eureka

An early spring cleaning triumph!  I’ve found my copy of Pieter Bruegel The Elder Fall of the Rebel Angels which I have not seen since at least the autumn of 2016.  I got it at the National Gallery of Art bookstore and had taken it with me various places to make drawings from its pages.  Then I lost it — sad!  But it’s back!

The painting by Bruegel was an early favorite of mine.  I bought a large poster of it during the first autumn I was in college.  They sold posters of famous works of art back then from sidewalk vendors every autumn.  The idea was that young college students would want to surround themselves with culture.  And at the time it was evidently true — true enough to be profitable for someone to stand outdoors all day in the warm clear light selling art posters.

Oh, how things have changed!  But Bruegel’s fierce painting is still one of my favorites.

Find the book here, find perchance to lose and to find again even:

https://www.amazon.com/Pieter-Bruegel-Elder-Rebel-Angels/dp/8836629644

 

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odd sightings

 

It’s just the windshield of a car parked behind mine, but it had the hint of a beautiful picture reflected on its surface.  You never know where you’ll see something beautiful.  Ideas are everywhere.

in praise of chocolate

When I was recently visiting the Botanic Gardens with my drawing group and I suddenly realized that I was standing beside a venerable, magnificent, and wonderful-marvelous chocolate plant (Theobroma cacao) — well — I had to draw it.

You don’t consume as much chocolate as I do and just walk blithely by such a significant, such an important — nay! ESSENTIAL plant without paying your respects.

How I wish I’d had time to draw it in more detail — because — chocolate!

on view at the Torpedo Factory

Got a chance to take a picture of my latest painting on exhibit.  It’s the long format landscape on the bottom right.  It’s now on view at the Torpedo Factory in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia.  Here’s another view:

beauty in the small effects

Corot is such a powerful master.  Saw this detail of one of his Ville d’Avray paintings and was struck by how beautiful and amazing is his abstraction even in the smallest aspects.  Just the way that he evokes the faces of the two girls by dark blots that indicate their eyes — isn’t it mind-blogging in lovely simplicity!

He makes it look so easy.

Found this detail — here —

http://linesandcolors.com/2018/03/20/eye-candy-for-today-corot-early-spring-landscape/

Spring is here!

Hey, wait a minute!

Gad About

When I’m not at the easel, I sometimes still encounter art.  I was walking in the city and stopped inside St. Matthew’s Cathedral in Washington DC where I encountered these beautiful angels.  This was my first visit to the famous cathedral with its beautiful mosaics.  Here’s another view.

 

indoor “plein air”

I went sketching with my sketching group to the Botanic Gardens at the foot of the United States Capitol.  Inside the enormous greenhouse you can do “plein air” sketching indoors.  Great option for cold weather for the faint of heart non-outdoors-persons like myself — though for the record the weather the day of our visit was magnificent!

Above is my drawing using Caran d’Ache Neopastel of a tree growing in the corner of the main gallery.