The Drawing Club

Once a month, The Drawing Club in at Gallery Nucleus in Alhambra hosts a 3 hour "long pose" session on a Sunday morning.  This brings out the painters--who work in all kinds of media.  I like the opportunity to experiment with something that lands somewhere between drawing and painting...working back and forth.  Most all of these are some combination of pencil, water-soluble crayon or litho crayon, watercolor and gouache, and occasionally some acrylic.


I like to start with small thumbnails to explore different compositions or approaches--I often end up liking these more than the "final" drawing!  Always it's an experiment...

Here is elegant Daniella Traub in a Klimt-inspired theme...
drawn and painted here on orange paper.

From another session, Sara Streeter as a flamenco dancer...

Peggy Moore is a wonderful character model...here she recreates "Helga", Andrew Wyeth's favorite model...

Here in Los Angeles, we are so lucky to have so many talented actors who are also great character models!  Another is John Mackey, who brings the era of the Ashcan School vividly to life...an art movement in the early 20th century that depicted the grittier side of city life...

Lauren is elegant, posing here in a sort of Art Deco-style Western Painting theme.  Bob Kato, who runs The Drawing Club, projects an image behind the model--here it's a beautiful Edgar Payne landscape which I couldn't help but try to suggest...

A Night at the Moulin Rouge...

...at the Drawing Club in its new location at Gallery Nucleus in Alhambra...Sara Streeter brings us the era of Toulouse-Lautrec...

Studies in the garden

What a pleasure it's been to teach workshops at Descanso Gardens in La Canada...and a great place to try out different ways of using color...but mostly a lovely, relaxing place to sketch!










Watching people (and crows) at the cafe...

...and a school group entranced by the back hoe in the Rose Garden...







I couldn't resist the way the reds played off the greens in the cafe...

 Saturated colors on a warm day in the Japanese Garden...

...and an experiment with super-saturated QOR colors in the cafe...

 In late fall, the gingkoes are glowing gold...