Sunday Sketchbook: Figure

I'm always ready to move off the figure, and into a composition that includes a wall, chair, floor, or foreground.

View to Mountain, Viens, Provence

 Viens is a charming walled village, complete with a crenellated castle, winding narrow alleys, hollyhocks everywhere, and many resident dogs and cats sleeping in the sun.

Sunday Sketchbook: Provence

It couldn't be a gloomier March afternoon here in Vermont, so I've propped this sketch from Provence up on my desk, to remind me that sunnier days are on the way.

Do you paint? I'm a member of the Daily Paintworks site, and we've started a weekly on-line "challenge", where you can join others in trying your hand at a different painting exercise every week--and then post it on the site for sale, if you'd like. This week my challenge is "The color of white". Take a look here, and join in!

Sunday Sketchbook: Figures

Some figure drawings are about anatomy, and some are about the figure as one shape among many--that's the kind that I like...

Sunday Sketchbook: Vermont

Stopped in a construction zone on my way home from town, I had plenty of time to sketch the view from my car.

Sunday Sketchbook: Figures

Every now and again I get myself to a figure drawing group, and afterward always resolve (like going to the gym!) to make a habit of it. Maybe this time I will...

Sunday Sketchbook: Vermont

A quick compositional study for an upcoming plein air painting, one panel in a new landscape "grid".

Sunday Sketchbook: Vermont

Drawing a study, even for a quick two hour plein air painting, helps me see how the landscape's shapes, values and colors lock into a compositional whole.

Sunday Sketchbook: Provence

On my way to the airport in Marseilles, taking one last look at the Provence countryside.

Sunday Sketchbook: Provence

From my terrace, a view of houses and trees that, as Cezanne observed, share a clear geometry of shapes.

Valley and Mt. Ventoux, Sault

After a week of jumping in with my brush and no pencil drawing, I switched gears with this one and began with a pen exploration of roads, fields, trees and houses, and then added color to this miniature world.

Streets in Bonnieux 4

The last of these memories of a Provencal town, before I start painting where I am now, in Galicia.

Here's the complete painting of "Streets in Bonnieux".

Streets in Bonnieux 3

My high-tech pilgrimage to Santiago continues in the Madrid Airport--meanwhile, here's another memory of Provence.

Streets in Bonnieux 2

While I'm traveling to Europe today, here's another view of this European (Provencal) town.

Streets in Bonnieux 1

While packing my art supplies, I've been thinking about the narrow, sun-patterned streets of European towns: compositions just waiting to happen.