Day at the Beach

We went to the south shore today to enjoy our first day at the beach this season. We dug a hole, Amira climbed in it. We sunbathed, and sand blew on our blankets. We jumped over waves, and never felt too hot. Amira made many friends, and we left before high tide washed away our blanket. Finished it with fish at Jake's fish market and ice cream at DQ. Indulgent and perfect!

Orchids, Peonies & Sunflowers

Continuing with the theme, flowers and faces...

In these I am drawing the flowers first and the faces second, so hopefully the image of the flower comes through the portrait. The last one illustrates how tired I am of looking at my own face-when will Amira be able to pose for me?

Staying up late to see Fireworks

We were in upstate NY for the weekend. My hometown hosts a Steamboat fest each year, with fireworks to follow. So we stayed up late waiting for the show to begin.




As soon as the show began though, Amira's little heart started pounding and she took off running. We listened to the show from inside my parent's house, settled into bed and went to sleep.

We spent a lot of time napping together this weekend, which can be just as good as fireworks.

Some time at the Park

Wheee!

Ahhh! Skin burn.

I need to learn to slide like an expert.

Luckily I have a good teacher!

Amira is an expert at having fun at the Park!

Now on to our long weekend!

Wednesday

The end of the day on Wednesday...

And a quick sketch of Wednesday, the cat, or "meow meow" as Amira calls her. Really she is much quieter since Amira arrived in our family. She used to be really vocal. She used to wake me up in the morning by patting my face with her paw, and when my eyes opened she would howl. This was generally around 5 in the morning. That behavior cost her the privilege of sleeping in our room. She is much calmer now, and of course older.
The flowers are hydrangeas from the bush outside. I have never seen so many beautiful bushes of hydrangeas before moving to Dorchester. It seems like every house has a bush and each one is gorgeous.
And as this Wednesday is coming to a close it is time for me to go to bed and sleep like the other members of my household. Maybe after work tomorrow we can all take a walk and see the flowers in bloom.

Flowers and Faces

A couple more experiments.

Both with blind contours-

and the layering of flowers and faces.
The exotic markings of the flower layer on the face like bold stripes of make up. On the first image here, the markings are on top, like a mask. In the second image, the flower markings are underneath, and the forming of the flesh of the face rubs them away. But the markings remain like shadows. I am finding this more and more interesting, as a discussion of "exoticism", like the orientalism movement, which I believe has led to so much misunderstanding today.

Evening Cupcake

Mommy: "Amira, do you want a cupcake?"
Amira: "Yes-tank ku!"



Dirty knees and open windows...SUMMER IS HERE, even if it is raining!

Adrian and Peony

I have been doing some blind contour drawings this week after looking through Clemente's Life is Paradise book I received in the mail upon returning from NY. Blind contour's are a great exercise for connecting your eyes to your hands. This one wasn't completely blind-here I was more interested in layering. Drawing a peony and then Adrian on top of it. There are a lot of elements I am thinking about here (patterns, gender, relationships, sex) and the flower does look like Adrian's brain exploding-I need to sort these thoughts into a thesis!

Beautiful Weekend

Spent the weekend in upstate NY with friends & family. There was a little rain and a lot of sun.




I hope this summer is full of weekends as nice as this one.

Sketching

Sketching some flowers in my sketch book, and "thinking out loud" so to speak. I haven't used pastels in years. I really enjoy the immediacy, and tactility of them. Erasing and seeing a shadow of the previous mark. This was something I loved with intaglio printmaking: the memory of a prior state.

June Weekend

This weekend: Amira playing with her "bebies" Flowers from Cedar Grove to draw. MOS, MFA, deCordova. Tacos for lunch. Cat hiding under the couch.

Adrian #2

The weather is getting nice, and we are able to sit with the window's open here. Adrian is watching "The Verdict" which is supposed to take place in Boston, but is filmed in NY. I wish tomorrow I was home with Amira and taking a walk in the sun. Maybe after work we can take a bike ride. Summer nights make me want to stay up late. And nap during the day. Will have to take a day to do just that.

Still Going

So I am always available to myself as a subject, so if I continue with portraiture, I will be a common theme. The above piece was a little difficult, because I was this reclined for most of the painting. For my previous self portrait series, I was painting mostly on rag paper that Adrian and I had around the house from our printmaking days. Arches BFK and Reeves-oh so much nicer that the sketch book I just bought! I picked up a Canson watercolor sketch book, 18" x 24". And while durable, and not especially inexpensive, I miss the softness of the rag paper.
You know who else is frequently available...

Adrian! I started this during the big thunder storm last week, that actually produced a tornado in Springfield. The storm was incredible. It is the first time thunder and lighting woke Amira from sleep. We lost power for about 10 hours. So I had to stop this halfway through, but finished it up tonight.

Memorial Weekend

My family came to visit this past weekend.

We went to the Blue Hills Reservation.

Some of us went hiking and some of us went swimming.

And we also had fun at home.

Spring is turning to summer in Boston.

And we are thrilled!