The Art of Reading # 5 : Devouring The News
Another trip to a cafe by the beach yesterday… there are many people around here right now, too many to feel comfortable sketching on the cafe terraces. Not enough room between “my preys” and me, too much tension in the air then… but luckily some of them are so involved in reading the newspapers that they
1. don’t notice me
2. sit still long enough!
Well, considering his face, especially his nose, I guess this guy was devouring the sport news!
A Wheel Chair is not a Reason!
I was sketching again the other day, Sunday, on the way back from the indoor pool where I swam my daily 1000 meters to keep brain and body fit, and to sharpen my eyes and my fingers! Yes, after the sport, especially after swimming, my artistic awareness is at its maximum. One might not always see it in the result though…
And well, that Sunday, like many other Sundays, many families were out and sat around at the cafes by the sea, having lunch or simply a drink. I was especially touched by this trio and was first happy for the old lady to be taken out, although, to be fair, she really seemed bored to death! I wondered what was going on in her head, observed her for a long time from behind my sunglasses, but she sat in that position all the time, the chin in the hand, and looking away from her family, to a distant point which certainly only existed in her fantasy.. or perhaps did not even exist there anymore?
She didn’t even touch the big glass of orange juice they ordered for her,… I mean, really, she might have had all reasons not to enjoy life anymore, but I find that she should be a little more thankful to have a family who kindly cares for her…
The Old Rocker and His Bird
Well, I have no idea if he really is an old Rocker. My partner Kev Moore, who is a Rocker, but not old, thinks he is. I much more thought that he is a Harley Davidson rider, because they all looked like him in Germany. But we are in Spain, and that one was English. And anyway: he could be both!
Except that he did not smoke, but his bird did… and how! Exactly like I was expecting him to do, the cigarettes drooping from the lips, without any fingers to hold them…
And he arrived at the cafe walking. Not cool, really, for a Harley Davidson rider…
Well, we are back in town and today, for the first time in many months, I sat again in a cafe and made some caricatures from the people there. I am sure they think:
“Oh sh…, she is back!”
and they don’t even know what they look like in my drawings! But sometimes I start laughing in front of my drawings, and Kevin too, so I guess they must be suspicious… I wonder what will happen if they find my drawings some day on the net and recognize themselves…
ATTENTION PLEASE!
I speak and read French, German, English, Spanish, and understand some others too…
so please don’t hesitate to leave a comment or to contact me in your own language!
The Art of Being Men and Women
It was last Saturday afternoon ( 31st of May 2008 ) in a little town called Castro Marim, in Portugal, by the Spanish border. I was sitting in our motorhome, sketching some typical houses, as I saw these men standing in the middle of the road. It had started with one, then another one had joined, then the biker had stopped and finally, as I started to sketch, the fourth one (on the left) joined the group.
One hour later, the four men were still standing there, with at least 10 others, all gathered around the biker. All men. No one woman around..
I saw a lot of women the next morning, in groups too, not standing around, but hurrying to a mysterious place, each with a vase of flowers in their hands.
And don’t tell me that this is an accident… we, men and women, are still SO different!!!
A Lawyer painted by A Bull
Here is my last portrait painted on commission. I must admit, it was hard to finish! But he is on his way to Germany now, the “Herr Rechtsanwalt” (Mister Lawyer… by the way a great one, ask me info if you need one!), well rolled in his cardboard tube and I can only hope that he will arrive punctually for his birthday on the 27th of May.
Portrait is a difficult art. Some artists try it, but most of them abandon. I saw it many times amongst my artists friends, and my art students, from which -sadly- not one persevered. Some people say that portraits in the style I do most of them (by the way, it is the client that sets the style, not really my choice!), “only” look like a photograph and that it is not “real” art. I don’t agree at all. If you look on the net, you will see a lot of portraits, done from photographs and trying to look like them, and which finally look like dead porcelain puppets, or even worse. So please, don’t tell me it is not an art: when they are well-done, with love and deep sensitivity for art and the model, they simply look wonderful, and as alive as the person him( or her)self. I saw many people crying when I delivered them the portraits they ordered from me, and they took me in their arms, and they said:
“Thank you so much, it is so wonderful!”
and most of the time they came back to me, brought me a moving gift and commissioned a further portrait from me.
Is this not the essence of art, to move people to tears?
I think it is…
Anyway, as I said, a good “photographic portrait” is a very difficult art. The tiniest deviation in the eyes or mouth line can change the whole expression and even the whole person. Each point of light and each shadow reflect a different character. And this is where it becomes complicated, much work, and, at the end, art!
I rarely spend less than 25 hours to make such a portrait. I first do the drawing, emphasizing the head shape and the main features, and the main part of light and shadow. Then I put a first level of pastel chalk to model the face and reach a first impression of lights and shadows. Then a second level of pastel to refine everything, especially the similarity with the model.
And then begins a long, difficult but exciting phase of work with colour pens, hours and hours of observation, of research, of tiny steps which at the end lead to the real similarity and give character and life to the painted portrait.
A good portrait is not only much work, but it is too a deep effort of sensitivity. It is essential for me to put myself into the skin of the model when I paint him. The result being that with time passing by I start to lose my own personality and have the feeling to become the model myself. How often, with this one for example, I found myself smiling like him, apparently forced to smile like him to be able to paint his smile! Or, one day I had to paint a cross-eyed child, and I tell you, I finished up cross-eyed myself, which of course, complicated the drawing process…
I said at the beginning, that I suffered finishing the lawyer. Why? He has a quite easy face, no complications, no deformations, is not cross-eyed, and has a beautiful, natural smile: the perfect model! The problem was that I had been forced to abandon him in the middle of the process, you might say adjourned, to paint a series of 13 commissioned bullfight paintings. At the end, I saw bulls everywhere and even worse, considering the fact that I invest myself as much in the bulls as in the portraits, I had become a bull myself!
Impossible then to re-enter the lawyer’s skin!
But who knows, perhaps this portrait one day will reach astronomic prices, having been painted by a bull? One already saw paintings by monkeys sold for crazy money. So why not a bull?!
The Art of Eating #2: Not Eating!
My first entry about the Art of Eating was about eating donuts, especially about the differences between men and women accomplishing this sacred act.
Today it will also be about eating donuts, or more exactly: not eating them.
The other day I saw this brave Granny at Masko. Like always they served her a free donut with her coffee. Well, I don’t know it they did it on purpose or if it was a mistake, but in fact they served her 2 donuts, which made her appear even braver to me. The woman was sitting there, her arms and hands literally nailed to her chair, the eyes immovably fixed to a spot of invisible interest in front of her. I wondered after a certain time what was the aim of this immobility exercise, as the woman didn’t even make a movement to drink her coffee. But after a while I understood: judging by her numerous chins and the spare tyre around her body, the aim was obviously to avoid with eyes and body the little plate containing the two donuts. Poor woman! The waitress had even had the idea to put the plate upon the serviette dispenser, at Granny’s eye level… and to complicate matters further, the two donuts had come suddenly to life, smiling and winking at her.
The lady didn’t weaken. Sometimes I could perceive some nervous ticks in her hands, as if she was about to move them, but no, she resisted. A lifetime passed. Then suddenly, like a chameleon catching a fly, her two hands shot out simultaneously, and in one quick movement grabbed at the plate, taking one donut in each hand and shoving both togetehr in her mouth, swallowing them in one go.
A second later she resumed first position, as if nothing had happened!
The Art of Reading # 4 : Gone with The Wind
I don’t know about you, but I am a very undisciplined newspaper reader. When I read a newspaper, – what, I confess, I seldom do, above all because I don’t want my happiness to be spoiled by all the bad news… I know, I know, very immature and egotistical!- it is simply a fight. It is really not easy, for a tiny creature such as I, to cope with it: hold the vast billowing pages, fold them properly, keep them in the right order, etc. It’s like an Origami class. The result being that I have pages all over and the bigger the paper, the bigger the mess!
The situation escalates dramatically when I try to read a newspaper sitting by the beach, where the wind is usually blowing. And I am not the only one fighting against the elements. I saw this woman the other day as I was sketching in a cafe by the beach, it was simply hilarious. She had not the slightest idea how to keep all the pages in her hands, they literally flew all over the place! And you won’t believe what I also saw: one even made it out to sea and a boat snapped it up, took the wind and sailed off with it!
PS: I think this is a problem which we women have. When I watch men reading newspapers, they are normally much more disciplined, and in fact they don’t like it at all when the pages get in the wrong order or the crises are in the wrong place…
The Art of Reading #3 : A Literate Tattoo
When you observe people reading their newspapers, above all, I guess, when they sit in a public place like our Cafe Masko, you really can see that the whole personality is involved in this act. Not only the hands which hold the paper, but also the body , the head, the hair, the lips, etc.
Even the tattoo seems “to lend an eye”!
To be honest, just by looking at the way this guy is reading, I know that he could not be my friend. You might think that I judge too quickly, but this attitude says so much about his character, I find. I would be really interested to know what YOU think he is inside, when you look at my sketch. It would be great if you could tell me in your comments…
Anyway, he was a great model for me, and I am thankful for it!
ATTENTION PLEASE!
I speak and read French, German, English, Spanish, and understand some others too…
so please don’t hesitate to leave a comment or to contact me in your own language!
The Art of Doing Nothing #1
Where I live (South of Spain) it is an Art in which 90% of the population excel!
There are 1000 ways of doing nothing here, but most of the time, you can be sure that a glass of beer or sangria is involved!
ATTENTION PLEASE!
I speak and read French, German, English, Spanish, and understand some others too…
so please don’t hesitate to leave a comment or to contact me in your own language!
The Art of Eating #1: Donuts!
Yes, it is always a big pleasure for me, as a painter and a student of human nature, to watch people eating. If you haven’t already, pay attention to it in the future. There are millions of different ways to hold a fork and a knife, and each way says more about the eater than a mirror…
But I will start this series with something very basic to eat, where you don’t even need a fork and knife to eat it, (except of course if you belong to the aristocracy or are from the precious kind); Donuts!
In Cafe Masko, which I presented to you some days ago, they serve the cafe con leche with delicious tiny donuts. It is an incredible pleasure to eat them, but even more to watch people eating them. Generally the women are specialists in holding them very daintily from the top of their long fingers, and eat them slowly and elegantly, tiny crumb by tiny crumb, their heads turned absently to the horizon. The men, generally, search for the shortest way between their mouth and the fingers holding the donuts, and their eyes are fixed to the donuts, cross-eyed, when they eat them. And they need a maximum of 2 bites to be finished with them.
But the most extraordinary donut eater I have ever seen is my Kevin. And when I say “seen”, I should better say “not seen”! I can’t even show it to you because he is so fast that I never have time to see him eating his donut. A little bit like Lucky Luke, you know, that guy who shot faster than his shadow.
As you can imagine, the man on the sketch had already finished his donut and was coveting the woman’s one. This is why his face is green with envy. While I was drawing there, I was wondering if he was planing an attack…
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Contact me at miki@goodaboom.com
