Wow. What's coming? A new year. A new decade. And who knows what, on all fronts. To say the words "twenty years ago", to reflect on all that has happened in that time... rather astonishing.
Well, twenty years ago at this time of year, I'd been recently hired for a full-time job at a place I loved, we were celebrating the season at our snowy cabin, and among the gifts I was cherishing from JT was this beautiful half-size sketchbook:--
Just recently, when my Chinese-Canadian neighbours brought their friends to my house, I realized my chance had come to learn the meaning of the symbol on the cover. When I brought it out, their eyes lit up, "Good luck! Good fortune! -- and the red, too, so lucky!" Well, what more could I have asked, for the special purpose to which I eventually put this lovely little book?
Twenty years ago, the year 2000 was a special time for my art. I had come to accept that evening art classes were no longer feasible but that, by golly, I wasn't a half-bad student. I had continued my enduring practice of drawing every day -- thank you, revered teacher Kimon Nicolaides via your book THE NATURAL WAY TO DRAW. I see by this link, which explains the Daily Composition exercise I've followed for more than 20 years, that his teachings continue to inspire others.
I also recalled then the advice of my other revered teacher RJS, from whom I'd taken several semesters of life drawing classes in the early 80's. Nicolaides had said, "The student who learns to draw is the one who draws." (Meaning: You have to work at it, not just think about it.) RJS had said, in answer to another student's question about how to learn to paint, "Just do it. Start painting."
By August of that year (the season that I consider my personal "new year" in terms of major goal-setting), I had decided to take myself to Art School at home -- to set goals, to devise a curriculum from all the resources I had available, to keep working.
Year One in my art school was based on an exercise suggested by Robert Kaupelis, artist-author of two great books, LEARNING TO DRAW and EXPERIMENTAL DRAWING. He proposed: "Draw every day for a year. Draw on a roll of paper. Do not unroll and do not look back until the end of the year."
And I did it! - missing maybe 3 days out of the 365. The Daily Composition continues (most days!), as does my annual goal-setting in the beautiful red sketchbook. To cheer myself on, I "graduated" from Art School about five years ago and began to call my studies "The Homegrown MFA." (Master of Fine Arts).
This past fall, I again carefully set my goals for Year 20 - Homegrown MFA. And I decided that I'd paint a self-portrait for my launch into the year 2020 -- when (gulp!) I will be 75 years old. The self-portrait was a good opportunity to try working in the style of an enthralling artist I'd only recently discovered -- Julien Lévy-Dhurmer. My eye was caught by a library book cover using his painting, La Femme à la Médaille ou Mystére ("Woman with Medallion -- or Mystery."):--
As much as I've always loved Art Nouveau, I'd never come across this French artist of the late 19th/early 20th century. When I checked on-line and found some of his other eerie images -- like "Le Silence" -- I was smitten.
Here's my take, in the manner of Lévy-Dhurmer, on my own personal "Mystére":-- "Looking Toward 75" (copyright 2019).
Although I'm excited about the unknown adventures ahead, the view hasn't yet come into focus. I'm confident, though, that if I just keep moving, one step after another, the path will become clear. From another old sketchbook that I came across just the other day, here's how things appeared as I looked out my studio window at our old house -- one dark evening, almost exactly 20 years ago.
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