Friday Figures- drama queen

Akimbo, asprawl, askew. Watercolor over 6B pencil in Stillman & Birn Gamma Series sketchbook. 20 minute pose.

Imperious nude with one crossed leg. Watercolor over 6B pencil in Stillman & Birn Gamma Series sketchbook. 20 minute pose.

It’s been a chaotic week, still is. Take a deep breath. Exhale.

Sometimes, only poets have the words. Here are some nice ones from Rumi:

Today, like every other day, we wake up empty and frightened. Don’t open the door to the study 
and begin reading. Take down a musical instrument.
 Let the beauty we love be what we do.
 There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.

Happy Friday.

Friday Figures- 3 Nudes

Like Narcissus’s kid sister, on reflection. 4 minute pose, 6B pencil in Stillman & Birn Gamma Series sketchbook.

Notice the angles an arm takes when supporting weight. Almost a zigzag pattern. 4 minute pose, 6B pencil in Stillman & Birn Gamma Series sketchbook.

 

Great balance required to hold this 4 minute pose. 6B pencil in Stillman & Birn Gamma Series sketchbook.

Not a lot I can add to this, but I do want to mention that two of my oil-wash on paper figure sketches will be included in an upcoming show, Biting The Apple, at the IAO Gallery in Oklahoma City. The theme this year is “Plush” (don’t ask) and they promise an evening of “Fabric to fantasy. Lush to lust. Sex to sateen. And everything furry in between”.

As a member of the Society of Animal Artists, I should fit right in. Right?

Happy Friday.

 

To See a World in a Grain

Tibetan monks creating a Manjushri Mandala of wisdom, grain by colorful, sandy grain.

William Blake could hold infinity in the palm of his hand and see a world in a grain of sand, but this week, Tibetan Monks from the Drepung Loseling Monastary are setting infinity on top of a square table in St. Stephens United Methodist Church, here in Norman, Oklahoma.

Silver cups hold colored sand; silver and copper horns will gently sift the rich colors onto the curlicues and filagrees of the mandala’s expanding circle. The serrated ridge on the tops of the horns, rubbed with a metal stick, keeps the sand flow constant. The sound-track of a sand-painting is the delicate music of metal rasps.

I was privileged to draw these artists engaged in painting a spiritual masterpiece for a couple of hours today, with their kind permission. They were so absorbed in the task they never looked around or beyond the work at hand, so when one monk smiled at me it was a bit of a jolt.

Amazing, watching them build the design in tiny increments of colored sand, and the reverence shown for the creation itself.

Sand Mandala, two days to go, working from the middle outward to the edge.

It’s good to be inconspicuous when you’re drawing people, and in this case, I already felt myself on a lower, hopefully, less visible plane.  But of course, anyone who can see Heaven in a Wild Flower and hold Infinity in the palm of their hand isn’t going to miss someone sitting in a corner scribbling away in a sketchbook.

Friday Figures-balance sheet

Leaning back to size things up, or just work out a kink in the lumbar. Loved this off-balance gesture. 4 minute pose. Stillman & Birn Gamma Series 8 1/2″ x 11″ hardbound sketchbook. Sketched in a thunderstorm.

Awkward+ winsome= beautiful sprawl. 4 minute pose. Stillman & Birn Gamma Series 8 1/2″ x 11″ hardbound sketchbook.

I just ordered a few more of these nice sketchbooks, a sign that I’m drawing nearly enough. But how much is enough drawing?

Happy Friday.

Friday Figures- Costumed Models

Sometimes you covet the costume. I would have killed for those heels. 1 hr pose, watercolor over pencil, 8 1/2″ x 11″ on Stillman & Birn Gamma Series sketchbook

Life drawing with costumed models can be wonderful. The clothing adds color, texture, interest, even an imagined backstory. Last Monday night’s life drawing session at Oklahoma City University provided two costumed models, light refreshments, and a live guitarist who sat and noodled classically in a corner. Utterly delightful.

Leaning in to close the deal. 40 minute pose. Watercolor over pencil,  8 1/2″ x 11″ Stillman & Birn Gamma Series sketchbook.

One can create a whole scenario around poses and costumes like these. She might have been a mysterious agent at a bar in a Bogart flick, waiting for someone to light her cigarette and hand over the documents. He could have been a 1970s lawn-tractor salesman, or a model for department store tie sale. Anything is possible.

Happy Friday.

A Quetzal, in the Flesh

These are NOT resplendent quetzals. Close, but no cigar. (Violaceous trogons drawn from life in Panama, graphite and pastel on Rives BFK paper, 11″ x 14″)

All I wanted for my birthday was a Resplendent quetzal (Pharomachrus mocinno).

The excitement this bird generates can’t be overstated. It inspires much grand hyperbole, often described as “the most beautiful bird in the world”. It is, technically, in the trogon family, a good-looking bunch of birds overall. Only one of them, though, has the panache, the fan club, the divine reputation, or even the currency of the emerald and scarlet Pharomachrus. It’s a highly coveted catch for Those Who Wear Binoculars, such as myself. But in all the years of tropical birding, I’d never encountered a quetzal in the flesh.  Just a lot of trogons.

Nope, no quetzal here. More violaceous trogons. Peruvian Amazon life drawing with a spot of Nescafe.

Back in November, Ant Man asked me what I wanted for my birthday (I was born in March but he likes to plan ahead) and I asked for a quetzal. We considered a short trip to Costa Rica or maybe the Panama highlands. I conjured up a blissful vision of us standing on the slope of some cloud forest mountain, watching a quetzal’s long tail banners flutter in the breeze.

More trogons. Slaty tailed. In Panama.

But then, as it happened, this and that and so forth and so on. Schedules maxed out with conferences and to-dos. There was a joyful bar mitzvah, and sadly, a funeral.

Yesterday was my birthday. I found myself standing on the suburban soil of the North American prairie, watching bluejays. Ant Man quietly gave me a bunch of flowers.

Whereupon I went to the Y, plunged in the pool, and swam twenty laps.

On the way out I passed the shallow end, and a tattooed man stood up in the water. There on his back was a quetzal, in the flesh. Literally. It spread across his scapula, its long tail draped artistically down his spine with tips curved upward to encircle his kidney. The man raised an arm to slick back his hair, and the skin of his shoulder rippled emerald and scarlet.

It was the most beautiful bird in the world.

Friday Figures- a sleeping redhead

Oil sketch on Arches primed paper; 20″ x 15″, 2 1/2 hour pose.

A little serenity to start your weekend.

Happy Friday.