itchy

I am enjoying scratching away black in the evenings…here are two more scratch boards that I have done the last couple of weeks.  The first is from a statue at the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, N.C.  Spent a beautiful day there week before last.  Wish I could live there…
This one is from another of my grandfather’s photographs…my uncle (as a boy) looking a little like Tom Sawyer…  See that unsettled look on his face?

 

And speaking of my grandfather…

While at the annual Arts and Crafts Conference at the Grove Park Inn in Asheville, we watched a documentary called “The Mystery of George Masa,” a Japanese photographer in the early 20th century who somehow ended up at the Grove Park.  He knew little English, had no known relations in America and no one really knew how he ended up in Asheville, but he made his home there and at times, thrived.  He became known as the Ansel Adams of the east, beautifully capturing the smokey mountains on film.  He even helped the government survey the mountains and document the peaks on his photos.

George Masa’s story touched my heart and I so wanted my grandfather by my side to ask him if he had heard of Masa as a young man…north Georgia isn’t that far from Asheville!  Perhaps you have heard of him?

Snow Days!!!

We are about at the end of the second snow day of the second snow storm Georgia has seen this year (although you couldn’t really call this snow, it is basically ice).  My toes are cold but the rest of me is fairly comfortable…we have been lucky and the power has stayed on.  Burying power lines helps keep power on when you have icy snow days.  I remember days long ago, of having icicles hanging off our house in Georgia that were 12″ long!  And my sister reminded me that we would get ice on the inside of the single pane windows!  Energy codes are keeping us warmer, I guess…

I occupied my time scratching black off white.

Yesterday’s …

She was copied from a Waterhouse sketch.

And today’s…

This was done from a photo of my grandparents, looking a bit like an urban American Gothic.

Wonder what tomorrow will bring (tonight will bring several inches of real snow, so they say!)…

The Twins

I recently scanned and posted on Facebook over 200 photographs that my grandfather, T.J. Eubanks made of his 8 children.  He would photograph them and develop the photos in his darkroom.  I know that every generation venerates the generations before them, I certainly have.  Seems dying takes away all bad and leaves only good.  (I pray my descendants feel the same about me!)  These photos are very small only 1 to 2 inches by 2 to 3 inches, he created larger copies of those he felt were the best and those are well known among the family,  but after spending time with these small images, I am convinced they are the most honest  portraits of his children.  Some may not be focused, or one of the kids may have moved, or the composition was not his best (and T.J. was good at composition!) but they tell the story of childhood and I am so happy to have them!  And…now they are inspiring me.  Those last couple of posts on this blog were based on these photographs as is the one below… my twin aunts, T.J.’s baby girls.

This is done in pencil, image size about 4×6 inches.  I scanned it at 600 dpi and reduced the scale for posting, this boring information given in an effort to ask for help.  How do you get pencil to scan at a good quality?  Anyone know?

My grandfather would say “take a photograph with film instead of using digital!”

Snow Day 3

 

Another small watercolour, this one more pencil than watercolour.

Watercolours!

Another year has come and gone and the desire for blogging has obviously waned.  It doesn’t mean my desire to create has waned at all, it would still be waxing, probably because I don’t have as much time now the economy has improved and my time is taken up with architecture.  Here are a couple of small watercolours based on the photographic work of  my grandfather, T. J. Eubanks.  These are his boys, my uncles.  Adorable then and now.

The second one proved more difficult.  Little hands!  (I shouldn’t be calling attention to them!)

Image sizes of both are 7″x10″

 

Little Things can be inspirational!

I don’t have anything in the Swan Coach House Gallery for this year’s exhibit “Little Things Mean a Lot” but I went to see the show today and it is amazing anyway!  I am so inspired to create.  I drew a “little” portrait this afternoon.

Her face is about 2 inches tall.  This would fall into the category I call “thru the fire,” a series of art based on old cabinet cards that survived (albeit a little damaged) a tragic fire that killed family members back in the early 50’s.  Some of my earlier posts show other images.

katie, take 2

Can I possibly be posting twice within the week?  When I first started this blog, I felt it necessary to post at least every other day.  But situations change, don’t they?   Seems lots of people blog consistently for some time and then let their blogs take a back seat to other things.  Okay if the blog takes back seat but rather sad if the subject of their blog takes back seat.  As mine has.  Sigh.  I hate to go back and read some of the posts where I am determined to press on.  Just let me say, I’ve tried.

BUT, this week I have worked on trying to capture Katie again, this time on paper with pencil.   I do believe I was able to get more of a likeness  but still haven’t nailed it.  If at first you don’t succeed, blah, blah, blah.

Katie 1

Took pictures of Katie (who has the most wonderful red hair) and painted the first of (I hope) many portraits of her.  Actually, I did one of her and her mother when she was a tiny baby, so this is the second, or maybe the third.  I tried to be loose, but it is hard to be loose.  Looked at Charles Reid’s Painting  Portraits in Watercolor for inspiration but I am just not able to let go!  I think the more you paint, the more able you are to let the pigment flow!  Wish I were able to paint more, but now is the time for architecture.

in the studio

 

I went to see the High Museum Exhibit in Atlanta that included Vermeer’s “The Girl with a Pearl Earring” last weekend and for the first time in forever, I wanted to paint in oils.  I took a phone photo of my son studying outside on our return home and am using it to paint.  I have never done a successful portrait of Taylor (I did do a watercolor of him sleeping at about age 4 but since the local art show rejected it I am not sure I can call it a success, although  I liked it enough to hang on my wall for several years) and I am hoping I will consider this one successful.  Truthfully, I am hoping I just finish it.

 

First a charcoal sketch.

Dust off excess charcoal.Begin with a grisaille underpainting using cadmium blue, raw sienna and flake white.  Cover the canvas fast!

Refine.  Refine.  And refine some more.

Amazed I remember!

Awww, the fresh smell of turpentine!  Wish me luck in remembering how to use color!

 

weeknight sketching

Came home after work the last couple of days and sketched.  I find it relaxing and should probably sketch every night ( not to mention improving my skills!).

Ken came first (I have sketched his profile a lot.  An easy activity to do while on long car trips while he drives.)

Then came architecture… here is a site that I really like.  Lots of English buildings for me to draw while I am sitting on my bum in the states.    Thank you Photos 4 Artists!!!

Sat on the patio for a bit…

Another site I like, you can sketch models from the computer screen and set the time limit just like is done in a classroom for gestures.  I set the time for 10 minutes!