mARTa's Art

 I got the news that Devin died at the hospital this evening.  He had been there for several weeks;  desperately fighting his disease.  You always found Devin in his mama's arms.  He was a sweet and extremely bright little boy;  barely two years old  and he knew his alphabet and numbers.  He was very much loved by his parents and grandma who were with him constantly.  My heart was broken when I got the phone call from one of the other nurses.  We loved our boy and we are all feeling such a great loss.  This portrait I did of Devin in his mama's arms last summer, hangs in my studio.  I will be relinquishing it soon and I will miss it and my boy.

Last night after a couple of glasses of sangria and tapas we headed over to the art museum for the monthly Life Drawing sessions.  I tried a couple of new things this time.  I brought along my ipod and set it to play classical music.  This was a wise decision because soon I was lost in the music and my drawing (after the sangria kicked in).  The next thing was bringing along smaller sketch pad rather than the large pads that I normally use.  And finally, I did the longer poses with my Lamy Safari pen and Noodler's black ink on 14x17 inch bristol board.  For fun I experimented with laying clear acetate that accepts water media on top of one of the drawings and then using some watercolour to add a bit of color.  This was fun to do and I can see lots of possibilities when just wanting to try out color and not ruin the original sketch.

Today Annie spent the afternoon with me for art lesson no. 2.  Go check out her blog at Annie's Adventures with Nina.

Inspired by my friend Laura from Lauralines who painted a beautiful tribute to this charismatic lady, I too took comfort in the quiet of my studio and my graphite sticks.

I'm in the car with my Rudy and Amy on our way to my friend Joan's funeral tomorrow. This is a self portrait of me looking into the visor mirror.

Sent from me and my cool iPhone

This need no explanation.

I am really enjoying the water soluble graphite sticks. This is a sketch of one of my other little ones, Devin. Unlike Nicole whose mama can't be with her all the time; Devin's mama rarely leaves his side. He is such a vocal little man who entertains us with his jabbering. Him and I share his Cherrios in the mornings; me pretending to steal them from his tray and he laughs when he has caught me plopping one in my mouth! Both of parents are wonderful people and I enjoy them as much as their precious little boy. They have had so much to deal with this past year with his illness (leukemia) and still have a long battle ahead of them. Their love and constant vigilance with their son is beyond admirable. Often we only think of the children going through cancer but in reality, this is a disease of a family.

I'm going to jump in early for Sandy's show and tell Monday because I work on Monday and my day is un-godly long. This past week has been a bit difficult but life goes on. So today Rudy and I went into Pasadena, California for the afternoon because it's the last week of the Maynard Dixon exhibit at the Pasadena Museum of California Art. I love his work and especially the era during the depression. I have been fortunate to have seen some of his work over the years at other museums but today was treated to working sketches as well. My favorite piece I must say was this graphite sketch of Charles Lummis. I studied it carefully and saw the care he took in rendering the face with all it's subtleties and then contrasted that with the bold lines of the clothing and form. For an instant I imagined I was peering over his shoulder as he drew this.
The rest of the afternoon we wandered old town Pasadena and I treated myself to new art supplies at Dick Blick, then to lunch at Gaucho Grill which is my favorite Argentinian restaurant where we had Sangria and empanadas! A nice way to end an otherwise bad week.

I finally got a few minutes to add the rest of the drawings from the other night. The headless one was my first gesture sketch and my favorite of the night. The signed watercolor my last of the night and I knew to quit while I was ahead.
Yes, Las Campanas is a great place to meet up with friends over margaritas and nachos! It's one of those perfect outdoor settings that perhaps someday will lend itself to some sketching. Usually we are too busy gabbing and eating!
I failed to mention that at the life drawing session the model was last due to heavy traffic. Our friend Dianne cheerfully stepped in for the first 15minutes as our model. But she wouldn't take her clothes off! Imagine that! But what a good sport she was!

Tonight was the monthly life drawing session at RAM (Riverside Art Museum). Dianne and I were running a bit late for dinner so we got to the museum , set up and enjoyed drawing/painting for a couple of hours. But since we hadn't eaten dinner we left a bit early and headed to the Mission Inn to "Las Campanas" for drinks and dinner.
We had such a good time! The evening was perfect for dinning outdoors, the drinks satisfying but most of all the conversation and camaraderie wonderful! We spent as much time over drinks and dinner as we did at the art museum! This is my best from tonight. It's graphite stick with watercolor on 1/2 sheet hot press 90# Arches paper.

Dianne and I decided to just ditch the studio painting session since we really don't care for the teacher and go to a Tapas Bar instead and load up on Sangria to loosen us up before heading to the museum for the Life Drawing Session. I really need a figure drawing class as I have a hard time with proportions, always making my figures too compact and shortened. But it was fun to be around other artist and practice, practice, practice!