Hot day today. Went to two farmer's markets (Hillsborough for flowers and corn, then Durham for something different). Durham market was festive - a guy had rolled a chewed up and painted old upright piano (part of the case gone, you could see the hammers going) into the space beside the market, near the pedestrian bridge, and he had attracted quite a crowd with his hyperactive playing and singing. It was hot and humid, but the light was beautiful and people were on the upside of their moods. We bought all sorts of things - great home made mustard, pickled okra and dills, lots of bread (including a gruyere and cumin loaf), kielbasa and Calvander cheese, pigs in blankets (those didn't make it 100 feet), desserts at a stand doing a benefit for breast cancer, French green beans, bumblebee tomatoes, more bread, triple crown pecan pie (chocolate and amaretto...), a chocolate doughnut muffin (I have no idea - we'll find out later), padron peppers and another pint of peppers like habaneros but without the heat, fresh shitake mushrooms... I left the house with about $130 in my wallet and came home with a dollar left. We eat like kings on weekends. Our youngest and I had elevenses with the cheese, the bread and some of the tomatoes.
After putting everything away and putting up the flowers (wall sconces - cats eat flowers otherwise) I was sweaty and tired. I have not been sleeping well (anxiety dreams about projects at work). So I took a shower after which I was still sweating and tired and now crabby.
So my dear wife, who knows me better than I do, asked me what I wanted to do. I wanted to draw. So though I had been complaining about the heat, I went back out in the hot garage to do pastels. The family had lunch without me.
And I'm glad I did. These three are the best in this series so far. I knocked them out in an hour and half that felt like 15 minutes to me. Then I ate lunch. The habanero-like peppers were sweet and tasted like flowers, the padrons were hot.
I have been contemplating cardinals for a commission I am working on - that is the explanation, I think, for the cardinal in the first pastel (#12 - first image, above). The others... I have no idea. They just emerged. I can now just attack the page with the ball point, eyes wide open, watching what's going on, and it just happens from there. I love this road I am on. I need to carry what is going on with the pastels into my painting.
And you should see the automatic drawings that happen just before I sleep. You can, if you stay tuned. I have probably 18 of them to post. I no longer can just turn off the light and go to sleep - a drawing must be done, first...
Drawings for the pastels are below - ball point and then Sharpie. Two of them were rotated before Sharpie time. All pastel, ball point and Sharpie on kraft paper - 18 x 24 inches. Click any image for a closer view.
Drawings for Pastel 14, above
Drawings for Pastel 13, above
Drawings for Pastel 12, above
Again, one of the pleasures of drawing in public is the conversations which result. In the Museum of Life and Science, in Durham, where I have previously drawn the lion skull, I sat down and drew the zebra skull. Unlike the lion's skull, which is protected by glass, the zebra bone is polished by the counteless hands which have stroked it. The pointed spines that make the bridge of the nose fascinated me as they did many of the children who came to see the skulls. Many of those children also stopped to watch me and (sometimes) ask what I was doing.
