A Day in the Studio: When you're hot, you're hot.

Monday, September 1, 2014

When you're hot, you're hot.

Truly, it was a mellow summer, with the unbearable days of heat limited to a few. It must be recorded, though, that there were a few hours of many afternoons that to be drawing in pastel in a sun filled room was not the coolest experience. I even turned on a fan one day, and one never turns on a fan when working in pastel.

Does the use of the color red in these pictures express the heat? Perhaps I say yes because I do not know where else it came from. I love it though. I love the strawberry, watermelon, hot pink sunsets and the drinks to match them, and the swirling El Cholo skirts and the frequent flashes of fireworks in the night sky, and all those summertime experiences that can be expressed in the color red. What else explains the following?

4th of July

15 x 15"

Pastel over monoprint

Pushing the Color

15 x 15"

Pastel over monoprint

Watermelon Sky

15" x 15"

Pastel over monoprint

Summer Keys

15 x 15"

Pastel over monoprint

Strawberries in the Sky

15" x 15"

Pastel over monoprint

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Sabbatical 2014

It's an old-fashioned word, Sabbatical, but it provides an opportunity to play catch up. . . . .and in this case, to return to my studio and my blog post. It was the first time since I was 16 that I had the "summer to myself," except during those years I worked full time in my own studio.

So here is a peek at what went on at the press and in the pastel studio during the summer of 2014, when my time and my projects were my own.

There are about 30+ new works ready for framing. Most are pastel over monoprint; many are a challenge to photograph; all brought joy to the effort that produced them.

Lamoille Series 2010

The Lamoille Project (working title,) a series of 140 monoprints, is a commission received from The Madison (Wisconsin) Print Club as its 2010 print.

Starting in December, 2008, I am making monoprints of a specific scene along Route 15 in Lamoille County, in the north central section of Vermont. My goal is to track the atmospheric conditions of this scene, which are in constant flux, throughout the four seasons of 2009. As with everything in Vermont, the scene is not only weather dependent, but also displays a poetic visual impression that surprises and changes throughout a day.

It is not unusual to arrive at the scene, and watch it change as I am setting out my tools and materials. As my time at the scene progresses, I find myself dealing with shifting elements of color and light, atmosphere and impression.

The plates utilized in this project are prepared in my vehicle, with the tools spread out on the driver's seat, while I sit in the passenger seat. The painted plates are laid out in box lids on the back seat of the car. Within these cramped conditions, I can draw about 4 plates in one sitting, before heading for the print making studio, a couple of miles away.

These plates are run at The Painted Caravan, on a Whelan Press, in the studio of my friend, Isabeth Hardy, who has generously made this working arrangement available to me.

When the prints dry, I take them home to my own studio, where I draw into them in the tradition of Degas.

On this blogsite I am posting work in progress, pictures of the printmaking studio and of my studio, and the vehicle in which the plates are prepared.

A Day in the Studio

Monday, September 1, 2014

When you're hot, you're hot.

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Sabbatical 2014

Lamoille Series 2010

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