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Posts Tagged ‘Drawings’

A humid, muggy, afternoon in the depths of September and the drawing class milled restlessly waiting for the model to arrive and start posing. Time passed, as it always does, and still no model. I approached the instructor and asked “What is the holdup?” Angel Berrios smiled faintly and replied, “The model has not come. I’m trying to decide if I should dismiss the class.”

Normally I would sigh to myself and wander back to my car but I have driven thirty miles to attend this figure drawing class. I want to draw! “How about I get my husband to pose for the class?” Now, I am not sure I can persuade Doyle to pose but desperation leads me on to say “I’ll go get him. He is reading in the car.”

Angel looks surprised, but agreeable, and off I go to the parking lot to try to cajole Doyle into modeling. He refuses, looking scandalized, but I persist telling him he can keep his shorts on and just take off his shirt. Finally he agrees, saying, “Why would the artists want to draw a seventy year old man?” “We don’t care! We don’t care if you are old. In fact, it would be interesting to have a model that is not young and buffed,” I assure him.

Away we go back to the classroom and he sits on a stool that spins and we all draw the lovely shirtless guy with the gray hair. Here are some of the drawings I have kept and enjoy looking at every so often. The variety is wonderful. We all looked at the same person. Here are the drawings.

And here is the real guy:

The Real Doyle Lavern

The Real Doyle Lavern

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Paul Veladez

Paul Veladez

An amazing group of palm trees!  The paintings were done on the pages of old books. Paul Veladez picked the pages/words he liked … then painted over and around the words. A page a day.  Assembled as a group each image complements its neighbors.

Paul Veladez "Palm"

Paul Veladez "Palm"

The words on the pages resonate with the palm trees.

Paul Veladez "Palm" close up

Paul Veladez "Palm" close up

The more time the viewer spends looking-reading the more intense the experience becomes.

Paul Veladez "Palm" text

Paul Veladez "Palm" text

Time, travel …

Paul Veladez "by tomorrow ..."

Paul Veladez "By tomorrow ..."

“By tomorrow the stars will have rolled away” … the paper/book had fascinating words overlaid with free, floating palms. Loved it!!

Paul Veladez "Cone Flower"

Paul Veladez "Cone Flower"

Paul Veladez "Venezuelan Animal"

Paul Veladez "Rat"

At the end of every day Paul does one of these mini paintings. If it has been an ordinary day he paints a palm tree … if it has been a bad day he paints a rat … and if it has been a extraordinary day he paints a flower.

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Travis Trapp has an intricate drawing style.  He begins on a small panel and adds and then adds again.

Travis Trapp

Travis Trapp

 

This drawing is 4 feet by 5 feet and growing.

Travis Trapp drawing close-up

Travis Trapp drawing close-up

Here is a detail of the big picture showing how the forms grow and expand.  He explains “it is a free drawing informed by looking at photographs taken using an electron microscope and then extrapolating from there.  It grows from my subconscious mind.”

Travis Trapp painting

Travis Trapp painting

Here is a delightful painting of a boy sitting on an island …unaware of what is behind him. The color is cheerful and in opposition to the content of the painting which is a bit ominous.

Drawing on the inside of Travis' door

Drawing on the inside of Travis' door

Here is a shot of the inside of Travis Trapp’s door… It is 3′ x 5′ … done with a Sharpie.

Travis Trapp "Portrait of Philip K. Dick"

Travis Trapp "Portrait of Philip K. Dick"

As an admirer Of Philip K. Dick, who wrote many science fiction books, Travis did a portrait of him using his own words.

Travis Trapp "Portrait of Philip K. Dick" detail

Travis Trapp "Portrait of Philip K. Dick" detail

The detail shows the words “a pharmacist on Mars”. Not only is the portrait arresting to look at, it is also thought provoking.  By carefully printing the words, (some of which are unreadable, others which are clearly readable) to create the contours of the face, Travis directs our attention to the content of these ground-breaking works.  Bravo!

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Ricardo Benevides

Ricardo Benevides

Ricardo is a teacher and father of twin one-year-old babies … Art?  Who has time for that??  However, he does make time for it and here are the works themselves.

Benevides Drawing

Benevides Drawing

He said “My work deals with violence and the flow of people back and forth over the border we live next to … I draw poor people, prostitutes, beggars, and ordinary folks and try to make a statement about how society treats them.  I have been drawing since I was a child and it comes naturally to me … just something I do.”

Benevides Drawing

Benevides Drawing

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Charcoal, September 20 - 26

Charcoal, September 20 - 26

Moving from canvas to drawing paper deleted the concerns of color.  The images are easily erased so corrections can occur … even repeated corrections as the erasures make the surface of the paper have a glow. The kneaded eraser is as important as the charcoal. These are about Line and Value. The ideal is to make a mark which perfectly expresses the item or idea you are trying to convey … like calligraphy … however!  if the line fails ERASE!
“FREEDOM’S JUST ANOTHER WORD FOR NOTHING LEFT TO LOSE”  —  Janis Joplin song

Closeups:

The Cemetery

The Cemetery

Charcoal Drawing

Charcoal Drawing

Charcoal Drawing

Charcoal Drawing

Charcoal Drawing

Charcoal Drawing

The drawing on the 4 foot black paper (below) is titled ” Back to the Future” … it is about the eventual disintegration of this technology strangled culture … and we are all back to living in huts in the forest .. .a huge sunspot could return us to the forest in a minute of time.

Back to the Future

Back to the Future

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