Notes on Teaching

I'm happy to announce that I'm teaching portrait drawing and painting as well as Artistic Anatomy at Multnomah Art Center in Portland.  I've given a lot thought lately to gesture, which in my eyes is the lifeblood of drawing.

As I mention to students: you can have a beautifully drawn or painted figure but if the gesture is missing you're not telling an important part of the story!

Gesture isn't about detail but about striving to see how the parts relate to the whole, and how to convey the rhythms and balance of opposites that are so striking about the human figure. These rhythms, without much detail, allow us to recognize a neighbor in conversation from a block away Or by their walk on the way to getting the morning newspaper.

It takes practice to grasp gesture and one of the best ways to do this is gesture drawing! Fast intuitive drawing informs our slower more analytical styes of drawing in a very deep way. And builds confidence and a sure hand, as well as inspire us to catch the dynamic of the models' poses.

Two books I recommend highly are Force: Dynamic Life Drawing for Animators by Mike Matessi and Figure Drawing: Design and Invention by Michael Hampton. The latter also being an excellent anatomy book for artists.

Whether at the local coffeshop or in the figure studio making lots of fast intuitive drawings with a keen eye on seeing the gesture gets you there and is fun. I have pads full of gesture drawings, here are a few from the mix. Enjoy!

 

 

Wintercoat Exhibit

Wintercoat: a group show

11/13/14 - 1/15/15

I'm exhibiting at Clatsop Community College in Astoria, OR for WIntercoat: Art Meets Literature. The exhibit was put together by writer Loretta Rosenberg and her artist husband, artist Ben Rosenberg. Loretta is a published novelist and wrote this short story for artists to create a work of art. The aim was not so much to illustrate it but to express how they responded to the story. Each artist was asked to write a quick summary of their process as well. Below is my view:

The story Winter Coat, written by Loretta Rosenberg, is evocative and in someways mysterious. You never quite know where it’s going next. The characters and place are rich, dark, like-able and unlikable. It feels like it was set in the past but is also with us now. These qualities inspired my painting for the exhibit. Beginning with memories and thinking of the story, the painting evolved until the balance of opposites “ felt right“.The most difficult part, which perhaps should have been the easiest, was a title for my piece. Since Winter Coat is about memories, history, endings and beginnings, the title is “ Little Green “. Loretta’s readers will recognize it as the namesake of her first published novel. Endings and beginnings, do we become little or big as time goes on?

For more information about the exhibit and to read the short story Wintercoat please visit www.wintercoatgroup.com. Going to Astoria is also mighty fine to visit, one of my favorite and unique cities on the Oregon coast.