Eucalyptus Sketches

These sketches are from a dried eucalyptus branch that was part of our wedding flower arrangements. They looked a lot better a couple of months ago, but somehow the afterlife of this branch remained in this wonderful windswept form.

I had to draw it. It wasn't easy. I drew it to actual size by first laying it down on the page and plotting some points. The leaves all wove into each other so it was hard to capture any depth in my sketches. I didn't mind the flowing flat lines merely suggesting leaves in the early sketches, but as I continued in my sketches what became more suggestive was the wind to me, and less so the leaves.

Sketching in Fairmount Park

Drawing and painting in the landscape. We did that ten years ago in Vézelay, France during a week-long drawing camp organized by Chris Zelinsky, then a professor of drawing in the Graphic Design Department The University of the Arts in Philadelphia. There were over twenty of us alum. This past weekend we had a mini reunion organized by Andrew Iskowitz. A handful of us showed up, myself included, and this time in more humble settings — Fairmount Park in Philadelphia.

I had a particular vision in my mind in anticipation of this weekend so when I saw the park landscape before me with its majestic trees and cultivated bushes and an expansive view, I knew I had found it. Sitting on the grass under a big tree, shading me from the burning heat of the summer, I began to take in the view before me. And I began to sketch.

The first sketches were about taking in the essence of the landscape — light/shadow, differentiation among the trees, the composition. Later, quick reference sketches freed me to finding a way of capturing and translating the landscape. These look most like scribbles, but they are dynamic and probably my favorite. So much of my work is about expressing the line, discovering a language of the line. In these the landscape, depth, and detail give way and an impression remains.

Go here if you'd like to see more sketches.

Amber Fort Sketches

In January I went to India for the second time, this time with my dear friend Chris. It was such a different trip being with her — and artist with architect's eye for space and light and detail, she turned me on to seeing the Amber Fort in Jaipur as if for the first time. What I saw was the light hitting the mirror-inlaid walls, the soft cool random arrangement of the marble-tiled floors textured with years and worn of walking feet. I was mesmerized, almost intoxicated by what I was seeing and at every turn and corner there was more. I couldn't stop photographing. I kept imagining my studio, at my desk investigating these images.

Back home in my studio, this is what became of it, or at least the start of it. It's the line structure that draws me in — the lines, and what I could do in expressing the lines. It's a new direction of mark making for me, and I'm excited to see where it will go. See more images of this series here.