When the heat goes to your head

 

 

When I painted this jokey picture "Under the Heat Dome" in summer 2016, I thought that Dome Denizens might find relief at the beach.  New York City was then broiling under a heat dome, and my friend A had far too much sense for that – as I came to fully understand this past week in Vancouver.  Whew!  At least the dome is now slowly sliding to the east but it's been a sobering and instructive experience on many counts. (Also sobering is that the broiling sun in this painting looks eerily like a familiar virus…)

 

Looking on the bright side, I think my ability to draw/paint figures has improved since then.  This painting was based on drawings I'd made in the 2000's, when we'd sometimes swim at the outdoor Kits Pool.   Ace swimmer that I was, I'd finish early and would sketch other beachgoers scattered around on the grass.

 

In other bright news, although the debilitating heat kept me from the final touches on my latest painting, I'm going to publish it anyway and keep moving ahead.  My "Jury is Out" Series is explained here, and this time I started with the aim to work in the style of little-known artist Irma Stern.  A mid-20^th century South African artist, she was credited by some with "seeing beyond the colour bar" – seeing her subjects with shared humanity as in her "Zanzibar Woman."

 

When I discovered her via a 2018 on-line course, I was charmed by her vibrant use of pattern and also her use of line as in her "Portrait of the Baillie Children":--

 

 

For my course assignment, I imagined these two sensitive children ten years later (and in an era of cell phones) in my painting, "And Then They Grew Up."

 

 

The figure that occurred to me as a subject for my Irma Stern spin-off was an elegant senior woman named Flor, who I'd spotted as a volunteer in a thrift shop.

 

 

But I needed to transpose her into a young art student, awaiting the jury's decision – "Flor comme jeune fille."

 

 

And right on time came a suitable portrait model via the on-line drawing sessions I've been doing twice a month.

 

 

Flor-the-art-student is a sculptor, did I mention that?

 

 

And despite my ongoing focus on faces, I still screwed up and had to make some early corrections to the size of her head and the placement of her eyes.

 

 

So here it is, allllllmost but not quite finished: "The Jury is Out (Flor) – work-in-progress."  I usually give the art students the first name of the painter whose style I've tried to emulate, but this one has been "Flor" all along; she just doesn't look like an "Irma.

 

 

The big excitement for me has been an unexpected outcome of this hot week.  Searching out my old photo of "Under the Heat Dome," I came across my 2016 post on this subject – and recalled my enthusiasm for artist Serge Hollerbach.  Reading his book and viewing his paintings, I'd been encouraged to make figure paintings based on my old quick sketches – even before I'd resumed more formal study of the human figure. 

 

I remembered, too, how much I'd loved his group poses, and I placed some of my own figures together in what Hollerbach would call "shrimp on a bed of lettuce" (fleshy beach bums…!!!!....on darker lawns or sands.)  This reconnection with Hollerbach is very meaningful to me as I begin to plan my next series (and my next and my next) which will rely on groups of interacting figures.  For now – projecting backwards and forwards – here's my own 2016 "Catching the Rays" -- with hopes for a manageable summer out from under the dome.