my good workspace

100_4084
Originally uploaded by debclarke art

saturday october 2, 2010

spiral bound

spiral bound
Originally uploaded by debclarke art

this is another teaching sketch. lesson: the portrait.  the page starts with one shape, then two, then three, etc.

what interests me about this pic is the line drawing on the right created by the wires, my glasses, etc. says so much.

it says love. xox.

best and more,
deb.

sketchbkcrow

sketchbkcrow
Originally uploaded by debclarke art

from the eleven year sketchbook. i was definitely drawing crows. the transfer page shows intimations of a figure. i kept trying to identify this drawing as figure anatomy, and i couldn't find the reference, then, duh, i drew crows frequently when we lived in the treetop apartment.

The Sketchbook

The Sketchbook
Originally uploaded by debclarke art

The first pages of the sketchbook and the pages are already falling out of the binding.

and what does this have to do with the theme "down your street"? don't know. yet.

best,
deb.

sketchbkteaching

sketchbkteaching
Originally uploaded by debclarke art

This is a sketch found in an old spiralbound sketchbook. The sketch was a demonstration for a figure drawing class. My studio was very public, so we always worked with the clothed figure and i taught how to 'see' through the surface to the form. here i must have been showing the biggest shape of the gesture with counterbalance of the longest line.   visually pleasing to me is the movement of fingerprints from the right picture plane through the form and behind the descending lines on the left lower picture plane.  yes.  this is when Sue Anne modelled for us.

or,

i was drawing a crow. more on that later.

this search through old sketchbooks is part of my preparation for The Sketchbook Project (you can see more about this on our blog: www.somethingsketchy.wordpress.com). Starting on The Sketchbook is difficult. My real sketchbooks are a jumble of visuals, shopping list, notes to family, phone msg, research, etc. The sketchbook imaged here covers years 1998-2010. it's non-sequential and it is not full. sometimes i need a smaller or larger page. sometimes i need a sketchbook right now, and grab whatever is close to hand.

more and best, later.
deb.

The Chairs reconstructed

The Chairs reconstructed
Originally uploaded by debclarke art

a friend on flickr (and other sites) recently reminded me that this is a pretty cool 'ahhtsie (my word)' self portrait. yeah...i really like it too.

Intershell Seafood, oil on canvas $275

This is a quick study that I painted during a Sunday morning painting class this past summer.  They hadn't started to set the staging for Fiesta, so this must have been painted in early June.

The painting has been donated to raise funds for my friend Jim and his wife.  Jim ran Jim's Frame Shop for years.  He was my framer.  Their handicapped van rusted out and they are now stuck without transportation.  The community is raising funds to help them get a new van.  This painting is at Stuff on Main Street in Gloucester.  All funds from the sale of this painting goes towards the fund to buy the van.

best,

deb

last summer morning 2010

someday i should learn to paint like this.  for now, the camera does the work.

best,

deb

Happy Fall!

Equinox Magic

going down street last day of summer

Introducing Something Sketchy!

You can follow the progress of a few intrepid sketchbook friends

complete sketchbooks for 

sketchbookproject

(if you wish to participate, you must order your sketchbook by October 31st.  return the book by mid-january.  first stop:  Space, Portland Maine in March!)

  

Something Sketchy, gloucester massachusetts
 is the blog we have created to document our progress.  we invite you to follow us, and our sketchbooks as the work gets created, then sent off on a road tour with 17,000+ other sketchbooks.  you don't have to be an artist to participate.  all you have to do is complete and return the sketchbook.  the image above is from my spiral bound collection.  clickie, clickie...

non-medicated spider

heh...this spider interferes my work.

work in progress

some downtime

downtime from on-line doings, from the compulsion to 'make'.  i've been looking at a lot of my work, moving it around.  sent a painting off to hang at the Windemere Gallery of Arts and Antiques in Rockport.  It's a fairly large panel for me, 4x5' or so.  it's an oil of a milky magnolia harbor with some dinghies and the pier in the back. maybe i posted a picture of it already?   have sent some work upstairs to storage.  replenished my blocks of charcoal.  have located the black pigment.  have some eggs and paper.

all of my brushes are clean.

and i don't want to paint.  i've packed the oils away.

i have 2 reverse glass paintings to finish.  one is a double sided Our Lady of the Lilies.  the other is of 2 lobster boats, the Dog and I and it's gray neighbor at the dock.  and i have 2 completed reverse glass paintings to frame:  sockeye salmon and The Chorus Line.  will finish framing the Chorus Line first, then it can go to the Windemere to join it's companion "5 Stand".

this is my vacation time until next wednesday.  have done a lot of housecleaning, still have more to do.

but, first to finish, then to draw.

and walk, and read and take a civilized nap or two.

have a few video thoughts too.

later and best,
deb.

A Tale of 2 Paintbrushes

My David was good friends with Armand Sindoni and received one of Armand's paintbrushes, along with a giclee print of one of Armand's last paintings as a remembrance gift from Armand's family.  The brush was proudly displayed above Armand's print, until we moved.  

A few months back I was painting when David took the brush from my hand, claiming it was Armand's.  I said:  "Well, you better put it someplace safe, because if I need a brush and find a brush, I use it."  and that was that,  until yesterday.  Yesterday I cleaned a flat brush when I realized the handle was encrusted with chrome green, a color I do not use.  The handle was used to mix a vat of paint (something I have never done). The ferrule encrusted with old oil.  I checked all of my paintbrushes. The ferrules of all of my old brushes were scraped clean. of encrusted paint.  A former studio assistant used a razor blade to clean my old brushes (a practice I put an end to...the bristles were getting shaved in the process).    I showed the brushes to David, told him that chrome green was a color commonly in use by painters of Armand's generation, then showed him my greens based on veridian and thalo...my greens lean towards blue. David agreed.  

The flat is the Armand Sindoni brush, the bare ferrule bright brush is mine.

I wanted to share some of Armand's work with you.  This photo of him with a self portrait is the only one I could find. He was known for his portraits, but he also painted seascapes.  Below is a link to the Gloucester Schooner Festival tribute to Armand.

Tribute to Armand Sindoni

best, deb.

ps:  while writing this post i looked in the dictionary for a description of bright and flat brushes (always confuse them).  i discovered that the american heritage college dictionary does not include brushes under the meanings and usage of 'bright', 'flat', 'filbert' and 'round'.   a quick google search gave me the answer.

The Chairs

This morning the frame gave way on a glass painting that i did last year for The Peabody Historical Society's "Historic Interpretation" show.  the glass did not break, but the frame is very dangerous.  i think the work can work well with mirror clamps.  i cleaned up some of the mirror and took some pictures.  i came up with a few possibilities to develop some variations on the 'wedding chairs'

this is the slide show.  there are more detailed descriptions on my flickr site.

best,

deb

Progress report: If their mothers knew

grid with thoughts of Poussin's triangular composition.

foiled comp

white aluminum foiled comp

the gilder's oil failed. good, now i can take some chances.

if it's going to fail, might as well do it brilliantly.

now i'm scraping back through the layers.

best,

\deb

ps:  there is a big cruise ship anchored just inside the breakwater.  lots of shuttles flying back and forth.  it's going to be a busy day at bananas.  almost 3000 peeps on the ship including crew.  goodmorninggloucester.com is sure to have plenty of updates to keep you all informed.

The Sketchbook Project: 2011

The Sketchbook Project: 2011 » Art House Co-op | We build art projects and communities

I keep running across links to this. the deadline is October 31st for the 2011 tour. I might do this. it's just a little sketchbook.

Magnolia boats 2001

The  Magnolia Boats 2001 can now be seen at The Windemere Gallery of Arts and Antiques in Rockport.  The painting is oil on canvas, painted from memory.  it was a white hot day in the milky harbor. 

Cape Ann on The Arts Map: Connecting Artists and the Community

Check it out! There are a lot of artists around here on the Arts Map. The good folk at the arts map are using Cape Ann as a test case for this type of focused arts area mapping. cool. I'm on the map, are you?

Cape Ann on The Arts Map: Connecting Artists and the Community

the work continues: the wip: if their mothers knew

had to bring this canvas indoors last night to escape the ravages of Earl.  it was a non-event, just rain, good thing i brought it in.  i took this opportunity to work for a bit under incandescent light, and low light.  and started again.  i like the pentimento and heed the advice that some pigments placed over a layer of ivory black may curdle.  i'm making this up as i go along, so who knows what the finished work will be, i surely don't.  not even an intimation, other than there will be figures.

best,

deb.

"Sarto shoes, a drawing"

"Sarto shoes, a drawing" copyright clarke 2010, gloucester ma, mixed media on canvas 24x24", a detail

"Sarto shoes, a drawing"

c'est finis.

the work continues: the wip: if their mothers knew

this is the 38x42" canvas that i started earlier this summer.  it has been turned to the wall and moved around until i was ready to deal with it.  this past monday i washed the image down with the thought to define an aluminum field.  not yet.  this painting/drawing is at an interesting stage:  it can go in many directions.  i just don't know which interests me most:  the juxtaposition of absurdly small and absurdly large figures with a mixed up perspective, or do i refine larger torso shapes, the three graces, and leave all the other references to resolve within a few simpler shapes.  the painting is warmer than this photo suggests.  might be time to get a new camera.  best, deb

ps:  i will look at some altar paintings.  somehow those venetian painters managed to make us believe giants dwelt among us and stood on the heads of the prominent citizens.  really, those paintings crack me up hmmmm...

how swiftly the object of my visual affection changes.  art is a fickle lover.

Wyeth's boots "Trodden Weed"

Andrew Wyeth's boots.  this painting is one of those images that haunts and informs my art everytime i consider feet, shoes, the incomplete figure on the picture plane.  Wyeth is considered by a lot of viewers as a 'realistic' painter.  Wyeth considered himself an abstractionist.  it has taken me a long time to 'get' it.  maybe...

Van Gogh's "Shoes, 1888"

18x21 3/4", oil on canvas

collection Metropolitan Museum

found this image at artcyclopedia.  vangogh knew how to draw with paint.  i should take some lessons.  it is possible these shoes are life sized.  sometimes these views looking 'down' on an object or landscape give me vertigo when observed hanging on a wall.  yes, i still have a lot to learn.

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

100_3685
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?