Monday, March 28, 2016

Marker Drawings 26 - Juries




























Sketchbook drawings
Sharpie markers bullet, fine point, ultra fine point, Dick Blick Studio markers, 2016
sketchbook 6" x 8" (15.24cm x 20.32cm)

Juried and Jury Duty days.
I always have the sketchbook in the car and when I can or have waiting time I'll sketch. No problem concerning the word jury. It means waiting. Just cooling your heels as my Dad used to say.

Surprisingly though when I was called for jury service I ended up with less waiting time than I expected. Good? No. I was called to a court room for the interview process almost right away and was sure I would get seated on a jury and I nearly did but 'escaped'. I really don't mind jury duty, I have sat on 3 cases over the years. I don't dread it except for the loss of income. This time I could not afford the time. Whew!

The jury room sketches could be better but from where I was sitting all I could see was the backs of peoples heads. I had just begun drawing from my imagination, the third page down, when I was called up.
The top page I was sitting outside at the cafe' for lunch and had a nice view of the old courthouse which I thought was being re-furbished. Then I later overheard it was being demo'ed, demolished, razed, hence the notation correction.
As I returned inside to the courthouse after lunch security took away my wide marker. They had missed it in the morning but not this time. I guess the wide ones are not allowed because of the putz taggers who like to graffiti where ever they can get away with it, mostly in the bathrooms.

I thumbed this new courthouse when it was being built, see this post, so it was fun to be able to sit at it drawing the old one now. The top thumbnail from it would be roughly the same view looking back the other way from the old courthouse. In it, I would now be sitting right about where the far right of that angular structure meets the ground, looking back at the old courthouse. Does that make sense?

My other brush with jury was jurying in a second medium for this years Art-A-Fair. Drop off in the morning, pick up in the afternoon. In between, wait.
I drew the hillside and rock formations across the street from my car for a short while but dang-nab-it it was one of those days when it just wasn't flowing so the bottom sketch is all I have to show for it. The other sketches just died on the page.
It's okay though. I was in Laguna, art galleries galore. I visited a couple of those, including two painters I got to know at Art-A-Fair last year and also had the chance to visit with a third friend who was sitting in her artist co-op gallery for the day.
If I could not make the art I could at least talk it.

On a good note the second medium was juried in! Watercolor.
It is Art-A-Fair's 50th year so I am happy to have two mediums in my booth for 2016.
But that's a story for another day!437,438,439,440



Wednesday, March 2, 2016

Mid-show Night at the Muck

"Scrubber"

"Steel Bundles"

"Colored Tanks"



















































“Scrubber”
"Steel Bundles"
"Colored Tanks"
watercolor on paper, 2016
6” x 8” (15.24cm x 20.32cm)

Here are my other 3 paintings I have in the NWS Plein Air Exhibition and sale at the Muckenthaler Cultural Center. Today, Thursday March 3rd from 7:30 - 9:00 pm the Muckenthaler is hosting a mid-show gallery tour.
Several artists including myself will be there doing demo's and/or talking about our work. It will be a perfect night to attend if you can make it.

These 3 are the most orderly of my six. Part of that reason is the view I choose and the way I presented them, straight on and compositionally horizontal. Industrial subjects often are chaotic but even when so I can usually find the view that is less chaotic.
When the subject is busy as in "Colored Tanks ", with so much going on in the painted surfaces the straight on view as well as simplification helps make a better painting.

My other 3 in the show are made up of more angles and diagonals compositionally, which I usually favor, but they are simpler to begin with so they needed the perspective views to keep them more interesting.



“Scrubber”
We see these attached to every industrial building. Seen in endless configurations these kinds of machinery are called scrubbers. They clean or scrub the air inside the warehouses, factories and industrial plants. Very similar to my power pole series there is a lot going on with them. With their boxy structures, angles, valves, pipes, wires and ducts it’s their forms that attract me. Sometimes oddly proportioned, gangly in appearance, rusted, worn and weathered they can take on an anthropomorphic character and are irresistible to me so I must paint them.

"Steel Bundles"
Bundles of steel girders, wood haphazardly stacked on top and overlooked by most. I find these kinds of repeating forms a great subject to paint, especially when the stacks are not perfectly arranged. In the simplest form they represent the industrious and hard working as well as both organization and chaos.

“Colored Tanks”
Industrial subjects have more color than most realize. The colorful palette of hues can range from the more earthy to the bright and highly saturated. Then they take on the rich patina of the time worn and sun faded. This one had the two sides of its gates painted at different times and in two different reds. The blues tanks too were faded, its paint water stained in various degrees. I waited for a full sunny day to paint these to accentuate the lively palette.434,435,436