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)