No Direction

Fleeing to Nowhere

A pen and ink I was working on. I let it go topsy turvy. I really couldn't orient it in any direction. 

And maybe there's more to it. I'm not sure yet.

Bending over backwards in Google land

After having become googlified, I totally lost control of this blog!!!! What a mess. I was really bending over backwards, as well as turning myself inside out to figure out how to fix a stupiiiiid mistake I made: canceling the email this blog was connected. Somehow, magically it fixed itself today after I went once again thru countless permutations of my email address.
Hey, I didn't make this sculpture, but it certainly expressed how I feel. Except...now I'm happy to have it back.

Urban

This week's Illustration Friday topic is "Urban". I'm amazed at the beautiful work some people turn in. They must have had a piece on hand on that specific topic.
My work here is based on a drawing I did many years ago...but of course, I can't find it. Pen and ink and a little gouache.

This week's Illustration Friday topic is EGG.
I did this in straight watercolor and pen.
Something sad is going on. But what?

Swimmer

This week's Illustration Friday topic is Swim. This piece is in acrylic gouache. I tried putting down an orange base coat and painting over it. It's not my usual style so it was  a bit of a challenge to get the right balance of delineated forms and the sort of flat effect that I wanted.

Illustration Friday.

Lately, I've been doing fun stuff. This is an illustration for a site called Illustration Friday.
Every week they have a different subject and this one is for "Eyeglasses"
I"m enjoying doing little sketches and not agonizing about the results. Also, it's fun to change the colors in Photoshop!

I've been having fun with the Art House Co-Op projects. This one was an infinite scroll on the subject of monsters. To see the whole scroll go to The Art-House Project's Tumblir page
What made this fun was changing my entire color scheme in Photoshop.

Bat drawing

My class on Bestiary drawing at the Observatory gallery in the Gowanus section of Brooklyn finished a few weeks ago. It was a great class, taught by Saul Chernick.
This is my completed drawing of a bat. One complication I had was that I worked on the drawing with the bat right side up but I really wanted to display her upside down. However, I just could not get the composition to work that way. So I changed her 'thumbs' to allow her to be hanging right side up. A little odd, since it means she is holding on by both hands and feet. But new mother's are often overly cautious.

Bestiary Class

I'm taking a class at  the art space called The Observatory Room in the Gowanus area of Brooklyn.  There you will find  the Morbid Anatomy Library which is a fun place to look at a lot of strange and interesting things. The class is called drawing from the bestiary and it's run by the artist Saul Chernick who does a lot of great paintings  in a fascinating style.  I chose to do a bat and the first assignment was to create the bat's skeleton using bristol board and these teeny tiny paper brads, so that the joints can actually move. Here it is. Now I'll be on to step 2, making an actual drawing of the bat.  Toying with some   ideas. 

 I accidently stumbled across the Sketchbook Project in Williamburg. Went in, got a 'library card', looked at some sketchbooks and decided to become part of 2013's Sketchbook project, which will travel around for a year and then settle down in the same sketchbook project library.
At first it seemed so simple! But then, for some reason, existential angst took over. People looking at my unadulterated sketchbooks seemed like strangers going thru my underwear.
I started off with a bang: A big serpanty critter in the style I often paint in. but then I realized I really didn't want to keep up all that sturm und drang  for a whole sketch-book.  It's all part of that inner/outer stuff. That public/private thingy that I found so boring to listen to but here I am, trying to sort it out. Because let's face it, a sketchbook IS underwear.

Sometimes You Have to Ride...part 1

A new painting I'm working on, maybe called: Sometimes you have to ride.

It's from a dream I had.

I've been wanting to work smaller, but the painting ended up being 4 feet long.

Ayako's Flamenco Painting

Ayako is a young woman in JoDe's Flamenco class at the Y. She recently had to return to Japan and I made her this little painting to remember us by....

9/11 Mural at BWAC Fall Show

As part of the montage for BWAC's 9/11 tribute, I have submitted 4 works on paper.

The first two are part of the series, "Fallen" and the last two are part of the series "Ashes".

This is my first time submitting digital works. The originals were pen and ink, watercolor and acrylic ink. I later created variations of the colors using Photoshop. They are all 8 1/2 X 11 inches or slightly smaller. They will be in the BWAC Fall show, Tales of Breukelen

Divine Intervention

This was the other entry in the BWAC Black and White show. "Divine Intervention is a Bitch" is the caption at the top. Meaning....leave well enough alone.
Oh, by the way, neither piece got into the show. Boo Hoo.

Mystery Play

This is a not very good photo of a new painting, Mystery Play. As in medieval mystery plays.
I'm submitting it to the BWAC Black and White show which will run this summer at the Pier in Red Hook.

Moment of Truth

The final version of Moment of Truth. It's at the BWAC Spring 2011 Pier Show. And it's part of a fun 'group' display which includes works by my sister Andrea Fagin and my brother in law, Warren Alexander.
The Bull and the figures were inspired by my trip to Soria last year.

sketch for Bullfightingpainting

For the next BWAC show: the Spring Pier show, I'm doing a bullfighting painting to go with my sister and brother in law's themes: all bullfighting. Here's the outline. A lot of the drawing was inspired by my trip to Soria last Sept.

Wide Open Show at BWAC

I was selected to be in the juried show at BWAC which opens on March 12, 2011 and runs every weekend till March 27th.
It's a big honor and I'm submitting two other pieces to the show.
http://www.bwac.org/future_exhibition.html

Bull Inspired by Sorian Trip

After a hiatus, this is my new painting: Sorian Bull. Maybe I'll get a better name for it. But it was inspired by my trip to Soria with a great tour called Spanish Footsteps: http://www.spanishfootsteps.com/

I saw imagery like this at the Numancia Museum in Soria. It's from a Celt-Iberian Design. I added design elements and color. The funny thing was that I spent hours at this museum, sketching the designs. I ran out of steam near the end, where these bull images were. I thought to myself: I'll find them in a book or I'll Google them. But really: there was very little to see online and no books that I could find with the images. Guess I'll just have to go back to Soria.

Portrait of Uncle Miley

Finished this small portrait yesterday. It's oil, 9"X12".