Day two hundred and two: Keeping it simple this fine Thursday evening, I quickly painted my salt shaker and pepper mill. One is old and short, while the other is tall and new. Yet I think of them as a set because their curved shapes are strikingly similar, and the painted red mill shares affinity […]
Tagged food, oil, still lifeDay two hundred and one: Today I saw a drawing titled Haystacks by Vincent van Gogh. I am so accustomed to seeing his paintings, that I was surprised to see something clearly by his hand, but without the vibrant color. In the 1888 original, van Gogh used reed pen, quill and ink, over graphite. I […]
Tagged art on art, landscapeDay two hundred: This morning I came across a beautiful drawing of a Sybil based on a color woodcut by the 16th-century printmaker Ugo da Carpi, which was in turn, based on a work by Raphael. The layers of green, black, and white on the page mimicked a chiaroscuro woodcut so well, I had to […]
Tagged art on art, face, figure study, pencilDay one hundred and ninety-nine: This morning I had to look at a drawing Cézanne made in a sketchbook of Michelangelo’s dying slave at the Louvre. When I say had, I really do mean it was my job to look over this glorious page. (I’m so blessed!) And I thought to myself, “I have a […]
Tagged figure study, pencil, sculptureDay one hundred and ninety-eight: Thanks to a co-worker’s pickup, some new bookcases made it from the South Philadelphia Ikea to the apartment this afternoon. Caprica is always fascinated by tools and anything shiny, like nuts and bolts, and was eager to help put the shelves together. Today’s cartoon sketch makes light of his kind […]
Tagged bird, cartoon, pencilDay one hundred and ninety-seven: On the way to Rittenhouse Square from my apartment is a little art gallery, selling what appears to be late 19th and early 20th-century paintings. There’s one in the window of a little impressionist view of a Venetian canal. I don’t know who the artist might be, but I like […]
Tagged architecture, pencil, veniceDay one hundred and ninety-five: Continuing the summer theme, today’s sketch was inspired by a print made by the Norwegian artist Edvard Munch in 1894. The original is titled Summer Night (The Voice), but I don’t know the background behind it. The title and the gray tones remind me not of a summer night, but […]
Day one hundred and ninety-four: I was contemplating a summer scene sketch at around dusk here in Philadelphia, and my mind jumped to Prairie Lake in Chetek, Wisconsin. The image of campfires at Luther Park must be strong in my memory, because I painted the essence of this scene in just a few minutes. How […]
Tagged fire, landscape, nocturne, waterDay one hundred and ninety-three: I guess it’s going to be a hit-and-miss kind of week. I rushed through this sketch inspired by a theoretical building design by the 18th-century French architect Étienne-Louis Boullée. I saw the original in the study gallery of the Uffizi in Florence a few years ago, and stumbled across a […]
Tagged architecture, art on art, oil, pencil