Lovely Glooms

Ever since that four o’clock in the morning drawing made in the gloom, I’ve discovered that certain kinds of drawing I do better when I don’t think about it at all.  Certainly it’s most easily accomplished — this not thinking about the drawing — when you cannot see.  Hmmm.  Since I cannot always be rising at 4 am (too much work) I have decided that I must find other ways to not-think.  Happily, I’m very near-sighted.  Thus, taking off the glasses is one way of not thinking because I cannot see. 

I’m also contemplating making a regular search for other kinds of wonderfully moody glooms!  Perhaps sitting in the closet with the lights out?  Sounds strange, I know, but you must “suffer” for art (Van Gogh said so). 

Being silly for art — when it works — is okay too.

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Multitasking as a Virtue

I always feel like I should finish something before moving onto the next thing, but though I feel that way, I rarely heed the feelings.  My life is fraught with interruption.  Moreover, so many of the studies tell us these days that women are the multitaskers — that nature endowed us with great juggling skills due to the fact that our kids would be constantly interrupting us from any task upon which we might seem to be too focused.

Well, why fight Mother Nature?  Indeed, I find that by doing many things I get more done.  Even allowing for various projects I intend to complete but alas didn’t, I still get more done overall by being often busy.  I’ve decided to consider it a virtue.  Let the men aim their minds with laser intention.  Me, I’m livin’ large.

I got some new paper

I ordered some Canson Mi-Teintes pastel paper in bright colors.  I had no idea how bright these bright colors were:  next time I’ll pay more attention!  In this drawing I’m copying a section of the famous Caravaggio’s “Still life with fruit on a Ledge,” recently attributed to the Italian master.  Caravaggio didn’t use a bright red underground in his painting so the color qualities are rather different to say the least.  My version is “Caravaggio in Hell,” figuratively speaking of course!

My copy deals only with the pomegranates and figs in the lower left-hand side of Caravaggio’s painting, which I’m studying from a detail illustrated in a book.

Since the colors were so bright, I decided to just jump right into the 9 x 12 inch tablet.  I’m using the pages in order, consequently the first few drawings will all have bright red grounds!  After those come some bright blue-green, yellow … and I forget all the colors.  But I’m throwing caution to the wind and am simply drawing.  Que sera sera.