Italy 2017.06.17-.23.025 Week 25

This week marks the beginning of a new chapter in my year-of-living-dangerously-through-art. I finished up two terms at the Angel Academy of Art. The Academy was a rigorous and wonderful experience. It was also humbling to be amongst some very talented young people—which gave me hope for the future. Seeing these inspired, hard working and talented young people deep-diving into realistic art, eschewing the shallow waters of abstractions and theory-based painting, is very satisfying. I have spent my life trying to understand art in all forms. I participated in the abstract-education just like everyone else in art schools in the 60’s and 70’s. My comments are not intended to discredit or devalue the importance of any artist or his or her work. What I am now interested in is how to fuse what I learned from these intellectually talent-driven art movements (and some of my favorites like Rothko, Auerbach, Freud, Salter) with my discovery of realistic art. I doubt that I will be interested in pure representational art. What I am interested in unearthing the emotions of life through ambiguity. Is it real? Is it abstract? Why does this unlock my inner feelings? All questions I hope someone, someday, will ask when they see one of my works of art.

This week I began sitting for a portrait that I will give to Olive Soucy, my granddaughter. It commission the painting by Giulia Bucciarelli—she was my second term figure drawing teacher. This will be a 6-8 day process plus the finishing and drying time (it should be ready by early December of this year.) I am also learning about each step as I take my 5 minute break every 25 minutes. You can also see Giulia Bucciarelli‘s palette. It is being painted on Belgian Linen with a Lead White, Umber and Ivory black ground. Her palette includes Lead White, Roman Ocre, Orange Vermillion, True Vermillion, Raw Umber, Ivory Black.

2017.06.17 Session #1 6 25 minutes sub- sessions.

2017.06.18 Session #2 6 25 minutes sub- sessions.

2017.06.19 Session #1 Sight-sized class at the Florence Studio
After finishing up at The Angel Academy of Art I have enrolled in an 8-day class on sight-sized portraiture. This is my very first attempt at doing a portrait by sight-sizing. I was very pleasantly surprised to learn that I was able to complete a fairly accurate drawing in the first 3-hour session. What I learned:

I am having trouble with lips. I need to “unlearn” everything I know about lips. They are complex and are best thought of a series of straight lines—not a smooth curve during the drawing process.
The cheek bone is the most prominent point in the width of the face.
The jaw is a complex assembly of 3-4 straight lines.
I tend to make the face too narrow.
The central intersection of the eyes, eyebrows and bridge of the nose is a very complex geometry.
The shadow shape within the upper eyelid is crucial to the rendition of the eyeball within the eye socket. ‘
The eyebrows communicate more about the person that most of the other facial features.