Picasso

Have not been spending much time sketching, mostly simple contour line drawings then I saw Picasso's Girl Before a Mirror, 1932, and I had to paint it. The act of trying to paint this makes me look at shapes, line, color and appreciate even more what he has done. The model was Picasso's favorite mistress, at the time.

I used Allposters.com and penciled in the watermark by mistake on her breast. Most of Picasso's cubist paintings I am not as fond of, faces usually look painfully reconstructed. I liked the way he did her face, body shapes, the striped fabrics, her arm and the reflection.

Now, the challenge is to do a painting using what I learned from Picasso and Leger. I need more practice and the right image.

I wrote the previous ode to a sock a few years ago when I looked at a stack of unmatched socks, certain that if I threw them out, one of them would reappear.

Ode to a Sock

"The Return of the Other Sock"
It was a day like any other summer day. Warm, dry, lots of sun.

An hour before sunset, he suddenly appeared, from out of nowhere. The white silky sock fell out of a folded pair of shorts.

He had been missing for four months. Only worn once than vanished. She asked but he wasn't talking. They were a pair once again."

For all the unmatched socks that hung around my sock drawer until they got used as cleaning rags then tossed.

Art Miles

One of the canvases I prepared for Art Miles at the aquarium. I cut out fish shapes, taped them down, painted ocean swirls over them and the children painted them with lots of color and pattern. I had the sperm whale at the top doing a vaudeville routine, enters on the left, exits on the right at the same time. I look forward to seeing photos of the finished canvas.

My favorite place to view Long Beach is from the Queen Mary. It rained on and off this day so it was not the usual bright sunshine. The city skyline has changed into a metropolis with skyscraper hotels and condos eating up the ocean views we used to have along Ocean Blvd.

ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE

The Aquarium of the Pacific hosted the global Art Miles project. http://www.the-art-miles-mural-project.org/
I helped mentor the painting stations under the whale. The other painting stations were reserved for school and home schooled children, who came with sketches and ideas. I handled walk up children and adults. On the morning canvas I had outlined a herd of sperm whales across the top like a banner with the rest a blank canvas. Kids had fun painting fish and I was there to sketch something if they wanted. In the afternoon, I had pre-sketched images from the Yellow Submarine with a sketch of city pollution draining into the ocean killing animals. More adult participation with and without children. No one was bold enough to paint the Beatles so I will finish painting it and add blue to the ocean areas.

Art Miles will take the 12 miles of painted canvas and copy them to construct a pyramid in Egypt for March 2010 to celebrate the end of this 12 year project. A lot of stories, of people, countries, war, challenges. Something magical happens when children apply paint. The moment belongs to them. Even with the adults. Fun happens.

It was a pleasure being a part of the event. I hope you will click on the link to art miles. There is an upcoming MOCHA event Feb 28 in Oakland, CA.

Coincidence TED was holding its annual conference at the nearby convention center. Sylvia Earle won, amazingly talented oceanographer and passionate environmentalist. Her company manufactures mini submarines so the Yellow Submarine image is a tickle for her to collect. At the aquarium, she gave the speech she gave at TED. When asked what seafood we could ethically eat she named catfish and local Tilapia.


Coml.org is the site for the Census of Marine Life, an ambitious 10 year data collection project to end 2010 when the second decade begins. 71% of the surface is ocean which produces oxygen in addition to resources which are being depleted at a rate which is become non-renewable. Large fish like tuna, sea bass, are fished before they reproduce.

Graphic art is a prime communication tool to educate the world. I think the Beatles Yellow Submarine with its message of LOVE LOVE LOVE is as valid now as it was in 1968. With love, people will care. They did talk about love when they painted the Yellow Sub canvas.

Fernand Leger

I've always enjoyed Leger's cubist period during the 1920's and the very few watercolors I've seen. I've never been successful viewing any books on his work so I was thrilled to find 133 paintings online. I was so pleased I had to do a quick watercolor of the kitchen still life below. Went right into the above of three nudes. Both watercolors are on bristol board, 5x7 below, 7x9 above. Have not had time to create an image of my own with his technique.

Hokusai's Kirifuri Waterfall

Hokusai's graphic interpretation of water feels fresh and contemporary. I sketched the lower left corner.



Uniball vision pen and watercolor in moleskine. Below is the print from Hokusai, 1955 edition published by Charles Tuttle Company.

Mt Fuji View 24

The 24th view of a fiery Mt. Fuji.

"Despite his appeals to heaven for “yet another decade—nay, even another five years,” on the 18th day of the fourth month of the Japanese calendar “the old man mad with painting,” as he called himself, breathed his last. He was 89 but still insatiably seeking for an ultimate truth in art—as he had written 15 years earlier:

"From the age of five I have had a mania for sketching the forms of things. From about the age of 50 I produced a number of designs, yet of all I drew prior to the age of 70 there is truly nothing of any great note. At the age of 73 I finally apprehended something of the true quality of birds, animals, insects, fishes, and of thevital nature of grasses and trees. Therefore, at 80 I shall have made some progress, at 90 I shall have penetrated even further the deeper meaning of things, at 100 I shall have become truly marvelous, and at 110, each dot, each line shall surely possess a life of its own. I only beg that gentlemen of sufficiently long life take care to note the truth of my words." Hokusai

Richard Lane
Encyclopedia Britannica