3 oils

i visited some of my favorite people this weekend, Joel and Sarah, along with many of their friends and neighbors, musicians and artists... great fun at Meisnerfest 2009. Brother Mark drove down from NJ with daughter Anna and handsome husband Mark Diamond to take a long gander at how Virginians like to party. Son Niki and I drove down to Appomattox in the 'Lude, really digging the twisty and hilly roads through the Blue Ridge. Mark (bro) brought a mini wood lathe, and set up to demonstrate wood turning with Sake bowls and baby rattles from apple wood... shavings were rolling off of his tools - quite fascinating to watch someone with that kind of skill and control working the material.

While the musicians played, I had set up my Jullian easel and picked out a lonely tricycle with handlebars askew. I hung at it for a while, as the light flickered through the canopy I was under. After working it to a satisfactory finish, I moved over to where Mark was turning, and began a short portrait of the man at work. I had problems getting the posture, but at the end of the session, it looks like him, and the color is right... exactly what you want at the end of an hour. The third painting couldn't have been more than 15 minutes as I watched a very, very active Foxhound puppy (less than 6 mos) sniffing around the party. He was never in the same position, and I would have to think more about color than portrait. I laid in a very calligraphic brushline for the form and started filling regions with color... I got the color right and even a bit of the sense of his youth.

Well, I'm back home... scratching mosquito bites and remembering the good times with family. Some cousins are headed back to Ukraine while others are looking for new career positions... It's nice to touch base and eavesdrop on all of doings from the previous year. Hoping my thesis is in good shape prior to Meisnerfest 2010, or else I've have to miss it next year. Better hunkerdown and get it done!

All of these are oil studies, with turp as the medium... Trike and Pup are 8x10 on wooden panel. Mark is a on a piece of cardboard at 10x12.

Click'em to see'em.