Sarto Shoes, a drawing

24x24"  mixed media with chalk, sharpie, aluminum leaf on canvas

copyright clarke

2010

gloucester ma

the narrow space will get a touch of pizzazz once the surface is dry. accumulating some work to show. where?  i don't know.  when i have 10 or 20 i will know.

best,

deb.

this drawing reminds me of the grisaille (gray scale)  under painting  popular among the eighteenth/nineteenth century French Academy painters. i have no intention of glazing this canvas.  yesterday i scraped down/washed down the labors of the past few weeks. removed the 'object of my visual affection' from my field of vision.  then 'drew' the whole thing within a few hours, all from memory.  my subconscious brain remembers more than my conscious brain.

i think it is finished.  the work is on my work wall next to the refrigerator and hasn't once told me to anything more to it.  occasionally i feel a slight need to straighten the 'twist' on the left lower profile of the shoe on the left.  this need is only slight, so the 'twist' will probably remain 'as is' with the slightest angst.

in which i delete all of Ingres' qualifiers

"There is only one art."

Ingres redacted.
debbie clarke
copyright 2010 glouceste rma.

"Two Faced"

My friend Paul Frontiero makes 'Rock Art'.  He draws on rocks, then leaves the drawings somewhere on Cape Ann.  He uploads images and clues to goodmorninggloucester.com with a request that the finder of his drawing report the find to him via email.  sometimes he receives pictures of the folk making the find.  

Paul encouraged me to draw on some rocks.  I came up with "Rock Heads".    it is small.  i incorporated my copyright and email address into the design.  now, what to do with this rock?  it fits in the palm of my hand.  ideas are welcomed.

A & E: :song by the water boys: fisherman's blues: cover:...

A & E: :song by the water boys: fisherman's blues: cover:...: "THIS is what we did this afternoon. It's a rough & tumble cover of one of the sweetest love songs that either one of us have ever heard."

Link from my daughter's blog. this is eb playing her violin to her boy's singing and guitar playing. 'light in my hand, you in my arms' love the song.

The WIP: shoes

this morning's work, and the light changes.  i plan to document this work through completion. or not.  is any work ever complete?  my interest lies with the arrested hand.  how do we know when to stop?  when to continue?  at some point a sense arrives, it is done.  

best, deb

Audience Participation Required!! � GoodMorningGloucester

Audience Participation Required!! � GoodMorningGloucester

oh gawd, what these guys get me into. we really want to know what you do with your webcam. and we want to share them with the good readers of goodmorninggloucester.com . come on, tell us who you are. don't be shy. just do it and we can all publically be shy together. near and far, we want to hear from you!

lifecam 3: drawing the shoes

tonight, before i get the brush.

2010 08 18 09 43 10 354

it's a bit longer than i expected. lifecam test 2. i will have to get up really early in the morning if i want to do this on a regular basis. the cam pics up the sounds of the computer, so the next time i will have to move the camera away from the computer and get my face out of the camera. too many grimaces as i work.

The WIP: shoes

another work from the archives. this time 2006. i was painting shoes. sold the companion to this a while back. offered this companion piece during the sidewalk sale for $150. i showed it to the owner of the other shoe painting. i said "it's not as good as yours" then put it away. and i was right, it is not as good as the one i sold; now it is better.

this is this morning's effort. waiting for the sun to move...it is too hot out there to work right now.

best,
deb

a drawing

a mixed media drawing with oil and leaf on canvas. 24x18".

copyright debbie clarke

gloucester ma 2010

this panel was started march 2009, completed today.  

life cam test

last sunday morning

last sunday morning eb, her boy josh and their penny visited.  eb has established a habit of documenting her sunday mornings. this last sunday morning included me.  our sunday mornings together always feel like home.

 

we both share a history of documenting our lives.  above is the condensed version of my babel tower. the electronic years come later.  i retired the spiral bounds several years ago to electronic documentation, art documentation, sketch books, etc.  i might cast these in shellac.  and i might not.  i might burn them page by page, and maybe not.  the tower is ripe with the transfer of sharpie markers.  that's one way to cover one's tracks, especially if one writes double sided journal entries.  heheheheh.  paperdolls anyone?

This is my daughter's blog.

ae-creative.blogspot.com/

This is my daughter Elizabeth's new blog.  I really like the design of it.  there are a few good pics of yours truly from last sunday morning.  what a girl.  and she can write! 

sounds of gloucester 3

wow i walk fast.
'sounds of gloucester 3'
copyright deb clarke
gloucester ma 2010

sounds of gloucester 2

walk to work
"sounds of gloucester 2"
copyright deb clarke
gloucester ma 2010

sounds of gloucester

"A Documented Life"
deb clarke, gloucester ma
copyright 2010

where's zat? (to borrow a phrase from sharon and gmg)

hint:  my next sunday morning painting class (8am) weather permitting will be held near this location.

my lucky fortune

Steve Linsky

I dont have a' Thousand Words'

Straight out of the camera.  I was so focused on the sign, I didn't see him.  I hope he doesn't mind, I think this is a terrific pic of a working man on a hot summer day.

Wedding House: SOLD!

today is the last day of Gloucester's Sidewalk Bazaar.  i have been showing some of my paintings on the sidewalk in front of Bananas.  yesterday i sold 2 paintings, the one above and its companion The Wedding Reel.  these two works were part of the series of paintings that i did for the Peabody Historical Society's "historic interpretation" show last year.  the paintings are the most non-traditional works i offered up for sale, the others are oils of the beacon marine basin, magnolia harbor, a few still life.  i overheard someone describing this painting and its companion as 'weird'.  heh.  what do you know, these two 'weird' works are the ones that sold.

note to self:  don't listen to the naysayers.  always trust my gut.

and i sold a photograph the day before!  now i can fix my truck.

best,
deb.

True North

Last night our harbor was socked in the fog which glowed pink, green, yellow.  Beyond, above the fog bank the sky.  While I scanned the sky to orient true north an old conversation with my teacher Andy ran through my head.  figure drawing class, Andy bent over my shoulder, talking about visual drives, pushing my eye, here, here, here.  frustration in my eye, my hand, my body, my brain "What am I looking for?" Andy simply said "anything."

and just then, last night, as Andy's 'anything' faded i saw the satellite directly above my upturned head.

Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres 1788-1867

Ingres is part of my foundation and "Artists on Art" is studio companion of 30+ years.

"If I were asked to put up a sign over my door I should inscribe it:  School for Drawing, and I am sure that I should bring forth painters."

My art school was "Debbie Clarke's School for Drawing" following Ingres advice.  The interesting thing is that some painters were drawn forth.  BUT most of my students ended up being sculptors, designers, video/performance artists, ephemerists, collagists, etc.  hmmm.  I should have just named it Debbie Clarke's school for art.  because that is what I drew forth:  artists.  and when my students would tell me that they were there to become artists, I always told them that it was beyond my ability to create artists or teach them how to make 'art'.  all i could do was to teach them how to see as an artist, how to think as an artist, how to use materials.  the foundation was always drawing.

now, I am not a sculptor; but, i learned to see space through the eyes of a sculptor.  Andy MacMillan.  He gave me "B's".  His classes always challenged me to 'look', 'look', 'look'.  and for every 'look' there was always another way of 'looking' at the space, the figure, the picture plane completely contrary to the first look.  I would get confused.  Finally I confessed in frustration "What am I looking for?"  and Andy simply said "Anything."  and he held my gaze for 30 seconds and moved on.  he was one of my best teachers.  when I teach figure drawing, I lean into Andy's guiding words.

heh...and I thought I didn't get it or him.  He was right and i am so blessed to have had him for a teacher.  his teaching was as hard and durable as the granite this island is built upon.

By-the-way Andy studied with George Demetrios, right here in Folly Cove.  I had to go to Boston to The Art Institute of Boston to meet Demetrios' approach to seeing through Andy's classes.

sleep well Andy.  there are many deft eyes and hands as a result of your constancy.

best,

deb.

flea bites

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Originally uploaded by debclarke art

a quick drawing of some pooches recovering from a flea attack. scratch, scratch, scratch.

anything i can draw for you? twenty five bucks a shot, including postage to mail it to you. continental us only.

best.
deb

Art for Sale: Beacon Marine

Beacon Marine viewed from Rocky Neck.  This is an oil painting of the view from our old apartment on Rocky Neck.  The apartment was smaller than this one, but i sure got a lot of painting done in that space.  My struggle was to get the color, activate the picture plane and make the 'box' of the building.  The box is successful.  It was a real struggle to understand the activity below the doc and putting the boats on the plane of the water.  The painting is oil on canvas 24x30".  $375.  copyright Clarke 2007 

(wow, seems like just yesterday)

best,

deb

inquiries about this painting and others always welcomed.

Cobbled Cove, Magnolia MA

100_3691
Originally uploaded by debclarke art

This is the only painting I have ever done of waves on the shore. Something about this dark rock with the water washing over it stayed in my retinal memory, so I painted the memory as soon as I got back to my studio.

The most frequent comment about this painting is that it is too fast. i guess most people (and at one time i thought this too) think you have to labor over an oil painting for it to be valid.

This is not true. Everything changes. in a blink the wave comes in, in a blink it is gone. just like life, we are but a twinkling. I like the speed of my brushwork, the slip of the paint, that slight oily green in the trough of the next wave. just the way it was in that moment.

maybe i will do the ocean again, maybe not. depends on the retinal impact and memory.

so what do you think, should i have labored longer? this painting happened in a timeless flash.

best,
deb.

oh, this is for sale: $275.

working man cripple cove

100_3674
Originally uploaded by debclarke art

saw a great interview with Gloucester artist Paul Ciamiataro on goodmorninggloucester this morning. Paul pointed out that a lot of cape ann paintings focus on the boats, the buildings, the landscape and if there are any peeps in the paintings, they are very small. Paul's focus is on the people that provide the backbreaking labor to bring the sea's abundance to shore.

i just realized that all of my cove drawings are of the shapes of the landscape sans people, except this one where i caught someone getting something stowed in the storage bin of his truck at Capt Joe's.

my truck

testing out flickr.

Awesome!  eb purchased an account for me, but i haven't used it very much.  i think i like this.

best,
deb

Sunday Morning Perkins Street 2010

This is the drawing from last Sunday morning's drawing class.  We held class on a third floor deck with a view that swept over Our Lady of Good Voyage toward the western shore.  I will start paintings from some of these sharpie drawings.  there are three tiny shapes in the drawing that are on the ground plane.  these spaces, one near two far interest me very much.  i'm not sure how i will handle the large roof shapes on the left and right, but that is one of the great things about drawing, i can try the ideas out before committing to paint, or not.  I love all of these complicated views with lots of activity.  do you have a crazy landscape that you would like me to draw for you?  

White Wind needs to visit my friend Steve Linsky

Steve owns Linsky's Service Station,  He is my service man when it comes to keeping my vehicles and humor in tip-top shape. 

I used to drive foreign cars (subaru, volvo, bmw), but after my husband died it proved too costly to keep two cars running.  the volvo died first, then the bmw (the subaru got totalled years ago).  Steve advised me to get an American car (easier on the wallet).  My brother-in-law gave me his dodge dakota and told me to drive it  into the ground.  When I took the truck to Steve for its second oil change he said 'take care of your truck'.  it needed fluids, air, and grease on the axils.  The truck's muffler started talking just prior to my last oil change. so Steve also checked the muffler.  "Can i still drive it?" i asked. "Yes, but the catalytic converter needs to be replaced...ain't a pretty site, rusted out on both ends."  "Will it fall off?" "Maybe, and you risk losing your muffler if it does."  Within a week the sound became a full bore gale that turned every head i passed.  rattled home from the market about 5 weeks ago, turned the wind off and have left her parked.  until she can visit Steve.  

I'm so afraid something will fall off when I drive the truck to Steve, that I am going to have someone follow me...just-in-case I really screw up, drop the exhaust system and create general mayhem with spewed parts from here to maplewood ave.

or maybe i should just pay the thirty bucks and have her towed.

Turns out there is a contest on the Sharpie site!

Vote for me in this contest!

Submit entry

Contest details

but, you can't vote for me. i'm not a college student, unless there is another contest that i am unaware of. have decided it is a poorly designed site. especially when it comes to contests, and if it is not a contest, i should not have vote for me promotional buttons under my images.

whatever.

Magnolia MA

This painting was a demonstration for a painting class I held at the Magnolia landing a few summers ago. It is oil on canvas, 32x40".  I turned the canvas over last night and scrawled on the back is my copyright and next to that $850.  I like numbers that add up to 13 and reduce to 4.   

I will be posting work that is available for purchase. what would you like to see?  oils? landscapes? figures? mixed media?  reverse glass?