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I made it back to life drawing last night, it was the first chance I've had to attend to my artistic life since the Taos workshop. The model had amazing pre-Raphaelite hair and when she turned her in head in this pose I jumped at the chance to draw a portrait. The language of drawing is different than the language of painting so it was an adjustment to be working with line again.
What is common in both, and also in yoga therapy and craniosacral is that Less is More. It's a universal principle. When we force we lose touch with the essence of our subject, we push our will onto it rather than give space to let it "what is" emerge. Sherrie pointed out that what people commonly see is optical illusion and it's up to the artist to point out the truth. I saw that when drawing both the lips and the outside edges of the eyebrows. They looked darker at first but when I actually followed the light they were not as dark as I originally thought. When I backed off from what my mind thought was true and became quieter and drew less the true essence of the model was able to emerge.
I like to take photos of paintings in progress to see the various stages and also capture where I might have veered off course. This was actually my first portrait of the Taos workshop and while I wasn't ultimately happy with the final outcome I like where it is in this stage. This is where I first learned to push paint, rather than draw with it, and to use the model as a reference rather than just copying what I see.
This sketch reflects so many ahas and influences from the Taos workshop. It's where I learned that painting is like poetry, don't copy what you see, show how light spills over your subject like a waterfall. Show what caught your eye, what you think is beautiful, what made you fall in love. You should have seen the way the light fell on her face, her chest, and down her arm, like this, like this, like this...
When this dancer became too dark and dull I was shown how to push the shadows, brighten them, in order to get more of a sense of light. That was so different than how I normally dealt with shadow. And when I struggled with the lips as I always do Sherrie showed me, in just three strokes, how lips are a temperature change not a value change. Another optical illusion between what we think we see and what is real.
I realized in posting this sketch how my 100 Heads project has come full circle. I started not knowing how to draw a face and wanting to learn so I copied some of my favorite drawings by Sherrie McGraw. I never knew then that I would end up taking a workshop with her where she would dab the lips onto my own painting.
I spent this morning scrolling through my blog with the intention of collecting some of my favorite images in order to start an artist's Facebook page. I ended up in tears of awe. I made a pot of oolong tea and read for hours and all I could think was Wow. WOW. I have come a long way and have had an amazing life. What a gift to be able to look back at your life this way.
What a gift this blog has been. From the times where I could make art daily to the times where I couldn't -yet could still hear it in the distance, calling me back.
This is a sketch from the last day of the Taos workshop. I could feel myself struggling between getting caught up in rendering, which was familiar, and the new things I'd learned about mass, light, and shadow. With only 15 minutes Ieft I pushed the light and shadow with colors I normally would have thought to be over exaggerated, and that's what brought it back to life.
In this sketch I experimented with hard and soft edges, warm and cool temperature. The cool black of the glove in front brings it forward, the warm black of the other glove makes it go back. Hard edges on the gloves in front, soft edges on the face that's further back.
I recently returned from an oil painting workshop in Taos with Sherrie McGraw and David Leffel. I gave myself the gift of this workshop in honor of completing my year long yoga therapy program and becoming a Certified Yoga Therapist. It's my hope that with 150 case studies done drawing and painting can return again.
Sherrie and David turned everything I've ever learned in the past about painting and drawing on its head. It was so amazing to spend a full week painting from morning to night and be surrounded by others who were passionate about doing the same thing. The lighting for this photo is not good but I decided to post it anyway rather than wait for a time where I could get a better photo, which may well be never. This is the 7th portrait in oils I've ever done. I returned home to clear all the stored clutter from my art studio and rearranged the room entirely in order to catch North light on the easel.
Wednesday night life drawing started back up again this week after a summer hiatus. It was ultimately good to be back though it felt like trying to convince myself to jump into ice cold water to get myself to go. We were all in the same boat, feeling rusty, frustrated, and relieved to be drawing again all at once. I've often wondered why I so resist doing the things I say I love to do. As we call ourselves forth and our light gets brighter it also casts a shadow. It helps to know that resistance is just part of the whole, not something to beat down and overcome, but to be aware of and move with.
This is an oil painting sketch made during a 3 hour life drawing session on Sunday. At the time I thought it was just awful but a few days later I think it is not so bad. I certainly learned a lot from doing it. One of the things I learned is how hard it is to paint with oils! I struggle with how to mix the colors, they're unpredictable and I need to take some time to learn what it is they do when you put them together. I find the combination between seeing value AND color AND knowing how to capture it in oil paint to be dizzying. As my comfort with drawing faces increases I can feel my next project being born. I will learn how to oil paint. I look forward to the value/color studies, the little painted objects and portraits to come.
The intense dry heat of June in New Mexico brought longing for June in Maine this morning. I ache for Earl Grey tea in the fog on the deck of the Inn on the Harbor in Stonington. My longing brought me to visit this post. How amazing to be able to visit moments of your very own life when you're longing for what you want. I was surprised by what I wrote there about movement, "It is only movement that closes the gap. Ugly, awkward, lovely movement." I was talking about the gap between idea and form at the time, be it the written word or an image on a page.
It was before I started or even knew about the yoga therapy program or really thought much about movement at all. Now I have 85 faces drawn or painted after avoiding them for most of my life. Who knew that the daring that morning of drawing the harbor when I hadn't drawn anything for so long and the fear of not being any good yet moving anyway would bring me here? I guess I did, somehow.
This model is wearing just the right outfit for the 95 degree heat.
This pose had the extra challenge of how to capture a face when it's mostly hidden by hair. It felt good to get back to Wednesday night life drawing again.
This was done during a 3 hour life drawing session on Sunday afternoon. This is my second portrait painted in oils and I'm excited about the potential. What floors me is that the shift in my ability to paint hasn't come from practicing painting, it came as a result of the yoga therapy I'm learning, doing, and teaching. In movement, when the parts of the body move congruently the result is better stability and balance. It's amazing to see how this shift in the way I move and see has translated to painting, because I haven't been painting.
I head to Calgary on Monday to complete my final week of training to become a Certified Yoga Therapist. I've written 104 case studies and drawn 82 heads so far. I love seeing how these two worlds are pulling closer together, one informing the other. I love seeing how going into the discomfort of the unknown and difficult has resulted in something less of a day dream and more of a reality.
This is the final portrait, it took 2 days to paint. I've never painted a portrait in oils before so I'm overall happy with this first try. When I saw that Studio Incamminati was coming I just signed up for the class, I didn't think about it being a portrait class until I showed up the first day. In the past I would have thought I should master still lives in oil before trying portraits. I realized it was my 100 heads project here that made me forget to be afraid of drawing faces. Thank you Studio Incamminati, you were an oasis in the desert and brought me back to life.
On the 4th day we put all we learned from the exercises of the first 3 days (grisaille and color studies) together to create a portrait. Funny how when I put all those pieces together it felt like everything started falling apart. This the first layer of the final portrait by the end of the day. It's the stage that makes me thankful I have a day job! I don't have a lot of experience with oil paint and it got heavy and sticky and frustrating but I also totally loved it.
On Day 3 we worked on color studies. Color studies are not about matching color they are about understanding the relationships between colors. First you slap on the color that catches your eye the most then you start relating the other colors. Are they lighter or darker? Warmer or cooler? Color studies are done quickly so you don't have time to think about it too much, you just respond to what you see. The model gave me permission to use her photo here at the blog and I think it's helpful to see the set up. They use colorful set ups so you can train your eye to see color relationships more easily.
It was by Day 3 that I also started hearing complaints of creaky shoulders, trick knees, and sore feet from standing so long. A therapeutic yoga workshop for artists is percolating...
Day two of Studio Incamminati in the Southwest. We covered closed grisaille and it helped to have a planar head next to the model so we could see how a round head actually breaks down into planes of light. I am again so impressed by the skill level and generosity of the Studio Incamminati instructors, even when they are suffering from dehydration from the desert. I am loving my art filled staycation.
Studio Incamminati has come to Albuquerque! On this first day we worked on open grisaille, an underpainting blocking in light and shadow. I felt pretty rusty as I haven't picked up a paint brush in more than 3 years but it also felt like home. So amazing to have these instructors right here and not have to pay for a flight and lodging, though I craved a hoagie from Reading Terminal on my way home...
A 10 minute sketch. I love this, written by Emilie Conrad, author of "Life on Land and creator of Continuum. It sings to my therapist/artist self.
"I see the Future Human as having a wide variety of choices in its ability to to function as a "creative consortium" not bound by segregation of any kind. The creative life is an overall "Art of Life" in which painting a portrait or restoring a spine is all in the same milieu."
Back to the drawing board. Drawings have had to step aside these days to make space for case study writing in my journey toward becoming a certified yoga therapist. 75 drawings and 67 case studies written so far. As the two worlds draw toward each other I see how both call for the same things; seeing relationships, areas of weight and space, moving from global to local to global, teasing out connection and sitting in the discomfort of uncertainty. Anatomy and something so much bigger than anatomy. The struggle of separation and the stillness of finding center.
