Pyrmid / Confederate memorial / Hollywood Cemetery
28 May 2012 Leave a Comment
in sculpture, Art, the James River, plein air, muse, Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond VA., sadness, Confederate Monument, winged, figure drawing, practice, studies Tags: art, Hollywood Cemetery, inspiration, muse, Richmond VA., sculpture, Confederate memorial, free art lessons, drawing, Memorial Day, Pyramid, angels, armed forces, vets
Hollywood Cemetery is so special, I can’t get it all on the blog. I lived in Richmond for 30 years and always knew it was there. I knew it’s full of history and beautiful sad stone angels, but I didn’t go there. Then when I went in to look at the great view of Richmond and the James River in 06, suddenly inspiration hit me in the head like a fake faith healer, who struck me in the cemetery too one time . But that’s a story for another time.
First the cemetery was my inspiration, then it was my refuge. And through it, the cemetery made a better artist out of me. Some people wondered why I spent so much time drawing there, but I knew I was on the right path.
Some times people talked to me, and I learned a lot. I think out of the cemetery’s history, which is over 150 years, I got more out of it than any other artist.
The gravediggers call me ” the angel lady “. 
Can you see where I stuck a rose in the stones as high as I could reach ?
Thanks to all in our armed forces and our vets.
Maharaja @ VMFA
21 May 2012 Leave a Comment
in Art, India, VMFA Tags: art, India, Maharaja, opaque watercolor, VMFA
No photography is allowed in the exhibit. This is my favorite figure from India in our permanent collection.
I always loved art, music, dance, stories and ladies in beautiful saris from India, so I had to see this show on opening day.
It’s the splendors of India’s great kings. They have paintings of life in old India, done in opaque watercolor. Some are so layered they look like collage. The artists got amazing detail in the pictures. They are bright and heavily textured. There’s a painting of a parade with chariots pulled by elephants with kings, gods, and thousands of figures. It’s probably 20′ long. They also have a lot of things owned by kings that are dripping with gold , and HUGE diamonds and other jewels.
My favorite painting is a battle scene at the Rajput palace when the emporor Akbar attacked. You can see fire, smoke, the battle going on. And at the top of the palace the ladies are dancing to prepare for their mass suicide. All I can say is Wow ! Amazing ! Beautiful !
Sleeping Lion @ Maymont / Japanese Garden
17 May 2012 Leave a Comment
in acrylic, Art, Collage, Drawing, free art lessons, Japanese gardens, Lion, Maymont Park, Pastel, plein air, Richmond VA., sculpture, wildlife Tags: acrylic, collage, drawing, free art lessons, Japanese garden, lion, Maymont Park, pastel, plein air, Richmond VA.
I pasted the fence onto the acrylic wash background. And worked on the bamboo leaves. I still want to add more leaves, so I didn’t glue all the leaves down.
The lion is taped on so I can plan the pedestal. That’s my start on his pedestal on the left. It looke like a celtic floral design carved into the stone. I roughed in some stones, but I couldn’t make a better arrangement, so I’m drawing it the way it looks .
I’m also planning the stone wall behind the lion and his base . That burnt umber and grey acrylic scribble on the bottom of the picture will be covered with stones and ivy.
When I work on a picture, I make 1000 decisions. I look at what I just did and decide if I want to continue, or change that part. some times it takes me days , weeks , months to get a difficult question worked out. It’s important not to rush so there’s a better chance my choices will work out. But I’m almost finished with this collage now.
Maymont Park, RVA / lion in the Japanese garden
11 May 2012 Leave a Comment
in Art, Collage, Drawing, free art lessons, Japanese gardens, Lion, Pastel, plein air, Richmond VA., sculpture, wildlife Tags: acrylic, art, bamboo, collage, free art lessons, grotto, Japanese gardens, Maymont Park, pastel, Richmond VA. Lion
It’s the 100 year anniversary of the Japanese gardens in Maymont Park. It’s just beautiful there.
This is a collage I’m working on , in pieces. I have a pastel drawing of a stone lion with a stone wall. I need to work on the stones more. And I want to make ivy hanging over the stones. Above the lion is my pastel study of bamboo. I’ll go over the leaves again too , maybe with acrylic. And on the right is a piece of watercolor paper I stretched, and I did a rough acrylic background for bamboo. The paper strips I laid on top are for a fence that will be behind the lion.
I don’t know if you can see how I’m planning to put it all together, with cutting it out and pasting onto my background paper. I’m over half finished, so I’m getting excited now because I think it will work.
the Annunciation by Leonardo Da Vinci / detail
07 May 2012 Leave a Comment
in Art, Leonardo Da Vinci, winged Tags: angel, artist, detail, genius, inventor, Leonardo Da Vinci, scientist, space aliens, the Annunciation, visionary
this is from my 2012 calendar
A few nights ago I saw a show on tv about Leonardo. I was doing something else too , and only half watching. So tell me if this is wrong. They said for 2 years there’s no record of his life, even though he wrote notebooks full of everything he was doing the rest of the time. They said he didn’t talk about his personal life, except to mention that he didn’t like caves. But he went into a cave and it was an important event to him. The guys who made the show think he found a portal to extraterrestrial knowledge. They also said that this painting might have been done by Leonardo’s teacher, but that Leonardo painted this angel. And she DISAPPEARS under ultraviolet light. Did I hear that right ? If it’s true , how did he do it ? I think the show was on Nat. Geo.. They might show it again. I don’t know what to think about the space alien idea. Maybe his genius is just so far ahead of the curve, that’s an easy explanation. If space aliens are reading this, please respond.
pencil studies of Cleopatra from VMFA
03 May 2012 4 Comments
in Art, Cleopatra, Drawing, Education, free art lessons, human anatomy, Richmond VA., roughs, sculpture, VMFA Tags: Cleopatra, figure drawings, forshortened limbs, free art lessons, pencil drawings, studies roughs, VMFA
about 8 hours in this study
This is graphite pencil. The challenge here is the forshortened arm. I got it right by using the head as a unit of measure. I hold my pencil out at an arms length, close one eye , and put my thumbnail on the pencil about an inch down, resting my arm on my sketchbook. I had to check the proportions of the head, elbow, and shoulder against each other again and again. Then later come back and make corrections by just eyeballing it. Just measuring isn’t enough to get it right. And just eyeballing doesn’t get it right. To draw the figure well you have to practice drawing forshortened limbs. Sculptures make good models, because they’re free, they don’t move, the lighting is good, there’s no competition for the good spot in front of the model. And you can take as much time as you like. You can see my grid from checking proportions, and my smudges. Its ok, I transfered the drawing to another paper anyway so I could use my 3 conte pencils to draw some volume in with light and shadow on the next picture.
pencil studies of Cleopatra from VMFA
03 May 2012 Leave a Comment
in Art, Cleopatra, Drawing, free art lessons, human anatomy, VMFA Tags: Cleopatra, figure drawing, free art lessons, pencil drawing, roughs, studies, VMFA
about 4 hours in this study
This is conte pencil. I was still making corrections from the 1st drawing. I have a few ideas for finished pictures with this drawing. I’ll have to do some studies for the background to decide. It always takes me some time to make a picture because I have to go through these steps.
Child Picking a Fruit by Mary Cassatt
28 Apr 2012 Leave a Comment
in Art, Impressionism, Richmond VA., VMFA, Women Tags: art, Child Picking a Fruit, Impressionism, Mary Cassatt, masterpiece, mother and child, nature, oil paint, VMFA, woman
Let me tell you why I love this picture.
This photo doesn’t show the colors as they look in person, but I hope you can see it’s a masterpiece. The painterly quality is sophisticated. You can see the brushstrokes on the skin, but they don’t make the baby’s skin look rough. She used greenish grey in the shadows on the skin. But the color mixing is so good that you don’t see green. You see woman and child as part of nature. You see her beautiful dress. The woman’s face is partly hidden, because the baby is the star here. It has a quality I call sublime because it has a spiritual feeling. When I leave the picture, I’m thinking about it later. Does the baby reach for an apple because of the symbolism of the apple in art representing knowledge ? Does it show the ideal ( lost in our age ), of mother and child as a special bond with nature ? Do you see anything this good being painted these days ?
The Heron Rookery / detail
24 Apr 2012 Leave a Comment
in Drawing, free art lessons, Pastel, plein air, Richmond VA., the James River, wildlife, winged Tags: detail of a larger picture, free art lessons, Great Blue Herons, pastel, Richmond VA. Plein air, The James River
heron drawn at 1.25 inch
In nature you have to look to find the herons. You might not see them because of their grey color. so they are not the main focal point of the picture. I sent the image to my web master, so the finished drawing will show up on my web site soon. Tips for drawing at the pipeline trail , for safety’s sake :Either go on the weekend when a lot of people are there, or go early in the morning.
I’m trying to avoid the homeless, and many perverts that go there. They’re not as active early in the morning. But the birds are very active early in the day. Also watch out for ticks and poison ivy. Ticks will be bad this year, and the poison ivy is every where. I love the river, but a lady artist working in plein air has to be aware of those things , and take a friend along if possible. One great thing about Richmond is that it is a little wild right through the heart of the city.
Egyptian winged goddess on Mummy Mask @ VMFA
18 Apr 2012 Leave a Comment
in Egyptian, mummy, VMFA, winged Tags: Egtptian, mummy, mummy mask, VMFA, winged goddess
I'm sending her to Shelby.
It’s painted gesso on top of wood. I think this is Isis.Feel better soon, Shelby, and come back to the ninnernet.
