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Greetings,

 

Welcome to the Cooper studio, Jefferson, Iowa, where I suppose, pretty quick-like, we should try to re-phrase that a little more politically correctly.  So how about So Why Do Artists Paint The Nude Figure Anyway?  Slightly better?

 

There is that "historic" classic study venue opinion.  Where way back when, anyone wanting to be an artist shuffled off to the atelier where they first drew from plaster casts, and then when the head honcho (master!) decided that they were good enough, they graduated to the live model.  (or so I'm told)  The art history books tell us this was NOT a six week session, btw.  It was a multi-year schedule for "how to become an artist" - the classical study way.

 

May I interject my personal opinion?  About practicing drawing the figure?  I have a daughter who just put the finishing touches on her thesis toward her doctorate in piano pedagogy and performance.  Way back when she started this adventure, we heard from instructors and mentors alike, saying "if you can play classical, you can play anything".  I like to think that translates to "if I can draw the figure classically, I can draw anything".  Kind of a top of the heap kind of concept.

 

I suppose there are one or two of you who say "pshaw, I don't need to know how to draw to be an artist.  I can be an artist, without all that practicing stuff.  Lots of famous artists make it that way.  Learning to draw is only for those realist artists."  Well, maybe, maybe not.  I always find it interesting to look back at an artist's roots - how much practice time did they put in at learning to draw, and would they  have reached famous status without it?  Cubist, fauvist, expressionist?  Study drawing?  Yup.

 

       

 

 

Maybe you could be one of the rare ones to achieve fame and fortune sans the drawing skills, but me - well, I went to life drawing group again last night.  Perfection is not mine.  Yet.  :)

 

Later, Cooper

 

How did the drawing session go?  Would you like to see the study?  But of course!

 

  Life Study, charcoal on paper, 2/6/2013.  And because this post is so black, white, and shades of gray to this point, let me show you the new little painting that just got put into my website portfolio:

 

  City Dog, a spiffy little 12 x 12 inch canvas, available to zoom in for a closer look, by clicking here  

 

Thanks for stopping by!  KC

Greetings,

 

Welcome to the Cooper studio, Jefferson, Iowa.

 

Yesterday was life drawing group day.  The current group meets on campus at ISU  (Iowa State University)

 

Someday I should write you an article about the benefits and learning power of life drawing.  For now you just get the photo of last night's learning.

 

  Life Study 10 19 2011, charcoal (mostly) on paper.  And yes it's in my website portfolio, for a zoom-able view.  Thanks for stopping by!

 

Later, KC

Greetings,

 

Welcome to the Cooper studio, Jefferson, Iowa.

 

I had a new opportunity this past week--why am I just now getting around to telling you about it??  But then again, it was THAT kind of week.

 

The opportunity:  a new gathering of artists to work with.  And almost in my own backyard!  Actually the next town north, but who's counting?  We gathered at 3PM to paint from a still life setup and then at 7PM had a model come in for life drawing.  At the end of the evening, I walked out feeling like the new semester had started!  What a work out!  Results?  Sure---

 

 

 

 

Also, I'm gearing up for September art fairs:

--Labor Day weekend:  Art Fair On The Square, organized by the Deer Path Art Guild, Lake Forest Illinois, September 4th and 5th.

--September 25th:  Octagon Art Fair, organized by the Octagon Art Center, Ames, Iowa

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Later, Cooper

Greetings,

 

Welcome to the Cooper studio, Jefferson, Iowa, on a fine February 11th!

 

Did you come here hoping to hear about the values of life drawing?  They are many. 

 

Good news, bad news:  I have this really big canvas sitting on the easel right now, and I just had the aha moment that told me it's darks aren't nearly dark enough, and I am on my way to rushing to the studio to put a nice juicy layer of ultramarine over a good chunk of said canvas.  So about the many values of life drawing, can we do a rain-check on that, puh-lease?

 

And for now just suffice to say, life drawing, I am always the student, and happy to have such a great opportunity for study!  Two drawings from last night's session:

 

  

 

Thanks for stopping by.

 

Later, Cooper

Greetings,

Welcome to the Cooper studio, Jefferson, on a stunning Iowa fall day.  We are blessed for sure.

Have I mentioned with the advent of the fall semester at ISU, that life drawing sessions are back on the schedule as well?  At the same time, I am revisiting a book on figure drawing, Art Of Drawing The Human Body, one of those books that doesn't seem to have an author, but this one does have a translator, Edgar Fankbonner.  Apparently it's first outing was in Spanish. 

Anyway, synthesis and life drawing, how can there possibly be a common denominator?  ---Sorry to bother you with the dictionary, but really we must, because they lead me to believe if you are actually in synthesizing mode, then you are taking little things and making them into one big thing.  As in the able definition of dictionary.com:

the combining of the constituent elements of separate material or abstract entities into a single or unified entity

Now isn't that just a little bit contradictory with what we are taught as artists?  Supposedly we are supposed to start with the BIG PICTURE, and then work for the little parts.  If necessary.  Ha, right away on page 12 of Art Of Drawing The Human Body, Mr Fankbonner translates from Spanish to English that we have to do the synthesis thing, when we are drawing the human figure.  Does he really want us to draw all the little parts and then put them together?  Surely no.  But here's the quote"

Synthesis, or reducing forms to their essential content, is a key factor in drawing correctly. 

Maybe Mr Fankbonner is a glass-half-full kind of man, or maybe it's the Spanish to English translation he had to effect to get this thing published, or maybe he's just a little dyslexic, but it sounds to me like he IS saying start with the big picture and draw in the details, not start with the details to get the big picture.  Or maybe artist synthesis is a totally different ballgame than normal people's synthesis.  Whatever.  I'm still pushing for the big picture.  Maybe after I get that figured out I can go for some of the little parts, eh?

And then of course, at last night's session,  I worked on a small sketch pad, so after all that talk about big, here's a little sketch for you:



Thanks for stopping by and wondering about synthesis with me.

Later, Cooper

Greetings,

Welcome to the Cooper studio, Jefferson, Iowa.  It's one of those kind of days where there's no middle of the road.  It will either be productive to the max, or absolutely a nothing-accomplished kind of day.  Surely you know what I'm talking about here:  such perfect, crystal clear, sunshiny kind of weather---it fills you with all kinds of energy, or it makes you want to go find a comfy lawn chair and soak it all in.  There are no options in between.  I am going to shoot for the energy laden route.

But before I commence with the energy, I have a tidbit I'd like to pass on.  About "the why"---why we paint what we do.  I was reading Robert Genn's twice weekly newsletter this morning, which included a  letter from Charles Philip Brooks, titled "letter to the student of painting".  Isn't it great when someone puts into words something you have been trying to say forever?  "Ha!"  you say, "there it is, exactly what I mean!"  On occasion, people quiz me, or plain-out just look at me quizzically (!) when I, or my work make reference to life drawing.  I paint people, it's what I am compelled to do.  But.  I am also compelled to learn to do it the very best I can.  Creation is too beautiful a thing to muck up with a poor reaction/rendition.  But listen to how this guy Brooks says it, with so much greater eloquence:

The threefold responsibility of the artist is: to creation, to individual talent, and to humanity. For creation ? the whole of nature ? we must cultivate prayerful awe. This is our source of work and our refuge as well. We should seek harmony with nature.

I think it's fair to paraphrase his "cultivate" with my line "always the student", and that, right on the heels of life drawing group meeting last night.  Wow---now you are expecting a great drawing as proof of my study, right?  Good study did happen at last night's group, perfection did not.  In fact, completion did not happen either.  Dare I say the building blocks are all there, and correctly placed as well?  Possibly I can finish up some of the volumes without the model.  We shall see.



Thanks for stopping by. 

Later, Cooper

Greetings,

Welcome to the Cooper studio, Jefferson, Iowa, on a melt-the-snow kind of day.  Hoody-haw.

Today we are going to talk about object lessons.  Or hunt for object lessons in obscure places.  Whichever.  I think I might have located one this morning as I was struggling to wipe a cobweb from the hallway window.  Yes, I'll give you that, it is an odd place to find an object lesson.  Bear with me here, as I explain.

I'm sure I mentioned in blogs past, that, in August of 2009 we bought a new-old house, here in Jefferson.  It's a 1901 craftsmen bungalow, very charming, especially as soon as we get all the work done that needs done.  But that's not the lesson--rather the erradication of that pesky cobweb.  So, craftmen bungalow circa 1901, it has a cool stairway with a landing halfway up, make the u-turn to finish the climb past the nice oak bannister, you get the picture, right?  On said landing there are two windows, VERY HIGH windows.  I am a taller than average person, stretching on tiptoe, I still can't touch the bottom of the window frame of these windows, yep, THAT high.  But there was that cobweb, dang thing.  So I went to the garage and got the 7 foot step ladder, which made me just tall enough to reach the bottom half of the window.  Fortunately the spider had decided to build lower instead of higher, or I'd have been outa luck.

Hang on we're getting closer to that object lesson I think.  Here's the lead:  what would a short person have done?  You know, about the cobweb?  The seven foot ladder wouldn't have gotten a 5"2" person there, not to mention carrying a 7 foot step ladder up a flight of stairs.  Ta Da!  Maybe some of us are supposed to do some things, and others of us are supposed to do others!  Maybe phrases like "know all-be all", and "self-made woman", and "bring home the bacon, fry it up in a pan" are just ludicrous misconceptions?

As artists do we need to cover ALL the bases?  When someone asks me if I'm going to start painting landscapes one of these days, can I just shuck off that guilty feeling?  And when I don't have a clue how to make watercolor behave, and someone asks me my opinion on some watercolory thing, may I laugh?  You know, we've studied art, aren't we all knowledgeable-like about all art stuff?  And about marketing our art---do we have to do all that too?  Artist:  if your spouse handles that department for you, you better know you are BLESSED!  But what about the rest of us, does it make more sense to pay somebody else to do it?  I wish I knew the answers, maybe it'd make me famous.

In the meantime,  I spent my morning cutting mats for the charcoal studies that, on my audio newsletter, I promised I'd be adding to the portfolio.  (click on the red for that amazing audio newsletter)  They are large drawings, requiring 24 x 30 inch mats, and you just can't walk into Hobby Lobby and find them ready.  Yes, I know they'd be happy to do them for me at about 40 dollars a pop.  Ouch, that!  Decision made, cut mats for half a day, leaving only half a day to paint.

Three studies from life drawing, with more to follow, thanks.

   

Later, Cooper

Greetings,

Welcome to the Cooper studio in Jefferson, Iowa, where the sky is just a little bit gray, and so, it seems only logical to talk in terms of black and white.  Oh, and shades of gray.

Last night was the final night of life drawing class that I took this fall, at the Octagon Center in Ames.  (Iowa)  We started the class as always, with gesture drawings, ranging from 20 to 30 seconds.  Just the essentials, ma'am, just the essentials.  We mixed in a few block-ins, looking for solid shape with no detail. 

I have three drawings that I photo-d for you.  The first:

 1 Life Drawing 11 18 09 was supposed to be a foreshortening study, but vantage points for a complete foreshortening were in high demand :)  My easel view was more profile, unless you consider arm to arm.  Anyway, we did a 1 minute gesture drawing, stopped, looked for adjustments, and then took ten more minutes to finish.  Yeah, ten minutes, not too shabby, huh?  :)

We also worked on a pose designed to investigate back muscle.  Again, a 1 minute gesture, but then we rotated easels, worked for a minute on a class mate's drawing.  The theory with that being, a fresh pair of eyes can sometimes find a problem, and correct it.  Back to our own easel, and the ten minutes to finish the drawing.  Resulting in:

  2 Life Drawing 11 18 09.

We finished the session with a long pose---start with a gesture, add some tone, and give it some life,  all in about 40 minutes.  Whew.

  3 Life Drawing 11 18 09   Yeah, I played the rebel and added a little orange streak.  Hey, color is a good thing. 

Thanks for stopping by.

Later, Cooper

Greetings,

Welcome to the Cooper studio, where today, painting happened small.  I might as well be painting on a pin head--I've heard some people can do that.  But by my definition, microscopic painting, today's version, is about five inches square.  Little itty-bitty squares of canvas taped to a drawing board.  I am doing four or five of the same subject, kind of like a study sequence.  Why, you ask?  It must be the weather.

Or it could be the result of the class I have been taking.  In my hunt for a life drawing group, I found a drawing class.  As good as, you say.  Almost.  Note the word class, which indicates there is a teacher.  Teacher says we work in charcoal.  And so I am.  Every now and then, when we get a longer pose (five minutes!) I grab a piece of oil stick and add a little color for emphasis. 

But this is all good for getting out of the box.  Change is good.  And all that stuff.

And.  AND!  A couple of months ago somebody blogged about "the painting we kept putting off".  There was a challenge involved.  I vaguely remember saying yes to the challenge then.  It got as far as the drawing board, but it had been there before, and stopped.  But reread paragraph #3, because apparently it's not all just malarky.  The painting I have been putting off since April of 2007 is on canvas.  It's on a big canvas.  40 x 40 inches.  When it takes that long to get from idea to actuality, you might as well go big, right?  And it's coming along nicely.  Yea for me!  I don't have a progress photo for you yet, but the painting has had a name ever since April 2007.  It's Friend.  Intriguing, eh?

For now, you'll have to just get along with some photos from last night's class, and they're in black and white.  Dios mio.  What is this place coming to?!

       

The second photo, you're wondering?  20 second poses!  Ha!  Now you can reread the title of this post.  Covering the paper.  Make that lots of paper.  Somebody told me there's nothing like practice.

Later, Cooper

Greetings,

Welcome to the Cooper studio.

Last night was life drawing at the Pearson Lakes Art Center.  Something interesting always occurs.  And by the way, the Pearson Lakes Art Center is located in Okoboji, Iowa.  Our group welcomes new artists, so feel free to contact me regarding your interest in the group.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, we use spotlighting to create good light/dark contrasts on the model.  That means we also turn off any overhead lighting in the studio, and THAT means the easels we work at are very dimly lit.  No big deal for those working in the tradtional charcoal, but some of us are addicted to color and paint.  Ha!  The suspense begins.

As a group, we vasillate on the issue of warm-up sketches, or gesture drawings.  Do we, or don't we?  My track record says the 'long pose' after the mid-session break always goes better if we do use those warm-up poses.  The main problem is none of us want to lose focus by watching a clock.  We have arrived at a loose arrangement where the model guesses at the time, and changes poses at what might be 90 seconds.  Aren't we slackers?!  Anyway, we are finally getting around to the title of this post.  Just how many scratchy marks can you make in 90 seconds?  Lately, I have been working very hard at seeing those aforementioned  light/dark contrasts, spending about 60 of those precious seconds on locating them, which means not much time left to grab a mark-maker and put down my thoughts.  That's my excuse for scribbly messes, and I'm stickin' to it.  In all humbleness, (ahem) here's one of those poses, oil pastel on paper, 90 seconds, give or take a few, per the model!



We always give the model a break halfway through the session, and upon returning, go for what we call the long pose, a pose comfortable enough to hold for most of an hour.  This is the pose where quite a few of us like to get out some paint, and really play.  But remember earlier I alluded to 'suspense', and not much lighting except for what's on the model?  Just you try painting when you can barely see your paints.  Your only real chance of grabbing ultramarine instead of violet is in knowing and remembering which corner of the palette they live on!  Here's last evening's 'long pose'.  Don't you just love those red and violet shadows?  What fun!

  Studio Model 9, acrylic on heavy paper, not yet signed but maybe I will eventually.  Thanks for stopping by.

Later, Cooper

Greetings,

Welcome to the Cooper studio.  Paint scattered all over the place today. 
   1.  I've got a cool photo of a HermanMiller chair, and I'm painting a person right into it.
   2.  I told myself  I'd get it, and the 'bubble room cake' painting done before I got out another canvas.  But.  I was into some files, and presto.  A photo of three people sitting on a ledge during their lunch hour grabbed me, or at least my attention.  I guess it grabbed my attention in a big way, because it's started on a 30 x 40 inch canvas.  There's not much there yet, but I can already feel the fun :)
   3.  And then there are these two from our life drawing group.  The first is very sketchy, but it's a feeling-done kind of sketchy.  Yup.  I signed it.  The second is very sketchy, but not making me think done at all, and it might not ever.  That blocking in of the dark shadows on the left is disturbing.  For our life drawing sessions, we turn the room lighting off and just just go with spotlights to light the model.  The light/dark contrasts can sometimes get pretty intense.  It also means the easels are pretty much not lit.  Sometimes when the overhead lights get turned back on and we see what's actually on the canvas, we are amazed.  Possibly I will get around to some adjustment there, but first, the HermanMiller chair person, and the bubble room cake person, and oh yeah, the people on lunch break.  It should be a busy week!

   Studio Model 8, acrylic painting on a 20 x 20 inch canvas.  We'll let those last few brushstrokes 'mellow' and then varnish tomorrow.  Whereupon, it will be available, $280, in my portfolio.

  This pose is on a 20 x 16 inch heavy paper.  As I said in the above paragraph, where I blocked in the shadowed area---hmmm, maybe this one gets to lean on the studio wall for a while.

Later, Cooper

Greetings,
Welcome to daily painting at the Cooper studio.  Some day I promise to give you my top ten list for why every artist should study life drawing.  Today's not that day :)  But I do have two images for you, both from last Wednesday's life drawing session at the Pearson Lakes Art Center.  Yes, I am only slightly behind.
Our study group has lapsed from the strict two minute gesture drawings that normally began our evening session.  --several reasons for that as well, we will make that a sublist for the aforementioned top ten list.  Ironically, I've found that if the model does four poses for the evening,  I will end up with two or three drawings.  With the longer time span for each pose, I find myself continuing work on the pose from memory, even after the model has switched to the next pose.  Interesting, huh?  At any rate, here are two:



  Both are on 15 x 15 inch gessoed papers.  And while I had the camera going for the life drawing images, I grabbed an image of the current cafe painting as well:

  I think I've got the compostion where I want it to be, but aaargh, the light is just not there yet.  Maybe tomorrow.

Later, Cooper

Greetings,
Welcome to my daily painting place.  Today's daily paint has landed on a canvas started at our life drawing session yesterday.  Sorry, no photos as yet.  We'll put that on the todo list.
Two paintings went with me as I drove to the art center for our life drawing session.  Mission Theatre Company, a new company in Okoboji, Iowa, working to produce challenging and thought provoking theatre, is performing The Vagina Monologues as part of the V-day.org national campaign to end violence against women.   Three performances, February 19, 20, 21 will be at The Gardens in Arnolds Park, Iowa.  The production is a fundraiser for CAASA (centers against abuse and sexual assault).  In conjunction with the performance will be an All Woman Art Show to be exhibited beginning January 22, 2009 at the Pearson Lakes Art Center and will culminate at the performance. 
I have contributed two paintings for the show, Morning News, and Studio Model 4.

  
---should be a great week of art for the Iowa Great Lakes region!

Later, Cooper