Time flies when you are having fun; and I recently rediscovered the joy of oil paints! I didn't want to lug oils and solvent into the museum for a class in drawing and painting. I had been using acrylics or watercolors (mistake) and drawing with fragile charcoal and chalk (mistake) when I rediscovered the fun of moving oils around and sketching with a simple Papermate 2B mechanical pencil.
Click photos to enlarge.
It was off to the African galleries to sketch a mask or object that we could transform or use in our own art work, much as Picasso and Matisse and Modigliani discovered. I am no P, M, or M; but I like to draw and I found several objects at the MFA and their on-line collection to sketch.
At home, I first decided I wanted to repaint the watercolor still life I painted the week before that felt limp without oils. I added a self- portrait to the still life as I noticed Gaugin had done in many of his. My hair matched the bristles on the brush. I like to have the personal in a painting.
From my sketches in the galleries, I chose a sculpted lady who stood atop a grave post in Madagascar. I made an absurd quilter self-portrait using her. Then I painted a classmate, a doctor from Kazakhstan using information of her passion for apples. The Kazakh apple DNA shows them to be the earliest of apples we enjoy. I learned there is an effort to save these trees. My friend introduced me foods she enjoys from the Russian grocery stores here in the Boston area. I looked up the Kazakhstan flag and added some of its elements. I didn't have time to do something with Magritte's apple in the face, titled The Son of Man.
I drew other masks or sculpture that I related to and may accomplish more before class meets tomorrow. But it was time for my monthly blog post! Tip for more fun: Prime the canvas with dark green, red, blue or orange acrylics, dry, and then let the oils slip and slide! Such fun.
 |
| (watercolor on the right) |
