• Norman Mailer's women problem. (Vanity Fair)
• Charles Dicken, the first modern travel writer. (Worldhum)
• The only mass use of germ warfare in modern history: Japan's Unit 731 and 300,000 to 500,000 deaths from 1935 t9 1945. (City Journal)
• Lawren Harris is worth $2.8 million. (CBC News)
• An Islamic arts centre for Toronto. (CBC News)

Still River
oil on canvas
36.5 x 73.0 cm (28.75" x 14.375")

This painting may, or may not, be finished. I need to look at it a bit before deciding whether or not it's done.

The scene depicted is just north of Winnipeg, along River Road between St. Andrews and Lockport, Manitoba.

bODY_rEMIX / gOLDBERG_vARIATIONS: performed by the Campagnie Marie Chouinard at Sadler's Wells in London in May, 2010. (via C-Monster)

• The last years of Robert Oppenheimer. (Logos)
• Musings on feminism. (bookforum)
• Ayn Rand was big fan of Charlie's Angels. (The Nation)

Dark Rimmed Glasses
ink and watercolour
45.7 x 30.5 cm (18" x 12")

This is a fun drawing done on a very smooth paper. The watercolour didn't take well on the paper, but it doesn't matter. It still works.

• Free museum admission in the U.S.A. this summer for members of the military and their families. (The Washington Post)
• Major art thefts in recent times. (CBC News)
• turn of the century, everything strange and beautiful from 1850s to 1920s. (via things magazine)

Dreaming
ink, charcoal, and conté
45.7 x 30.5 cm (18" x 12")

The arms are off in this drawing. Both the model's arms, and the arms of the chair, which are at different levels. Otherwise, the drawing's ok.

• The destruction of the Barnes Collection. (The Weekly Standard)
• The military academies at West Point and Annapolis have embraced mediocrity. (The New York Times)
• The Whitney Museum of American Art in New York is on the move. (The New York Times)

Green Bracelet
gouache
45.7 x 30.5 cm (18" x 12")

I kind of like this drawing (or painting).

• Polymath Martin Gardner died Saturday in Norman. Oklahoma. He was 95. (The New York Times)
• Thomas Hart Benton's war with Modernism. (Humanities)

Green and Orange Woman
gouache
30.5 x 45.7 cm (12" x 18)

I'm not sure if the one colour is orange or not. Maybe it's a creamy orange. Green and Creamy Orange Woman. Catchy.

• Death masks of 20 famous people. (elistmania)
• Leo & His Circle: The Life of Leo Castelli by Annie Cohen-Solal. (The New York Times)
• The greening of Lincoln Center. (The New York Times)

White Road
oil on canvas
61 x 76.2 cm (24" x 30")

This is the final version of White Road. The original was posted two days ago, on Wednesday. The large cloud has been repainted, and some touches of colour added to the grass. It didn't need much.

• A thief stole five paintings by Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Georges Braque, Amadeo Modigliani and Fernand Leger, overnight Thursday from the Paris Museum of Modern Art. (The Winnipeg Free Press)
• Two studies in travel writing: Jan Morris and V.S. Naipaul. (Worldhum)
• Michael J. Astrue is the best poet ever to hold a truly major appointed position in the American government, head of the Social Security Administration. (First Things)
• Having a liking for Jersey City, it's not good to hear that the Jersey City Museum is in financial trouble. (Art Fag City)
• Artsy lists: groceries, to do, etc. (The Morning News) (via Art Fag City)

Green and Brown
gouache
38.1 x 29.2 cm (15" x 11.5")

I quite like this half hour sketch. It seems to convey the essentials of what I was seeing at the time.

The cover of the chair wasn't green. I was working with only four colours, green, orange, black, and white. This gave me a limited choice as to what colour to make the cover.

White Road
oil on canvas
61 x 76.2 cm (24" x 30")

There are more than a few roads in Manitoba that look like like this one.

The large cloud may still need a little work. If I change it, I'll repost the image.

• Two great English historians: Edward Gibbon and Hugh Trevor-Roper. (Standpoint)
• "For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance." Or, nothing succeeds like success. (Slate)

Big Foot
gouache
30.5 x 45.7 cm (12" x 18")

The foot's a bit big. Otherwise I was happy with this four colour speed painting (black, white, orange, and green).

Model with Big Cushion
gouache
45.7 x 30.5 cm (18" x 12")

This painting was drawn and painted directly with a brush, and as much for fun as anything.

• Betting against the Chinese economy. (The New York Times)
• For the person who has everything (you?), a flying hotel suite. (airbnb)
• Ferrari's brilliant answer to the EU's cigarette advertising ban. (Graphicology)

Crooked Nose
gouache
45.7 x 30.5 cm (18" x 12")

This was a rushed job. It was all I could do to get the basic figure down. The nose is on crooked, but I'll be ok as long as the government drawing police don't see it.

• Florence Nightingale, Gustave Flaubert and the Temptations of Egypt. (Literary Review)
• The wonders of placebos. (The Boston Globe)
• Japanese steamship travel posters. (PinkTentacle) (via C-Monster)

Early Morning Fog, Manhattan
gouache and oil on paper
20.3 x 30.5 cm (8" x 12")

As promised an imaginary Manhattan landscape. Perhaps imaginary isn't the right word, since this landscape is based on a memory of Manhattan as seen from the George Washington Bridge.

I suspect, though, that the painting owes as much to Whistler and his Nocturnes as it does to my memory.

• Busy day. I'll be back tomorrow, hopefully with an imaginary Manhattan landscape.

• Illustrator (artist) Frank Frazetta died Monday. He was 82. (The New York Times 1 and The New York Times 2)
• Lena Horne, singer and actress, died Sunday in Manhattan. (The New York Times)
• ' Triangular mutuality ' and H.G.Wells. (The Guardian)
• Borges on philosophy. (Denis Dutton)

Pilgrim
ink and watercolour
35.6 x 27.9 cm (14" x 11")

The model for this drawing wasn't really a pilgrim, but the walking stick and the upward gaze suggests one to me.

• Art as Plunder: The Ancient Origins of Debate about Cultural Property by Margaret M. Miles. (The Smart Set)
• What not to do when promoting your book. (We Who Are About To Die) (via C-Monster)
• No more skateboarding on Chicago's Picasso. (Hello Beautiful!) (via C-Monster)
• Popular dishonesty, democratic corruption, Greece, and Britain. (City Journal)
• Creepy software. (anarchitecture)

Portrait with Outline
gouache
22.9 x 30.5 cm (9" x 12")

Doesn't the model, in this less than flattering portrait, look slightly suspicious of what's going on?

• Is Greece only the beginning? (Spiegel)
• ' The Great Oom ' and the rise of yoga in America. (The Wall Street Journal)
• Plants, living plants, in art galleries. (Off Center)
• Simone de Beauvoir nude in Chicago. (Stephen Daiter Gallery)

Jumping
paper collage
19.0 x 13.5 cm (7.5" x 5.3")

Artist: Catherine Lee (2009)

There's something to be said for simplicity in art.

Simplicity is part of the reason I like this collage. The sense of freedom and fun it expresses is the other.

• Allen Ginsberg as a photographer. (The Atlantic) (via C-Monster)
• A Picasso has set a new sales price record for art. (CBC News)
• Brooklyn artists swap art for health care. (Wallet Pop) (via C-Monster)

A Tragic Mask of Beethoven
ink and watercolour
11.4 x 8.9 cm (4.5" x 3.5")

On the second floor of Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center in New York there is a cast of Antoine Bourdelle's A Tragic Mask of Beethoven. This particular drawing of the mask was done while waiting for my wife to return from nearby. (Antoine Bourdelle, 1861-1929)

• The nasty power of Google. (ARTicles) (via C-Monster)
• Since 1957 artists in Mexico have been able to pay their taxes with art work. (USA Today) (via C-Monster)

• Le village des arts, Dakar, Senegal. (video - The Guardian)
• The Meaning of Life. (Philosophy Now)
• Norway's Nobel Nazi. (Harper's)

Unsuccessful Portrait
gouache
30.5 x 22.9 cm (12" x 9")

The model took a look at this portrait, and politely refrained from saying a word.