Debbi Friedman’s Blog

This is the third in my new trio of leaf drawings.  It measures 9″ x 15″, done in colored pencil on Strathmore Bristol Board.  I am really enjoying working on this series, if I can call it a series.  I’m planning on doing a very different drawing next of a hawk on a snow-covered woodpile.  But I’m sure I’ll return to this subject matter at some point in the future.  I have an incredible trove of photographs I’ve been working from, taken a couple of years ago on a clear fall day after a very violent night storm.  It knocked down leaves that hadn’t lost their vibrancy yet, and knocked down all at once leaves that usually fall at very different times.  I’ll have to keep an eye out for a storm like that next autumn.  For now, us New Englanders are just trying to survive this winter – it has been crazy with record snowfalls, ice storms, rain, and cold.  Spring and Summer are looking really good right now!

Yes, even pencils have a day of their own.  Today is National Pencil Day, and I figure that given how much time I spend holding a pencil (colored pencil, graphite pencil, watercolor pencil, and yes, a regular old #2 yellow pencil) I would give it a shout out on my blog.  Here’s a fun link, with some activities at the bottom, about the Pencil Day.

National Pencil Day

Happy New Year to all!  I can’t believe it’s been over a month since my last entry.  It was a busy and fun holiday season, especially with my older son home from college and all of us together as a family, but I’m glad it’s over and we can move back into our “normal” schedules and closer to spring.

I’ve been working on this small oil (8″ x 10″) and while it’s still not finished, it’s nearing completion.  It’s difficult to paint a very white rock, and I’m finding that getting the subtle, embedded color variations requires lots of layering.  I have also started another oil painting of stones, and done an artists trading card for the first time.  It’s very interesting to work on such a small scale, and seems to require an entirely different way of thinking about composition and scale.

I still have a couple more ideas for oils and drawings in this series.  I want to do at least one large oil (approximately 3′ x 4′) and see what that brings to the table, so to speak.  I used to work at that size and larger, so it will be fun to try it again.

I hope the New Year is going well for everyone, and would love to hear from any and all with a comment!

Here is a photograph of the latest drawing I’ve been working on – an array of stones.  I really did get them to balance like that!  My friend, the photographer Jan Reiss, dubbed me “Andrea Goldsworthy”.  I love environmental art – organic matter arranged in nature and then photographed, or visited before it vanishes.  The colors of the stones have been accentuated, but they only take on a more pronounced hue of the color they really are.

I’ve started another drawing on Canson Mi-Tientes, and am off to buy more art supplies tomorrow to start a new oil painting.  I spent several days this past week attempting to stage and photograph ideas I have in my head.  Does anyone else find that they get these glimpses in their imagination of what they want to create, only to find it so difficult to try and create the vision in real life?  It’s almost like operating in a dream state, and it’s very frustrating.  Maybe I’ll get better at it, but I did manage to accomplish some semblance of my ideas. . . .we’ll see where it takes me.  Any tips or advice from anyone?

I was very excited last week to receive in the mail one of the new Derwent “12 Graphic Soft” pencil tins featuring my commissioned drawing on the cover.  I had been waiting until I saw it with my own eyes to officially announce the news on my blog.  They’ve also designed all new inserts highlighting their sketching and drawing ranges, and my piece is included in a montage on that cover as well, along with two beautiful drawings of a red fox and a seashell.   The new tins will most likely be available in art stores in the US in about one and a half months, as they are currently being shipped.

I also had a small exhibition of colored pencil drawings last night in conjunction with a wonderful concert by the Choir of King’s College London.  This was part of the St. Andrew’s Performing Arts Series (SAPAS).  More information about upcoming SAPAS events can be found at www.sapas.org.

These college students gave a superb performance of Renaissance and contemporary choral works.   The Choir of King’s College London is one of the most acclaimed mixed voice university choirs in England, comprising about 27 undergraduates who are awarded choral scholarships, and in addition to performing Renaissance polyphony, they have an extensive and well-reviewed collection of discography available.

I wanted to include a copy of the program cover, which includes my name in such a prominent way that, had they not put “(colored pencil)” after my name, it looks like I was a star soloist!  I found this quite amusing, as it’s the closest I’ll ever get to performing with my voice in public!

Finally!  I can’t believe two weeks has gone by since my last post, but it really has been a busy time.  We had a wonderful week of scuba diving in Curacao and man is it hot at the equator in August!  There are so many wonderful birds down there on the island including Venezualan Trupial, Yellow Orioles, Brown Pelicans, Brown Footed Boobys, Yellow Warblers and my new favorite island bird, the Bananaquit.  These little birds, called “Honey Bears” by the locals, come up to your dining table and try to fly away with sugar packets, drink your orange juice, or scrounge fruit off your plate.  We took to feeding them (for photographic purposes, of course!) and as the week progressed we found that a nice piece of watermelon with some raw sugar on top was just the trick for attracting lots of birds.  Check out the photos below.

Okay, one more vacation photo, just one more. . . . promise.  I couldn’t resist putting this guy on here.  My son found this iguana resting in the shade of it’s self-dug hole in the midday heat.

On to my drawing, which I finished today.  I really like this one, but like most things I work on, I feel too close to it right now to see it clearly.  I am really enjoying developing this body of work, which is surprising to me, as I originally thought of doing perhaps one or two rock drawings.

I’ve already started the layout of the next piece, which will be much larger than the previous drawings in this series.  I’ve been keeping them to approximately 9 x 12 inches in size, either horizontally or vertically.  I’ve decided to work larger on this particular drawing, and am starting out with dimensions of 15 x 20, although it may change some with the cropping for framing.  I going for a more dramatic presence and lighting with the new piece, and I think increasing the scale will help accentuate that.

As I mentioned in my last post, I’ve been working on a little graphite drawing, and here it is.  It’s a very simple and  zen-like composition.  A black stone used in hot stone therapy that was given to me by a masseuse,  a small peacock feather, placed upside down atop the stone and some shadows are all that composes the drawing.  It’s small – maybe about 7″ x 7″.

I’m eager to move onto the next drawing in my rock series, and plan to try and incorporate water in the drawing.  Coincidentally, I’m just back from the 17th Annual Exhibition and Convention of the Colored Pencil Society of America, where I took a workshop with CPSA Artist Pat Averill on the power of water. . . entitled “Unleash the power of water in your drawings”.  Below are two photographs from the workshop: one of friends Dee Overly (left) and Mari Kaye Moehl (right) working on one of the four projects we tackled that day, and the other of workshop instructor Pat Averill.  I’m not sure that the workshop concepts will transfer to my drawing, but you never know!  We worked on the distortion of images in reflected water, drawing moving water (ie – surf), drawing water moving over rocks, and looking at wet sand to dry sand within the context of a seascape.

I’m finally getting back to work in my studio.  My younger son is off to camp for three weeks, and I’m recuperating from a minor surgical procedure yesterday on my right leg.  My mind finally feels freed up again.  I don’t think I realized how preoccupied I was with the surgery as it loomed in front of me – I’m so happy to have it behind me.  And since I can’t ice skate or exercise for at least one week,  I have plenty of time to catch up on all sorts of things in my studio!  I’ve already organized many details that I had let slide – completing a list of unframed and framed drawing sizes; deciding which competitions to enter for the remainder of 2009, those types of things.

Now I am playing with stones in my studio, and toying with the idea of doing a series of 10 drawings and trying to complete them this summer.  Working on the Canson Mi-tientes goes a little faster than the Strathmore Paper I usually use, so maybe this is possible?  I have all sorts of ideas about combining stones with other simple elements, much like the drawing I just completed – “Rocks and Egg in Vase”.  It’s an entirely different thing to see if it works.  But I like the idea and am going to try and run with it!

Happy Summer, and if you live in the Northeast, let’s hope the sun comes out soon.

I came across this “Reflection of the Day” today in the Boston Globe and it really struck a chord with me and made me smile.

“Being in doubt is uncomfortable, but being certain is ridiculous”

-  Voltaire

I’m back from a week of warm weather in Tobago. We stayed in an inn on a very quaint bay called Speyside, very quiet and undeveloped. But don’t try telling that to the birds! Ruddy Turnstones are shorebirds, and I’ve never seen them behave quite like they did at this inn. First they would terrorize breakfast eaters, as caught below on camera. Then after a full meal, they would bath in the guests footbath, and then drop off for a short nap in the sand. Of course, they had to be back at work for the lunch crowd!

I was going to write a post today with a wonderful photograph my friend Lynda Schumacher sent me.  However, once again my blog image upload is acting up, and I can’t upload any photographs.  So it will have to wait until it’s fixed.

I did start a new piece two days ago, something for the 75th Anniversary Exhibition of the Wellesley Society of Artists, which is the town I live and work in!  I  don’t usually do this type of thing, but they wanted a piece based on Wellesley, and I thought: “why not?”.  I started the piece, a drawing of Rockridge Pond which is very near my house, in all of it’s autumn splendor; foliage at it’s peak and reflected stunningly in the water.  I got out some Colourfix paper that I have wanted to try and started in on the drawing.  I did not like working on that paper.  Maybe someone who has worked with it has some advice for me?  You cannot work up lighter colors on top of darks, as I have with Rtistx and pastel board.  So it ended up looking muddy.  And I was finding it very difficult to achieve any level of detail.  Has anyone else found this to be the case? I gave the drawing two days, but it’s definitely not being worked on anymore.

I don’t know what I’m going to do for this show now.  I walked around my neighborhood with my camera, but everything is so buried in snow and that’s not really the look I want to portray.  I’ve been thinking about a subject all day, but haven’t come up with anything yet. We’ll see where this takes me!  Stay warm and dry.

Happy New Year!

I actually had a great day working in my studio today, which was completely unexpected.  Everyone had somewhere to go, and I was home alone!  Good thing too, as tomorrow a new wave of family comes visiting from Virginia for a couple of days!

I was cleaning out my basement freezer and found items such as old hamburger rolls, pita bread, etc. which  get tossed outside for the crows and squirrels.  I snapped this photograph last week during the big snowstorm on Friday and Saturday.

I was out walking around Rockridge Pond, which is very near to where I live, with my camera today.  I’m looking for some new and specific ideas to consider for drawing, and was hoping to see a great blue heron that is often hanging out there. But things never go according to what one hopes for, especially where nature is concerned.  I did end up seeing a pileated woodpecker that mostly tried to hide from me on the other sides of tree trunks, and a tiny golden crowned kinglet, which hovered in air to eat little bugs which were invisible to the human eye.  The kinglet was not at all shy about my presence.  I didn’t get any images that were in the ballpark of what I am looking for.  I am trying to learn about all of the features on my camera, one of which is the “Image Overlay”, and finally accomplished overlaying different photos I took.  This is the first time I’ve had success with this, and I did combine images of the water surface with photos I’d taken of feathers floating on water, but they leave much to be desired and I have lots to learn!

Wow – that was a very unanticipated, but probably extremely predictable, break from work. I should have realized that the month of August would get out of hand with my oldest son going off to college for the first time. We drove about 2,000 miles in four days taking him and all of his belongings out to Indiana. Sorting school supplies and getting my younger son for his first day of school today seemed like a breeze in comparison, but it was very strange and a little sad not to be doing the chores for two people!

My community garden is still thriving, requiring care and nurturing my love of the lush, green summer life. Currents harvests include three types of heirloom carrots, zucchini, eggplant, cherry tomatoes, french green beans, several herbs and red raspberries. The idea for my new piece also came from the garden, and happily I was able to start on it today! Hopefully I will have some good progress this week and be able to post a working photograph of it next week. Meanwhile, I’m posting two photographs of flowers from my garden. Enjoy these precious warm summer days!

We returned yesterday from a glorious week of sun and warmth in Boothbay Harbor, Maine. This was the first time we’ve vacationed in the month of July in a long time, and I don’t know if that’s what made the different, or if we were just incredibly lucky with the weather. The photo below was taken on a day trip to Monhegan Island, populated by an artist’s community in the summer. It is such a quaint and stunningly beautiful place. I wish I could go there to work for two weeks (or more!).

We also went to the Farnsworth Museum in Rockland, Maine, which features works by the three generations of Wyeth artists: NC Wyeth, Andrew Wyeth and Jamie Wyeth. In addition they have a wonderful collection of American Folk Art, and some contemporary exhibits: Alex Katz and Friends, and an entire room devoted to works by Louise Nevelson. (All were born in Maine.) I had been very intrigued by Andrew Wyeth’s work at one point in college so it was interesting to see actual pieces again. But what impressed me the most were the paintings by NC Wyeth that he did in addition to his works as an illustrator: large scale landscape paintings done in oil of his home in Maine, lobster fishermen, the coast; all with a wonderful vivid use of color. He even experimented with some concepts from the Italian and Russian Futurist movements of his day.  www.farnsworthmuseum.org

We’re vacationing on the west coast in Southern California – it’s so sunny, warm and beautiful here. I have been taking lots of photographs of flowering plants, vegetation, hummingbirds, etc. and Death Valley, where we spent two and a half days. We’ll see if any of this will make it’s way into my work when I get back home. Today we visited the Irvine Farmer’s market where I took photos of the produce, which is absolutely stunning. Artichokes, diakon radishes, fruits and more that look like they’ve been grown with radioactive fertilizer; they are so gigantic and beautifully formed. Colors super-saturated. Cooling off indoors before taking a walk in the 90 degree heat.

It’s so gray and rainy, and it seems like it’s been gray for days. I’m in between pieces of artwork and have cleaned my studio in spots, and as I don’t have any concrete ideas of what I want to do next, I started experimenting on black Canson paper with colored pencil. Here is a little portrait of a Tufted Titmouse, “Toughy”. I think I’m starting to go crazy!

We just returned from nine somewhat chilly days in Arizona, and I am eager to get back to work in my studio. I’ll be starting a new drawing this week and have a good idea for something that, in my opinion, evokes spring. This photograph, however, is not related, other than it being a beautiful sunset shot on the night of the total lunar eclipse.

I’m giving a lot of thought as to what to proceed with, and have been photographing raptors and owls at a nearby Audubon Sanctuary as well as photographing down at RockRidge Pond, near my house.

I am very excited to have Lynda Schumacher, a talented artist from Michigan, agree to be a guest writer on my blog. Lynda creates sensitive and detailed portraits focusing on Cowhands and Native Americans. We will be posting something soon with some of her artwork, so please check back.