Thursday 7 November-Sunday 21 November


(On extended vacation)



Books read:



Sue Taylor (Ed) Winslow Homer in Gloucester

Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, 1980

(A well-illustrated exhibition catalog with a number of critical essays, concentrating on the post-Civil War period during which Homer’s interests changed from illustration to fine art.)



Terry Neff (Ed) Gerhardt Richter

Thames and Hudson, New York, 1988

(A somewhat challenging read about a very challenging artist. There is very little of Richter’s earlier work that I understand, and I fear that this book failed to broaden my understanding.)

Robert Hughes Nothing If Not Critical

Penguin Books, New York, 1992

(A very challenging book to read. The author is erudite, opinionated, and seldom uses a common word when a rare one will do. The essays which make up the book must be read, and often re-read, slowly and carefully. This is not a comprehensive volume, but the subjects with which it deals are dealt with in considerable depth. This is one of the more important books that I have read this year, and one of the few from which I took notes for further inquiry as I read. I was both relieved and saddened to reach the end.)



Sketchbook work: Twenty-three small sketches in my travel sketchbook, execution times ranging from a few seconds to half an hour.

Time for this period: 14 hours 23 minutes

Wednesday 3 November 2010





Course work: Additional work on laying in shadows, using mixes of yellow ochre and burnt umber, with a little pure black.

Reading and theoretical studies:



E. H. Gombrich Art and Illusion (11th Printing)

Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, USA, 1969

Pp. 203-241



Victoria Finlay Color

Ballantine Books, New York, 2002

Pp. 223-258





Sketchbook work: Another in my series of color experiments, this one using a triad of lemon yellow, pthalocyanine blue, and alizarin crimson. Mixtures produce a vivid green, a very usable purple, and a slightly neutralized orange. A mixture of all three produces the most convincing black of the test series to date. Pthalocyanine blue is an exceptionally strong color, requiring a considerable amount of caution in mixing.

Time today: Two hours fifty-seven minutes (28h20m)

Tuesday 2 November 2010





Course work: Mixed a fairly neutral yellowish-green with yellow ochre and ultramarine blue and started the process of applying shadowing, working first on the hand. An orange mixed with cadmium red light and cadmium yellow light was applied to roughly represent the bottle.

Reading and theoretical studies:



Victoria Finlay Color

Ballantine Books, New York, 2002

Pp. 169-222



Sketchbook work: A sketch of a child’s plush toy skunk.

Time today: 2 hours 36 minutes

Monday 1 November 2010




Course work: Mixed and applied two more coats of background color to my paper, finally achieving a reasonably uniform and opaque application. I am not as satisfied with the paper as I had hoped; it is supposed to be “ideal for acrylics” but seems less than ideal in actual use, although if it is well-clamped it does return to a fairly flat condition when it dries completely. I sketched in the outlines of the main shapes, then painted them in solidly with a mixture of yellow ochre and white (thus in a sense returning to Project Two of Assignment One).





Reading and theoretical studies:



Victoria Finlay Color

Ballantine Books, New York, 2002

Pp. 135-168



Norbert Wolf Salvador Dali

Parragon, New York, 2008

Pp. 188-219

(A readable book with many high-quality illustrations.)





Sketchbook work: Lacking an immediate subject of interest, I fell back upon my old reliable towel on a hook, which always provides an engrossing sketching problem as well as additional practice in delineating drapery. Also sketched a small detail of a hand towel hanging on a ring.

Time today: Two hours 21 minutes

Sunday 31 October 2010




Course work: I started Stage One of Project Two by again reviewing the work to date. Stage Two of Project Two was initiated by deciding to work on 45.7 x 61 cm paper. I decided to rearrange the folds in my still-life drapery and to change to a horizontal format with somewhat altered lighting. Work on Stage Three commenced when I mixed and applied the first coat of a color approximating the average background color.



Reading and theoretical studies:



Continuing the theoretical work on P. 93 of the text, I did a small colored pencil sketch (p. 47 in sketchbook) of Albert Bierstadt’s Sunset. Bierstadt (and the others in the Hudson River School) typically used heightened color and strong contrasts to create the effect that they desired.

Victoria Finlay Color

Ballantine Books, New York, 2002

Pp. 108-134



E.H. Gombrich, The Story of Art

Phaidon Press Limited, Oxford 1978

Pp. 167-201



Sketchbook work: One of the cats, heavily asleep.

Weekly reflections on learning experience: My work this week has been compromised by several days of dangerously unstable weather, and by the myriad of things one must do to prepare for an extended trip (everything from moving hay to patching leaks in the tack shed). I finally completed Project One to my reasonable satisfaction. Sketchbook work has been fair. Reading has not been quite as good as last week, but fell within acceptable limits.



Time today: Two hours 13 minutes (18h27m)

Saturday 30 October 2010




Reading and theoretical studies:



Norbert Wolf Salvador Dali

Parragon, New York, 2008

Pp. 154-187



Sketchbook work: A sketch of an old clay lamp, said to be authentic, though I have my doubts.

Time today: 39 minutes

Friday 29 October 2010




Course work: Made a few more color adjustments. Spent more time backing off and looking for adjustments to make than I did painting. At this point, I think it is time to move on; I may have overdone these two stages. It would be very helpful to the student if OCA included in the text some examples for guidance.

Reading and theoretical studies:



Victoria Finlay Color

Ballantine Books, New York, 2002

Pp. 77-107



Sketchbook work: A view down my gravel driveway.

Time today: One hour nine minutes (15h35m)