Ignaz Elhafen at the AGO

On a recent evening visit to the AGO I returned to the amazing ivory and wood carvings from the Thomson Collection. I forever am impressed at the ability of these carvers from Medieval to Baroque period for not only their ability to do such intricate work, but also the level of anatomical knowledge they possessed.

Ignaz Elhafen one just one of the many on display that caught my attention for his intricacy. He's not a common name, nor is he considered one of the greats since it seems he concentrated on the same theme over and over again (precursor to mass production?), but damn he was good. He must have had the hands of of brain surgeon, and perhaps the brain of one too to have such all encompassing grasp of form in space. To an expert Ignaz may not be impressive, but to me he is and once again I have to express my thanks to the late Ken Thomson for his inclusion of Ignaz' work in his collection.

Skeleton Gestures

Haven't been able to do any life drawing lately, and when I came across this study it just made me want to get back at it even more.

I should add that although this hardly seems like 'life drawing' I find doing these kind of quick studies keeps me tuned in to the inner structure. When I pull the skin over the underlying bone structure, the skeleton effect on the surface form is a kind of punctuation that holds and moves the eye over, around and about the figure itself, holding it here and moving it there so that a sense of timing in the movement of the eye and the message to the mind is created.

Study of a Bird Skull

Cheap Paper sketching

With all the paper I have in my studios you would think I would pick a sheet of good stuff, but instead I find myself drawing on envelopes and cheap copy paper. I think it goes way back to when I was young and really couldn't afford good art supplies. Good paper was special and not for just any sketch or doodle. So I still find myself grabbing anything near, the cheaper the better, and happily sketching on it. It's not that I don't love great papers, but a roll of kraft wrapping paper is oh so wonderful to draw on. 'Just not permanent.

My other failing is buying sketchbooks and never really filling them before I buy another. I guess all that matters is just drawing, and not worrying on what, unless of course it belongs to someone else. Never a good idea.

Meanwhile I end up struggling with lots of sheets of cheap paper, rolls of kraft, boxes of envelopes, and shelves of great papers just waiting to be used. Ah, will I ever get it right?

Studies of Arms

I was just looking at some old journals and found my scrawled notes from when I was taking human anatomy at the University of Guelph. I was desperately trying to make sense of the shoulder and all the muscles that overlap, go around, go under, go anywhere except where I could understand them. Top that off with all the plumbing: arteries, veins, nerves and lymphatic system and you may as well have tossed me into one of those manholes with cables cut and wires all over....I was just as lost.

Years later, all those extras aside (and a healthy respect for any MD) it makes sense and I find myself trying to bring some sort of simplicity of understanding to my students at Seneca. I can tell by their blank looks that much of it zooms by and disappears into the ether. But they also seem to come back and show a level of understanding that I wish I had had at their age.

All that anatomy is more than bone and muscle inventory and so important in my eyes to an understanding that can be visually conveyed in drawings of the figure. So if you are interested in drawing the figure, don't give up. Every time you take another stab at it, you'll understand a bit more, and just like the drop of water that can crack rock, you'll break through. I did, even if it took a bit of time. I'm sure you'll do it faster.



The studies above are some drawings for understanding the movement of the shoulders and the changes in form as they do. My suggestion: learn the skeleton first. Try to study from a real one and not copy from a book or a cheap model. Both will screw you up. You have to visit the real thing first and then books are good. My suggestion (and not because I can read German but because it probably is the best for the diagrams) is Gottfried Bammes' Die Gestalt des Menschen. It's not cheap but worth every penny. (I'll do a list of the best books I've found later). Don't worry about reading....the diagrams tell it all.



After you've studied the skeleton (without one we would be an amoeba) treat the muscles as cables. Leonardo did. Or at least he seemed to prefer the thinner cadaver. When I took human anatomy my cadaver was an old lady (I thank her soul for her contribution) who's muscles were cable. The other cadavers were huge and the muscles slabs. I didn't find much understanding in looking at them. Just looking at her muscles implied their use and movement.





Something I found useful with my students both at school and privately is laying on the muscles as plasticine cables. Our fingers seem to have a level of understanding and memory and doing this way has always been effective.

Arm Rotations

These have been posted for my students at Seneca. Apologies for the quality.

Don't have time to paint the light on the snow in the yard outside my studio doors. Something magical about how light plays on snow and how it reflects moods with the changing daylight hours into the night. These are digital sketches done when I had time.

At the AGO and even at the National Gallery in Ottawa, some of the paintings that captivate me most are the studies of snow by the Group of Seven. I may be doing a book tour to Flin Flon in Northern Manitoba in late February (my 3rd visit) and I will be looking forward to sketching the black spruce and snow. The north may not be an easy place to survive in (speaking of -47 with wind chill today) but you cannot beat it for poetry of light, line and form.

Speaking of black spruce and the north, I highly recommend Joseph Boyden's "Through Black Spruce." Perhaps because I used to fly north through Moosonee to Povungnituk, and even spent a few days there on a reading tour, I find that book beautifully written, so evocative of the place. I could feel the cold, see the ice on the Moose River or the light over James Bay. Wonderful characters, beautifully written (reapeating myself). Oh how I want to return if only it were not so expensive! Soon I hope.

I wish we coud send every school child north to experience it at least once in their life, to meet the people and to feel the land.


I left the trees out of this sketch...made me feel the light more.

'Squirrels are outside again this morning. It's just too easy to sit and watch them. Fun to sketch them as a warm up. The black squirrels are very plump but their tails are thin, so unlike the grey squirrel who's tail is thick and fluffy and obviously quite warm to wrap up in.

While I was sketching the squirrels, my cat Mouse jumped up on my desk and decided the best place to sit was on the paper. It left me no alternative than to draw Mouse. Must have been his plan all along.

Outside my window

It's hard to work today and not be distracted watching the squirrels outside my windows feasting on bird seed. They can be terribly aggravating (they chewed through wiring and insulation under our roof) and yet so pretty to watch in their fluffy fur and cute eyes. Arrrgh!! Back to work!

First day of 2009 at the AGO

If you live in the Toronto area or visit the city you must, and I emphasize MUST, visit the new Art Gallery of Ontario. We decided to start our year with a visit today and we came away tired but thoroughly impressed with the new building and the collection on display. Toronto has finally joined the world of great art galleries. Matthew Teitelbaum, Frank Gehry and the late Ken Thomson must all be congratulated on what has been achieved here. I wouldn't know where to start with the praises. The building is beautiful. And it works. It invites, it holds the art well, beautifully in fact. The building is art. And the art inside is captivating in it's breadth and beauty.

I admit I am a sucker for the Group of Seven, and the collection is beautifully rich in works. The section on drawing is wonderful. The curators have done an excellent job of hanging, with the flow of one area into the next feeling like going from one section of a marvelous treasure cave to the next. But a cave it definitely is not since the rooms feel open and yet intimate at the same time. We bought memberships so that we can return again and again, and so we will.

The visit cannot help but inspire. I wanted to return and draw, but since I will leave that to tomorrow I've posted a small sketch from my Ungava works that was inspired not by a gallery, but by the land itself.

Happy 2009! It feels good.

couldn't help but play with the sketch...

Gee, it doesn't take much to make me happy!

2nd Advent sketch

2nd Sunday of December, 2nd Advent before Christmas. Makes me think back to childhood when there was a fuss over these days before the 24th.

Quick sketch of the lights over the breakfast nook. Brought some cedar in and laid it on...smells lovely. Not much time for better drawing due to the last of marking this morning. Never a fun time judging the work of students. Some tried hard and just didn't get there, others with tons of ability just did not push it. Others surprise me, and some sadly disappoint me. I have never found putting a number on something so complex easy and even frustrating. Part of marking is science, the other alchemy. The science part is the math, the numbers. When added up they don't always reflect the complete picture. That's when the alchemy as I like to call it kicks in. I stand back, take in the big picture and go with my gut. My gut has been correct more times than the math. I balance the two. With all these years of teaching, you would think it gets easier, but instead it becomes more complex as I am aware of subtlies that experience reveals.

Christmas Decorations

This year I am determined to do at least one study a day of the decorations. It's a beautiful time around here. Work is keeping me from getting lights out but there's a tree in the shed waiting to come in, the Nutcracker is back up in the balcony in his house and hopefully I can get big wreath up on the house this weekend. I'm getting tired of tripping over a big pile of boughs in the basement.

This is a sketch I came across today done many years ago of decorations around the front closet doors.

Basset Hound Studies

I needed to do some studies of Basset Hounds for a project. Where else to go but the web. Mind you I would have prefered a read model but with time constraints the web has been a life saver.

Landmarks

I marked up a study of mine to show my students landmarks to look for. I sort of liked the look with all the marks. Good stuff to know.

Mooos and Mooses

Been busy drawing since the last post. The Royal Winter Fair is always a treat, especially if you wait until the evening when the kids are gone, and it seems to settle into more of a farm feeling that showy exhibition feeling of hype. When things got quiet I found a nice bale of hay to sit on and did some sketches of the cows. They are a joy to do, given their bulk, bone and generally odd shape. But their eyes are always so kind, and they have a way of just existing in time, that drawing them is very calming.

The moose was done at the ROM on a half price (thank you Sun Life Financial) Friday. I need the moose for a book I am working on and this stuffed one is perfect, except for one thing: the screaming kids while I was drawing. Honestly, can't parents control their kids? I came close to going crazy with the noise. Not all the kids were like that, but it just takes a few. I did however meet one very talented little girl who borrowed paper and did a great sketch of the tiger near by. Given the right opportunities, she is going to be one great talent in the years to come. Always nice to meet kids like her and realize that the talent pool will never ever dry up. It only gets better.

Remembrance day 2008

Remembrance day today.

this sketch is of the Cenotaph here in Guelph. It was done while waiting for the parade of soldiers and Vets. I mistakenly assumed there would be a ceremony there. Instead, after the ceremony at the sports arena, the Vets, the cadets, the police and fire fighters marched by. It gave me time to sketch and think.

Earlier, on my way to the Cenotaph,I was in the city square when 11 o'clock struck. I would not have known it for sadly no bells tolled nor traffic stopped, that is except for a lone bus driver standing beside his bus with head bowed and hands folded in front of him.

It made me stop. I checked my watch, saw it was 11. At that moment a lone 1st WW biplane passed overhead. As he flew over square, past the cathedral he banked his wings in salute. I imagined my grandfather long ago seeing the same sort of sight, and wondered what thoughts might have gone through is mind as he stood in the trenches. My skin was goose bumps and my eyes filled with tears, I was overwhelmed by emotion of the moment. Whoever the pilot who made this tribute with his plane, I must express my thanks to him: it was a beautiful tribute to those who must leave home to sacrifice their lives. Sadly, it would also acknowledge the sacrifice of those who did return, scarred for life both physically and emotionally.


I admit I had to think hard about leaving all the work I had in front of me today and go to the the Cenotaph here in Guelph. It wasn't out of lack of respect, rather life can be very busy, and having been away in Calgary at Kaleidoscope and schools since last Tuesday, there was a lot to get caught up with. But I went and am glad I did. I owed it to the veterans to be there, just as I feel we all should made the effort if at all possible.

Those old vets who marched by must carry incredible stories in their head and hearts. Some will be of adventure and loves, most of tragedy, carnage and sacrifice. I am sure many were silent heroes. One could not see their medals but I am sure each told a story that should not be forgotten.

One thing that I struggled with as I stood there watching the parade: it was the young cadets. Some seemed so young I was surprised that they even could join those ranks; the others made me think that war always takes the young and destroys something in them. In Calgary I heard the esteemed illustrator Ted Lewin tell us of his brother joining the Marines at 15 and fighting in some of the worst battles in the Pacific before he was 18. I think too of the soldiers in Afghanistan who are the ages of my sons.

I am not in favor of war. I was of the age that had I been an American as fate almost made me, I would have had to serve in Viet Nam. Being Canadian I did not have to worry, but I always worried that other conflicts that seems to simmer and boil over in far places in the world would put a uniform on me. I cannot understand war, yet respect and thank those vets who marched past this morning for giving a part of their young lives to allow me to live and thrive here in Canada in peace and freedom. To the old soldiers who I knew but no longer are with us, like Gerry Moses and Jack Spicer, thank you.

To those who never came back, who's bodies lie in cemeteries far from home and those who loved them and saw them leave, thank you.

As a last note: it was cold today with a biting wind. As I stood there waiting and sketching, my fingers went numb, feeling thick and unresponsive. But I couldn't help but think that while it was uncomfortable for me with a pencil, for some had been far harder holding cold metal in their hands and a question of whether they would see tomorrow. My greatest respect to their dedication and resolve.

I should end with one more note: the memorial was created by a Canadian sculptor by the name of Alfred Howell. After writing the note above I thought I should find out more about him and came across an interesting site by a gentleman by the name of Lawrence Hayward. He made it his task to find out as much as possible about sculptors such as Howell either by direct interview or research. Find out more about Alfred Howell and Lawrence Hayward at his site: http://www.xeroid.150m.com/index.htm

Arctic Memory

I received an email from a friend who owns this painting. She was kind to send a picture of it to me. It holds a very special connection to me. It was done when I was still and advisor to the Inuit printmakers in what is now Nunavik (arctic Quebec).

I decided to post it because it takes me back to a time when the arctic was my passion and my muse. This painting is of the rocks that covered Fat Island which seemed to float in the Povungnituk River just outside my door. In the summer and fall it would seem like a lichen covered whale lazily floating up river. When the river froze, it too froze into place and became my haven to walk to when politics in the printshop became just too much. I would walk over these rocks, marveling at the infinite patterns between primordial rock and paterns of drifted or driven snow. At times I felt I could feel the forces of the earth push from below and drive these patterns up through the crust.

I did many sketches on and around Fat Island, and one of them later became this painting when I returned south. The sketch from this one, done on a large sheet of BFK outside in India Ink, and now in New Zealand, still carries the smear of drops of blood when I cut my numb fingers sharpening my pencil. It made a lovely addition. I must admit, I miss those days. Since returning from the north, nothing has captured my senses as did the arctic.

some drawings

studies from yesterday in the studio. Not the greatest day, far too many scribbles and not enough hitting it right away. When I was drawing the hand on the thigh my thoughts went to a Bernini sculpture I saw at Villa Borghese in Rome, one in which Bernini managed to capture the pressure of the hand into the skin of a soft thigh, all the while in stone. I am always is awe of his work.

Royal Winter Fair Time

It's now officially fall and I'm thinking ahead to the Royal Winter Fair in November. I am so bound by calendars these days with deadlines and commitments that it doesn't seem there is time time breathe. So when I was looking at November and felt there was something missing, it finally occurred to me that it was the Royal that made it's mark felt at that time. If you live in the area definitely take advantage of it to get up close and draw everything from horses to Lamas. Unfortunately they no longer have the farm birds as they once did. In many ways they don't have a lot of what they once did. I do get mad at all the cars and SUV's instead of animals, but if you pick your day right, it can be spectacular. One of my favourites was the Belgian Blue cattle...the Schwarzenegger of cows with their double muscles. Regrettably they are no longer considered worthy of the show. Regardless, it's worth it.

As for the donkey drawing...it's from a Seneca school trip this summer to the Donkey Sanctuary just outside Guelph. Another must visit for your drawing list. At least it is for me.