Two Girls and an Umbrella
graphite
25.4 x 20.3 cm (10" x 8")

This is another New York drawing. It was done a couple of months ago, behind the public library, in Bryant Park.

T. Thinking
ink and watercolour
14.0 x 8.9 cm (5.5" x 3.5")

"This is it. I've run out of poses."

If you need to hear more, or less, about Hirst, Koons, and Murakami, then read Postcards from Nowhere by The New Republic's art critic, Jed Perl. (via C-Monster)

Street Reflections
ink, charcoal, and pastel
14.0 x 8.9 cm (5.5" x 3.5")

It started raining while I was walking home the other night. I did this drawing while waiting for the rain to abate.

I thought that the drawing looked better before the colour was added. Too late now to change it.

Christie's, the well-known auction house, is into the gallery business in London, and starting Sept. 12th, in New York. New York Magazine has details.

Manhattan House
ink and watercolour
19.1 x 15.2 cm (7.5" x 6.0")

This drawing was done a couple of months ago. It was begun, but not really finished.
I can't remember exactly where this house was in Manhattan, except that it was downtown and eastside.

Red Hair
pastel
30.5 x 45.7 cm (12" x 18")

It could be that the model in this drawing has red hair because an orange-red (burnt sienna) was one of the few colours I had to work with while doing this drawing. Or it could be, as it was in this case, that the model really did have red hair.

The photography of Alexey Titarenko is worth more than a look.

Stephen Wiltshire draws Rome

You have all probably seen this video before. It's English savant, Stephen Wiltshire, drawing an aerial panorama of Rome from memory. It's worth another look.

Reader
graphite and pencil
30.5 x 22.9 cm (12" x 9")

But what is she reading? I never asked.

Do you really want to be an artist in New York? Read this from npr. (via C-Monster)

Squash, Onion, and Orange
gouache
35.6 x 45.7 cm (14" x 18")

No more vegetables for awhile.

Promise.

S. Sleeping
pastel on paper
40.6 x 64.8 cm (16" x 25.5")

When not sleeping or modelling, S. trains and races horses, including her own.

Crossed Legs
ink and charcoal
25.4 x 31.8 cm (10" x 12.5")

Another two minute drawing of the same model as in last Friday's post. The model is sitting on a plywood cube. She was surround by artists, all drawing. Somehow, I neglected to include the artists in the drawing.

Tea
gouache
30.5 x 48.3 cm (12" x 19")

This looks rather spartan.

I left out the dozen doughtnuts just off to the side.

Degas? Not exactly. This is copy-art, an actual oil painting (the original is a pastel), available in nine different sizes at prices ranging from $30 US to $210 US. This painting is one of hundreds advertised by book530.com, one of the art factories of Shenzhen, China. The paintings are advertised as reproductions, but not photo reproductions, i.e. posters. (via things magazine)

En Tus Brazos

Who can resist tango music? Not I. This 2005 video from France was directed by François-Xavier Goby, Edouard Jouret, and Matthieu Landour. (Via C-Monster)

Standing Girl
ink and charcoal
45.7 x 27.3 cm (18" x 10.75")

I wish that all of my two minute drawings were this successful.

Leeks
gouache on paper
36.2 x 48.3 cm (14.25" x 19")

This painting was done quite quickly, using inexpensive and rather liquid gouache.

It's more the contrast of tone and colour, rather than the vibrancy of the colours per se, that makes the painting.

Point Douglas
oil on paper
16.5 x 19.8 cm (6.5" x 7.75")


It's nice to know that Japonisme is alive and well.

It's probably not so nice to know that I'm one its' practitioners.

Photographer Michael Wood has some interesting shots of Chinese copy-artists with their work (via things magazine).

Grey Man
ink, charcoal, and pastel
22.9 x 30.5 cm (9" x 12")

I was doing some experimenting with this drawing. It got very grey, very fast. It could be reworked and improved, but I'd just as soon put my energy into a new drawing.

For lovers of crime and writing, Irish novelist, John Banville, comments on Georges Simenon in the LA Weekly.

Smiling Fish
gouache on paper
27.9 x 35.6 cm (14" x 11")

by Mark Kosatsky (2005)

Why is this fish smiling? Could it be that he just ate one of his buddies?

This is another work by Mark Kosatsky from our own collection. Mark is a wonderfully mad and talented Winnipeg artist.

Since private museums are currently in vogue, I wonder if we could get away with calling our collection of a dozen or so pieces a museum. I kind of like the idea of being able to charge our friends an admission fee whenever they drop by.

Eggplant
gouache on paper
35.6 x 48.3 cm (14" x 19")


There's something reassuring about vegetables, even eggplants.

Odds and Ends:
•Racial profiling in Winnipeg? No way! CBC News Art & Design.
•Ball fans kissing has Seattle in a flap. Fox Sports.
•Via C-Monster, a great news photo site from the Boston Globe, The Big Picture.

What's been selling at Art Basel 2008? Check The New York Times Art & Design.

Vegetables
gouache on paper
31.1 x 33.0 cm (12.25" x 13")

My daily ration.

Anselm Keifer has won Germany's top literary prize. The CBC News Art & Design has details.

Below is a YouTube video of Keifer talking about several of his works. The video is entitled, Aperiatur Terra Gallery Tour.

Daikon, Carrots, and Potatoes
gouache on paper
35.6 x 50.8 cm (14" x 20")

Is that a daikon, parsnip, or a turnip in the painting?

I'm not sure. This was painted a couple of years ago, and I can't remember which vegetable it was.

Who was the nineteenth century French artist, who ate so many potatoes when he was a student, that he dedicated the rest of his life to making enough money not to ever have to eat potatoes again?

C-Monster has a quiz to help you understand the language of contemporary art. See what you can do with it.

Seated Man
charcoal and pastel on paper
30.5 x 22.9 cm (12" x 9")

This drawing is a little sloppy. There's still something about it that I like; probably, that it's a straightforward drawing, with little artifice.

Bob Dylan, artist? Marisha Pessl has a review of a new book of Dylan's drawings and paintings, The Drawn Blank Series, for The New York Times Sunday Book Review.

And, of course, someone's made a YouTube video slideshow of images from the book.

Happy Fish
gouache on paper
27.9 x 35.6 cm (11" x 14")

by Mark Kosatsky (2005)

This painting is from our own modest collection. Mark Kosatsky is a Winnipeg artist, who does some great work. I never tire of looking at his paintings and drawings. They make you feel alive.

In answer to Saturday's question:

According to the Guardian, Sue Tilley, Lucian's Freud's model for the $33.6 million Benefits Supervisor Sleeping, received £20 a day, a couple of days a week, over nine months to model for the painting.