• J.D. Salinger died Wednesday in Cornish, New Hampshire. He was 91. (The New York Times - Charles McGrath) (The Times) (The National Post - Robert Fulford)

Red Blanket
watercolour
22.9 x 40.6 cm (9" x 16")

Last night's drawing. It was done in about forty minutes.

Don't look to closely at the drawing. The proportions are a little off.

• Bronzino at the Met. (The New York Times)
• Who was Jacques Derrida? (Tablet)

Sea Turtle
watercolour
8.9 x 11.4 cm (4.5" x 3.5")

This is another small painting from the Nagoya Aquarium. The painting was done over a sketch made at the aquarium.

• The zero rupee note. (blogs.worldbank)
• Conservation online, or CoOL, is hosted by Stanford University Libraries. (CoOL)
• How to photograph mum wearing a push-up bra. (The Guardian)

Scuba Diver
watercolour
11.4 x 8.9 cm (4.5" x 3.5)

While I was walking through the Nagoya Aquarium last fall I found two divers were cleaning one of the dolphin tanks. They were visible, as were the dolphins, through the glass wall of the tank.

This watercolour is a quick impression of one the divers at work.

The digital image on your screen is about the size of the actual painting.

• Garry Kasparov on the computer, chess, and the human mind. (The New York Review of Books)

I See You
ink and charcoal
30.5 x 22.9 cm (12" x 9")

It can be unnerving for an artist to have a model staring at him while he is working. In this case the model was not actually staring at me. I accidentally drew him as if he were; he wasn't, thank God.

• Day jobs for artists. (The Guardian)
• Lessons in the obvious: previewing poetry. (Contemporary Poetry Review)
• 'We're not running a charity here.' America's reception of translated literature. Yawn. (The Smart Set)

Desert
watercolour on mulberry paper
45.7 cm x 30.5 cm (18" x 12")

This painting is ages old. It's a failed experiment in painting with watercolour on mulberry paper. Because the paint spreads almost uncontrollably throughout the paper, it's difficult to draw with any precision. This is, of course, also part of the charm of watercolour on mulberry paper. Sometimes it's charming, sometimes not.

If you detect the slight, or not so slight, influence of Emil Nolde, you are not entirely mistaken.

Never A Year Like '09: JibJab (Better late than never to review 2009 in America.)

• Mystery writer Robert B. Parker died Monday at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts. (The New York Times) (The Boston Globe)

Model with Orange Spots
charcoal and gouache
36.8 x 22.9 cm (14.5" x 9")

The black outline around the figure is just that, an outline. It wasn't meant to suggest a shadow.

• Busy today. Be back tomorrow. I'll leave you with the classic Richard Condie cartoon, The Cat Came Back.
• I hope you're jogging in place as you read this article. (The Winnipeg Free Press)

(By the way, the right leg of the Grey Woman posted yesterday is bothering me. It looks too short. What do you think?)

The Cat Came Back: Richard Condie

• The unluckiest country: Haiti. (Foreign Policy)
• Moscow has 35,000 stray dogs. (Financial Times)
• Women too can design tall ugly buildings. (The Los Angeles Times) (via C-Monster)

Grey Woman
gouache
30.5 x 45.7 cm (12" x 18")

This quick brush drawing was done last night. The model looks like she is in pain, which, of course, she was. She had lost the feeling in one leg.

• “From here, the artist explores the dynamics of voyeurism and the unsettling dimension of artistic imagery, revisiting classical myths, baroque iconography and memento mori, filtered through the fundamental issues of post-modern thought. By uniting his own philosophical and literary iconography, the artist has defined a modern form of realism.” Cool. (Art Baloney)

• Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe. (review)
• Good for you. Yuk. Simplistic Art.
• China at the centre of the world. (CBC News)

Untitled No. 8
gouache
22.9 x 21.6 cm (9" x 8.5")

What's happening here?

If it's of any help, there's a parabolic heater, a pedestal (more suggested, than anything), a sheet, and a model.

Altered States: the Art of Zhang Huan

The Known Universe: the American Museum of Natural History

• More from the 'Say it ain't so!' department: Van Gogh knew what he was doing. (Standpoint.)
• What is good writing? (The American Scholar)
• Who would have guessed? Richard Nixon wasn't a fan of modern art. (ARTINFO)

50
oil
25.4 x 73.0 cm (10" x 28.75") ■

This may look like a rural scene, but the road in the painting is actually within the city limits of Winnipeg. It's Rue des Trappistes in St. Norbert, the southern most suburb of Winnipeg. The road used to pass by a Trappist monastery, hence the name. The monastery, which was originally founded in 1892 by Cistercians from Bellefontaine, France, was moved to Holland, Manitoba, in 1978.

The photograph of the painting is not the best. However, it will have to do.

• Bicycle frames made out of bamboo. You've gotta love them. (Spiegel)
• Photography died in 1972. (The Guardian)

Model Taking Off Her Pants
charcoal and gouache
45.7 x 30.5 cm (18" x 12")

This is the same model as in yesterday's post. It took her several poses to get her pants off.

• Gore Vidal, at last, a crackpot. (Vanity Fair)
• Say it ain't so! Joseph Duveen and Bernard Berenson vindicated. (edward_winkleman)

Model Undressing
charcoal and gouache
45.7 x 30.5 cm (18" x 12")

Last night's model began undressing, stopped, and then held this pose for about ten minutes. Just long enough for this sketch.

Underneath her jeans she was wearing grey long underwear decorated with large diamond shaped squares.

• That is Priceless. Art's greatest masterpieces made slightly funnier. Not to be missed. (via C-Monster)
• The battle over Jack Kerouac's estate. (FineBooks & Collections)
• It's time to resurrect duelling. (Forbes)

Model with Electrical Outlet
gouache
45.7 x 30.5 cm (18" x 12")

This was a first-time model who did a wonderful job of sitting still.

The painting took about an hour.

Selected Caricatures and Paintings: work by David Levine from an exhibition at the Forum Gallery in New York City, 2008.

• The Winnipeg Free Press has an obituary for Canadian artist Bruce Head. A memorial service will be held at the Winnipeg Art Gallery on February 10, 2010 at 7:00 pm.
• A slideshow of David Levine's work. (The New York Times)
• Newspaper Death Watch.

Perimeter Bridge
oil on canvas
55.9 x 71.1 cm (22" x 28")

I had a great deal of difficulty photographing this painting. In the end I had to rely on Photoshop to get the digital image to look anything like the original painting. If I keep working on canvas I'll have to figure out some reliable way of photographing the paintings.

This is the south perimeter bridge across the Red River in Winnipeg.

• Artist Kenneth Noland died yesterday at age 85. (The New York Times)
• Japanese 'capsule' hotels are becoming home to the jobless. (The New York Times) (via C-Monster)

Laptop Girl
graphite
11.4 x 8.9 cm (4.5" x 3.5")

The girl is actually an artist who specializes in portraits of Frida Kahlo when she's not doing her accounts on Excel.

• Tyler Green's top 10 of 2009. (Modern Art Notes)
• Montaigne and how to live. (Literary Review)
• Think twice about grad school. (The Chronicle)

Farm at Sunset
oil
55.9 x 71.1 cm (22" x 28") ■


This painting was photographed last night in a poorly lit studio. It's still drying on the easel.

I'm not at all sure of the exactness of the colour reproduction. I was guessing as I attempted to correct the colour in photoshop. The actual painting may be better or worse than what you see.


The farm is just outside of the city limits of Winnipeg.

• Two respected artists died last week: in Winnipeg, Bruce Head (Winnipeg Free Press), and in New York, David Levine. (The New York Times)(The New York Times)(CBC News) They'll both be missed.

• A Degas is missing from a Marseille museum. (CBC News)(The Guardian)
• In praise of Raymond Chandler. (spiked review of books)
• The sex life of Grace Kelly. (The New Yorker)

Fuzzy Slippers
gouache
30.5 x 45.7 cm (12" x 18")

It's difficult to tell what's going on in this drawing. There is a person there, and the grey blob where a foot should be, was, in fact, a fuzzy slipper. The slippers were a dirty pink rather than the grey I rendered them.

The slippers only lasted the evening. After the drawing session, as the model was making her way to change, the soles separated from the uppers.

Happy New Year!! Bonne Année!! 2010!!

Napoléon Le Magnifique: more Têtes à claques to help celebrate the new year.