Winter Slough

In this month of November, I`m teaching a watermedia class on Saturdays. This was the demonstration painting I did yesterday. I asked everyone to try and paint something from memory, the idea being they would remember what most impressed them. Because I had been to Minto Brown Island just days before, I had the sloughs and trees in mind. I also wanted to show how something full of detail, such as a tangle of bare branches, could be suggested through pure 'painterly' means. Individual trees could be ignored to emphasize the atmosphere of the whole.

The Longest Night

Moonrise

1990.
My studio is all packed away and I, realistically, won`t be able to paint again until mid-May. This is daunting but I can always draw. I wish I could do it like my friend David Shratter. He sits anywhere and just begins.

Figure Study

Occasionally I draw the figure, usually with a group but sometimes I`ll hire a model. This is a matter of high anxiety. The posing time is limited, the model will be comfortable just so long. The room is always too hot and it`s inescapable whether you get it right or not. There`s the model, there`s the drawing. I inevitably feel that I failed, I won`t even glance at them again for days. Then I get curious and look. Sometimes I`m surprised.