Intimations of Pen and Ink

The thirty-third pen and ink drawing: a view on Underhill Avenue from the corner of St. Johns Place looking towards Sterling Place.  Ever since I can remember sidewalk shadows have always seemed to be supernatural, to intimate something beyond that I can't quite place, especially early in the day.

Warmer Days

It's quite cold this morning, and so I'm posting this 24x24 oil painting of a Sloan Road view of the Hopper and Mount Greylock in the spring, which I finished a couple days ago, to remember that warmer days are coming again.    I'll post drawing number 33 tomorrow.

Drawing Changes

The 32nd pen and ink drawing depicts a painted fence around an empty lot on Franklin Avenue near Eastern Parkway.  Fences like this don't last long in Brooklyn (this one's gone).  The lots get filled, the fences come down or are replaced with other temporary fences.  While we notice the seasonal changes more in the country, the city changes constantly as well on a different cycle.

Crossing

Pen and ink drawing number 31 is a view of Washington Avenue at St. Mark's in Brooklyn.  When we cross these long avenues, we seldom linger.  The lights don't last long, and the cars move fast.

Drawing Number 30 and Emptiness

An 8x10 pen and ink drawing, with some pastel, charcoal, and brush and water, of a view of Washington Avenue approaching the corner of Bergen Street in Brooklyn.  This one is number 30.  What attracted my attention is the large blank wall on the corner building that was re-surfaced after an abutting building was removed leaving an empty space.  So a blank wall reminds us of emptiness.

Drawn Away

This painting, completed a couple days ago,  is a 24x24 oil on canvas showing the Hopper and Mount Greylock from Sloan Road in Williamstown, MA.  Sloan Road goes up (and down) a steep hill.   The motif of the 'V's of telephone pole, tree, road shape, and masked Hopper shape have always intrigued me about this site.  I'll post the next Brooklyn drawing tomorrow.

Drawn Bridge

Number 29 is a pen and ink drawing of a side of the Union Street bridge over the Gowanus Canal.

Drawn

Pen and ink drawing number 28 depicts the corner of Douglass and Bond in Brooklyn.

...And A Drawing

Pen and ink drawing number 27 shows the Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn.  There are a lot of lights and metal poles at this location.

A Painting...

A 12x12 oil on canvas of a barn on Sloan Road.  A very simple painting hiding a lot of complexity.  I had walked down the road to get a better view of looking back up the road, and suddenly realized that the way the light was hitting the barn and snow, and the color contrasts, made this an interesting scene to paint.

Drawing Stuff

Pen and ink drawing number twenty-six.  Sometimes when I hike through the woods, I am amazed at how much stuff there is around, all the leaves, the branches, the tree limbs and trunks, the rocks, the soil, the mud, the water, and then when I look around a place like Brooklyn, there also is so much stuff.  Only when you think of drawing it, or do draw it, does it hit you.

(Corner of Sterling Place and Washington Avenue in Brooklyn)

Other Things

This 12x12 oil on panel is another one of those other things I've been doing.  The blue is less strong in the original, and even in the image that I uploaded.  But it still captures what grabbed my attention when walking the other day, the yellow house at the top of the hill behind the trees.  I will post another drawing tomorrow.

Turning Another Corner

Number twenty-five, an 8x10 pen and ink drawing on Bristol paper, with pastel, charcoal, and brush and water, depicts another corner at Classon and Bergen.   It's amazing to me that most of the street corners in Brooklyn have four different corners!

Twenty-Fourth

This pen and ink drawing, number 24, is a slight variation, being 9x12 in size.  I have been posting these drawings in the order that I make them.   The first thing I noticed in this scene was the similarity in shape between the fire hydrant and the leafless tree trunk.   The bicycle apparently belongs to somebody in the vicinity, since it's usually there but in different variations indicating that it gets used.

(The location is Washington Avenue near the corner of Sterling Place in Brooklyn)

Corner Drawing

Now for something serious: Drawing number 23 of the Brooklyn pen and ink series.

(The location is the corner of Classon and Bergen)

Winter City Drawing

Number Twenty-Two is an 8x10 pen and ink drawing, with pastel, charcoal, brush and water, of a Brooklyn street during the late afternoon with the sun going down, in winter.  The buildings are in shadow, but the tree trunks and limbs stand out against the bright sky.  A few piles of snow edge the sidewalk.

(The location is Classon near Sterling Place)

Guardian

This is one of those other things I have been working on, a 9x12 oil on panel of a guard rail along Stratton Road, not a heroic theme despite the sentinel, but a view of a humble item seldom seen despite its ever presence.  The Brooklyn series will resume tomorrow.

Just Twenty One

At first I thought I might skip over this one as too-cooked.  But it holds a lesson too.  What originally got my attention in this view are the two overlapping signs seen from the back, and the negative space of the sky.  It was a damp and gloomy afternoon.  Hard not to make a damp and gloomy drawing.  I have started to do other things, but I think I will continue with this series for a while.

(The location is Sterling Place between Underhill and Vanderbilt in Brooklyn)

Gowanus Drawing

The twentieth pen and ink drawing is a view of the Gowanus Canal from the Union Street Bridge.  When I am in Brooklyn, walking around, I always seem to find myself eventually near the Gowanus Canal.  It doesn't have a good reputation, but nevertheless, it still has the beauty of a large body of water.

Number Nineteen

Number Nineteen, pen and ink, some charcoal and pastel, and water to run some of the ink.

(Nevins near Douglass in Brooklyn)

Lucky Draw

This morning's pen and ink drawing is number eighteen.  Marks and forms on a flat surface have "equivalencies" that may contradict "reality."  The street sign is equivalent to the shadow on the side of a building.  The sky in the background is equivalent to the side of a building in the middle ground, both of which are located at opposite edges of the paper in a tense balance.  A sidewalk shape may be equivalent to a building side shape.  I don't plan that stuff.  I sense it and may highlight it, but I usually only notice it after the fact.

(The location is Douglass and Nevins in Brooklyn)

Sunlit Seventeen

In drawing seventeen the sunlit stop sign against the shadowed building catches your attention first.  Streets are filled with ordinary things that constantly change in appearance due to the light.  This is another 8x10 pen and ink, with some pastel and charcoal.

(The location is Baltic Street and Nevins in Brooklyn)

Sweet Sixteen

The sixteenth pen and ink drawing is of a house that I have drawn and painted before.  It looks like it belongs in a cartoon.  I also wanted to see if I could put a large dark rectangle in the center of the drawing, and make it work as a picture.

(The location is Carroll Street at the corner of Nevins, near the Carroll Street Bridge that goes over the Gowanus Canal)

The Fifteenth Time

I hope you were wondering why I was late in getting drawing number 15 posted, but I was busy earlier (see below).  Anyway, here it is.  I tried for a little more simplicity in this one.  Sometimes I get carried away, and put too much stuff in, but this one is just right.

(The location is Bergen and Third Avenue in Brooklyn)

Exhibition Installation

This morning I got up at 5:30 AM and went to Tunnel City Coffee to hang my show of paintings.  It took approximately an hour and a half to hang forty two works.  Outside the temperature went from minus 4 to minus 2 in that time period.  So things are heating up.  Attached are some quick snapshots of the exhibition.  I apologize for their quality.  The exhibition will be up until April 8.

Fourteen

Number Fourteen in the Brooklyn series of pen and ink drawings.  This one does only have a touch of pastel, with some of the ink slightly washed with water.

(The location is St. Marks Place and Third Avenue)

Building Drawing

Pen and ink drawing number 13 has a few more touches of pastel than usual.  I was struck by the unadorned and prominent side view of the apartment building in relation to the storefronts.

(Location is Washington Avenue near Park Place in Brooklyn)

Drawing Lines

The series continues with number 12: an 8x10 pen and ink drawing of an area in Brooklyn with car repair shops.  The middle car had a flat, which is why it pitches down a bit.

(The scene is located at Bergen and Grand)

Drawn Together

The series continues:  this is number eleven, another street corner in Brooklyn, pen and ink with some pastel, charcoal and water.  The building is a like a canvas, no longer blank.

(another corner at Nevins and Butler)

Red Semi

The red truck is the tenth pen and ink drawing in the series.

(From one of the corners at the intersection of Nevins and Butler in Brooklyn)

Not Drawn Out

OK then, let's try this one: the ninth in the series of Brooklyn pen and ink drawings, another 8x10 with some pastel and charcoal.

(The drawing depicts the corner of Fourth Avenue and Dean Street.)

Sign Drawing

The eighth drawing in the series: an 8x10 of Brooklyn done with pen and ink, touches of pastel and charcoal, and water. Until one draws or paints such a location,  can one realize how many traffic signs, not to mention other signs, are present.   And Happy New Year 2015!

(The location is Flatbush Avenue at Park Place.)