Independence Day

"George Washington (after JCL)," oil on panel

Nearly 250 years ago, our forefathers signed the Declaration of Independence, forever breaking away from the British Empire. The foremost among our founders was doubtless George Washington, whose wisdom, judgement, stature, and contribution to the new nation can't be exaggerated. Without Washington, probably no United States. 

In these troubled times it is good to remember men of valor, conviction, political and social wisdom. 
 

Uncle Sam

Unlike many, my favorite concept of Uncle Sam isn't the famous one from a World War I recruiting poster ("I Want You," by James Montgomery Flagg, a renowned illustrator at the time. 

Instead, I prefer the squinty-eyed, determined Sam painted later on by J.C. Leyendecker,. That Sam, whose facial features owe a great deal to Flagg is more reassuring to me. Instead of looking us in the eye he's watching something in the distance--perhaps gathering war clouds?  

I made this 20x16 portrait of Uncle Sam from a Leyendecker July 4 magazine cover.dating to 1936 "Uncle Sam at the Helm," which shows him steering the ship of state. I was mostly interested in the face.

A Decade Back

"Omaha Summer Arts Festival," wc/ink in 5x8 sketchbook

It's useful to look back at older sketchbooks and studies. Here and there I find works from as long as a couple of decades ago, documenting where practice and work improved. It can be useful to see where one's efforts have led. 

This small watercolor dates from ten years ago, made during an art festival in Omaha, Nebraska. The site has been completely changed over that time, according to news reports, so this scene can't be repeated. 

 

Saturday's Sketch

"Big Walnut," wc/ink, 12x5

Despite the unusual heat here in the upper midwest, our group of sketchers went out as usual. A group came to my home studio where we fanned out along the creek under deep shade, where it was marginally cooler. 

This little watercolor was the result for me. One of our group took a folding chair and sketched under a giant black walnut tree. I was interested in the tree and its bark, so I sat in even deeper shade and did this one. As I usually do, I made a preliminary sketch in pencil and then painted the image with watercolor. One of the things about many watercolors one sees is how washed-out the darker values can be, so I worked hard to make my dark greens rich and believable and the tree bark varied from very dark to quite light. My initial plan was to use only paint, but after the watercolor was dry it seemed to need something, so I added grooves and ridges to the bark with ink.  

 

After Goya

"Senorita Sabasa Garcia (after Goya)," oil on gesso panel, 24x18

 

Like many artists, I have learned my craft in many ways, not the least copying paintings by masters of the past. In my formative years I made copies of  works by Picasso, Velazquez, Monet, Hopper, and certainly not least Francisco Goya. Manet was an enormous fan of Goya's work, as many of his successors have been. The above is my copy of a Goya portrait of about 1806, which I painted maybe twenty years ago or more. . 

Francisco Goya (1746-1828) was one of the painters I enjoyed learning about in college, but I had never seen one until my first encounter during a first visit to Museo del Prado in Madrid. The Prado (as it's commonly called) is the repository of the Spanish Royal Collection from centuries past as well as other masters and more recent additions. When I visited in the 1970s, unlike today, it was quiet and less crowded but there were still plenty of college kids on their backpack tours of Europe. Hippies or their look-alikes were omnipresent on the grounds, under the plane trees. I was in Madrid owing to military assignment and had taken an hour or two to investigate the Prado. Then as now, the Prado ranks in the top 5 or 10 art museums in the world, along with the Met, the Louvre, the Orsay, and others depending on your taste.  

I knew that the Prado has an enormous collection of works by the two particular Spanish masters everyone knows--Francisco Goya and Diego Velazquez. If you're interested in either of those two, the Prado should pull you in. But the museum also has important works by Durer, van Eyck, Titian, Bosch, and Rubens to name a few. Anyway, during that visit I found myself stopped, awestruck, several times, notably by "Descent from the Cross," by van Eyck (ca 1435), an astonishing former altarpiece (but that story is for another time). Goya was my interest that day, primarily because I had yet to meet Velazquez face to face, but I had known of Goya since adolescence. 

In one gallery, facing each other I found what are arguably Goya's most famous works, "La Maja Desnuda," (below) and "La Maja Vestida" (that is "The Nude Maja" and the "Clothed Maja,") each a portrait of the same sitter and supposedly commissioned by a wealthy patron. Scandalous in its day, the nude was at first hidden from view but later discovered by the Inquisition, which prompted Goya being interviewed by them.. He somehow escaped prosecution by the Church, but the painting was hidden away for at least twenty years. It was astonishing work, the sitter challenging us directly, her exquisite skin tones and anatomy equally masterful. I was enraptured by both works.

Francisco de Goya y Lucientes, "La Maja Desnuda," oil on canvas, ca 1795-1800

Years later, when learning portraiture, I copied "La Senorita Sabasa Garcia," a lesser-known work, because I wanted to see a Goya portrait with fresh eyes. During that part of his career when he painted this beautiful young woman, Goya was court painter to the Spanish king, and much in demand. He seems to have seen her one day, put down his work in progress, and demanded to paint her immediately.. 

My copy is slightly smaller than the original, but the colors, especially skin tones, are comparable to the original. To make this copy I gridded a blown-up image and transferred it to my panel, then made a charcoal drawing. After fixing the drawing I painted the portrait directly, in several sessions, working carefully to match value, color and other details.

As a copy, this has never been shown or offered for sale. I happened onto it in storage a few days ago.  

Last Saturday

Unlike my usual Saturday sketching jaunt, last weekend the group was invited to a country place around 20 miles from the city. Although Iowa is renowned for being flat, it really isn't. Instead the land rolls and tilts, leaving small glens and ancient watercourses, especially in the southern counties. The acreage where I painted is one such piece of land. It slopes north from a gravel road, down to a small pond flanked by woods and a bright meadow. The house is a wooden geodesic dome under vast mature trees. The quiet is almost palpable, with the exception of bird song. 

"Emily's Place," oil on panel, 11x14

This time instead of watercolor, I did a plein air oil sketch, standing opposite the house on the bank of the pond. There was ample time to spend simply seeing and not necessarily slathering paint. A teacher of mine once said that you should spend considerably more time looking than actually painting. Excellent advice that I followed, since I had about 3 hours of reasonably consistent light. After the plein air session I finished details and corrected various places before adding a signature. 
 

Garden Lantern

"Garden Lantern," oil on hardboard, 14x11

Sometimes a routine studio tidy-up can yield forgotten works. Today while clearing up a stack of paintings in the studio I came across an oil painting dating from probably a decade or so ago. So far as I know I haven't posted this one before. It's an Asian lantern hanging in the shady garden just outside the studio. The lantern is purely decorative.