Truman Capote (Part 4/4): An A & E Biography

Truman Capote (Part 3/4): An A & E Biography. Part 4 will follow tomorrow.

• Sculptor John Greer's struggles with the Canadian federal tax department, Revenue Canada. (The Globe and Mail)
• The Recession Proof Artist. A video from The New York Times of a typical artist we all know, or are, or have been.

Dark River
oil 22.9 x 30.5 cm (9" x 12")


I'm not particularly happy with this painting. I'll probably repaint parts of it.
When it's completed, I'll repost it.

• Sergey Prokofiev: diaries and new biographies. (bookforum)
• Artists and the Recession, or Bad Times, Good Times. (The New York Times)

Mark
ink and charcoal
17.8 x 11.4 cm (7" x 4.5")

Mark is a friend. He is also an enterprising artist. He is seldom without work on exhibit somewhere in Winnipeg. Currently, he has a show running at the Keepsakes Gallery in Winnipeg. 'Edgy and expressive' is how the gallery describes Mark's painting.

There are several examples of Mark's work in the Archives. Smiling Fish and Happy Fish, both posted in June 2008, are two of my favourites.

Woody
ink and charcoal
20.3 x 12.7 cm (8" x 5")

The model, or more accurately, this drawing of the model, reminded me of Woody Allen. The model confessed after he saw the drawing that he has been told many times that he resembles Woody Allen; or better yet, that Woody Allen resembles him.

• Advice on business cards for artists. The comments to this post are also worth reading. (edward_ winkleman)
• Thoughts on Peter Max. (Illustration Art)

Girl of Many Lines
ink, charcoal, and pastel
11.4 x 17.8 cm (4.5" x 7")

This drawing was done more than a little haphazardly. It's as if I was only half there as I drew.

• New art in White House thanks to the Obamas. (The Wall Street Journal)
• iPhone art at the New Yorker. (The New York Times)

M. Sitting
ink, charcoal, and pastel
45.7 x 61 cm (18" x 24")

M. is a friend. He's also a great model, whom I've drawn many times, and of whom I never tire drawing.

I'm sure that every artist who has worked with M. feels the same way.

• Seven things every artist should know. (The Huffington Post)
• Photographer Donald Weber's Russia. (CBC News)
• A superfluous man, Albert Jay Nock. (The National Review)

Truman Capote (Part 2/4): An A & E Biography. Parts 3 and 4 next weekend.

Truman Capote (Part 1/4): An A & E Biography. Part 2 to follow tomorrow.

Orange Hand
ink and watercolour
20.3 x 27.9 cm (8" x 11")

This drawing was done from an odd angle. The model's body looked quite compressed.
The drawing took about twenty minutes.

• The power of distraction. (New York Magazine)
• The fashion industry is unfashionably depressed. (The Atlantic)
• Architect Arthur Erickson died Wednesday at the age of 84. (The Vancouver Sun)

It's a busy day. I'll be back tomorrow.

Small Boat
digital image
14.0 x 8.9 cm (5.5" x 3.5")

This digital image is a reworking of a small sketch from Deauville in France.

• "I have never known a woman who was more continuously exacting.... Everybody's entire existence, every hour, every minute, for years on end, must be at her disposition, or else there is an explosion like all thunderstorms and earthquakes put together."

Madame de Staël (The New York Review of Books)

Yellow and Grey
charcoal and oil
30.5 x 45.7 cm (12" x 18")

This painting is similar to yesterday's.

Originally it was a rather unexciting charcoal drawing on cardboard, which I transformed into a rather unexciting painting on cardboard.

The painting was done over the drawing. The colours were added without any references. They are completely arbitrary.

• Jack Kerouac, sports fan. (The New York Times)
• Flannery O'Connor and artistic misanthropy. (The Atlantic)

Grey Chair
ink, charcoal, pastel, and oil
30.5 x 45.7 cm (12" x 18")


Originally this was an ink and pastel drawing. There were a couple of areas that I thought could use correcting, and the easy way of doing that seemed to be with oil paint. It's an odd combination of media, particularly the ballpoint pen and oil paint, but I don't mind that effect, and I'll probably use it again.

The drawing was done from the model. The paint was added later in the studio.

• A Henry Moore sculpture stolen in 2005 was likely sold for scrap. (CBC News)
• The Art Institute of Chicago open its' new Modern Wing on Saturday. (CBC News) (photos - The New York Times)

Choco Commercial (Japan)

This commercial doesn't have much to do with art, but it's fun.

A Short Biography of Frida Kahlo

Pharmacie Sign, France
ink and watercolour
14.0 x 8.9 cm (5.5" x 3.5")

Pharmacies throughout France use a green and blue neon sign in the shape of a slanted cross to indicate their shops. This particular sign was above a pharmacie in the town square of Deauville.

• Pourquoi pas ici? Nuit des musées will be held across Europe tomorrow, May 16th, from 6:00 pm until 12:00 am. (Le Monde)
• Apparently art students are depressed. (The Washington Post)(via C-Monster)
• What is 'good' drawing? (The Guardian)
• Why isn't Richard Diebenkorn (more) famous? (The Wall Street Journal)

Sainte Marguerite
ink, charcoal, and pastel
17.8 x 11.4 cm (7" x 4.5")

This is another one of the few drawings that I did while on a cycling vacation in France. The sculpture is part of an altar in Notre Dame Cathedral in Rouen.

• An appreciation of Tintin. (The Weekly Standard)
• James Agee and his vision of life between the devil and God. (Harvard Magazine)
• The art of actor Anthony Hopkins. (The Globe and Mail) (anthonyhopkinsart.com)

Dinner
ink
14.0 x 17.8 cm (5.5" x 7")

I've just returned from a cycling holiday in France. Unfortunately, there was little opportunity to draw or paint during the trip. One of the few drawings I managed was done during the course of a meal in a hotel in Magny-en-Vexin, north of Paris. It was the Hotel de Palais, I believe.

The drawing itself is nothing much. For myself though, I can re-live the trip just by looking at it.