• The architectural drawings and paintings of Victor Timofeev. (Victor Timofeev) (via things magazine)
• Boston's ugliest buildings. (The Boston Globe)
• Is the German problem back? (National Interest)

Head Down
ink and watercolour
30.5 x 22.9 cm (12" x 9")

The hands are a mess in this drawing. They were changed at the last moment, and never finished.

The drawing took twenty minutes.

• A photographic essay on drug wars in northern Mexico. (Time) (via C-Monster)
• Evicted artists in Beijing protest after attack. (The New York Times) (via C-Monster)

Winter Road
oil on canvas
40.6 x 50.8 cm (16" x 20") ■


O for a hill.

• Leonard Elmore's 10 rules for writing fiction. (The Guardian)
• Everyone else's 10 rules for writing fiction (Hilary Mantel, Michael Moorcock, Michael Morpurgo, Andrew Motion, Joyce Carol Oates, Annie Proulx, Philip Pullman, Ian Rankin, Will Self, Helen Simpson, Zadie Smith, Colm Tóibín, Rose Tremain, Sarah Waters, Jeanette Winterson)(The Guardian)

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

The unwanted shadow is along the line of the jaw. It turned a portrait of a young woman into a portrait of a rather androgynous figure.

Actually there are several other unwanted shadows in the drawing. The shadows below the nose and underneath the mouth also help confuse the sex of the sitter.

Draw, or paint, and learn, I guess. (Although I must confess I'm a pretty slow learner. You can look for the same mistakes to be repeated.)

• Ed Winkleman rambling. (edward_winkleman)
• Utopian California. (BLDGBLOG) (via C-Monster)
• James Bond film producer, Michael Wilson, on collecting photography. (The Telegraph)

Blue, Black, and Brown
ink, charcoal, and conté
30.5 x 22.9 cm (12" x 9")

The model looks like she might have spent a sleepless night or two before modelling. I was a little heavy around the eye with the pen. My apologies to the model.

• Irving Penn at Britain's National Portrait Gallery.
• It's Chopin's birthday. (The Washington Post)
• Hazy reality in Tibet. (Foreign Policy)

Waiting by a Palm Tree
ink and watercolour
11.4 x 8.9 cm (4.5" x 3.5")

This doesn't look like Winnipeg in February. The drawing was done in Nagoya, Japan, in October.

Under the White Wind: performed by Bei Bei. (The instrument is a guzheng.) (via El pintor de hierro)

• Portraits of Ukrainian coal miners by Gleb Kosorukov. (The Guardian)
• Church, state, and the background to the Dreyfus affair in 19th century France. (The Wall Street Journal)

Purple Sheet
gouache on paper
30.5 x 40.6 cm (12" x 16") ■


Because of the outline and the fold marks the sheet looks like it's on an incline, while the model seems to lying on flat ground. It's a little confusing.

• A nation of racist dwarfs? (Slate)

• The work of Viola Frey is currently on exhibit at the Museum of Arts and Design and the Nancy Hoffman Gallery, both in New York. (The New York Times article and slideshow.)
• Heinrich von Kleist (1777-1811). (review)

Road
oil on canvas
40.6 x 50.8 cm (16" x 20")

This could be any number of roads in southern Manitoba at this time of year.

• Queen Victoria liked nudes in her paintings. (The Telegraph)
• Art museum toilets. (The Art Museum Toilet) (via C-Monster)
• Thoughts on the greatest generation of American writers. (The Guardian)

Spring, Juba Park
oil on paper
38.1 x 50.8 cm (15" x 20")

This is a reworking of an older painting which I wasn't happy with. It might not be the best photograph of the piece. The greens, in particular, might not be accurately represented by the scan.

The original Spring, Juba Park was posted on May 20, 2008 and it has been re-posted immediately below.

Spring, Juba Park
oil on paper
38.1 x 50.8 cm (15" x 20")

• Watching chickens. (Times Higher Education)
• Was Emily Dickinson a nymphomaniac? (Literary Review)
• Transporting art by air is getting more complicated and more costly. (The New York Times)

Strange Hair
ink and charcoal
30.5 x 22.9 cm (12" x 9")

The model's hair isn' t the only strange thing in this drawing. One of the model's feet is resting above the other, but what is it resting on? It was actually resting on the same flat pedestal the model is sitting on; but the view of the feet seems to imply a different perspective from the rest of the figure. The confusion probably could have been avoided by indicating more of the pedestal, which would have at least given the viewer a clearer idea of the artist's viewpoint and perspective.

The Ossuary: directed by Jan Švankmajer (1970).

This film about the Sedlec Ossuary in Kutná Hora near Prague was commissioned in 1970 to celebrate the work of František Rint, the man responsible for the fantastic bone constructions in the ossuary. For more information on Jan Švankmajer, František Rint, and the Sedlec Ossuary check Morbid Anatomy.

• The problem of John Kenneth Galbraith. (City Journal)
• The problem of Shylock. (The American Scholar)

Braced
ink, charcoal, and gouache
30.5 x 22.9 cm (12" x 9")

This drawing may have been better before the white background when on. Too late now though.

• Where did bioethicists come from? (Policy Review)
• Martin Amis on Vladimir Nabokov. (The Guardian)

Red Flower
ink and watercolour
30.5 x 22.9 cm (12" x 9)

The model had a red flower in her hair. It was either a carnation or a rose. The red blotch is the flower. The orange blotch immediately below it is the model's ear.

Lindsay Gauld, cyclist: This video will give you an idea of Winnipeg in February. (via the Winnipeg Free Press) (This video can be a little slow getting started.)

• In Britain the Greenhalgh family, 47 year old Shaun, his 83 year old mother, and his 84 year old father are all going to jail for art fraud. (The Manchester Evening News)
• Is art theft seasonal? (Art Theft Central)
• Unravelling the myth of Lady Jane Grey. (The Economist)

Hand on Chest
graphite, ink, and charcoal
22.9 x 30.5 cm (9" x 12")

The hand on the chest is one of the weaker parts of this drawing. It was drawn in after the model had moved out of the pose.

There was a fair degree of foreshortening with this pose. I'm not sure that I've adequately indicated this.

The pose lasted fifteen minutes.

• A photographic history of Canada at the Stephen Bulger Gallery in Toronto. (CBC News)
• Cesare Borgia. (The Washington Post)
• The history of the condom. (The New York Times)

Orange and Blue Man
ink and gouache
45.7 x 30.5 cm (18" x 12")

This one almost completely got away from me. I couldn't quite get the drawing down. I was continually having to change it, and I never really got to a point where I felt that I could just concentrate on the colour. All of which was a little frustrating because the drawing had possibilities.

• Golden Age Comic Book Stories is a terrific illustration site, covering the whole range of book illustration from the late 19th century to the end of the 20th century.
• A Giacometti sets an art sales record at Sotheby's in London. Bet Alberto's thrilled. (And damn! I was outbid again.) (The New York Times)

• The Bauhaus explained. (Policy Review)
• Art rescued from the Nazis during the Second World War. (Harvard Magazine)

River in Winter
oil on canvas
40.6 x 50.8 cm (16" x 20")

The painting was first posted on Tuesday, December 29th. I was never particularly happy with it, so a couple of days ago I decided to repaint parts of it. The blues have been intensified and darkened. I'm still not crazy about it, and I'm not sure that I've improved it either.

The painting as it first looked is posted below.

River in Winter
oil on canvas
40.6 x 50.8 cm

• Famous writer and musician suicides. (Life)
• Ryan Mosley may be the new Watteau, or so says Jonathan Jones. (The Guardian)
• The background to Google's war with China. (The Wall Street Journal)

Birds, Lyndale Drive
oil on canvas
40.6 x 50.8 cm (16" x 20")


Are those birds or airplanes over Lyndale Drive?

• Controversy over Degas plasters. Are they by Degas? (ARTnews) (via C-Monster)
• Famous literary drunks and addicts. (Life) (via C-Monster)
• An Edible History of Humanity by Tom Standage. (spiked)

K.
ink and watercolour
30.5 x 22.9 cm (12" x 9")

I'm not sure of the hips and legs in this drawing. They look a little odd to me.

With figures, I frequently take care while drawing the head, but then become sloppy drawing the rest of the body. The resulting drawings are not always brilliant.

• Philip K. Dick: a writer's life. (The Los Angeles Times)
• Best architecture of the decade. (mammoth)
• The new Art Gallery of Alberta opened Saturday in Edmonton. (CBC News)

Grey Woman No. 2
gouache
30.5 x 45.7 cm (12" x 18")

This drawing was originally posted as Grey Woman on Tuesday, January 19, 2009. I wasn't happy with the right leg in the drawing, so I repainted it. Here's the result, Grey Woman No. 2. The original Grey Woman has been reposted below.

(P.S. The repainting took only a few seconds. I guess you noticed.)

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