JUTTA WENZ & HEIDI LIKAR ARTISTS

11" x 15" uniball pen, watercolor and gouache on Canson paper.  Jutta Wenz and Heidi Likar are friends and klassmates of mine at SBS.  Their artwork is wonderful.  They live in Salzburg, Austria.

PAINTED LADY

Uniball pen, watercolor and gouache in 8 1/2" x 11" Moleskine sketchbook  From a photograph and previously posted on SBS site.

ANN PLANTE ARTIST

11" x 15" uniball pen, watercolor and gouache on Canson paper.  This is a portrait of my klassmate and superstar artist Ann Plante whose work I really enjoy.  She lives in Florida with her husband but spent most of her life in NewYork so we know a lot of the same places and landmarks.  This is the first time I used gouache and I like it.  It allows a painterly look and lets me keep the brush strokes loose and visible.

HOMAGE TO JACK KIRBY

Uniball pen, crowquill pen, winsor newton series 7 sable brush, Speedball super black ink, Pitt big brush pens Our grandson Oscar in Holland loves robots so I drew this for him from a panel by the great artist Jack Kirby.

ART LETS THE REAL YOU DROP THE MASK

Uniball pen and Pitt brush pens in Cachet sketchbook 9"x 12".  One of the things I love about art is that it lets you be the real you.  It helps you drop your mask and get back to your soul.  Posted in SBS.

COPYING JAMES JEAN

One of the artists whose work I admire and study by copying is James Jean.  This one I did with a Uniball vision pen in a Strathmore 400 sketchbook.

WORKING ON PAINTED LADIES

Uniball pen and Pitt pen in Strathmore 400 Sketchbook 9" x 12".  A fast sketch tyring to work out the problems of proportion and trying to draw houses on a hillside.  Previously posted online.

PORTRAIT OF GWENAELLE GLOTIN ARTIST

Uniball pen, watercolor on Canson paper 11" x 15".  Gwenaelle Glotin is a fellow SBS klassmate and artist from Amsterdam.  Previously posted on SBS site.

PORTRAIT OF ELIZABETH FLANAGAN ARTIST

Uniball pen, watercolor on Canson paper 11" x 15".  Elizabeth Flanagan SBS artist and Klassmate. Previously posted on SBS site.

PORTRAIT OF JENNIFER RANGER

This portrait is 18"x 24" charcoal on paper of my good friend Vincent Ranger's daughter Jennifer.  It is in his collection.

PORTRAIT OF SUSANNE PINTURA

11" x 15" watercolor on Canson paper.  This is a portrait taken from a photograph posted by SBS klassmate Susanne Pintura.

PAINTED LADY RED AND GREEN SAN FRANCISCO

Uniball pen and watercolor in 8 1/4" x 11" Moleskine sketchbook.  Posted in SBS. (From photograph).

LAWRENCE FERLINGHETTI LOOKS OUT AT CITY LIGHTS

He has owned and operated City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco for over 60 years.  Now in his 90's he still paints, writes and live life to the fullest.  Here is a short video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G963q31ZgBI

DRAWING MY DREAMS

In this dream I'm sitting in a bar with James Joyce and two bored angels. I told him I had to read Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man in school, and that I knew June 16th is the day Ulysses took place but I have never read it. Already he is looking around to find someone else to talk to. I'm just another pest who thinks they can come up to someone they don't know and start jabbering away. I see that I'm losing him. So then I drop the bomb. "Hey man," I said, "I've tried to read Finnegan's Wake but let's face it, it's utter crap". With that he turns to me and says "What do you expect? Don't you see my fingers?" I look at his left hand and sure enough, his fingers are melting and rolling down the bar to the floor! I rush to try and somehow scoop up the liquid fingers to save them but I wake up.

Ok...According to scientific research everyone dreams.  But you have to take steps to remember your dreams because they are ephemeral.  Even an intense dream that seems "real" when you wake up at 4:00am can be lost by 6:00am when you get out of bed.  For me the key to remembering my dreams is to keep a small pad of paper and pencil on the nightstand on my side of our bed.  When I wake up from a dream and am still foggy headed I just lean over and jot down single words about the dream.  Then later when I get up and start my day I take this sheet of paper and start writing in my special dream journal everything I remember using the sheet of paper to jog my memory.  You would be astonished by how much comes back to you using this method.  It pours out.  Then if it is a particularly vivid dream, has a special quality or imagery begging to be rendered I try to draw a scene which shows it clearly.  If time permits I draw it right away.  Often I get up early and get at it, but if not I at least have the bedside paper to refresh my memory. Like anything else you have to commit to this practice and develop the habit.

If this is all new for you I recommend you check the library or bookstore for books on dream work.  I started with:
 The Dream Sourcebook by Phyllis Koch-Sheras, Phd. & Amy Lemley 
also very good is:
The Complete Dram Book by Gillian Holloway, Phd

As I got into it I studied Lucid Dreams by Keith Harary,Phd and Pamela Weintraub.  Studying this helps one have more control and active participation in your dream state.

This field of study led me to the realization that dream practice held great potential for my spiritual journey.I reached a point where I tended not to focus on the meaning of my dreams but on the mysterious processes that  underlie the whole of our existence, not only our dreaming life. These days I am slowly working through the book The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche. 

As I make progress I will report more in future blog post.  Feel free to comment or ask questions.

MR. HACKWORTH

This painting is 18" x 24" acrylic on canvas of the father in law of  Nancy Hackworth, our wonderful friend and neighbor when we lived on 12th court in North Bend, Oregon.  It was done from a photograph and hangs in Nancy's house.

LLOYD BEIL

This portrait is 18" x 24" oil on canvass of an old friend of mine Lloyd Beil of Portland, Oregon.  Lloyd was a native Portlander who knew all the best places to go and he drove me to all the best art supply stores and frame shops.  I painted this for him as a present for being a great friend.

GRAHAGM KEENE

This portrait was 18" x 24" oil on canvas.  Graham Keene was the brother of Emily, our sweet neighbor who lived across the street from us when we lived on Oak Street in North Bend, Oregon.  They were old family southerners from Baton Rouge, Louisiana.  She really knew how to make old fashioned mint juleps with real crushed mint leaves.  Graham worked as an illustrator/animator for Disney for 35 years and gave me great advice about using color.  Both have passed away but we have fond memories of our friendship.

LYNN COHEN ARTIST

Uniball pen and watercolor on 11"x 15" Canson paper.
This is a portrait of artist Lynn Cohen who is a member of the SBS group.  I love her work and learn so much from it.  In SBS we have decided to run things ourselves for a while until the next term begins.  One of the things we are doing is portraits of each other.  This one is based on a photograph she supplied.

PAINTED LADIES

One of these days I'll get around to visiting San Francisco so I can paint these beautiful old Victorian houses in person.  Until then I have to make do with photographs and add my own touch to it.  This was done using a Uniball pen and watercolors in a 8 1/4" x 11" Moleskine sketchbook.

HEIDI LIKAR ARTIST CLOSE UP

This is the photograph of Heidi Likar that I worked from.  I decided early on that I would leave out the camera strap around her shoulders.  If it was important to her I could always add it in later.  I mentioned this in yesterday's post and I want to be more emphatic about it today...when working from a photograph it is important to use Picasa 3 program or any program that allows you to view the photo zoomed in.  You can really see all the little changes in color on an object as the light travels around it then.

I start with the eyes:

 I only adjust the colors if they are too outrageous but I still want to have an exciting colorful look.  The color of her eyeglasses really throw a lot of purple and purple variations out there and that works to bring attention to the eyes.  In this photo Heidi has a strong penetrating gaze. To me that is what makes this pose powerful. As I study the shapes I apply the colors I see.  I sometimes just use my finger to wipe a color that is too strong. I work across to the other side and downward.  It is usually very normal when I paint to loose the likeness of the subject.  It is very important not to get panicky at that point.  What is actually happening is that you are unable to sustain such focused concentration.  I usually just take a break and come back to it.

 Below is the finished drawing. 9" x 12" on watercolor paper.