MarciaLaBelle

Today’s outing

2012-01-22T20:46:00.001-05:00

Today’s poses were a bit convoluted whereby I dove in sleepy eyed and surfaced gasping for air - no sleep walking today, keeps one on one's toes.

click to enlarge

chalk on strathmore 18"x24"

chalk on strathmore

charcoal on cartridge 18"x24"

chalk on manilla 18"x24"

Directions

2012-01-18T20:39:00.005-05:00

An exciting moment. - today on our walk along Locke St. to the harbour, two young women, not Hamiltonians, approached us for directions - "McGill street off of Cannon?

I knew precisely where to direct them and they showered us with gratitude.

One of the women was from Wynyard Saskatchewan! What a thrill – Never in my entire life had I met someone from Wynyard. I asked her if she’d heard of Elfros and Wadena. Of course she had! I explained briefly that when I was a little girl, my father was the doctor in Elfros, an Icelandic village. Because it had no hospital, he admitted some of his patients either to the hospital in Wynyard or to the one in Wadena. Sometimes I’d go with him on his evening rounds to either of these two towns. Dirt roads back then. On rare and wondrous occasions I'd be allowed potato chips but then cautioned that they really weren't good for me.

And what were these two, very young women doing in Hamilton? They were on a tour giving motivational talks to high school students, and then on to New Brunswick where they’d finish off their tour and fly back west – one to Wynyard, the other home to a place about nine hours north of Vancouver.

A view from the cat walk at Siemens from a year ago.

The factory closed down in July. oil on pre gessoed panel

Richard

2012-01-16T14:08:00.003-05:00

My portrait of a dear friend, Richard Lubbock, who sat for me in Toronto some years ago. I met him shortly after he arrived from England. He had a walloping, dry sense of humour. For years he worked at CBC as a writer and also wrote for a publication, The Idler which which no longer exists, which took its name from a pub where a bunch of them used to meet weekly. When he sat for me we had lovely, heated debates on politics - we always agreed to disagree – Richard loved that – we both did, generally coming to a draw.

ciment fondu

One, two, three….

2012-01-11T00:10:00.000-05:00

Three goes at it

First time back at James N in a long while, a poon's age. (poons or coons are large prehistoric animals disguised as trees which don’t do well at skiing steep downward slopes – crosshill maybe)

Tea cookies and a Clementine and a dandy reclining pose. Also some new people joined us and familiar faces were a joy to behold.

charcoal and pastel on strathmore 18"x24"

charcoal on manilla 18"x24"

charcoal and pastel on strathmore 18"x24"

The fine tuning and maintenance of obscure, tricky equations and unfinished thoughts

2012-01-08T02:06:00.007-05:00

While not everyone might be considered equally unimportant, by the same token not everyone can be considered equally unfortunate. When we’re all equally fortunate than true equality might be conceivable.

A variation on this might be Camus' conjecture that only when we were all slaves might true freedom or true democracy exist - but I can’t put my finger on the exact wording of his quote.

click to enlarge

the watering of the unwatered plant

reclining figure, chalk on manilla Jan. 2011

Two - Not so new, sitting down for the new year

2012-01-05T02:07:00.005-05:00

This patient model dozed for an hour at a stretch without altering her position an inch while we scratched away at our drawing. All the while she possessed a certain serenity or calm which I might want to emulate in 2012. Fat chance! Just being realistic.

click to enlarge

carbon pencil on Ingres 2009

another model on kraft paper, 30 min pose 2008

Figure in a room with props

2011-12-15T17:51:00.005-05:00

The set up for this figure was a in a room with a lot of cushions, the model reclined on a hard wooden drawing bench – surrounded by assorted vases, some drapery….after it dried, I stacked this painting against the wall of an upstairs bed room and now after three years have gone by, have retrieved it, dusted it off and photographed it.

oil on masonite 24"x32"

New at it second session

2011-12-09T09:47:00.000-05:00

Two pieces from the second week with the previous model. I think perhaps in spite of or because of his ‘newness’ - he was excellent as a model!

pastel on toned watercolor paper

New at it

2011-12-07T00:40:00.000-05:00

This is a model who I drew sometime ago. He was inexperienced as a model and felt awkward and uncomfortable while posing. He was even in some pain because he worked out at a gym and had hurt himself. He came at most for two sessions but not for the third booking.

I realize of course that I enjoyed drawing him, much more than he enjoyed sitting.

manilla 18"x24" charcoal

untitled

2011-11-26T01:08:00.004-05:00

I didn't join the plein air group last Tuesday – cold and powerful winds – upwards of 50 km or more, threat of heavy rain, (it didn’t actually pour until evening) convinced me to stay home. An exhausting decision. I spent the better part of the day questioning the sky which seemed a wash of unremitting gray.

This sketch is from last April. Although it too, was a rainy day, we were able to luxuriate from within the shelter of an old sheep barn.

oil on panel 9"x12"

Beverly Swamp

2011-11-15T22:00:00.001-05:00

Last week I was the last person to pack up and leave at Paddy Green’s Road that runs between Jerseyville Rd. and Slote Rd. That’s ok – I came late.

A truck from the conservation authority pulled up just as I was getting into my car (very foggy by this time) and the driver rolled down his window and spoke to me asking if I was planning to return next week. Actually ‘yes’ I replied – one more time next Tuesday.

Then he explained that starting next Monday Native people had a license to hunt deer in this area for the next four weeks. We talked about that. They’d be using bows and arrows and shotguns - their target was to kill about eighty deer. They were from Six Nations and would be hunting Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays right through to December 21^st. I thanked him for telling me. That left Thursday through Sunday open. Nevertheless today we met at Beverly swamp on Middleton Rd between 5^th and 6^th concession – a significant distance from Paddy Green’s.

oil on canvas 14"x11"

2nd sketch 9x11 night photo with intention of reshooting

above rendered as black and white

More from the previous...

2011-11-10T22:15:00.001-05:00

It will be sad to see this model leave, particularly since I can never do him justice. After all a five finger exercise is mostly just that, a five finger exercise which of course is what it’s meant to be.

click to enlarge

compressed charcoal on bond 18"x24"

pastel and compressed charcoal on bond 18"x24"

chalk strathmore 18"x24"

chalk strathmore

charcoal manilla 18"x24"

From previous, previous week

2011-11-07T12:47:00.002-05:00

An appearance or I should say reappearance two weeks ago from a favorite model who will be with us for a total of three Sundays. He spends three months most summers cycling in South America with his girlfriend – the two of them cycle with only what they can carry in panniers from Colombia to Ecuador where he visits a friend. His tires stand up to back roads and most terrain but of course he carries tools.

chalk on manilla 18"x24"

Old technology - 5772

2011-10-30T23:55:00.003-04:00

The tools I use go back centuries in time – plaster, chalk, clay, wax, sand, cement, Italian rasps, serrated wire, hardwood clay modeling tools, a wooden mallet, chisels, occasionally a brush , bits of pigment, different binders

I have an old emac that goes back 10 years which I’ve since replaced.

Recently we celebrated the Jewish new year in Montreal, David’s home town which is ingrained in his dreams. Jenny served as the cantor at a reform synagogue on Sherbrooke West where she sang the high holidays - also known as ‘days of awe’ Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

Jenny sat for this portrait when she was six or seven – and of course like most children, very restless.

Jenny life size - ciment fondu

Reversing irreversibles...

2011-09-23T00:40:00.003-04:00

Last Sunday was such a beautiful day, I had the supreme longing to go for a bicycle ride but my husband said, “you better go draw, anyway I have work to do.”

To make matters slightly more banal I had a stiff neck, however I went to draw with a stiff neck. During pose breaks I marvelled with awe and envy while the model stretched her spine, neck and limbs catlike in a yoga-like workout.

Then I solicited commiseration from fellow drawers and we discussed diagnoses and cause and strategies for cure and prevention – heat, ibuprofen, tai chi, Pilates, massage, yoga, Alexander technique, and the miraculous reversible irreversibles of aging which is to go for a bicycle ride, or swim or walk and to strictly limit one’s sedentary activity at a computer just as I am doing right now - this very minute.
Then it was time for the model to resume her pose.

18"x24" soft pastel on Strathmore

18"x24" charcoal on Manilla

18"x24" compressed charcoal Manilla

18"x24" vine charcoal on Manilla

Tub and post

2011-09-11T01:08:00.001-04:00

These two small pieces (oil) are extracted from the time I spent on the second floor of the old post office in Dundas.

Building up

2011-09-05T20:28:00.000-04:00

Labour Day – passes in a quiet, unassuming , effortless way. Countless trips between kitchen and studio, noticing a few, brandy wine, tomatoes on the vine – not quite ready to eat (understatement) aggressively green for this time of year – well there’s time.

With my camera I take a few compulsive shots of a head I’m working on – 'note taking' I say to myself – before making changes. In the past I never could have done this - perhaps it was a blessing – now it’s become almost a habit. I wonder if this extra step has made me too self conscious. I suspect it has.

A quiet assembly

2011-08-31T23:28:00.000-04:00

"Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of the party" and this sort of five finger exercise could just as easily apply to still life’s that lean against anonymous walls when they could just as easily make a brief appearance on one’s blog. I did this still life almost two years ago – the set up was against a wall in my bedroom which I left to its own devices for several weeks after I stopped painting it. It is therefore neither finished nor unfinished.

A friend brought the bowl from Italy, the pitcher is an historical replication of a certain kind of pottery from the Knox Allbright in Buffalo (vague), the vase once held beautiful plum tree blossoms, the blue bottle once contained oil, the grater once grated lemon zest and the barely decipherable object in front of the grater was a drain stopper for a bathroom sink.

14"x11" oil on illustration board

Man with pole

2011-08-26T14:36:00.001-04:00

This drawing dates back to fall last year when we were privileged on a rare occasion to draw from a wonderful male model. The second drawing is of a kneeling woman – a short pose and quasi anatomical to help me understand the pose better.

click to enlarge

compressed charcoal and conté on colonial text

20"x26" approx

conté and compressed charcoal on cartridge 18x24"

Slight variation

2011-08-24T12:17:00.000-04:00

Our last night at our cottage was cold and our pajamas felt damp from all the rain. I tried to record the thunder storm but missed the loudest clap which seemed alarmingly close to us. We kept congratulating ourselves for staying an extra day and not venturing home in the downpour. I told the owner I wanted to come back but that he’d have to show us how to light the wood burning stove. And he said it would give him pleasure to do that.

Three separate drawings but pretty much from the same point of view, with just slight variation.

chalk on manilla 18"x24"

chalk on grumbacher charcoal paper 12"x18"

A woman on a cushion

2011-08-13T21:54:00.002-04:00

I have a vague recollection of the model talking about a minor personality clash she was having with her pregnant cat or dog – or was it her daughter or was she complaining about her husband – whatever it was, she told it well – I do remember her commenting on her pose that it was very difficult to hold because her feet had a tendency to slide forward – yet she didn’t betray the slightest discomfort in her expression.

Two oil sketches, unfinished on gessoed mdv from 2009

Front to back

2011-08-08T23:30:00.002-04:00

The studio where we draw above the Portuguese pool hall is pleasantly air-conditioned. Alan gave me a brand new eraser because I'd forgotten mine - Maureen gave me a lovely soft carbon pencil to try and during the break, Markus passed around strawberry, yogurt candies. They are an accomplished, dedicated group of drawers - there is atmosphere.

When I left to go to my car the, the intersection at James and Mulberry was blocked by an old world Portuguese religious procession, with a fantastic brass band and individuals carrying banners and incense shakers. It only lasted fifteen or twenty minutes but I was mesmerized by the music and their faces!

front view chalk on manila 18"x24"

back view chalk on manila 18"x24"

A 19th century sampling of weather in July: the stuff of small talk: a hands on thing to do.

2011-07-23T01:17:00.000-04:00

Charles Peirce religiously chronicled the weather in Philadelphia for 57 years from January, 1790 to January 1847. This was not the same, great American philosopher, Charles Sanders Peirce who also had a keen interest in the weather, but an earlier, modest Peirce who started off as a bookseller and newspaper publisher in Portsmouth NH.
Google has digitalized his vast ouevre of weather gleanings which was bequeathed to Harvard University shortly after he died - and it's online for all to read.
Below are but a few excerpts to give you a taste, which in our time, with the cloud of global warming hanging over us - gives his or any work on weather, a special significance.

conté and compressed charcoal gesture on newsprint 30"x36

July was always an iffy month - but when you look through his records you realize that all the months were potentially iffy and July could really give you a run for your money!

1838 strikes a chord:

1838 The medium temperature of this month was 81 and it was the warmest month in this vicinity that we have on our record for several years On eighteen days during midday the mercury rose to 90 and above on two of these days it rose to 96 in the shade but being placed for thirty minutes in the full rays of the sun at mid day it rose to 143 A small quantity of rain fell on six days making in all two and a quarter inches but only in one instance was the atmosphere cooled after a thunder shower and in this instance it was cooler only for a few hours There were twenty one fair hot and dry days.

Let's try an earlier account from 1793:

1793 The medium temperature of this month was 81 and there was a great deal of excessively hot and dry weather All the rain that fell was during some violent thunder gusts The mercury was from 90 to 96 in the shade on ten days and from 84 to 89 on fifteen days Vegetation suffered very much for rain There was a great mortality among the flies .

compressed charcoal on kraft paper 30"x36"

Sometimes it rained:

1842 The medium temperature of this month was 74 This was indeed a month of thunder showers and great destruction by lightning and torrents of rain also by wind and hail The month commenced with the mercury at 90 From five to seven o clock PM on the first day there was one of the most awful thunder storms passed over this city and vicinity ever experienced by the present generation The peals of thunder were astounding and the lightning the most terrific ever beheld and the rain poured down in such torrents for two and a half hours that several of the streets in the eastern part of the city were covered to the depth of two feet and many basements and cellars completely filled and a great amount of goods destroyed During this shower nearly six inches of rain fell The lightning struck and consumed several barns in the vicinity of the city and several houses were struck in the city and liberties also several persons were stunned Some rain also fell on twelve other days principally in showers making in all which fell during the month twelve inches which is the greatest quantity in any one month we can find on record.

Let's end on a positive note!:

1817 The medium temperature of this month was 74 The weather during this month was a continuation of the splendid weather of the previous month The farmer rejoiced at having such a pleasant season for gathering in his early harvest which was very abundant Fertilizing showers and warm sunshines caused the earth to bring forth luxuriantly Indeed the earth and the trees were literally loaded with every good thing Thunder showers were very frequent and a healthier season thus far has not been experienced for many years.

Resources

2011-07-19T12:50:00.001-04:00

I was perhaps the most refreshed and reflective person on my street as I lay, for the second time mid morning, immersed in a five foot tub filled with cold water that I had drawn earlier around 2:30 am. I lay there for a good 5 to 10 minutes - without shivering, allowing my mind to drift, feeling tranquil and clever.

No air conditioners, no palm trees, but fans, open windows and good cross ventilation in an airy house - if one can get the air to move. I couldn't persuade my husband to follow my example - he ran screaming from my suggestion telling me that I was a seal.

oil on cardboard painted late June on outskirts of Dundas

on a very slippery shellac ground.

Production mode

2011-07-15T15:56:00.001-04:00

This morning when I emptied the coffee grounds into the green compost container I was greeted with a frenzy of fruit flies - drosophila melanogaster – they were eager for the coffee grounds or curious at least - but would have I’m sure, preferred a banana peel – later, I said. I admire their industry but would be happy if it could take place elsewhere.

Now since I've returned from my swim, I no longer see them - I accept their disappearance with a sigh of relief.

Study of a standing figure below from a Sunday in June.

oil on canvas board 14"x18"

Summer mode

2011-07-05T19:37:00.000-04:00

Summer is characterized by long hours of light, the illusion of endless days and the allure of bodies of water in which to bathe – i.e. swim, keep cool. Moreover I have an allegiance to summer because I was born in June – I specifically requested that birth date even before I knew my parents.

I abide by simple pleasures and cultivate euphoric states, an inner dreaminess which I work at sustaining well into autumn.

Heavenly summer – books to read, some of them gothic, Edith Wharton (yikes), a bicycle to ride – obviously one never grows up nor intends to. If tomorrow for some reason I complain bitterly and you never know, I might – it will become apparent I’m not consistent.

The painting below was done early evening a few weeks ago on the outskirts of Dundas.

oil on gessoed panel 12"x16"

Creek in June early evening

2011-06-16T14:59:00.000-04:00

A return visit to the creek lathered with enough spray to repel all the ravenous mosquitos this side of the equator from a slightly different vantage point. One sniff of me and they either fainted or fled, I was happily abandoned. A veritable calm prevailed, I could hear the frogs and myself sigh in something approaching tranquillity.

oil on canvas panel 12" by 12"

Sunday life

2011-06-12T18:24:00.002-04:00

These weekly life sessions help keep me copacetic. I've missed a few and won't alas get back to it till July. I'll have to improvise in the meantime - may try to take in Caravaggio and his followers in Ottawa on our way to Montreal and then will make time for the museum in Boston when we're down that way.

Below - three forty minute poses.

40 minutes 18 in by 24 in on Strathmore -
prior to tweaking when I returned home
- six of one half a dozen of another this
tweaking exercise

Strathmore as above

manilla 18 in by 24 in 40 min

Moving myself around

2011-06-10T12:38:00.005-04:00

Not bothering about color harmony ( although if I do look worried I ‘ve had plenty of experience doing that – ha ha) - as much as experimenting with mixing colors from landscape palettes to see what tones of this and that I can obtain – painting over a previous study – half looking half guessing being quite compatible with mud as that is something I have in abundance in my studio.

click on image to enlarge

oil on canvas 10" by 12"

untitled

2011-06-10T01:54:00.001-04:00

I salvage some paint from a left over palette to rework a head study - alizaron crimson on forhead. – A notice from revenue Canada informs me that they don’t owe me a refund I owe them - I force a smile which is not to say that it is a forceful or even necessarily a convincing smile but in this heat subtle distinctions are nothing to sweat about. I figure if I can be supportive to mosquitos I can hardly refuse to pay my taxes – meant as a joke of course.

oil 6" by 8" pre gessoed board

Head sketches from a few years ago - something like that.

on preparation

2011-06-08T18:30:00.002-04:00

I was a hearty feast for mosquitoes yesterday by a charming creek. As soon as I set up they attacked. Today I counted approximately 45 bites on shoulders and back – a conservative estimate. Bug smear was no deterrent. Then to add insult to injury I couldn’t find my brushes. That left me with my finger, rags and two palette knives. But when I loaded up my car and paused for a sip of tea I found my brushes at the bottom of my back pack. The plein air fairy chuckled (at my expense) and murmured sweetly – you had something to learn from this experience didn’t you?

oil on board 9"x12"

An approximation

2011-05-08T15:42:00.010-04:00

Looking at oneself is a challenge in restraint and risk taking, an exercise in detachment and self involvement. Serious fun but sometimes tinged with a quirkiness, an ambivalence, a bizarre experience, daunting really.

In some respects. perhaps the nature of all exposure is like this. Of course I don’t pay myself a model’s fee which is a compensating incentive.

And just because it’s mothers day doesn’t require of me that I take off my artist’s mask. My family allows me that space and freedom. That is love!

oil study 10"x12" 2nd day

first day worked over previous study

RBG

2011-04-26T16:22:00.003-04:00

Very soggy and rainy the past two days and as a result I’m a bit housebound – not that I would melt if I ventured out. I painted this near the study centre of the Royal Botanical Gardens late March – an overcast day looking through trees and brush to York Boulevard on the other side of lake Ontario.

oil on pre gessoed panel 8"x10"

House in order

2011-04-21T16:01:00.004-04:00

There were still puddles of snow on the street when I painted this two months back looking down at a house from the vantage point of the second story of the former town hall in Dundas. The car in front of the house drove away from right under my nose – not my car – and it didn’t return for me to renegotiate it into the picture – just fine and dandy.

click to enlarge

oil gessoed board 9"x12"

A blustery day

2011-04-17T23:19:00.003-04:00

It’s become the norm lately these days that are a reprise of everything winter had to offer except that now the audience consists of crocuses and budding branches.
It was like this two weeks ago when I persuaded David to drive me to an outdoor session at the royal bowman near Rockwood where he sat inside the car and read while I scribbled color onto a tiny format while the wind was whipping at me - brrr - and then for my amusement he pretended to be a bear beside an archery target!

pastel on gessoed water color paper 8"x8"

pastel on gessoed water color paper 4"x5.5"

David thinking he's a bear

In no particular order

2011-04-11T23:44:00.000-04:00

I lie – in fact the order was just as the model intended, moving effortlessly from one engaging pose to another - from start to finish – first she sat leaning back, then she stood with weight on her left leg leaning into her left arm and finally - semi reclining on a drawing bench since we are not especially equipped with cushions, fabric or comfy furniture although that could change.

The drawings are on Strathmore charcoal paper 18”x24” using thick and thin sticks of charcoal and soft pastel. Each pose lasted forty minutes with breaks every twenty minutes.

Chair

2011-04-08T19:58:00.005-04:00

in order to finish off the remainder of a load of paint at my disposal from a previous outdoor session I attacked an unfinished chair.

This chair was one of four that served in my daughter's kitchen at Rue Stanley in Montreal when she was a student there. They had belonged to her room mate’s grandmother.

When the room mate moved out my daughter acquired three of the chairs and now they’re serving in my kitchen at Stanley St. in Hamilton.

oil on 9"x12" pre gessoed panel

Hot to boogie

2011-04-06T20:29:00.000-04:00

I’d forgotten about Hamilton’s race around the bay a 30 kilometre marathon that has attracted runners annually since 1894 – the oldest marathon in North America – three years older than the Boston marathon. Phew, wow….

So when I left early to draw two Sundays ago (March 25) I wasn’t prepared for the closure to the downtown and horrendous back up of traffic that kept me driving a good 50 minutes around in circles, wrong way down one way streets, cursing vehemently and causing me to be a good 15 minutes late for my life session. Then to give new meaning to the cliché ‘adding insult to injury’ I learned that our model would not appear because her booking had not been confirmed! Really!

These drawings are from this past Sunday, April 3 - hardly any traffic, the town seemed quite deserted.

One plus one

2011-04-01T07:24:00.001-04:00

I had left over from painting two weeks ago at the RBG some globs of pigment, too entirely seductive to let them lie idle and not earn their keep – some Indian red, cad yellow, sap green (hello, my name is sap green), mighty chested Prussian blue and dollops and smears of cad red, alizarin crimson, ultramarine and this and that etc - but no particular subject matter. So I selected a pastel I’d done a few years back between Ancaster and Brantford on what I remember was a sunlit day and used it as a point of departure. Well for one, a big difference in the feeling of light.

12"x9" oil on canvas panel - 2011

off Powerline Road between Ancaster and Brantford

soft pastel 14"x11" - 2008

Sunday drawer

2011-03-14T14:16:00.001-04:00

Drawing is a great distraction – comfort food in a way with breaks for tea and an apple. My friend’s son who teaches in the south of Japan is ok – he and his wife have tickets to fly over there this week

and we received an email this morning from our friend Miho who lives in Tokyo - with her usual subtle humor – “This morning, a lot of the trains around the city stopped and there was a big chaos around the stations (there were hundreds of people waiting for the train to come politely in line (after all, we are Japanese!)”

more from her: “I think things are going to be a bit more difficult now with lack of electricity and supply. Also, the nuclear power plant is in a very unstable condition (and another one exploded just now!), so we're all stuck to the news all day long.”

Strathmore chalk pastel 24"x18"

Questions of scale

2011-03-12T20:50:00.002-05:00

As I had been obsessed with dwelling in ‘a room of my own’ in a safe and sleepy - sometimes absurdly happy, boring bubble, Japan was dealing with the largest earthquake in its history and the fifth largest in the last one hundred years of the world - plus an explosion from a damaged nuclear plant. I heard that a wall of sea water, perhaps 10 metres high, was traveling at 600 km an hour. So little time to think, to escape, no time really, to execute one’s getaway.

Dealing with grief on a small personal scale - dealing with grief on a gargantuan scale almost beyond the limits of imagination - it's overwhelming really, incomprehensible – we must help one another.

in Dundas, rooms in an old 150 year old house

12"x12" oil on canvas board

A Room of One's Own

2011-03-12T15:13:00.001-05:00

This week I gave myself a long overdue history lesson. I learned that a secular left wing German socialist, Clara Zetkin – nee Eisler, staged the very first International Women’s Day one hundred years ago, March 19, 1911 – It was her brain child.

Until I’d read Stephanie Nolen’s excellent piece earlier this week in the Globe and Mail, I was oblivious to that. Nolen’s excellent article also provided a real tonic to understanding the status of women from a global perspective - highly recommended:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/in-much-of-the-world-gains-in-womens-rights-elude-a-silent-majority/article1933117/

Zetkin also worked and became close friends with another outstanding leader in the struggle for justice and equality for women and workers rights – Rosa Luxemburg who was assassinated in 1919. Bertolt Brecht wrote Luxemburg’s epitaph and in 1928 Kurt Weill set it to music as the Berlin Requiem. Not surprisingly, both women deplored and fought against racism.

In my tangential reading spree I was also shocked to learn, that Leslie Stephen refused to pay for the education of his daughter, Virginia Woolf. While his sons went off to school, Virginia stayed home! Years later in 1929, she published an impassioned plea for the artistic freedom and the necessity of economic independence for women in her book long essay: A Room of One’s Own.

9"x12" oil study on canvas paper

Last Saturday, while attending a gathering of women artists in Ayr at Ayr Space Gallery -IWC - I met a fascinating artist Grace Luke from Nova Scotia, who proudly admits to being 89. As a former music teacher to blind children, she’d titled her painting, Hope Through Music. Of course music reaches across and can be eloquent where words fail. We both agreed that in all cultures where fundamentalist religious beliefs prevail, it is incredibly difficult for women to gain equality!

She's on her way to Ayr!

2011-03-04T15:09:00.002-05:00

This weekend a significant grouping of women artists, myself included, will arrive at Aryspace gallery in Ayr to begin celebrating International Women's Day. This will be a day devoted entirely to schmoozing and getting to know one another. Putting names to faces - Kim Rempel, Tammy Hext, Nicki Ault, Susan Davis, Jessica Roth to name just a few - my dear friend Barbara Muir who will be doing her amazing skype routine with some of those unable to attend.

And among those, also gathered there for International Women Celebrate, will be this portrait bust I did years ago of a beautiful woman, Catherine.

portrait bust ciment fondu life size NFS

Although it is primarily a fund raising event for Haitian relief it is also a splendid opportunity to meet with old and new friends and simply hang out in a beautiful gallery in a beautiul southern ontario setting. The work of artists from as far afield as South Africa and India will be represented in this huge event of over one hundred women artists from across North America and Europe – a brilliant and ambitious undertaking, conceived of by gallery director, Jill Yuzwa.

My husband in the past has cycled to Ayr on country roads but this week end we plan on using the car because transporting a large sculpture in a bicycle pannier seems more than a little excessive, don't you think?

portrait bust Catherine - detail

Laundry tub

2011-02-21T23:33:00.006-05:00

There’s something to be said for laundry tubs. My soft spot for them developed when I discovered that they are ideal for soaking small waste moulds when I’m casting. I have four of them in my basement – two for the very purpose I described.

Yet what this particular laundry tub was doing on the second floor of the old Dundas post office wasn’t entirely clear to me.

The post office has not functioned as one since amalgamation took place in 2001 – which was and has been a contentious issue for the majority of Dundasians ever since they resisted the change and lost. Recently someone bought the building and is now in the process of renovating it, but they kindly allowed us to set up easels there a few weeks ago. They even provided heat!

oil on canvas board 12"x9" 2nd view

The day was for melting

2011-02-14T23:06:00.001-05:00

Two melting kinds of days in a row and then tonight a bit of freezing to keep us on our toes. You might say a perfect Valentine's day - balmy and romantic, sunny and cloudy and then a slight rising and falling of temperatures to keep the extremities tingling and us all wondering what's happening next on the horizon - weather wise that is.

This is pastel sketch of the same farmland stream from a few years ago. I wouldn't mind having such a stream like this in my back yard where I could sit and ponder life's idiosyncrasies - the permanence and impermanence of things for hours at a stretch

Stream in winter

2011-02-12T15:05:00.001-05:00

We're now into late mid winter, but I did this pastel in early winter of 2007 which means late November or early December of that year on a farm near Mineral Springs Road.
The air was fresh and if I remember correctly it was almost warm enough that I didn't need to wear gloves for a good stretch of time at least until my fingers started to become a bit numb.

semi soft pastel on watercolor paper

gessoed with pumice 15"X20"

Siemens

2011-02-03T15:32:00.005-05:00

I was at Siemens turbine factory this morning which will soon close with a loss of 500 jobs to Hamilton. We were only allowed to set up easels on the catwalk and not allowed to use cameras. We will meet there again next week for one more time with Jody Joseph, a superb artist who teaches in Italy. Previously artists were allowed to wander around unrestricted. One of the machinists came and talked with me - he'd been there 23 years. He'll be looking for another job shortly.

Siemens, oil sketch 9"x12" on pre gessoed hard board

The usual suspects

2011-01-30T19:07:00.007-05:00

On Sundays, I have a weekly habit of drawing on James North above a Portugese pool hall – one of my more salubrious habits I think.

Recently as I was about to set chalk to paper my cell phone rang and I knew it was either a wrong number or my daughter – she’s the only one who has my cell number - not llikely my husband as he is ideologically critical of cell phones so I didn’t think it could possibly be him.

It was in fact a text message from 'Fido', a cute little dog with his tongue hanging out, my cell phone provider – it was a curt warning that my air time was about to expire – my heart went dancing around in my chest – did that mean I would have to stop breathing, that my oxygen was going to be cut off?!

The message continued – unless I refilled immediately I would lose my balance.

Oh no but – but of course I didn’t want that to happen - the refill was supposed to take place automatically – that’s why I went to trouble in the extreme to set it up that way. I dialed Fido and I got Andrea – their friendly, obnoxious robot. There was no way that Andrea was going to permit me to talk to a human – that option was not on her menu.
All I could do for the time being was to go back to my chalk and paper and try to draw - to calm down and put this dreadful intrusion out of my mind. I tried, I tried.

Before I forget, Happy Chinese New Year! – year of the monkey, Feb 3. Correction: Year of the Rabbit!

Below are a few 30 to 40 minute drawings on Strathmore and Manilla – roughly 24”x18” with charcoal and chalk:

Click on image to enlarge

Studies

2011-01-17T21:49:00.000-05:00

The eye never gets enough of looking – Ecclesiastes - Kohelet.

The other day I was preoccupied with finding a book that I kept in the first floor bathroom – technical on oils, out of print. It’s important to have something to read at all times. But this book had decided to migrate to another surface without so much as a murmur and I spent hours trying to locate it and it was just beneath a pile of books on top of another pile of books in a book case in my bedroom on the second floor. Huge sigh of relief. I also found another book in the meantime on the history of tea and coffee which I found miraculously comforting during my agitated search. But I wasn’t fooled. I knew that my quest for the missing book was a sham, a substitute – a procrastination to which I was helpless to resist.

I wanted this book of course because it had within it the magic formula which I promptly read and fell asleep leaving the actual act of doing, the painting for the following day.

canvas paper 9"x12" oil

detail oil canvas 24"x24"

oil canvas 24"x24" in progress

Waiting for the moon

2010-12-22T01:25:00.001-05:00

La Luna

I took this photo one day ago at 3 am

One day ago was the lunar eclipse I already knew that it was imminent because I read about it on SamArtdDog’s blog.

In preparation for this rare event, David took an early evening nap and then exulted in the midnight air and lingering outside in front of our house, popped in and out to report. About two am he urged me to come out and take a look because it was starting to happen. He sounded both alarmed and excited.

I scrambled to put on boots and coat over pyjamas but if it hadn’t been chilly I could have run out naked because there wasn’t a soul to be seen except for a lonely car delivering the Globe and Mail. I took a bunch of pictures and thought I would return to my bed. But at 3 am I was summoned to return to the street. It was magical! Truly! I snapped more photos (the moon shot from a cannon) and then I did go back to bed so I missed the grand finale and curtain call. ah well - she shrugs

Of course the members of the Flat Earth Society have their own interpretation – they said that the shadow could have been cast by any celestial body.

Many lunar eclipses ago in my green faux suede dress and hand crafted Russian boots, I wrote a poem to the moon. It goes:

The moon is a womb and a moldy sigh,

Soured in wine and three days high.

Below are two unfinished drawings that I consider to have a moon like quality which I title 'Waiting for the Moon'

click to enlarge

Back to Front

2010-12-18T13:21:00.000-05:00

I half remember a quote about the light bulb – that the person who invented the electric light did more for civilization than all the ------ all the what, all the who - put together? Was it Camus, Graham Greene, no not him - some one else - a brilliant well lit mind? Well it’s nearly midnight and half the lights in our house are still blazing – the darkest and conceivably one of the busiest times of year.

The season for strings of decorative lights competing and celebrating with the firmaments, street lamps, headlights of cars, ruby red tail lights – all to read by- to blog by----

Seasonal greetings to all my Jewish, Christian, Muslim, and secular friends! And foremost - happy holidays and best wishes to all my wonderful blogging friends from whom I derive so much delight and inspiration! Love and peace to you all.

Below are two pastel studies, two views, front and back of the model - 20"x26" on Ingres paper

click to enlarge

Nature Is Beyond Us

2010-12-02T17:14:00.000-05:00

How bizarre.They don't know how to count. They now think there are three times as many stars as was once predicted - triple the amount! But when you get into the billions, trillions and zillions - do I have that right - the possibility for error (terror) compounds, is quadrupled. Do you know how old I am? I’m two and a half and there are several of us - precocious is it not?

Below are short poses from a recent life drawing session on manilla, 18”x24” – conté and charcoal.

A seated pose in reverse

2010-11-30T23:31:00.004-05:00

I wanted to call this ‘the proper way not to sit’ as a follow up to my previous post, but I didn’t think I could and still have clarity. But wait a minute - Clarity isn’t always what it’s cracked up to be - I’m not sure what I mean by that. More times than not I fake it. In this case ambiguity and indulgence are my guiding principles. But not to lose us altogether, that is if one hasn’t already shrugged one’s shoulders and turned the page – I had a brief but intense fling with Dr. Photoshop, who is responsible for the second image. I took photoshop on a 30 day trial and had some interesting moments in his wild lab of possibilities – dove in and hardly understood a bit of what I was up to. I think for the time being I’ll return to the straight and narrow. But what the heck, a deviant path now and then to while away the approaching winter nights. Excuses, excuses. My knee is now 98.8% better.

watercolor and pastel on watercolor paper

13"x17" 2007 - 08

this is an image of the above watercolor

inverted by photoshop

The Proper Way to Sit

2010-11-23T20:34:00.000-05:00

My right knee has been sore and stiff for the past few weeks from crossing my legs while sitting at the computer which I sometimes do for ungodly stretches of time - a bad habit, sitting like that.

I am now with great mental effort, resisting that habit of crossing my legs. Today my knee feels significantly better and I went for a long walk to consolidate it's improvement. But I could never take and hold a recumbent position like the one that Ed has taken below.

When I sleep now or read in bed, I put a pillow under my right knee and it relieves the soreness and tension. I recommend it. No, I am not a hypochondriac.

recumbent pose no.1 18"x24"

chalks on strathmore

A Ritual

2010-11-18T22:09:00.000-05:00

Every three or four days after D shaves, we go into my studio where he poses, either sitting or standing. We listen to music or talk or it's just silence - and then I’ll say “This isn't too difficult is it?” After a lengthy pause when I figure he's not going to respond, he says, “It's not as difficult as waiting for the bus.” Occasionally he asks, "are you going to give me any hair?" Of course I say in due course.

portrait of David, clay, life size unfinished

One out of three

2010-11-14T21:55:00.000-05:00

I did three fifty minute drawings today, unfinished. This is Ed leaning back on a stool looking down. There are some things I ought to resolve and tidy up. Tidy I'm not or rarely so, even at the best of times. But I do make frequent trips to the sink to wash my blackened hands - just like Lady MacBeth, but in my case without the guilt and ambition. Once I reconcile myself to my mistakes I try to make the best of things, making mental notes to study the structure in the rib cage more closely and around the neck and then while I'm at it why not the whole ball of wax - hands, toes, fingers, nostrils, chin, feet - hollows and the nether regions, etc.

chalk on cartridge, 18"x24"

buddy can you spare a dime?

2010-11-08T19:53:00.000-05:00

Concentrating on ten minute poses when you haven’t drawn for a while, can feel brutal, like threshing around in sub zero water. Or else you want to tune out, focus on where to go after it’s all over – maybe an espresso, maybe pho. I try to remind myself to think about the distance from arm pit to arm pit, nipple to nipple etc – obviously no time to give a second thought to ratio – the Japanese music so and so just put on is soothing – come on I say to myself, concentrate dammit!

recent charcoal drawings, 18"x24" manilla

a merry chase

2010-11-05T22:17:00.000-04:00

Earlier, I was looking for a small painting of daffodils, to no avail, that I did a while back, - but instead found something else - this acrylic still life I did a few years ago. It turned up with other loosely related items in the piano bench.

The other thing that turned up which gladdened my heart immeasurably, occurred last week when I found a set of keys II'd been searching for since late August. They had fallen into a hiking shoe beneath a small drafting table in my bedroom.

I was looking for a pair of socks, and a glint of light from this shoe I seldom wear alerted me to the fact that this was no mere sock stuffed in my old shoe. There they were - three keys - one to my daughter's apartment in Toronto, one to my studio in Hamilton, one to my bicycle lock and also I guess, one for the road. Not a bad idea, I could use a key to wind myself up in the morning!

So the pell-mell and clutter of my house keeps me on my toes as it were.

acrylic - pot and bottle - gessoed watercolor paper 8"x10"

two views of compression

2010-10-30T18:16:00.000-04:00

The gesture of the figure is fundamental, it is my lifeline. I think about it – it’s always at the back of my mind. For me it’s even more basic than light, I would sense the gesture of each successive moment even if I were blind. A gesture need occupy only a brief moment or less in time and space – with variation and repetition – it is our first language – the language of ordinairy life, the language of dance, and I think also the language of sculpture and drawing.

Ed, charcoal, 18 x 24 cartridge paper

Ed valiantly holding a ridiculously difficult pose

for an endless 30 min

charcoal white chalk on cartridge 18x24

Nostalgia

2010-10-22T16:19:00.005-04:00

I ate some pumpkin pie today. It was astonishingly good and I realized that I could be a vegetarian if I could exist on pumpkin pie and rice custard pudding which I used to buy at Murrays – a chain of restaurants that no longer exists. Surely civilization took a tumble when they shut down their operations. I sometimes wonder whatever happened to those pea green and white institutional casserole dishes in which the individual puddings were baked and served.

In my careless 20’s I’d hop out of bed at a disgraceful hour and head for the Plaza Hotel at Bloor and Avenue Rd where the dependable Murrays occupied a sizeable spot. As one of their regulars, I’d take my place amongst their older, respectable clientele and order one or two servings of baked rice custard. On Fridays they also served excellent chowder, both kinds – Manhattan and New England.

Today I'm serving a drawing from a stack of mostly unfinished drawings that go back a few years.

carbon pencil on gray canson mi teintes

16"x20"

two still lifes, wet and dry

2010-10-20T00:10:00.000-04:00

acrylic on masonite 14"x16"

charcoal and chalk on gray canson 14"x18"

warming up

2010-10-13T21:57:00.019-04:00

I’ve decided to take a breather from my graffiti post since its format became thoroughly painful, ludicrous, bizarre. unmannerly and counter intuitive. My luddite gene vibrated.

So I decided to muck around on an old painting which has gone through countless mutations and will continue to do so. But it serves a higher purpose – to soothe my agitated hackles, to warm me up and get me moving while I recharge my batteries.

16"x 20" mixed media on canvas board

same version on photo shop

earlier stage of mixed media 'warm up'

preserved in amber

2010-10-05T16:28:00.001-04:00

assorted objects of love and neglect

One can seen on my basement kitchen counter if I permit it, brushes soaking in a jar of vegetable oil – they’ve been there almost a year. One of those inexplicable interruptions which, when I attempt to think about it, fills me with dismay. I’ve been on the verge of cleaning them off and on. Well, this may be the day. Stranger things have happened. O to the god of craftsmanship and now, rescue these blameless brushes.

Below are two fresh air studies.

pastel 8"x11" hastily banged off at Andy's farm before rain last April

5"x6" sky study Andy's farm pastel 2010 April

Model resting

2010-08-26T15:51:00.015-04:00

soft and hard pastels on Ingres paper cropped 2007

conté on beige printing paper 20"x26" 1990

click on images to enlarge

Resting for the model may not be particularly restful, anymore than it is necessarily restful for the person who is doing the drawing.

But there is definitely a state between waking and sleeping that takes a resting position. Yet, it may be just a useful conceit to establish the illusion of rest that may be in fact, a complete lie - After a short time the model may have been excruciatingly uncomfortable in maintaing a pose simply to satisfy the whim of the capricious drawer.

Keith

2010-08-21T23:32:00.112-04:00

portrait of Keith, ciment fondu tinted

Some years ago - I refuse to say how many - my brother, an engineer, decided to move to Israel to live and work. A week before he left I asked him if I could do his portrait. He sat for me for two hours each day religiously for just under a week before he caught his flight.

He stayed in Israel for three years working at a hospital in Safad where he was to meet his lovely wife and then at the Technion in Haifa. As much as he loved living there after three years he grew home sick and returned to Canada. One of the things he missed most (he said almost apologetically) was winter - the open space and cross country skiing. I think in the final analysis that is what pulled him back. For me I think, the impetus would be in the opposite direction, that is to say I wouldn't miss winter so much - having been land locked for most of my life I could see myself living close to the coast in southern Europe, perhaps Italy or France or Spain -
one dreams of these possibilities.

At any time of day

2010-08-15T01:54:00.015-04:00

Two watercolor brush drawings, the first done in Toronto, the second done recently.

woman thinking

watercolor approximate size 16"x20" Saunders

How much of an inner life can we permit ourselves on blog land without revealing or exposing some vulnerability that ought to be kept hidden.

But then we can camouflage our feelings by tossing off remarks flippantly or in jest, providing a protective patina - this surely is the art of conversation, small talk - and how assiduously we practise it and how seamlessly it works - we hope.
But most artists try to practise the opposite - i.e. wearing their hearts on their sleeves! I'm all for that - working on it.

small meditation - generic flowers -

7"x9" watercolor pad fabriano

Thank you Barbara Muir for talking me up on your fabulous blog and helping me tame the critic within.

And while I'm at it - happy birthday to you darling Jenny!

Seated figure

2010-08-12T01:15:00.007-04:00

chalk drawing on canson 20"x26"

I did lengths tonight at the community pool – in the slow lane. There were four or five of us hugging the edge or so I thought, trying not to bump into one another. But every so often I would feel myself whacked by the opposite swimmer usually on my back, sometimes on my arm or leg, hardly conducive to the euphoric state I try to achieve while in the water.

Finally I looked to see who it was. It was a tall, slender man with very long arms doing a back stroke, a breast stroke and occasionally a front crawl. And I noticed mildly outraged, he was not hugging the edge, following pool etiquette – rather he was practically hogging the whole of our narrow lane to himself, smack in the middle of it!

When I spoke to him, I said I think you just hit me as you passed (as he had just done - he didn't deny it) - I suggested politely but firmly that he could move over a little. He apologized but refused to move over because then his arms would hit the wall but he promised to be ‘more careful’. “I guess it’s because” he said, “I’m faster than you” – which apparently was true. So I suggested that he swim in the faster, ‘medium slow’ lane next to us, but he refused saying he’d been swimming in this lane for years. And this was where he belonged, in the slow lane.

two back poses and re:notation

2010-08-10T01:24:00.007-04:00

George, turned away with his back to us – reminds me of a kind of warrior. A gentle warrior with phenomenal reflexes.

Both are done with vine and compressed charcoal on white bond, 18"x24" Click to enlarge.

With regards to the previous post – I find it hard to be satisfied with the acidity of the color shown - in spite of the miraculous capabilities of Canon, I'm still somewhat inept at manipulating its settings at this point in time.

I found this photograph that I took at the actual place where I did this painting, seen in the previous post - but then for some reason overlooked it. It represents much better the real colors – I think a fair facsimile or at least a reasonable compromise.

Notation

2010-08-01T01:10:00.003-04:00

Concession 6 Flamborough, soft pastel 15"x16"Summer 2008

click to enlarge

Leafing through Ned Rorem’s New York Diary:

"Nothing exists unless it is notated, not even the smell of wind, much less the sound of pastorales. I remember sounds with the eye. Even love and lovemaking are unreal except through a recollection which grows faint and disappears unless I print it here. I can’t “just live” but must be aware of being aware."

Another quote: "Can you polish a phrase about tears in your eyes with tears in your eyes? Yes."

I find that quote touching and at the same time almost hilarious. In other words the raw material of our moment to moment existence is all we have with which to coax, pummel and fashion something into something we hope to be of permanent and lasting value.

Shaver hill

2010-07-18T02:46:00.012-04:00

soft pastel 11"x14" on illustration board with acrylic pumice ground

June - 2008

“Rosie dips her brush into the dark-green paint and makes a careful little curve with it on the wall. She does it again, and then she does it again. Jamie was right—a monkey could do this.” This is the first paragraph from a short story by Deborah Eisenberg - Rosie Gets a Soul.

I am not Rosie but to some degree I identify with her leap of faith. I am rooting for her. I am on her side.

The beginning of the second paragraph: “When the green dries, Jamie will show her how to add another color, and, when that dries, another. “

In my case I pick up all manner of shades of green pastel to shove around on the toothy acrylic pumice ground to indicate fields in diminishing summer light. The light in itself is hypnotic and all the pastels have exotic names.
Unlike Rosie I don’t need to wait for anything to dry. I can add and subtract and smear and wipe and smudge all within seconds – the fresh evening air is subtle and caressing. This plein air experience is addictive – I begin to think I have a soul!

Celsius

2010-07-07T23:44:00.024-04:00

10 minute gesture - charcoal on manilla

Our neck of the woods is feverish – Hamilton has a temperature and the Celsius is rising.

No it’s not social unrest. It’s called summer. I’m the patient. What to do? I could take a Tylenol or I could go for a swim – I’ll opt for that.

Victoria pool is a 5 min bike ride to the north, Ryerson is even closer to the east – Coronation is closed for renovations (tragic) but Dundas has a salt water pool 15 kilometres to the west. Actually this city has about 70 pools all easily accessible by foot bicycle bus or car. There’s even our bay front harbor, replete with geese and a swan - lake Ontario with a stretch of beach and cottages going back to the 20’s – the water is still a wee bit polluted (steel factories nearby) – I’ll put a hold on that option.

my young jenny and her dad

and a more recent young jenny grown up

low light midsummer's eve

2010-07-04T01:08:00.006-04:00

Hilda's place, concession 2

soft pastel 11"x15 on illustration board prepared ground

I remember meeting at this place in June of 2008 early evening. There was an abundance of rhubarb which Cathy Gibbon encouraged us to pick. The next day I made a large quantity of rhubarb sauce to have with our morning toast.

Dear neighbors to the south, have a wonderful Independence Day! You have a magnificent country which of course, you already know.

state of siege or no picnic

2010-06-28T01:13:00.040-04:00

George, balanced solely on his haunches held this pose for nearly 20 minutes. I don’t know why I called it state of siege - I could have called it marooned on solid ground or resistance or endurance or persistence or suspended animation or tipping point or god knows what.

vine and compressed charcoal on bond or cartridge - 18" x 24"

Perhaps I was thinking of Toronto this weekend and the uncharacteristic unleashing of vandalism that occurred outside the G20 security zone during what was primarily a peaceful demonstration of peace activists numbering as many as 10,000. There were representatives on behalf of Oxfam, native aboriginal groups, the Stephen Lewis Foundation, Save the Mothers in Uganda, etc - and as well a small malicious group of anonymously dressed persons in black hoodies known as black bloc.

It’s conjectured that the so called black bloc - anarchists, have no commonality, they could be anyone and everyone including some agent provacateurs planted there by the police themselves.

See articles:

http://gu.com/p/2txz5 http://gu.com/p/2t2xq

Afterthoughts:

I was in Toronto on Wednesday and cycled through a seemingly endless corridor of high chain link fence making my way west to where my daughter lived. I passed massive groupings of police everywhere, many on bicycles looking like fun loving boys and girls, scouts assembled for a picnic.

I stayed over on Thursday with the intention of going to Robarts a huge U of T library for a book on Isaak Levitan. The library was closed – the entire university was closed! I barely made it to the AGO in time knowing that it too would be shut down Friday afternoon until the following Tuesday. Then I headed back to Hamilton. That was wise because on Saturday Union Station was shut down and I would have been marooned. Marooned!?

Yesterday I watched a video by an independent jounnalist on Huffington Post, Brandon Jourdan, I was immediately struck by how threatening and intimidating the police looked in their riot gear - visor shields and weaponry. That was a transformation from what I saw when I was there on Wednesday. No picnic indeed. All that securigard, the fence, the 20, 000 police – the cost – a mere one billion.

Couldn’t the esteemed leaders have met, conferred, convened through the advanced high tech of teleconferencing, skype? Too modest? But think of the budget – one billion - they could have saved? $$1B

The sun is just

2010-06-19T03:13:00.000-04:00

This is a cliché of course the young man explained to us in beautiful English as we stood in line, waiting for our bus to arrive at Estación Plaza Eliptica to take us to Toledo. He approved the dirty white gardeners hat David was wearing – he elaborated that in Spain they have a saying – the sun is just, it shines with the same cruelty relentlessness or lack of mercy on every one - so a hat is definitely a good idea.

wax torso approximately life size cast first in plaster and then ciment fondu

I worked on this piece for several months when I lived in Toronto, building up the wax over a wood, metal lathe, burlap and plaster core.

The idea for the torso was that of a pivot, of the body moving around itself as in dance and specifically flamenco. Nevertheless while we were in Spain we didn’t leave ourselves enough time to take in any flamenco or bull fight. I was reading In Our Time by Hemingway while I was there , some of his stories describe the strange obsessive fascination this ancient and cruel ritual had for him.

I hope we can return to the south of Spain in late fall and take in some of what we missed this spring.

But not to complain - the time spent at incredible museums in Madrid and Barcelona swept us away!

two tree gestures

2010-05-05T23:17:00.007-04:00

pastel 11" by 14" pumice ground on illustration board

I did this pastel two years ago around this time in late spring, – an oak tree I believe which had an incredible amount of character, I ought to go back there – muskeg swamp beside the rail trail off hwy 52. I remember how relaxed I felt, sitting in front of this magnificent tree without a coat on, one of the very first really warm days. I was able to sit with my materials spread around me as though I were at a picnic. It felt luxurious.

This weekend we’re off to Spain for two weeks, Barcelona and Madrid. Making a pilgrimage to Gaudi, El Greco, Goya and Velasquez among others. While it’s nice to look at art on my computer it doesn’t compare to the physicality of standing in front of the real thing. It’s one of the reasons I resist working from a photograph I might take, which becomes a copy of a copy of a copy.

Yet I'm not going to Spain without my camera or my recently acquired ipod touch with skype. Oh so brilliant and yet mindless these gadgets! It seemed to take forever to get the hang of it. Yes, at times I fall into the 'oi' syndrome - the voice of complaint - but then miraculously I recover into the wow and yay syndrome. One fluctuates as it were.

gesture of a willow tree early March 2010, 9" x 11"

Kozawyk farm near Waterdown

pastel on rowney pastel paper

rest along the way

2010-05-03T11:09:00.001-04:00

seated figure carbon pencil 18' x 24' Fabriano paper

This was another theme pose. The same person who conceived of the Easter crucifixion theme presented us with the notion for this pose – he wanted to ‘drama it up’ as it were.
It was a three hour pose with breaks for all of us to stretch and for some of us to sharpen our pencils.

So our model last Sunday was meant to be a pilgrim taking a rest on her way to Santiago. But in reality the model at the end of the afternoon would just be heading back to Grimsby, a lovely town to the south of us on the Niagara escarpment – where there are vineyards and wineries. And at this time of year - orchards of fruit trees in blossom! That indeed would be worth a pilgrimage.

landscape and the unexpected

2010-04-25T23:02:00.007-04:00

pastel 8 x 11 Spencer Creek - Tuesday, April 20 2010

I spent two afternoons last week at Christie conservation area, which is where the Spencer Creek runs - off Middleton Road between hwy’s 8 & 5 on the escarpment above Dundas. Both were sparkling, idyllic, sunny days.

But Tuesday was a bit of a shock. When I got home around 4:30 there was no David to greet me. He was at a fire on our street one block to the west of us. It was the city architect’s cottage, the fire started in the huge addition he had just built to the back of his house.

The architect's cottage on Stanley Ave just west of us, Tuesday April 2010

The consensus was that the fire likely started around four, just half an hour before I got home. Everyone was in disbelief. The librarian at Locke library on the corner of our street said she heard sirens and thought dismissively, hmm you don’t often hear sirens on Locke street. It never occurred to her to make the connection that the fire could be in our neighborhood!
Another woman a few houses down, said she smelled smoke but thought maybe someone’s barbecue had caught on fire. At five I walked over to see for myself. Flames could be seen through billowing, acrid, smoke on the cottage roof. The local CH news was there and people were snapping pictures with their cell phones. Nothing in the house was salvageable but the firemen were at least able to prevent the fire from spreading to the houses on either side. And mercifully the family was safe - thank god for that! Still, what can I say - it was horrible.

farm on fourth concession

2010-04-15T18:03:00.001-04:00

chalk pastel 8 ½” x11" - fine pumice and gesso ground

on generic water color paper

On Tuesday I met our landscape group at Andy’s farm off 4^th concession. I was glad I wore boots. The place where I climbed over the roadside fence to set up my easel was muddy and wet in spots. There was a long row of weeping willows trees beside the bank and growing right in a system of shallow flowing streams. I was late getting there so I didn’t do much exploring. But it’s a very old idyllic farm beautifully cultivated, comparable according to another Andy to the south of England. This farm still has twenty or so sheep who go wading in the streams, but Andy who is now retired has sold most of his flock off. When I arrive two biggish dogs greeted me and the more hyper active black dog is thrilled to be jumping in and out of the streams constantly for the three hours that I was there – which is nice because if I were alone he/she would keep me company.

portrait bust

2010-04-12T13:26:00.017-04:00

portrait of Lita life size - ciment fondu

click on image to enlarge

This is a portrait of the woman who taught my daughter voice for several years, before she went to Montreal. She herself is a fantastic singer of Schubert, Mozart, Straus, Mahler – you name it.

There is no patina on this particular cast. I never got around to doing it. Maybe one day.

studio session

2010-04-05T14:08:00.000-04:00

colored chalk 18 x 24 Fabriano paper

This past Sunday, the theme with our male model was – aha, you guessed it, a studio crucifixion with wrist straps, as my husband, David, aptly put it – a crucifixion on the ground. One of the drawers saw the opportunity and seized it, he’d been thinking about it all week. So he announced it to us apologetically but with quiet determination and excitement as we gathered this sunny Sunday afternoon, his intention – and we all passively, graciously acquiesced, including the model. So while the better part of the population young and old were hunting chocolate Easter eggs – this is what I spent the better part of three hours doing - drawing with a theme.

Tedious but fun because Alan brought freshly baked cookies that his wife Roseanne made. I ate two.

Then at 4 o’clock, the men down below in the pool hall bar, chased us out. They wanted to lock up the building so they could go home for Easter dinner.

A Man

2010-03-27T17:48:00.002-04:00

oil 18 x24 on masonite - unfinished

click image to enlarge

Approximately three or four years ago, I lose track of time, I began a drawing of David in my studio at the back of our house where I have a north light. It was strictly impromptu. Could he sit, would he sit, could he read, could he sit still – what palette should I use? Should we continue this at a later time (we never did) You know how husbands are and wives are after several years of marriage - intimacy – all kinds of looks transpire between us. Any way I have this piece – an hour or two of work – an afternoon from a few summers ago. Plans now are to do a study in clay, more drawings – but I’ll let him read, we’ll chat – maybe a sort of meandering monologue from him, that would be good.

Standing figure

2010-03-23T22:20:00.004-04:00

cast black resin with filler 36"
click to enlarge

My friend, Gordon scanned some slides for me yesterday of some work I did when I lived in Toronto.

Ellen, also known as Woody is the model here. The quality of the photograph is abysmal – I’ve tried to lighten it in the next image.

Ellen was a great model, a natural - and became the full time resident model at the University of Guelph. John Fillion used to give us both a lift two or three times a week, which was great for me because I got to see my parents.

During the commute John smoked Lucky Strikes (Luckies) and Ellen smoked Pall Malls. The air would thicken and my eyes would water until, by the end of the trip, they were bleary and red. Whatever conversation between us was carried on between sips of coffee from styrofoam cups over a loud, steady stream of country rhythm and blues.

I remember Ellen as a Miles Davis fan. She made regular trips to Massey Hall when he came to town, often waiting patiently and uncomplainingly for up to two to three hours before the legendary Miles was ready to perform.

She always said he was great and the wait was worth it!

Soyer

2010-03-21T00:13:00.007-04:00

6 x 8 oil - November 2009

A copy of a black and white reproduction from a painting by Moses Soyer

Back in November of 2009, I was beginning to paint with oils which I hope to resume.

This painting is a loose copy of an 8 x 10 black and white reproduction of a portrait from his book: Painting the Human Figure by Moses Soyer. (brother of Raphael Soyer. This is an early ‘how to’ book, there’s a sweetness about the book – very charming – it was recommended to me when I lived in Toronto by a painter friend.

The arms and hands get short schrift in terms of accuracy. I wasn’t aiming for accuracy I was looking to get something down quickly. I have a feeling that Soyer wasn’t overly concerned with precision either or maybe he had a bit of astigmatism like me as did my father – these visual impediments tend to get handed down. But I’m not being fair, Soyer was actually an excellent draughts-man and very well trained.

Soyer is probably someone I would have enjoyed knowing. His people tend to be sad and soulful looking. If his photographs are any indication he was probably that way himself. Considering that he weathered having to flee from Russia with his parents, then the great depression and the second world war, there’s ample reason for his world weary look.

I am comfortable with people like that I feel protective towards them.

Yet I’m confident that he had a genuine sense of humor – the kind we all develop in order to survive.

once more green and red

2010-03-17T19:12:00.001-04:00

9 x 12 oil - set up of construction paper, 2009

Well it is St. Patrick’s Day. Furthermore I like green, I used to look good in green – had green in my wardrobe a pair of beautiful green boots I bought long ago in Chicago. And a tight fitting, green, sleeveless dress, that even if I could still wear it, it just wouldn’t look the same.

According to that ever growing body of knowledge, science - green is a primary color – and science is seldom wrong – right?

The Saint and the Voluptuary

2010-03-11T16:33:00.005-05:00

Charcoal 18 x 24 on manilla

This is Alan sermonizing, expostulating as an evangelist. He held this pose for at least a full 15 minutes without blinking. I asked him how he did it. He said he didn't know. It occurs to me therefore that Alan is a saint. Of course, Alan also draws and appreciates the dynamics of a gesture.

Colored chalk on Ingres paper 18 x 24

Vivian is also a saint. She is taking note of what Alan has to say but prefers to reflect on her own inner conception of salvation. She is also a voluptuary which makes her exquisite to draw.

Soft Ground

2010-03-09T22:47:00.003-05:00

The ruin of a barn on the Kozawyk farm - pastel sketch, 9x12

The ground was soft today and squishy in places at the Kozawyk farm. I squatted at my easel without a coat or fleecy on. I was on a bit of an incline looking up and kept tipping over from time to time. Then I clumsily spilled some coffee into my tray of pastels, not all of it, thankfully, there was still some left to drink.

Pat, the artist who lives on the farm and her dog Meg don’t mind if I make a return visit to have a go at the weeping willow, now a mature tree that her mother planted. I want to draw the tree before it buds – with its limbs fully exposed.

Tonight I went to the Sky Dragon with David to hear him give a talk on the American novelist, Nicholson Baker to a group of local poets, specifically on his novel, The Anthologist. This led him to talk about all the poets who rhyme and those who don’t. In connection with this he talked about Philip Larkin’s wonderful anthology, The Oxford Book of Twentieth Century English Verse. Nicholson Baker is also a literary critic, a social critic and a journalist. David has been having a go at almost everything he’s written for the last two months. I came away thinking what a sweet, thoughtful, erudite man my husband is. And a whole lot more.

Remnants of Snow

2010-03-08T20:55:00.003-05:00

Last Tuesday at Kozawyck's farm, sketch - pastel 10x14

This Tuesday there won't be much left of the snow, maybe a snippet here and there.

We’ve had a succession of sparkling days. Today is unbelievable.

Yesterday I climbed Snake Road on my bicycle with my husband David. When I reached the top I felt unpleasantly warm and overdressed and unzipped two layers. Now we were on the escarpment in Waterdown. I thought it would be nice to show him the Kozawyck farm off Center Road but it was oppressively busy with cars so we turned around and did the usual loop – about 50 km on country roads, past Connan’s Nurseries, stopping at a convenience store for apple juice just before hwy 6, one of our busiest highways. We crossed it into Milgrove. – cycling into a strong headwind and crosswind – the homestretch seemed endless. Also sections of road were submerged under water from the melting snow. Now David felt chilly and I began to feel strain in my wrists and derriere. It was a relief to turn on to Brock Road at Greensville and then descend the very steep hill (hwy 8) into the valley town of Dundas. We stopped at the ubiquitous Tim Hortons for coffee and a sandwich. Half an hour later we were home, by this time dark. I was the first to jump into a hot bath. Took an ibuprofen and flopped onto bed for a luxurious nap. Bliss.

Red and Green

2010-03-04T22:14:00.001-05:00

Still Life with construction paper 9x12 - oil

winter 2009

Last winter I entertained myself playing with red and green construction paper on my dining room table. I bought the paper at the nearby dollar store. My dining room has a southern exposure but as it was mid afternoon and winter, I wound up turning on the overhead very old fashioned chandelier that my husband longs to update. I limited my palette to red and green and titanium white. I kept rearranging the red and green paper as the back drop and folded some white paper giving it center stage. This was fun to do and not the least bit rigorous – to draw the set up and then to paint it.

RESTING

2010-02-25T21:52:00.002-05:00

Alan lying down - three weeks ago 18x24 bond paper

After a breathless two hours of shopping for a birthday present for my pisces husband and an urgent message from my daughter that we have the book she needs, which I miraculously find amidst the chaos of books everywhere, I am ready to platz.

This year we have been denied a snow day. Usually every winter, nature offers us a gift – overnight there is a huge snow fall – and we awaken to at least two feet or more of light or heavy snow piled against the entrance to our houses. And the snow doesn’t stop, it continues. It is a signal to people like myself to stay in pyjamas. What is particularly exciting on these occasions is the mounting list of closures, early closures, cancellations. School children shriek inwardly and outwardly with delight, lazy folk like myself roll over in bed and stare out the window in pure admiration for this miraculous transformation of the landscape – mon pays c'est l'hiver:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CH_R6D7mU7M

A Field on a farm a few miles north of Waterdown - pastel 7 x 91/2

three days ago - I'll go back there next week

This year it’s as though the snow hasn’t even begun - Almost? not quite, the timing has been off - it’s occurred elsewhere – I’m bewildered. We might get another five or ten more centimetres but that’s it folks – not enough to warrant a snow day. Feeling cheated? You bet.

On Sunday Afternoons

2010-02-20T01:21:00.004-05:00

Sitting I

Drawing in chalk on bond paper, 18x24

Sitting II - a few changes

Drawing in chalk on bond paper, 18x24

Drawing in chalk on manilla - 18x24

Now for the past month and a half I’ve been drawing Sunday afternoons on James North. It’s a corner building at James and Mulberry up three flights of stairs. There is a pool hall on the ground level and I would love to go in for a game of snooker. My father and brother taught me to play snooker when I was a little girl and I loved it.

But my husband is of the opinion that these men are old world and the presence of a woman in their midst might confuse them. So I have to put that temptation aside for the moment, but I haven’t given up on it entirely. I’m convinced that if I expressed my sincere fascination with what ever game of pool or billiards it is they do play, that even if they were hesitant or cautious, they'd at least be polite or even welcoming or even better, indifferent? Surely not hostile! Besides I wouldn't be alone. David, my husband, my protector would be with me. Eventually they'd accept me. It is a little absurd isn't it?
Still I am curious.

Last Winter's Snow

2010-02-10T01:52:00.008-05:00

Winter woods study -pastel, 14"x10" on prepared pumice ground on water colour paper

This was actually February or March from two years ago - somewhere between Dundas and Guelph. (I do have the map in a binder somewhere - I'm just too indolent to look it up.) I did a number of winter plein air sessions with the great Catherine Gibbon. It was slippery underfoot, beneath the snow. Because it had melted and then grown cold there was a layer of ice beneath the snow and it was treacherous trying to get from a to b but nonetheless very pleasant to be outside for a couple of hours – most of the time being taken up with lugging materials and setting up.

Now two years later - early afternoon I had a wild time cycling around my neighborhood on my new bicycle, the Kona Honky Tonk – up and down local streets. But there was a promise of snow to come from the weather people and not to prove them wrong or disappoint them, it’s now here. Snow. It has arrived with moderate abundance. The weather, the weather – how exciting, how exasperating, how marvelous, how banal, how inevitable the weather.

Precarious

2010-01-22T19:13:00.003-05:00

I left these drawings in my basement which is generally dry but with humidity they got a bit water damaged, so I decided to photograph them.

Charcoal, chalk on manilla 15"x18"

Life is a balancing act and so is still life, movement versus stability and always the possibility of movement within stability - even in the case of still life where inanimate objects seem to rest unperturbed for eternity. The best we can hope for with still life as with life as with art, is to arrest the ravages of time – to preserve the celebration of the moment or moments – keeping in mind that the eye lacks the shutter speed of a leica.

Still life arrangement on bond, pencil, charcoal, roughly 13"x16"

Still life study on manilla - pencil with chalk - 15"x18"

Toasty warm + Five & Dime

2010-01-18T19:59:00.004-05:00

This last Wednesday, I arrived late at 270 Sherman North expecting to suffer as I had the previous time. Wrong! So much for expectations. There were more people (seven including myself), more light, and it was luxuriously warm. Also I underestimated the space – I would say it was easily the size of a football stadium. I was also wrong about windows. There were rows of huge frosted windows all the way around the open space on all four walls.

But there was no water in the women’s toilet, just in the men’s. that’s because without something amiss we wouldn’t feel at home.

Click on the images below to enlarge:

Charcoal 20" by 26" - 20 min pose

Here are some of the studies done a week ago on James North, all 2, 5 and 10 minute poses:

Charcoal 5 minute pose manilla paper

10 minute pose

5 or 10 minutes on manilla, charcoal

2 minute warm up pose

The Life Drawing Scene

2010-01-11T22:26:00.003-05:00

Today I thought it would be a good thing to post a drawing or two since there are so many lying around.

Earlier in the day I'd prepared a beef stew in my slow cooker and then forgot to plug it in. I was sure I smelled something good but when I went over to touch it, two and a half hours later it was stone cold. Well we’ll just eat a bit later that’s all – maybe nine, ten o’clock. And if I get hungry before then, I'll drink a glass of wine and nibble.

Charcoal and carbon pencil on Ingres paper, 20" by 26" duration approx 50 min. - last spring in the loft at DVSA - open session

Charcoal and coloured chalk on manilla paper, 30 minute pose - at 270 Sherman North

Click on photos to enlarge

Hamilton is starting to have more opportunities to draw from life. Yesterday I drew at an artist’s studio on James North – we shared the cost of the model it was cheap. The model was terrific. Her poses ranged in length from 2 to 5 to 10 milnutes. .Her poses were challenging and her movement fluid. I'l post something from that session in a day or two.

Wednesday night I’ll draw at 270 Sherman North, again. The building is owned by 270 Sherman North (a group of engineers) and the Imperial Cotton Centre. Artists are able to rent studios there and there is quite a turnover. Twice a month someone – maybe the engineers, foots the cost of the model and anyone can drop by to draw – 3^rd floor. The lighting though is barely adequate. I was there for the first time in mid December. The space is literally cavernous. It was at night and I didn’t see any windows. I estimated there was easily 20,000 square feet of open space and it was so cold, I suggested to the model that she not disrobe. However one of the drawers got hold of a couple of small heaters and we proceeded. Actually there were only three of us drawing and occasionally the building manager would walk by staring straight ahead looking neither to the left or right. Bizarre. The model was a little freaked out by this to say the least.

This coming Saturday morning begins 5 weeks of open drawing sessions in the loft at DVSA in Dundas. I’ll go to that.

Accentuate

2010-01-02T00:25:00.043-05:00

Clay, Life size portrait of Jenny before it was cast, from the Sherman St studio.

click on photos to enlarge

I began this sculpture simply as a demonstration of a head for a friend's students using my daughter as subject. She was in high school at the time. Later in my studio I gradually extended the sculpture to include more of the body but due to the limitations of the armature I was forced to restrict the pose and improvise as best I could. My plan is to rework another variation of this pose, turning and tilting the head into the raised arm to give movement. and perhaps reposition the upper arm - also allowing room also for a base.

This time of year I remember a truly great melody composed by Harold Arlen, lyrics by Johny Mercer. Good really for any occasion but very appropriate for our 2010 New Year:

You've got to accentuate the positive

Eliminate the negative

And latch on to the affirmative

Don't mess with Mister In-Between

You've got to spread joy up to the maximum

Bring gloom down to the minimum

Have faith or pandemonium's

Liable to walk upon the scene

To illustrate my last remark

Jonah in the whale, Noah in the ark

What did they do just when everything looked so dark?

(Man, they said "We'd better accentuate the positive")

("Eliminate the negative")

("And latch on to the affirmative")

Don't mess with Mister In-Between (No!)

Don't mess with Mister In-Between

(Ya got to spread joy up to the maximum)

(Bring gloom down to the minimum)

(Have faith or pandemonium's)

(Liable to walk upon the scene)

I've heard it sung by Ella Fitzgerald, Bing Crosby and the Andrew Sisters, Al Jarreau - all great and fun to dance to.

My immediate agenda this new year is to replenish my clay. Tomorrow or Monday - a trip to near by Oakville Pottery to buy some nice red clay, not too soft, not too hard, not too sticky. It sounds a bit like porridge perhaps.

Happy New Year All!!!

Life of Horses

2009-12-21T11:57:00.007-05:00

Relief - ciment fondu, 36" by 48"

Pure admiration and love of horses was the motivation for this relief. Not much narrative, not much composition. Obviously I got a fair bit of inspiration from Degas, Delacroix, Gericault, Stubbs and mythology – pre-car culture.

But I seldom ride except nervously and only as a tourist on special occasions.

My mom, Faye on her palomino, 'Pal' - in front of a small barn on our property in Watrous Sask.

During the time we spent on the prairies, my mother learned to ride in order to overcome her fear of horses. Once she was in control of that fear her interest shifted to other things and she stopped riding.

Versions of Myself

2009-12-14T16:16:00.008-05:00

9 by 12 oil

I have been told that doing one's self portrait in oil is a good way to learn how to handle this difficult medium. Well I can't disagree with that.
I find my husband's observation interesting also, that although neither of these necessarily looks like me, they are still interesting...

Oil Study

2009-12-08T19:14:00.016-05:00

life study - oil, 22“ by 32“ on unstretched canvas

This model, Andrea, is a yoga teacher and has the remarkable ability to hold a pose without budging for an hour or longer and then has the kind of muscle memory that when she resumes the pose it’s exactly as if she had just left off. It's the yoga training that allows for that kind of stillness. I had two three hour sessions with her but I left it unfinished.

Tsilya Nissman

2009-12-04T13:10:00.013-05:00

Portrait bust of Tsilya Nissman

Tsilya Nisman was our daughter, Jenny's piano teacher. She came to Hamilton from the former Soviet Union. A gifted teacher, she imparted not only the necessity of discipline but also the habit of really listening. Listening, listening and listening. She taught at the Suzuki School of Music, here in Hamilton. The Suzuki approach required a fair degree of involvment from the parents. The principle idea that music is a mother tongue, comes from the Japanese violinist Suzuki, not the motorcycle manufacturer.

Tsylia Nissman was a very gifted pianist herself. Sometimes she would play for us – one of Chopin’s Nocturnes or an Etude. I discovered that Chopin was a close friend of Delacroix. It was exciting to discover that the relationship and interaction between music and painting, poetry and literature was close. And then also how the influence of philosophers like Nietsche, Schopenouer, Bergson and others entered into it. All the arts were inter related.

Jewel

2009-11-30T19:10:00.001-05:00

Original clay bust, eventually cast in ciment fondu, whereabouts unknown.

I began this portrait in my third floor studio on Emerald St. (Yes I know, I'm transient) Then we moved to Dundas where my husband was a town councillor for three years. That was before we moved to Guelph and then back to Hamilton. A short radius you might say. The whereabouts of this piece is a mystery to me. It disappeared, pinched, borrowed by someone. It's around somewhere. This black and white photo is all I have left. There was discoloration on the actual piece.

Maybe it'll turn up again. I'd love to have it back. So would my friend Jewel.