the scanner).

Feeling my way

I have enthusiastically adopted many of the methods characteristic to the work of Deb Weiers, but when you take a class from someone there is always the struggle to learn the pertinent details without becoming either a copycat or a clone. So I'm gradually feeling my way into my own style that lives within hers.

I love the odd, sometimes vivid color choices, the exaggerated features, making the shape of one eye totally different from the other and yet they go together. I am less inclined to do the blind contour people she loves, because I am always unconsciously striving for a good likeness. I like some of the ornamentation but am hesitant to use too much of it. I don't know whether that's either cowardly or unimaginative on my part, or whether I instinctively feel that too much of it doesn't meld with my more spare style. I also hesitate to put it to use when doing a portrait of an actual person, although I have seen others pull that off successfully. I am using my own lettering style to distinguish it from hers, and so far I'm happy with it.

One thing that I have taken from this workshop that I hope will stick is the use of serendipity, the idea that there are shapes in the paint waiting to come out and all you have to do is see them and enable them. This painting of Rachel Carson started out to be a simple portrait with an accompanying saying; I had a vague idea of doing a stylized background pattern of leaves or flowers, and then, as I looked at the page, there was the caterpillar, there the moth, and there the snail, in the shapes left by the paint coverage (or lack of same), and I thought, "Of course! There should be bugs, and a bird!" So I looked up songbirds (this is a Wood Thrush), and then I looked up what they ate, and I added a few and then a few more, and suddenly the portrait was well populated by "critters." This doesn't always work perfectly: The places where they showed up were in some cases (the moth and the caterpillar) a little awkward. But committing to imperfection is also a tenet of Deb's. And the spider was so obliging as to give me the perfect way to fill in the extra space by spinning me a web.

I have had this saying stenciled on my wall for 20 years; now, more than ever, we need to think about these and other words of Rachel Carson and caretake our garden before we are too late.

Pencil, Daler Rowney inks, India ink, watercolor, Uniball pen, white gel pen, on 140-lb. Strathmore watercolor paper, approx. 7x10 inches.

More readers

I realized when I looked over my stash that I have been skewing female on my reader paintings, and although I know from statistics that far more women than men are avid readers, still we have to give the guys their day. So I went looking through my reference photos and...didn't find too many!

I had, however, saved a photo of my Facebook sketcher friend Don Low, along with two of his buddies, all sitting side by side on a bench on the subway (or some kind of train), and they were each intent on sketching in their sketchbooks. I chose instead to shove them a lot closer together and let them all read from the same book, which Don is holding. I wanted to give that feeling when you think you're having a solitary experience despite being surrounded by others, and then suddenly realize that others may be having the experience with you!

I thought about putting in some writing in the top right corner, saying something like "Don suddenly realized he wasn't alone," but then I thought that maybe it was more fun for the viewer to get the idea from the expression on Don's face, as he looks up and feels the other eyes on his book.

I had big fun deciding what colors to make them all—I was going to make them all one color, but then I thought, Why choose? so I didn't.

Not too much extraneous ornamentation in this one, but I put in a few anomalies here and there.

Pencil, Daler Rowney inks, black gesso, watercolors, Uniball pen, white gel pen, on Strathmore 140-lb. watercolor paper, about 10x8 inches.