Self Portrait

I was minding the front desk at my office a couple of weeks ago while the secretary was at lunch. The front window over looking our lobby, has a reflective band on the lower half to discourage the clients from staring at the secretary while they are waiting. As a result, the secretary's side is also reflective. So I did this sketch of myself.

Rappahannock Art League

I was off work on Monday thanks to the national holiday. On Mondays from 10 a.m. until noon the Rappahannock Art League, based in a gallery on Main Street in Kilmarnock, Virginia, hosts an opportunity for it's members to come in and paint/draw/sketch a model from life. This week there were about 8 people there including myself.

It is a clothed model and everyone puts a little money in the pot. The going rate this Monday was $7. I had forgotten to stop and get cash and they very kindly accepted a check from me. Part of the fee goes to the gallery for use of the studio at the back and part of the fee goes to pay the model. I'm not sure where they found the young lady who modeled for us, but she did a terrific job. I was about 10 minutes late for the beginning and they were already into 5 minute studies and gesture drawings. After a few five minute poses, we went into two 20 minute poses with a short break in between.

Most of us were drawing with various dry medium. There were a couple of painters there as well.

I focused on portraits in graphite because I had only brought along my sketch book. I learned that RAL provides easels if desired. I would love to try a larger study next time as I believe I overworked my drawings if for no other reason than I had time to do it. Working larger would keep me busy and prevent me from overworking.

Everyone was very pleasant and the work produced was good. It was nice to be among a group of artists and get in a little practise far less expensively than I could have pulled it off myself. They tell me that they change their models pretty much weekly. They were only half joking, I think, when they said they were looking for "an ugly man" but have plenty of beautiful young women to work with.

I know where I will be the next Monday morning I have off from work!

Portraits



I graduated from West Springfield High School eons ago. I don't know much about their current art curriculm but I fear it may have gone the way of the SOLS here in Virginia. At the time, I honestly believe it was one of the strongest fine arts programs in a public high school in the country. I know there were at least three of my classmates accepted to Pratt University on full scholarships and several more getting additional financial assistance from other universities where they were going to study art. I still remember my art teacher's name: Mrs. Roberts. I know she has since died but I do wish she knew how much she really meant to me over the years. I remember she scared me half to death because she demanded such high standards.

I was surrounded by tough competition and never quite felt I could live up to the standard. But I was deeply encouraged and fortunate to have been one of about 12 area high school students to participate in a program sponsored by the Smithsonian Institute.

One day a week for one term, I got on a Metro bus and traveled downtown into D.C. and got off at the National Gallery of Fine Arts and spent the day with a resident artist there working on printmaking projects. It was the one and only time in my life I had the opportunity to work on lithography and etchings using real stones and real acid. I still have prints from those adventures.

Another term in my senior year, I was selected to participate in a similar program at the National Portrait Gallery where we were taught portraiture drawing. I was not able to participate in the painting class even though I really wanted to. Unfortunately, I no longer have these drawings.

I have retained however, the skills I learned in that class. I've also lost some. But I'm hoping it is more a matter of practise than actual loss of knowledge.

Here is a drawing I completed recently of my father. The whole head is too short and for some reason it is easy to see that with the scan but was not so easy to spot while I was drawing. It may have to do with being too close while drawing.

But it does look like him and I had no problem giving this to my mother.

This is just a study. A practise piece for this is just a tiny piece of a photograph I took of him sitting on my mother's floral print sofa with his large feet predominant in the picture. It needs to be done in colored pencil. The whole thing. Big.

When I will have the courage to tackle that project, I don't know. But I will.