Grosvenor-Strathmore

This is an ink and colored pencil drawing of the Metro train at the Grosvenor-Strathmore station.  I have nearly forty drawings of people on the Metro completed this year in a Moleskine sketchbook.  I decided to draw one of the trains because they are starting to show their age with that late 1970s industrial design aesthetic. During the work week, I spend a lot of time on these trains.  I have been riding the Metro for years!

Drawing my way through 2015

This is a house on Jefferson Blvd, and Eastern Blvd. in Hagerstown, Maryland.  The homes in this area belong to generations of hard working blue collar folks.  Not far away is a rail line that leads west and north.  This is an area that was one well serviced by passenger trains, but those days are long gone.  Still though, Hagerstown is criss-crossed by many train tracks.

I have become very fond of drawing in a wonderful Moleskine sketchbook.  This year I am filling it with drawings that relate to my rather long commute.  This is a house I pass near the end of my day.

Gethsemane

"The Garden at Gethsemane," oil on Masonite.  This piece is part of a series of paintings of inspired by Grimm's Junkyard.  Heavy vegetation hides the oldest cars in the summer months, and I often wait until there has been a decent snowfall before visiting the yard.  The old Dodge pictured above has been almost completely cannibalized for parts.  It has been in this spot for decades.

The 3 crosses in the distance on the right side of the painting are a nod to  Rev. Bernard Coffindaffer and his roadside cross project.  The many I have seen are on old state roads, and have become part of the charm of long drives in rural America.  Gethsemane, means oil press. A press is an emblem of trial, distress, agony, while oil points to Spirit and illumination.

Untitled

Charcoal and Conte crayon on toned paper.

Beneath The Albizia julibrissin

A work in progress, oil on birchwood.

Saturday Night Untitled Sketch

I did a bit of quick updating to this drawing after putting it down for a couple of days.  I started it late Saturday night.  I used vine charcoal, a General's 4B charcoal pencil, and a Conte white drawing pencil.  Strathmore just came out with a terrific pad of acid free 80lb toned gray paper.

Figure Drawing at Hood College

Tomorrow Dorothy and I are going to Hood College in Frederick Maryland to draw.  I really am fortunate to have a place to draw so close to home, and right on the way home from work.  That fact that my daughter can come along is just icing on the cake.  I think Dorothy started drawing before she started walking.  Here is her website: http://www.dorothygroesbeck.com.

Lola, Part 5

"Lola" oil on linen, 14 x 16.

I think I am just about done with this painting.

A James Taylor song has been stuck in my head for a week, here is the first verse:

We were ring-around-the-rosy children
They were circles around the sun
Never give up, never slow down
Never grow old, never ever die young...

Lola, Part 4

I am still working on "Lola."  I am using a palette consisting of zinc white, indian red, burnt umber, raw sienna, ultramarine blue, and just a touch of burnt sienna.

Lola, Part 3

"Lola" oil on linen. 16" x 14."

Lola Part 2

I am painting and listening to James Taylor sing, "We were ring-around-the-rosy children , They were circles around the sun , Never give up, never slow down Never grow old, never ever die young."

This is Lola, a work in progress on linen.  She is not quite finished.  I have had a couple weeks of inactivity and I am so happy to that the smell of oil medium on my hands again.

Lola

"Lola", 16 x 14. Oil on linen, a work in progress.

Alice

"Alice" Oil on linen, 18" x 14".  This is about the 4th or 5th day I have worked on this.  Tonight I think I spent about an hour working on the canvas, so maybe about 5 hours total.

Eumelia

Graphite and white conte on toned gray paper.

Alice

"Alice" oil on linen.

This is about day 3 with this project.  Not quite done yet.

Painting and watching CNN

"Alice" oil on linen.

Working and watching CNN on this inauguration day.  The most memorable inaugural parade was the day Alice was born in 1989.  We had a room with a TV in the hospital, and it was quite nice.  I have this vivid memory of the doctor sitting in the corner of the room eating a sandwich, and casually looking over Amy's chart.  The parade was on TV, and the president was walking alongside of the limo.  The nurse announced that the baby was about to arrive, the doctor looked up and calmly said, "time for baby." A minute later, Alice arrived.  Just like that.  The next day she greeted her big sister Dorothy.  Dorothy was just a month shy of her second birthday, and not sure what had just happened.
We still have Alice's first pair of scuffed and well worn sneakers in the kitchen.

Alice, a little further along

"Alice" oil on linen.

I started this painting of my daughter last week.  I am using burnt umber, ultramarine blue, and zinc white for the underpainting.  This evening I started adding more color.  This weekend I did not get as far as I would have liked on the painting, but I will have fun working on this during the week.  I painted Alice when she was four years old, that painting can be seen here.

Alice

"Alice" oil on linen.

I just started this painting of my daughter this evening.  I am using burnt umber, ultramarine blue, and zinc white for the underpainting.  I painted Alice when she was four years old, that painting can be seen here.

The Illustrated Girl

 

During the winter of 1984, my oldest friend and I were living above a mom and pop grocery store on  11th and East Capitol Street in Washington, DC. I drew this at my drawing table which was situated in our kitchen's bay window overlooking Lincoln Park in Capitol Hill.  At the time, I was a freelancer and worked at the Agnes Ainilian Gallery in the Eastern Market. I was into drawing organic figures on things, and I began drawing this weird pattern on her face just to see where it went. I finished drawing this figment of my imagination in a weekend.

The drawing was done on a piece of paper using a few Sanford pencils, ranging from 2H to 6B.

"Reporting from Behind Bars"- Editorial Illustration

While going through the inventory in my home studio, I came across an illustration I did for an article published in the Washington Journalism Review in 1985. The story covered journalists going undercover in the search for finding stories to report. I made about four illustrations for the piece, this particular illustration being my favorite. I drew a journalist going undercover to cover a beat in prison. Some details that I find particularly striking are the shadows in the shirt.