Beverly Swamp

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...

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

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

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...

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

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

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.