Do over, over and over again and you might get something right.
I have been drawing pretty non-stop since I was a kid and lately I've been drawing and drawing and drawing again from a postcard of this painting I saw when in Atlanta. I'd seen it a million times reproduced, reproduced, and reproduced so it was a bit of a shock to stand in front of the big thing and think only about the sandals. It was a hot day, I was thinking about feet, we had only about an hour in the museum and when I turned to see this, I saw only the feet.




As I draw it, I am seeing hands and more hands. Poussin always seemed cold and bland but more than hands and feet are pulling and kicking me back to the process of drawing and hopefully seeing this painting. The little color card looks much different (scale, size, color, detail and texture are all warped) and from the postcard I can only really learn more about what interests me, how often can I draw the same sandals, the same pointed fingers, the same bends and turns.
It's nice to know that other artists have learned, and certainly grown from drawing Poussin.

Kossoff obtained permission to enter the Royal Academy galleries at 6:30 each morning, before public admission, bringing with him a drawing board, paper and materials. "It was physically quite demanding," he said. He stood for hours drawing from Poussin's pictures of mythological scenes, like The Triumph of Pan, or religious subjects, such as the Holy Family on the Steps.
After two months he decided, "I'm not really getting closer to the paintings. I wonder if I could be more direct." So he began to draw with an etching needle directly onto the waxed copper and zinc plates. Explaining this decision, he says, "You've got no chance to change your mind with etching, while drawing is endlessly restating. Plus, with etching, you can't really see what you are doing very clearly, it's all intuition."
from this Hunter Drohojowska-Philp review of Leon Kossoff's Poussin drawings and paintings on artnet



I'm back to looking, drawing and thinking.
Take care,
Rachael

We're back in this little city, hot as hades, but happy here as we were there. Atlanta seems to be growing at a pace even faster than it was when we left (condos to the left, condos to the right), but our friends and favorite places are still where they need to be. Growing at a reasonable pace, not like kudzu.

Now that we are back, we can continue to explore this place. Radical bike tours might help and even if I just walk around my block with it's quiet and simple growth, and think about how liuving where one wants to live can be a polictial act, it's good. I'll keep picking my garden salad, figuring out what visual studies is and if it is possible to look at and talk about visual images without being blinded by theory, and getting back to the routines we have and generally enjoy.

Lucky kids that we are to have great friends in both worlds...

take care,
Rachael

We're off tomorrow to the city we lived in for many years, the hot Southern town we learned a lot in. I can't tell you how excited I am to see Hogan and Rae and Toni and Rick, to meet Mr. Robin Rubin, to see draw something with Lisa, to go to the coffeeshop/dogpark with Wendy (what could be more better?), and to spend some days at vacation pace in a place we remember fondly but we know changes quickly.

A few of our favorite ATL haunts (where I'm itchin' to go besides our good friend's porches):

Eyedrum is the artist's run gallery/ music venue that took some good risks and had great creative people around all the time

Aurora coffee where I'm sure I would run into an old studio-mate and where it is really nice to watch people and drink the best iced-coffee in town

When we come back it is back to responsibility and routine for the rest of the summer but that's pretty good too.

see ya soon,
Rachael

The jazz fest is filling my town with music. I had a chance to sketch to the Dave Glasser Quartet yesterday. The exerience (a good band playing tightly in front of an appreciative audience in a fancy venue in the late afternoon) was so inspiring, I filled a couple of pages and looked, listened, and exerienced the music. It's easy for me to forget how much I love to draw live performances but each time I do, I get to feel that much more engaged in the activity.

The other thing I want to tell you about is this fantastic kids book illustrated by Milton Avery and (i think) never published. It's about the most charming thing I 've seen today but then it's only 2 in the afternoon and there's still time for more charm.

I'll leave you with a paper doll I made a few months ago and found undereath a pile of papers.



See ya,
Rachael

We're back home after a trip to Washington and Virginia where we saw wonderful people get married, enjoyed the company of a great hospitable old friend, and wandered until we could no longer wander. The coming home and starting back into well-worn routines was tricky but then I looked in the backyard to find big fat redder than red oriental poppies blooming. These were plants I didn't think much of; bought 'em at a YMCA neighborhood plant sale and stuck 'em into the ground last year but ... they rocked my garden.

Today I came home from work to find some kind of varmit bit the heads off a bunch of 'em but still, I'm happy with my poppies.

One of the finds of my museum-going in DC was Honore Sharrer at the Reynolds center. Big ideas and little brushes. That pretty little housewife made a magnificent painting with so much to tell about America and I spent a good chunk of time looking.

take care,
Rachael