As is wont, reality does have a way of intervening in one's concepts, doesn't it?  Real light, real drapery. real little green apples, a flesh and blood model, and before you know it, your ticket has taken you to quite a different destination than the one you booked.

  I was invited to participate in a show that will be installed at the end of the summer at the Charles H. Taylor Art Center in Hampton that will feature "Portraits of the Artists", and that was all I needed to finally get down to work on a self-portrait I'd threatened to execute many times.  There was no question about it, a drawing was demanded, so with a deep sigh, I sharpened all my pencils and got down to business.  It's called "cutting bait" (portrait of the artist as an old fish) but it could very easily be fish story, or something else as slippery.  The artist statement is easy.

    A few months back I had the opportunity to join a figure drawing workshop organized by Kathleen Kridler.  We met at One Eleven Art Gallery, (111 Pennsyvania Avenue, Norfolk) on Sunday afternoons and had at.  I had not drawn the figure from life in eons, but it was just like riding a bicycle and I found myself happy as a clam.  Thanks again, Kathleen!  (Thank-you, too, to Suzanne Watson for establishing such a vibrant little gallery!)  Anyhoo- this particular model had the most incredibly fluid quality about him- he flowed into poses, and the went with it,  with the calmest of surfaces, not a muscle bunch to be seen.  In a lot of ways he was in great contrast to his surroundings which were very busy, very active- artists hard at work, an exhibit on the walls, the open studios of the resident gallerists- in fact we'd had to clear the space where he posed of chandeliers and a vase of lilies before he laid himself down on it.  

    I've had the honor to paint a portrait of Mr. Frank Batten which will soon hang in the Batten Conference Room on the campus of Virginia Weslelyan College.  The piece was drawn from a favorite photograph of his wife's, which shows him as a much younger (and may I add very handsome) man than the majority of the public images of him.  I chose to render a tonal portrait for various reasons, and like the feel of it;  I had first thought I would do a drawing but felt it would get lost in the room for which it was destined, but this ought to hold its own just dandy.  As with so many portraits, I found myself wishing to get to know the subject better- my bet is that Mr. Batten would have been great fun to sit next to at a dinner party                        .

We're in the countdown stage- only another day or so before I need to take her "official" portrait, tho' I'd love to put her aside and come back and work towards that end later.  Still a lot changed since last time- most notably a change in her seating arangements and pumping the values on either end.  I'm almost happy with her, but wish I could stand back a bit and get a truer idea of the piece; I'm pretty much process blind at this juncture.

been a long, lonely, lonely time...

   Last night marked the opening of the "Illuminations" portfolio show at the Courthouse Galleries in Portsmouth.  Courthouse Galleries Exhibits ( Have I ever mentioned how much I like the feel of downtown Portsmouth?  Forgive the sin of omisssion.)  Forty works, four each by ten artists had been selected from a field of 120 or so, juried by Christina Rupsch of the TCC Center for the Visual Arts.  

It was pointed out to me today that when referring to our work as our children most artist's aren't speaking about having to drive them hither, thither, and yon.  Art carpool, as it were- or "How to use your Artist's License..."

      cherries three