I’ve been reading a biography of the Italian painter, Caravaggio by Andrew Graham-Dixon. My obsession with his work has grown since seeing several of his paintings in Roman churches recently. I happened to be up to the part in his life where he was working on his final two paintings before his untimely death. I was engrossed in this chapter as I was on the subway heading to Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York to draw. The Museum actually owns the second to last painting he did in its permanent collection. So, there I was standing in front of it. Funny how that happens in life sometimes. After spending time with the piece titled, “The Denial of Saint Peter,” I went off to draw statues in the Met. On a side note, Caravaggio never did any drawings in his life.
Natural History
Kids always approach me when I’m sketching at the Museum of Natural History and ask me the exact same question. “Are you drawing?” It’s very disarming even though it's very obvious that’s exactly what I’m doing. I’m not sure how they all seem to have come up with that very question. It breaks the ice and we do get to chatting until I have to answer the same question 10 minutes later from some other kid. Keeps me on my toes while I scribble though.
Radicchio
This is my second acrylic ink painting. Radicchio and artichoke make for lovely vegan portraits. My sketchbook is filling up with new paintings. The new me. Paintboy.
Drink And Draw
I’ve written about this twenty times before but I might as well say it again. When I go to life drawing class and they are doing all the one minute, two minutes, and five-minute warm up poses, I draw the unsuspecting artists while they sketch. They are mostly unaware of my shenanigans. After a few weeks of this, I’m left with a drawing like so.
Tree Grows
A Tree Grows In Brooklyn And My Ass Sits In Front Of It For A Few Hours. No, this is not the title of a new book. It’s something that actually happened. This is a Japanese flowering cherry tree that lives in the Brooklyn Botanical Garden. I sat and drew this on our last Indian summer day in late October. This cherry has quite a personality which I managed to capture
Groundwater Problem
America is draining its precious groundwater to make more chicken wings and pizza. The reason is the feed for all those chickens and dairy cows requires huge supplies of alfalfa and soy. It takes massive volumes of water to grow these crops. The effects are being felt in key agricultural regions nationwide as farmers have drained groundwater to grow animal feed. Since the 1980s, cheese consumption has doubled and Americans now eat 100 pounds of chicken a year per-person. Aquifer depletion is happening in Texas, California, Kansas, Arizona, and Arkansas. People are aware of the greenhouse gas issues but not water sustainability when it comes to these foods. Something to think about while chowing down this Super Bowl weekend.
Collage
This is not so much a drawing as it is a collage. A little doodle here and then a few weeks later, another doodle there. Over two months, an illustration comes into view. These sketches are good time wasters.
Dream
Did you ever have a dream where you wake up naked in your place of work or in a shopping mall? You find yourself in a crazy predicament. Sometimes that’s what my life drawing class is like. Recently, the model started talking to me for a second during a break. It seemed just like the dream I described. She was so calm being naked in front of a bunch of strangers. I’m always amazed.
Kale And Pepper
I broke out the acrylic paints to make a mess in my sketchbook. What better way to use the color, Pantone Vegan Green, than paint a Kale leaf and a pepper. A lot of nooks and crannies going on in that leaf. Took a little patience. When folks look through this sketchbook, they won’t anticipate these healthy pages coming.
Minerva
Hippies, freaks, and fringe characters. My life drawing class is full of oddball extras from a David Lynch film. I’m sort of the normal guy. Newcomers are beginning to take notice of my sketches. I’ve held a few Q&A sessions for the inquisitive student. Seeing as I'm the only one ever drawing with a pen, folks can’t quite grasp what I’m doing. They always approach me with the same question, they point at my drawing and say, “did you do that here?” They seem to think I did it at home from a photo and then brought the book in to leave open on my chair in the drawing studio. I have a love-hate relationship with the place. Most times I don’t want to go but some strange curiosity pulls me back into the place and I leave not wanting to go back. I can’t figure it out.
My Aunt and Uncle's House
This was the house of my Aunt Mary and Uncle Arthur. My cousin, Nancy, asked me to do drawing of it so she could gift it to her sisters. I said I’d give it a go. Our whole family spent many happy days hanging out together there. Made me feel good while painting this one.
Dumplings
I was in Vanessa’s Dumpling House in Chinatown and I noticed a Buddha statue. I drew him. Now, I had this floating statue on my sketchbook page. It seemed lonely. So, I drew a child’s block and cat under him to ground the whole image. I finished the sketch off by drawing items I found around my sister’s house, which I stacked one on top of the other. A strange compilation indeed. Not sure if this is how artists went about painting still life’s during the Renaissance. Maybe.
One Hour
I went to my old life drawing class in New York for the first time since the pandemic. It’s the legendary and wacky, Minerva Drawing Studio. Not all the same faces were there. A few folks had passed away in the ensuing years. The diehards remained. I settled into my old spot and picked up where I left off. The joint was still full of art freaks.
