Pastel 11

I thought this was going to be something else - but it didn't want to.

After several weeks of this and the automatic drawing, I feel incomplete if I don't do at least one or the other each evening.  Better if I do both...

This is how habits start.  Is the dependence on the drawing or on the smell of the pastel dust?

Drawing stages that led to this pastel are below.  The initial drawing is done with eyes closed.  Between that and the Sharpie drawing (also below) I had to close my eyes and do more with the ball point, because nothing was emerging - no inspiration.  Though the Sharpie stage mostly followed he original drawing...  I have to quote the Wizard of Oz's last line to Dorothy, "I don't know how it works!"

Pastel, Sharpie and ball point on 18 x 24 inch kraft paper.  Click any image for a closer view.

Pastel 10

These are beginning to serve me as a mind cleanser.  I use the colors and shapes and the playfulness to slow down and mentally breathe.  The shapes and colors arrange themselves - I just listen.

Same as the others - 2 minutes of drawing (eyes closed again) - ugly lines.  A few minutes of lines drawn from a cedar branch.  Then some forms started to inspire me, so it was time to pick up the Sharpie - maybe 3 minutes.  Then for about 10-15 minutes the colors just made sense.

18 x 24, Sharpie and pastel on kraft paper.  Click image for closer look.

Pastel 9 - King of Rabbits

Drawing with your eyes closed...  The ballpoint stage of tonight's drawing was done that way, and the resulting lines immediately led to this guy.  Face, tail, curve of back, idea of feet up, and heart were all present (by accident) before the Sharpie phase.

Then the Sharpie and recent thinking about playing cards did the rest (except the carrot - that just seemed to follow).  Click to see larger image (and some ball point lines that got ignored - no erasing during these).

18 x 24, pastels and Sharpie on kraft paper.  About 20 minutes - the point is to not over think these; just let things happen.

Pastel 8 and Pastel 7

One of the software engineering teams at my day job has been terrific to work with on a project set by government standards.  Not exciting stuff, and off the path they had planned/hoped for the most recent release, but they took it on with gusto.  I wish great things for their next release, and I thank them for their great attitude and attention to detail.

Our teams have creative names, and this team is called Cereal Sauce.  I dedicated tonight's pastel (#8) to them.  Artistic license grants that I choose the cereal; I went with a throwback to the early Captain Crunch with Crunchberries, when the berries were all red.  It was a favorite of mine growing up.

Number 7, last night's pastel, happened very fast and emerged in a wordless zone.  These have been very freeing and a great release from all sorts of tensions.

Solar Tower

I'm working on a piece I can't show yet.  Later, hopefully.  Mostly, today, I'm working on a large project for my day job.  That will consume most of the evening and into the night.

I took a break to think back over some pieces I did not consider successful at the time.  I ended up looking at this one (above), which was inspired by a conversation with my Dad about a type of solar energy tower that has parabolic reflectors below aiming concentrated beams of sunlight at a large oil filled reservoir at the top.  The heat is then used to generate electricity - I don't recall how.  I should look it up.  But the idea of this hot tower and the concentrated sunlight resulted in this piece, years ago.

I recall when I finished that I did not like the composition, the color scheme, or the quality of my painting.  None of them are great, but they are nowhere near as bad as I remember.

I wrote about this painting back in 2007 when I finished it.  It made me think of my Dad to reread it.  I've missed him more than usual these last few weeks, and he's been in my dreams several times.

Pastel 6 - Trees

This one took more than 15 minutes.  I got into the drawing stage, in particular, and so this was more like 30 minutes.

Again, it started oriented one way and then was rotated 180 before I began with the Sharpie.

During the drawing the most fun was the loops, like crochet stitches, in the roots and bases of the trees.  That creates an unexpected abstract element at the bottom.

For me the most unexpected moment was when the rich sienna was applied so heavily in the upper middle, reaching out like wings.  After the first set of marks with that color, to the right of the tree trunk, I thought I had ruined the drawing (left brain talking) and then I calmly just pushed it even further, adding much more sienna, which worked better than anything my safe left brain would have wanted.  That kind of over-ride is precisely what I feel these drawings are slowly training my mind to do.

All of these are 18 x 24 inches, pastel on brown kraft paper.  Click any image for a closer view.

Church of the Great Outdoors

This is a pencil drawing I did back in 2006.  I have an itch to continue in this line.  This particular drawing was inspired by a conversation with my brother-in-law's father, who told me one day, "I feel closer to God standing here in these trees looking at my cows."  I had, myself, recently become unchurched when this drawing came to me gradually.

I see that in 2006 I was already sneaking fish into nearly every piece.  Click the image for a larger view.