Saturday, August 03, 2013

Studio Work

We had a life drawing session in the studio this past week.  This was the first evening session I've run in over two years.  And as it's still summer, I had a typical summer result: only one other artist showed up.  This didn't really matter to me, though, since I schedule these sessions for my own practice, and open them up to others because it's fun.

Claire was our model.  She's been working with my groups for maybe ten years now.  Claire is an artist, a performance artist, and a dancer, and she has a good feel for what makes an interesting pose.  This one, for example, brought out the muscles around her neck and collar bones.


Actually, it was a tough pose to hold.  To get the strain, she carried her weight on her arms and tilted her head back.  So she'd hold it for as long as she could (five to ten minutes), then relax for a few minutes, and go again.  She was a trooper.  We gave her an easy pose after this so she could recuperate.

Meanwhile, I'm about to wrap up the latest "model in the studio" painting.  Only need to do some work on one small area and then it'll be signed, photographed, posted here, and put up on the rack.  I've got some ideas for the next one.  We're going to have another life drawing session this Wednesday with a different model, and she might give me some more ideas.

I'm going to be part of a show at the Asheville Area Arts Council next month.  It's "Thought-Provoking Art by Six UNCA Alumni", curated by Robert Tynes.  Since almost all of my "thought-provoking" work has already been exhibited here in Asheville, I want to make something new.  I've tentatively decided on an Afghanistan-based image.  But I needed a canvas and didn't have one of the right size available.  So I stripped an old painting off its stretcher bars yesterday.  It was one of those paintings that was a little too good to throw away, but not good enough to be pulled out and shown anywhere, so it's been sitting on my storage rack for ten years.  (If you're an artist, you know that kind of artwork: you've probably got several of them on your storage rack, just like I do!)  Then I reworked the frame a bit because my standards for stretchers have gotten a lot more stringent since it was first made.  Now it has a tight canvas with three coats of gesso, and another will be laid on tomorrow.  Then I'll lay a tone on it and let it dry for a week or so while I'm off in Indiana.  When I come back, I'll have two weeks to get it done.  That's not a lot of time for me - some of mine can take months.  Deadlines are deadlines, though ...

  

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