Winter Looms

Saturday brought another session of sketching in the afternoon. Luckily the weather was reasonable, if not really warm, though the wind was fairly brisk most of the early afternoon. We went to Union Park, a beautiful spot above the east side of the Des Moines River. With the trees now leafless you could see the downtown skyline against the sky with a curtain of trees in front. The river flowed silvery at the foot as well. You could almost feel winter, crouching behind the horizon.

I sat at the top of the hill above the park entrance and gazebo to sketch. But the wind! At first it wasn't so bad but the gusts made it hard to keep the watercolor sketchbook on my knee. Facing the conditions I decided to be as broad and minimal as I could in painting the scene. I drew a quick layout, then washed on a cerulean sky. Next I mixed a warm dark for the bank and skyline then worked in the trees in the foreground and gave the river some dark reflections. A technical pen helped with the finish. I emphasized certain parts of the buildings by reinforcing the darks and added branches, twigs, the far river bank, and a few details here and there. The painting below is about 5x10 in my sketchbook.

The King's Painter

Lately I've been reading a new biography of Hans Holbein (1497-1543), The King's Painter:The Life of Hans Holbein, by Franny Moyle. Just published, it is the first biography I've read of the great master, although I've admired his work for decades. For me, and I suspect for many, Hans Holbein the Younger (his father was an artist too) was born in Augsburg, Germany but spent the majority of his working life in Basel, Switzerland. Even so, it is mostly his works from England that attract attention. The justly famous Portrait of Sir Thomas More, the great English lawyer, scholar, humanist and statesman is a perfect example. It is now in the Frick Collection in New York.Scatt

Hans Holbein the Younger, "Sir Thomas More," oil on panel, 1527

Sir Thomas More was a staunch supporter of the Catholic Church against the Protestant Reformation. Although he met favor with Henry VIII, the English king, he was forced to retire after Holbein painted him. Henry made himself head of the English church, removed power from the Pope and therefore allowed himself to marry Anne Boleyn.

"The Ambassadors," oil on wood, 1533

In any event, the new biography is a thorough one, though the author seems to digress a bit too often for me. My copy is an electronic one, with illustrations at the end. One needs to refer back and forth in order to completely comprehend the author's descriptions of particular paintings, of which there are many. That complaint aside, the book is well written for a general audience, rather than a limited one of connoisseurship. In particular, the author explores Holbein's penchant for allusion and perspective in his work, none less striking than The Ambassadors, his portrait of two French men who had come to England on diplomatic missions. The most striking feature of the work is the anamorphic skull in the foreground, which can only be understood as a skull from an extreme angle. 

Ms. Moyle has written an engaging and interesting biography of Hans Holbein that nearly anyone who enjoys art would find entertaining.

MVIS 10th Annual Show

The name of the Missouri Valley Impressionist Society (MVIS) sounds like a regional organization, but membership is actually open to artists from everywhere. Actual physical exhibits are held only in states in the Missouri River watershed, but otherwise the organization is a national one. Most exhibitions are limited to members. 

The 10th Annual Juried Art Show by members opened last weekend at the Albrecht-Kemper Museum of Art in St. Joseph, Missouri. This year I was honored that my plein air oil, "Upstream, April Light" (below) was juried into the exhibition. It's a painting of Druid Hill Creek, which flows north just outside my studio. When this was painted the honeysuckle that drapes the banks is spring green against darker trunks, shadows and leaf litter, so much so it almost glows. This work was painted on the spot, outdoors. It was a pleasant, soft spring day with warm sun and a gentle zephyr of a breeze. One of the exhilarating challenges of outdoor painting is trying to capture the fleeting moment, the flash of bright leaves against dull backgrounds, the ripple of smooth water over a rocky bottom, all set off by subtle shadows. Sometimes as you're painting you think, "this is never going to work," but thank goodness a lot of the time it does. This one was fun, once it was finished.

This year's the MVIS Juried show runs through the new year, to January 9th. It's a beautiful show. Other plein air works from last year and this are collected on my website. www.garyhoff.com/collections/pleinair. 

"Upstream, April Light," oil on panel, 9x12, currently available

One Year Ago

 

About a year ago, November 5 to be exact, I painted the north shore point of Gray's Lake, our local gem of a park. It was morning, probably about 10, and sunlight slanted low from left to right, filtering through bare trees across the distant bank. The sun was bright on the tall grasses and sand along the shore and the still water gave back beautiful reflections. Iowa in autumn. Wonderful.

The Asian Pavilion

Back in July I posted about the Asian pavilion, a beautiful Chinese-style building set on the east bank of the Des Moines River across from downtown. It's the central feature of the Robert Ray Asian Gardens. The garden area includes stone lanterns, sculptural rock formations and decorative plantings. I had painted an 11x14 plein air of the pavilion that I included in the blog, enjoying the way the roof lines and the curves step back, so like branches of a huge tree. Mostly that time I wanted to capture morning light on the roof and surrounding tree branches. Since then the gardens and river have become a favorite for plein air work and those paintings in turn fuel later studio compositions.

"Landmark," oil on panel, 9x12, available

This is a studio painting derived in part from plein air studies like that one. In this small oil my intent was to contrast textures from sky to trees to roof. The roof and its ornamentation compelling sandwiched between the organic forms. The deep reds and greens of the pavilion against broken clouds made a satisfying pattern of abstraction. 

This particular work is featured this month on my website. 

The Greatest Generation

A few years back a newscaster published a book about those who came of age during the Great Depression,and fought in the Second World War or worked selflessly at home during the conflict. They did what they did because it was the right thing to do. That generation, born roughly during the first quarter of the 20th century, are passing now, and the youngest of them still living are in their nineties.

Congressman Neal Smith

Not long ago, one of the greatest of that generation died at 101 years old. Neal Smith was his name, and he was born and lived his life here in Iowa. He worked farming and running a gas station before the war. During the war he fought in the Pacific Theater as a bomber pilot, where he was shot down and earned a Purple Hear. After the war he attended college, then law school, and eventually ran for the House of Representatives. Although he disliked Washington he often said he kept returning because that was where there was work to be done. In the end he served 36 years in Congress, longer than anyone from Iowa ever had. Neal Smith was soft-spoken, humble, and dedicated to public service. In recognition of his contribution to the nation and his state he was honored many times while he still lived. The Federal Building in Des Moines bears his name, and so does an enormous nature preserve in the central part of the state, among others. 

I was privileged to know him as a fellow member of a local service club, which he attended almost without fail until reaching nearly 100. The pandemic prevented his attending during the last year or so of life, but before that he was a fixture at meetings, where it was my privilege to spend time discussing all sorts of issues and ideas with him. Even at his advanced age, Neal was keenly interested in national and state politics, social trends, and new ideas. We will miss his gentle smile and quiet wisdom. Truly he was an eminent person in the Greatest Generation.

Aspens in Iowa

Most people associate aspen trees with the mountains. But aspens grow quite well here in Iowa too. This stand of buttery yellow ones has flourished here, now reaching almost fifty feet in size. 

I painted these in one of my larger watercolor sketchbooks using a set of "inktense" watercolor cakes from Derwent. The colors just seem to pop.

Iowa Prairie

Northwest of Des Moines is Jester Park, an enormous area encompassing woods and prairie and bordering a big reservoir, Saylorville Lake. The park has a golf course, equestrian center, nature center, outdoor recreation center and much more. Last summer I was part of a small group of invited artists who spent two days painting outdoors, and I posted several paintings here from that event. The paint out was intended to promote the county conservation board, which superintends it, as well as the park itself. 

"Jester Park Prairie," oil on panel, 2021

One of the views at the western border of the park is a patch of Iowa prairie that also encloses a sculpture walk with full-size bronzes of various animals that inhabited the area--bison, elk, and so on. It was fun and instructive to paint the roll of the landscape, and the dozens of colors it held.

Blazing

This fall the weather has been wet--more than six inches of rain through October--but not so very cool. In fact we've yet to have even a light frost along Druid Hill Creek. The trees are changing more slowly, mostly rust and red with tipping yellow-greens here and there. As you'd expect, leaves have been fluttering in the crisp northern breeze. 

Outside my studio, the small trees along the creek bank have suddenly blazed into a mass of golden yellow. I stood at the window and sketched them in pencil and watercolor, not spending any time on detail. Using a set of Derwent "Intense" colors gave an idea of the saturated yellow and yellow-orange leaves against a bright clear sky.

More Metal

Only a few days remain in Metal Month, my version of an event called Inktober. My goal has been to do at least one metalpoint drawing every day, as a way to practice and refine skills. Ten days of travel out of state caused a bit of disruption, but so far I've managed more than twenty drawings, mostly with silver, though a couple of goldpoint drawings sneaked in too. 

In this drawing of a middle-aged man, it was the sidelong, wary expression that was most attractive, but the off-center hat, jowly cheeks and mustache were added attractions. This one is on a piece of fairly rough paper rather than on a specially prepared surface. Most metalpoint drawings these days seem to be executed on paper or some other surface that has been given at least one coat of liquid silverpoint ground. This one is about 5x9 inches.

Many past masters have made silverpoint drawings, and copying their work has been a good way to work on the mechanical aspects of the medium. That is, since it's difficult to eradicate the marks made with a metalpoint stylus the artist must use special care to place each mark accurately as well as strive hard to give each mark the right degree of darkness. Metalpoint has a much narrower range of values available, which adds to the challenge. This particular drawing of a sneering woman is from a photo I snapped many years ago. It was done in my metalpoint book which has been prepared as mentioned above with a brushed-on liquid ground. 

During these final days of October my plan is to draw more figures. The drawing to the right is a study of a figure in a classic sculpture "Laocoon and His Children," made nearly two thousand years ago in ancient Greece or Rome. It was discovered in 1506 to the delight and inspiration of Michelangelo. I was attracted by the sinuous, muscular torso of Laocoon. 

Only a few more days and a few more figures.

Fall Color

"Autumn Color," watercolor on paper

One of the great joys of living in the upper midwest is the changing seasons. Say what you will about the wonderful weather in places like Arizona and Florida, for me an endless summer is boring. Here in Iowa, the crisp days of autumn are a relief from hot days that are often sticky with humidity. As for winter, seems to me you can't have summer without it.

"Grandview Park," watercolor on paper

Anyway, the autumn give us pleasant days, often with the more oblique light of sunny days that makes the trees glow brilliantly. As the season matures I expect to spend many more days outdoors.

Besides watercolor, of course, I spend a lot of time working plein air in oil colors.

Favorite Artists 16 - Albrecht Durer

"Self Portrait at 13," silverpoint

For the past few years this Favorite Artists series has spotlighted a number of my favorites but to my surprise Albrecht Durer (1471-1528) has yet to receive a full post. He was an indisputable great whose work comprises a wide range of media and genres. His expertise in oil, watercolor, ink, print making, and other artistic pursuits marks him as one of the very greatest of all time.

Albrecht Durer was born in Nuremburg to a goldsmith with the same name (Durer the Elder) and his wife. By age thirteen he was obviously a talented draftsman, even before four years of apprenticeship. Near the end of his training he made a diptych (or possibly two pendant portraits) of his parents (below). The portrait of his father has been known for a long while, but the portrait of his mother was only rediscovered forty years ago.

"Portrait of the Artist's Father," oil on panel, 1490

"Portrait of the Artist's Mother," oil on panel, 1490

After his apprenticeship he traveled, spending time in Venice, where he was exposed to the great works and masters of his day. Returning to Nuremburg in 1495, he began an exceptional career as a painter and print maker and was famous all over Europe. In

"The Four Horsemen," woodcut, 1498

 particular, his series of 15 woodcuts depicting scenes from the Christian Book of Revelation, Apocalypse (below), was most famous. He seems to have learned early on that there was good income in sales of prints and made many throughout his career. But he was a not only a master oil painter but also a master of watercolor, as his Large Piece of Turf (1503) and other works clearly demonstrate. 

In 1505 he again journeyed to Italy, but as a famous artist he gained commissions and more fame. While there he visited Venice again but also spent time in Bologna, Florence, and Rome. His Christ Among the Doctors (1506) shows the influence of daVinci--note the grotesque faces. By 1507 he had returned to Nuremburg but with a wealth of influences from the southern Renaissance. His reputation continued to grow throughout the rest of his life, so that the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian commissioned him and kept him busy until 1519. Durer remains the premier artist of the northern Renaissance.

Below are a selection from Durer's vast oeuvre, including probably his most famous "Young Hare," a watercolor. 

"The Young Hare," watercolor, 1502

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Praying Hands," ink and chalk, 1508

 

"Self Portrait," oil on panel, 1500

---

Related posts:

Family Portraits

Favorite Artists
Favorite Artists 2--Chardin
Favorite Artists 3--Grant Wood
Favorite Artists 4--Diego Velazquez
Favorite Artists 5--Andrew Wyeth
Favorite Artists 6--Wayne Thiebaud 
Favorite Artists 7 - Edward Hopper
Favorite Artists 8- Nicolai Fechin
Favorite Artists 9- Rembrandt 
Favorite Artists 10-Hokusai
Favorite Artists 11-Franz Hals

Favorite Artists-12-Vincent 

Favorite Artists 13-John Sargent
Favorite Artists 14-Thomas Eakins 

Favorite Artists 15-Ilya Repin

 

More on Metal Month

As posted a while back, October is a Metal Month for me. That is, my drawing plan for this month has been to do at least one metalpoint every day. The genesis was an event founded some years ago by an artist who decided to do an ink drawing every day of October, and called it Inktober, his stated purpose being to hone his ink drawing skills. Since then the idea has taken off so that now many do some sort of daily drawing during the month of October and post it online. 

So my purpose in doing and posting a metalpoint drawing every day is simply practice, and more practice. Metalpoint drawings aren't much different from drawings with graphite or chalk or any other medium although there are significant differences. The range of darks possible with metal is more narrow, so that you have to be very careful with values. And of course you can efface metalpoint marks, depending, but erasing them without damaging the surface is problematic at best.

"Cyclamens," silverpoint on gesso panel, 4x6, 10-4-21

This drawing of a group of cyclamen blossoms is from a reference I shot some years ago. In this case, my interest wasn't just the drawing but also the support. Silverpoint is done best on a slightly abrasive ground like gesso or the special silverpoint grounds you can buy. This little panel was certainly suitable for the metal, and the darks are attractive.

Untitled, silverpoint on paper, 5x7

The drawing to the left is another silverpoint, this time on a kind of paper that's rough enough to accept the metalpoint marks. This particular drawing was based on an online photo reference from a few years ago. This paper is relatively thin and won't rub off enough silver to make darks very deep. So a way to overcome the paper's lower level of abrasion is to cross-hatch, as I did in this image. Even so, the darks aren't very dark.

Untitled, silverpoint on prepared paper, 5x9

The evergreen in the silverpoint drawing on the right is outside my studio window. It's part of a group of three or four that are thirty feet tall, or so. This drawing began as an experiment with paper. I have a sketchbook that I prepped with a metalpoint ground to make it usable--otherwise the paper was too slick. The ground comes as a liquid and is simply brushed thinly onto whatever surface one is preparing. The paper in this sketchbook is substantial enough to accept the ground without much cockling. I've been using it for metalpoint drawings this month while experimenting with other surfaces. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure, silverpoint on paper, 5x7

The figure below is another that I did early this month in my metalpoint sketchbook. This figure is a professional model. Although the paper surface was one of my interests in doing this particular drawing, mostly I was interested in trying very very hard to make an accurate line drawing with firm lines. Using a broad point on the silver stylus allows wide lines. Also, one of my habits is to use a kind of searching line as I draw, sometimes moving it a lot or making furry, scratchy marks. Here I wanted to see a solid drawing without any of that. Surprisingly, this drawing felt considerably more free than some of the earlier ones.

The month continues, more to be posted in a week or two.

Florida

"Fan Palm," wc, 4x8

We arrived here a few days ago for a long-delayed family visit, hindered by the pandemic as so many have been. Unlike the Midwest, Florida stays green all year round, more so the farther south you go. Here around Tampa Bay the plants and foliage are always green. Palm trees grow wild and species we know as house plants grow tall in the gardens outdoors. Even in the depths of winter, like January in the watercolor on the left, people walk their dogs in shirt sleeves and huge palm trees flank the buildings and gardens. 

"Bradenton Green Belt," wc, 8x10

In Iowa, when we talk about green space or green belts the trees we know are cottonwoods, willows, elders, oaks, even elms. But in Florida its palms but also many many other species. In south Florida, green spaces are effectively jungle, choked with undergrowth, middle tier and high tier native trees, and commonly damp, muddy, or actual wetlands. Where there is water, even in residential areas, you see alligators, wading birds like sandhill cranes. Deer and all manner of bird life thrive in the warm, wet, and green environment.

The green belt behind us is a good example of the jungle-like areas you see around here. Although it is only thirty or forty yards deep, this space is in many ways like rainforest or jungle. I spent some time painting the green wall next to a walking trail that's perhaps forty yards away, back in 2016. If anything the green belt has become more dense and darker.

"Bradenton Bird," wc on paper, 4x7

The weather was rainy and humid during the early days of our visit, but here are a couple of subjects from sunny Florida. The first is a bird of paradise that blooms continuously outside the front door. It's an astonishingly healthy clump of plants. The second is the view from the back of the house, showing a distant line of trees and three of the bright red ti plants that so many here employ as garden accents. These plants can grow tall--perhaps six feet or more. 

 

 

"Florida," wc on paper, 5x9

 

Weekend Watercolor

Ten days or so ago the Saturday sketch group spent a warm sunny afternoon at Greenwood Park, which south of the Des Moines Art Center. The park contains an amphitheater, woods, walking paths, gardens, artwork, and a big pond. I spent a couple of hours along the bank where ornamental trees were just starting to change color. The bright yellow-orange of their foliage against the dark emerald greens of the surrounding woods was almost artificially bright. 

"Greenwood Park, Autumn," watercolor on paper, 8x10

Fall is a great time for sketching. I'm traveling this week in Florida, where autumn never penetrates, but expect more of these when I return, as Autumn reaches its peak.

Metal Month

Late last month while considering another Inktober--the worldwide event of drawing and posting a daily pen and ink drawing--I decided instead to do a metalpoint drawing every day of this month, posting the results. We're now about a week into the month and so far I've managed to follow through. Of course, metalpoint is a much different drawing discipline than inking. Both invove drawing with materials that aren't easily erased, only effaced; both are considered antique, if not archaic; and both have a limited following. No matter. The point is to work with the medium repetitively, becoming familiar with its strengths and limitations. 

Working with metalpoint requires an exacting approach, a carefully prepared surface, and considerable time. Whatever support one uses for metalpoint drawings, the surface must have some "tooth," a mildly abrasive surface, to allow the metal to be rubbed onto it. Soft metals like silver, gold, even lead, work fine and make marks that vary in darkness and color. Silver makes a cool, medium-dark line while gold makes warm but paler lines. The need for an exacting approach is similar to ink--another unforgiving medium--since erasure isn't really possible. Depending on the support and surface you can erase metal marks with exceptionally-fine sandpaper, but usually the surface is damaged too much. And since even silverpoint marks can only be deposited in a limited range of values, shading and volume rendering need care with line weights and hatching, both of which require considerable time. I'm hoping that a month of working with silvepoint will give me much experience and advance my skills with the medium.

These are a few of the daily metalpoints from the past week.

"Breaker Boy," silverpoint on board, 3x5

The first silverpoint for October, "Breaker Boy," was actually finished September 30. It is a drawing on a piece of gessoed hardboard, which provides a good surface with enough tooth for silverpoint. The image is from an antique photo of boys who worked in deep-shaft coal mines in Appalachia at the turn of the 20th century. These school age boys worked 60 hour weeks and had no schooling. Breaker boys worked to remove impurities from coal that had been broken into lumps--by hand. Eventually child labor laws stopped the practice of children in coal mines.

Figure study, silverpoint on paper, 7x9

The figure drawing on the left, from a reference photo, shows the fine lines you can achieve with a sharp stylus. The challenge with this drawing was exactness. For me that meant long study before making a single mark, then extreme care, placing a mark and then leaving it alone. The idea was to do each piece of the figure accurately the first time. In the end that approach means very little fiddling with the drawing, cleaner lines, and a good figure. The paper used for this drawing was prepared by brushing a liquid silverpoint ground onto each page of a sketchbook. The paper weight was enough to allow application of the ground without cockling, and the ground is more abrasive than gesso, which allowed for very thin yet dark silver lines.

After Buonarotti, silverpoint, 5x6.5

The drawing below is another silverpoint drawing on paper but the paper itself accepts metal without preparation. Unlike the thinner paper in my sketchbook, this paper has a bit of "give," or compressibility, which actually prevents making exceptionally dark lines, plus a sharp point will incise the paper, which I wanted to avoid. This drawing is a detail of a sculpture by Michelangelo that he abandoned. It was to be part of his own tomb but the stone was flawed and he quit working on it long before he died. A student kept it. This is a detail of the head of one of the figures, which is said to be a self portrait.

As the month progresses my plan is to continue working with a variety of supports. Most of these works will be silverpoint but perhaps I'll throw in a goldpoint or two.

A Memory

Sometimes an image, a video, a snatch of melody can trigger a memory. Just today while reviewing some old drawings a remembrance of things past struck me.

Hoff, "Old Times," pen and ink, 2008

Around 1950, maybe a bit earlier, my grandmother lived on the edge of a tiny town in Oklahoma wheat country. There were a few hundred who lived there and a few hundred more who farmed within maybe ten or fifteen miles. During the summer a train came almost every day to load wheat from one of the elevators in town. The railroad tracks passed a few dozen yards from my grandparents' place, and I developed a habit of running out to the tracks and waving to the crew as the big engine came slowly by. Sometimes they would blow the steam whistle--it was a big steam engine of the kind we don't see any more. I used to stand and gape as the huge line of cars rattled past. 

Today I know that the huge engine was really only middling in size and the long line of cars was much shorter. No matter. To this little boy it could have been the Orient Express or maybe the California Zephyr. The big black engine, the mixture of hot oil, coal smoke and dust was intoxicating. 

But one day, the train stopped. Astounded, I craned my neck to the man in the engine's window. "Hey, Little Bud," he cried. "Want a ride?" Without a thought I clambered over and he lifted me into the cab, full of dark oily levers and rods. In those innocent days no one thought twice about such things. Although I didn't know it, the engineer and fireman on the train knew my family. And it was probably no more than three or four blocks to the elevators where they would load. And off we went. 

Hoff, "Setting Watches," pen and ink, 2008

He let me blow the whistle, lean out the window the way he usually did, and dropped me off two blocks away, across from a gas station in town. Men in the station chuckled as I hitched up my jeans and strutted over. "Hey Little Bud! Does your mommy know you're here?" Of course she didn't, but a quick call and my grandfather took me home. You could do things like that in those days. 

Perhaps that memory is why railroads have always fascinated and attracted me. A couple of decades back I made a series of drawings of classic railroad subjects--mostly steam engines and early diesels. The majority of the drawings were done using standard black ink, but a few (eg, right) were done using a very old kind of ink known as iron gall--favored by masters of the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Although none of these made it to the market, they remind me of old times, now only memories.

Hoff, "The Big Diesel," pen and ink, 2008

Hoff, "Long Gone," pen and ink, 2008