Category Archives: Art

Diane’s House, plus three others

Acrylics 11” by 13” on Strathmore 500 Mixed Media Board, a gift for my friend Diane.
House on Green Street, minus the neighboring houses. Acrylic 11” by 13” on Strathmore 500 Mixed Media board — SOLD
Jeremiah Beale House on Western Avenue in West Brattleboro, Acrylics on Strathmore 500 Mixed media board, 11” by 13”
Drawing before I paint the house in the following photo I took recently.
House with Rhododendron on Western Avenue in Brattleboro

Le Chat d’une amie- A friend’s Cat

painted for her birthday – peint pour son anniversaire.

Here’s the original photo of pasha

Here’s my rendering, with the chocolates turned into a book, The Art of Purring by David Michie, one of the 5 Dalaï lama’s cat books.

FROM THE GUARDIAN September 2022

The first line of the article below is stunning but the article that follows (see link) is even more so. Please read and come back here to tell me what you think.

“I’m a psychologist – and I believe we’ve been told devastating lies about mental health…”


https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/sep/06/psychologist-devastating-lies-mental-health-problems-politics?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

LA PETITE JEUNE FILLE

She starts as chicken wire. Elle commence avec le grillage.
I add paper bag brown paper. Je la fais avec les sacs de papier collés au grillage.
She gets hands and feet. Also shorts. Elle a maintenant les mains et les pieds et elle porte le short.
I finally decided on pedal pusher length pants and gave her hair and eyes etc. Voila les cheveux et les pantalons plus long.
In the gallery …

TEABAG PAINTINGS

Yes teabag paintings! I took apart and washed the paper in a teabag, prepped it with gesso and painted on it. These are about 3” by 5” roughly. The two faces sleeping under the moon were just experiments but the white New England farmhouse is now framed and for sale. Today I will also post a new papier mâché sculpture but in a separate blog post. Paint is gouache acrylic and acrylic.

You can see the edges of the teabag paper here.

MÉDECINS SANS FRONTIÈRES INSPIRED ME

Using a copy of MSF Alert (below) I began a blind contour drawing of the woman with her baby on the cover, but it morphed finally into a collage using African textile patterns printed onto paper. The facial details were added with ink pens.

Apres avoir regardé la couverture (dessous) de la magazine de MSF, j’ai commencé ce tableau avec un dessin de contour à l’aveugle, mais je l’ai changé à un collage, fait de motifs africains imprimés sur papier. Puis j’ai ajouté les détails de visage avec des stylos.

TWO NEW PET PORTRAITS

The dog (11” by 14”) was painted for my brother and is a portrait of his dog. Acrylics, on canvas. The cat portrait, done for another member of Brattleboro Time Trade is twice the size of the dog painting and is also on canvas but was done in Sennelier and Holbein oil pastels. Sorry about the watermarks, but it’s necessary.


EN FRANCE MES ŒUVRES LES PLUS RÉCENTES. IN FRANCE, MY NEWEST WORK

Also some photos in France of Guillestre and around there, where I am staying.

Des Oignons, some onions

des poires, some pears


le crâne d’un chien, a dogs skull

Je suis en France depuis déjà deux semaines mais le temps passe vite. Je n’ai que deux semaines de plus à Guillestre et après ça deux semaines à Paris…j’ai tout un tas de photos de vous montrer mais je crains que les photos sans fin des montagnes puissent être ennuyeuses . Je vais essayer de les organiser dans un diaporama, peut-être un peu plus tard. Pour le moment, juste quelques unes de Guillestre et les environs.

i have been in France for two weeks already but time is flying. I have only two more weeks in Guillestre and then two in Paris. Of course I have taken a whole pile of photos to show you, but endless photos of mountains could be boring so I’m going to try to make a slideshow of them, maybe a bit later. For now, just a few photos of Guillestre etc.

On top of a mountain, a très petite mountain above Guillestre.
Village center, à couple of restaurants and the tourist info center
The road, la rue de la petite Fontaine, on which I am living right in the center of town
Mountains in the distance during a trip to Orris en Rattier this past weekend.

CHALLENGE: DRAW A BICYCLE? (BET YOU CAN’T!)

Can you draw a bicycle from memory, without looking at a photo or diagram? Before reading further, take out a sheet of paper and a pencil and try doing this, No cheating or looking at a picture.

Did you have trouble, even after initial confidence that this would be easy? Well, if so you are in good company!

Apparently this is a difficult task for most people and the following article explains why and shows the amusing results when your average person on the street is asked to do so. 

https://www.fastcompany.com/3059056/you-cant-draw-a-bike-and-we-can-prove-it

Italian Designer Gianluca Gimini has gone one step further in creating realistic renderings of such “impossible bicycles”.

https://www.behance.net/gallery/35437979/Velocipedia 

Nevertheless, I am going to show you how to easily draw a bicycle from memory, so the next time someone asks (if they ever do) Can you draw a bicycle from memory, you will be able to answer: “Of course, drawing a bicycle is easy!”

Step 1

Draw a circle, then at about a half diameter away, draw another identical circle. Find and mark the center of each.

step 2 Add a small circle with approximately a quarter of the diameter of original circles and place it  next to one wheel, this will be the rear wheel, with its center on a horizontal line to the center of the big circle.

Step 3 Draw a diagonal line from the center of the small circle to a point outside the “front wheel”, near but not quite vertically above the center, at around 11 o’clock 


Step 4 Add a line almost but not quite parallel to this front line, coming from the center of rear wheel.















Step 5 Connect the two diagonal lines as shown below, making a trapezoidal-like figure. Note that this is not a true trapezoid on most bikes, but close to it will do for our drawing.

Step 6  Drop two more lines. One from the upper right corner of “trapezoid-like figure” to the center of the front wheel.  Draw another running from the center of the small wheel through the upper intersection of lines  on the left (the  projection is the location for the seat). To complete most of the bike frame. add a small vertical line at the top in the front for the post that holds the handlebars,



Step 7  Add Chain and pedals as shown to small wheel













Step 8 Add seat and underslung handlebars at the height necessary for your rider.



Step 9 Thicken tires and reinforce bike frame if you wish


Et voila!you CAN draw a bicycle! (add spokes and panniers and water bottle as you wish)














Step 10 is the hardest part– adding a rider to your bicycle! Come back soon and I hope to explain this more difficult task  at a later date.


Can you draw a bicycle now? Take out a fresh piece of paper and try it to see how much you remember of this exercise. With only a little practice you will find drawing a bicycle is indeed easy!