When you hit 75, do you have to grow up?

A full frontal selfie wouldn't work with a mask -- and besides, I wanted to show my birthday gear.  Some I've been buying for myself  with a view to putting best foot forward in 2020.  Some came in the mail (with back-orders still to come) and several literally arrived on my doorstep bringing a huge "Surprise!" factor, along with delectable treats, favourite coffee, flowers, wine...........UmmmmMMMMmmmm.

One of my friends has said, "You don't do clothes shopping like I do."  Well -- we just don't shop at the same places.  My waterproof Goretex shoes are from Mountain Equipment Co-op, the indestructible brimmed hat from a renowned P.E.I. garden supply shop, the lined flannel shirt from Mark's (formerly "Workwear World," if that gives you a hint) and the tan corduroy trousers from L.L. Bean.  (Groan...every year it gets harder to adopt that cross-legged pose attempted here).   

A personality feature sometimes assigned to Geminis is that they love to play...and never quite grow up.  I'll own to that although I'm not keen on another Gemini trait:  Being scatterbrained.  Maybe that's why I like to work in series, and my timing was perfect with Gemini hitting The Zodiac Cafe just as its sign rolls through the heavens.  (May 20-June 20). 

If you missed my plan for this portrait series, check here, and you'll see that along the way, I'm revisiting my astrological plant series of a decade ago.   A common shrub of the coastal valleys is Twinberry -- my inevitable choice back then for a plant to accord with Gemini, the Twins.

And now, let's focus!  It's not just all play.  The purpose of the Zodiac Cafe series is to hone my ability to distinguish physical traits and the factors that express them in a painting.  What do you do to make "deep-set eyes," for example?  How is a "broad forehead" different from any old forehead?

This is what I had to work with in Manly P. Hall's synopsis of the physical characteristics aligned with Gemini:-- 

"Head and neck long; forehead broad; chin pointed; eyes expressive; hair light; lips thin; mouth small; nose aquiline; body slender, fingers long."

Flipping through my papers and sketchbooks, I found a starting point in one of the best faces I've done at the life drawing studio.  This also suited my plan to alternate male and female faces in this series:--

A fact about this accomplished and athletic model is that she has a pronounced overbite.  It's barely evident in my drawing but, oddly enough, it showed up rather spontaneously in the quick painted study I made as a warm-up.

The overbite wasn't a feature I intended to  keep.  With Hall's description, I had my hands -- and her head -- full with the aquiline nose, small mouth and lips, and pointed chin.  Here's the final version of "Zodiac Cafe - Gemini" (copyright 2020): 

  

And if anyone was concerned that this artist Gemini might have felt isolated and alone on her birthday, don't give it a thought.  The Cardboard Club & Friends showed up in force (another dozen or so are waiting in the wings of this photo) -- and since we share the same bubble, the celebration had no limitations.

Springtime surprises

We're midway through the astrological sign of Taurus (April 21-May21), and I'm moving right along with a series called "The Zodiac Cafe."  As I described last time, the idea came to me when I remembered my long-ago botanical series, "Astrological Plants of the Squamish Valley" -- an example above, the  Taurus plant from those many-travelled roadsides.

My planned portraits are based on the physical characteristics of each sign as described in a small book, "Astrological Keywords," by Manly P. Hall.  Here's how he describes the Taurus native:

"Head and neck short; face broad and somewhat flat; chin strong; eyes large and dark; hair usually dark, sometimes blond; lips full; body short, sturdy and plump."

No ready examples came to mind as I considered possible models, but I woke up one morning with Julius Caesar on my mind.  Quick!  To Google-Search-Images.  Take a look yourself and have fun playing this game:

1)  How many of the Caesars resemble Andrew Cuomo?

2)  How many of the statues look like they're holding cell phones?

3)  How many of the Caesar statues look like Andrew Cuomo holding a cell phone?

As for "face broad and somewhat flat" and "body short, sturdy and plump," these images had little to offer.  But I held the vision of those haircuts as I tried a few sketches.

Hmm.  Not so sure about that -- or about any of the others.

What the heck.  I decided to plunge right in and see if, in that magical way, the painting would take on a life of its own.

And thanks to Caesar's hairstyle, it did!  Here's the final version of "Zodiac Cafe - Taurus" (copyright 2020).

Isn't he an amiable young bull?  Maybe of the Ferdinand variety?  (No ring in his nose, but I couldn't resist the earring)

 Could he be the great-great-great grandson that Raphael Soyer never had? 

Probably not, but it's nice to see them isolating together here at home.  And what will happen when Taurus ventures into the Zodiac Cafe?

  

Will the Aries female eat him alive or will he just sweetly and stolidly hold his ground?  Hard to predict how things will play out when the coffee shops can reopen.

The auspices look favourable, though, for the Zodiac Cafe.  It's strange but true that yesterday, just as I was finishing this post, I looked out the window into my back garden.  There in the corner is the descendent of the very plant from which I made my long-ago sketches -- Rosa nutkana, our beautiful wild rose of the Pacific Northwest -- blooming for the first time this year on May 14, 2020.