Nevins and President Again

An 11x14 oil of the other corner of Nevins and President in Brooklyn.  I seem to be doing a lot of "Do Not Enter" images lately.

I started a Flickr account to organize and display my recent paintings and drawings.  The link is here and at the right at the top of Recommended Sites.

Another Drawing

Finally, another drawing, of Washington Avenue, just to get my bearings.  On the paper.

Two More

Followed by two more, also corners on Bond Street in Brooklyn.

A Drawing

Then I did a drawing of the same corner.

Bond and First

8x10 pastel.  At this size and with slightly textured paper, pastel doesn't have the crispness of oil, so one has to accept generalization and simplicity.   But it's hard to do.  Generalize and simplify, that is.  It feels like drawing with your thumb on a postage stamp.

Nevins and President

An 8x10 pastel of the corner of Nevins and President in Brooklyn.

Recently, I came across a video artist, Peter Campus, who has done some landscapes!  I find them beautiful.  They are videos, but not much happens in terms of time.   The composition, the colors, the deliberate grittiness, and the abstraction, are all appealing.

Nuther Night Drawing

Another night drawing from the past.  Same view as the first one, but this time I wasn't standing on a step ladder.

Homestead Tree

In the back yard the tree overwhelms. 8x10 pastel.

Union and Nevins

The corner of Union and Nevins in Brooklyn, 18x24 oil.   I like the goofiness of this one.  Urbanscapes are really like big still lifes with a lot of space.

Night Drawing

This drawing is from a series that I did in the 1980s.  I am reframing them, so it's an opportunity to photograph them.  There will be a few more.  My house back then had flood lamps at different corners. I would turn one or more on at night, and draw.  Sometimes I stood on a stepladder for a different perspective.

Homestead Pastel

An 8x10 pastel with a corner of the large barn.

Black Barn Pastel

I have two lines or ways, a city way and a country way, working simultaneously.  This is an 8x10 pastel of the "Black Barn," which isn't so black anymore.

Carroll Street

A 9x12 oil of the view looking up Carroll Street in the direction of Fifth Avenue, Brooklyn.  When I look at this site on Google Maps, the plywood fence is different, unpainted.  Google Maps makes me realize that the Brooklyn streets change often in appearance.

Zebra Truck

A truck I saw in Brooklyn.  11x14 charcoal and pastel drawing.

Bond and Union and What's Underneath

The car and the building, both stationary, appear to be going in opposite directions despite being located at Bond and Union in Brooklyn.  9x12 oil.

I am determined to read the entire A la recherche du temps perdu by Proust.  I did not finish the last time.  There's a passage in Swann's Way that has always impressed me, besides the 'madeleine' event.  While on the Guermantes Way, 'Marcel' says:  "...without definite attachment to anything, suddenly a roof, a gleam of sunlight reflected from a stone, the smell of the  road would make me stop still, to enjoy the special pleasure that each of them gave me, and also because they appeared to be concealing, beneath what my eyes could see, something which they invited me to approach and seize from them, but which, despite all my efforts, I never managed to discover.  As I felt that the mysterious object was to be found in them, I would stand there in front of them, motionless, gazing, breathing, endeavouring to penetrate with my mind beyond the thing seen or smelt.  And if I had then to hasten after my grandfather, to proceed on my way, I would still seek to recover my sense of them by closing my eyes;  I would concentrate upon recalling exactly the line of the roof, the colour of the stone, which, without my being able to understand why, had seemed to me to be teeming, ready to open, to yield up to me the secret treasure of which they were themselves no more than the outer coverings."

Rothko Cycle

An 8x10 pastel of a scene on Carroll Street in Brooklyn near the Gowanus Canal.  It's a cycle of one.

Black Barn with Fence

A 9x12 charcoal and pastel drawing of the black barn with fence.  I think now that I am going to move back to broken land.

Three Black Barns

Another 9x12 charcoal and pastel drawing.  A little abstract.  The mountain with the violin curve is really like that.  Glacier contoured.  The barns are old too, but on the human lifetime range of old.  The grass is a reoccurring new appearance.

Loft Ladder

I had this dream that if a bear came after me, I would climb this ladder, but then every rung would break.  I just had to be fast enough to get to the next rung before it broke.  Yikes!  Anyway, a 9x12 charcoal and pastel drawing of the north side of the Kline barn.

Other Side of the Black Barn

Just like the moon, a barn has another side. 9x12 charcoal with modest pastel.

Barn with Fence

This is the sprawling T barn with fences from the black barn.  9x12 drawing with charcoal and pastel.   I tried to do this with the empty spaces first.  I was going to write "negative spaces," but that didn't sound right.

What did the Zen Master say to the hot dog vendor?  "Make me one with everything."

Two Black Barns

I am trying to put together a portfolio of drawings of the black barn homestead.  I hope to go back there later this year when all the bushes and trees are fully leafed.  It will be a completely different place, though still the same place.  This view is interesting because one can see the interiors and exteriors of two barns that overlap.

Still Walking, Still Drawing

These are two pages from today's walkn'draw on the canal path.  I have been using a combination of a hard charcoal pencil and a soft charcoal stick.  The result is almost like ink and wash.  I carry a bag with fixative and finger washing towels, besides the pencils, charcoal, etc.  Right now it's rare that a day goes by without doing at least one drawing.  This combination of materials is working well at the moment.

Homestead Painting

This is the 11x14 oil version of the homestead where the black barns are located.  There's an ancient tree in the backyard.  It was a bright early spring day.  If I miss a day posting, it's not because I'm not doing anything.