Been busy – lots of stuff to do – but not that many art openings going on this week and next in New York City due to the Christmas and New Years holidays.

I was not planning on going to the Life Drawing session at the Brooklyn Artists Gym last night – I only came by to see the new studio space that’s going to be available starting next month (January 07).  The new space, 10,000 square feet is a significant improvement over our current space, and most of it will be studio space in form or another including: huge wet area in the studio, large room for 3D and crafts, a wood shop, a metal shop, art storage, a gallery that has more wall space and an alliance with Brooklyn Writer’s Space to have a writer’s studio.  BAG is poised to become a vital Art Center in New York City.

Since I was already at my studio and a life drawing session was going on – I drew and here’s what I came up with the same model, Aveida, who I painted last time (see the first picture below – the oil pastel was done about 10 days ago).

 

Here’s my conte crayon and oil pastel on newspaper sketches of the model from last night – most were 5 or 10 minute sketches.

 

I may cover a opening or two tonight and some more museum shows over the weekend – hopefully I’ll spend the bulk of the next 10 days painting.

I’m not sure if they are paintings or sketches.

The first was a model study I did this afternoon (above) – I arrived halfway into the session and spent about 90 minutes on this painting – there was lively conversation from the few of us painting from this model – who I think was named Avieda (hope I got the spelling right).

I did another still life and again, I had problems resolving this study – maybe it’s the coloring in the studio – the floors are a muted brown – green and I try to capture that – but there’s so much of it that I don’t have anything present in front of me to offset it - it’s almost a sea of brown – green – gray.  

I enjoy being immediate with Oil Pastels – little setup – fast results – both studies are 22″ x 28″.

Peter Wallace showed me the new studio space that we will be moving into starting January 2007 – down the hall – it’s magnificent – and there will lots more activities going on at BAG – and room for it.

By the way, the still life I did tonight is along the same theme as the one I did last month (below) with Junot wine bottle (I think it was Red Wine last month and White Wine this time.  I could do more elaborate still lifes if there was imagery I wanted to work with at the studio – most of the time I just take whats lying around.

I think the first Junot still life – the one with Red Scissors might have been more successful – less cluttered than the one I did today.  On the other hand, an artist paints what’s inside – sometimes it’s sunny and sometimes it’s stormy and cloudy – both are equally valid and important.  We can’t just pick out the parts of our life that we like and forget the rest – or else life loses it’s meaning.

So, I’m not sure what I’m working out today that was different than a month ago – or for that fact, The Red Cup still life I did two weeks ago – where I also had problems with figure – ground relationships. 

And I’m also thinking of the Black Nude Study I did two weeks ago.

I enjoy seeing these works together – the first two were new from today, the rest being done over the last month.  In fact, the “tone” of my first two pictures from today appears “darker” and more somber - yet I don’t recall being any more that way than before.

I think we just paint what is going on inside of us – can’t help it … sometimes it will come out bright, other times, somber.

What is it with Pablo Picasso lately – there’s two major shows in New York (at least) that focus on his work – with the Whitney focusing on Picasso and American Art while the Guggenheim highlights Picasso compared to other Spanish artists of all time.

 

I should have started from the top of the spiral and worked my way down – that’s what the Guggenheim is designed to encourage – but I usually walk from the bottom up – and made it a little more than halfway up the spiral ramp before the museum was closing – so I’ll have to come back at least one more time.

Unlike a typical show where the artist is highlighted – here the genre is exhausted – IE: Picasso landscapes are compared to landscapes of other Spanish Artists across time.  Same thing with portraits and still lifes.  Some of the finest Spanish paintings are here in this show on loan till late March, 2007.

Some thoughts - the best art in the show had a consistent quality – great art is about the idea beyond the painting – it’s not the painting itself – but the thought and energy behind it that matters the most.

IN fact, most of Picasso’s paintings in this show were done in one or two sittings – often a sketch or two a day.

There’s so many good shows here in NYC right now because there is an abundance of art that can be loaned to create all kinds of shows, like this one.  In a way, it’s totally irrelevant how long it takes to do a work of art – Picasso’s work is compared to artists that lived 350 years before he was born – these works placed side by side showed Picasso’s greatness.

Anyway – it’s time to go to bed.

I was not sure I’d like this show about Shrinking Cities at Pratt and I did not really connect with it – not only that …. I was not even trying to understand it – it was too much effort to read all the information about it.   But I did take a walk around the gallery a couple of times and tried to see if there was anything I could connect with … and there was not.

 

Here’s some notes about Shrinking Cities:

The conclusion of a three-year project of the German Federal Cultural Foundation, under the direction of Philipp Oswalt (Berlin), in cooperation with the Leipzig Gallery of Contemporary Art, the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation and the magazine Archplus, Shrinking Cities examines the phenomenon of urban population decline from an international perspective. Artists, architects, filmmakers, journalists, and cultural and social researchers present the changed reality in these regions using examples of four cities and regions: Detroit, Michigan, USA; Manchester/Liverpool, United Kingdom; Ivanovo, Russia; and Halle/Leipzig, Germany. The topics range from neglect and the appropriation of spaces to the development of innovative subcultures and criticism of city planning.

Pratt Manhattan Gallery will present phase 2 of this exhibition, interventions while Van Alen Institute, New York will simultaneously present Shrinking Cities, phase 1, international research, December 8 – January 21. A symposium is being organized for February 2007.

Like I said – architectural shows about social reform …. interesting to some..but not to me.