I'll be travelling for the next two and a half weeks. I expect to be back with some new work sometime around May 12th or 13th.

River Path

acrylic
30.5 x 40.6 cm (12" x 16")

I'm not sure about this painting. I struggled to give what is a fairly simple image some interest. I'm not sure that I succeeded, and worse yet, it now seems over-painted to me. At some point though, it's time to cut your losses, and live with what you have. That's what I'm now doing.

• Are wind and solar power green bridges to nowhere? (City Journal)

Woman's Back
acrylic
31.8 x 29.8 cm (12.5" x 11.75")

This is a student work, done ages ago. I have no memory of doing this painting.
Maybe it's not mine.

• Art as evolution. (The Times)
• Photoshop disasters. (PsD) (via things magazine)

Sitting on a Green Chair
graphite and watercolour
20.3 x 20.3 cm (8" x 8")

The model's arms seem a little short to me in this drawing, and I'm not sure if it's the fault of my original pencil drawing, or if it's because of the way the drawing was coloured.
It doesn't matter a lot. I like the drawing.

• The former East German Republic in photos circa 1990. (Spiegel)
• The American Supreme Court decides against Shakespeare as the author of his own plays. (The Wall Street Journal)

River in Spring
acrylic
22.9 x 30.5 cm (9" x 12")


This was the Red River about a month ago. The river is now clear of ice, but there has been considerable flooding to the south and north of Winnipeg.

• Two Australian takes on the war between artists and dealers: one from the Art News Blog, and another from artist Hazel Dooney (Self vs. Self).
• Literary Darwinism and Jane Austen. (Live Science)
• English pop stars on the visual artists who have inspired them. (The Guardian)

Woman with Crossed Arms
graphite, ink, and watercolour
40.6 x 33.0 cm (16" x 13")

This drawing is quite old. The simplicity of the drawing seems to work in its favour.

• Little gallery on the prairies - All Citizens of Bruno, Saskatchewan. (Neurartic)
• Alain Locke, the Harlem Renaissance, and The New Negro. (The New Republic)
• Bernie Fuchs, an appreciation. (Illustration Art)

Girl with a Book
ink and charcoal
24.1 x 18.8 cm (9.5" x 7.4")

This was a five or ten minute drawing. There wasn't really time to put in the book.

• Art models explain modelling. (The Guardian)
• Art squatters in London. (The Guardian)
• Andrew Sullivan: one of America's more influential bloggers. (The Economist)
• Jane Austen's fame. (Literary Review)

Blue Jacket
ink and watercolour
22.9 x 30.5 cm (9" x 12")

The model was actually holding a branch in her hands as she posed. Part of the branch is faintly indicated. Because I was really pressed for time with this drawing, I never got around to painting the branch. It's probably just as well.

• Apollinaire, Picasso, and the 1911 theft of the Mona Lisa. (The Times)
• Yoshihiro Matsumi and magna comics. (The New York Times)

Pot and Jar
gouache
17.8 x 25.4 cm (7" x 10")

Just throwing paint on paper for this one.
It's part of my therapy.

• Ed Winkleman's How To Do Your Homework, Part II offers more good advice for artists seeking gallery representation.
• Do you have class? (The Atlantic)
• More on Denver's Horse from Hell. (CBC News)

Spray Bottle
acrylic
35.6 x 25.4 cm (14" x 10")

I seem to have taken to painting pictures of spray bottles.
I'm undergoing counselling to correct this problem.

• Is nothing sacred? The Elements of Style, William Strunk and E.B.White, are all trashed in The Chronicle Review.
• Why do you have ten stubby toes? (Seed)

Suninga: Richard Bona

Green
graphite and watercolour
22.9 x 30.5 cm (9" x 12")

I was using an old set of pan watercolours to do this painting. Most of the pans were almost empty except for one large pan of green (possibly emerald green).

As you can see I tried to get rid of some of the green with this painting. This is not necessarily a recommended way to paint.

• Glenn Gould's faith in recording technology, as opposed to live performance, has been justified. (The Los Angeles Times)
• "One of the most repugnant books that I have ever read." (The New Republic)

Black and Green Hair
charcoal and pastel
30.5 x 45.7 cm (12" x 18")

I'm not sure how long the pose for this drawing was, but, not surprisingly, the model had a stiff neck at the end of it.

• Lucie de la Tour du Pin's memoirs of Revolutionary and Napoleonic France. (The Times)
•The perils of the art-banking business. (The Wall Street Journal)
• The Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography is in limbo. (CBC News)

Girl on Her Belly
ink and charcoal
15.2 x 22.9 cm (6" x 9")

This simple drawing was done Monday evening. It took five minutes.

The model was a girl after my own heart. She was planning on taking her modelling pay and treating herself at a local pub after the drawing session. A perfect plan.

• Is it becoming fashionable for photographers to go broke. First Annie Leibovitz, and now Nan Goldin. (The Telegraph)
• The postmodern financial crisis. (City Journal)
• A model historian, John Hope Franklin. (The Chronicle Review)

Staring Upward
charcoal and pastel
30.5 x 45.7 cm (12" x 18")

'Staring Upward' says it all, except perhaps that the drawing took about half an hour to complete.

• More excellent suggestions from Ed Winkleman for artists in search of a gallery to represent them. How to do your homework, Part I (edward_winkleman)
• The Song of the Cid. (The Wall Street Journal)
• Would you trust an economist? (The Weekly Standard)

Camouflaged Nude
graphite, ink, and watercolour
27.9 x 20.3 cm (11" x 8")

This is a drawing of the same model in the same pose as in Friday's post.
The colours and patterns remind me of army camouflage, which explains the title.

• George Frideric Handel, or Georg Friedrich Händel, if you prefer, was a binge eater and a binge drinker. No way! (The Times)
• The Art Gallery of Ontario is cutting 70 jobs, which is not good news for anyone. (CBC News)
• 7 'bigger is better' projects from the former Soviet Union. (Neatorama) (via things magazine)

You Too Could Be An Artist (via C-Monster)

Sleeping Model with Heater
graphite, ink, and watercolour
20.3 x 27.9 cm (8" x 11")

This drawing, which took about forty minutes, was done last night. Although the model dozed most of the night, she held her position, and there were no complaints from the artists drawing her.

Green skin seems to have appealed to me last night.

The model is a multi-talented artist, playwright, and filmmaker.

• Nazi social climbing. (London Review of Books)

Anonymous Artist
graphite
26.7 x 20.3 cm (10.5" x 8")

This is a portrait, done quickly Tuesday evening, of Winnipeg's anonymous Frida Kahlo artist.
I have featured her paintings on several occasions. Her specialty are portraits of Frida Kahlo, although I've been given to understand that she has branched out to now include portraits of Vincent Van Gogh.

• The Wittgenstein War. (The New Yorker)
• Three appreciations of photographer Helen Levitt, who died Sunday. (The New York Times) (Another Bouncing Ball) (Le Beau Vice)

Riverbank Scrub
oil
22.9 x 30.5 cm (9" x 12") ■

Have I done this painting before? Almost.

The Red River is not quite so peaceful today as it is in this painting. It's breaking up and the yearly flooding along its' course has begun. Everyone from Fargo, North Dakota, north, is hoping for the best.

• Prince Charles as architect. (The Guardian)
• Yoko Ono returns to Montreal to celebrate an exhibition. (CBC News)