TIMELESS CONNECTICUT RIVER SKETCH

Timeless quality of a beautiful location, thru the use of lights & darks. By squinting, it's easy to see the contrasting shapes.

Once again, I prefer to start off with charcoal tone paper.

My kneaded eraser gives me the lights of the sky & river. I finish the sketch with a dark charcoal which define the shadows of the marsh & tree.

SKETCHES FROM THE MET

another nude at the American Wing

To capture the movement of this sculpture, I express the dynamic gesture thru a charcoal pencil. Paying attention to light & dark forms. Once again, the highlights were enhanced with my kneaded eraser.

charcoal pencil on tone paper

TIME AT THE MET

If one can't visit the Louvre, the Metropolitan Museum is the next best place to be. I dont always have time to sit & sketch. With so many wonderful artwork around every bend, it's pretty easy to full up my sketchbook.

lovely space at the American Wing

On this tone paper, I use a kneaded eraser as my drawing tool. The eraser allows me to create an effect of subtle luminosity. Just the right tool for subtle play of light & dark. For this study, less is definitely more. Come back for my next post to see another approach I use to create light & dark forms.

kneaded eraser shape to a point

CAPTURING THE MOMENT

On my way to see the MATISSE exhibit at the Metropolitan museum, this scene hold me up for a good hour...capturing the moment. The stature will always be there, the horizontal figure in shadow completes the composition-a study in vertical & horizontal.

LINGERING SNOW

One of the perks of painting for so many years is that we are in the habit of looking at everything thru a painter's eye. To have the unusual opportunity to spend time in TUXEDO PARK in 2010 inspire me to fill a whole sketchbook> asketchaday-tuxedopark...years later, the area can still inspire me to get my sketchbook out, on a bleak morning. This is a study in vertical & horizontal.

CREME DE NOIX

It's kind of fun to sketch out what I need on my shopping list...

MONTMARTRE

Before heading out to explore for the day, this is my sketch from this morning...hiking up Montmartre is a lovely routine.

COASTAL ROSES

A real fine summer day. If one cant be lucky enough to be living on the water with a rose garden...spending time by the water to paint it is the next best thing on a fine day.

MISTY MORNING

Solitary contemplation of a few simple shapes... this texture paper seems to do half the job of expressing the mood. It's my latest sketchbook, a gift from Florence. The texture of the paper is so unique, I wonder if this is the paper that SEURAT used in all his conte drawings.

COMPOSITION

For a morning person, these fall mornings are way too dark. I was not sure if I should start out early this morning with my sketchbook. But as soon as I get to the water, there was a streak of morning sunrise coming thru the rain clouds... one is always looking for horizontal & vertical in a composition. The horizontal clouds contrast with that streak of light completes my coastal composition.