I like to work on a large surface when I paint. When playing with charcoal, I enjoy getting dirty and rubbing
compressed charcoal into paper for rich blacks and scrubbing out for clean highlights. Sketching varies from using a graphite pencil, to pen and ink or felt markers depending on my mood or the subject matter.
Above is a drawing I made of our dog Buddy lying among my little sister's building blocks.
Black and white photography is a natural extension of charcoal drawing. You capture deep blacks and bright whites through a lens instead of applying carbon to paper. A group of us took a one day sabbatical and drove to St. Joseph, MO. to take pictures in a historical graveyard. It was great fun climbing trees and crawling in the grass to photograph the ornamental landscape.
At times I like to experiment with texture, flow and color.
Our friends invited us to watch their son play soccer on a neighborhood field. The large brick houses towering over the small boys made for an interesting composition.
I made some preliminary sketches and then constructed a 5 x 3 1/2 foot canvas.
(I'm holding my finished oil painting from behind with my pant legs showing)
DRIFTING 1974 Acrylic painting 3 x 4 ft.
Jan and I took a cruise down the Rhine river from Basel to Amsterdam. I spent a crisp, sunny day bundled up on the observation deck drawing the castles and churches that dot the landscape on the riverbank.
