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.