The Man In The Creamsicle Suit

Never been a Best Man before. It was quite an experience, and I'm not certain that I've quite fully realized the magnitude of it. But after 14 years of waiting, I finally got to try his grandma's world-famous but notoriously hard-to-come-by lasagne. Was not disappointed. Looking back on this photo, I have to admit that I had a selfish impulse to knock him down and drag him through the grass. Luckily, I stood fast against my mischievous self.

Forum 2009: A Debriefing

Did far too much stuff last week to write about in depth. Suffice it to say that I had a grand old time and walked away with a head full of ideas and a renewed drive to git-'er-done. Did some sketching and painting en plein air in workshops. This one, an low-angle oblique segment of Stearman wings (they have a very pretty static Kaydet on pedestals), was the first shot with my new W&N water-soluble oils.

PT-17 Kaydet, 11x14", Oil, 2009

Also did a whole lot of figure drawing. In one workshop we sat in the gallery where ongoing restoration work is taking place on a landmark B-17G, City of Savannah, and tried to get the essence of figure movement as the invariably aged and portly (retired) workers went busily about the business of bringing the big bomber back up into pristine conditon; she came out of the works just too late for combat and was then used for decades as a fire-bomber in Canada before being pickled in a hangar for thirty years.

Gestural Studies, 8x10", graphite, 2009

I also made mischief into the wee hours of the morning with, and got some very sound and encouraging feedback from, the greats. We airplane geeks sure as hell do know how to have a party.

Gestural Studies, 8x10", graphite, 2009

Check back for more progress on my big painting later this week, after I've had time to recover from it all.

Off to Geeow-gia

Off to Savannah and ASAA Forum 2009. I wanted to have my painting completely finished in time to bring it, but though I've painted where- and whenever I could, it falls markedly short of completion. I did get a good chunk of my progress covered in the latest issue of the ASAA journal, Aero Brush, which is very exciting and has added fuel to the fire under my posterior.



So here's what I've been up to. The sky, treeline and terminal have been frustratedly worked over and over again; each has at least six layers of paint at this point. I'm happier with the cloud cover now, though it still needs work. I had intended to push the darks pretty far in the background though now I think I may have sent the terminal just a bit too far. I've since also blocked in 50A and turned a large part of the form, though it is less than finished, and I had also blocked in the figures before I painted them over in a fit of rage at the first-story windows (I was pretty close to slicing off my ear at the time). Obviously, they need correction.

Okay. Off to finish packing.