Amsterdam sketches

Our second port-of-call was Amsterdam where we celebrated our wedding anniversary with the King and the boisterous orange-clad Amsterdammers of this wonderful city. Between rainstorms, we were welcomed to the studio and into the home of Dutch illustrator Gertie Jaquet. It's so nice to close the loop and finally meet people one has only admired and known through social media. She shares a studio with several very talented illustrators. I had the pleasure of comparing books and sketchbooks with another fabulous illustrator Georgien Overwater.
We were in Amsterdam at a busy time: King's Day. But I suspect it is always a bit of a pageant of individuals careening and full of passion and energy yet ready to relax and celebrate the tulips.

bicycles everywhere!

So many bicycles of all sorts and configurations

Capt. Coq from "The Night Watch"

At the Rijksmuseum: Rembrandt and Isaac Israels

The mesmerizing pen and ink "paintings" of decisive naval battles by Willem van de Velde 

two different "The Baptism of Christ" images featuring male figures with heads obscured by towels or clothing. Fra Angelico did this too. Why?

"God Saving the Infant Jerusalem" from a stained glass window. Illustrations everywhere you look. The world is a comic book!

Then an early morning Thalys train to Brussels and my head starting to spin combining memories of Copenhagen & Amsterdam and anticipating imagery of cities and familiar faces to come.

Copenhagen sketches

In April and May, My wife and I took a to Europe to visit our daughters who are both studying abroad. Julia was finishing her junior semester abroad in Copenhagen. Ellen is in Belgium for a few more months. We also visited Amsterdam and Paris.

We spent a 4-5 days in beautiful Copenhagen. We also got up to Louisiana to visit the contemporary art museum and Kronborg Castle. We met wonderful people, wandered the fragrant lanes of Christiania, and tried to get the Palace guards to smile at our silly tourist antics. Next up: Amsterdam.

04-21-16
Old and new elements, seen from the trampolines :)

04-22-16
Danish house styles en route to Louisiana, north of Copenhagen

04-22-16
Kronborg Slot: the castle that inspired Shakespeare's "Hamlet"

04-23-16
two sketches of the city across from our waterfront hotel

04-24-16
The Danish Architectural Center across the canal

04-25-16
Another view of the DAC and a nearby cruise boat

04-25-16
a frisky cormorant enjoyed the cold, sunny weather

04-25-16
A view up the quay at The Standard, beyond, around the corner is the picturesque Nyhavn canal.

there are many beautiful spires in Copenhagen

The unique spire of Vor Frelsers Kirke

Odds and ends seen during a canal boat ride.

Charcoal & Ink

Hello. What's going on?

I seem to be focusing on drawing my experience of space delineated by veils of tones and screens of marks and textures. Trying to keep things interwoven and fresh. Really helpful isn't it?

And since I've been thinking about it, my influences in this effort of late have been a few artists I've gotten to know through the internet:

Benoît Guilllaume

Vera Kalchenko

Georges Seurat (lurking in the shadows)

…and so many others, alas unmentioned.

Millstones
04-19-16
charcoal, ink, wash

Looking over the top of the dam
04-12-16
charcoal, ink

Island & Bridge
04-15-17
charcoal, ink

Walnut Tree
04-11-16
charcoal, ink

Two Geese

A pair of Canada Geese are squatting down by the dam. Looking for a place to raise a family …perhaps.

It's Spring.

Two Geese
charcoal, rain
04-03-16

Two Geese
charcoal, ink
04-08-16

Two Geese
charcoal, ink
04-09-16

Two Geese
charcoal, ink
04-10-16

Line Art

One of the paradoxes of making pictures is that lines are frequently used to show things that consist of surfaces and differently shaded volumes of space. But lines only truly exist in Flatland. So a line has a special existence: it's an object that exists and does not exist. It exists to tell a story about a living soul's perception of one small sliver of Life.

At any moment, unpredictably, my line could become a written series of words in a sentence describing what I am seeing. If we could magnify this line we might see that it loops and swerves, fractal-like describing the coastline of existence utterly unique in its mellifluous meanderings and mutterings

To draw Life is to live --in a strange way. At least, that is how it feels. No more and certainly no less.

Balustrade
ink, chalk
03/12/16

Wires
charcoal
03/12/16

Balustrade
colored pencil
03/14/16

Reflections
ink, charcoal
03/23/16

The Stairs

02-22-16
charcoal, ink wash

detail

detail

detail

Bald Eagle

The past two mornings I've seen a bald eagle in the trees across the river. It's a big male and it looks just like a bald eagle is supposed to look: big dark brown body, a brilliant white head and white tail feathers. Through binoculars I saw its bright yellow talons and beak.

The first time I saw it spiral around looking for something to land on. It carried a long stick in its talons and finally alighted in a tall tree. It must take some trial and error to get a nesting platform built. If he's any good at it, perhaps a Mrs. Bald Eagle will feel inclined to set up house. That would be exciting!

The eagle is just a speck in this drawing
2-16-16

I've circled the eagle in this enlarged snapshot.

The fellow is just too far away to see details with the naked eye. After about 20 minutes of perching here, it rotated slightly forward, had a poop and swooped off upriver.
2/17/16

Crossing Paths

My heart always races a little, happily, when animals wander into my drawings.

Two geese, flying
crayon
02-03-16

One squirrel, ignoring me (atop a log)
ink
02-04-16

Two ducks, flying in the rain & snow
ink
02-05-16

Three crows
charcoal
02-08-16

Two ducks, swimming
charcoal
02-10-16

Cold Snowy Weather

Canada Geese
01-24-16
litho pencil

mallards
01-24-16
litho pencil

Cold snowy weather in Boston has brought out the birds. I spotted many geese and mallards in the quieter patches of the river yesterday morning.

Thinking about this artist too.

Progression

Drawing

I draw things I see and I draw things I imagine. It all makes sense to me.

01-10-16
charcoal, ink

01-07-16
ink

01-03-16
paint stick, colored pencil chalk

01-06-16
ink, watercolor, collage

Accounting

reflections & path
charcoal
12-30-15

In my odd moments I'm assembling a catalog of last year's Observations. I tried to winnow it to "the best." I tried to organize it by theme. The only strategy that made sense to me was to assemble them chronologically: January 1, 2015 to December 30, 2015 (I was traveling on the 31st). The drawings are in the order that I made them and in the order of the year's days, one following the other. 368 in the book so far. Yes, it's self-indulgent. Obviously.

Threads emerge and then get set aside. Animals come and go. While they are there, they seem like they will stay forever. There's always something unique happening --even when nothing seems to be changing or happening.

I attend to it all and I find it so pleasurable and interesting. If I get this catalog to market, you'll agree that it's quite repetitive and not very original. Then again, you may find that it's possible to go deeper and still find oneself no more enlightened. What a paradox --or just evidence of my imbecility! At least there is value in doing self-evidently pleasurable things.

Like a tree, I love the sun and the rain. Birds can live in my branches. Please! Come live in my branches and harvest my acorns! All nature is some sort of mirror. Look and be fed.