Skip to content

{ Monthly Archives } August 2011

landscape of a Degas pastel

Day two hundred and forty-three: My work this afternoon led me to stare closely at a large pastel by Edgar Degas (French, 1834–1917), an activity which led, in turn, to a discussion with my co-worker Sharon about creating art with pastels. I commented that I had never really tried it – even on my digital […]

Tagged , ,

Temple of Herakles, Agrigento, Sicily

Day two hundred and forty-two: I started and scrapped several sketches before I decided to flip though travel photos for a subject I could paint. Scrolling through a set from Agrigento, Sicily reminded me of the ancient and very worn sandstone columns in the so-called “Valley of the Temples.” Based on descriptions of the area […]

Tagged , , ,

Skyscraper #1

Day two hundred and forty-one: This afternoon I went sleuthing in storage because I knew something was amiss. Two original woodblocks carved by printmaker Howard Norton Cook (American, 1901-1980) were listed in the collection catalog with the same title, and I needed to see which really belonged to an impression of Hotel New Yorker. I […]

Schriftgelehrte (Scribes)

Day two hundred and forty: I’m a fan of German Expressionist, Emil Nolde’s, intaglio printmaking, particularly for the sense of layers he achieve when working with etching and aquatint together. My study today is based on a detail from his 1911 print Schriftgelehrte (Scribes), which is one of my many favorites in the Thrivent Financial […]

Tagged , , ,

storm light

Day two hundred and thirty-nine: As the first rains of hurricane Irene began to pass over Philadelphia, I made a quick run to the grocery store for a few last-minute items before the city shut down to wait out the storm. On my way, I enjoyed the remarkable glow created by the street lights as […]

setting for a sci-fi thriller

Day two hundred and thirty-eight: Even though today’s sketch is based on a photograph of a real place on Earth that I visited, I’ve always thought this view seemed like something out of a science fiction action movie. It was a delightfully fun study to quickly paint. I’d like to tell you where this location […]

Tagged , ,

Japanese actor

Day two hundred and thirty-seven: When this week began, if you had asked me what new thing I would learn about prints, I would not have mentioned the Japanese printmaker Utagawa Kunisada (aka Toyokuni III). That, however, is one of the wonderful parts of my job: every day some unexpected piece of paper requires a […]

Tagged , , ,

baby Rothko

Day two hundred and thirty-six: This afternoon I went to the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts (PAFA) with a few curatorial staff members from the museum. In an exhibition of abstract expressionist paintings and drawings, we encountered a small painting by Mark Rothko (1903-1970) titled Maroon on Red. Due to its diminutive stature (compared with […]

lava

Day two hundred and thirty-five: Scanning through photos to find a subject for today’s drawing, I came across one I took a couple of years ago while observing lava flowing into the ocean at nightfall in Hawaii. Although it’s a different natural phenomena, the lava reminded me of the earthquake tremor we felt at the […]

Tagged , ,

first time I met the blues

Day two hundred and thirty-four: I’ve been listening to CDs since I moved to Philadelphia, and trying to explore the ones that I’ve been given over the years, but never really listened to. When I first put in a compilation titled “Chicago Blues: The Golden Age” I thought I might make it through all the […]

Tagged , ,